Singer Ray Brandes (Tell Tale Hearts, Town Criers etc.) heads out on a two-week tour of Spain this week in support of a new single with up-and-coming Orange County garage rockers, The Wyld Gooms.
The new single features two co-written songs, “Back of the Crowd” and “Something Is Wrong,” credited to Brandes/Gooms. “We cut them at SGV Sound in Alhambra, with Rik Collins of the Woolly Bandits behind the board,” Brandes said.
Notably, The Wyld Gooms also just dropped their first full album on Outro Records. While Brandes doesn’t play on the album, he does play a role. “They roped me into starring in the video for “Wyld Goom,” Brandes said. Directed by Xavier Rodriguez, it was shot last weekend at HM 157, “an 1886 Victorian mansion in Los Angeles that brings serious atmosphere. It’s tongue-in-cheek and has a Scooby Do feel.”
How did the collaboration come about? “A couple of years ago, Mike Stax invited me to join the Wyld Gooms onstage at the Ugly Things 40th anniversary celebration at the Casbah (August 26, 2023), and honestly… that was the spark,” explained Brandes. “The band are massive Tell-Tale Hearts fans, so they were stoked to have me jump in and sing a few tunes. That night turned into a full set together a few months later in San Diego, then a show at the Escondite in L.A., and capped off with a Halloween gig inside an actual haunted house — (the afore mentioned) Historical Monument 157 in Los Angeles. Yeah. That happened.”
Word traveled fast that the combined talents put on a good show, and next thing they knew, “Knock Knock Booking in León—the same agency that booked the Crawdaddys last year —hit us up to do an eight-date tour of Spain this February.” Brandes and The Wyld Gooms will be performing at the Wachina Wachina Festival in Valencia, the Felicia Pop Festival in Galicia, plus club shows in Gijón, Santander, Burgos, Bilbao, Zaragoza, and Madrid.
What will the format for the live road trip be? “On the tour the Gooms will kick things off with three or four tracks from their brand-new album, then I jump in for the full set — about an hour of my originals, Tell-Tale Hearts songs, and a couple of covers we love,” Brandes said.
While there are no San Diego shows on the calendar right now, “we are locked in for the Arroyo Secodelic Festival in Highland Park this May, sharing the bill with Fear, the Flamin’ Groovies, the Adolescents, Mike Watt, and more heavy hitters.” Brandes confirmed.
As if a record and tour with one group wasn’t enough, Brandes is keeping busy with his other main group, The Mothmen. “Recording and touring plans are in motion—so I’m staying busy in the best way. We’ve got plans to play in the Bay Area this summer and hopefully in Europe by the end of the year.”
On top of all that, “last weekend I recorded some vocals for a solo project Ron Silva’s putting together—separate from the Mothmen, but with some familiar faces: Gordon Moss (The Crawdaddys) on drums, Chris Davies (The Penetrators) on bass, and Peter Miesner (The Zzymzzy Quartet) on guitar. Seven songs are already in the can, leaning hard into rhythm and blues, recorded with Mike Kamoo at Earthling Studios in El Cajon.”
Brandes is happy with all the new musical activity, especially the new team up with The Wyld Gooms. “I love working with and hanging out with them,” Brandes said. “They’re killer musicians, but more than that, they’re fired up and genuinely excited about the music in a way that feels rare now. I like to think of them as the Grandchildren of Nuggets: loud, scrappy, and carrying the torch whether anyone asked them to or not.”
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