The Calico Wall - I'm A Living Sickness b/w Flight Reaction (Dove - 1967)

The great thing about music is that there are often moments when certain records can portray how one internally feels, such is the case in regards to the record I am posting about today.

I struggle with life as much as the next guy, but at times I personally feel I am loosing the plot, the rest of the world and the universe which is exterior to me is pretty pointless a great deal mindless and whole means stupid, it's depressing and insulting to anyone with a grain of intelligence in their souls.

Here is where great existential psychedelic numbers come into play -

The Calico Wall, a small unknown psychedelic group from Minnesota cut what today could be called 'THE GREATEST' outsider/outcast recording released and cut possibly  the most out-there 45rpm single during the 60s.

Not much is known about 'The Calico Wall' as their sole legacy is found on this 45rpm record, however what a legacy it is, songs like this piss all over the 'world of people' as the band so eloquently put in their lyric.

If you are a member of this group or knew the band during 1967 please contact me, I'd love to make additions to this post and let people know more about the band.

SO without further a do, please find both killer sides of this 1967 psychedelic masterpiece.

I'm A Living Sickness

This track is like entering my mental state, these are my thoughts and feelings and the almost horror backlash with which resonates in the pits of my heart, soul and mind.... this song is full of self-pity, angst, disdain, annihilation, confusion and paints the world with a not so pretty brush compared to the way the hippies saw it, these guys were realists and confronted the raw honest truth in this their pinnacle release, things were not HIP at all in society during 1967 and neither is it now, records like this one cut through the bullshit and tell it how it is, the song is an existential masterpiece of the highest order and as I said above, relates heavily with me and my current mindset.

Flight Reaction

If you want psychedelic surrealism, look no further than here!! the track 'Flight Reaction' sends the listener into a mad dash tailspin akin to a plane crash, this is true psychedelic music, there is no 18 minute long guitar solos or a drum solo in sight, this is music which hits the nerve centre and confronts the optic cavities of the brain without stopping for a second!!! The actual likelihood too, is these cats being from Minnesota in 1967 had probably never done LSD, let alone smoked a joint, so the fact that they created a psychedelic masterstroke like this is way more cooler and much more better for it... these guys were naturally crazed and psychedelic and this neurotic madness is what created a killer two-sided slab of plastic.

Enjoy 

Paul Messis

The Electric Eels - Agitated b/w Cyclotron (Rough Trade - 1978)

During the 1970s after the optimism of the 60s, the 70s  arrived in a pretty deflated way and seemingly died before it even began culturally, any nihilistic teenage attitude and spirit was lost due to the quagmire of Heavy Rock groups, wimpy folks duos or over-dramatic stadium rock dinosaurs in the vein of Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Yes, Pink Floyd et al. The Early 70s, particularly in the US was as stale as gone-off bread in terms of music and youth culture, there was nothing!... even in the UK all we really had during this time was Roxy Music, David Bowie, T-Rex and Gary Glitter (yes seriously the Shining Paedophile was all that was good during this time, there were exception such as Crushed Butler, Lord Baltimore and The Hammersmith Gorillas - but aside from this music SUCKED!)

The Spirit of teenhood took a back-seat during the early to mid 70s and hid well under the radar awaiting it's re-emergence  in 1976/77 in the form of the music genre we all know now as PUNK ROCK. This was when teenagers reclaimed music from the has-been's and picked up their guitars, ditched their flairs, sang songs about their own lives and held a total disregard for their parents' generation, also what was great is they refused to except the over-indulgent music which was currently at the time being sold to them by the masses.

The thing is and not a great deal of people know this, but New York wasn't the birth place of this scene of music, way before 1976. The state of Ohio was churning out primitive-teenage frustration and desolation at least a good 3 years before the the ' New York' punk scene came into it's own and it was at least 7 years after the last of the 60s teen-bands died out in that area.... so during 1972-75, Ohio of all the places in America created some of the most amazing bands and most influential bands and these groups are now dubbed 'Proto-Punk'... even though a great deal of it is more Punk than what followed.

Some of the pioneers of 70s punk had formed in the squares-ville setting of Ohio cities like Cleaveland, Akron and Cincinnati, these groups would be bands which later became, The Cramps, Pere Ubu, The Dead Boys, Devo, to name but a few.

However the guys who began this treadmill of inept teenage music rolling was the following group of misfit outcasts... The Electric Eels.

The Electric Eels formed in around 1972 and were active from between then and 1975, their output was minimal, but their legacy is huge.

The Electric Eels featured the following guys -

John Morton - Guitar

Dave 'E' McManus - Vocals and Clarinet

Brian McMahon - Guitar (on and off)

Paul Marotta - Guitar (when McMahon wasn't in the band)

Nick Knox - Drums (although to begin with the group had drummers come and go)

Originally formed to play music which resembled the free-jazz of Sun Ra, Ornette Coleman  and Albert Ayler, The Electric Eels created a racket which I would defined as some of the most primitive recordings ever made and possibly the most snottiest teenage attitude committed to tape.

The Electric Eels in their 4 year career only played 5 gigs, each one full off confrontation and frustration, at each of these shows, some sort of trouble was attached for example, The band had been arrested by police on their first gig, they had fist fights with audience members and each other on stage, they had the power shut down during half their set and told to get out of the venue on one occasion. 

Also they looked like social outcasts too, wearing swastika's and Nazi paraphernalia to enrage the public, not to mention wearing leather jackets adorned with hypodermic needles and safety pins (way before those London street urchins The Sex Pistols) and also the bands guitarist John Morton looked like some sorta fucked-up transvestite serial killer on Valium, Morton himself had a leaning to unprovoked violence towards members of the audience. Morton's love of angering people also came in the form of taking this out into the world around them, an example according to myth suggests that Morton and Singer Dave 'E', would go to the hardest drinking bar's and dance together in a camp manner as to make out they were homosexuals and to anger the locals.

Actions like the ones above are pure genius and a total 'FUCK YOU' to the horrible and totally un-coolelements of 1970s society.... this kind of youthful spirit is still totally required in this day and age too... but everyone is so goddamn up their own rectal passages.

The Electric Eels are what bands should be all about.... for me it is almost a primal thing, a gang, a clan if you'd like?totally doing things on their own terms and not putting up with the bullshit the rest of the society is telling them.

Although the Electric Eels split up in 1975, they did have a small wealth of recordings and two of these gems became the bands debut single on Rough Trade records in 1978.

I have included both sides of the 7" single below and also have included a bonus track called 'You're Full Of Shit'.

The three songs attached as possibly the pinnacle of Punk music and the a-side 'Agitated' is possibly the only song which defines the whole of what Punk is all about for me.

Agitated

This track is the epitome of Punk Attitude for me... any one who relates to the utter madness on this song, can in my book be considered a pretty cool and interesting person.

Cyclotron 

You're Full Of Shit

I had to include this because it's simply a great statement the lyrics are amazing and full of 'Fuck You' attitude, I like the lyric "You're so full of shit, you know it's true, 'cause we heard you' talking on the telephone, full of shit, full of shit".... pure GENIUS!

Enjoy Retards

Paul

Meat Whiplash - Don't Slip Up b/w Here It Comes (Creation - 1985)

East Kilbride a dreary post-modernist industrial wasteland located south-east of Glasgow in Scotland, mostly known for being the home of  noise purveyors 'The Jesus and Mary Chain' also sprung from it's womb and spewed out into the world another bunch of leather clad feedback drenched hipsters who went by the name of 'Meat Whiplash'.

'Meat Whiplash' took their name from the b-side on post-punk band's The Fire Engines  1981 released Candy Skin 7" single (I will write about this at a later date).

Following on from the success that 'The Jesus and Mary Chain' displayed with their iconic debut single 'Upside Down', Creation Records owner Alan McGhee signed this bunch of misfits and released their lone release; the genius two-sided single Don't Slip Up b/w Here It Comes.

It was released 6 days before my birth and thank god it was released cos it was a well needed shot into the arm of a totally Squaresville Conservative-raped United Kingdom, records like this gave hope that things were going to get much better, much cooler and much more noisier.

The 7" single came in a cool picture sleeve featuring the image of actor Robert Vaughn and was printed by Bobby Gillespie of Primal Scream.

The Band were - 

Paul McDermott - Vocals

Stephen McLean - Guitar

Edward Connelly  - Bass

Michael Kerr - Drums

Although Meat Whiplash's career as a band was short-lived their legacy continues, not only cos they released a killer single of high indie esteem, but also because they were responsible for inciting a riot at one of the most infamous gigs of the last 30 years.

On March 15th 1985 at North London Polytechnic, The Jesus and Mary Chain plus Meat Whiplash and The Jasmine Minks were meant to play music to a bunch of students and what in turn happened was World War 3 - a legend was created. According to historical account just before Meat Whiplash's set was meant to begin one of the band members slung a wine bottle into the audience creating a mad rage amongst the totally un-hip losers in the audience and whilst the band started to play their set, idiots from the crowd flocked upon the stage and physically beat the band up as they tried playing their music, by the time the group finished and got off stage it was time for the 'Mary Chain' to play, which of course they couldn't because by this point the squares in the crowd were in full-metal riot mode and unleashing all hell and fury on everything around them, including the members of the bands themselves and their equiptmen; This gig has gone down in Rock 'n' Roll history as being a legendary gig.

In 1987 Shop Assistants singer Alex Taylor joined the band and they changed their name to 'The Motorcycle Boy'.

And so we must end this post with the music from Meat Whiplash's sole release.... Enjoy

Don't Slip Up

Here It Comes

Robyn Hitchcock - I Often Dream Of Trains (1984)

Yesterday I went to London with a friend and we were wandering around Soho, I went to a record shop and was looking at the records through the window when all of a sudden Robyn Hitchcock comes up beside me to also have a look at the records in the shop window, I was a little surprised and caught off guard, but I did stop and say "hi" and tell him I was a fan of his music. 

The reason I was a little shocked was, during this week, I've been listening constantly to Robyn Hitchcock's seminal solo album 'I Often Dream Of Trains' from 1984.

'I Often Dream of Train's' is a pretty important album to me, it was one of the LP's which I listened to a great deal during my formative years. I particularly listened to this album when I was briefly doing a college course in Guildford way back in 2003. I spent a number of moments wandering around the Guildford area (still do to this day) trying to go into the past via my imagination. It is great and was a fab time doing all of that in my mid-teens however all I can remember of that time in 2003 was how it was bitterly cold all the time and how it was constantly raining and grey.

I also remember I used to listen to a bunch of albums over and over back then, such albums include Love's  'Forever Changes', The Kaleidoscope's 'Tangerine Dream' and this album, 'I Often Dream Of Trains' by Robyn Hitchcock.

As someone who has been a huge fan of Syd Barrett, British History and the British Sense of Humour, not too mention being a slightly Melancholic, Eccentric and Strange kinda guy myself, 'I Often Dream Of Trains' was sure to make some sense to me as a slightly psychedelic 16 year old suburbanite.

As mentioned during the time I was heavily influenced by this LP, I was based in Guildford and spending a great deal of time there, alone and socially, this album seems to make even more sense as there is reference to nearby things including a 'Cathedral', which in Guildford overshadows the town and is constantly there as a kind of weird pain-in-the-arse, it's both beautiful and ugly. Also on the title track of the album there is reference to catching a train to Basingstoke or Reading, Guildford being in between these two towns.... It kinda all seemed very apt to me and my life at that moment in time.

The Album is a great continuous piece and is honest and brilliant, the album has a strange trippy melancholic feel throughout and this is extenuated by Hitchcock's tender vocal and a lovely array of acoustic guitars, electric guitar and piano, it's a minimal album but is genius because of the song writing.

Please dig my 3 favourite tracks from the album below...

Cathedral - As mentioned above, whilst I was in Guildford, the prominance of the town's Cathedral leaves you with a static feeling that it's always there and consuming your energy, I actually feel it's a bit of an albatross around the town's neck. For people who live in Guildford, it's part of the furniture so to speak, but for me it's a great energetic and mental annoyance. So I used to always listen to this song whilst walking up the Town's Cobbled Street and think to myself "I can barely understand myself, what the hell is the meaning of this world and why is it such a messy place??? and when I got to the top of 'The Cobbled Street', I would look out over the valley and there it was, the bloody Cathedral making a mockery of me and my head space... "Cathedral Of The Mind'... I think Robyn Hitchcock kinda got what I was feeling.

Trams Of Old London - I just love this song because it is a wonderful song and I love the song writing.  I am also a history nerd and am interested in historical things especially things in London and the Tram system of Victorian -1920s London does interest me. Such a song is a good example of the true essence of 'Folk-Music' and I dig that about Robyn Hitchcock's song writing.

I Often Dream Of Trains - This track is simply sublime, it's a great piece of lyrical and song writing genius, I have always loved this song, it resonates highly with me and my mindset. It's totally psychedelic and I guess I have a trippy head space, I love the ironic sense of humour in this song and the weirdly melancholic feel of the song. Once again this song reminds me a great deal of Guildford and my time spent there.

Go and buy some Robyn Hitchcock albums or even go and check out his band prior to becoming a solo recording artist, 'The Soft Boys' (who pretty much invented the neo-Psychedelic Paisley Underground scene here in the UK)

Enjoy folks.

Paul 

Television Personalities - And Don't The Kids Just Love It (1981)

One of the my favourite albums ever released is the one above, The Television Personalities seminal debut album 'And Don't The Kid's Just Love It' released in 1981. The Television Personalities is the brain child of one of the punk generations most important voices; Dan Treacy.  

Dan Treacy started the Television Personalities in 1978 and they self-released and produced a couple of classic punk singles until their debut long-player was released in 1981. In terms of Indie Music, Dan Treacy and The Television Personalities could be now pretty much seen to have founded the genre we all now know as 'Indie' or 'Britpop, however back then it was just considered punk rock and it probably didn't even really get noticed by a lot of people other than those in the know or those who listened to John Peel.

Fusing elements of 60s psychedelia, Jangle Pop, Mod and Punk attitude not to mention the DIY belief and determination many of the youngsters in bands had back in the late 70s, the Television Personalities have gone down in history as being a cult band and In my mind are also one of the more interesting groups to have been around during the late 70s till now in the present day.

The band are still together and playing shows today, the line-up is changeable however Dan Treacy is still writing songs and being the legend that he is.

I had the good fortune of meeting Dan Treacy last year at a Spacemen 3 related event in London, It was kinda cool to say hello and have met a guy who's song I am influenced by and whose music I have been listening to since I was a teenager.

Some folks have said that my own music reminds them of Dan Treacy a little, I personally can't hear the similarities, but I am influenced by his style of songwriting and I do love how personal and honest some of his songs are to him and I guess that is an influence to me as I try and be honest and true too, I guess I also relate to him in that in both our songs there is themes of sadness, being an outcast and also kind of hating the world around us.

                                     Television Personalities circa 1980 (from Left to Right -  Joe Foster, Empire & Dan Treacy)

The line-up as mentioned for the TVP's was interchangeable with only Treacy being the permanent feature, the members who recorded 'And Don't The Kids Just Love it' were Dan Treacy alongside Ed Ball and Mark Sheppard. The album is a cult classic and set the template for the emerging Indie music scene that was happening in the UK during the 80s.

The album is really important to me and I do consider it to be in my top 10 albums ever list, purely because every time I listen to it, it reminds me of my youth. I purchased 'And Don't the Kids....' and 'The Painted Word' LP's when I was around 15 or 16 years old and they both really played an important soundtrack to my life growing up in West London Suburbia, In fact I'd say both these albums are the best albums to express the anger, the boredom and isolation a person suffers in such a place like suburbia. I related to these albums and they made sense to me, that's why I love them I guess?

Later on we moved to Sussex and at the age of 19 I got a job working for The Electricity Board and around the age of 22 I was working on my own in a van all day for almost a year, I liked working on my own because it meant I could listen to my own music. During one very hot summer, I remember taking 'And Don't The Kids Just Love It' out in the van with me, I must have played that album everyday purely because I was working in South London, I was working in area's like Merton, Norwood, Croydon,Mitcham, Thornton Heath, Tooting etc I think I got as far north as Battersea during that Summer. The album was a perfect accompaniment to working in that area, the post-war council estates, the lonely parks, the concrete jungle, the sad forelorn faces from the past to the present, many different creeds and colours... The music and lyrics of Dan Treacy made all this make a great deal of sense to me, the music is totally London through and through.

                                                                              (Above) Dan Treacy

The album is a psychedelic-pop punk masterpiece and a real delight and I feel anyone who seriously loves music, should seriously love this album.... I can't sing it's praises high enough.

Please find below a few of my favourite songs from the album, however I do feel that the whole album is good.

This Angry Silence -  I totally love this song, it reminds me of my youth getting the N207 night bus from Shepherd's Bush back home to Uxbridge after spending the day and night roaming around London, the bus usually was full of gangs, drunks and heroin addicts. Not to mention the suburbia which I called home, had the same fate as included in the song's lyrics... I had alot of 'Angry Silence' inside of me and I guess I still do..... I like the lyric "I spend the days on my own, writing silly poetry, writing poems for the girl I love, but she doesn't love me".... total teenage genius!

The Glittering Prizes -  The Lyrics of this song, I used to tell myself the same things back when I was a kid.... I still am telling myself the same things... I guess if you have a brain and come from a shit and rough area you do ask yourself these things?

 

Diary of a Young Man -  I think this song is my favourite on the album, purely because I have had many moments in my own life which unintentionally mirrored the song.... I think I am currently going through a phase similar to the song.

Geoffrey Ingram -  I guess I love this because it is whimsical English humour in music form, it reminds me of when I was a kid and me and a mate always used to hang around London, we'd go and hang around Hammersmith Broadway a great deal and I guess, I must of in my head felt I was Geoffrey Ingram.

La Grande Illusion -  I totally love this song, it's a fabulous psychedelic moment from the 80s, I think it's a great song, simple as that a great piece of psychedelic pop.

Enjoy Folks

Paul 

Anorexia - Rapist In the Park EP (Slim Records - 1980)

The formation of Punk Rock in the 70s, was possibly the most important thing to happen on the British shores during the 70s, it was one of the most important counter-cultural movements since the radical left of the 60s, it was also a movement which made the youth finally stand up and speak out and express itself in a creative way.

Thousand upon thousands of 7" singles were released in the UK by many aspiring bands throughout and during the late 70s and early 80s, all put-out under the 'punk' moniker, many of these bands' releases were self-financed and released by the band members themselves in very limited quantities on their own independent record labels, this do-it-yourself attitude was kick started by the few and later went on to influence a whole generation of bands who were all just teenagers, this amazing self belief and self determination, brought to the surface many great musicians and records which otherwise would have never been heard in ordinary circumstances.

One such group of misfits came in the form of Anorexia with their fantastic 7" single 'Rapist In The Park' on Slim Records in 1980.

Anorexia formed in Hertfordshire in 1977, they self-financed this single which was put out three years later in 1980, it became an underground hit, receiving a fair bit of airplay on the John Peel radio show. This radio exposure made it possible for the band to do their one and only tour of the UK.

Anorexia were  Kim Glenister - Vocals

                       Nick Page - Bass, Vocals

                              Kevin Leigh - Guitar

                              Andrew Leigh - Sax
                              Graham Snell - Drums

The single is a classic punk 7" with three absolutely raucous and catastrophically great tracks, the lead track the politically incorrect 'Rapist In the Park' is backed with the snotty 'I'm a Square' and chaotic 'Pets'..... It's a killer punk single and possibly one of the best in the genre in my opinion.

Each song is fantastic, my favourite is 'Pets' because it is so absurd and totally teenage and yet at the same time is still sticking it's fingers up to the older generations whilst putting the next door neighbours pet cat in a black bag and throwing it in the canal!!! ... I want a CAT!!!

Punk Rock influences me greatly!

Have a listen below to each track.... you're lives will be much better in the process.

Enjoy

Paul 

Beat Happening - Jamboree (1988)

The musical landscape of America in the 80s was not a very pleasant one, the 80s musical world in the states lacked any real substance, aside from a few hardcore punk bands that came out of Los Angeles and San Francisco during the early 80s, a few post-punk style groups such as Devo and Pere Ubu (who had funnily enough begun in the 70s) and black America expressing itself in the music of Hip-Hop and Rap, the musical airwaves were mainly consumed by god awful hair-metal styled rock bands such as Metallica, Guns N Roses and Van Halen, also the charts were full of self-indulgent crap which consumed the billboard, stuff like Tiffany and Milli Vanilli etc etc.

It wasn't until the advent of 'college radio' that some of the more obscure groups begun to get recognised. The UK had a wealth of "underground" groups which were an influence to listeners of these American college radio stations, however there was a distinct lack of American groups, you had to search beyond the radar to find cool bands amongst the wealth of shit which was the 80s American  music scene.

The band and album I am going to write about were one such instance when the music was spot on, fresh, new and raw, it had the spirit of the current times yet also had the spirit of the past making for great songs and a fantastic album.

The Band were, The Beat Happening.

The Beat Happening formed as early as 1982 in Olympia WA its members include Calvin Johnson, Heather Lewis & Bret Lunsford.

Calvin Johnson was one of the founders of cult indie label 'K records', the label re-established a DIY punk ethic and released a shed load of stuff from a bunch of bands including The Beat Happening's own records.

The Beat Happening had 4 studio albums before they silently stopped recording and playing live, however it was their second LP, 1988's Jamboree that saw them make waves on the Indie scene and the album in question influenced a load of musician who would later cover the Beat Happening's songs and state their influence onto their own recordings, one such person was Nirvana's Kurt Cobain who claimed that 'Jamboree' was one of his all time favourite albums.

The Beat Happening's influence can be heard all throughout American Alternative music now and I guess if anything that alone is their sole legacy.

What I really dig about the band is they remained totally true to themselves, they never sold out to convention, despite the many times it was offered their way, they remained in Olympia WA and recorded primitively in their own studio and own style, they released albums and singles on their own independent record label and totally didn't care for the corporate side of things, they made a success out of humble origins and although they didn't make money, they at least influenced people in a way that taught them "HEY you can do this TOO" and I feel this idealism is what was important in the beginning stages of the 'Grunge' genre before the corporate strangle-hold tore that scene to shreds and Kurt blew his brains out.

Jamboree is a cult classic, it's a great album and I feel if you like what you hear below you should indeed purchase the album.

The album has a wealth of material which stands out and makes a great impression.

Below are my favourite tracks on the album...

Indian Summer - This song is as Dean Wareham from Galaxie 500 stated "....Indian Summer is like the 'Knockin' on heavens door' of the indie world, everyone's done it...".It's true, a wealth of bands have covered Indian Summer, I myself have recorded a demo of it at home. The song is beyond Velvet Underground in its style, the monotone of the drums, the two chord simplicity and the twee lyrics about a perfect summer time adventure around Olympia WA.... what more do you need from a song?

In Between - 'In Between' is my favourite song on the album, it's a perfect track, raw, to-the-point and more expressive than most bands' whole albums... I love the vocal style and the way the guitar sounds so discordant, I love the lyrics.... "I asked you about the past, you didn't wanna talk about it, you didn't want to trouble, it's just all history" & "Try so hard to make you forget, see yourself in the TV set".... Brilliant!!!

Bewitched - The fuzzed out garage punk guitar riff running through this is genius, the Mo Tucker styled drumming is far-out and the simple lyrics... "I Gotta Crush On You, I Gotta Crush On You, What am I Gonna Do? I Gotta Crush On You!!!"... Amazing and straight to the point, what is great to me is, shit bands like Bon Jovi and Brian Adams spent years trying to write perfect love songs, but then you hear this and its right there up in your face attacking you and making you confront your feelings and internal emotions, to me 'Bewitched' is a perfect modern day love song!!

Enjoy 

Paul Messis

The Intruders - Now That You Know b/w She's Mine (IT Records - 1966)

When the day comes and I win the lottery (or somehow come into the cash), I swear one of the first things I'll be purchasing will be an original copy of this tremendous double-sided 60s garage 45.

In my opinion this record is one of the best ever releases in the 60s garage genre, both sides are absolutely amazing pieces of music, the 45 is a total killer, the A-side 'Now That You Know' with its beyond genius garage-folk jangle and the B-side 'She's Mine' with its ear breaking fuzztone guitar and snotty attitude.

The record even came in an uber-cool picture sleeve as pictured below (how cool do those guys look?)

The Intruders formed in Pittsfield, Illinois in 1964 and went through a number of line-up changes before they cut this amazing double-decker of plastic.

The line-up of the group who played on this genius record were the following guys.

Doug Oakley - Lead Vocals

Bob Evans - Lead Guitar & Vocals

Bill Mobus - Rhythm Guitar & Vocals

Larry Lemons - Bass Guitar

Jeff Hallows - Drums

Thanks to 'Spinthegroove.com' for allowing me to know the names of the band (for more information on this band go to the aforementioned website)

Now we come to the music.... I just want to say that this lone 45 by the Intruders heavily influenced my own 'Time Will Tell b/w When You Pass Me By' 45, purely cos I wanted to get a jangler A-side and Fuzzy B-side.... The A-side 'Now That You Know' is a very important song to me, as it expresses many words I myself can't speak, but also is a huge influence on me musically.

'Now That You Know' is an amazing piece of song writing and features jangley 12-string guitar and amazing lyrics about love's rich abandon, the song is total teen-drama in the 60s garage fashion, I love the innocence in this song and it perfectly fits the zeitgeist of the times.

The song features an amazing 12-string guitar solo and riff and also a lovely driving bassline throughout, the song-writing craft is perfect, the drums sound lush and the lyrics are simply wonderful featuring amazing yearning and questioning in the lyrics such as...

 "You know when we started babe, you had me on a string? Now I think it's time we parted babe, you don't mean anything, What are you going to do, now that you know that we're through?"

The B-side 'She's Mine' is a piece of primitive Kinks-like wonderment (however not as genius as the A-side in my opinion).... this is a typical 60s styled rocker of which a lot of garage fans from around the world would prefer over the flip? (It's a matter of taste I guess)  

'She's Mine' is an angst-ridden track with Maestro fuzztone  all the way through, the song is typical of it's style, the lyrics are fierce as the lead singer Doug Oakley warns off any other guys who may come anywhere near to his girl... "SHE's MINE!!! stay away from my baby" Oakley yells in an ever cool manner.

I kinda dig the sound of the rhythm guitar in this track and love the straight forward drums.

Enjoy

Paul

Suicide - Self- Titled (1977)

Suicide in my opinion are one of the most important bands to emerge from the 70s New York Punk scene, in fact I'd even say Suicide are the most important group of that decade and also one of the most important during the 20th century.

Suicide formed in 1971 out of the New York bohemian art scene, the band  consisting of Alan Vega - vocals and Martin Rev - Keyboards/Synths, originally formed more as an art project rather than a band, they were in the traditional sense more of a performing arts duo than a live musical band, however their stage show presence and powerful live performance, confirmed their place as an important New York City Rock 'n' Roll band and they are now considered to be one of the pioneers of the blossoming 70s New York Punk Scene - in fact Suicide were one of the first bands, if not the first to describe their music as Punk.

During 1971 through to 1973 Vega and Rev each lived in virtual poverty, they were the freaks of their social landscape, they were true outcasts who came  together to create the most raucous, most frightening, yet most genius noise. They also created a very pure art not seen or felt since the Dadaist in the early 1900's. As a performing duo during this time they played shows at New York's infamous Mercer Arts Centre alongside glam-rockers like The New York Dolls. From 1973 onwards the group played the famous New York Clubs including CBGB's and Max's Kansas City again alongside early incarnations of New York punk bands which would later be more well known, these included Television, Richard Hell, Patti Smith, The Ramones etc.

Suicide continued as a live performance group and still perform together to this day however the year 1977 saw their self -titled debut album  released and subsequently from that point on the history of popular music was changed slightly.

I purchased the Suicide album when I was about 14 years old, I remember the day well, it was sunny and I rode on my bicycle from my home at the time in Uxbridge (West London) all the way up to a small suburban town in North-West London called Eastcote, there used to be a rather cool record shop called Sellanby's (an axiom of  the term Sell and Buy) which I went to and procured much of my early record collection (on cassette ironically). The Suicide album was one of these albums I purchased purely because of the front cover, with its mad insignia of the words 'Suicide' splashed across the front, seeing something like that as a young child is paramount to seeing the swastika, the intrigue of such a symbol draws you in instantly.

When I got home, what can only be described as an attack to my senses took place, I knew instantly what I had picked up by chance was an important musical creation and Suicide's album was not only important in that it influenced future music genres such as Electronica, Techno, Drone Rock, Neo-Pysch etc but it was also important as it literally tore to shreds what music was all about at the time, In Suicide's world, music was minimal, bare absolute nothingness, primitive, scary and industrial, it was the sounds, energy and feelings of New York during the 70s and for me on a personal level to me it was the sounds of my suburbia and my own living-hell; the council estates, the bus depots, the train station, the factories, the schools, the narrow-minded people, the drunks, the boredom and the isolation. I still occasionally visit the place I grew up from time-to-time and every time I do re-visit, the soundtrack always in my head is Suicide.

For me the album also spoke to an inner version of me, it was the version which couldn't express itself and struggled to express itself and upon listening to Suicide's debut LP, I felt that within Alan Vega's crazy Elvis-like spasms of reverbed echo that there was a guy who was equally like me angry about the world around him and in Martin Rev's droning two-note keyboard there was a guy who was happy to escape in sounds and textures which is something I enjoy doing too... making Suicide therefore a huge influence for me and my life.

Below I am going to play three of my favourite songs on the album, even though as an artistic piece the whole album is genius and should be listened to throughout, I would recommend that it should be listened to as a whole piece of art and not as a rock 'n' roll album.

ROCKET USA is the track which kinda got me hypnotised, I love how the lyrical context is portrayed in such a minimal yet forceful manner.... I love the lyrics in Rocket USA ..."tv star riding round, riding round in the killer's car", "It's 19 hundred 77, the whole country is doing a fix".... these are pop-art slogans, they are art manifesto's in themselves and a great condemnation of the then unforeseen horridness which would later become our own modern society, comparing a tv star to a killer is genius in my opinion. Suicide were totally on the ball and ahead of their peers by at least 20 years.

GIRL - This track in its primitive and minimalist genius pretty much expresses the thought form in every red-blooded teenage boys' head. This song has the raw sexuality that Rock 'n' Roll had, but because it's been stripped back to its most primitive and raw, it makes it that one bit more real and honest. In 'Girl' Alan Vega  just tells it as it is "Ohhh Girl touch me soft.... you know how I feel" . As a counterpart to the extreme desperation of the track, the repetition of drum machine and vox organ create mesmeric waves of joy underneath... the song is pure trashy sex and that it what is so genius about it.

FRANKIE TEARDROP - if one song could express the ill feeling, the dystopia of society, the horribleness in modern living, the absurdity in the world today, then it has to be this. During my first few listens of this track in my early teens, I genuinely was scared, it scared me deeply, it frightened me to my core and if music can do that, then it is pretty damn powerful... The only other music which has scared me in such a manner since, has been Stockhausen. I actually can't listen to Stockhausen purely cos I'd end up doing a Frankie Teardrop myself. I feel that every human being on the earth needs to hear this track at least once in their life, because it does speak to that part of our natural human nature that wants to kill, that wants to hurt, that wants to escape, that wants to scream, that wants to rape, that wants to set fire to shit and wants to put the gun to the head and make the blood hit the walls and ceiling. 

Alan Vega again proves his genius right at the end of the song where he proclaims "We're all Frankies - we're all lying in Hell".... which we are, just take a look around you, it ain't all smiles and rose tinted glasses.

Anyway; I can't speak about how great this album is, you'll just have to trust me so please do yourselves a favour and purchase this amazing album.

Thanks

Paul Messis