Punk Business Manager

8.5.2010 UPDATE
The former guitar player for the Recipients, Gino, recently posted a comment on this posting which is great news!  It’s always a pleasant surprise for me when, over a year after an original posting, I hear from a former member!  Gino told me that former bass player Mike J. told him about my posting so that’s cool that two former members stumbled upon this post.  Gino provided some more info on the band which I have now added to this updated posting.  All of the new info I have is in red.

Um, the Recipients were from Houston (home of the almighty Really Red among others), they released this one single in 1981 on their own label aaaand that’s about all I know.  I have no idea who the band members were, aside from the fact that they had a guest vocalist named Hubert at the above show from early 1982 (perhaps the regular singer was sick or somethin?).

The Recipients were around for two years, and here was their lineup:
Vocals- Chris
Guitar- Gino
Bass- Mike J.
Drums- CTF

Former member Gino said that most of the band went on to other groups and projects, so more on that once I get to chat further with him.  Gino said the Recipients had some great times and did some wonderful shows with some great bands during their lifespan. It was Texas, it was 1981-1982, so I can only imagine!  Really Red, anyone?

He also said that the Recipients recorded a 10-song demo (!) while they were around and were in the planning stage for releasing an LP (!) before their breakup.  But, unfortunately, most of the stuff that they recorded at that time has been lost.  A serious bummer, because I’m sure there was some great sounding stuff on those tapes that would have been nice to hear.

The very awesome Idle Time archive has two pictures of the band from that early 1982 show with the guest singer- one here and another here. I first saw a picture of the flyer for this show back in 1995 and the Recipients stood out because they were the only band name I didn’t recognize on the bill.  So I added them to a list of mystery bands I kept in my head (it was pretty big list at that point in time and has since dwindled a lot, thankfully).  Fast forward a few years later when I saw them listed on the wonderful Texas Punk Discography when it was in its infancy- I was excited to see that the Recipients released a record.  About a year later P.R. taped me a copy of the 7″, and that was 10 years ago already.

“Constitution” was comped on the original Hyped To Death #1 comp CD back in 2000 and I think that’s where many people rediscovered them.  I don’t have a vinyl copy of this record so I don’t have a scan of the sleeve but H2D #1 had a small glimpse of the rather plain sleeve that had black and white stripes on the front (and back?) with just the band name on it.  Pretty Spartan.  The A-side, “Lunatic”, was to be comped on the Hooked On Junk LP back in 2003 but that project was aborted and never officially released- more on THAT comp at another time.

Both sides of this single are pretty original sounding stuff that stands out against yer average sounding stack of punk discs.  The band plays in a rather passionate, energetic manner and there’s lots of great, unique guitar noise and some muscular drumming.  But I think “Constitution” is the catchier and stronger of the two ditties.  Pretty hummable, which is a good thing.  “Lunatic” is nice too but it’s only downfall for me is that they repeat the chorus “You’re a lunatic!  No I’m not; yes, you are!” about ten times too many and it gets slightly annoying.  Other than that, it’s nice.  Um, the liner notes of H2D #1 called the band a cross between the Dead Kennedys and the Nasal Boys- err, I really wouldn’t call it THAT.  For me, I don’t take a comparison to the Nasal Boys lightly since their “Hot Love” 7″ is a total barnstorming jaw dropper.  And this Recipients 7″ is not on that par.  When I think “Dead Kennedys” I envision lots of echoplex guitar, and there’s definitely none of that on this meat and potatoes 7″.  I’m not sure what to compare the Recipients too, actually.  It’s good, tho- enjoy.