Released: 1989
Tracks: My Emaciated Heart; I’d Rather Be Lost; In My Family; Fish Sticks; Song For Our World; Burnwood; Lock of Your Hair; Big Stick; Vases & Shoes; Without a Doubt; 10-15
Best track: My Emaciated Heart
Track to skip: none
From here on out, I’m just going to refer to them as “Twang”. Unless you happened to be a fan of Happy Farmers while Davíd Garza was still in High School then this would’ve been everyone’s introduction to him and his songwriting. Twang was formed during Garza’s freshman year at the University of Texas in 1989 with friends Chris Searles (percussion) and Jeff Haley (upright bass). Now the stuff of legend, Twang started off by playing on the West Mall of the UT campus and sold their homemade tapes there and built up a following pretty quickly. This might be a rumor (I’m pretty sure it’s true), but Twang’s first ‘official’ gig was at Liberty Lunch, a club in Austin that most bands took a few years to work up to; it’s not a small place, that’s for sure. So, just from the amount of buzz they generated from their West Mall shows, they packed Liberty Lunch for their first gig. Impressive.
Twang really had an original sound and they still do. It’s all acoustic and pretty stripped-down, but the guys manage to make a lot of noise come out of those instruments. At this early stage (he was only 18) Garza was a DAMN good guitar player. He was on scholarship to UT for his guitar playing. The music on these songs is really impressive, while the lyrics are somewhat lacking. The songs are great, of course, but Garza hadn’t become the excellent lyricist that he is now. Still, all these songs are seriously fun and it’s impossible to not shake your ass while listening to this album.
Most of the songs are considered classics in certain circles (uh, mine), for instance My Emaciated Heart, I’d Rather Be Lost, Fish Sticks, Big Stick and others. This album, Twang’s debut, isn’t amazing quality but it sounds plenty good for enjoying. It was probably recorded in one of their bedrooms; it’s definitely not from a proper studio. So, the guys got a good sound from their 4 track. It’s really impossible to pick a best song because all of them have incredible life to them. They’re *all* great songs. Sure Fish Sticks, Burnwood & Big Stick are absurdly silly (also the Rush bit after Burnwood); the thing is, they are great songs. I’ll put My Emaciated Heart as the ‘best track’ simply because I never get sick of hearing it. Like all of Davíd Garza’s pre-CD albums, this is impossible to find. If you can either get it from the internet or get a copy from someone it’s highly recommended. Oh, and just to make sure I say it, this album (and band) just isn’t about Davíd Garza. Both Chris Searles and Jeff Haley are excellent players and equally important to Twang’s excellence.
Rating: 90
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