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

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 

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