(RECORDED 1980 / RELEASED 1982)
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[MARCH 21, 2009 UPDATEI took down the mp3’s of this EP after a request from former member Bill- he told me it’s going to be reissued on CD very soon which is great to hear. I still don’t have specific details on the reissue, but
pick one up when it comes out and continue to check the band’s MySpace site for specs.] Damn, what a barnstormer of a record! “Young and Bold” calmly starts with the singer making his declaration in the first few seconds of the song and then- wham!– total charging noise smacks you right in the head. A nice, unexpected surprise- the guitars are loud, tense and waily, kinda DIY-ish in sound (unlike “traditionally” loud guitars that tend to be chunky and thick a la Black Flag or P.F. Commando). The drummer and bass player pound away trying to keep up with the two-chord geetar player and then the singer wails away in a desperate manner- in other words, wonderful! Also impressive that this unique racket was recorded in 1980 at a time when not a lot of bands were soundin’ out there like this.
[As a sidenote- sigh, I miss all those different Hyped To Death-related comps that Mr. Warner churned out in 2000 and 2001. In the late 90’s- pretty much after KBD#12 came out in late ’96/early ’97- KBD-type comps had really started scraping the barrel and most were big letdowns that had maybe one or two good songs and then a dozen mediocre tracks- in other words, a waste of yer hard earned money. Sure, a lot of bands on those bad comps were total obscurities but that does not justify inclusion on a comp. C’mon gimme something that SOUNDS good or I could pretty much care less than it was a sleeveless “private pressing” of 10 copies or whatever (the U.K. is the capital of these types o’ rarities). But oh yeah- back to Hyped To Deaths- here came uber-collector Chuck digging up total obscurities like Screamin’ Sneakers that were rare as hell, previously uncomped AND which sounded ABSOLUTELY wonderful too. Now don’t get me wrong- not every CD was full of 100% Grade A prime chug- there were some clunkers to my ears but overall Chuck did a good job before the fun was forced to come to an end]
Young and Bold.mp3No Future UK.mp3Stand Together.mp33 Million and 1.mp3
ENDNOTES
Clockwork Criminals have a page on MySpace on which they posted 3 unreleased songs, two of which are available for download (the fouth track is their track from the “Bullshit Detector” comp). Unfortunately, they are too drawn out and dreamy and lack the total smack-in-the-face quality of their EP. Oh well, still interesting that they have a page and posted em to begin with…
The great Detour Records site has a nice history of the band- read on:
“Hailing from the South Coast of England from a fairly large town called Hastings, the band started off life called ‘Charlie and the Criminals’. They notched up a few gigs under this name before opting for the ‘Clockwork Criminals’. Despite the ‘Young and Bold’ EP coming out in 82 it was recorded in 1980. They played along side most of the other local bands that were around on the same gig circuit like ‘Smeggy and the Cheesybits’, ‘The Teenbeats’, ‘The Pirahnas’ and just about all the other top South Coast bands.
Sadly the band only released one single but also had another track featured on a compilation album called ‘Bullshit Detector’ that was released on the ‘Crass’ label.
The vocalist and guitarist went on to form ‘Flowers of the Past’ who gigged a lot in 1982 doing the whole “State of the Nation” tour with ‘Vice Squad’ and releasing a single called ‘The Fuhrer’ / ‘Medieval’ on ‘Memorial records’.”
Here is the above writeup complete with TONS of pictures of the band, flyers, buttons, etc:
. So here’s my first semi-modern posting (er, this one came out 12 years ago so, fuck, I think that qualifies as modern) of one of my favorite 90’s punk gems. Kind of unlikely considering the band was on a- <i>gasp!</i> – major label (I am usually not a fan of majors or wanna-be majors), but given that Mr. Johan “Killed By Death v.1-4” Kugelberg worked (ran?) the Onion label at the time then it makes more sense. Johan also signed <b>Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments</b> to Onion and released their good <b>“Bait and Switch” LP</b> the same year. And then Onion also did a <b>Monks</b> reissue during the same period, another unlikely release on a major had Mr. Kugelberg not been lobbying for them all I suppose.</p>
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Both songs from this promo 7″ also appeared on their much-hyped “Nix Nought Nothing” LP in ’95, which now lines cut-out bins and can be found for a few bucks. Onion musta pressed a ton of them in hopes that Stiffs, Inc. would be “the next big thing” thus the total glut. I cannot listen to that whole LP, though- the singer irks me about halfway through, and I’m even not that hot on the flipside of this single but “Chelsea” is genius. A very catchy ditty from the first note, and a very layered song. Check out how the guitar goes from being strummed in the beginning to kinda growling a little later and then back again. The band changes up the overall tempo of the tune several times which is nice, especially in the last 30 seconds when they finish it off with a whole different vibe that totally works for me and is a rightful finish to a great tune. These guys could really play, and they got it so right in these 4 minutes (far longer than my preferred song length too). “Chelsea” is melodic in all the right places but then driving and punchy in all the right places too. Right on.