Capers "The Only Thing I Really Want"

Capers Mahlzeit 7" EP (Extraplatte, 1988)

Capers were another of Hans Platzgumer's early bands. This 7" EP was their lone release (not counting songs on some compilations), and today's selection was inexplicably omitted when it was reissued in 1995 by the U.S. label Sunday Drive Records. An instrumental version of another tune, "I'm Going Out Tonight," was also omitted, and, oddly enough, an exclamation point was added to the title, making it Mahlzeit! The cover art was completely different, as well, and there was no indication anywhere that two songs were missing. After the demise of Capers, Hans and bandmate Frank Puempel moved from Austria to New York and started H.P. Zinker. They rerecorded the Capers song "Sun Shine Bright on a Sailor Whose Captain Was His Father and It Took the Whole Fight" as the slightly more briefly entitled "Sunshine," for an EP of the same name. The cover photo is, of course, the exploding head scene from Scanners, which I saw on the big screen on one of my first dates with the girl mentioned in the Capt. Beefheart post (the one that didn't ask me to the dance). I thought it was our first date, but IMDB says it wasn't released until January of 1981, and we'd been dating for a bit before that. Hmmmm . . . memory is an odd thing.