THE GERMS - Forming / Live - What? - 1977

Here it is. The first single by the first band to ever have any real effect on me. I was 10 or 11 years old when I heard the Germs & just couldn't believe that music could be so trashy and noisy. Since that day I've been fascinated by them. I was unaware at the time of just how difficult it was going to be to track down their records though. For years I would walk into any place that sold music, in any form, asking hopefully if they had a copy of 'GI,' their only full length album, and for years I always got one of two reactions; either absolute confusion, or a rude kind of brush-off, like "yeah right, asshole. good luck." This was long before the wonderul / terrible invention of ebay, so it was my only hope. Oh well, I had my Germs MIA cassette, which had all of their studio recordings, and I played that tape so much that now it sounds like 'The Germs - Live From A Wind Tunnel."

Anyway, about this single.. It is considered by most to be the first LA punk single, & considered by others to be the most premature release in history. As far as I can tell, both claims may be true.
Forming was recorded using a karaoke machine & mixed down with some very convoluted idea of 'stereo' in mind. All of the instruments are panned to one side, the vocals panned entirely to the other. Darby (still known as Bobby Pyn) hadn't started using his rabid snarl yet & he's much closer to talking than any form of singing on this track. The band's marginal musical talent is very blatantly on display, & coupled with Darby's snotty little rant at the end, it makes for one hell of a punk masterpiece.

The B-side is actually Sex Boy recorded live (it was never recorded 'properly.') The sound quality is terrible, and the band can still barely play, though Darby should be given some credit for being as close to 'on time' as he would ever be caught on a live recording again. Still, this thing is a mess. At one point you hear what sounds like glass shattering and somebody yelling to "stay away!" The band finishes the song & the crowd is very audibly not happy. As Pat's guitar stops feeding back, there's a split second of silence before a giant, roaring "BOOOO!!" Faintly, in the fadeout, you hear a woman yelling "Get out of here!" It's absolutely amazing.

How is it, exactly, that this is the music that so violently grabbed my attention as a kid? I wish I knew.

This single isn't exactly an accurate representation of their music as a whole. From this, their first single, to Lexicon Devil, their second single, there's a colossal leap in the song writing, playing, and recording quality. They went on to write, in my opinion, some of the greatest punk rock songs ever recorded.

The Germs terrorized LA for 3 years, getting banned from so many clubs that they had to start billing themselves as GI (Germs Incognito) in order to get shows, then Darby killed himself.

The whole story of the Germs is definitely an interesting one, and the book 'Lexicon Devil' (co-written by drummer Don Bolles) is a pretty detailed account of their existence, & a great read to boot. If you have any interest in familiarizing yourself with the Germs, read this book, I beg of you, before the potentially disgusting Germs film (starring Shane West [WTF?!?!?!]) is released nationally. The book is written in the same style as "Please Kill Me" which is another favorite of mine.

Sink yr teeth in. Tasty.

PsychedelicElvis

((( CHERRY BOMB! #1 )))
Hosted by Psychedelic Elvis

This is a bit of a mixed bag. My first time using my new tables & mixer into the computer. It turned out pretty well, though I'll probably shorten them up just a little bit next time. As I mentioned before, these are all strictly vinyl transfers, mostly 45's. (Only 4 of the 26 tracks came from LP's.) Enjoy, & feel free to leave any feedback.

I think I'm obligated to say that if you own the copyrights to any of these songs and want them removed, please contact me and it will be swiftly taken care of.

Here it is...


Cherry Bomb! #1
1. Them - Mystic Eyes
2. The Shangri-Las - Out In the Streets
3. The Troggs - 66-5-4-3-2-1
4. Otis Redding - Down In the Valley
5. Q65 - The Life I Live
6. Nancy Sinatra - My Baby Cried All Night Long
7. The Neal Ford Factory - You Made Me A Man
8. Dion - (I Was) Born to Cry
9. The Nashville Teens - Tobacco Road
10. Things To Come - Darkness
11. The Monkees - Porpoise Song
12. Buddy Knox - I Think I'm Gonna Kill Myself
13. The Smoke - My Friend Jack
14. Sam Cooke - Having A Party
15. Blues Magoos - Gotta Get Away
16. The Bittersweets - What A Lonely Way to Start the Summertime
17. The Castaways - Liar, Liar
18. Love - 7 and 7 Is
19. The Mighty Hannibal - Hymn no. 5
20. The Animals - A Girl Named Sandoz
21. Davie Allan & the Arrows - UFO
22. James Brown - I'll Go Crazy
23. The Kinks - I'm Not Like Everybody Else
24. The Clique - Splash 1
25. The Rock-A-Teens - Woo Hoo
26. The Music Explosion - Sunshine Games

DOWNLOAD: CHERRY BOMB! #1

Psychedelic Elvis

SAM COOKE - You Send Me / Summertime - Keen - 1957

I used to buy any Sam Cooke album that had 'Summertime' listed hoping to find this version of the song. Even the generic, untitled collections, the ones with every obvious hit, just on the off chance that I might finally own this version on vinyl. I really got my hopes up when I found a record with a track titled 'Summertime, Pt. 1,' but it's just the standard, greatest hits version with a little orchestration overdubbed on top. It's a cool version, but disappointing considering my expectations. (Side note: Where is 'Summertime, Pt. 2?' Does it even exist?)

Then, one day as I was digging through a dusty pile of 45's at a thrift store, I found this 45. Despite numerous disappointments before, I was pretty pumped & couldn't wait to get it onto my turntable.

Sure enough, this is the faster paced, upbeat version I had been searching for. Talk about satisfaction. Sam swings like a sonic boom. Pure gold. Sort of even makes me wish I had a soul. Or at least accurate words to sum up the heavyweight power of this seemingly airy tune. Sam slays with a grin, and luckily for all of us, this was merely a sign of what he was capable of.

I must admit though, as much as I love this version of 'Summertime,' I can't say that I prefer it over the slower, more somber, minimalistic, greatest hits version. Both are, in their own ways, absolutely flawless tunes.

Oh, and 'You Send Me' is actually the A-side. Pretty standard (and entirely enjoyable) but I think I have enough records with this song that I could listen to it repeatedly for a few hours without playing the same record twice. Being Sam's first single in the 'pop' world though, the historical value of the song is undeniable.

Luckily, Sam continued to write and record steadily, releasing an impressive collection of righteous and moving music, right up until his very untimely and confusing murder in December 11, 1964.

Strange that music from more than 50 years ago moves me far more than anything my generation can manage to burp out, huh?

*****

On to all other things blog-related..
I have been, and still am, very reluctant to post mp3's of each 45 I review. This is mostly out of my need for convenience, since transferring vinyl onto my computer is a bit of a task. Instead I'm going to start posting mixes, or 'podcasts' or whatever the technologically-up-to-date will call them, that will have at least some of the mentioned records in them. These mixes will be recorded live from my turntables, will be strictly vinyl (primarily 45's,) and won't be cleaned up at all. I just have to figure out the details of where I'll be hosting them and exactly what format to offer them in. (One continuous mp3, or a .zip with the tracks broken up, etc.)

And finally, the blog-affirming, exciting news. I have never had delusions that anybody, at all, visited this site, but I just got my first comment from none other than Bill Gallagher, the guitar player of The Bougalieu. Click the comments of the post below this to read what he had to say. Luckily he wasn't offended that I ripped on one side of that 45. It's cool to know that anybody at all has ever read this little blog, but extra-cool when that person is responsible for something that I've chosen to write about.

Alright.

Psychedelic Elvis

The Bougalieu - Let's Do Wrong / When I Was A Children - Roulette Records - 1967

After bringing this record home and doing a bit of research, here's what I came to learn about this group. ... ...pretty much nothing. They're from Albany, apparently, and have been comped on a few garage / psych records, most notably Pebbles. I, however, was unaware of this before buying this 45, purely on a whim.

Anyway, to the substance. This record is definitely a one-sider. "Let's Do Wrong" (which I believe is the A-side) is a fantastic rhythm & blues raving burst with a strangely atonal and nonsensical, albeit short, middle section. Clocking in at a wondrous minute and 45 seconds, this song delivers all that gets me jazzed in a nice short-attention-span-friendly package.

And then there's the flip side. "When I Was A Children" is a pretty forgettable, middle-of-the-road pop song. It's not good, and it's not bad, and I think that makes it worse. At least a REALLY bad song has the power to make me cringe, or feel embarrassed, sometimes even occasionally make me laugh. This is exactly mediocre, and I'm not impressed. Not one bit. Another convenient reason to not spin this side is that my copy has a locking skip in the final fading seconds of the song, and that can just about drive me nuts.

So what? I'll take a one-sider. Especially when that side is SO FUCKIN' GOOD.

On a side note: Isn't learning the ropes of good garage/fuzz/psych/whatever through Nuggets & Pebbles and What-Have-Yous at least kind of cheating? OK, buying them for the sake of owning those impossible gems (ie: Teddy & His Patches) on vinyl, or for DJ purposes seems to make sense, but having a nice little list laid out for you to begin with seems pretty passive and lazy to me. Isn't the thrill in the hunt? I guess some people just need to be told what's cool and what isn't... Then again, maybe I'm just a snobby music nerd. Who knows?
Psychedelic Elvis

The Poppy Family - Which Way You Goin' Billy? / Endless Sleep

Sometimes I buy shit that I don't have a clue about, just out of curiosity, because it has interesting looking cover art, a good band name or song title, or is on some really obscure, independent old label. Most of the time I end up owning a piece of historical garbage that makes me cringe every time i flip past it until I remove it from my record collection. But, as we all know, occasionally you mistakenly stumble across something really great and it makes all those wasteful purchases justified. Well, this record is a piece of shit. End of review.

No, but really, this record is fucking awesome. Half of it anyway. The B side. I could take or leave 'Which Way.' There's nothing especially note-worthy about it, except that it can get stuck in your head, but you don't really want it there. Oh but the B side is a killer. Jody Reynolds wrote this song, and actually had a pretty big hit with it in 1958, but I must've been living under a rock in 1958 cuz I never heard of it before. Anyway, this song fucking slays and is dark as fuck. Read them lyrics.

The night was black, rain falling down
look for my baby, she's nowhere around.
Traced her footsteps down to the shore,
'fraid she's gone for ever-more.

I looked at the sea, and it seemed to say
'I took your baby from you away."
I heard a voice cry from the deep
come join me, baby, in my endless sleep.

Why did we quarrel? Why did we fight?
Why did I leave her alone tonight?
That's why her footsteps ran into the sea
That's why my baby's gone from me.

Jody Reynolds' version had an extra verse about running into the sea and saving his lady, but the Poppies left that verse out, thereby making the song even cooler. This may have been Terry Jacks' finest moment in his musical career. Certainly much more respectable than that fucking pitiful and embarrassing 'Seasons in the Sun' bullshit he ended up doing. Now I think he's a lumberjack in Canada or some shit. Who knows. Susan Jacks (the singer, also his wife at the time) was a total babe to boot.

Also, I think this gem of a song is only available on this 45, as I've never seen it on any of the collections of theirs that I've found since picking this up. Hooray for compulsive record shopping!!!

Heavy. Heavy.
Psychedelic Elvis

The Clique - Stay By Me / Splash 1

Here's what I've come to realize; there is no upside to being a nerdy record collector. You're forever doomed to be a useless, pathetic, no-friends-having loser, until the day you die, or realize the errors of your ways. Honestly; who gives a flying fuck if I own this record (that I've been pining over for a few years now?) NOBODY. So why did I spend so much money on it??? Because I'm a useless, pathetic, no-friends-having loser with a serious problem. The truth has been told, finally. The saddest part is that I realize exactly how pathetic I am for this kind of weakness, and I still continue to pay ungodly amounts of money (that I don't have) to buy this stupid shit.

Anyway, I had a really well thought out review for this record planned, but then I thought about how much I hate myself for being 100% retarded, so fuck the full review. In spite of my mongoloid-self, I give this record a 10 out of 10 star rating.

Seriously, spend a whole shitload of money to buy this. Then swallow a handful of broken glass & rid the world of one less waste of flesh. I suck at life, for real. This record is proof.

With disdainful love,
Psychedelic Elvis.

It's getting colder and my coat is full of holes and worn too thin for this weather but I'm on a slow train out of town and I've got my smokes and a flask of bourbon for warmth and I don't care where I'm going no more because you see my lady left me, she left me in the morning, she didn't say goodbye, and I worked all day, sweatin' and achin' just to bring that ol' woman my pay, just tryin' to make that lil' girl my wife someday, but now she's gone and I only got movin' on my mind, yes she's gone and so am I.