A couple of months ago I was contacted by the multi-talented John Brown of Camel Hump Studios and bands such as New Cold War and Battle Born. He was asking if I could photograph a recording session of a Prince cover album SquidHat Records was putting out.
I was a bit hesitant at first, mostly because I am not very well versed in the artist formerly known as the artist formerly known as Prince, but in the end I couldn’t resist. I had to hear what SquidHat Records was cooking up.
On the day I was in the studio, The Negative Nancys and The New Waves were recording their tracks. My only knowledge of The Negative Nancys was from seeing their name on the flyer for the 90s Punk Tribute night at Triple B. I can now say that if you have not checked these gals out, you are doing yourself a disservice. Their Prince cover was aggressive, fast and awesome. I also quickly found out while I was there, that they would be getting signed to SquidHat Records later on in the day.
The New Waves, another band I was previously unfamiliar with, were recording their instrumental Prince cover. You could definitely hear the surf influence in their cover, which gave the song a really unique sound, and I was impressed with their technicality. They were also all super nice guys and just kept geeking out about amp and guitar specifications.
Later on in the day, after the recordings were all finished and the bands had left, I got to chat with Allan Carter for a few minutes. Being the fearless leader of SquidHat Records, I had a lot of questions running around in my head but I tried to keep it somewhat related to the Prince cover album.
So, of course my first question was, “Why a Prince cover album?”
Turns out, he’s just always been a huge fan of Prince’s music and thought the diversity of the Vegas punk scene would lend itself to a really eclectic cover album. Having heard some of these tracks the day I was there, I can definitely say he hit that nail right on the head. Allan explained to me that he has actually been trying to make this record happen for about three years now, but everytime he tried to get it going he ran into scheduling conflicts or not having enough interested bands.
Ready to hear the album? You’ve got a bit of a wait. It comes out on Record Store Day 2016 (April 21, to be exact). Some of the bands featured on the album will be, Franks and Deans, Mercy Music, New Cold War, The New Waves, The Negative Nancys, The Dirty Panties and The Quitters. The album will simply be named Punk Sexy: A Las Vegas Punk Rock Tribute to Prince. Punk Sexy will also be coming out on purple vinyl because what other color could it be.
-Anthony Constantine | https://www.facebook.com/anthonycphotography
Tracklisting:
Purple Rain by Mercy Music
Sister by The Negative Nancy’s
Erotic City by The New Waves
Let’s Go Crazy by guilty by association,
Raspberry Beret by The Dirty Panties
Delirious by the Heiz
I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man by The People’s Whiskey
The Most Beautiful Girl in the World by Andy Harrison
I Would Die 4 U by New Cold War
When Doves Cry by Dr. Phobic & The Phobic-Tones
Jack U Off by The Quitters
When You Were Mine by the SquidHat Allstars
Jungle Love by Franks and Deans.
One Comment