Twominutemen

Disappointment struck me yesterday when I read that one of my favourite bands of 2009 had split. But the bad news was quickly overcome when I learnt that The Widow Babies had just downscaled and changed their name to Rare Grooves, with guitarist Danny Millar and drummer Tabor Allen continuing to work together. They’ve also managed to draft legendary Minutemen bassist Mike Watt into the fold, to hit the strings on their first official release, due out in late March.

When I interviewed Danny last year he spoke openly of his friendship with Tabor, and briefly mentioned that before forming The Widow Babies he and Tabor had been in other bands together. “Tabor, Elise McCuthchen (The Widow Babies’ vocalist) and I all met at our high school in Santa Ana, Orange County. Tabor and I met in PE class and we had a mutual love for Led Zeppelin and Marilyn Manson so we really hit it off. We played in bands for a couple of years together and then Tabor started dating Elise so we started a side project called The Widow Babies.” The “side project” later became their main project.

No explanation has been given for the split, but a statement on the band’s myspace confirms, “we are very sad to announce that The Widow Babies have broken up.”

Danny and Tabor have wasted no time getting Rare Grooves off the ground. Yesterday they unveiled their first offering, a limited edition 7″ vinyl containing the songs ‘Cause For Concern’ and ‘No Garden’. Both songs were recorded with Mike Watt playing bass guitar, a dream come true for the pair whose first Widow Babies release was a homage to their hero, titled The Mike Watt EP. The songs were produced by Chris Schlarb, who produced both The Mike Watt EP and The Widow Babies’ full length album Jetpacks.

As could be somewhat expected, Rare Grooves sound reasonably similar to The Widow Babies, especially with Danny’s signature guitar playing remaining the main focus of the band. However both songs have a much more chilled out vibe, with less punk rock elements and more California surf, teetering on the edge between chillwave and post-punk but not really bowing to either genre. They meander and glide rather than chug and twist, adopting more of a natural flow that is less spastic and has a much simpler song structure.

You can pre-order Rare Grooves’ debut 7″ via Sounds Are Active for a special pre-sale price of $3.99 (US). It will be officially released towards the end of March.

Rare Grooves- Cause For Concern: MP3

Rare Grooves- Myspace

Posted by Nick Fulton under California, Los Angeles, U.S.A
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