THE SILENCERS – Rock ‘n’ Roll Enforcers – (Epic) – 1980

I hope they didn’t pick the album name.

Only The Dictators, Radio Birdman and maybe The Hitmen, can get away with that sort of title when there is no irony intended.

Still, when I was a kid, I would have thought that such a title was pretty cool, and that’s with a capital “C”.

But then again we also strutted the streets in denim or leathers trying to look tough.

There are many of these albums in op-shops, all obscure but with an audience of devoted powerpop fans. Search this blog for “powerpop” and “skinny tie” for more detail on that sub genre of rock.

As I have said before I’m a sucker for powerpop, especially when it intersects with the new wave. A lot of it was occasionally confused with and not that dissimilar to punk.

What it had in common with punk was short, sharp, punchy songs with attitude. Where it diverged, lyrically at least, was that punk tackled contemporary or social issues and teen angst whilst powerpop normally dealt with traditional rock n roll themes : boys, girls, relationships etc.

I’m not saying one is better than the other and in any event they frequently intersected.

Clearly, like punk, until power pop received chart action, the music was a reaction against the then dominant sound –disco, prog rock, blues rock with bloated guitar solos, soft rock and other assorted wankery.

Both punk and power pop took their musical cues from the 60s. Punk, however, took its cues (Stooges, MC5 etc) and updated them whereas powerpop largely took it’s cues (Beatles, The Byrds, The Beach Boys etc) and found refuge in them  making the 60s influences clearly discernible.

A number of 60s bands were ripe for rediscovery including the legendary Flamin Groovies who updated their 50s rockabilly / early 70s garage sound with some Byrds and Beatles powerpop.

The Silencers fell into this category. Though they formed in 1979 they certainly weren’t a “young band”  – the lead singer (Igniters, Jaggerz, Diamond Reo) was over 30 …and the rest of them look like they are also…. some of them had their roots in 60s bands.

Their music is power pop new wave with a smattering of old school white R&B.

They are perhaps a less R&B version of Dr Feelgood or a more new wave version of Australian Pub bands like Australian Crawl or The Radiators.

Certainly the cover picture is not indicative of the albums contents.

Either way they are power pop.

Certainly, their collective experience (and age, and era they grew up in) means they could put out punchy tunes that are well played. I love the keyboards especially.

Quirky they are not though.

One has to be careful in discussing power pop – after it exploded in the late 70s, many bands jumped on the bandwagon. That doesn’t mean their music is any worse but I think one is able to question their motives. More often than not that comes through in their music anyway …their albums seem to be a grab bag of styles as if they weren’t convinced of the direction they should take or, worse still, they could only write the one or two power pop songs and the rest is their normal material.

I do not think that applies here.

By way of background:

Apparently The Silencers are Pittsburgh legends.

http://sites.google.com/site/pittsburghmusichistory/pittsburgh-music-story/rock/the-silencers

I also note here there always seems to be a link between powerpop and ethnic minorities: The Silencers are Frank Czuri (vocals), Warren King (guitar), Ron "Byrd" Foster (drums), Mike Pela (bass), Dennis Tacos (keyboards)

Powerpop seems to have its fair share of minorities in its ranks though this probably stems from the fact that powerpop was ultimately a working dance bands, working class music that was initially predominant in places like Pittsburgh, Detroit, Cleveland, Illinois generally. All were “backwaters” (and I don’t mean that in a bad way). All were predominantly industrial, working class areas. All were places where migrant minorities had a large representation.

The album was effectively produced by Bob Clearmountain before he went on to produce everyone in the 80s. (though the production is getting a little “80s” mainstream)

Tracks (best in italics)

• Modern Love   – pretty much standard new wave skinny tie rock n roll. And not bad at that. Not bad and not dissimilar to James Freud and the Modern Girls.
• Head on Collision  – naff  lyrics, “head on collision with you” …but catchy.
• Remote Control   – a perfect new wave song – alienation because of automation – it’s as if we live on “remote control” – get it? Some totally old school organ makes it a winner…..
• Illegal  – power pop new wave. Catchy.
• Johnny Too Bad   – punchy new wave on the streets …melodic with an intro that sounds like something from the Sex Pistols(?).
• Peter Gunn Theme   – a good updated punchy version of the Mancini penned Duane Eddy classic ….nice keyboards ….This song rarely translates well on record but it always works live …..the rock-in-ist version I have heard by the Brisbane powerpop indie band The Headstones.
• Shiver and Shake   – perfect power pop mid tempo groover much like what the Flamin Groovies were doing with Cyril Jordan in their Sire label years. This song also sounds like something else. But don’t they all. A winner.
• Take Out Service   – filler
• Cold Sweat   – this is filler and it betrays their bar room roots. Nothing wrong with that but …probably a better song live than on vinyl
• I Can’t Believe It – a kick ass song before it enters into some guitar wankery. Luckily the guitar wankery if sufficiently jagged to be an asset. Too often bands of this ilk fall back on hack hard rock licks.

And …

The first side kicks more ass then the second but as power pop records go by old farts (30 year olds) this is solid ….. I’m keeping it.

Chart Action

US

Singles

1980  Shiver and Shake  The Billboard Hot 100 #81

Album

—

England

Singles

Album

—

Sounds

Modern Love

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgzIaVnwXys

and attached

The Silencers – Modern Love

Head on Collision

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13WzQ703v78

Remote Control  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SakR1L2oOVQ&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJkhVk2OIlE

Illegal  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJkhVk2OIlE

Johnny Too Bad  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQV8qJBO-Yw

Peter Gunn Theme

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jwT4SllZzg&feature=related

Shiver and Shake 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0M0TV9KjWA

Take Out Service  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2P2LNsz9Qbw

Cold Sweat  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8X2sWV5tWUQ

I Can’t Believe It  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcrvZHyQDeE

Others

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXY6RjLm-vE&feature=related

Diamond Reo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvGPt_4mo38

Marvin Gaye

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEwXcDViJTE

Review

http://digivinyltal.blogspot.com.au/2007/09/silencers-1980-rocknroll-enforcers.html

Bio

http://sites.google.com/site/pittsburghmusichistory/pittsburgh-music-story/rock/the-silencers

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Czuri

http://www.trouserpress.com/entry.php?a=silencers

http://igniterspgh.com/Frank-Czuri.html

http://sites.google.com/site/pittsburghmusichistory/vocalists/frank-czuri

What they are doing now:

http://www.bestrocknrollband.com/id5.html’

http://www.julietoye.com/frankczuritwo.html

http://sites.google.com/site/pittsburghmusichistory/pittsburgh-music-story/instrumentalists/warren-king

Powerpop

http://www.allmusic.com/explore/style/d383

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_pop

http://powerpopcriminals.blogspot.com.au/

Website

http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Silencers-Pittsburgh/161090670607929

Trivia

• Producer Bob Clearmountain was a bass player with The Dead Boys.
• They put out a second album, “Romanic”(1981) before breaking up in 1984.
• “The Silencers rocked as hopefully the following videos will show. In an interesting sidenote, the 1st video got played on MTV on the first day that MTV went on the air. The video also was produced by and used a lot of George Romero’s crew and actors. (Romero is a Pittsburgh native)”. http://www.talkclassicrock.com/forums/the-1980s/2245-the-silencers.html