Well this takes me back.
This album has been a long time coming for me. I never could afford it at the time and my entire Germs catalogue amounted to a couple of tracks on a couple of Slash label compilations.
I went through a stage of buying everything I could find on the Slash label …. and then IRS
I was too young for fist generation punk whereas early 80s California Hardcore got me at the exact age to satisfy my teenage angst – The Dead Kennedys, Black Flag, Circle Jerks, X, Fear, Rollins Band, The Divine Horsemen. Don’t get me wrong, I never would have got mistaken for a Californian punk in dress. But that’s probably because I also liked everything else coming out of California – The Paisley Underground (The Three O Clock, The Long Ryders, Green on Red), Cowpunk (Rank and File, True West), Roots (The Blasters, The Beat Farmers, Los Lobos) and the plain weird (Mojo Nixon, Wall of Voodoo, The Gun Club). All were imbued with the punk spirit and all of them I loved in varying degrees.
OK, some of those bands weren’t from California but they ended up there.
Everything musically I liked, at that time, seemed to be drawn to California. I assume because it had always been a mecca for those who don’t like the cold of the north east, the lack of venues in the Midwest, the conservatism of the South but also it had all the infrastructure for music – there were venues, labels, studios and jobs to keep you employed when not playing your music.
Also, importantly, the punk explosion in California set new rules for punk.
It is often said that the Germs, The Dead Kennedys and others were inspired by UK punk and the Sex Pistols rather than NYC punk. I can’t hear it. Sure, I’m biased. Certainly there is a lot of Johnny Rotten venom and some of The Damned’s frenzy but musically there is little major influence coming from anything in UK punk. The Stooges, MC5 and The Ramones seem more like the ancestors of the low fi, furious sonic assault that was California hardcore. (admittedly those UK punk bands were influenced also by The Stooges et al).
The punk of California was, generally, not as arty as New York, not as political as DC, not as fashion oriented as London but it was all energy and adrenaline.
It was certainly more interesting, to me, than all the post punk coming out of England, which was punk for old farts ….the prog rock of punk. I found most post punk insufferably pretentious and excruciatingly dull. Like a one trick pony where the trick wasn’t very good. California hardcore also may have it’s limitations but it appealed to teenage anger like nothing else and importantly everyone was welcome – no height, age or dress restrictions.
Is there a message in the music – sure I can wax lyrical about disenfranchised youth, the flipside of paradise, the grey of the American dream but fuck, it’s music which moves you.
And this music does move you.
Louder, harder, faster, indeed.
Because of this energy California Hardcore is often dismissed as being anti-intellectual. Maybe some of it was but a lot of it wasn’t. Clearly, The Dead Kennedy’s and Black Flag weren’t but even the Germs , if you care to listen, have an intelligent lyricist in Darby Crash.
The Germs were young and not the best musicians at the time but that is excusable because like I said they were young. What they didn’t have in music skills they had in attitude, and angst which they managed to convey in short well written and quite literate songs. This is sloppy, loose and rough but it is all energy and quite nasty.
I saw many local bands that sound just as good as this live …but they never sounded this good on record.
The music is also one of contradictions : loose but formal, chaotic but structured, imbecilic but poetic, funny but deadly serious, juvenile but mature, naive but wise….perhaps, it sums up hardcore in all it’s facets.
Ultimately though this music is visceral and it bleeds.
It’s probably pointless talking about each individual song as the album should be listened to as a whole As Aristotle said, "The whole is greater than the sum of its parts”. There are those individual tracks that peak out above the others but listen to it as a whole and it will leave you spent.
The album is produced smartly by Joan Jett (who may or may not have done much producing, depending on who you read)
Tracks (best in italics)
- What We Do Is Secret – Crash, Smear – 0:44 – now this is punk …
- Communist Eyes – Crash, Smear- 2:15 – sounds a little like something from 1st generation English punk – perhaps Wire circa “1 2 XU”, or Spizzenergi.
- Land of Treason – Crash, Smear –2:09 -punk
- Richie Dagger’s Crime – Crash, Smear –1:56 – This is almost a throw back to avant garde hard rock with endearing vocals by Darby Crash.
- Strange Notes – Crash – 1:53 – punk
- American Leather – Crash –1:11 – punk
- Lexicon Devil – Crash -1:44 – a touch of the MC5s here.
- Manimal – Crash- 2:11 – a touch of the New York Dolls here
- Our Way – Crash, Smear- 1:56 – a slow song
- We Must Bleed – Crash- 3:05 – more English style punk.
- Media Blitz – Crash, Smear- 1:29 – punk
- The Other Newest One – Crash, Smear- 2:47 – some interesting lyrics – from what I can make out.
- Let’s Pretend – Crash-2:34 – punk with some mild vocal pyrotechnics.
- Dragon Lady – Crash, Smear –1:39 – punk
- The Slave – Crash, Smear- 1:01 – punk
- Shut Down (Annihilation Man) – Germs- 9:39 – A live song – this is the punk slow (angry) burn a s perfected by Black Flag. Some great guitar work. I’ve never been a fan of the long, punk slow burns but this one works.
And …
Am I keeping it. …fuck yes. Will I play it …not as much as I would have 20 years ago.
Chart Action
Nothing no where
Sounds
What We Do Is Secret
Communist Eyes
attached
Land of Treason
Richie Dagger’s Crime
The new Germs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7A4DsqU7_9M
Strange Notes
American Leather
Lexicon Devil
Manimal
Our Way
We Must Bleed
Media Blitz
The Other Newest One
Let’s Pretend
Dragon Lady
The Slave
Shut Down (Annihilation Man)
Others
—
Review
Bio
Website
Trivia
- Wikipedia: Crash committed suicide December 7, 1980, at age 22. Unreported at the time, Crash had overdosed on China white heroin in a suicide pact with close friend Casey Cola, who ended up surviving. She insists that he did not intend for her to live, nor did he change his mind at the last minute and intend for himself to live. As he lay dying, he attempted to write "Here lies Darby Crash" on the wall, but did not finish. Outside the world of Germs’ fans, news of Darby’s death was largely overshadowed by the murder of John Lennon the next day. A local news station mistakenly reported that Darby had died from taking too many sleeping pills.
- http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=1223
- Pat Smear went on to play with Nirvana and The Foo Fighters.
Did you just quote Aristotle in a Germs review?
An interesting band indeed. I have a comp called ‘Germs (MIA)’ which includes much of this record and a bunch of other stuff. They were one of those bands that were probably awful live, except for that brief period where they were nailing it, with all the drugs, sloppy playing and the awful “scene” around them — can you imagine the horror of standing in an audience with all those skanky, spiky, judgmental “punks” (the audiences, if not the bands, certainly did seem to have a UK fixation) slamming into you and judging your haircut?
But their best stuff does show real talent, as you point out.
The interesting thing about the comp is that you can really witness the band’s proficiency develop over its course. At its start they can barely play. By the end they are, at times, almost profound, almost slick. Very powerful, and Crash developing into some kinda punk poet with his own twisted vision. I like the songs you name (‘Other Newest One’ is a fave of mine too) and especially ‘Caught in my Eye’. That was the first song I heard of them. Do you remember ‘Decline of Western Civilisation’? I never saw the movie, but hearing (and taping!) songs from it via 4ZZZ was a primal early influence of mine. That’s where I first heard X, as well, and I think the Blasters. Anyway, there’s a tremendous version of ‘C.I.M.E.’ on there. I must seek out that record one day; suppose it’s about a hundred bucks these days.
Oh, and you forgot the fabulous Minutemen in your California Hall of Fame…
Thanks Goat … I don’t think the US hardcore scene was that fashion fixated … at first. Ceratinly not from what I remember – from books etc. But I agree with you regarding a certain UK fixation. Though I watch interviews now and there is a lot of name checking but a lot of it seems to be reconstructed memories.
At the time though American Hardcore was a breath of fresh air (here in Brisbane) from what were the English dominated alternative indie charts at the time. That English domination was only very short but it felt like it lasted a lifetime …such is youth.
Like you, I also have never seen the “holy grail” of US hardcore, “Decline of Western Civilisation”. And, like you, I had taped a lot of it from 4ZZZ also! The video for “Decline” always changed money for a lot of dollars I recall. It’s easy to get now, but you know, much like this LP, a lot of it will just be a nostalgia trip. Perhaps?
Yes, I didnt mention The Minutemen and many others … The Flesheaters, The Dickies, Red Cross, The Bangles(!) and others. But also those immediately preceding like The Dils, Zeros, The Plimsouls, The Nuns etc.
I don’t listen to that music as much anymore, but as you know I still listen to a lot of musicians who were in those bands.
Franko, you mention the English dominated alternative indie charts…do you mean the Smiths, Elvis Costello, Siouxie and the Banshees, Cure? Sure the American punk was different, it certainly had more energy, but it didn’t have the oddness of Wire, Gang of Four or Joy Division. More odd than Devo, even – they seemed to use plenty of unexpected time signatures, or drum patterns, or guitar stabs. These UK bands were undoubtably more dour than the hardcore scene in California, but at least musically I think they were weirder.
“Wire, Gang of Four or Joy Division”… of those three I only liked Wire. The rest were, more or less, “insufferably pretentious and excruciatingly dull”. The “American Punk” you refer to is accurate when applied to Californa hardcore but if I wanted weird (and i don’t always) in American punk why wouldnt I listen to Television, Pere Ubu, Suicide, Richard Hell, James Chance, Glenn Branca, The Residents, The Feelies, Lydia Lunch, The Cramps, Devo and others ….many of whom were weird, and had been weird for a long time before those you have mentioned. Though I occasionally do, there is no need to cross the Atlantic. I did say I was biased, didnt I?