The Jam — To Be Someone (Didn’t We Have A Nice Time)
from All Mod Cons (1978)
One of my favorite songs by The Jam, with some terrific rhythm changes. They really rip it up on this track…
The Sunshines — Quando Eu Precisei
from SELVAGENS - Brazilian 60’s Punk Artyfacts
Got some great nuggets of garage to share this week. This first installment is ‘Quando Eu Precisei’ (When I Needed), a 1967 track from The Sunshines, a late-60s group from Rio de Janeiro. Very hip bassline on this and some dreamy xylophone-esque keys, too. (grab the Selvagens (Wild) comp at Garage Latino)
On the way later this week, more garage from about as far from Rio as you can get — pre-Revolution Tehran. Stay tuned…
The Sponsors — In and Out of Love
from Sponsors (1982)
The Sponsors, formerly known as the Handgrenades, were a Long Island group that hit the CBGB’s circuit in the late 70s and early 80s alongside bands like the Heartbreakers. They cut this LP in 1982 at Skyline Studios, on 31st St. in Manhattan, with Andy Shernoff of the Dictators producing.
The vocals, my friends, are delicious. “In in in out in in and out of love…”
Read an exhaustive bio at the Free Music Archive (and grab one of the album tracks..)
Talking Heads — Love → Building on Fire
from Love → Building on Fire 7” b/w ‘New Feeling’ (1977)
Hadn’t heard this before—the first single by Byrne & Co., released in Feb 1977, seven months before their debut LP, Talking Heads: 77. (This track didn’t appear on the LP until the 2005 reissue, whereas the b-side ‘New Feeling’ did get a spot on the original release.)
Characteristically strange and lovely Byrne lyrics. Again, the obsession with buildings!
Been listening to this on repeat lately. Infectious.
It’s not love, which is my face, which is a building, which is on fire.
Greatest weird song ever. Or weirdest great song ever.
Personal & the Pizzas — Bored Out of My Brains
from Diet, Crime & Delinquency 7” (out Nov 22 on Oops Baby Records)
It’s Friday, we can have some fun, right? Awesome album cover, and to match, one of the best band names ever: Personal & the Pizzas. These boys are dishing up some Ramones-style sauce. Get it while it’s hot.
Chrisma — Aurora B.
from Hibernation (1979)
More from Chrisma, this time more glammy synth-pop than minimalist rock, with a Lynch-style video to match. Be warned that the video is slightly spicy.
Chrisma — C-Rock
from Chinese Restaurant (1977)
Electrifying Italian New Wave performed by the husband-and-wife team Maurizio Arcieri and Christina Moser. (Chris-Ma, get it?) The duo formed in 1976 in Milan, and relocated to London shortly thereafter, where they teamed up with the producer Vangelis (who scored Blade Runner and Chariots of Fire).
Working with Vangelis and his brother Nico, they recorded this debut. This song isn’t terribly complex but it’s what it leaves out that makes it so epic. A bare-bones masterpiece with pared-down drums (the high-hat trill is great) and muted electric guitar. Sounds almost Krautrock-like in its simplicity. The stage antics, however, were not so elegant:
During the promotional tour for Chinese Restaurant, Maurizio was known to perform a trick onstage in which he appeared to cut off his finger with a razor. The trick, referred to as a “finger job,” attracted considerable press attention.
On their next album, Hibernation, they whipped out the hairspray and the glam jams. More to come…stay tuned.
Their website isn’t pretty to look at but it has plenty of information if you want to dig deeper. (These two Chinese Restaurant promo shots are from there).
The Jam — That’s Entertainment
from Sound Affects (1980)
A friend turned me on to The Jam… and I haven’t been able to turn them off. Holy smokes.
Friction — Crazy Dream
from 軋轢 (Atsureki/Friction) (1980)
Here’s some really dirty Japanese no wave I’ve been meaning to post for a while. The drums and bass are hard enough to make your head throb, and the guitar on top of that sounds finger-bleedingly raw.
The band originally formed in Tokyo in 1971 as Circle Triangle Square, an avant-garde street-performance group that played freeform acid jams. Founding members were Reck, saxophonist Chico Hige, and drummer Sakuro Watanabe. Watanabe’s liner notes on one of their early albums may be some of the best to ever grace an album sleeve:
“Time. Avant-garde, rock’n’roll, vagabond, inhaling paint thinner, journey, beat, nihilism, underground, blues, hippie, Kohenji, genius, LSD, Shinjuku, yippie, pain killer, death, shoplifting, long hair, revolution, insanity, Kyoto, grass, hitchhiking, sex, commune, psychedelic, hashish, Zen, Asobi (playing or game), Satori (spiritual enlightenment), make-up, solitude, loneliness, anti-establishment, idiot, cool, rock festival, trip, guru—they were neighbors, part of us, and enemies sometimes.”
Later in the 70s, Reck and Chico moved to New York City, where they played with Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, James Chance and the Contortions and Lydia Lunch, before returning to Japan in 1978 to form Friction with guitarist Tsunematsu Masatoshi. This album, from 1980, was produced by Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, during his time in the electronic group Yellow Magic Orchestra. At this point I’ve listed so many bands you’re gonna have to go explore yourself!
Grab the album at FM Shades. And Last Days of Man on Earth has a terrific list of Japanese punk and no wave bands to check out.
Gli Incesti — Un’altra dimensione
from Ecco… (1977)
Italy didn’t have much of a punk rock scene to speak of in 1977, though The Boot’s steel-toed side would shine through a few years down the line with an explosion of thrash and hardcore bands. But in 1977 I think it’s probably safe to say brother and sister duo Leo and Antonella were doing something a bit offbeat for Milano with their glam punk project Gli Incesti.
Not that they were that original. Leo looks like a spitting image of Bowie with his rusty hair and leggings, and if you listen just a bit to this track you’ll soon hear it’s a total rip-off of ‘Space Oddity.’ They’ve lifted every musical detail, from the whispering and choral singing to the solo acoustic guitar breaks and soaring electric guitar.
But the chorus isn’t exactly the same and the lyrics aren’t a translation. Instead, they’re about flying outside your body to meet James Dean and Marilyn, who are just chillin’ in the cosmos, waiting for you, in another dimension. Che figata.
The Nuns — Savage
from Savage 7” (1978)
I won tickets on WFMU for the Alejandro Escovedo show over at Maxwell’s tonight. Hell yeah. So in that spirit, I’m holding my own giveaway—this great track from Escovedo’s first band The Nuns, which the concert will surely sound nothing like, but I happen to be digging lately.
Go grab a vinyl rip of this 7” at Killed By Death. The guitars are all switched to ‘slay’ mode, and how can you not love Jennifer Miro’s keys and vocals?
I have a pretty good recording of a live gig they played in 1977 at the Mabuhay Gardens, San Francisco’s hip Filipino-restaurant-turned-punk-club in North Beach, during which they blast through nearly every original they have, and cover Iggy Pop’s ‘Gimme Danger.’ Stay tuned for that at some not-too-distant juncture.
The Nuns with Allen Ginsberg — via Radio Molotov
Death — Politicians in my Eyes
from …For The Whole World To See (recorded 1975; released 2009)
Hey kids. As promised, what is probably one the rawkingest songs ever recorded. Ever. From that speed-fueled bassline to the razor blade guitar cuts to the whammy-bar rage jam at the end, this is rock’n’roll perfection. Live it, learn it, love it.
It’s hard to believe that this band was once called the “Rock Fire Funk Express” before switching to the more succinct (and significantly more badass) Death. Unfortunately, the name is also why Columbia Records’ Clive Davis laughed in their faces, refusing to press their already completed record. Which only makes the name that much better. Thankfully Drag City exhumed this jewel and brought it to the light of day.
Rob Jo Star Band — Black Sun
from Rob Jo Star Band (1975)
Heard this French psych-punk rager on Brian Turner’s show the other day and it blew my mind. Like a vision of the End Days, cooked up in a garage with homemade fuzz boxes and smooching robots.
D.A.F. — Der Mussolini (Tanz den Mussolini)
from Aufbruch In Die Endzeit (1980)
D.A.F. power through ‘Der Mussolini,’ in a video that, along with The Fall’s ‘Totally Wired,’ should be required viewing for anyone who wants to start a rock band. Gabi’s dance moves are worthy of serious study.
This was taped for Aufbruch In Die Endzeit (Advent of the End Times), a documentary of the Neue Deutsche Welle or New German Wave and punk scenes in 1980. The Apple II-style credits are precious.
