The Weeds. The Lollipop Shoppe. Zipper. King Bee. The Rats. Dead Moon. Pierced Arrows. For 42 years Fred Cole has been singing and playing guitar in bands around these parts, and for the last 31 of them, his beloved wife Toody has been right by his side plucking the bass. And they aren’t playing rocking-chair rock, either. Their current band, the Pierced Arrows is loud, heavy, and raw as today’s sushi.
This web-exclsuive video retrospective reveals the rocking roots of the Coles, from Fred’s days as a frisky young garage-rocker who wanted to sound like Arthur Lee, to the salad days of Dead Moon, the venerable band that earned the couple the most acclaim, especially in Europe, where they are treated like American rock royalty. The music isn’t polished or pretty. But they mean every note, every phrase, every chorus. It’s the only way they know how to play. Enjoy.
The Weeds are one of the first recorded examples of Fred Cole. It has the edge of great garage rock from the era, using a crunchy guitar that made up of the most poobahs of power chords, with that incongruous snarl and suits combo that the Beatles pioneered.
The Lollipop Shoppe, whose name sounds much more psychedelic (sucrodelic?) than the band’s music, marks one of Fred’s pseudo hits with the propulsive “You Must Be A Witch.”
The Rats marks the first collaboration between Fred and Toody as bandmates, and this clip shows Fred’s continuing evolution, mixing punk in with his garage rock style.
Published: August 2009
If every kid who worshiped Hannah Montana or one of those wedding singers from “American Idol” dug Fred and Toody instead, this would be a truly enlightened society.