Hellcats "It's Alright"

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Hellcats
Hellcats
12" EP
(Radio Records, 1982)

The cover of this Hellcats record jumped off the new release rack at me back when I was in my early days of college. I took one look and determined it was a complete rip-off of the Starz logo. Picking it up and flipping it over revealed just exactly why I thought that: it was intentional. See, Hellcats were, in fact, a new band featuring the former lead vocalist and guitarist of Starz, Michael Lee Smith and Richie Ranno. It's a bit lighter than Starz, but still pretty cool.

I should probably mention that Starz did go through a short power pop phase, with their third album Attention Shoppers!

Hellcats followed this EP with a full length album a few years later, but Michael was gone and, from what I remember of it, so was the spark.

:'-(

Germs "Lexicon Devil"

Germs
What We Do Is Secret
12" EP
(Slash Records, 1981)

Germs vocalist/lyricist Darby Crash, name checked in Homosexual by the Angry Samoans, was, in fact, a homosexual. The AngSams credited the song to J. Fallwell, however, so I don't think there was malice intended. Darby was full of charisma, but apparently also full of shame and self-hatred for his sexual orientation. Tragically, this led to self-destructive behavior, drug abuse, and eventually suicide.

Despite there being two versions of Lexicon Devil on the (MIA) The Complete Anthology CD, this is not one of them. I'm not sure if this was the original single version or is exclusive to this release, however (I've never owned the original single). The version on (MIA) The Complete Anthology presented as being from the single has prominent saxophone that, unfortunately, robs the song of a good deal of its sonic power. The version from their lone album, (GI), is much faster and loses the infectious pop appeal of this take. This one is perfect. That's probably why it's my favorite Germs song.

Boredoms "Super Go!!!!!"

Boredoms 2001 Boredoms 12" promo EP (Warner Bros, 1996)

Boredoms are one of my favorite groups. Favorite to the point of crazy collecting. Today's piece is from a limited edition of 500, promo-only 12" EP that was offered via mail to purchasers of the original Japanese pressings of their Super Roots 5 and Super Roots 6 CDs. I don't read Japanese, and my copies of those releases did not contain the coupons needed to aquire a copy of this record, so I was reduced to searching the 'net and putting in saved searches on eBay and GEMM, to no avail. Finally, after several years of searching, I hit paydirt! I found a Japanese record store on-line that had something I was wanting. I decided to ask if they had a handful of other items I was seeking and, holy crap, they had most of them! In addition to snagging this puppy, I got the first ゆらゆら帝国 CD, the second LP by 水玉消防団, 『満天に赤い花びら』, a couple of live flexi-discs by YBO2, and maybe something else I forgotted. We'll not discuss how much I spent, OK? So, this 12" is comprised of reductions/remixes of the 64 minute piece "GO!!!!!" from Super Roots 5. Today's track takes up all of side one, while side two features "Super Future," "Super Now," and "Super Old." Enjoy! TRANSLATIONS: ゆらゆら帝国 = Yura Yura Teikoku = Swinging Empire 水玉消防団 = Mizutama-Shobohdan = Polka Dot Fire Brigade 満天に赤い花びら = Sky Full of Red Petals

The Undecided "Down, Down"

The Undecided
Dressed to Watch Television
LP
(Morgue Method Records, 1985)

Well, dang it, I ripped this whole record to digital, agonized over what song to pick, started my post, went to see if there was any additional info on the 'net I could provide, and found out, gosh darnit, that they now have a Facebook page and have the record for sale all over the place in MP3 format, as of mid-2010.

So, you may notice the usual button has been replaced by and buttons. It wouldn't be fair to the artists for me to post free downloads of songs commercially available, so I'm now going to still allow streaming, but no downloading of stuff when the artists actually have it out there for sale. I've made the switch for two earlier posts that I discovered are available as MP3s: The Barry Sisters' Roumania and Talk Engine's Dream Me Coupled.

Anyhow, The Undecided were from Virginia and released just this one record. The drummer in my old hardcore band was a friend of theirs, and I bought the record when it came out back in 1985. They played a mix of punk rock, funkier stuff, postpunk, and a kinda cheesy fake country song. They get the before they were famous label as the bassist was Dave Park, who went on to play in DC legends Unrest.

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.

Les Sales Combles "Papa Bricole"

Les Sales Combles
Les Salles Vides
12" EP
(self-released, 1989)

Some friends and I stayed at the apartment of Christian "Dodo" Addor for a night back in 1990. In the morning, I was chatting with him and looking through his record collection when Débile Menthol came up (I think I spied their albums on his shelf). I only knew his first name at that point, so I had no idea he was a member!

Groupoem "Drink Beer Till It Hurts"

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Groupoem What You See Here, Hear Here, Say Here, Stays Here When You Leave Here 12" EP (self-released, 1986)

All I've been able to find out about this record is the band was from Toronto, where a hooker asked me if I wanted a "date" when I was 20. I politely declined. Regardless, it's a cool record. I think we got copies at my college radio station, and I took one of the extras home (there were advantages to being a music director).

Death by Milkfloat "What"

Death by Milkfloat
Sense and Nonsense
12" EP
(Di Di Music, 1987)

Like Thule, another promoter-significant-other discovery, I found the second Death by Milkfloat 12" EP (of four), The Absolute Non-End, amongst the records, and had to give it a listen, due to the utterly bizarre band name. Today's tune, however, is from their debut 12" EP, which was released in Greece, rather than the UK. Sometime after the release of their third 12" EP, Uninformation, they dropped the Death by appellation and released a 7" single and their final 12" EP, Guilt Edged Steel, under the truncated name Milkfloat.

I've chosen to label them C86 for genre, as I've seen it used before for similarly gambolling bands like bIG★fLAME, Membranes, and The Wedding Present. Feel free to correct me, if necessary

Audio Sports "Future Ball" (Let It Cosmicbleed Mix)

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NOTE: the intro is very quiet until the -5:06 mark

Audio Sports
3-6-9
12" EP
(Bron Record, 1990)

I'm not sure how to classify this thing; too slow for dancing, too energetic for trip hop. On vocals, that's EYE from Boredoms, and this is the first record by Audio Sports. The follow-up full-length album, Era of Glittering Glass, was more of a Japanese rap affair, though with definite oddball leanings. After that, EYE left the group, and I've not heard the material without him.

The Dentists "Where's My Chicken, You Bastard?"

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The Dentists
You and Your Bloody Oranges
12" EP
(Spruck Records, 1985)

One of the fun things about doing this blog is finding out new stuff about bands I'm featuring. In this case, I've found that The Dentists have been doing reunion shows! Unfortunately, only on the other side of the Earth, but, still, YES! In addition, there is a collection of rarities and unreleased material, If All The Flies Were One Fly, coming out this month!

Anyhow, this song is from their third release, following their debut single, Strawberries Are Growing in My Garden (and it's Wintertime), and first album, Some People Are on the Pitch They Think It's All Over It Is Now. As you can see, they've got quite the knack for song titles.

In 1992, the US label Homestead Records released a compilation of tracks from 1985 through 1987: Dressed. Tracks from all five of their releases in that time period were included, but no record was represented in its entirety. This is one of the songs to not make the grade, despite having one of the greatest titles both of theirs and of all bands.

Mi Ami "African Rhythms"

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Mi Ami
African Rhythms
12" EP
(White Denim, 2008)

I found Mi Ami's first album, Watersports, in a bargain bin. The cover photo of what looked like a gay Mummers' parade caught my eye, so I bought it. I loved it! It became one of my favorite albums of 2009, in fact. They strike me as a cross between the avant garde punk funk of The Pop Group and ___________________.

I did some research and found that, at that point in time, there were five 12" singles and EPs, in addition to the killer full-length. I found the two more recent than the album (Techno 1.1 and Cut Men) at a local record store, the third (Echononecho) at Amazon for a super cheap price, and the second 12" (Ark of the Covenant) at Goner Records' on-line shop, of all places. Their debut, however, eluded me. The fact tht it was a limited pressing of 400 copies didn't help, either!

I happened to mention on a message board that I was looking for it. A friend involved in independent music distribution read my post, and stuck a copy in a box he was putting together to ship to my favorite local record store that very day! So, here's the title track, in all its glory. Enjoy!

Thule "Springtime (Etched in Ice)"

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Thule
La jamais contente
12" EP
(Wiiija Records, 1989)

One of the advantages of dating a concert promoter is getting free stuff. In the year we were together, I discovered several cool things just by looking through piles of records from bands that wanted to tour. Groups like Caspar Brötzmann Massaker (Petey's kid), Toby Dammit (a Dutch band, not the current one), Death by Milkfloat, etc. and Thule. I never heard anything else by them, but I love this 12" EP. They did get the album that followed at my local record store, but it was super expensive, so I never bought it. v_v

Phonogenix "Hymns for Savannah"

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Phonogenix
Hymns for Savannah
12" EP
(Eastern Works, 1984)

I picked this up because I'm a big fan of Masashi Kitamura, best known for leading the prog/post-punk band YBO². I'll likely be posting stuff by them at some point, in addition to his other groups Canis Lupus, Differance and The Spectremen.

Libido「流砂」

Libido
Ryu~sa
12" mini LP
(Distance, 1987)

Crap! This is sooo late already. I'll do a proper write up this evening.