Jan 3rd 2025 at the Casbah was a perfect night of the old school meshing with the new school. Ray Brandes from the Shambles and Tell-Tale Hearts played a set of Tell-Tale Hearts songs with the Wyld Gooms backing him up. Also on the bill were the Sound Reasons. Normally I’d put these two bands in two separate posts, but since they’re all connected together in one way or another, I’m just going to put them all in this one.
Sound Reasons started the night off with some fuzz guitar garage rock. The garage scene up in Los Angeles is really REALLY healthy. You got the Wyld Gooms, Night Times, Sound Reasons, King Flamingo, Sound Stations, and lots more! And they’re all supporting each other, sharing bandmates, playing shows together, even joining together to do one off Halloween spinoff bands! And these are all newer bands! Sound Reasons had at least two Wyld Gooms and maybe 2 Night Times guys in them. I honestly can’t keep track. Total rockin’ ’60s garage rock, done by “new kids” on the block. They’re going to have a few 7″ singles out soon, which I can’t wait for.
The Wyld Gooms are my current favorite of the garage rock revival bands. And here they were backing up Ray Brandes doing a set of Tell-Tale Hearts songs (and covers that they did at the time, like the Haunted’s “1-2-5”). The Tell-Tale Hearts were a legendary San Diego ’60s revival garage band who formed in 1983. They released an album, some singles, and then split up around 3 years later. But their legacy lives on. They had a couple reunion shows, but nothing really panned out.
This show kind of came about when the Wyld Gooms played the Casbah back in August of 2023. They had Ray Brandes come up onstage to do a couple Tell-Tale Hearts songs. And that bloomed into a full set! The Wyld Gooms are huge fans and Ray knows a great band when he sees one, so this was a perfect blend of the new school and the old school. Ray spent the last month going up to Los Angeles to rehearse with the Wyld Gooms for this show and what a show it was! Wyld Gooms are on top of their game and got to share the stage backing up one of their influences. Here’s the best of the pictures I took.
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