Mike Stax was born in Watford in 1962 but moved to the States in 1980 to become bassist with The Crawdaddys.
Having permanently relocated in San Diego, California he established the Ugly Things fanzine in 1983 and, remarkably, this publication is still going strong today.
The magazine specialises in 'wild sounds from past dimensions', a tagline that effectively sums up Stax's The Loons.
The five piece group he fronts includes his wife Aja on bass and they are like a tribute band to all his musical heroes. The group's fab gear, groovy sound and retro cover art all hark back to the sixties' hey-day of psychedelic pop.
The Ugly Things have their own label via which they have re-released all but forgotten discs by The Misunderstood and The Pretty Things. You might expect them to sign themselves but instead this album is out on LA-based Bomp! Records which, perhaps not so coincidentally, was formed by another fanzine publisher, Greg Shaw.
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In their heads, at least, The Loons are a combination of The Seeds or The Yardbirds even though none of the eleven original songs truly capture the excitement of the era they celebrate.
I fear that, as with the band's three previous albums, this latest release is destined is disappear without trace.
Who knows, perhaps sometime in the dim and distant future this and their back catalogue are destined to be re-issued by an obscure label and labelled as lost classics.
Ugly things website
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