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RECORD REVIEWS OR SOUNDS TO BE SAVED
BY, BROTHERS AND SISTERS!!!!!!
F Through L
Included is a rating system that is from † to †††††
Fear may well be the means roughest and funniest bands to grace the Southren Californa scene. Formed back in 78 they brought a dry wit and driving music to a scene that saw danger as a form of art. Often dimissed as a joke band that would go out of their way to get a laugh or offend someone. The thing about Fear is that they didn't just go for the laugh or the shock. They were the laugh and the shock and above all they gave the public what they wanted. If the media wanted an offensive band that drive the crowd to the point of wanting to beat up the band and each other and then light the place on fire they got just that.They may well have been the first band to really understand that having an inside joke could build a following. Unlike many bands that go in this dirrection, Fear had not only the wit but the talent musically and lyrically to back it up. I've always embraced the idea that if you want to get your point across about the problems of the world and it's residents then put it right there in the spotlight. Fear did that in much the same way that Lenny Bruce did.
There's a reason that Fear was John Blusis' favorite band. Much like SNL it brought out the faults and disfunction of a generation and made damn sure that it wouldn't go away when you closed your eyes. John even went as far as to get them on SNL and tried to get them on the sound track to Nieghbors. In the biography it talks about his trip to the office of the head of the music Department at the studio and John playing the never released track he recorded with Fear called Neighbors. He played it at top volum and then proceded to destroy the guys office. Was it the Coke or just the passion that Fear Created? Listen for yourself and figure it out.
This is by far the best record they put out. Recorded in less then a week it is a classic. Trim and to the point, driving and explosive. The thing that comes out in this is Lee Ving's love of blues and that wonderful voice of his. Also the procice musical ablities of Lee(guitar), Philo cramer(guitar) Derf Scratch(bass) and the percedsion of Spit Stix(drums). It really seems like a car that is taking turn at 120mph but the guy behind the wheel does it so smoothly it feels like 25mph. Highlights is like asking what's you favorite Ice Cream when you know it's all good. I guess the top ten would be 'Let's Have a War', 'Beef Boloney', 'I don't care about you', 'Gimme Some Action', New York's Alright If You Like Saxophones', 'Foreign Policy', 'I Love Livin' in the City', 'No More Nothing', 'Disconected'(a true theme of living in the 80s), & 'We Destroy the Family'(just for the lines "steel some money from your parents/buy a gun"). The CD includes the 'Fuck Christmas' singel as a bonus track which is nice.
†††††
Slash
Records/PO Box 48888/Los Angeles, CA 90048-0888
9 23933-2
This a live record record from a radio show back in 1986. It's a good mix of the first two records(The Record & Have a Beer...) plus a song that is as far as I know can't be found anywhere lese called 'What are Friends For?'(it maybe a cover). The recording was done with a 24 track moble unit so the recording level is quite good. The funny thing is they do not list a bassist on the liner notes so it may have been when Flea was filling in here and there. Who knows it could have been one of the many countless other bassist they had over the years after Dref left.
f you want a best("you know, the ones from whence we got the really big bucks") of... Fear Record this maybe as close as it comes. With 19 track of their best plus PG-13(it was a radio show)jokes and insults. It does remind me that if you take all the crap out of the 2nd record(of corse you'd have to keep Book-a-matches)it would have been a good record. Well worth running out right now and buying. The track listing is 'Null Detector', 'I love livin' in the city', 'New Yorks Alright', 'Beef Bologna', 'More Beer', 'What are Friends for?', 'Welcome to the Dust Ward', 'I am a Doctor'(ever wanted to know what the hell this ones all about), 'We Gotta get out of this Place', 'Fuck Christmas', 'Responsiblity', 'Hey', 'Waiting for the Meat', 'Camarillo', 'Foreign policy', 'Give Me Some Action', 'We Destroy the Family', 'I Don't Care About You' & 'Let's Start a War'.
††††
Restless
Records/1616 Vista Del Mar/Hollywood, CA 90025-6420
7 72391-2
After taking a few years off in the late 80s(who could blame them)Fear reunited and did a few reunion shows. After a while it got down to just Lee Ving and the replacements of the orginal line up. This record is the fruit of the New Fear. Though the feel and pounding sound of Fear is still there missing are those odd ball guitar solos of Philo. It still without a doubt is a Fear record mainly because Lee Ving was a leading force in the band from the beginning.
The other difference is that there is a more political drive to the record's lyrics. Almost to the level of out and out red neck. Ving's lyrics have always been perty much tongue to cheek but with this offering he seems to cut more to the point and makes it hard to figure out if it's a joke or not. Songs like 'U.S.A.', 'Legalize Drugs', 'F-You Let's Rodeo' 'Honor & Obey' & 'Public Hangings' are at times border line homophobic, mosoginstic and Racist. Maybe it's the PC world we live in or a cry to become even more shocking I do not know. The thing I do know is that it does make you laugh as only Fear could. The Danger is in taking it to heart and taking it to heart. Then again it could be we have just forgotten that our entertainers are not educators. They as artist are to reflex the culture they come from and with the move to Austin, TX from LA. A change in that mirrored image is bound to happen.
Make no mistake though this is a leaner meaner Fear. There is a total of 3 out of 16 songs that are about beer. Including the best line of the album "Everybody needs to believe in something and I believe I'll have another beer." from 'I belive I'll have Another Beer'. Also there's a part 2 to 'Beef Bologna' called 'Meat & Potatoes'. Over a good record maybe even better then More Beer but not as good as The Record but then again who's as good as their past.
†††
Sector 2 Records/2116
Guadlupe, Suite 812/Austin, TX 78705
10020-2
Germs - (MIA) the Complete Anthology
Where do you begin with a
band as important as the Germs? Maybe the begin. The Germs were formed back in
1977 by Pat Smear(Darby Crash band, 45 Grave, & the Foo Fighters) and Bobby
Pyn aka Jan Paul Beahm aka Darby Crash. Neither had any musical ablities or
equipment but they set out to start a band. In a lot of ways it may have all
been talk to begin with. One of those wouldn't it be cool to start a band
things. They set out to find other members and met Dottie Danger aka Belinda
Carlisle(Go-Gos) and her friend Lorna Doom who became their drummer and
bassist. After Belinda caught mono she brought in Donna Rhi to replace her on
drums. The orignal name was "Sophistifuck and the Revlon Spam Queens" but was
shortened to the Germs because they couldn't afford all the letters to make
t-shirts. with no talent to think of, they were a great openner for the
legendary Weirdos and the damn.
As the story goes the Weirdo fearing to be up staged at their first real gig playing with the Damned and the Zeros, where looking for an opener with zero talent. Enter the Germs and their first gig. They played for a total of 5 minutes with no songs just making noise and Darby wrapped red licorice and sticking the mic in a jar of peanut butter. It was April of 1977, the police were called, they were kick out and the Orpheum Theater closed it doors to punk forever.
Outrage was the game plan often the use of food items and diving into broken glass was the scene on stage. It was used as a way to take the attention away from the fact that they couldn't play and basically sucked. In late 77 they put out the first punk record to come out of LA on What? Records. It featured 'Forming' that was recorded in Pat's garage & 'Sex Boy' that was recorded at a live proformance for the Ceech and Cong movie Up In Smoke, which of corse never made it into the movie. To say that the record is a bit of a disappointment is an understatement. It's easy to tell that they should have held off until they had their shit together.
Rhia soon left and was replaced for a short time by a local quaalude dealer named Cliff Hanger, then was replaced by Don Bonebreaker(The Eyes, X), and then Nicky Beats(the Weirdos, LA Guns, the Cramps & a load of other bands) who played on the Slash 7" 'Lexion Devil' which featured the b-side 'Circle One' & 'No God' Then finually by this guy from Phoenix, Az named Jimmy Giorsetti aka Don Bolles(the Exterminators w/Rob Ritter, 45 Grave, Gun Club, Vox Pop) moved to LA to join the band. It's been said that Don got everyone in LA hooked on herion. Doing for LA what Johnny Thunders did for the UK.
Soon after Don joined the band they began recording (GI) for Slash Records with Joan Jett producing. Often the Germs to get around been banned played under the name (GI) and they changed their name to GERMS(GI). GI and the Lexicon Devil single featured their tightest stuff and is the good representation of their writing ablities. What you find here and don't find on Forming is the driving sound that influenced the growing US Punk Scene. Often thought of as the grandfathers of Hardcore but if you read through the lyric you begin to understand how much of a waste Darby's death was. Maybe one of the first true punk poets, his writing reflexed the changing times and felling thazt gripped most of the members of his generation and sub-culture. Featureing 'What We Do is Secret', 'Communist Eyes', ' Land of Treason', Rickie Dagger's Crime, ' Strange Note', 'American Leather', Lexicon Devil', ' Manimal', 'Our Way', 'We Must Bleed', 'Media Biltz', 'The Newest One', 'Let's Pretend', 'Dragon Lady', 'The Slave' and 'Shut down(Annihilation Man)'. They mixture is of Nilist, political and outcast images that not only point out the faults of society but those that have left it.
It was soon after the release that film producer Jack Nitzsche after seeing the cover of (GI) contacted Slash Records about having the Germs apear on the sound track of a film he was doing called 'Cursing'. The film featured a young Al Pacino playing a cop asked to go under cover to find a serial murder inside the NYC Gay Leather scene and then goes through a struggle over his sexual identity. The film at times is disturbing and was quite racy for the time. The scene featuring the only song 'Lion Share' to made it into the movie is a murder in a prono book store with the Germs playing in the back ground. It features a one frame Hardcore penetrationshot that some how made past the scensors. To be honest it really helps to set the tone and feel of the scene and was featured on the Lorimar Records soundtrack. The other five tracks where wrapped in red tape until their partical release with some live tracks on the (MIA) 12" and the bootleg Loin Share. The sound track songs are are 'Caught in my Eye', 'My Tunnel', 'My Tunnel', 'Throw it away',
†††††
Slash
Records/PO Box 48888/Los Angeles, CA 90048-0888
45239-2
This was limited to 1500 for some reason. I guess something special had to be done when Jeffrey died to tribute him. It's a double CD that comes in a black leather case/binder. There's liner notes by Ward Dotson and Terry Graham. The lay out is nice and it really does a great job of telling the story of yet another lost soul of punk rock. If you haven't heard the Gun Club it may be hard to understand why anyone would go to the trouble to relase this but if you have heard them and understand then you're wondering why more wasn't done. To often the gifted die young and little or no one cares and sadly this may be the case with Jeffrey Lee Pierce. Gun Club was a lot of things and counted in it's membership many of the people who helped to shape the LA punk scene including the also dead Rob Ritter. Make no mistake though Gun Club was all Jeffrey. The mixture of blues, folk, roots and punk created a sound that is now lost forever. There are those that have something in their head that is soley their own and that was the case here.
What we find here is the tip of the iceburg but it's some of the best. Included on the first disc is the Gun Club studio track from 81 of Goodby Johnny, Preach the Blues, Watermelon Man & Fire of Love. Also live track from The Continental in Buffalo, NY back in the spring of 82 which includes Ghost on the Highway, Walkin' with the Beast, I hear Your Heart Singing, Devil in the Woods, Goodbye Johnny, For the Love of Ivy, Bad Indian, Strange Fruit, Fire Spirt,Preach the Blues, Sex Beat & Jack on Fire. The second disc tends to drag mainly due to poor recording. It's called Six String Sermon and is a home recording of Jeffrey with an acoustic guitar. It's a mix of Traditionals and orginals.
†††††
Flipside
Records/PO Box 60790/Pasadena,CA 91116
759528-009421
The Humpers - Live Forever or Die Trying
When you put this record on it's like they lit a fuse and
the whole rest of the record your sitting there with white knuckles wondering
when it's going to explode. Mix of the Stones, The Dead Boys, the Zeros, Crime
and the Jones (the Hollywood punk band from the late 70s) add a few bad
relationships and a few "Yeah"s and "Fuck You"s and you get the Humpers. Just
good old guitar driven punk-n-roll that makes you want to laugh, pound on bar
tops and break things. The highlights are the whole album but some choice cuts
are "Wake Up & Lose", "Sarcasmatron", "Fast, Fucked & Furious", "loser
Club", a cover of the Clash's "Protex Blue" (Mitch Cartwright, who by the way
is a relative of the famous tattooist with the same last name,) always reminds
me of Paul Simonon when he's on stage), "13 Forever" and of course "Anarchy
Juice". Don't put this on the turntable thinking you're going to be listening
to anything else for a long time. It tends to stay there for weeks.
†††††
Epitaph
Records/2798 Sunset Blvd/Los Angelis, CA 90026
The Humpers - Plastique Valentine
I remember
thinking to myself that it would be hard for these guys to follow up "Live
Forever" as I slipped the CD into the player but of course I was wrong. This
record beats the hell out of the last one and just keeps on dancing on it's
corpse. From Scott "Deluxe" Drake Shouting, "I can't wait to see your face" to
the last chord they keep ya glued to the site and holding on for dear life.
Some of the most twisted punk rock love songs to drink and shout a girl out of
your life, is located on this album. Just like the last one, no weaklings here
and the highlights are "Plastique Valentine", the older "For Lovers Only", My
pick "Fable of Love". "Make-up", "With a whip". "Dummy Got A Hunch", the blue
collar amptheme "Chump Change" and "Mongrel Train". A sample of lyrics is
"Make-Up"-"cover up the girl with paint and scent/until you wonder where she
went/her make-up's a mess and what a mess she made/with a drill press and
spackle blade/beyond the pale of her false face/she's out of touch and out of
place/I'd like to know what happened beneath that frown/to make you lay that
varnish down/it must take a lot of make-up/to make a mess like you".
†††††
Epitaph
Records/2798 Sunset Blvd/Los Angelis, CA 90026
86483-2
The Humpers - Euphoria, Confusion, Anger and Remorse
O.K these guys are my boys, when I buy a new Release I expect to be floored right off the bat but this one is a little different. It's a little lower tempo with more of a Stones touch to it. If you're looking for "Wake up and lose" or "With a whip" this may not be for you but unlike the last one (Plastique Valentine) this is all new. The album is well constructed with an edge that hits your heart more then your head. It kinda works its way into your head through the backdoor. Unlike their older stuff that kicks in the front door, drinks all your beer and then steals your girlfriend. The humper's give you a tour of a Bukowski like world of living off the cuff in an adult playground. I think they may have touched on something a bit deeper then they have on their earlier records. Gone is the fuck my X-girlfriend and everyone else and in it's place is a more clear self- exposing view of the meaning of their lives. Funny as always, but with a dark monster peaking out from below. Highlights are "Ten Inches High", "Devil's Magic Underpants", "No Escape", "Steel-Toed Sneakers" and "Peggy Sue got Burned" (it's about time someone gave Alan Freed the wave.) Lyric picks from "Ten Inches High" - "hell has a way/of keeping from being free/am if hell has a key/it's down to me/Ten Inches high/is all I want to be".
††††
Epitaph
Records/2798 Sunset Blvd/Los Angeles,CA 90026
86524-2
Imagine if you took the
Humpers, Scott over the head and replaced him with the Dragon Lady. Then you'd
be pretty damn close to the Loudmouths. A driving Punk-N-Roll soundtrack for
those kill your parents, set the neighbors dog on fire, beat the brat, drink
until you nolonger know your name, having sex with a 300LB Prostitute tied to a
bed while being tickled with feathers by circus midgets in some dumpy hotel in
Tijuana kind of nights. A just hit play and then destroy.
Out of the 17 songs only 3 are over 2 minutes and none are over 3. The Highlights are Saki to Me, Rockin at the Roller derby, Rev it Up, Just Kick Her Out, Porn Star & (one of my fav-o-rite fuck you songs) Creature. These guys and gals are by far the best band to come out of SF, CA in a hell of a long time.
†††½
Red Archieves
Records/PO Box 210501/San Francisco, CA 94124
NRA 63CD
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