Teacher's Pet "s/t" (Smog Veil, 2008)
Pagans "the BLUE album" (Smog Veil, 2008)
by
DC Larson
Like jagged stones depth-bombed into serene playlist waters, landmark '70s/'80s vinyl by the New York Dolls, Ramones, Dickies and Dead Kennedys wrought ripples that spread across the nation and beyond.
Duly inspired/corrupted, smaller scenes sprang up and featured their own clubs and must-see bands. Boston had Willie "Loco" Alexander and the Boom Boom Band. Motor City Detroit (which had birthed Proto-Punks the Stooges and the MC5) gave up Destroy All Monsters.
And a few combos found greater success upon leaving their respective small pools: Pere Ubu, the Dead Boys* and the Rubber City Rebels, from Cleveland; The Replacements and Husker Du, from Minneapolis.
But many others's recordings went largely unnoticed, owing to limited promotion and regional-only renown. Fortunately, we have access to retrospectives.
TEACHER'S PET was formed in 1977, the same year that saw debut LPs issuing from Blondie, the Heartbreakers (Johnny Thunders version) and Richard Hell and the Voidoids. In a not uncommon tale for the period, the four-man group's existence was relatively brief. But tracks recorded by them in 1979 have just been reissued.
Over 18 tracks (plus vintage videos) , "Teacher's Pet" presents sleek and headlong nascent power-pop of benign mien. Teacher's Pet treated Ohio crowds to the sort of guitar-stoked, keyboards-laden tunecraft that at once echoed venerable melodizing and inspired dancers floor-ward.
Like their live sets, the CD mixes originals with covers. "Meet Me At the Hot Dog Stand in Half An Hour But Don't Tell Your Dad," "Cincinnati Stomp" and "Hooked On You" all buzz with ampheteminized good humor. (And all three are also included as video versions.)
Covers are represented by readings of the Professionals's (Sex Pistols Steve Jones and Paul Cook) "Lonely Boy," Eddie Cochran's "Summertime Blues" and the Paul Revere and the Raiders transistor radio hit, "I'm Henry the VIII, I Am."
PAGANS - Like fellow Clevelanders Teacher's Pet, the Pagans came into being in "Summer of Hate" '77. But they had no time for breezy and tuneful finesse. Theirs was instead a rocketing molten mass of surly rock'n'roll bombast with existence-shredding implications.
Usual suspects guitar, vocals, bass and drums were employed as weapons against the doldrums of Rubber City ennui. "the BLUE album" captures an '89 tour gig. The fighting-trim Punk brutality of sweaty cuts "She's a Cadaver," "Her Name Was Jane" and "Us and All Our Friends Are So Messed Up" fit seamlessly beside a razory cover of the Stones's "Heart of Stone."
The ultimate worth of "the BLUE album" lies in its documenting of splenetic Punk ferocity without a NYC address. Rude guitars charge, crash, and charge anew. Dangerous drums pound into neighboring dimensions. And vocalist Mike Hudson screams and growls like a street fighting man possessed. (Today, Hudson offers his eyewitness chronicling of those times in his tome, "Diary of a Punk.")
Chronicles like these make it plain that for collectors intent on amassing complete 1970s Punk disc collections, the task continues...
http://www.thebandteacherspet.com
http://www.myspace.com/thebandteacherspet
http://www.myspace.com/pagansclepunk
http://www.clepunk.com
http://www.smogveil.com
* Prior to their "Dead Boys" NYC debut, that band's members stormed their hometown of Cleveland as Frankenstein. (And before that, some had gigged as Cleveland's Rocket From the Tombs.) A 1996 three-track CD issued by Hell Yeah! includes 1975 Frankenstein demos of songs later to see new life on the Dead Boys's first Sire LP in 1977.
(copyright 2008, DC Larson)
Pagans "the BLUE album" (Smog Veil, 2008)
by
DC Larson
Like jagged stones depth-bombed into serene playlist waters, landmark '70s/'80s vinyl by the New York Dolls, Ramones, Dickies and Dead Kennedys wrought ripples that spread across the nation and beyond.
Duly inspired/corrupted, smaller scenes sprang up and featured their own clubs and must-see bands. Boston had Willie "Loco" Alexander and the Boom Boom Band. Motor City Detroit (which had birthed Proto-Punks the Stooges and the MC5) gave up Destroy All Monsters.
And a few combos found greater success upon leaving their respective small pools: Pere Ubu, the Dead Boys* and the Rubber City Rebels, from Cleveland; The Replacements and Husker Du, from Minneapolis.
But many others's recordings went largely unnoticed, owing to limited promotion and regional-only renown. Fortunately, we have access to retrospectives.
TEACHER'S PET was formed in 1977, the same year that saw debut LPs issuing from Blondie, the Heartbreakers (Johnny Thunders version) and Richard Hell and the Voidoids. In a not uncommon tale for the period, the four-man group's existence was relatively brief. But tracks recorded by them in 1979 have just been reissued.
Over 18 tracks (plus vintage videos) , "Teacher's Pet" presents sleek and headlong nascent power-pop of benign mien. Teacher's Pet treated Ohio crowds to the sort of guitar-stoked, keyboards-laden tunecraft that at once echoed venerable melodizing and inspired dancers floor-ward.
Like their live sets, the CD mixes originals with covers. "Meet Me At the Hot Dog Stand in Half An Hour But Don't Tell Your Dad," "Cincinnati Stomp" and "Hooked On You" all buzz with ampheteminized good humor. (And all three are also included as video versions.)
Covers are represented by readings of the Professionals's (Sex Pistols Steve Jones and Paul Cook) "Lonely Boy," Eddie Cochran's "Summertime Blues" and the Paul Revere and the Raiders transistor radio hit, "I'm Henry the VIII, I Am."
PAGANS - Like fellow Clevelanders Teacher's Pet, the Pagans came into being in "Summer of Hate" '77. But they had no time for breezy and tuneful finesse. Theirs was instead a rocketing molten mass of surly rock'n'roll bombast with existence-shredding implications.
Usual suspects guitar, vocals, bass and drums were employed as weapons against the doldrums of Rubber City ennui. "the BLUE album" captures an '89 tour gig. The fighting-trim Punk brutality of sweaty cuts "She's a Cadaver," "Her Name Was Jane" and "Us and All Our Friends Are So Messed Up" fit seamlessly beside a razory cover of the Stones's "Heart of Stone."
The ultimate worth of "the BLUE album" lies in its documenting of splenetic Punk ferocity without a NYC address. Rude guitars charge, crash, and charge anew. Dangerous drums pound into neighboring dimensions. And vocalist Mike Hudson screams and growls like a street fighting man possessed. (Today, Hudson offers his eyewitness chronicling of those times in his tome, "Diary of a Punk.")
Chronicles like these make it plain that for collectors intent on amassing complete 1970s Punk disc collections, the task continues...
http://www.thebandteacherspet.com
http://www.myspace.com/thebandteacherspet
http://www.myspace.com/pagansclepunk
http://www.clepunk.com
http://www.smogveil.com
* Prior to their "Dead Boys" NYC debut, that band's members stormed their hometown of Cleveland as Frankenstein. (And before that, some had gigged as Cleveland's Rocket From the Tombs.) A 1996 three-track CD issued by Hell Yeah! includes 1975 Frankenstein demos of songs later to see new life on the Dead Boys's first Sire LP in 1977.
(copyright 2008, DC Larson)
posted by DC Larson at
July 11, 2008
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