Dance Chapter - 1980 - Anonymity 7'' (UK)
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Friday, October 9, 2009
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Wayne County And The Electric Chairs - 1979 - Things Your Mother Never Told You (UK-US)
Wayne County And The Electric Chairs - 1979 - Things Your Mother Never Told You (UK-US)
download (a better rip)
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Jayne/Wayne County's most audacious album is also, though it's not something said every day, among the most important albums of its age. Released in 1979 just as the new wave was teetering on the brink of some kind of bold step forward, Things Your Mother Never Told You was one of the sudden shoves which sent it sprawling into its destiny. Electro-punk starts here. Producer David Cunningham takes only a portion of the credit; in years to come he would lead the Flying Lizards into the realm of heavily stylized electronica and even scored a few hits for his pains. But County's songs match his ambitions all the way, from the harsh, grating soundscapes behind "C3"'s muttered imprecations to the soft-spoken paranoia of "Waiting for the Marines," and onto "Berlin," the song that put into words everything David Bowie (among others) tried to convey about that city via image and insinuation. It's not all electro-art smarts, of course. "Boy With the Stolen Face" and the pouting, punishing "Wonder Woman" are archetypal Electric Chairs -- a reminder of how, at the band's very best, they could run the Rolling Stones close in the swaggering rock & roller stakes -- and the murder mystery "Wall City Girl" could have fallen off a forgotten volume of Nuggets or Pebbles. The title track, meanwhile, doesn't simply seethe with all the promise -- sexual, social, and societal -- which made County the superstar (s)he so very nearly was, it also lets listeners know why no one has ever truly snatched that crown away. The history of rock is lousy with artists who've threatened to fill listeners in on all the things their mothers never told them. But County is the only one who actually came out and did it.
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Review by Dave Thompson at AllMusic (link)
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Split - 1979 - Restricted Hours (Astronauts)/Syndicate - Restricted Hours EP (UK)
Split - 1979 - Restricted Hours (Astronauts)/Syndicate - Restricted Hours EP (UK)
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These were Astronauts songs recorded under the name Restricted Hours and put out as one side of an EP produced as a fund-raiser for the Stevenage Rock Against Racism. The other side of the EP featured another WGC band, The Syndicate. Getting Things Done was re-released as a bonus track on the It's All Done by Mirrors CD; Car Crash has yet to be re-released.
Monday, October 5, 2009
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Dishrags - 1997 - Love-Hate (CAD)
Dishrags - 1997 - Love-Hate (CAD)
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When the Dishrags formed in Victoria, British Columbia, in 1977, they were like the Runaways without Kim Fowley's behind the scenes machinations: three teenage girls -- singer and guitarist Jade Blade, bassist Dale Powers, and drummer Scout -- devoted to the Ramones and the Clash and creating their own short, sharp shocks. Moving to the more punk-friendly Vancouver scene (where bands like D.O.A and the Pointed Sticks were already defining the sound of western Canada's new wave) in 1978, the Dishrags made their debut on the now-legendary Vancouver Complication anthology. If they had never made another recording, the Dishrags would remain beloved in punk-fanboy circles for the track "I Don't Love You." 103 seconds long and built on an insistent, scratchy guitar riff and a positively crazed drum part played primarily on the ride cymbal, "I Don't Love You" is as clangorous and primitive as U.K. second-wavers like the Slits or the Desperate Bicycles, but it also features an instant-classic pure pop chorus that would do the Buzzcocks or the Undertones proud. The Dishrags followed that up with a slightly more polished three-track EP, "Past Is Past," and following a lineup change -- Powers being replaced by second guitarist Sue MacGillivray and bassist Kim Henriksen -- the band traveled to London to record the EP Death in the Family. Produced by Chris Spedding and featuring a more traditional punk-pop sound akin to the Adverts' first album, Death in the Family was insistently tuneful and clever. The wistful title track seemed to have actual hit single potential, while "Love/Hate" explored a darker post-punk sound along the lines of Siouxsie & the Banshees. Though RCA's U.K. imprint released the EP, it disappeared almost immediately, and the Dishrags broke up. Over a decade and a half later, the Canadian reissue label Other People's Music gathered the complete recordings by the Dishrags -- the two tracks recorded for the Vancouver Complication sessions, including the previously unreleased "Bullshit," the single, the EP, and ten demos and live tracks including covers of Lou Reed's "Vicious," the Ramones' "I Don't Wanna Walk Around with You," and the Clash's "Janie Jones," alongside previously unheard Dishrags originals. This is a textbook example of how to do a punk-era reissue properly.
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Review by Stewart Mason at AllMusic (link)
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