Game for Vultures - "Goin' My Way" 7"

Game for Vultures – “Goin’ My Way” 7”

Estrus, 1994

Acquired: Love Garden Shotgun Room, Used, 2008

Price: $.25

 

This single was originally released in 1990 but for some reason reissued in 1994. You can definitely taste the 80s in the guitar work. They definitely don’t sound dirty enough. There’s a little 80s wanker metal dust on them, just slightly, which basically serves to date this thing as pre/proto-grunge. There’s some Mudhoney grease smeared on these songs, which makes sense given the band’s proximity to the Grunge Mecca, but there could definitely be more grease. It all sounds too clean. Like you can tell they’re trying to make it sound really good. It’s funny that trying to sound really good is a flaw. Like “Oh, you labored over this in the studio? Yeah, you should have just recorded into a shitty four-track, it would have sounded way better.” The drum sound is bothersome, too. It almost sounds synthesized at times, especially on the instrumental “Surfin’ Bellingham Bay.” The is the only thing Game for Vultures released and front man John Mortensen went on to play with the Mono Men who played the same game of trying to resurrect the Sonics from the ashes but stuck around a lot longer. Lamestain has a whole little history of Jeff Mortensen’s wheelings and dealings in the Seattle music scene and while Game for Vultures’ music leaves something to be desired, it is a fun little artifact from a halcyon early days of American indie music.