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COFFIN LIDS. The Coffin Lids’ worldview is pretty easy to fathom: just take the complete lyrics of the song that opens both their disc and most of their live shows: "Coffin Lids! Rock ’n’ roll! Coffin Lids! Rock ’n’ roll!" That song, "Coffin Lids Rock’n’Roll," is the opening track on, yes, Coffin Lids Rock ’n’ Roll (Bomp!) — a disc that testifies to the enduring spirit of garage rock in town. Singer/guitarist "Skinny Mike" Feydale might be called a reborn garage rocker; since he was known for years as the frontman and stand-up bass maniac of rockabilly combo the Speed Devils. With the Coffin Lids he’s switched to guitar and written punchy, three-chord tunes about the things that really matter — namely, "Beer and Rock & Roll," hanging out with zombies, and the pitfalls of dating a cute girl who happens to be a vampire. Over a beer at the Abbey recently, Feydale explained what makes up his songwriting. "Well, there’s three things — a one chord, a four chord, and a five chord. And if I can’t laugh at myself in the words, I’ll laugh at other people. To me all the stuff I’ve done is just rock and roll, whether you call it rockabilly or garage. That kind of music has staying power — people pick up on it, relate to it, shake their ass to it. It has a lot of things going for it." The Coffin Lids got signed without a lot of hassle; Feydale just took his demo and mailed it to a few of his favorite labels. West Coat garage honcho Greg Shaw, the man behind the Pebbles compilations, was the first to say yes, making the Coffin Lids the first Boston band on his label since DMZ in the ’70s. "He said we sounded like the Sonics meeting the Mummies," says Feydale, naming the ’60s garage heroes and the latter-day ghoul-rockers. "And that’s exactly the sound I was looking for." It’s become a trend for modern garage albums to have a low-fi sound — check out most of Mr. Airplane Man’s discs, for instance — but the Coffin Lids’ album outdoes them all for sheer lack of production. The drums and guitars sound grisly enough, there’s feedback all over the place, and Feydale’s voice sounds like it’s being played with a worn-out phono needle. "Yeah, it’s the lowest-fi record ever put out," he says proudly. "We recorded it with room mikes in the rehearsal studio, but we plugged the vocal mike into a tube pre-amp. So the harder you sing, the more the signal would clip and distort. A lot of records I love have that kind of sound — the Mummies’ stuff does, and the Billy Childish stuff — and it’s more spooky. Spooky is good." The Coffin Lids have had a consistent sound since the band was formed two and a half years ago, despite having been through two lead guitarists, two bass players, and three drummers (the current lineup is Coffin Mikey — alias Noise scribe Mike Baldino — on guitar, Coffin Jay on bass, and Coffin Damian on drums). "The only problem we’ve had was that our first guitar player played too well to be in the Coffin Lids — now that we’ve got Mikey we’ve dumbed it down real good. The only reason we’ve had so many lineups is that I wanted to be sure we could tour. Even though you could look at all the changes, you’d think I was the biggest prick in the world." Look for a CD release party at the Abbey on Saturday, the 17th. (The Coffin Lids play a CD-release party at the Abbey Lounge, 3 Beacon Street in Inman Square on April 17; call 617-441-9631. Little Steven and Dunkin’ Donuts present the Underground Garage Battle of the Bands at the Matrix, 279 Tremont Street in Boston, April 15 through 17; call 617-542-4077.)
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