The Wylde Mammoths - Go, baby, go! (1987) - FULL ALBUM What a Band!!!
No one will talk about it anymore, so I might as well do it.
The Crimson Shadows were a band of fanatics wandering through Sweden during the years of psychedelic dreams. Black-dyed bowl cuts, tight jeans, ankle boots, a grim demeanor, and medallions.
All to resemble the ultimate pre-punk band: the Music Machine. Musically, they contributed very little—just a couple of singles and about ten gigs for other fanatics who drove their vinyl prices through the roof. An underground cult within an underground scene, utterly incapable of facing the true "stars" of the Neo-Sixties Swedish circuit, which at the time included Creeps, Stomach Mouths, and Nomads.
The Wylde Mammoths were born from this discontent and from Peter Maniette’s desire to leave behind the fuzz-toned garage punk of the Crimson Shadows, bending it to his new passion: Sixties Maximum R 'n B, influenced by raucous figures like Bo Diddley or the early Pretty Things.
A sickly approach completely devoid of aesthetic clichés that captivated Tim Warren, the quintessential Grave Digger, who at the time moved his headquarters to Sweden and had the chance to “feel” the scene up close. Among the hundreds of bands crowding the neo-garage circuit like the aisles of a shopping mall, the Mammoths were the dirtiest of all: they played rough Gretsch pots with unbelievably reverberated sounds and possessed an inimitable songwriting style. Thus, after an excellent EP for the same label as the Crimson Shadows titled Four Wooly Giants (the Four Wolly Giants that went down in history is merely a typographical error, just like the Lercore Dwarf became a legend despite being a joke of nature, NdLYS), they settled at Crypt, the first “contemporary” band to land on Tim Warren's label, and in 1987 they released this outstanding debut, packed inside a stunning lemon-yellow cover and recorded analog on a Beocord 2000 two-track. No room for retouching or overdubs, therefore. Embellishments and enhancements with the handle (like Stop Pretending! by the Pandoras, for instance) are completely banned.
They play, poorly, and they record. That’s the formula for Mr. Warren and the Mammoths.
The lineup still includes Johan Manette, Peter's brother and another former Shadow. His primitive contribution is crucial for the "troglodyte" effect of "Go Baby Go" but also limiting for the band’s “evolution,” which will soon kick him out in favor of the more dynamic and precise Stellan Wahlstrom from Highspeed V, who later ended up among the ranks of the veterans who, for reasons unknown, enjoy being crooners wallowing in self-pity with his Drift Band.
And yet, it is right inside the cave of "Go Baby Go" that the sound of Wylde Mammoths manages to convey the primal, instinctive urgency that is inherent to it.
