Tuesday, December 14, 2010

The Membranes
"Get a Head"

The Membranes
Crack House
12" EP
(Criminal Damage Records, 1983)


A lot of bands start out noisy and become less so as time passes; Einstürzende Neubauten are a good example of this. Some start out relatively tame and get progressively uglier and nastier, like The Birthday Party. The Membranes, however, took a rather different route. They started on the more sedate end of punk, got noisier, got way noisier, mellowed out again, started to get noisy again, got really noisy, broke up. Weird, huh? Crack House was the bridge between the first "nice" era and the advent of the noise. A few records later, they ditched the The at the front.

If you've read more than one or two of my posts, you've probably seen me mention my favorite local record store. The first time I went there, way back in August of 1991, I found the record containing today's song; I'd been looking for a copy for probably five years, so I was most pleased.

1 biased opinion:

Biki Honko said...

interesting!

i do have to admit i liked it better before he started singing.....