Return of the Friday Video! The Bags: Big Wig
The Bags, live 9/20/08: Big Wig
I lost my copy of their re-released The Bags ‘89, available here. It’s really impossible for me to fully articulate what a great band The Bags are, and how great their 1989 eponymous release is. It’s really something you have to hear for yourself. As Tim Kelly (who would know) says “If there is one Bags album that you need to hear, it is their sophomore effort, 1990’s eponymous full-length.”
It wasn’t until The Bags cut their ties with Restless, enlisted budding sound engineer Carl Plaster (if there ever was a “fourth Bag,” it was/is Carl), and took their arsenal to local garage label Stanton Park that Bags records actually started SOUNDING like the mind-crunching powerhouse the band had always been. First came the “Hide And Seek”/”I Know” single, a two-headed monster of heavy sludge clobber and hooky, dynamic punk pop craftsmanship that teased at the shape of things to come. Then they gave us the record: The Bags. It didn’t need a title. This, make no mistake, was The Bags. (I’ll get to where Swamp Oaf fit in to the whole picture when my pitch to the 33 1/3 book series gets approved…)
Basically, the point is that these guys were punk rockers who grew up on the heavier rock of the 60s and 70s, and their music reflected both worlds. The Bags weren’t the only band that was blurring those lines and stretching the bounds of genre at the time — thankfully, that approach to rock-making continues to this day with “stoner rock”. But they were among the first to not only try it but get it so damn right. This record captures the core essence of this remarkable band.
And now, after how many years out of print? 16? 17? It’s available, finally, again.
Buy it. You will NOT regret it.
