Throwback MP3 of the Week: The Hefners, “Hefner Style”
If I had to pick a band I wish I’d seen more when they were around, it’s the Hefners. When they were around, I liked them, but never made a concerted effort to go see ’em when they played live. By the time I finally had the musical knowledge to get their organ-powered garage, they’d broken up.
The few times I managed to stumble upon a Hefners’ performance (an El Torreon show with the Chickenhawks and Parlay, a house party on 13th), it was always a fantastic show, if a bit brief. The band’s set rarely went past 20 or 30 minutes.
They released The Hefners Play “Hefner Style on their own label in 1998. That bikini on the cover is actually silk-screened onto the poly sleeve. You slide that sleeve off, and you get to see that cover model in all her cheesecake glory. Ooh-la-la. The rest of the band’s releases were on Middle Class Pig, with the label’s first release being a split between the Hefners and Germany’s Schwarz (which actually came out before Hefner Style).
The line-up for these first two releases was actually different than the band’s later years, as Bryce Hefner (formerly of the Norman 360) joined the band on keys before the recording of the band’s debut LP, Lay Off This Is The Old Man’s Private Poison.
