Blacktop

Mick Collins launched Blacktop as his first venture after the Gories disbanded. Though it echoed the legendary garage punk trio in spirit, the new group marked a clear step forward in Collins’s musicianship and songwriting, while also signaling his turn toward denser, noisier textures. A thicker and more polished sound emerged, helped by the presence of bass lines together with songwriting input from Darin Lin Wood of Fireworks and ’68 Comeback and from Alex Cuervo. Even while continuing to draw on blues, soul, and mod sources, Blacktop explored fresh ground, including a cover of Captain Beefheart’s “Here I Am, I Always Am.”

The band’s debut album, I’ve Got a Baaad Feeling, was tracked on eight-track equipment at a friend’s Dallas residence and issued in 1995. Half its songs, along with several unreleased tracks, were later compiled for Australian release under the title Up All Night. Like Collins’s other projects, Blacktop put out multiple 7" singles during its short run. The group never returned to the studio, though Collins and Cuervo later formed King Sound Quartet with Tim Kerr.