The Dentists - Hear No Evil

I used to pick through piles of 45's and pick up the ones with interesting covers. This masterpiece was in a milk crate under the vinyl rack at Zia's. It was tucked away in a pile of old jukebox rejects and scratched pieces of garbage. I picked it up because it had a brown cardboard embossed cover and looked somewhat rare.

Here's the story on this record as I understand it. After years of making somewhat mediocre brit/jangle pop The Dentists made deals with three separate small time record labels. Each produced a 7" single entitled either see, speak, or hear no evil. Even though it was conceived as a set, each record was produced independently. They all have different covers (this is the best of the three) and are all currently out of print and hard to find. I got this one because Independent Projects, which is stationed in Arizona, pressed this thing.

Each of the three records starts with a poem about hearing, seeing, or speaking no evil. The flipside song on this 45, "Charms and the Girl" is about on par with other Dentists material. It's not bad but it doesn't stick with you. The other track is "Leave Me Alive" and it is the greatest jangle-pop song I have ever heard. I am not kidding and I am not overstating the greatness of this song. I have listened to it at least 100 different times and I still can't shake it. I can't even describe what makes it so great (partly because it's enigmatic and partly because I'm not a good writer). Just trust me that this song is perfect. It cannot be improved upon or apparently duplicated by the very band who made it (yeah, harsh. I know. For some reason I can't stop slamming The Dentists even though they made this fantastic 45).