HIT ME! HIT ME! HIT ME!

THE INVERSIONS.  
A Sonic Explosion. Real Punk Rock. 
by angel spent


"Hit Me." I love this song! I find irresistible its amazing guitar work, its drumming, its great hand-clap rhythm, and Kevin’s extraordinary voice. Actually, all of the six tracks from both singles by the Inversions are incredible.  A sonic explosion. Three words: real punk rock. 

The musical project called the Inversions was started in Ohio by Kevin McGovern following the disintegration of the original line-up of the Prostitutes. The Inversions consisted of Kevin on vocals, and Doug McKean on bass and rhythm guitar, and Dave McKean on drums. Doug and Dave were of Cleveland’s punk band GC5. 
The Inversions period of the Prostitutes was possibly one of Kevin’s best times as a composer. He wrote and recorded six brilliant tracks that were released in March of 2003, as two EPs on the Rapid Pulse label. 300 black vinyl copies were pressed of the Hung By The Phone 7'' EP, which features “Hung By The Phone” backed with “X-Rated Heart”, and “Hit Me.”

The second 7’’ EP includes “Domestic Disturbance” b/w “They're All Dead” and “She's Blonde;” and it was a limited edition of only 300 copies on colored vinyl (100 white, 100 red, and 100 blue). 
All tracks were recorded at Diamond Mine Studio, Columbus, OH in 2003.
I own a blue copy of the Domestic Disturbance 7'', and a black one of the Hung By The Phone 7''. In case you didn't have the chance to buy the singles, you can enjoy the complete Inversions output on the Prostitutes second album Kill Them Before They Eat .

“… I can't remember if I knew Kevin before we did the singles or if that's when we met,”  said Umed Jim  from Rapid Pulse Records/ Underground Medicine mail order , when I asked him on how come he got his hands on the six Rock and Roll gems recorded by the Inversions. “I do know that he sent me the 6 song CD and we ended up making two 7"s out of it. Maybe I was supposed to pick 2 or 3 songs, but wanted them all and we worked out that it would two singles released at the same time- which I thought was really cool.”

Besides the great music, also formidable were the E.P.s sleeves. “We got Jami from the Sleazies to do the artwork and we went from there... It's all a blur as to how the sleeves came about. Maybe Kevin didn't have any photos he liked, so Jami came up with the sleeves on his own.” Umed Jim said, after I asked him about the process of creating the artwork for the sleeves. “I think it was my idea to make them almost identical. I was and am still really happy with how they turned out. I still have the original CD that Kevin sent me. The name of the band is listed as "Versions". Switching it to Inversions was a great move!”

“Thanks to RAWK UN ROLL for featuring a Prostitutes project I did called the Inversions” commented Kevin McGovern. 
“Umed Jim provides some great answers that I couldn't remember. "Hung By The Phone" will be performed in our upcoming appearance. His label Underground Medicine - Rapid Pulse Records puts out some amazing vinyl! The first time Jim called me, I thought he was this local bar/dealer guy that was always trying to get me to repent my sins needless to say... the backing band was Dave and Doug of Cleveland's GC5. One rehearsal, one short session. Engineered by the brains behind NBT's "At Rope's End" and VH1's "Storytellers" special thanks to Amy Mooney Stickel for being the executive producer behind these two singles.... also available on the KTBTE album...”

“The two 7”s are all we recorded” added Kevin, when I asked him if there was any unreleased song from the 2003’s Inversions sessions. “I sent them to Jim, he said yes, and I was stoked to have a double single coming out.  Everyone went their separate ways and it was a downer because the critical reception was very good and people wanted more.  We had a great studio to record in and I had the means to produce a recording with good quality and cool production effects.   The New Bomb Turks recorded “At Rope’s End” there.  We used one of the engineers from that album to get the gnarly guitar and drum sounds that boom on that recording.”

The two 7’’s were the sole recorded material by the Inversions. I really enjoy this stuff. Thanks to Kevin McGovern for creating such a fantastic source of motivation.