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OPUS  “GOOD PROCEDURES/THE ATROCITY” 7″ (LOS ANGELES,
CA- CATATONIC, 1979)


         


Ah, here is one of the “holy grails” of punk rekkids-
this mega rarity supposedly only had about 200 copies pressed.  But out of that small number, not many
survived- the story goes that bassist A.J. Terry had most copies of the small
pressing, but when he and his friends were kicked out of the Silverlake, CA
house in which they were residing most copies Mr. Terry had were thrown away by
the people who promptly gave them the boot. 
And the rest is history for fans of the obscure micro pressings.  About four years ago uber punk detective #1
Ryan Richardson cracked the case, the details of which are on the Opus page of his great Break My Face
site so I am not going to repeat them all here.


From hearing some differing opinions over the years about
this record, there seems to be a line drawn in the sand about it.  Seems that the people that hate it and/or
don’t think it’s that great of a record think those who hype it up, love it and
cream their jeans over it do so only because it’s so painfully rare and NOT
because the music is that great.  Or they
think people grow to like the record and give it a break only because of its
rarity.  The detractors say that had the
Opus 7″ been a common punk disc with thousands of copies floating around
(imagine that!), it wouldn’t be such a revered classic.

From the perspective of someone who places listening to
music over physically owning a record, I think the Opus 7″ is pretty good.  I wouldn’t call it a Grade A, top notch, raw,
wild, timeless punk classic a la the best of the Pagans (to which it’s actually
been compared by one person!).  But I
wouldn’t put it on my “B Team” either. 
I’d give it like 7.5 out of 10 stars. 
I would definitely put this record in the good ol “happy accident”
category, meaning that I don’t think the band intended the record to quite
sound this raw and ratty, especially the superior B-side.  Thankfully the recording and, er, “production” was so bad, because I think with good, clean production these two
songs would not have been as memorable to us fans of good bad music.   What makes me chuckle is the fact that they
list the names of the mixer and engineer on the back of the sleeve.  Did those guys think they did a good job and
wanted their names associated with such a superior recording effort?  If so- then LOL!

It sounds like the 7″ was recorded live in the studio-
the thick bass is way up in the front of the mix most notably, and that’s one
of the things that makes it charming for me. 
And I definitely prefer “The Atrocity”- it charges right along with nice
guitar noodling and an evil vibe underlying it, and the break in the middle of
the song where the bass really rumbles in gives it a really nice “umph!”.  It sounds like the band was trying to do
something more mellow and softer (perhaps more commercial?!) with “Good
Procedures”- just listen to the attempts on it to create a happy guitar sound and a melodic, more mellow vibe.  But the rough bass playing that kicks in
during the breaks voids out that good feeling and instead makes it all dirty
and unpolished just how we like it.

I do not own a copy of the Opus 7″- who the hell does
other than a handful of people who all probably know each other?!  But someone taped me a copy many years ago,
and unfortunately whatever copy this taping originated with was not cleaned and
has some noticeable surface noise.  I
ripped a copy of the B-side from its appearance on 1998’s
Killed By Death #14 so that song sounds clean here.  Audiophiles- take off the big noise-canceling
headphones while listening to “Good Procedures” or you may be
climbing the walls.  Hey- if someone has
a clean rip of the A-side please get in touch and send it my way.


ENDNOTES

OK, on to my sidebars (I love these although you may not).  According to a friend of the band, the first
copies of the 7″ came with the yellow sleeve and the white sleeve came
after.  Which, due to its extreme rarity,
translates to mean that 1 or 2 surviving copies have the yellow sleeve while
the other 10 or so known copies have the white one.  Here is the yellow sleeve- I don’t want to
call it a “variation” because it’s got the same pictures and layout as the
white sleeve and is just a different color of paper really.

The photo on the back of the Opus sleeve is lifted from
one of the most well-known images from the VietNam war.  The picture was taken by American
photographer Eddie Adams in Saigon on Feburary 1, 1968 and shows South
Vietnamese National Police Chief Brig Gen. Nguyen Ngoc Loan publicly executing
a Viet Cong officer.  The photo was
broadcast around the world by the Associated Press, Mr. Adams won a Pulitzer
Prize for the photo in 1969, and it has even been called one of the Top 10 photos that changed the world.


The video that was concurrently taken by an NBC cameraman
is pretty gory.

What I didn’t know until doing some research on the photo
for this post is the post-script that follows the picture being taken.  The General pulling the trigger later moved
to Virginia and eventually tried to open a restaurant in the late 80’s but that
failed after people figured out who he was from the 1968 photo and it
culminated in someone writing “we know who you are” on the restaurant’s
bathroom wall.  He then died of cancer in
Virginia in 1998.  The photographer,
Eddie Adams, apparently felt guilty about the picture for years and felt like
he ruined General Loan’s life with that one still image.  He even apologized to the General’s family
for what he felt he did.  Here is some
footage of Eddie Adams talking about the picture.

Er, on to a happier topic… the surface noise on the above
A-side brings up the issue- MY issue- of trying to properly clean records as
best you can before ripping / trading / selling them.  There are several ways you can do it but only
a few really work.  My method for a
number of years was the ghetto method of taking one finger (after washing my
hands of course) and running it along the vinyl and hoping some crud would come
off.  When this didn’t warrant very good
results I got “high tech” and bought the popular $20 Discwasher D4 kit and used
that for years.

 

I thought the Discwasher was doing a good of a job as it
could, as certain records still had noticeable noise on them and I just chalked
it up to the nature of vinyl, or to the fact that maybe my Dischwasher kit was
worn out.  But then someone tipped me off
to the joys of real nerdy record cleaning when they recommended Nitty Gritty’s
budget-minded KAB EV-1 kit.


Now of course I had heard of these expensive audiophile
cleaners for a while but when I saw the price tags for some hovering around $500
(and even as much as a fucking grand!) I said forget it for years.  The KAB EV-1 is on the low end of cost at
around $150 but it does a bang up job of cleaning most records.  It looks a bit odd
hooking up your vacuum cleaner to the EV-1 but it vacs most of that grimy
shit away.  But of course some records
are too far gone with too many scratches or to get them sounding Near Mint
again.  So in those cases, make sure
you’re vague and say it’s a “vintage pressing in pretty good condition” as you
try to sell it on eBay.  The future owner
will love you for it.

44 thoughts on “Opus”

  1. Finally a blog that has this record featured-I have waited for a very long time for this one-thanks Tony PBM !!!
    In autumn 1994 I received a cassette with
    the title of “CUMSTAINS OVER MY RECORD COLLECTION” (NO,not the later INT´L Punk
    comp.LP of the same name). Whoever compiled that cassette sometime in (early ?) 1994 or even 1993 ( again ?)
    is a genius. The tape was to be the American version of KBD vol.6-and not the one from Australia,that made it.
    So,on that cassette there was that band OPUS with their “The Atrocity”.I recall
    I flipped over that song,played it over and over again and at the time (Internet
    was to reach me a full 3 years later),I did ask all collectors about this band but at the time (late 1994) no one knew shit and even 1-2 guys claimed it was a “hoax” group-just made up for the never-to-appear U.S. version of KBD 6.
    7 years later I finally got the single,
    not in best shape,but hey: in original sleeve and with surface marks,NOT affecting my listening pleasure.I hyped the 7″,esp. the mind-blowing THE ATROCITY over-and-over,esp. in the net.
    The production value,the impossible-to-understand vocals,the BASS,the stuttering vocals “M-M-M-Make the enemy mine” etc),the great unusual front-sleeve with the young boy and the accidental greatness (I think so ,too)
    add to a LEGEND in my book-hands up.
    The guitars are like whipping something,the song bludgeoning your ears
    (loud volume via headphones 10x in a row
    listening to THE ATROCITY is a hobby for life…)There is something mythical hiding within the grooves of THE ATROCITY,I always and still feel.
    Too bad I was insane enough to sell the record this year (another dumb tale of its own…)for way too little cash.
    This record still remains “obscure” and
    kinda neglected- even after many other giga-unknowns were found at the KBD-
    diggings.I doubt they recorded more songs,despite the later drummer said they recorded at MYSTIC SOUNDS studios
    around 1980/1981 under the new moniker
    SMOG MARINES (reports of S.M. shows suggest they were wild actions!)
    VIVA OPUS !!!

  2. Thanks for this Tony and it sure is great to see you back in action with 2 posts in just a few days.
    I’ve never heard this one before, just heard about it, and I agree with you that The Atrocity is one fine song for sure. Too bad the a-side is quite boring.

    Cheers
    /Martin

  4. I hadn’t listened to this in years. It still sounds as crappy as I remember. Possibly the most boring song to ever be included on a KBD comp.

  5. I remember hearing the Smog Marines on Rodney on the Roq around 1980. I would listen to the show and write down all the bands that I wanted to buy records of and they were on it. Anyone have the demo tape of them??? Just curious.

  6. What a post Tony! Though not as good as I thought it would be. The a-side is downright crap. But the Atrocity makes up for it. Awesome!!

    About the tv clip with the general executing a prisoner I remember it so well. I saw it on the news as a kid. I guess mom forgotten to watch out for me since I still have clear memories of how the blood just flooded out of his head on to the street.

    And at last some lengthy post from the man of lengthy post :D! Thanks! In a fair world you would do the postings of all the record on the KBD site.

  7. I used to be so strict with myself, getting “the books” done on a fairly regular basis. Now, I seem to have got into the habit of letting paperwork pile up. I must concentrate on getting it done in a more timely manner and stop posting inane comments on random blogs 😉

  9. Awesome, this was a really quality post. In theory I’d like to write like this too – taking time and real effort to make a good article… but what can I say… I procrastinate alot and never seem to get something done.

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  29. GREAT record! What’s with people’s problem the the b-side. It’s pretty great in it’s own right, but I guess I have to keep in mind that most punk fans don’t like actual “music” like with meoldies and all. Plus this is at LEAST as good as the first 2 Pagans singles and WAY better than the Not Now and Dead End America singles. Like the Hitler SS/Tampax split, this single seems to “confound” punk fans, but what doesn’t. Alot of these punk goofballs actually like stuff like Earth AD era Misfits and Social Distortion and the like. Sheesh.

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  39. I have been searching the internet for The Smog Marines as well. I, like you, did the same thing listening to Rodney. I have tapes still from his shows. But I can not find anything by The Smog Marines anywhere. Hope someone surfaces with something like ” I Like Football, and I lIke Baseball…”

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