Review / 200 Words Or Less
The Resinators
Recorded In 2005 By Jay Reatard

Independent (2024) Jiffy Marx

The Resinators – Recorded In 2005 By Jay Reatard cover artwork
The Resinators – Recorded In 2005 By Jay Reatard — Independent, 2024

Interesting little slab we got sent to SPB by a Mr. Ed Young. Two originals and a cover, recorded in Jay Reatard’s living room back in 2005 as the title suggests. So that would be around the time of The Reatards’ Not Fucked Enough for anyone keeping track. Jay had apparently just switched from analog to digital recording but it didn’t change his production style- preserving the raw in punk rawk. Ed tells me they were really proud of the recording but couldn’t find anyone interested in putting it out at the time. “Too Punk for the metalheads, too rock n roll for the garage scene, etc…”

My favourite thing about this band is that they’re from Normal IL. I feel like it should be the setting for the next Tim Robinson series. Maybe a reboot of the short lived 90s series “Eerie, Indiana”? It would be too easy/lazy to say The Resinators guitar rock played with reckless abandon sounds like Detroit proto punks MC5 and Stooges. Based on the little biographical info we were given this band existed 1989-90 and then 1997-2009 so might have been influenced by fellow mid-westerners like 90s garage rockers New Bomb Turks and/or even punk prodigies Pagans. My wife also points out that they sound like The Candy Snatchers and she’s not wrong.

The cover of Fun Things’ “Savage” is the real wild card here tho. How did a band from Normal, Illinois in 2005 come to find out about a 7” that was self-released in 1980 by a band from Brisbane, Australia? Ed says after their bass player and resident record collector got into The Saints and Radiobirdman, the whole band did an Australian punk deep dive. So message boards and Napster I guess? Anyway, happy to report that this thing is finally seeing the light of day and can be procured directly from North Street Records in Normal, definitely worth a stop if you’re ever in the area.

The Resinators – Recorded In 2005 By Jay Reatard cover artwork
The Resinators – Recorded In 2005 By Jay Reatard — Independent, 2024

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