Column 100 — Metal Machine Music
The Terminals turn up the noise.

I was driving west on I-80 headed to Lincoln doing close to 90 because everyone else was and you either keep up or get run right off the road. No one told me about all the construction, the constant “Stay In Your Lane” warning signs that flipped past as the road jerked indiscriminately in odd directions, the left lane mere inches from large concrete barriers designed to keep semis and large SUVs from jumping into oncoming traffic. Lord only knows what hitting those could do to something like my Mini Cooper, which has a wheelbase akin to a rollerskate and the suspension of a go-kart. Every time my tiny tires found a piece of grooved pavement, it jerked the Mini in the wrong direction, either toward the deadly barriers or the adjacent lane crowded by a fleet of Voyagers, Caravans and Ram-tough Dodge SUVs that towered over me, blocking my view.

Meanwhile, blaring on my car stereo was the new CD by The Terminals, the band I was headed to Lincoln to interview. I’d seen them a number of times at O’Leaver’s and The 49’r, playing hep-cat cool retro garage punk spiked by Dave Goldberg’s gospel-infused organ twirls, frontwoman Liz Hitt’s snarling, jagged guitar riffs and Brooks Hitt’s beefy stick work. Fun stuff.

The CD, however, sounds nothing like that. Instead, most of the songs sound like a room filled with industrial power tools — jack hammers, grinders, band-saws — tearing through a concrete wall while an angry monkey pounds on a metal slab with a stone hammer. The recording is blown-out and raw. By the time I arrived at the Hitts’ Lincoln home, my back was as tight as an iron rod and I could already feel the tension-pain in my neck that would haunt me the following day.

To say that The Terminals are not entirely thrilled with their Dead Beat Records debut, Forget About Never, would be an understatement.

“The first time I heard it I was furious,” Goldberg said. “I called Liz with a list of complaints and got to No. 1 before she hung up. There are parts of the record that border on migraine-inducing industrial noise.”

The story behind the recording began when Liz sent a handful of 7-inch records to Tom Spencer, the label chief at Dead Beat Records, hoping to get him interested in Brimstone Howl, another band on Hitts’ and Goldberg’s Boom Chick label. She also threw in some Terminals recordings just for kicks. “They were quite impressive,” Spencer said of the Terminals. “So I told the band that I was interested in doing their debut album. After deciding on the track list, we got Andy Caffrey from The Horrors to record the album, and it turned out great.”

Caffrey, Liz said, is “hot shit, and we accidentally made the mistake of telling Tom we knew him.”

The band recorded the album live at The Zoo Bar when it was closed. Amps were placed in the bathrooms while the drum set was on stage. “(Caffrey) ran everything into this fucking box of noise and what came out the other side became the record,” Liz said. “Getting Caffrey to record it was Tom’s way of getting us credibility with these (types of) bands.”

“With Andy, you take the good with the bad,” Brooks said of Caffrey. “He has a weird view of things. He’s the most over-the-top guy doing this kind of recording.”

“The aesthetic is similar to other stuff you hear on Dead Beat,” Goldberg explained. “The audience they’re catering to are total speed freaks that enjoy that type of thing because they’re always in that state of mind.”

“Uh, I don’t know if trashing our record during the interview is the way to go,” Brooks added sheepishly. The fact is, the band actually likes the record, and so do I. The recording is almost artsy in its brazen, abrasive approach. The wall of static punk rock is aggressive and unnerving, and ultimately, very cool.

Goldberg said it took a few spins before his hatred for the recording turned into admiration. “Some of it is awesome. I’m pretty sure that people in Europe that are fans of this style of recording will go ape-shit over it. Most bands wouldn’t put it out, and that aspect of it I enjoy. It is, dare I say, controversial.”

He is concerned, however, that the stark contrast between the record and their usual live sound could result in some confusion, if not disappointment. “I’m afraid that people who are into the record will see us live and say ‘What’s this shit?’ and by that same token, people who like us live will buy this record and say ‘What’s this shit?'”

Replicating the record’s sound, however, is out of the question. “It would take a lot of expensive or broken equipment for us to sound like that on stage, Goldberg said. “Perhaps we should start poking holes in our PA speakers.”

Omaha fans will get a chance to check it out Friday, Nov. 10, when The Terminals celebrates the official release of Forget About Never at The 49’r with Now, Archimedes! and Boom Chick artist The Shanks, which also will be celebrating the release of their “Cut Me” 7-inch single. For those of you driving down from Lincoln for the show, you may want to wait until you get home to listen to the CD, for your nerves’ sake. Drive safely.