I still remember the first Small Faces CD I’d ever gotten. I was maybe 19 and had been digging the shit out of the first couple Who and Kinks LPs and had read that SF were right up there with them in song writing and ferocity. I’d found the disc in a used bin: ‘BBC Sessions 65 - 68’. How could you pass that up?

After digging in and soaking up all the hits like a severely dehydrated sponge, I came across “You Need Lovin’”. My immediate thought was “Awwweee… they’re ripping off Led Zeppelin….” but then I realized that this totally predated any of J. Page’s cock rock.

I later learned that Steve Marriott (SF’s main man) had been asked to join Zeppelin as frontman, but the band’s manager threatened to break his legs if he even dared to entertain the idea of quiting.

Below is a “mash-up” of both the songs in question as well as the songs in their original forms.

I’ve had an un-mastered copy of this fine album for a few months. It’s definitely going to be one of the, if not THE, best records of 2008. DON’T BELIEVE ME? Just check out the song below!

Here’s how Alive Records tells it:

Los Angeles, CA - July 30, 2008 - Alive Records has announced the upcoming album release from Nebraska’s 60’s influenced garage and old school punks Brimstone Howl. The follow-up to their Dan Auerbach produced debut, the band enlisted Detroit’s legendary producer Jim Diamond to man the boards for their sophomore effort, We Came in Peace, hitting stores September 2nd.

Led by charismatic singer/songwriter John Ziegler and guitarist extraordinaire Nick Waggoner, with Calvin Retzlaff on drums, the boys traveled to Ghetto Recorders in Detroit for a very productive recording session with the legendary Jim Diamond (The Dirtbombs, The Hentchmen, The Sights, The White Stripes) . Described by NME as “Beatles-headed psych-nerds with a taste for razor sharp snake-rock, We Came in Peace is the follow-up to Guts Of Steel (Alive 2007) an album hailed as “unholy hot-wiring of the Sonics, the Damned and the Blues Explosion” (Magnet) and “cranked lo-fi blues rock from Nebraska’s hoodlums” (Uncut).

Despite its cryptic title We Came in Peace is another fun explosion of fuzz and American-gothic chit-chatter, with “weird fictional adventure stories, and beginner blues guitar lessons from mongoloids,” as they like to describe it. The album is packed with great songs, including the amazing power punk pop “A Million Years,” the Cramps-worshiper “Child of Perdition” or the VU-psych influenced “Easy to Dream”.

Brimstone Howl will begin a U.S. tour in August, followed by a European in October with additional dates being added through next year. Currently, the band has been sharing stages with fellow travelers Jay Reatard (who produced one of their first singles) and the Black Lips, among many others, gathering reviews such as this one: “Pumping with hot red blood, they slopped their rock & roll around the room: dirty, gritty, just right. For the finale, the four players became two piggyback stacks. The playing continued as the dueling human towers wobbled about the room, knocking into the lampshades and ending up in a heap of bodies on the floor and a blistering wall of noise. Now THAT’S how you do it.” (Orlando Weekly).

The CD version of We Came in Peace includes one bonus track not on the VINYL version. The first LP pressing on purple vinyl is a limited edition run of 500 copies.

Get the CD (with non-LP track) from Alive right NOW!!! by clicking this link right here!