Bio Link
The dapper Punk Business Manager (left) and his Personal Assistant
Being a Punk Business Manager is a lot of work as you could imagine! In between all of the business strategy meetings, power lunches and cocktail receptions I somehow find time to listen to the good ol' punk rock and post some music here. As you can see from my picture above, I try to keep up with the latest fashions so shopping for the latest threads also takes up A LOT of time-- gotta look good on the job, especially when you're about to lay off/downsize people every Friday. But having my trusty Personal Assistant really helps- he drives me to work every day in my plush Jaguar so I can listen to some p-rock and post to the blog. Enjoy!
The music posted on this site is for educational purposes only. If you were in one of the old bands fanboy'd here and want your music removed, let me know and I will do so.
Fhab 4
(LOS ANGELES, CA- GLU, 1982)
LISTENER REQUEST LINE, PART 3
A commenter requested this a while ago so here it is. And a quick posting before I waste any more time trying to scour the internet and create a long-winded research project on it. I couldn't find out much about the record other than it is extremely rare- 300 pressed I think. So out of those 300 I'm sure many fewer have survived over the years. In the past it's gone for a lot on eBay I found out by searching Popsike. I also found a favorable review of the record by Rockin' Jeff Bale in an old issue of Maximum Rock n' Roll from early 1983.
To be honest, had someone not requested this record then I probably would not have posted it. I mean it's OK to me, but for my ears it's nothing mind-blowing or over the top. But maybe you will love it and covet it.
I like the A-side better than the B-side. "Dead Beatles" is an interesting mix of a few raw guitar jabs with some synthpunk qualities. The B-side is weirder, but not unlistenable unlike some other infamous B-sides.
Dead-Beatles.mp3
Sometimes I Dont Know (Why I Love You So Much).mp3
Strychnine Update- Reunion Gig!
Strychnine, Circa 1977 or 1978
Spike McCormack, Strychnine's original drummer, recently left a nice, long, informative comment on my 2011 posting of the Strychnine 7" which was cool.
Even cooler in his comment is that he mentioned that Strychnine is playing a reunion gig this coming September in a suburb just outside of Cleveland- with all of the original members!!
I am really going to try to make it to the gig, and you should too if you can! He says the band is going to play their ENTIRE song list from the 70's. He says that they may be a bit older than they are since they broke up 34 years ago, in 1979, but he promises that they will rock everyone's socks off. For me, just seeing them play "Jack The Ripper" live will be a "once in a lifetime" type of experience.
Here are the particulars for the show:
WHEN: Saturday, September 14, 2013
WHERE: The Sly Fox Lounge
4755 Great Northern Blvd
North Olmsted, OH
(440) 777-0961
*For those of you familiar with Cleveland, The Sly Fox is off of I-480 near Great Northern Mall. It's not in the mall itself, but rather in a strip mall near the mall.
Here's what The Sly Fox looks like
from the street
If anyone else is planning on attending the Strychnine gig, post a comment so we can try to meet up.
WHAT
WHAT "ON VINYL / TO THE STARS" 7"
(AKRON, OH- WHAT RECORDS INC, 1984)
CLEVELAND-AREA SERIES, PART 2
These labels for this sleeveless record provide some clues related to the band
(but not for any actual band members themselves)- see my "Endnotes" section below
for the details...
Here is a record and band that is pretty much a mystery. It's not a punk record, but the A-side has those outsider qualities that will appeal to punk fans (at least it does to me). If anything, I'd describe the great song "On Vinyl" something like garage-y hard rock if that description makes any sense. Whatever it is, I dig it and it brings a smile to my face because from the goofy "Rock Me" intro and the opening riff you know you're in for a good, weird time. The band is very enthusiastic- especially that drummer!- and so darn excited that they're in the studio making a record. And the vocals- wow, they really stand out. The singer sings in a faux high-pitched style for some reason unknown to all of us (that CAN'T be his regular talking voice) and the vocals are what really make this song stand out. Blog commenter Clayton Silva who hipped me to this song about two years ago (and provided rips of both sides- thanks again!) said the singer reminds him of Snuky Tate, and I think that's accurate. But kinda like if Snuky inhaled a helium balloon to get all high-pitched, eh.
The lyrics are totally awesome and talk about- you guessed it- how the band is making a record and is going to be on vinyl. It sounds improvised to me at times which only adds to the charm of this song. I kind of picture the band getting sauced up at someone's house one night and then saying "Godammit, let's make a record tonight!" and then promptly going over to a studio on a whim to record "On Vinyl" and just totally winging it with the playing and the vocals and only having a rough road map of how the song was laid out when they hit the record button. The extended noodling in the guitar solos (plural!) totally point to some improvising, me thinks, especially at the 3:37 mark where things seem to slow down until he launches into another solo. Great tune. And, at a total time of over 4 minutes, far past the usual 2 minute punk song length.
The B-side is a slow, dreamy tune which meanders too long for me with a total running time of over 5 minutes (!). My ears are used to 2 minutes, and I can do 4 minutes but sometimes when songs go into the territory of 5-plus minutes then my mind starts to wander and I lose interest. There is some sloppy playing in it and some off-key parts where the drummer loses pace and stumbles and the guitar player goes out of tune, which is nice, but it can't match the A-side's inspired nature. Not that anything else they recorded could have. Maybe they recorded "On Vinyl" first while buzzing and feeling good but then they toked up and got totally wasted (and totally mellowed out from too much smokey) and recorded the B-side while hallucinating or something while the night was winding down (?). Like I said at the beginning of this post, I really don't know anything about the band or the backstory of the record- information is very scant on the interwebs- so this is all speculation. Googling "What On Vinyl Akron Ohio" emits predictable dead-end results and a bunch of horseshit totally unrelated to the band or record.
Any filling in of details or information you have would be greatly appreciated.
On Vinyl.mp3
To The Stars.mp3
ENDNOTES
I know nothing about the band, but thankfully the information provided on the labels provide some related clues. Well, first of all, the address on the labels is a residential address (thanks, Google Maps) and NOT an office or business address. So this was someone's house, presumably one of the band members.
And for those who don’t know, Akron is about 40 miles due South of my hometown of Cleveland. So I always love hearing records from the Cleveland / Northeastern Ohio area and am usually impartial to bands from there. Cleveland, of course, has such a great history full of original, groundbreaking punk- and music in general for that matter (jazz and other genres). And outsiderness/creativity! Akron's nickname is "Rubber City" which comes from the fact that two huge tire companies (Goodyear and Firestone) were based out of there beginning in about 1900. Goodyear is still headquartered in Akron but Firestone nearly imploded by 1979 and was restructured and moved out of town but that's really yet another depressing story for the local Akron economy, and Ohio in general.
Anyway, Akron is most well known for being the original home of The Rubber City Rebels before they moved to Los Angeles. And OF COURSE Akron is well-remembered for the awesome Hammer Damage song "Laugh". And now the great song "On Vinyl" by WHAT, eh. And the home of the eccentric Clone label. The Bizzaros were also from Akron and were more of a rock band sometimes and not punk per se.
Let's go back to the labels on the WHAT record- which is their second of two 7"s by the way- more on that later. We see that writing credits were given to two people with the last name Murdi, as well as Nooch and Hable. Searches on these names led me nowhere. However, the production credits got me somewhere. The record was produced by Jim Newcomb, Lanny Walter and WHAT. I happened to find out that Lanny Walter was actually Landolin "Lanny" G. Walter who was an Akron radio engineer and radio announcer for many years. His radio name was "David Steele" (almost sounds like a porn name, eh) and had a long stint at WAKR 1590 AM between 1984 and 1999. In Akron's sister city of Canton (home of the football hall of fame- which was always a school field trip for kids from Cleveland by the way), Lanny was also an announcer at stations WINW, WOIO (WRCW), and WQIO (WRCW) and Chief Engineer at WHLQ (WOOS) from 1975 to 1977. How did I find this all out? Well, he actually died in late 2011 and this was all in an online obituary. Ah, the power of the internet. So maybe someone connected WHAT with this local announcer Mr. Walter, or the band got his attention somehow, and that's how they were able to record the "On Vinyl" 7", etc. Perhaps that person was the other production credit, Jim Newcomb, who also produced the first WHAT record. Through some online research I think Jim Newcomb might actually be a nickname for one "Harold James Newcomb" but that is speculation again.
Oh yeah- that first WHAT record. It was a 3-song EP which was released in 1983 but Clayton Silva warns me that it's a pretty bad traditional rock record and NOTHING even closely resembling the great freakout of "On Vinyl". The 3 songs on it are "Hard Rocker," "The Cynical Blitz," and "Killer Machine" (all suspicious sounding, cock rock-ish titles I think). Plus the song "Hard Rocker" clocks in at over 7 minutes (!)- cover your ears and run for the hills! I happened to find an old auction listing on Collectors Frenzy from early 2010. Of course the record is hyped- er, I mean "described" by the seller waterpolo85- as "Excellent lo-fi bedroom psychedelic rock" and "Rare Rock Psych 45" which is funny given how Clayton warned me of its crappiness. Here's a picture of the labels:
Spring Cleaning!
So time for some Spring Cleaning of some old posts that I've been meaning to do for a loooong time. More updates to come, time permitting.
PART 5
THE MEL "BLOCK ROCK WALK / MODEST LIVING" 7" = Added a much better scan of the back of the sleeve. I acquired some additional scans of the cool foldout sleeve, including the front and the inside of the sleeve which has lyrics to both songs and some trippy artwork. Also included a scan of the stickers that originally came with the record. Nice packaging, eh.
PART 4
JOHNNY'S "SPY FOR YOUR LOVE" 7"EP = Out of the blue, someone sent me scans of both labels (thanks so much again, eBay seller popularjam!). So I can finally remove that lame picture from the original posting and the apology for not having any pictures.
PART 3
HOMO ELECTRICA "BEAT ON / SURVIVER" 7" = I just wanted to insert a better scan (which I did) of the sleeve to this posting from early 2008. But in the process of looking for a better scan I stumbled upon the fact that the band reunited in November of 2012 for a live show- and posted some videos on YouTube!
PART 2
DISORDER "FAKE HEADS" 7"EP = I got a vinyl copy of this record (sans the very rare sleeve, tho) so I added rips straight from vinyl (and all 6 tracks this time). Also included all 6 tracks from the EP instead of just my three favorite ones which, looking back, was silly of me to do back when I first posted it in July of 2007. Also got rid of the crappy scan of the front of the sleeve and added some nice scans of the front, back and the foldout portion of the sleeve that includes lyrics.
PART 1
TAPES "DREAMLAND / IS THAT YOU?" 7" = Added a much better scan of the front of the sleeve, as well as a scan of the labels and the back of the sleeve which reveals band member info for this mysterious outfit. Jeez, can't believe 5 years(!) has passed since I first posted this thing. Time flies...
Victims (New Jersey)
BANDS-WHOSE-NAMES-BEGIN-WITH-THE-LETTER "V" SERIES: PART 4
Here's the credits in case it's not clear in the above photo:
Rick Reilly = Vocals and harmonica (!)
Barry Ryan = Lead guitar
Mike Girao = Rhythm guitar
Steve Berman = Bass
Peter London = Drums
Produced by the band and some guy named Jim Barg
Recorded in February 1977 at the Barge in Wayne, New Jersey which
was co-producer Jim Barg's recording studio. The same producer
and same place were also used torecord their 1978 EP on Plan 9.
This 1977 EP was self-released by the band, with 500 copies pressed-
this was actually a smaller pressing than their Plan 9 EP.
We all know the Victims 2nd EP on Plan 9 from 1978- it was their punkest, rawest effort from start to finish. But that's not to imply that their other two records from the late 70's were bad. For the most part I like their 1979 "Real Wild Child" LP on Golden Disc, especially classic punk n' roll ditties like "Nothing of My Own". [They technically had a fourth record, the "Real Wild Child / Head" 7" on Golden Disc but both songs were from the LP.]
And I also like most of their first record- a 4-song EP that was recorded way back in February of 1977. It's more proto punk-ish and has some great guitar from Barry Ryan especially on "Destination Undecided" and "Don't Come Knockin" which are my favorite tracks, 'specially the gunka-gunka guitar sound on "Knockin". Lead singer Rick's harmonica rears its head on "Knockin" like it infamously did on the Plan 9 EP from the next year. I would have to say that my least favorite song is the last track, "Help Me Baby", which is too "rock" for my ears. But it still some pounding drumming, like on all of the other songs. And lead singer Rick Reilly's distinctive vocal style. And overall "the punk spirit", for lack of a better term.
I put this record in perspective- back in February of 1977, if any bands in America even called themselves "a punk band" it was usually sounded more like rock than what we typically think of "a punk sound". "The Dangerhouse sound", which is one of my reference points for distinctly American-sounding early punk, was not fleshed out until late '77/early '78.
If you read the great Ugly Things article from 2008 on The Victims- or this brief history- you will know that some of the members had been in bands for years before The Victims came to be. So some of them had cut their musical chops and ironed out any kinks by the time The Victims came to be in 1976. Ever heard The Tramp Band 7" from 1974 which was recently rediscovered/unearthed? The Victims' guitarist Barry Ryan laid down some mean guitar in that song that makes it a hands-down proto-punk classic. Unfortunate how rare and obscure it is, though...
For fun, listen to all of The Victims late 70's records in order to see their evolution of sorts.
You Got The Magic.mp3
Destination Undecided.mp3
Dont Come Knockin.mp3
Help Me Baby.mp3
Thanks to the blog commenter who provided these rips!
***BONUS TRACKS***
The Victims- Nothing of My Own (from their 1979 "Real Wild Child" LP on Golden Disc)
The Tramp Band- Dont Send Me Home (1974, pre-Victims' Barry Ryan on guitar)
ENDNOTES
The Victims got back together in 2004 with some original members, and you can read more about that here. They even released a new, 12-song record in 2009 called "Take It As It Comes" that has a bunch of new songs and as well as few re-recorded versions of some late 70's tunes. You can get it here and listen to some samples as well.
There is a YouTube user named VictimsNYC (must be the band) who uploaded 4 vintage, raw Victims videos back in 2009. Two of the live videos were recorded at Max's Kansas City in 1978 and are songs from the Plan 9 EP (Annette and Behind The Times). There's also a video from 1977 at some place called Eddy's Lounge that has a song from their 1st EP (Destination Undecided).
I just re-read most of the Ugly Things feature from 2008 so here's some additional info that I found interesting. The pre-Victims Tramp Band was around for about 5 years- roughly between 1971 and 1976- and had Barry Ryan on guitar, but the other members were Bob Trusawitz on second guitar, Bob Manning on bass and a bunch of different drummers. But the drummer who played on their single was Peter Lindino. (Who sang though?) Speaking of the single, it came about as a result of them winning a battle of the bands competition (where?) but- according to Barry Ryan- got no airplay on the radio. [As a sidenote, sounds like the same story as The Ones Tight Rope 7" in terms of winning a battle of the bands and then having their single fade into obscurity...]
And regarding their second EP that was released on Plan 9, Glenn Danzig apparently did no heavy lifting in putting it out. The Victims produced it, financed it more importantly, and all that Plan 9 did was put their logo on the record. And then a few years later (as early as 1981?) Glenn Danzig trashed the record and said it was the worst mistake he ever made. I'd have to look it up but I remember reading this in an old Touch and Go interview which I think was from 1981. Geez.
M.D.'s
M.D.'s "BRAIN DAMAGE" 10-SONG LP (SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO- SURGEON, 1981)
You know you're in for a good time when the cover has a great DIY, hand-drawn band
logo with blood and a surgeon's scalpel. And dig the classic early 80's computer font
at the bottom.
It looks like "The Bowie", later rechristened the mullet, was a requirement for the band
as all six members have one of varying lengths. Notice how all three of the members with
the classic teenage moustaches are grouped together at the bottom of the sleeve- was this purposeful placement? They even include head shots (or are they Senior class photos?) of
the two female background singers. And dig the lead singer's punk sunglasses (top middle).
Those same type of sunglasses appeared in some punkploitation movies.
I have been meaning to post this cool record for a while, but someone requested it recently so that gave me a kick in the pants to get it up here before it hangs out in my posting queue until 2017 or something.
This LP is not really a punk record per se. I have heard it described elsewhere as "DIY rock" and that seems like an apt way to describe its vibe. I would add "teenage" to that description, as it turns out these guys were all high school Seniors at some private school in Puerto Rico called Cupeyville School. It was originally speculated that these guys were pre-med students (and thus older) and all went to the same university in Puerto Rico but such was not the case.
Speaking of Puerto Rico, I know of NO other punk-ish records that came out of there in the late 70's or early 80's KBD era. If you are aware of any please post a comment and let me know.
Keep an open mind if any of you "KBD punk purists" decide to give this LP a spin. Its out-of-the-box sound brings a smile to my face with its thin drum sound, the singer's vocal style and of course the guitar noodling, which sometimes get all mosquito-y and wah-wah-y during some solos. These soaring space-y synth bursts pop up all dramatically during some of the songs which is pretty funny. And of course there is that youthful enthusisam which kind of underlies the whole record.
My favorite song is the catchy instrumental "The Bug" (track 5) and my other faves are School Teacher and Senior Power. The last two songs on the LP (1981 and Can't Get No Tomorrow) lose me a little bit but they still have that teenage DIY vibe to them nonetheless. And the rest of the LP is so charming and quirky that I kind of give them a "free pass" for their lesser moments.
Side 1.rar
Side 2.rar
-------------------------------------
TRACK LISTING
SIDE 1
1. Brain Damage
2. School Teacher
3. Rock n' Roll
4. Love Me Tonight
5. The Bug
SIDE 2
6. Senior Power
7. Real Romance
8. C.T. 'I
9. 1981
10. Can't Get No Tomorrow
--------------------------------
BAND LINEUP
Richy (aka R. D'Lima?) = vocals
Ricky Rivera = lead guitar
Tatico Requeña = rhythm guitar
Rene Cardona = bass
Rey Rivera = keyboards
Rigo = drums
Maria Luisa Pagan = back up vocals
Silvia Rico = back up vocals
--------------------------------
Thanks to P.R. for unexpectedly hooking me with this LP a little while back! It was a welcome surprise, as I had never heard of it until he provided me the rips. I missed the Garage Hangover posting on the M.D.'s from October of 2008. They used to have a few sample mp3's from the LP up on their site but they have since disappeared for some reason.
Veel
MIT 01995, 1981)
BANDS-WHOSE-NAMES-BEGIN-WITH-THE-LETTER "V" SERIES: PART 3
I have coincidentally been posting records from bands whose names begin with the letter V. And my next few planned postings will be "V bands". Again, a total coincidence. But thinking about it a little deeper, bands whose names start with V sound real tough and in-your-face: Victims, Vultures, Violators, Vicious Visions (the rare double V!), Vamps, Vopos, Vacants, Valves, and the list goes on and on. I'm sure there is some deeper linguistic explanation other than "that band's name sounds cool", though.
Nice colorful rainbow on the labels, eh. The front
of the sleeve, which says "Het klinkt niet alleen
tegenstrijdig...Het is het ook!" translates into
English (according to Google Translator) as
"It not only sounds contradictory... It also is!".
Here is just the sleeve. And here are the band credits:
Rudy Beyens = Bass
Harold Bochmans = Vocals
Johan Flebus = Guitar (and songwriter)
Theo Flebus = Drums
Ronny Swerts = Drums and Saxophone
Johan Van Den Broek = Trumpet
Produced and Mixed By Veel
Here is another cool record from Belgium, home of many cool records and bands in the late 70's and early 80's (see The Kids, Hubble Bubble, Raxola et al). Belgium is not that big of a country, but they managed to- per capita- churn out many great records in the KBD years of roughly 1977 to 1982. And let's not forget the infamous Plastic Bertrand aka Roger Jouret drummed for Hubble Bubble before the whole "Ca Plaine Pour Moi" debacle.
During the vinyl comp boom of the mid-to-late 90's the best songs from the old scene were documented on four different all-Belgian comps: the first (and best, I think) was the Bloody Belgium LP in 1996, followed by three separate Bloodstains Across Belgium volumes between '97 and '99. And let's not forget that Belgian bands were "re-discovered" and placed onto very early KBD-type comps, starting with The Mad Virgins on 1989's Killed By Death #4 LP (which I still remember buying new at Pravda Records in Chicago when it came out from their "Import" racks, but that night is another story...)
Special thanks to whoever released the Bloody Belgium comp, because it helped bring the excellent Raxola LP to everyone's attention and dug rather deep into some very obscure singles. Like Veel- this comp is where I (and I assume many others) first heard their great, bouncy, quirky song "Money Grubber". It's melodic, extremely catchy, fast-paced and has some great sing-along, whistle-able "Whoa oh oh oh oh, whoa oh oh oh" parts mixed in as well. As well as some well-placed saxophone (and apparently trumpet?!) playing- I say "well placed" because too many horns in a punk song usually makes me grit my teeth in pain. But not here. And it sounds like the band are playing at that type of energetic pace where they all racing each other to the end, and this is always a good thing for my ears. The guitar strumming is so infectious too, especially at like the 1:23 mark. I think it's a very orginal, unique-sounding song in general and I struggle to think of other songs on other KBD-ish comps that sound similar to it. Which is a good thing of course.
I bought the Bloody Belgium comp when it came out in 1996 and many spins over the years of "Money Grubber" always made me curious to hear the other side of the Veel single. But no one that I traded music with over all of these years seemed to have it and it's remained very elusive to me. Until about a week ago! Out of the blue I unexpectedly got an e-mail from the former singer of Veel, Harold Bochmans, who was kind enough to provide me an mp3 of "Frustrated" (and gave me permission to post the Veel single). I have to admit that I felt a little nervous to finally hear "the other side", as "the other side" of a KBD single can mean pure pain and disappointment sometimes. But not here! I only feel happy, as "Frustrated" is just GREAT. There is a totally different vibe and approach to it compared to the upbeat flipside- "Frustrated" is a rather tense affair, and played much more in-your-face but at a slower pace. The guitar playing is great, as is the drumming and the singing style- just an all-around solid tune. These guys could really play their instruments too. And they totally sound frustrated! So the song name matches their feelings. Now that I've heard this song I wonder why it was never comped anywhere. Really a shame that it has remained so obscure and unheard over the years. Hopefully a fair number of people will visit this posting and help end that situation.
Frustrated.mp3
Money Grubber.mp3
Thanks again to former singer Harold for providing these rips and giving the green light to post this record!
ENDNOTES
COMING SOON! I've got some more sidebar items related to Veel and Belgian punk but I don't want to hold up this posting anymore right now. Stay tuned for more...
Comments on Old Postings
Thanks to everyone who's taken some time lately to leave some comments! I've gotten some good ones lately that others will probably enjoy reading too. Especially a lengthy and very informative one from a person who worked at the actual Pentaject Corporation offices that the band named themselves after. He has some very funny, "first person" memories about the band! Visit my original posting of the Pentaject Corporation EP here.
The former singer of Scraps, Patrick Deane, also left a comment about a month ago on my posting of the Scraps single. Then some other people who were there "back in the day" left some comments too. I always enjoy hearing from people who were actually there back in 1981 going to see the band.
I know it's been over a month since I posted something (holidays got busy with work and family!) but I have some new ones planned that I will hopefully get up here over the next week. I could of course quickly throw up a lot of postings, since there are still a LOT of things I want to put up here, but I guess the high volume approach is not my style ya hear.
Oh, and of course thank you to the people who continue to help me mark things off of my updated want list.
Drivers
DRIVERS "JOHNNY'S DYING / I'M NO MORON" 7"
(SANTA CRUZ, CA- OVERDRIVE, 1980)
3D- whoa! Er, this homemade sleeve looks pretty dated to me. However,
I would still love to have a vinyl copy of this record for cheap
instead of this price point. Both sides of this 7" were included on a
regional comp LP called Surf City Undergound, so the budget-minded can
hear them on vinyl that way.
I had heard of this record about a year ago but never actually heard what it sounded like until a few weeks ago, so many thanks to the blog commenter who provided these rips!
The oceanside cities outside of San Francisco, like Santa Cruz, are not really known for a lot of KBD-ish type over-the-top, frothing-mad records, save OF COURSE the snotty Insults who were from nearby Watsonville. Perhaps the proximity to the beach and a mellow lifestyle but, more importantly, a hippie-friendly environment in Santa Cruz precluded this lean towards quirky new wave in other bands from the same area. [For skate fans, of course there was/is Santa Cruz Skateboards which- from the late 70's through the early 90's- was branded as THE skate punk company. The ubiquitous Santa Cruz red dot logo shirt can be seen in many a picture from early 80's punk shows. But I won't get started on Santa Cruz the skate company and Steve Olson, Duane Peters, Jason Jessee, Tom Knox et al...]
Anyway, I think this Drivers 7" is very good- for me, the highlight is "Johnny's Dying". The guitar on it is very LOUD and in your face and begs to be cranked up. The playing on it is very tight and "professional" like this trio really knew how to play their instruments- check out that tight, rapid-fire drumming too. I have gotten so used to sloppy playing over the years on many of my favorite records, that bands like The Drivers almost sound TOO professional, too polished, too tight. But they pull it off nicely, including that tinnitus guitar solo, and wrap things up before the 2:42 mark, only 6 seconds past the "no songs over 2:36" rule. And it's got a rather tense quality underlying it which is always a good thing for me. Had the Hyped To Death CD comp series way back when made it to a volume dedicated to the letter D then I could see "Johnny's Dying" fitting nicely on it.
The B-side is a little goofier with the vocals and less serious and leans towards "new wave punk", but has a nice, in-your-face guitar solo that jumps out at the 1:09 mark. There is also some nice "chugga chugga" guitar in the beginning too. And things are over by the 1:37 mark- now IF it had lingered on much longer than I might have filed it under "annoying B-sides".
Johnnys Dying.mp3
Im No Moron.mp3
Here is the band (l to r): Kevin Loose (guitar and vocals), Michael Litton (drums) and Dan Waller (bass). According to this site, the drummer also joined the hardcore band Scapegoats in the Fall of '81. Their song "Shitcan" appeared on MRR's iconic 1982's Not So Quiet on The Western Front double LP comp, and they also had a few songs on Version Sound's Meathouse cassette comp around that same time. But please know that Mr. Litton drummed for the Scapegoats AFTER their appearance on the MRR comp- thanks to the blog commenter who pointed this out.
Razer
RAZER "DON'T BE TAME / ANOTHER KIND OF MAN" 7" (CHICAGO, IL- SNAP CRACKLE & ROCK, 1978)
Sorry for the crappy .jpg, but no one has the sleeve
for this record! More on that later...
The label name "Snap Crackle and Rock" is so cornball to me. It gets even worse when they put that "Just add milk" quote under it- good thing the music on the record makes up for this misstep.
Part of the songwriting credits are given to this guy whose last name is "Matthys". My search for more info on who this was turned up nothing.
But we get the full name of Mark Durante, and some quick research on that name turns up this guy- wonder if this is the same Mark Durante from Chicago (?). If it was, then he was also in a band called Public Enemy in 1978 and in the 80's went on to some bands like the The Slammin' Watusis ('member them?!) and others.
I know next to nothing about this band- you type "Razer" into Google and see what comes up! The only thing I do know comes from the liner notes of 2000's Hyped To Death #1 comp which is where I first heard "Another Kind of Man". Chuck Warner's very brief liner notes said that most copies came sleeveless but a few had an elaborate hand-made promo sleeve. I assume the back of the sleeve (which I have never seen) had a Chicago address printed on it, and that's how Chuck knew the band was from there. Anyone have any scans they'd like to share??
"Another Kind of Man" took me some to grow on me, as initially it sounded too "rock" to me and not punk enough. But now I recognize it as an interesting, unique-sounding mixture of rock and punk. But I don't consider it "punk n' roll", if you use something like the Nervous Eaters' Just Head or Corpsicles' Big Doings as a reference point like I do. For the "Another Kind of Man" I am going to call it "punk friendly rock". Perhaps an accident that this song appeals to punk fans, and not the intention of the band at all (?). I wonder if they had any ties to the loosely-organized punk/"new wave" scene of late 70's Chicago and its surrounding suburbs. Anyone have any old flyers to share? Perhaps Razer were a studio-only project? All speculation, as they are a mystery band to me. There is nothing about them on the Chicago Punk Database, and I don't remember them being mentioned in the You Weren't There documentary.
The pace of some of the guitar riffs on "Another Kind of Man" and especially the sound of it sorta brings to mind the Plastic Idols' IUD. Very hummable, or whistle-able. The chugga chugga break at the 2:42 mark makes that part of the song sounds like it would fit nicely on the Victims' great Annette EP. Weird coincidence. The other tune, "Don't Be Tame", is a faster-paced, high energy tune that is essentially hard rock with some "gunka gunka" punk-ish guitar jabs here and there. A metal guitar solo that starts at the 2:30 mark, though, does not appeal to me nor does the last 20 seconds of the song where they drift again into metal territory with their "outro". But overall not a bad song.
Dont Be Tame.mp3 *
Another Kind of Man.mp3
* My above rip of "Don't Be Tame" is unfortunately missing the first few seconds of the song and cuts off at the end so if you have a full-length, high quality rip of this tune please let me know!
