The Recoys - "Shake Off Your Nerve"

When talking about the origins of The Walkmen, people often mention Paul Maroon, Walter Martin and Matt Barrick's previous group Jonathan Fire*Eater as an important source of musical style and sensibility. But Hamilton Leithauser and Peter Bauer were also in a band together, The Recoys, and while they didn't garner the major label attention lavished on Jonathan Fire*Eater, they did record a small but saavy collection of swinging and inspired rock and roll tunes. The group's out of print EP and a collection of songs destined for a future unfinished LP were released together for the Rekoys—a must have for serious Walkmen fans. You'll notice three Recoys' songs—"That's the Punchline," "The Blizzard of '93," and "Look Out Your Window"—were adapted and rerecorded by The Walkmen for Everyone Who Pretended To Like Me Is Gone and the Calla/Walkmen split EP. Leithauser's distinct vocal posturing and rasp is certainly present on the harmonica blazing "Shake Off Your Nerve," another song that (sans harmonica) would fit neatly into The Walkmen catalogue.

The Recoys - "Shake Off Your Nerve" (from Rekoys)

The Deadly Snakes: Morbidly Catchy Gospel Punks

Garage punk gospel is what Toronto's Deadly Snakes delivered on their 2003 record Ode To Joy. The band— broken up since 2006—achieved a sort of delirious rapture on that record: a wild-eyed organ-humming sound that could have been recorded on the wooden pew of an old abandoned church. With songs like "I Want To Die" and "There Goes Your Corpse Again," they were like an equally morbid and charming cousin of Jonathan Fire*Eater: one that read too many comic books, smoked too many cigarettes and was always fidgeting with something on his mind.

Deadly Snakes - "Oh My Bride" (from Ode To Joy)

Looking Back: Jonathan Fire*Eater

Before the Walkmen were the Walkmen, they were Jonathan Fire*Eater; before the scorching screams of Hamilton Leithauser's vocals, there were the frenzied slurs of Stewart Lupton's. A lightning bolt of musical tenacity and originality, Jonathan Fire*Eater took the unusual path of shunning mainstream success, lasting only a year into their contract with Geffen Records before disbanding. But they live on nevertheless—in their recordings, the sounds of the Walkmen and Lupton's Child Ballads.

Jonathan Fire*Eater - "Give Me Daughters" (from Tremble Under Boom Lights)
The Walkmen - "We've Been Had" (from Live Session EP)
Child Ballads - "Cheekbone Hollows" (from Cheekbone Hollows)