Before they morphed into sampler-toting, vaguely psychedelic dream-punks, No Age's Dean Spunt and Randy Randall were plain-old punks, bashing out noisy, art-damaged songs in Wives. A trio, rounded out by drummer Jeremy Villalobos and, later, Roy Tatum, Wives emphasized passion over precision. The band took its basic inspiration from 1980s hardcore bands like Void, but amped up the freak-out factor with explosive bursts of noise and out-crowd abstraction. Formed in 2001, they delivered a handful of 7" singles and the Erect the Youth Problem LP before Spunt and Randall laid the name to rest. You can still catch a clip of their final gig, performed as a duo, on the 2006 documentary 40 Bands/80 Minutes.
Released to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Spunt's label, PPM, The Roy Tapes are Wives' last gasp, seven songs recorded immediately prior to the band's first and final European tour, then shelved for nearly seven years. As lost albums go, it's not quite Smile or Black Album-grade myth-fodder. It's a slight, unlabored collection of tunes-- 10 minutes of shrill feedback and growl, preserving the last handful of tunes the band wrote, plus one Negative Approach cover ("Can't Tell No One"). If you caught them in 2005, it will set off an immediate, tender pang of nostalgia.
But there's historical value, too-- if only because you can hear the early percolation of the ideas that would drive No Age. On The Roy Tapes, Spunt and Randall's songwriting takes a step back from the abstract and brainy turf that Wives staked out on their debut. The songs are clumsier in execution, but more hummable. Instead of a tool to voice agression and anger, noise becomes a more melodic and textural element, playful instead of pumelling. On "If You Went Any Lower You'd Hit China", the trio rides a simple singsong guitar hook through a wave of electronic squealing, tumbling into a primitive rave up.
The Roy Tapes isn't Wives' finest hour-- Erect the Youth Problem is a more fully realized effort and, if you keep an eye out, it's not that hard to find it in the cut-out bin-- but it's an admirable testament to Spunt and Randall's stick-to-it-iveness at a time when their band was very much in flux. In No Age, Randall and Spunt would hit on a brand of positive punk that was explosive and emotionally direct, but never tear-streaked or tedious. If nothing else, Wives were the first step toward bigger things.
