The Ones
ONES "SHORT DRESS / TIGHTROPE" 7" (MILWAUKEE, WI- BLUE RIBBON RECORDS, 1979)
PUNK N' ROLL SERIES, VOLUME 1
Unfortunately, I know next to nothing about The Ones. What I DO know is that "Tightrope" is one of my favorite punk n' roll songs of all time. It's a very tense number, which is always a good thing with me. And the underlying tension does not slowly build up throughout the song but rather lasts from the first guitar strum right down to its abrupt ending. Very nice! The singer sounds all stressed out and the guitar noodling is great, especially during the breaks when it has this sort of "ping ponging" effect goin on. Great guitar solo too. Actually, the whole band- including the drummer and bass player- are a pretty tight unit on this 7" and just fucking nailed it on "Tightrope".
The first time I- and probably many others- first heard "Tightrope" is when it was a standout track on 2005’s mostly-good Staring Down The Barrel comp LP (new copies of which are still pretty widely available). According to the brief liner notes, The Ones won a Battle of The Bands competition in Wisconsin (the Milwaukee area, I assume) and the "prize" was having this sleeveless 7" released. I assume this info came from old fanzine/newspaper mention somewhere (where?!). If the band played "Tightrope" during the competition then I can clearly understand how they won. If you know anything else about this competition- or ANYTHING about The Ones- leave a comment. Because, like The Mel, The Ones also suffer from having an "un-Googleable" band name. Type "Ones Short Dress Tight Rope" into Google and you'll also see that a bunch of horseshit pops into the search results.
I have pieced together a scant amount of information that I stumbled upon about the label who put out this 7", Blue Ribbon. It was run by a guy named Jon Hall who, in the late 60's and early 70's, ran another small, local label out of nearby Thiensville, WI called Teen Town (how 60's sounding is that?!). So perhaps Mr. Hall organized the Battle of The Bands that The Ones were victorious at, maybe as a way to help promote his Blue Ribbon label (?). I just love the name "Blue Ribbon" because it draws up images of Milwaukee-based Pabst Blue Ribbon beer which has been the preferred beer of underage teenagers and budget-minded adults for generations. You also have to love the label logo; for me, it conjures up images of a Wisconsin State Fair and someone named Mrs. Wisniewski proudly displaying the blue ribbon she won for her homemade apple pie during the big bake off competition. By the way, if you have never visited a Midwestern state fair in Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin or another nearby state fucking do it and you'll have a good, non-ironic time if you allow yourself to.
Oh yeah, back to the music- "Tightrope" is the best track on this two-sider and follows the KBD rule of "Best song resides on the B side". The A-side, "Short Dress" does not grab me the same way but it's a decent punk n' roll track, perhaps leaning more towards the "rock" side of things a bit too much for me. It took me a few listens to get into it- I guess I wanted it to sound exactly like "Tightrope" but it's NOT a horrible flipside totally detached and musically unrelated to the other song.**
Thanks to blog commenter John for the straight-from-original-vinyl rips of this 7"!
Short Dress.mp3
Tightrope.mp3
ENDNOTE #1
Punk n' roll is a genre I greatly enjoy when done the RIGHT way, meaning that it seamlessly mixes punk and rock and rides the "tightrope", if you will, between the two genres. Because if punk n' roll leans too much on the rock side of things then it loses some of its flavor. There's a fair amount of great, memorable punk n' roll tunes scattered through American punk for me. Probably the best example is the Nervous Eaters' Just Head 7". Boston also churned out The Tracks Breaks On You 7" which is quite a whomper for 1977 American punk. See also stuff like Scraps' "Strike Three" for good punk n' roll, that time mixed with a little pop (gasp!).And others which I am not remembering right now at 4 in the morning. Here's some more- Portland's Cleaversput out "The Playboy" 7" with its infamous, reactionary B-side in 1980. And let's not forget the Corpsicles' great Big Doings 7" from 1982 New York. That one has a particularly driving A-side that makes me rank it as second best punk n' roll record behind the "Just Head" 7".
ENDNOTE #2
** For the "horrible flipside" phenomena, there are too many examples sadly enough. See Cowboys' Supermarket (bad reggae-ish flipside to their great teen anthem "Teenage Life"); Sick and Lame's "I Laugh At Dead Dogs" (fall-flat-on-your-face flip to the snotty classic "Ate Days A Week"); Jonstrom's Inte vanda mig om (atrocious hippie crap flip to the stomper "P3"); and many others. I didn't mention the flipside of Freestone's Bummer Bitch 7" because "Bummer Bitch" was a fake punk song to begin with- perhaps the best one ever- and fake punk is another thing altogether to discuss; just not at this time.
PUNK N' ROLL SERIES, VOLUME 1
Unfortunately, I know next to nothing about The Ones. What I DO know is that "Tightrope" is one of my favorite punk n' roll songs of all time. It's a very tense number, which is always a good thing with me. And the underlying tension does not slowly build up throughout the song but rather lasts from the first guitar strum right down to its abrupt ending. Very nice! The singer sounds all stressed out and the guitar noodling is great, especially during the breaks when it has this sort of "ping ponging" effect goin on. Great guitar solo too. Actually, the whole band- including the drummer and bass player- are a pretty tight unit on this 7" and just fucking nailed it on "Tightrope".
The first time I- and probably many others- first heard "Tightrope" is when it was a standout track on 2005’s mostly-good Staring Down The Barrel comp LP (new copies of which are still pretty widely available). According to the brief liner notes, The Ones won a Battle of The Bands competition in Wisconsin (the Milwaukee area, I assume) and the "prize" was having this sleeveless 7" released. I assume this info came from old fanzine/newspaper mention somewhere (where?!). If the band played "Tightrope" during the competition then I can clearly understand how they won. If you know anything else about this competition- or ANYTHING about The Ones- leave a comment. Because, like The Mel, The Ones also suffer from having an "un-Googleable" band name. Type "Ones Short Dress Tight Rope" into Google and you'll also see that a bunch of horseshit pops into the search results.
I have pieced together a scant amount of information that I stumbled upon about the label who put out this 7", Blue Ribbon. It was run by a guy named Jon Hall who, in the late 60's and early 70's, ran another small, local label out of nearby Thiensville, WI called Teen Town (how 60's sounding is that?!). So perhaps Mr. Hall organized the Battle of The Bands that The Ones were victorious at, maybe as a way to help promote his Blue Ribbon label (?). I just love the name "Blue Ribbon" because it draws up images of Milwaukee-based Pabst Blue Ribbon beer which has been the preferred beer of underage teenagers and budget-minded adults for generations. You also have to love the label logo; for me, it conjures up images of a Wisconsin State Fair and someone named Mrs. Wisniewski proudly displaying the blue ribbon she won for her homemade apple pie during the big bake off competition. By the way, if you have never visited a Midwestern state fair in Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin or another nearby state fucking do it and you'll have a good, non-ironic time if you allow yourself to.
Oh yeah, back to the music- "Tightrope" is the best track on this two-sider and follows the KBD rule of "Best song resides on the B side". The A-side, "Short Dress" does not grab me the same way but it's a decent punk n' roll track, perhaps leaning more towards the "rock" side of things a bit too much for me. It took me a few listens to get into it- I guess I wanted it to sound exactly like "Tightrope" but it's NOT a horrible flipside totally detached and musically unrelated to the other song.**
Thanks to blog commenter John for the straight-from-original-vinyl rips of this 7"!
Short Dress.mp3
Tightrope.mp3
ENDNOTE #1
Punk n' roll is a genre I greatly enjoy when done the RIGHT way, meaning that it seamlessly mixes punk and rock and rides the "tightrope", if you will, between the two genres. Because if punk n' roll leans too much on the rock side of things then it loses some of its flavor. There's a fair amount of great, memorable punk n' roll tunes scattered through American punk for me. Probably the best example is the Nervous Eaters' Just Head 7". Boston also churned out The Tracks Breaks On You 7" which is quite a whomper for 1977 American punk. See also stuff like Scraps' "Strike Three" for good punk n' roll, that time mixed with a little pop (gasp!).
ENDNOTE #2
** For the "horrible flipside" phenomena, there are too many examples sadly enough. See Cowboys' Supermarket (bad reggae-ish flipside to their great teen anthem "Teenage Life"); Sick and Lame's "I Laugh At Dead Dogs" (fall-flat-on-your-face flip to the snotty classic "Ate Days A Week"); Jonstrom's Inte vanda mig om (atrocious hippie crap flip to the stomper "P3"); and many others. I didn't mention the flipside of Freestone's Bummer Bitch 7" because "Bummer Bitch" was a fake punk song to begin with- perhaps the best one ever- and fake punk is another thing altogether to discuss; just not at this time.
There are several other releases on Blue Ribbon, though likely the only one of interest to punk or new wave fans would be the single by the Balloons which featured Tyler Famularo (who a few years earlier put out a private-press LP in a guitar-heavy Todd Rundgren/Nazz vein). It's decent new wave pop, bordering on power pop. The other records I've picked up on the label are all bad country, bad soul/pop or bad crooner lounge.
And Jon Hall passed away about two years ago and with him likely any clue to the identity of the band.
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I've been trying to track these guys down for MKEPunk.com and hitting the same dead ends. Let me know if you find anything out. I'll do the same.
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I have heard a few other songs by The Ones. They are excellent. I have a friend compiling a whole SHITTON of unheard of Wisconsin underground rock from the 60s through the 80s and some 90s/00s/current shit as well. There is one song about the Son of Sam that is amazing and kills even Tightrope. one of the best punk songs of the 70s and it never got released :\
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