Los Tones : What Happened
Subscribe
X

Get the latest from Beat

Los Tones : What Happened

lostonnes.jpg

In 1975, Elvis’ former bodyguards spilt the beans to Australian journalist Steve Dunleavy.  Surrounded by a cadre of sycophants and shadowy low-level criminals, and living on a diet of pills and junk food, Elvis had morphed from the svelte, energetic entertainer of yore to a bloated, confused and exploited caricature. Two weeks after the publication of Elvis: What Happened, Elvis left this earthly building.

Save for its honouring of the dirty rock’n’roll tradition, Los Tones’ second album, What Happened, doesn’t draw a line from Elvis’ demise.  But it is a sizzling firecracker of a garage record. Battery Acid steps through the murky depths of the Delta swamp, Wasted is a three-chord high school waltz smashed on moonshine and The Door walks through the open aperture to psychedelic awareness.  Sinking In takes you down to the surf with Annette and Frankie and a beachload of great times. Rat Bag is ‘60s in all its stovepipe and Cuban Heeled glory and Witch Hazel is where The Sonics would end up if Tacoma fell through the east coast of the US straight into Wollongong.  What Happened wouldn’t save Elvis from his hyper-extended colonic fate, but it sure would have given him reason to live.