Not sure what catagory the Sea Hags belonged in back in the day they were lazily lumped in with the glam rock brigade but this band of brothers never really belonged in with that lot and had much more to do with the darker side of early Aerosmith and the likes of the MC5 and Stooges to my ears and more power to them. Only surviving for one album, and years later, a few semi-official demo releases crept out into the bargain bins of the cool record stores around the globe, but this latest offering is ten tracks of prime grade sleazy loud rock n roll.

Famed for having Kirk Hammett play on their demos and a run of live shows supporting some of the finest punk bands crawling the circuit at the time, The Sea Hags were a lean, mean rockin’ machine, and this live, rough and ready set will attest that to be the case. So there’s no ‘Half The Way Valley’ or explosive ‘Bumbed Creek’, but there is a sleazy ‘Doghouse’ and brain-busting ‘Back To The Grind’. On another day, this band coulda shoulda…you know the drill. Rock’ n roll is littered with bands we all think should have been huge had it not been for Ego, Drugs, Drink, women, death, or all of the aforementioned well Sea Hags fit that bill perfectly.

On September 3, Sea Hags stepped in front of an audience of 60 enthusiastic fans at CD Studios. It’s this live demo recording that is now making its official debut on CD & digital. ‘Dead & Gone‘ captures Sea Hags delivering a type of sleaze rock that would soon be highly bankable on Hollywood’s Sunset Strip. Opener ‘Huntin’ for Dad’ with Yocom’s snarling vocals, followed by additional newly-discovered nuggets like the swaggering ‘Happy Hours with You’, reminds me of the swagger the Heartbreakers once had complete with howling feedback and gang vocals and the grind of ‘Dead and Gone’, it’s well worth investing in for fans of that album.
 
Despite its low budget, the demo served its purpose. Sea Hags were signed to Chrysalis Records in December 1987. But at the label’s insistence, Langston would be replaced, and a second guitarist was added. The original trio was defunct as Sea Hags entered the studio with producer Mike Clink (Guns N’ Roses’ Appetite for Destruction) to record their eponymous debut album. That album would include new versions of “Doghouse” and “Back to the Grind,” two tracks which appear in earlier versions on ‘Dead & Gone‘ but alas not here.  The title track is a belter, as is the Perry and Hamilton groove of ‘Chicken Boys’. Man, the groove of ‘Love Kills’ is still a pulse increasing thang and I might not have heard it in 30 years but boy is it a killer tune with a great vocal.
 
Within ten months of the release of the Sea Hags’ major label debut, the band had imploded, cracks became casms with over 300 shows done, and the lure of the big major label had taken hold.
 
Rest in Peace, Sea Hags, for you left a great looking corpse and one and done of what could and should have been. Take a listen, raise a glass and turn it up, ladies and gentlemen, the Sea Hags.  

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