Category: Jay Hinman

Perhaps one of the most “developmentally delayedâ€Â – and yet paradoxically miles ahead of the pack – releases of the go-go late 70s would be the three tracks from THE PRATS that made it to the EARCOM 1 record on the Fast Product label. These Scots helped redefine shambling, spasmodic, inepto-rock. Their primitiveness to me almost comes off as a bit forced at times (“Invernessâ€Â), but damn me if I still don’t totally dig listening to their joyous mess when I get the gumption. It defines the learning-to-play-on-the-job ethos of late 70s Britain, and a period that generated some of finest 45s of any era. The EARCOM 1 12â€Â compilation was a collection of “up and comingâ€Â bands from the British Isles, and also included the BLANK STUDENTS, the much-underrated FLOWERS and others. EARCOM 2 came out a year or so later, and had legendary eardrum rippers from Americans like the MIDDLE CLASS and NOH MERCY.

Well, I’m hoping to help kick up a cloud of PRATS mania, since it turns out there’s a new compilation of their compleat works now out called “Now That’s What I Call Prats Musicâ€Â. One of their songs even turned up in the remake of “The Manchurian Candidateâ€Â that no one saw. Lots more to learn & do over at their site, but in the meantime, here’s those Earcom 1 tracks.

Play or Download THE PRATS – “Prats 2â€Â
Play or Download THE PRATS – “Invernessâ€Â
Play or Download THE PRATS – “Boredâ€Â

One of my top 2007 finds (and perhaps yours as well – the word is most definitely out) is a young band from Huntsville, AL called THOMAS FUNCTION. Reminscient in so many ways of a stripped-down, keyboard-augmented, less grandeur-bound TELEVISION, two of their three 45s are among the finest & most deceptively catchy records of our aging decade so far. (I say 2 of the 3 because I haven’t heard the new one yet – the label says it’s “in the mail”). I think the main guy’s vocals come off as so much more real than others looking to recreate a pre-punk history for a post-punk world, and THOMAS FUNCTION are the sort of band that’s going to appeal equally aging record dorks like myself and the new gaggle of teenage hipsters. Apparently the garage punk congnescenti dig ’em too. See you what you think by downloading two of their best so far.

Play or Download THOMAS FUNCTION – “Conspiracy of Praise” (from “The Insignificants” 7″EP)
Play or Download THOMAS FUNCTION – “Vanity Lights” (from self-titled 2nd 7″EP)

In the limited universe of 1980s garage-revival bands who’re any good, THE MORLOCKS are the ones that stand mophead-&-slumped shoulders above the rest, on this single EP’s merits alone. “Emergeâ€Â is a total monster, a record that pre-dated the hallowed early 90s let-it-rip garage punk by almost a full decade. It’s the razor’s edge of that overloaded, screaming 60s punk made famous on “Back From The Graveâ€Â, updated for 1985 stylings by a gaggle of cretinous San Diegans who absolutely lived 1965 in every way, shape and form. Most of the time bands that dress the part just blow. The Morlocks did not. “Emergeâ€Â is easily their high-water mark, and it’s a stone drag that the only other full-length LP they put out was a live record. We hate live records! (Though rumor has it that it was a fake live record – it sounded like dog dribblings nonetheless). I also don’t care much for the GRAVEDIGGER 5, the loins from which the Morlocks sprang. But that’s me. This guy Leighton, the lead Morlock, with bangs obscuring just about everything save his chin, was quite a mod/punk scene hero among the mod/punks I met around & after this time. I heard lots of Leighton drug and Leighton drinking stories — in fact, the San Francisco house I moved into in 1989 was said to have been recently vacated by The Morlocks, who did in fact move to SF after this record to do more drugs and toughen their sound, as if that was possible. They died there as well — figuratively — and I never found out if Leighton was truly shagging birds in what later became my bedroom.

“Emerge” has some covers of 60s punk staples that stack up extremely well against the originals, and given that the originals — MURPHY AND THE MOB‘s “Born Loser”, THE ESQUIRES‘ “Judgement Day”, “By My Side” by (I forget) — are some of the most ferocious rock firebreathers ever, that’s not half bad. But it’s an original howler called “In The Cellar” that made this band’s rep in 2 minutes flat — an overmodulated, fuzz-filled catastrophe that goes way, way beyond “in the red” and into something very deep crimson. It’s really ugly, and I mean that as the highest of praise. If you crossed some of the Japanese fuzz/noise bands of relatively recent vintage with, say, THE SONICS, you might get a sense of how boss this is. Hopefully someone will get busy and put this 8-song 12″EP onto a CD, and dig up any other hot Morlocks tracks that never made it out during this era. Hey, how about you?

PS – I know they’re actually still playing music under this name, but I’m a curmudgeon. What they did 22 years ago is just enough for me.

Play or Download THE MORLOCKS – “In The Cellar” (from the “Emerge” 12″EP)
Play or Download THE MORLOCKS – “By My Side” (from the “Emerge” 12″EP)

This 45 from a late 70s New York group called the HAND GRENADES has been fooling “puntersâ€Â for years who mistook it for a British DIY record from the same era, myself included. When I found out these dudes were from “the Appleâ€Â I was incredulous. I guess I still am. But here you go – a really great, lost-to-time stark and strange inepto-garage record from a band who have very pleasing elements of the Swell Maps, Wire and Steve Treatment. Enjoy!

Play or Download HAND GRENADES – “Demo To Londonâ€Â (A-side)
Play or Download HAND GRENADES – “Coma Dosâ€Â (B-side)

Maybe it’s old hat to you, but I just heard this 1981 EP from arty, goth, big-haired doomkings THE VIRGIN PRUNES this month, and I gotta say, one song in particular just knocked my friggin’ socks off. That would be “Twenty Tens (I’ve Been Smoking All Night Long)”, the lead song of their debut EP, the rest of which is just abominable. A stuttered, totally wacked-out PUBLIC IMAGE-esque dance macabre, with this whomping bassline & creepy-crawl guitar that’s near-perfect. I remember these guys found a home in the hearts of some hardcore punk heavyweights back in the day – Jimmy Johnson at Forced Exposure & Tesco Vee of Touch and Go fanzine – and now I know why. It certainly can’t be for the other stuff. The haircuts – maybe.

I can dimly recall the kerfuffle this particular fake-o xenophobic stomper generated back in the early 80s, thus proving how successfully the joke was employed. WHITE PRIDE – now there’s a name to get the typewriters tapping – were roundly criticized for the “Peace My Ass” EP in the pages of Maximum Rock N Roll and virtutally everywhere else, and taken literally, that’s understandable. My take is that the knuckle-draggers responsible for this, who included amongtheir number Mike Doskocil (later of DRUNKS WITH GUNS), probably were very anti-PC before their time, and chose to “make mirth” with the concept by going ridiculously over the top, all the better to stir up the hysteria of the anti-Reagan left so stridently strident at the time. A bonus is that the song itself is funny – at least to a humorless reactionary like myself. It’s also a meatheaded punk/metal romp somewhat reminiscient of POISON IDEA as they slowed down, with barked, eye-bulging vocals that are a gutbuster in & of themselves.

Then again – covering myself here – if it was serious? Well, it’s just too stupid for words, as are most current commentaries of the subject. As a supporter of “the money machine”, I say: Tear down the walls, baby! Let ’em in!

Play or Download WHITE PRIDE – “Illegal Aliens” (from 45)

Certainly it’s not news that there are new live CDs out from THE FALL, even when they’re from the hallowed 1979-1983 period. I certainly can’t keep up with the flood of releases, but I’ve been buying some of the live discs from this era, along with the “repackagedâ€Â versions of old LPs, complete with alternate versions, demos, live tracks and the like. Remember when the only live FALL stuff you could get from the glory years were the “Totale’s Turnsâ€Â, “A Part Of America Thereinâ€Â and “In A Holeâ€Â LPs? Man, I paid a pretty penny for those last two as well, but then again, THE FALL are one of those half-dozen key bands in my musical development. Once I locked in with them, they earned their place in my head as the single greatest & most influential British act of the last thirty years.

So here are two previously-unknown-to-me live tracks that made their way onto the 2xCD reissue of “HEX ENDUCTION HOURâ€Â, which as I’ve stated before, is the finest of all FALL records. Don’t believe me? Just listen to it. “Session Musicianâ€Â and “Jazzed Up Punk Shitâ€Â are certainly not of the caliber of anything on the original LP, but as stand-alone extras – and as songs that never got waxed into studio versions – they’re great, and are “must-havesâ€Â, as they say.

Play or Download THE FALL – “Session Musicianâ€Â
Play or Download THE FALL – “Jazzed Up Punk Shitâ€Â

I don’t think I’ve come across a single better track from swinging 60’s France than “Fallait pas écraser la queue du chatâ€Â by CLOTHILDE, a beautiful, complex, uplifting baroque pop masterpiece. I heard it being played at a French bakery last year and I actually asked for the manager to compliment him on his excellent choice in customer ambiance-setting. CLOTHILDE released a mere two EPs, but as I’m coming to find out, several of her eight wonderful songs (they’re ALL fantastic) were re-sung in different languages for other European markets. Such is the case for “Fallait pas écraser la queue du chatâ€Â, which I’m posting for you here in its original form and again as “Sopresa!â€Â, a Spanish-language version of the same tune, with a quicker fade-out toward the end. You judge which is the sexier language– I know who I’m voting for. If you’re like me the first time I heard this song, you’ll be playing it five or six times straight, telling everyone you know about Clothilde, carving her name in your arm, stalking her on the Internet, and naming your firstborn son after her. Thanks again to JA for turning me onto her way back then.

Play or Download CLOTHILDE – “Fallait pas écraser la queue du chatâ€Â
Play or Download CLOTHILDE – “Sopresa!â€Â

Nearly three years ago the first official PRIMITIVE CALCULATORS CD came out, packed with a crateful of lost extras (live tracks, home recordings) that in many ways outshone their officially-released stuff. I love it when that happens. Here’s a meta-meta-meta post, one that references both a 4/20/05 post I did on the band, and then a 1/23/04 post I did as well:

“…Taking the lazy man’s approach to review-writing this time in order to herald the release of the official PRIMITIVE CALCULATORS CD. A year+ ago I reviewed a CD-R that had their live album + debut 45 on it — this one takes out the 45, but adds an incredible batch of unreleased bonus tracks that are leagues better than their official stuff. In particular, a piercing indutrio-punker called “Glitter Kids” from 1979 rules the roost here, & sounds like everything you wished THE SCREAMERS had been, with a cranked-up metronome keeping time over scattershot guitars and screeching keyboard blips. Moreover, there’s this hot, metallic, shards-of-sound number called “Casualty Ward” (1977!!) that approximates the URINALS’ “U” and SPK’s “Mekano” in barely over a minute. You’ll flip. Here’s what I said last year about the live album:

One of the great under-the-floorboard artifacts of the late 70s flowering of UK bedroom post-punk is this four-song EP from Camden’s STEPPING TALK. Low-key and aimless to a fault, it illustrates perfectly that special rainy, damp, cold leftist/labour D.I.Y. sound that encapsulates barely-pre-Thatcher Britain in 1979. As I understand it, the band were drinking pals with the early SCRITTI POLITTI, with whom they share that shambling, agitprop-infused approach. The “Alice in Sunderlandâ€Â EP employed the two-concurrent vocals trick popular at the time, where one guy sings and a girl tells a totally unrelated story on top of him. Weird horns float in, out & around a thumping but lackadaisically-played bass. The excellent “Common Problemsâ€Â sounds as if the band, attempting but failing to play in unison for most of the song, had a piece of carpet pulled from under them midway through & scrambled to keep playing in spite of it. The form and construction of these little set pieces owe something to jazz, but more likely there were a very deliberate attempt to pull off something jazz-like by playing particular instruments in sequences exactly backward of what one would expect from the rock music of the day. The instrumental “John’s Turtlesâ€Â is the most experimental of the bunch, and sounds like a strange & frightening tribute to some peculiar British-created white man’s dub. It’s a really cool period piece from an era in which it seemed like 20 of these warped, provincial slices of indie vinyl came out every week in the UK and US.

Play or Download STEPPING TALK – “Alice in Sunderlandâ€Â (Side A, Track 1)
Play or Download STEPPING TALK – “Health & Safetyâ€Â (Side A, Track 2)
Play or Download STEPPING TALK – “Common Problemsâ€Â (Side B, Track 1)
Play or Download STEPPING TALK – “John’s Turtlesâ€Â (Side B, Track 2)