Vinyl Tap: The Plimsouls - Everywhere At Once

I get a new turntable and dust off some old records. Vinyl Tap #2:

“This world keeps turning ‘round / You can’t turn it back” goes a line from the song “Play the Breaks” on Everywhere At Once, the 1983 album from the short-lived but essential coulda-been-contenders the Plimsouls.

Sometimes though, you can not only turn it back, it now sounds better and more timeless than ever. Everywhere evokes enough '60s traces with its firm garage band-grasp, get up and go-go, and farfisa-fied sound — some Sky Saxon sneers here and some psychedelic snippets of too-much-to-dream wah-wah or raga there — to recall the raw power and stripped-down skills of such bands as the Seeds, Standells, Leaves, Blues Magoos, Count Five, and Sir Douglas Ouintent. Indeed, the two fairly obscure ‘60s covers in this no-nonsense rockin' steamroller of a record, the Equals' "My Life Ain’t Easy" and Mouse and the Traps’ "Lie, Beg, Borrow and Steal," are interwoven almost seamlessly with the newer songs written or co-written by Peter Case, who is also the leader and lead singer. Talk about being everywhere at once.

But Case leaves his own mark on Everywhere with his impassioned vocals, rave-on frenetic pacing, sporadic jangly Byrds-like folk-rock elements and toughened-up sensibilities that transcend any mere narrowed-down novelty or nostalgia appeal. Taken together, the power packs a punch in such highlights as “Magic Touch,” “How Long Will It Take?” “Inch by Inch” and the title song, which — true to its kitchen-sink appellation — seems to have bits and pieces of such ingredients as “Pipeline”-style surf guitar and rockabilly-esque Dwight Twilley Band raucousness.

The slower tempo of “That’s The Oldest Story In The World” changes the pace just a little, but perhaps — in an album that lets in little lyrical and thematic sweetness and light — to more effectively twist the knife in a little deeper:

It makes perfect sense
Seeing how the seeds were sown
To find you out there own your own
You said your goodbyes
And broke all the ties
It struck me dumb
To think I tried for you

After all, it’s the oldest story in the world, Case contends, case closed in an apt allusion: “You’ll hear it again and again / Just like a Rolling Stone.”

Article Author: Gordon Hauptfleisch

Gordon Hauptfleisch is a Blogcritics Books Editor, freelance writer, and book reviewer for San Diego Union Tribune Books (R.I.P.). For many years he worked in and managed bookstores and record stores, and most recently was purchasing manager for San Diego Technical Books. …

Visit Gordon Hauptfleisch's author page — Gordon Hauptfleisch's Blog