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Reissue of Clockwork Criminals “Young and Bold” 7″EP- Coming Soon!

You may have noticed that I recently took down the mp3’s of the wailing, barnstorming Clockwork Criminals “Young and Bold” EP that I originally posted about a year and a half ago.  This request came from Clockwork Criminals member Bill because, he said, it is going to be reissued on CD very soon- yah!  Great news!  I still don’t have specific details of the reissue but pick one up when it comes out and continue to check the band’s MySpace site for specific details.  And in the meantime check out this great review the EP origially got in issue #2(!) of Maximum Rock n’ Roll way back in 1982 (and peep all the other vintage reviews of so many records now revered as “classics”).  The guy behind the Operation Phoenix Records site has put a lot of hard work into scanning in all of these old issues of MRR, Flipside, Surburban Voice and others so thanks for the effort!

Speaking of reissues, Chicago-based label Drag City has been on a roll with reissues during these cold months (with namely the JTIV reissue and unreleased Death LP), and this momentum continues with their officially reissing the rare Fems “Go To A Party” 4-song 7″EP circa Buffalo, 1982- pick up one of these too!  The label’s site sold out of the reissue in ONE DAY after it came out on March 17th, but other places may still have copies although they seem to be disappearing fast- Google it and see where copies turn up (eBay- here they come!  har har).  NYC’s Other Music had some copies mid-week but those now appear to be gone.  [In case you forgot, the Fems were “rediscoved” when their great, unique-sounding tune “Go To A Party” was included on 2001’s No One Left To Blame comp LP.  Copies of that comp still turn up from time to time, so pick one up if you don’t already have one, or if you played your original copy to death.  Speaking of which, Death was rediscovered on that comp too].

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Clockwork Criminals

CLOCKWORK CRIMINALS “YOUNG AND BOLD” 7″EP (U.K.- ACE RECORDS)
(RECORDED 1980 / RELEASED 1982)

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[MARCH 21, 2009 UPDATE
I 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.

Back in ’99, “No Future U.K.” was comped on KBD#20 (whose cover also used this EP’s artwork) but I was so leary of most comps at that time (see sidenote that follows) so I passed on that LP.  Two years later, I heard “Stand Together” on the Messthetics #7 comp CD, which was part of Chuck Warner’s Hyped To Death series.

[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.mp3
No Future UK.mp3
Stand Together.mp3
3 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:

http://www.detour-records.co.uk/CLOCKWORK%20CRIMINALS.htm