SLOVENLY Records recently released the third full length of Th’ Losin Streaks. The album was recorded at Louder Studios in Grass Valley, California, with Tim Green (Nation of Ulysses, Fucking Champs) behind the board and is definitely their best offering so far. The album has some brilliant songs on it like "Well I never" or "I Mean You". Not the mention the excellent instrumental "Dyer Lane".
INTERVIEW: Mike Farrell and Tim Foster of Th’ Losin Streaks recorded in Sacramento, October 23, 2024
1. For the viewers of this blog who would not know you, how would you tell about Th’ Losin Streaks to introduce yourselves? How long are you guys together as a band? Who is playing what instrument in the band nowadays?
MIKE FARRELL: I'm Mike Farrell, lead guitar player. We've been together since 2004, so it's 20 years… off and on - we had a small break. But, to describe us - I come from more of a metal background, but became fascinated with the sixties early on. And I was, I think, around 18 and went down that rabbit hole. And, Losin Streaks is one of the results of that rabbit hole.
TIM FOSTER: And we, - this is Tim Foster, the rhythm guitar player and occasional harmonica player - and, so me and Stan Tindall and a guy named Matt K Shrugg started the band early on. We were thinking we were gonna look for a lead guitar player, but we didn't really find anyone to fit at first, so we played for maybe a month or so as a three piece. But we'd known Mike forever and, he had been in bands in Sacramento that we really loved and knew that he was a fan of sixties, you know, rock and roll, especially like the Rolling Stones, Velvet Underground, and so on….
MF: And I was a fan of The Trouble Makers.
TF: And yeah. And he was a fan of our old band, The Trouble Makers. So he ended up just coming by a practice… and suddenly it’s 20 years later.
MF: I was at a Trouble Makers gig. And you offered me, I mean, I don't think you actually offered a spot to me… You just, said “why don't you come by and see how it works?” Yeah. So, so we all started playing together in 2004, I think.
TF: And it was really natural. Me and Stan and Matt had already been playing together, and then Mike just slotted right in.
MF: And two weeks later, we recorded a record.
TF: Two weeks later, we recorded the first half of our first record. Yeah.
MF: And then a month or two later, we were in Europe. I think it was a little longer than that, but not much. Six months? I don't know. But I just remember it all moved quickly.
TF: But we all, you know, we're all big fans of sixties garage rock, especially me and Stan and Matt. And so, you know, Mike dropped right into that. He had been playing the heck out of the Nuggets comp right around then, so he fit right in.
So, and then as far as who plays what, Mike plays the lead guitar, and I play the rhythm guitar. Stan plays the bass. And, Matt actually retired from the band about 6 years ago. And we've had our friend, Brian Machado, who is also in The Trouble Makers with us way back in the day, has been playing drums now. And then we all sing.
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MF: Well, there were lots of overdubs, but it was live in the studio…. It was all the basic tracks… It was analog. It was all done to tape.
TF: Yeah. It was all done to tape at Louder Studios with Tim Green, about an hour and a half outside of Sacramento, all live to tape. I don't think there were really any digital shenanigans on this record. We had a little bit on the last record, on the T Minus album. We did a little bit of digital tweaking on that one because it was just cheaper and easier. But, yeah, we've pretty much always recorded to tape and pretty much mostly live. You know, we play as the full band, and then we go back in and add vocals, but all of the basic tracks were done live.
MF: We'd sprinkle in, like, then we'll go back in with the vocals and with maracas and tambourines.
TF: Sometimes Mike will double guitars.
MF: Just kinda normal studio stuff. Yeah.
TF: And then our friend, Anton Barbeau, played organ on the latest record, and he came in later. We just told him kind of what we were thinking and let him loose. My favorite moment in that is, you know, on a song called “Cooler Heads,” and there's sort of a part where the whole song falls apart, and it's just kinda feedback and noise. And Anton was like, “well, what do you want this to sound like?” And Mike said, “I want it to sound like the Ice Cream Man after the apocalypse,” and that's exactly what it sounds like. [laughter] Exactly.
3. So for the recording of this album,
did you use modern digital recording technology? Do you guys work only with
analog machines in the analog studios?
TF: I think we already kinda answered that one.
4. Is there a main composer in the band, or is everybody involved in one way or another?
MF: Well, mainly Tim and I write the lion's share of the songs, and then, Brian has a hand and has a couple of his own.
TF: And even Stan has written a song too. Stan's first song we've ever recorded is on the new record - it's an instrumental called “Dyer Lane.” But we all… even though either Mike or I will write the songs generally…. I think everybody chimes in with their parts.
MF: You know, we do sometimes come in and say, like, “we should do this here,” but yeah, it’s generally a democracy that way. But, Tim and I pretty much come to the table with the lion's share. But, yeah, everybody does contribute.
TF: And then
we always have had covers in the band where we're doing songs from bands we
like too. That's been something we've done since day one.
5. what's your favorite topic or the topic that comes easily when you write a new song?
MF: Self destruction. Yeah. That's a pretty recurring theme.
TF: For me, I think, the two most common themes are, obviously, you know, affairs of the heart and romance and people you're smitten with or were smitten with or have broken up with. And then also just sort of news and history and events that are happening today.
MF: Yeah. That's true. Some of it's topical that way. Yeah.
6. And to what kind of music did you listen to as teenagers, and does it still influence your work today? What were your favorite bands as a teenager name 3 bands you consider to still have an influence on your own work today?
MF: Three bands in my teens… hmmm. I guess Iron Maiden would be one. I'd have to say AC/DC would be another, and The Byrds. So for me, it was in the later teens I dove heavy into the sixties, but not into the garage, but I was exploring all the more well known stuff.
TF: You and Stan and Brian were all big KISS freaks too.
MF: Yeah. That's true. But that was when I was little kid. That was preteen. Yeah.
TF: And for me, I was not really a big music guy in my teens, basically, because the things I heard on the radio, I really didn't connect with at all. And so the stuff that I was really into as a teenager was, like, I loved big band music, and I liked the stuff my parents listened to, which was, you know, like Elvis and Fats Domino and Hank Williams. And then at end of my teens, I did start to get into sixties music, and I was you know, right off the bat, I was into Beatles and Simon and Garfunkel. So that's more than three bands. [laughter]
But I would say, like, the Beatles and Simon and Garfunkel, and Elvis, you know, all of those were kind of baked into the cake for me and all, you know, all of them have continued to be very influential for me. Mike, do you think those the three bands you were into are still influencing you, like The Byrds and Maiden?
MF: Well, I'm not so much Maiden. Maybe a little bit AC/DC, but definitely a lot of The Byrds. Byrds still have a huge influence on me. But, there's other things I'm listening to now, but, but in my teens, that's, like, the top three that I can think of.
TF: What do you think are the bands that kind of influence what you do in the group today are?
MF: Oh god. I mean… Well, just… it's a hard question.
TF: Well, okay. Well, I'll answer for me first. For me, I think the bands that I really am most influenced by are - there's not any one single band - It's basically all of the Back From the Grave and the Pebbles records that I listened to obsessively for many, many, many years. And when I hear those records, it's just an immediate connection. And then there are The Sonics, obviously, who, were a huge influence on everything I did. And then, going on the other side of the ocean, The Downliners Sect were a huge influence. You know, Stan actually found that collection of Downliners Sect songs many, many years ago, and I'd never heard anything like that. And to this day, when I'm writing songs, I will often think of them as being kind of in the style of Downliners Sect. And, you know, I wrote a song today that, to me, sounds like The Sonics. So I think those are the bands, and then obviously, all of the Pebbles and Back From The Grave bands.
MF: Yeah. I guess, you know, my exploration with garage music isn't as detailed and in-depth. But there are a lot of those comps, though I'm still, you know, hearing new songs, learning… being exposed to. They all definitely have an influence on me. Our last tour we were listening to, I think it was Pebbles Volume 2 or 3. And, I noticed, there were some similarities in the songwriting, and I can hear that having an influence on me down the line.
7. And then, do you have a video from
the new album on YouTube?
8. What can concert goers expect at a gig of Losin Streaks? Are you playing any famous cover songs?
MF: Mayhem.
TF: Yeah. Exactly.
MF: For covers, well, we do, I don't know if we do anything that's famous… maybe, you know, maybe in the in the garage circles, but yeah.
TF: We do “Project Blue” by The Banshees. We do “Hate” by The Stoics.
MF: We do, more obscure stuff. There's more local, like “I’ll Be the One” by Madd Inc. and “Daddy Was” by The Knightsmen. Yeah.
TF: And then The Weeds song, “It’s Your Time.” That one was a great one to turn over.
Probably the most famous cover that we did on a consistent basis, we used to do “Leaving Here.” It's a Holland Dozier Holland song, but we learned The Birds B-I-R-D-S version. And we used to do that all the time. That was, like, one of Matt K’s showpieces.
MF: It was a segue from, some other song that's in B. I can't remember. But yeah. We haven't really done “famous” covers. I mean, they're famous to the garage world, famous to us.
TF: “Blue Girl.” But yeah, we've done a lot of covers, that's for sure, over the years. “It's My Pride” by The Guess Who.
MF: We used to do “She” by The Monkees.
TF: Yeah. It's true. That's a pretty famous one. And as far as what concert goers can expect, I mean, we try to bring as much energy to those songs as they deserve.
You know, again, Stan and I grew up going to see The Mummies back 30 years ago, and there was no phoning it in there. And so we just learned, like, you wanna make it a really memorable experience for people that are there, and you want them to see all the energy that's in that music being demonstrated on stage. So, you may well see instruments getting broken. Amplifiers getting broken. We've had… drums have, have been destroyed. You know, I think we've lost equipment at many, many, many shows. I mean, that's not the goal, but it does you know, in the chaos, some, like, things go wrong.
MF: And, sure, it's in the vein of The Who, you know, but it's done with, you know, our own original energy.
TF: Well, we don't have the money to replace this stuff, so it's gotta be fixed and put back into play for the next show. [laughter] So, you know, I've been playing the same Silvertone guitar since 1997, and I think the same Fender Deluxe amp since about the same time. I mean, they're much… both of them are much, much worse for wear, but, you know, they get dragged around.
TF: Well, I'd say, musically, I think we're very you know, we're kind of in line with, again, like, The Mummies are old friends of ours, and The Woggles, The Okmoniks. Yeah. But then, locally, there's fantastic band called The Snares who are from Sacramento, who are younger. They're outstanding. And there's a a bunch of new bands that I feel like are kind of on the same wavelength as us. Like, there's a band called The Killing Floors out of Los Angeles. I love them. Also The Wyld Gooms…
MF: LA. Oh, yeah all those Chicano kids are mod. Yeah.
TF: It's very cool to see them. Those are the ones that come to mind. We just we were on tour, and we played with, two great bands, Hans Predator and Pet Mosquito. We played with them in Carbondale, Illinois, and they're all young kids, and they were just killing it. They brought all the energy. Pet Mosquito randomly just busted out with a cover of Bunker Hill’s “Girl Can't Dance,” which blew my mind. They just, like they weren't even planning on doing it. They just kinda ran through it during their warm up. So it's very cool to see…
MF: That band in Denver. What was that band?… Thee Retcons, in Denver were doing some cool stuff.
TF: So it is very cool to see people still playing garage music. There's a band, actually, I would love to play with who I think is definitely on our wavelength, called The Ar-Kaics. I think they're from back east. I think they're from Virginia maybe? And then there's a band called The Knight Shades who are from the East Coast also. Fantastic band. I would love to see them. So, yeah, there's a lot of bands out there doing really cool stuff.
10. What are the plans for the rest of 2024, and the forthcoming year as far as Th’ Losin Streaks are concerned?
MF: We’ve got a couple more shows.
TF: In a couple of weeks we’re playing with The Jackets who are… speaking of bands we love… The Jackets from Switzerland.
MF: We're playing with The Woggles, aren't we? Yeah. And we're playing with the Woggles in December. Yeah. So, I mean, very excited about those shows coming up. And I don't know how near future, but, plan is to record an EP possibly? We're working on some new songs.
TF: We want
to go into the studio beginning of next year and do an EP or a single or, you
know, beginning of another album, something like that. So that's exciting to
work on.
MF: Well, we hope to make it back to Europe.
TF: Oh, and that's the other thing we should mention…. We are working on a Japanese tour, which would be our first time ever in Japan. We're hoping that's gonna happen in 2025, so keep your fingers crossed for us. And yeah, we would love to go back to Europe. You know we had a whole tour scheduled in 2020 that got canceled and there were a bunch of shows and festivals we weren't able to do. We've been invited back several times, but we weren't able to make the schedules work out so we would love to come back and play again.
MF: Oh, and we've been doing a side project with Deke Dickerson. Yeah, you could call it Real Bad News Better Good….
TF: We had reached out to Deke Dickerson, who was in Untamed Youth and a bunch of other bands… The Go Nuts, and stuff over the years. And when we did our record release party here in Sacramento back in March, we asked him if he would come up and and play with us. And we just told him, “You pick a dozen songs you wanna do from your old garage rock and roll days, and we'll learn them, and we'll back you up.” And he thought that sounded like fun, so he sent us up a list of songs, we learned them, and it was one of the funniest shows I've ever played. I mean ever.
MF: We’ve done three of them so far.
TF: Yeah. And so it worked out really well in March, so then we ended up doing the same thing down in Los Angeles. Our friends, DJs Roger Mars and Rick Barzell, set that up. That was super fun. And then we just did it last week in San Francisco over at the Make Out Room.
MF: And, yeah, it was fantastic… That was the first time I ever played that place that packed.
TF: Yeah. A lot of folks there. It was super, super fun and great to see Deke cut loose a little bit, doing Sonics covers and, you know, getting crazy. You know, in the old days, Untamed Youth shows were some of the craziest shows - I mean, blood, full frontal nudity, shit going at the audience constantly. You know, not exactly what you expect to see at a Deke Dickerson show these days. But we wanted to bring Deke back to his roots. [laughter]
Thanks a lot for asking to do the
interview, and and hopefully, we'll see you over on your side of the Atlantic
one of these days soon.
PURCHASE THE GOODIES HERE: https://store.slovenly.com/world/slovenly-releases/vinyl/th-losin-streaks-last-house-lp.html
Special thanks to BazookaJoe.
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