Thursday, November 22, 2012

Punk rock shopping list

Hey, Christmas shoppers. Anyone want to get me a real cool record? Here's my punk rock shopping list. Vinyl only, please - help me fill some gaping holes!

I crave:
This Eastern Front compilation album, mostly for the messy live version of the Lewd's "Suburban Prodigy." Studio version here, but it's not as good; the anarchic sludge of the live version takes it to a whole 'nother level. DOA do a couple great songs, and the version of Flipper's "Ever" on this album is interrupted by a fight, presumably between a member of Flipper and the audience, while another member of Flipper (Will Shatter?) starts to cheerlead in rhyme: "all right/ let's have a fight! Beat on his ass/ with a piece of broken glass/ bust his fuckin' skull/ he's void and null/ kill him! Kill him!" Then - after the rant fades off and the fight and show ends - someone lectures Flipper for "beating up on little kids," and someone ELSE in Flipper makes the point that when you fuck with Flipper, you are no longer a little kid, "you are a fuckin' adult!" (I wonder if you can find it on Youtube - ummm - YES, YOU CAN!). The real humour here is that the compilation would actually use THIS track of Flipper's set to represent the band - they barely even get through one verse of the song!

The Plugz' Electrify Me. Yep - the title song was used on the soundtrack of the now-illegal adult film New Wave Hookers, back when Traci Lords was a minor with really good fake ID (all her films from that time have been declared child pornography and pulled from legit distribution in North America). There's actually a shocking clip from it on Youtube, which is probably the best way to hear this song, and one of the only (legal?) places you can see Traci in her devil costume. I never knew that when I was masturbating to this movie as a teenager that Traci Lords was MY AGE at the time... I would have masturbated harder...

But nevermind Traci Lords: the Plugz are fronted by Tito Larriva, also of the Cruzados and of Tito and Tarantula - the bar band at the Titty Twister in From Dusk Til Dawn! (Yep, that's him singing in that clip, of the song "Angry Cockroaches"). AND Tito was formerly a member of The Flesheaters; AND the Plugz' music was used in Mark Romanek's quirkly independent film Static AND in the Alex Cox classic Repo Man! Oh, I'd also happily receive the Plugz' second LP, Better Luck. Both tend to circulate on eBay with huge buy-it-now pricetags, but when they turn up for actual auction, almost always sell for around $60, which seems to be the going rate.
Speaking of the Flesheaters, I sure could use vinyl copies of No Questions Asked and the Tooth and Nail compilation. Steve Berlin, the sax player for the Flesheaters, was just in town playing with Los Lobos! (Don't this Flesheaters song and this Los Lobos one sound kind of similar at the start - or is it just me?).

What I really need more than that, though, is the Big Boys and Dicks split LP, Recorded Live at Raul's Club. Shh, there's one on eBay. Don't you dare bid against me. Check out the Dicks' "Shit On Me," with some great photos of Gary Floyd! (More on Gary pending...).

Can-punk wise, I could really use a copy of It Came From the Pit (with a live version of Nomeansno's "No Sex" and SNFU covering Warren Zevon's "Poor Poor Pitiful Me"). And it'd be fun to have a copy of The Spores CASSETTE ONLY News, Weather and Spores tape (not on Discogs, but on Kill From the Heart). I used to have that, but who knows what happened to it... Someone finally put some Spores songs on Youtube, by the way. This is the original 7" single version - which I already have, note - of "Narcs In My Pants," with the original lyric about the narcs being in the singer's bedroom. That has since been changed: Danny, the lead singer (and Hard Core Logo cinematographer!), explained to me that he was always dissatisfied with the lyric ("now they're in my bedroom, now they're up my ass") since the reference to the narcs being up his ass had been MEANT to evoke cavity searches, but because of the proximity of the word "bedroom," brought to mind something more, er, sexual. Myself, I always kinda liked that - being busted as being buggered - but when Danny was preparing the CD version of News, Weather and Spores (NOT the same as the tape - he just reused the title, since so few copies of the tape were made), he went into the studio and sang one word - "suitcase!" - and had the word "bedroom" replaced. You'll have to just go ahead and buy the CD from Sudden Death Records if you want to hear the new version of the song. Who the hell is the girl in that picture under the Sudden Death link, anyhow? She ain't a Spore...
They're not Canadian, but I'd love a copy of The Crucifucks: LD Eye on vinyl! Doc Corbin Dart's Black Tuesday cassette would be cool, too (also not on Discogs). I've been fascinated by Doc Dart for awhile now - see this article to understand why. Here's some classic Cruficucks, with Steve Shelley, later of Sonic Youth, on drums - let's do "Cops for Fertilizer," shall we?

...And speaking of right wing Christians, how about Jerry Jerry and the Sons of Rhythm Orchestra's Road Gore: The Band that Drank Too Much? I know, I know, but "Colour TV" is a fun song, and this is the only way to get it! Check out their "Bad Idea" tune on Youtube, also from that album... they really are right-wing Christians, and GUESS WHAT PROVINCE THEY'RE FROM?

Oh, I'd take the It Came From Canada comps, too, but I'd need all three volumes to feel complete...

What else? Has someone reissued The Day the Earth Met the Rocket From the Tombs? I'd like THAT on vinyl... and maybe the Peter Laughner solo album... Ummm....

3 comments:

Ford said...

That has to be the first time anybody's called Ed Dobek a right-wing Christian.

Allan MacInnis said...

Busted, it's true. I don't know the ideological orientation of ALL the members of the JJ-&-the-SRO... Actually, I'm not even sure how sincere the band is about it's Christianity (I'm pretty sure it is sincere about its libertarianism...).

There isn't a Road Gore at Red Cat, by any chance?

Allan MacInnis said...

Attention Christmas shoppers: I have finally acquired me a Live at Raul's Club on eBay and an Italian reissue of No Questions Asked. I still need the Big Boys/ Dicks split 7 inches of Live at Raul's, tho'!