Wednesday, December 07, 2016

UNITS - History Of The Units (Early Years '77-'83)

This post is a request and I don't know from who but that's now playing no role. Seminal early electronic punk (SynthPunk), full of Moog-y goodness and computer blips. The Units were an American early electronic music/punk rock/New Wave/synthpunk band, founded in San Francisco in 1979 and were active until 1983. They were one of America's early electronic New Wave bands, they are sometimes cited (along with The Screamers) as pioneers of the genre now known as synthpunk. The Units were notable for their use of synthesizers in place of guitars, and multimedia performances featuring multiple projections of satirical, instructional films critical of conformity and consumerism. They are the angry Kraftwerk. Don't even mention guitars to them. I must say, I was quite skeptical and excited about what a band would bring which hate guitars. The more surprised I was when I heard this CD. "Cannibals" I knew already, is on any KBD sampler but the rest was new. Sure not every song is good ('East West' is a total waste, 'Warm Moving Bodies' makes me sleep, 'Red' is superfluous, Zombo needs five minutes to please me....) but more than half of the twenty-one songs are cool so this compilation deserves a visit to my player again. Wanna give you some critical response from wiki: The alternative press publisher V. Vale called the Units "the first San Francisco band to perform using no guitars", and the Los Angeles music critic Kickboy Face of the fanzine Slash wrote of a Units performance, "That night, watching the Units pound their machines into submission, I knew that another cliched concept of mine was biting the dust once and for all. I also knew that there probably was a future to rock n roll after all, and that future did not necessarily include anything resembling guitars. - Well, the Units have me positiv surprised and so I can highly recommend this album.


Tuesday, December 06, 2016

SCHLIESSMUSKEL - Untergang Der Abendländischen Kultur 1987

Last week I had some time to rip some old D-punk classics and the next four posts belong exclusively to this. Let's start with the awesome debut from Schliessmuskel (German punk band of the late 1980s and early 1990s from Hamminkeln). Along with groups such as the Mimmi's and the Abstürzenden Brieftauben they were among the best-known German bands of this genre (FunPunk). The band itself always rejected the classification "FunPunk" and saw the band rather as Punk (Hardcore) combo and I agree absolutely with them. After the band's formation in 1983 by Ede Wolff (guitar), Schlaffke Wolff (vocals), Techt Tetmeyer (drums) and Böckler Hachenberg (bass) they released their debut EP Komm Setz' Dich Zu Uns (WeBite Records) in 1986 with six short punk attacks and with their debut LP one year later they continued their fast hardcore style, same applies for the 2nd album Sehet, Welch Ein Mensch! In the coming years they played gigs with the Spermbirds, MDC or the Adicts. 1990 they were on the compilation Festival Der Volxmusik that brought together the most important German fun punk performers. The next album Weniger Fett-Mehr Muskeln appeared in the same year and reached four digit sales figures and held for weeks in the independent charts. Mid-1990 it was quiet about the group and the split from WeBite follows. In 1993 the musicians performed as the opening act for Die Toten Hosen. Renamed in Die Muskeln and in the following years, the band retreated, still published recordings (in 2000 again under the old band name). Singer Schlaffke began after the withdrawal of the group under the name "Zwakkelmann" a solo project but with no comparable success. In late 2005 the band were reformed and played in Oberhausen and early 2006 in Essen two gigs. Rumors of a reunion but were rejected. So don't be afraid what you see or read about them, Schliessmuskel is one of the best German Punk bands I've ever seen.


Sunday, December 04, 2016

INSTIGATORS - Shockgun 1988

Hell Yeah, another saugute record I love to hear is the third album of the Instigators and I have the German one which was released via Weird System (unfortunately without insert) and they say with a better cover, absolutely true and has a bonus song opposite the original on Positive RecordsTwelve melodic guitar-heavy punkrock pearls as they can only be played by this band. A pleasure this music and that's why I'm a damn fuckin' punkrocker! How can you sit still and accept all the radio shit? The mendacious business of artificially diced arbots, which is all about money, the fake music industry who tell you what to hear, all these hypocritical bastards... the society needs people like us because we show them how stupid they are and we are many (no idea why I leave now this small puke but it just pisses me on). Well, anyway... I recommend you to get their first album Nobody Listens Anymore and find other compilation tracks by using the search function at the top left.


POTENTIAL THREAT - Never Again 1989

Top Anarchopunk with this record: Potential Threat formed in Blackburn in 1981, the first real line up being Fos, Carl & Les Donnelly joined soon after and the band began rehearsals, drummers at this stage came and went on a weekly basis. Few gigs were played, the most legendary being a show at the 'Cats Whiskers Club' located in Burnley. This gig was absolute mayhem and saw the band being forced from the stage due to flying glasses and bottles. It wasn’t long after Carl quit the band. 1982 saw the return of Potential Threat, this time fronted by Pauline on vocals, Fos on bass, Les on lead and Keith on drums. They released two 7Inches and two albums and this record was pressed in various vinyl colours like black, orange, red, clear, white, green and green marbled, each colour 1000 copies. Fazit: a solid powerful record!

Saturday, December 03, 2016

V/A - We Can Do Whatever We Want 1986

Hui, now it becomes more violent with this damn compilation released via BC Tapes & Records, no idea if this is first as a tape comin' out, does not really matter. Excellent hardcore stuff, mostly bands from Italy present and they bang everything neatly in two. But also the rest mercilessly attacks the heart and catapults the pulse upwardsTwenty-nine nuggets, somewhere pressed on the bands records but many only here banned, too bad the insert is a bit poor. 1700 copies pressed on black vinyl (this version). 300 copies were pressed on blue vinyl for mailorder. Egal, this record was also licensed in red vinyl by the Munich label Starving Missile in the same year with one extra dick.

1.Police, Police/Destroy - RAW POWER
2.Racist Money - RAW POWER
3.Fuck Authority (Live) - RAW POWER
4.You're A Waste Of Human Space - EAT THE RICH
5.Bored - EAT THE RICH
6.Red Riot (Live) - PSYCHO
7.No Way (Live) - PSYCHO
8.Last Kids From Nowhere (Live) - TRAUMATIC
9.World Without Hate - RATTUS
10.Ugly Corpses - RATTUS
11.Chocu Umeret (Live) - I REFUSE IT!
12.Bomb Threat - VIOLATION
13.Shut Up & Gimme - SNUFFLIX
14.Scenic View (Live) - SNUFFLIX
15.I Hate (The Families) (Live) - WAR DOGS
16.El Salvador (Live) - DETENTION
17.Dead Rockers (Live) - DETENTION
18.715 - SUBURBAN DECAY
19.Spazi Di Potere - SHOCKIN' T.V.
20.Strange Land - TERVEET KÄDET
21.Uniti Sempre - WRETCHED
22.Nessun Diritto - WRETCHED
23.Ti Obbligano Ad Obbedire - WRETCHED
24.Fuck Allegiance - NO RESPONSE
25.Rumori - PEGGIO PUNX
26.Non Siamo Come Voi - PEGGIO PUNX
27.Linea Diritta - PEGGIO PUNX
28.400 Fascists - C.C.M.
29.Foe Or Friend (Live) - C.C.M.

COSMETICS - s/t LP 1982

Now female fronted and come to a band from beautiful Vienna and there's not really much info in the www. The Cosmetics were founded in 1981 by the producer-couple Gitti and Ernie Seuberth. 'Coconut Smoother' is their debut 7'' which was released on Lemon Records (Zitronenklang) and with their second single, 'Hello Man' they held for weeks at No.1 the Austria charts. At the Rennbahn-Express-Star selection-1981 they were voted as the most successful local band (before Chuzpe). Gitti Seuberth sang also in the new-wave band Minisex and with the director Niki List the theme song to his cult film (and there are not many in Austria) Müllers Büro. I'm really happy and grateful for this album because it's so fuckin 'rare and only a few know, it's worth to listen to every song. Excellent pop with a fat touch of punk (KBD fit). And the band's not afraid to play a few covers, examples: 'Last Time' by the Rolling Stones or 'Summertime Blues' by unforgotten Eddie Cochran. Curious? - Very good!!!!!

- Huge Thx to Reinhard -

Friday, December 02, 2016

PARAF - Prekinuti Koitus: 1978-1979

I love Yugo punkrock and Paraf are one of my favourite combo and first I need you to download their first album A Dan Je Tako Lijepo Počeo and read more about the band there. This nice compilation comes out via the Swedish label Ne! Records which focuse on ex-Yugoslavian punk rock music and on this record are, when I understand the inserts right, rare demo versions, live cuts and sampler goodies, the reason why I must estimate is simple: the artwork is excellent, gatefold sleeve, a lot of pics but all in Yugoslavian language, I don't really understand this and whether that brings for the rest of the world I don't think so, well, who gives a shit. Fact is: a successful record and every damn penny worth - So have a good start into the weekend and I'll be back tomorrow, Hallelujah!

- Great Thx to Fredrik -


VILLAGE PISTOLS - Big Money 2000

One 7Inch made these guys on nylon records and both songs are superb, Big Money was immortalized on samplers (Killed By Death # 7) and the b-side is a nice Beatles cover, chic. The Village Pistols was a coming together of hare-brained ideas by several people living in and around Greensboro, North Carolina in the Summer and Fall of 1980 and broke up in 1981. This release is brought for us by the Italian label RaveUp Records and called American Lost Punk Rock Nuggets – Vol.7 with of course the 7inch and ten rough live recordings from October 1980 in Greensboro, cool artwork and extensive liner notes.


Thursday, December 01, 2016

ZK - Leichen Pflasterten Ihren Weg 1982

Last month this year and let's start December with a nostalgia record by ZK, a German punk band from Düsseldorf, which is regarded as the predecessor of the group Die Toten Hosen. At first they called themselves the Central Committee of the City Center, but in the scene, the abbreviation ZK was established. ZK was founded in November 1978 by Campino, Ralf Isbert and Claus Fabian. The first performance took place in March 1979 in the Ratinger Hof. The guitarist's position changed at first. It was not until the end of 1980 that he was filled with Andreas von Holst. The group initially played punkrock, but then continued to develop their style and integrated rock and rockabilly elements into their music. The humorous texts of the group were particularly noticeable. They were, for example, filthy phobias, cowboys sitting in bathtubs, or Christmas men with unwanted presents. In 1979 and 1980 they released a single and in 1981 followed the awsome debut album Eddie's Salon. On 21. November 1981, ZK gave their last concert at the "Okie-Dokie" in Neuss. The band members then went on different paths. This live album is so to speak an excellent compilation of all hits with nice announcements and a funny atmosphere. A great band!