Category: Jay Hinman

Hello yeah, it’s been awhile. I’d like to turn you onto an extant combo from the UK called THE BRISTOLS. Sure, I’d heard of them as well and always figured they were one of many HEADCOATS knockoffs playing marginal if catchy garage rock. (I believed this beause a Headcoat, one Bruce Brand, was also a Bristol). It was only when I was turned onto lead singer Fabienne Delsol’s excellent solo spy-girl surfbeat record from this past year, “No Time For Sorrows” that I decided to dig further, and hot dog, this is probably my favorite no-longer-new band of the hour. Here, don’t let me tell you about them, let’s hear what their label has to say:

Fabienne Delsol & Liam Watson’s garage supergroup featuring amongst its ranks Bruce Brand (Milkshakes/Headcoats), Owen Thomas (Graham Coxon Band/Cee Bee Beaumont), Parsley (The Adventures of Parsley / Dutronc / Dee Rangers), and the glorious vocal talents of Miss Fabienne Delsol.

They released two full length albums on Damaged Goods and three singles.They released their first single on Hangman’s Daughter in 1994 followed by a split single with Japans Thee Michelle Gun Elephant a year later on Vinyl Japan. Then they released two singles and albums on Damaged Goods before calling it a day in 2003.

After the split Fabienne Delsol has gone solo and released one album so far, ‘No Time For Sorrows’ (produced by Liam Watson at Toe Rag) and is currently working on her follow up due for release in 2007.

THE BRISTOLS’ music is exuberant, simple as hell, fuzzed-out and stripped-down girl pop, the kind that makes a ye ye fan like myself swoon. Check out these two killers from their back catalog, and then order yourself up the new compilation of their stuff that recently came out.

Play or Download THE BRISTOLS – “The Way I Feel About You”
Play or Download THE BRISTOLS – “Questions I Can’t Answer”

I guess a few months ago some too-lazy-to-write-critically switch flipped inside and I started exclusively posting mp3s here at Detailed Twang, saving myself from having to exhaustively describe the rockin’ in favor of letting the music do the talkin’. Did you know that since the January 27th, 2007 post we’ve almost exclusively posted mp3s, sometimes up to 4-5 times per week? Did you know that every song from that date forward is still available for download? Did you know that every one of these handpicked treasures totally rules? So that I may take a break this week in favor of trying to learn the ropes at my new place of employment (don’t fret, alcoholics, Hedonist Beer Jive‘s still posting – that’s even easier to pen than this one), here are a few favorites you might have missed:

TWISTED ARTPUNK OF FINLAND
DEMOLITION DOLL RODS
CLAW HAMMER
LA DRUGS
FUCKIN’ FLYIN’ A-HEADS
THE NIGHTS AND DAYS 1
THE NIGHTS AND DAYS 2
THE GORLS
SCIENTISTS
TWO 60s GIRL POP KNOCKOUTS
DIG DAT HOLE
OLLA
MARZIPAN
RED CROSS BORN INNOCENT DEMOS

If I “collect” any band, it’s THE FLESH EATERS. Any time I get any new unearthed rarity of theirs, I’ll share it here. Previously I posted some live tracks of theirs from a December 1982 KPFK radio session, a video of the “Minute To Pray…”-era Flesh Eaters from YouTube, and their incredible live version of “River of Fever” from a flexi included with a 1982 issue of TAKE IT! fanzine. The show that gave us the latter song was recorded on July 17th, 1982 at a Detroit punk club called Clutch Cargo’s, home of many a Negative Approach and Die Kreuzen show. The Flesh Eaters opened for Chicago melodi-punks THE EFFIGIES, and almost certainly blew them out of the water.

The rightful heiress to the spirit of Neutron Bomb/Babylonian Gorgon Los Angeles punk of the late 70s probably doesn’t even know she’s directly descended from it, but oh my friends – she is. Chicago’s MISS ALEX WHITE AND THE RED ORCHESTRA now have their second excellent CD under their belts with the release of a new one this year called “SPACE & TIMEâ€Â on In The Red. For about the first eight or nine songs, it’s hands-down one of the best records of the year, then loses a little steam before finishing up in the Top 15 nonetheless. It’s a little more varied than the first CD of theirs – which I wrote about here – in the sense that tempos are all over the proverbial map & straddling all manner of punk styles. Kinda like a lot of those wacky Masque punks of Darby Crash’s day – your UXAs, your Metrosquads, your Howard Werths, your Controllers – even your early punk-era GO-GOs (check the bouncy girl-group pop of “She Wannaâ€Â if you don’t believe me). I saw them play a few of these songs live last year and knew it’d be a good record, but it’s even better than that. I’m going to post a couple for you here, but you might want to think about skipping that and clicking here instead.

Play or Download MISS ALEX WHITE & THE RED ORCHESTRA – “In The Snowâ€Â
Play or Download MISS ALEX WHITE & THE RED ORCHESTRA – “Future Talkâ€Â

You want to hear two total killers from late in the first punk era? Right here, right now? OK, first I’ll grant access to THE VAMPS’ “Carving Knifeâ€Â, a great NY Dolls-like stomper from San Antonio in 1980. It missed all the Killed By Death comps somehow but it’s as raw & unhinged as anything on there. These guys opened for the Sex Pistols at “Randy’s Rodeoâ€Â down there – remember those scenes from “D.O.A.â€Â? Second up is “Amateur Surgeonâ€Â from Buffalo, NY’s THE VORES, a 1978 high-tempo scooter with some nutty lyrics about medical accidents. Both unheralded classics. Download them for your homemade “KBD alternatesâ€Â CD-R comp.

Play or Download THE VAMPS – “Carving Knifeâ€Â
Play or Download THE VORES – “Amateur Surgeonâ€Â

Man, the laffs I’ve had over the years making fun of CIRCLE ONE, a second-wave Los Angeles hardcore band famous for being one of the very first bands to inspire their own gang. I mean gang as in Surenos and Nortenos, as in Bloods and Crips. As in the LMP’s, the FFFs and the Suicidals. Then I put on their hit song “Destroy Exxonâ€Â, and all laughs are temporarily ceased. What a ripper! This 1981 classic came out on Smoke Seven records comp LP called “Public Serviceâ€Â (pictured), a collection that also featured RED CROSS and BAD RELIGION and a couple of lesser lights. This is ripped-jean, muscle-flex bandanna hardcore of the highest order. Of course it’s still totally ridiculous – but you’ll learn to love it!

Play or Download CIRCLE ONE – “Destroy Exxonâ€Â

Years from now or even minutes from now when someone, say a potential employer, does a search on my name in Google or whatever, there’s the distinct possibility that one of the results that will come back will be the one I’m typing presently on the CHILD MOLESTERS. Such is the Faustian bargain that one must strike with the Information Age. I’d like to make it known that I only endorse said band’s name for its potential, probably now past, to shock and confound the bourgeoisie – which I’m certain was its aim when these Los Angeles-based art cretins launched it on the world in the late 70s. Possibly by now you may already have a sense of the band; Forced Exposure magazine brought this punk-era combo new life in the late 80s with a slavishly adulatory series of articles, soon followed in the early 90s by reissues of their work both legitimate and illegitimate. I bought them all. Some aged better than others, but the one track that still slays me is this one from their posthumously released “The Legendary Brown Albumâ€Â called “Snake-Eyed Donkey, Fish-Eyed Snakeâ€Â. Chugging Beefheart worship drives this rambunctious bit of mouth-breathing, remedial, low-down dirty blues, and I get the heebie jeebies every time I play it. Likely recorded in the early 80s, as the band ceased production in 1982. This is some real late 20th century black snake moan, and I invite you to hear it or own it by clicking the link below.

Play or Download THE CHILD MOLESTERS – “Snake Eyed Donkey, Fish-Eyed Snakeâ€Â (from 1994 LP/CD “The Legendary Brown Albumâ€Â)