Saturday, February 28, 2009

Dirty Actions - 1980 - Rosa Shocking 7'' (IT)

Dirty Actions - 1980 - Rosa Shocking 7'' (IT)
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Thanks to Popartx for the cover!

Sweeney Todd - 1977 - If Wishes Were Horses (CAD)

Sweeney Todd - 1977 - If Wishes Were Horses (CAD)
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If Wishes Were Horses is the second album of the Canadian glam rock band Sweeney Todd. Released in 1977, it is the only Sweeney Todd album on which Bryan Adams appears as lead singer. Shortly after this album, Bryan Adams went on to his solo career, which continues to this day.
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source Wikipedia (link)

Thursday, February 26, 2009

V.A. - 1979 - Tokyo Rockers [LP] (JP)

V.A. - 1979 - Tokyo Rockers [LP] (JP)
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Tracklist:
01. Friction - Senaka No Code
02. Frictoin - Cool Fool
03. Mr. Kite - Exit B9
04. Lizard - Robot Love
05. Lizard - Requiem
06. Mirrors - Situation
07. Mirrors - Tokyo Network
08. Mr. Kite - Innocent
09. S-Ken - Black Machine
10. S-Ken - Ah-A Koibito & Oh Yure! Tokyo

Siouxsie And The Banshees - 1979 - Mittageisen 7'' (UK)

Siouxsie And The Banshees - 1979 - Mittageisen 7'' (UK)

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Fingers, The - 1978 - Isolation 7'' (US)

Fingers, The - 1978 - Isolation 7'' (US)
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The Fingers started out as a five-piece band (thus, the name) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in early 1977. Packing up their instruments and professional aspirations and leaving two Fingers behind, three members (two of them brothers) headed to New York City in September of that year hoping for some Ramones-type fame. As part of a press kit, their manager thought an actual record, instead of the standard cassette tape, might be more of an attention-getter. In December 1977, the Fingers recorded and soon released a three-song EP which was mostly sent to record company execs in the hopes of securing a contract. No deals were inked, but the "Isolation" EP purportedly caught the ear of Sire mogul Seymour Stein who dug but declined. Stein apparently deemed the Fingers style too similar to the Ramones — never a bad thing! The remainder of the "Isolation" EPs seem to have been swallowed up into the void. Until 1998, the record was completely unknown having never surfaced in a store or collection. Some collectors even had their doubts the record existed until a band member sent out a tape where, sure enough, you could hear the needle dropping down and some great punk rock begin. Between the manager and roadies and ex-girlfriends, around ten copies in varying condition made their way into collector hands. The A-side track "Isolation" is the hands-down winner while the two B-side cuts are less impressive but still good.

Of further interest to punk rock fans is the fact that the Fingers comprised the core of what would soon be The Features. Take three Fingers, add the manager, and a wardrobe change and you have the Features whose "Floozie of the Neighborhood" 45 is a pop-punk classic (a very, very rare classification 'round here). Modern day punk throwbacks, the Stitches, cover "Floozie" in fine fashion. Considering the chances of finding the original are slim-to-none, vinyl hounds should seek out the No One Left To Blame compilation LP which includes "Isolation" or — for the less discerning and more desperate — the Features LP released on Italy's Rave-Up label a few years back. (Ryan Richardson)
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source Break my Face (link)

Defnics - 2001 - Look At Me Mom I'm Not Dead EP (US)

Defnics - 2001 - Look At Me Mom I'm Not Dead EP (US)
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Of all the legendary Cleveland bands, the most intriguing for collectors and punk afficionados may be the Defnics. The Defnics only cut one EP for Mike Hudson's Terminal Records, '51%' b/w 'Hello from Berlin', and if you want a copy you'll pay dearly. They also had a cut on Mike Hudson's Cleveland Confidential comp. They played out as the Defnics for almost two years and broke up in the summer of 1982. Bill (a.k.a. Robert Conn) went on to join the second formation of the Pagans, the Pink Pagans as they were later referred to because of the pink LP covers. Brandon joined Red October with Chris Andrews. Bob started the Plague with Duke Snyder and Johnny. Recently reformed, this EP features 1 new song written by Robert Conn along with a screaming live version of '51%', recorded at the band's reunion show. Limited to 500 copies on green wax. Viva la DEFNICS!
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source Smog Veil Records (link)

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Avant Gardener - 1977 - Gotta Turn Back EP (UK)

Avant Gardener - 1977 - Gotta Turn Back EP (UK)
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From the Dartmoor town of Okehampton near Exeter, Avant Gardener were one of the many oddities thrown up by punk. Ultra primitive Beefheart influenced noise meets the Velvets. The band apparently won a Virgin Records sponsored talent contest, which resulted in this EP featuring Gotta turn back/Strange gurl in clothes/Back door/ Bloodclad Boogie for the label in 1977 (the earlier ultra raw demos for which make the finished release sound polished by comparison!). After this the band released numerous singles and albums before splitting in the eighties.
"The singer Russell smelt so much, he was really revolting! He used to turn up and he hadn't shaved and he looked like he had slept in his clothes, he always smelt. Ever such a nice bloke but I used to be glad when he left the studio. One session, they bought a steel guitar player who really couldn't play and I said to Russell " I don't want to shatter your illusions or anything but this guy hasn't a clue what he's doing" He was so bad that I had to kick him out the studio in the end; physically drag him out by the scruff of his neck to get rid of him! They had come in to record two songs and they phoned me back later to say that Virgin Records had given them an advance to do their own thing and develop their sound, so they came back and recorded some more. Sometimes I'd be in the studio with them until three o'clock in the morning trying out ideas until we ended up with what they wanted. They weren't any better musically than any other band I worked with except because of their appearance and the fact they could just about play their instruments, I could see that they would make an r'n'b band like The Rolling Stones. I was doing my best to get them to change the rhythm of a song very slightly to put an r'n'b roll into it and I showed the guitar player how to play some r'n'b but he couldn't play it so it didn't turn out that way. I showed him a riff based on the chords he was playing but he couldn't move off the one chord. His little hands just couldn't do it. The bass player couldn't play either. He could only do down strokes and I was trying to show him how to do up and down strokes to get a crisper sound but he couldn't do it; he kept missing the strings! The thing that struck me was the rawness of the band in every sense of the word. Listening back to The Avant Gardener session now, it still sounds terrible to me. The band had reached a certain stage and they were just playing to the little musical ability they had. The whole band was a complete mess. They were always late and scruffy and just too bloody idle to do anything. Russell couldn't sing to save his life but Virgin obviously saw something in them. Apparently, Virgin held auditions in some sort of mobile studio that was travelling through the country for about three hundred bands and Avant Gardener was one of those bands. All I can say is that most of those three hundred must have been absolute crap! Avant Gardener got an advance from that. If you were in a band back then and knew two and half chords and went up on stage shouting at everyone then you had a good chance of getting signed."
John Greenslade, producer of the bands pre Virgin demos, quoted in the sleeve notes to Hometown Atrocities Records Year Zero compilation CD.
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source punk77.co.uk (link)

Bang Gang - 1983 - She Ran ... But We Ran Faster 7'' (US)

Bang Gang - 1983 - She Ran ... But We Ran Faster 7'' (US)
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BANG GANG "She Ran but We Ran Faster" Three quarters of every show consisted of requests for beer and decisionsabout potential songs, as the singer got increasingly drunk. Somehow he always seemed to end up at the bottom of a dogpile or in a stupor with his head inside the bass drum. Being politically incorrect when politically incorrect wasn't cool, theyhad trouble with distribution of their 7" EP from editors who thought they meant it. 1983
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source Taco City Rockers (link)

Dogs, The - 2000 - Fed Up! (US)

Dogs, The - 2000 - Fed Up! (US)
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