Yard Trauma - One way ticket

Between 1987 and 1989, Lee Joseph shares his love for ‘60s music between the reunion of the Unclaimed, the sugar-pop of Zebra Stripes alongside his beautiful wife Zebra, and the new lineup of his Yard Trauma.

The album that marks their return is titled Face to Face and features Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz, who at that time was fully immersed in a garage-punk trip, and old friend Rich Coffee from the Fourgiven, who seems at ease in this new tailored style of Yard Trauma where, alongside some old beat clothing (I’m a Man, Kick It In, See Your Face in the cryptic and psychedelic style beloved by the group and especially by old fans), a few ragged punk rags are showcased (Fast Pace, Ave. 339), some glam sparkles picked up from Alice Cooper’s jacket (One Way Ticket, In My Head), and even a rockabilly jacket like Your Trash, My Treasure. The album, despite its mutable nature, has excellent highlights (the nice Diddley sound interwoven with the proto-punk of Creeps on T.V., the spiraling riff of Kick It In, the candy-pop dipped in fuzz of See Your Face, the simplistic Monkee-time of I’m a Man), but similarly to other albums of the period, you realize that the old captains of jet garage-punk are indicating, each in their own way, the emergency exits and showing the life jackets. We’re aboard a plane destined to sink. Or, as the more fearless will see, forced to make an emergency landing and a temporary realignment of the engines.