Wazmo Nariz

Chicago born performer Wazmo Nariz did have his eyes on the city's early punk days. In 1978 he released his first 7" on the local independent label 'Fiction'.

Check out the two neckties. Apparently this was his trademark.

I picked up this record a few years back for two reasons.
This flex review:

"Fast synth/wave punk on the A side, no guitars but “real” drums. Quite entertaining, reminds me of early Devo or the manic Geza X sound. B side is more in the pop punk vein, with guitars and good melodies. Good single."

And because it was dirt cheap.

The A-side really is a little hit if only for the weirdness but as you might already know I like that.

This 7" was rereleased in the UK by Stiff Records with a different B-side track: 'Wacker Drive"
I might have to check out that song to see if it's worth picking up but then again I'll probably just add it to an order I'm placing anyway or pick up a copy at a store if I come across one as it's not going to demand deep pockets either.

In 1979 Wazmo and the Wazband released the following LP which I recently picked up

 

Wazmo Nariz - things aren't right - I.R.S. Records - 1979

I like the layout of the sleeve and the way it is in sync with the titel but unfortunately that's about it for this record. Definitely the most boring release I picked up since I bought the latest Blondie LP last summer. Well, the Blondie record is really bad. I cannot listen to it. This slab of vinyl here is just boring. It has lost most of the weirdness and borders on uninspired 80s pop even though it was not released in the 80s. Even 'Checking Out The Checkout Girl' which was released as a 7" with another track off of the LP, 'Who Does It Hurt?', on the flipside cannot hold a candle to 'Tele-tele-telephone'.

One side of the innersleeve. The other's blank.

Beautiful rainbow labels round out a visually pretty good release. Too bad the sonic part doesn't match.

Before they were picked up by I.R.S. they released a 2nd 7" on Fiction maybe that one holds another hit.

To be continued...

 

Last in 2013 First in 2014

There have been at least two great reissues released lately that somehow were not sold at any store I visited. Being pretty anxious to get those I decided to order from one of my favorite shops, Per Koro. While browsing the latest news I came across the new Pelican double 12" 'Forever Becoming'. Of course I had to throw it in with what I came for in the first place (which I'll cover sometime later).

Pelican are another one of my favorites. Whenever they put out a new record I buy it immediately. Well, except for 7" releases. Usually I love Singles but they are just not a 7" band. I don't put them on too often but when I do I want to get lost in their soundscapes as long as possible.

There's not a single bad Pelican song although there are some that are just a little bit better than others. Either 'The Fire In Our Throats...' or 'City Of Echoes' was my introduction to the band and to this day those are the ones receiving the most love. It's hard to decide which one is better because they both have their own qualities. Most of the time though the scale tips a little bit towards the latter.

'Forever Becoming' was the last 2013 release I got to know about and the first I listened to in 2014. Last year the first LP I listened to was the awesome Tom Waits - On The Scene '73 KPFK Folk Scene Broadcast 2LP. Not an easy one to be compared to. Yet the new Pelican did a very good job. While the previous two 12" releases 'Ataraxia / Taraxis' and 'What We All Come To Need' didn't dethrone either one of my two favorites this new one is a strong contender for Best Pelican release. Right now 'City...' and 'The Fire...' have the advantage of being well established but let's see what happens when 'Forever Becoming' gets more plays.

 

Pelican - Forever Becoming - double 12" - Southern Lord Records (LORD 182) - 2013

The only 'dope island' I like

A few days ago I already shared my thoughts on the Cramps with you in the post about the 'Bad Music For Bad People' LP (which i just updated btw.). No need to do that again. This time I want to share a bit about how I approach(ed) collecting Cramps releases.

I bought my first Cramps records at a chainstore called 'Zweitausendeins' which is actually a publishing company that sells books, cds, dvds and a bit of vinyl. At the time they had all the Cramps reissues on the bands own label Vengeance Records available at the bargain price of 5€ each. After I had listened to my first Cramps LP and realized how good that band is I went back and bought a copy of each of the other full lengths available. 6 in total. Not a bad start for a collection. But sure enough I wanted a copy of each of the other official releases as well. I just couldn't be bothered with certain pressings as there are A LOT of releases with too many different pressings for about each of them. Thus I picked up a copy here and there not minding the pressing but with every record added to the collection my love for The Cramps grew until I wanted to make a serious attempt at collecting their output. But what to do? Collecting each and every pressing would certainly be the most serious thing to do. Somehow I'd like that but my pockets aren't deep enough so I settled for the next best thing. First pressings! Still quite a long road to travel, yet I consider it doable. This is another step on that journey.

 

The Cramps - fiends of dope island - Vengeance Records 675 - released 2003

One time pressing on clear red vinyl and therefore the most easy to collect release.
No matter what your approach is.

Beautiful Vengeance innersleeve. Same design on both sides.

Is this my beach?

"Cool and strange blend of punk, Beach Boys and Residents. Witty surf punk with a synthesizer and great melodies. It's a novelty, but it's not that bad really. Quite unique."

I never cared for the Beach Boys and I've never knowingly listened to the Residents. Nevertheless the above review from the flex discography got me interested. Being a sucker for late 70s early 80s US west coast punk the attributes 'great melodies', 'novelty' and 'unique' were not needed to be thrown into the mix for me to make a mental note about this record. Always looking for that little something extra that makes a record stand out from the rest I knew I had to check it out even though 'not that bad' would put a negative spin on it in most peoples books. Not in mine. It only means that someone else is not into it. Just like a lot of people around me are not into quite a few bands I love. I'm known to have weird taste so the Surf Punks' 'My Beach' LP could really be for me.

The record was originally released as a self titled 15 track LP in 1979 on Day Glo Records and re-issued as 'My Beach' by Epic Records in 1980 including two extra tracks. Figuring that the original would probably be a lot more expensive and being lured by those two extra tracks I decided right away to keep my eyes peeled for the rerelease even though it comes without a lyric sheet as opposed to the 1st press.

To my big surprise I found a copy that might just be Mint sitting in a cheapo bin...

...next to 2(!) Mint looking copies of their last LP 'Oh No Not Them Again' released by Enigma Records in 1988. Without a listening station available I opted for buying all of them because they were so cheap thinking how bad can it be and that I'd give one of them to a couple I'm friends with, who do surf and are into punk. Perfect gift right there.

The printed innersleeves for both copies of this LP do have those Shirts crossed out in exactly the same way. Seems they ran out of them before the innersleeves were printed.

Right now the tour I'm working on has left Zuerich, Switzerland (where I bought the records) and is now residing in Essen, Germany which is a lot closer to where I live. Due to that I was able to go home and spend a bit of time with my wife. Of course I was eager to listen to all those new records. When it was the Surf Punks turn I naturally started with the first LP and was pretty disappointed. It has all the elements mentioned in the review but somehow it's not leaning quite enough towards punk. At least not in the traditional sense of the associated musical style. So a day or two later I put on the 'Oh No Not Them Again' LP hoping that they'd be one of the few bands in punk that do get better with time. Are they? You might already get the feeling that they are not and boy are you right.Meanwhile though I gave 'My Beach' another try and I have to say it's not as bad as the first time. I hear some Devo in there. Maybe it's one of those records that grow on you each time you give it another try.

Unless the later LP gains a better reputation with me I'm a little hesitant to turn that spare copy into the initially intended gift. What would you do? Present a gift you don't like? Sounds a tad off to me. But then again they might like it. What do I know?

 

The end of silence

I've never been a fan of later Black Flag releases. The demos to 'My War' are ok but that's where it ends for me. I'm not even a big fan of 'Damaged'. 'Rise Above' definitely is a killer but the rest of the songs are not all that good. They're good but not as good as everybody else says. Also Rollins is my least favorite Black Flag singer. Keith, Dez and Chavo were a lot better. Probably that's why I prefer the releases that have any one of them on vocals.

It seems people either think he's a cool genius or a musclehead trying to make the trivia he spews look clever. I think he's a weird freak. To me though that's a rather positive quality in a human being. Maybe what he says is trivial but it's to the point. He's always a pleasure to see live on his spoken word tours (unfortunately never saw him perform with a band). And most importantly he doesn't give a fuck if you, me or anybody doesn't like what he does. To me everything he does spells honesty and I think we need more of that. Roll on Henry.

With all this out of the way we can finally get to the record I bought:

 

Rollins Band - the end of silence 2LP - euro pressing - Imago - 1992

Of course I will remove those ugly stickers.

Printed innersleeves for both records. I like that.Yes, they are a bit rumpled but I think it's not too bad and am ok with it.Especially because I got the record for a good price.

Prior to this purchase I never bothered to really check out the Rollins Band discography but this time I did. What a surprise. There are a lot more releases than I knew of. Right away I felt worried about all those other releases I seemingly would have to chase down. Luckily though (I thought I'd never say this) all of those I had never heard of were only released on CD which means I don't have to bother with them. So it's still 3 more until being satisfied with my collection.

What's missing:Henry Rollins - hot animal machine - Texas Hotel(I already own 3 copies of this record but not the US original)Rollins Band - niceRollins Band - end of silence demos

 

Storming through the age of Quarrel

You probably already know but if you don't now you do.
German dates for the Judge euro tour 2014 with Cro-Mags

See you at one or maybe all of those shows.

 

Never in the night

What's there to say about Blitz? I'm sure you know about their influence on early hardcore bands like SSD and Iron Cross for example and that Judge put a cover of 'Warriors' on their 7". Maybe you also know that their music changed quite a bit after the first 3 Singles and the 'Voice Of A Generation' full length. So with nothing else for me to add here is...

 

Blitz - Never Surrender b/w Razors In The Night - No Future Records - Oi 6

Do you ever get so excited about a record that you don't see the obvious damage to the cover? It's not that this is a very rare 7" which actually doesn't make it that exciting to find one yet the first time I picked up a copy of this record I only realized later that the cover was damaged. Obviously not bad enough for me to notice right away but still too much for me to be satisfied with.

This time I double checked before buying so I can finally move on with one less pebble in my shoe and a shorter distance to travel until completing the most crucial part of my Blitz collection. The most crucial part being 1st pressings of the 4 releases already mentioned above and of their more New Wave sounding 7" with the killer titletrack 'New Age'. Everything else is on the same list as those later TSOL or Circle Jerks records.

Concerning this I am missing left and right while the middle is all set now. Or to be a little more precise I still need the 'All Out Attack' and 'New Age' singles. Doesn't sound too bad.

 

More bad music for bad people like me

Sometimes I wonder if there's a single person out there with a taste in music as bad as mine. Sure there are people with a similarly eclectic approach but I never met someone who likes exactly what I like. Is that even possible? Two people liking exactly the same bands while their likes are spread far and wide? But then again... Who cares?

Yes, I do think about it at times but actually I don't give a damn so here we go again with yet something completely different from what I've posted so far after the 10 month hiatus.

And again it is one of my favorite bands. Formed in 1976 in New York they never disbanded until their vocalist Erick Lee Purkhiser died on feb. 4th 2009. Him and his wife Kristy Wallace pretty much were the band. Everybody else had been replaced more than once in the 33 years of their existance....

I'm asking myself right now if there was any other band associated with Punk that went this long without ever breaking up? Hm, did Social Distortion exist between 1998 and 2004? Did Agnostic Front ever break up after I lost interest in the music they went on to make? What about Bad Religion? No Fx? Anyone have an answer instead of more questions?

Anyway. The Cramps are certainly one of the most influential bands in the history of Punk. They might even have launched a whole subgenre. Although they never thought of themselves as a Psychobilly act as far as I know I can sure see why people would put them there. I'm not too well travelled in that regard but don't The Meteors claim to have coined the term and being the only true Psychobilly band? When they formed in 1980 it is very well possible they had already listened to The Cramps whose Major Label debut 'Gravest Hits' was already out by then.

At a time when everybody wanted to progress. Get away from the same old boring drab. Erick and Kristy better known as Lux Interior and Poison Ivy, who were immersed in NY's Punk scene surrounding CBGB's and Max's Kansas City, took a step back only to get at the world with a sound that wasn't just their own brand of Punk. What they unleashed was so far ahead of their time that even by today's standards their mix of 50s Rockabilly with the raw sound of 70s Punk / 60s Garage topped off with elements of glam, horror movie themes, burlesque and drag is pretty wild. Imagine what an effect it must have had on people seeing them in the '70s.

In 1984 they released the 2nd (or 3rd depending on how you look at it) compilation of previously recorded and released material called 'Bad Music For Bad People' and this is the one I finally got my hands on. Unfortunately though I'm not too sure what I got.

The front cover is the same on all the releases I know of

The back cover of the US pressing is different from the canadian pressing of the same year and early pressings come without a barcode. So it's safe to say it's not the canadian or a later official pressing.

But the record is in such a good shape I'm afraid it is the 2010 bootleg which was released on yellow, white and black vinyl. I couldn't find any info on how to tell the black vinyl boot from the OG pressing or even a picture showing the backcover of the unofficial release. Usually those 'fanclub editions' tend to use the same artwork as the 1st press. Thus it cannot be ruled out that this is one of them.

The labels are grey with black text and maroon I.R.S. logo and info. Just in case you can't tell from these high quality pictures.

Of course there is also no picture of the labels to be found that are used for the latest reissue. Leaving me with only the matrix as a possible way to tell wrong from right. Bootleggers hardly ever use matrix etchings at all or scratch them out. Which is what tipped the scale towards buying the record because my copy does have the same matrix etchings as listed for the canadian pressing. I guess they did a one time press of the LP and only had different covers made.

Still, with everything pointing towards an original US 1st press I'm not totally sure. Is it possible that a bootleg features the same matrix etchings as the original? If so how the fuck do you tell the two apart? Did the OG use thicker cardboard with a glued on cover? I have no idea.

If you know... PLEASE chip in. I'm going crazy over this.

Thanks.

 

UPDATE:

The info I gathered so far points towards this being a bootleg. Very, very well made but still no original. Damn! Silver instead of grey labels seem to be the difference and probably the color of the I.R.S. info is rather purple on the OG instead of the maroon on my copy. Somehow though I'm still not really sure about it. Probably because I want it to be an original. On with the inquiries.

UPDATE #2:

Now I'm sure I got a bootleg. The info on discogs was updated by a guy from London after I asked him about how to identify a 1st press. Thank you very much to that dude and FU to the bootlegger for making it that hard to distinguish between OG and boot.

Differences are silver instead of grey labels on the official release and additional info etched into the runout grooves as opposed to just the catalogue number in the dead wax of the unofficial release.

 

You never have fun

That's what's being said about Straight Edge people. And you know it's true. We are a bunch of moralizers constantly reminding you that we've 'got better things to do'. Perhaps that's why I like the song but maybe it's just a great song.

I always like to dip my feet into uncharted waters. You never know what you're going to find. Sometimes it's a gem like the 7" featured here.

About a year and a half ago I discovered the awesome Shotgun Solution Blog. The person running it pretty much has the to me unknown territory of Power Pop / Pop Punk mapped out while I'm still struggeling to remember the bands I downloaded and like. I never cared much for Pop Punk or Power Pop Everything I heard that was associated with that genre I didn't like. And I really don't know where to draw a line between the two. But at some point I realized there are actually some really great things to unearth from that drawer. Naturally I rejoiced upon finding a fine source.Although it got pretty quiet on her/his blog lately, for a while there were shitloads of posts to check out. Too many actually for me to keep up with. So once in a while when my schedule allowed it I downloaded a bunch of stuff and unfortunately only gave it a quick listen resulting in quite a bit of confusion. Mostly I cannot remember which bands I like and which ones are too pop-y or beatle-esque for me. And yes, that means I don't like The Beatles. In my book they did nothing good for Rock'n'Roll. I'm with the Meatmen on this. '2 down 2 to go'. But let's get back to what I like. You know?! Be postive. Straight Edge. PMA. All that stuff.

My memory works best with pictures and has quite a few downloaded covers stored somewhere in the back of my head which I will recognize should one be sitting in a box I'm flipping through at a store. On the downside I cannot remember if the music is any good. Especially when being somewhere with no possibility to listen to the thing it really bums me out. Lucky me Vinyl Pirate in Zuerich had a listening station.

The Locals - you never have fun b/w yes or no 7"

'You never have fun' rightfully owns the A-Side to this 45.It's a total hit mixing powerfull pop music with the right amount of punk rawness.It's rough edges are sure to catch on to anyone even remotely susceptible to this music.

'Yes or no' is a solid B-Side.It incorporates the same qualities yet isn't as good.Come on. There has to ba a second place.

 

Griffy Records published the original pressing in 1980 and the last one on ebay sold for $86. While that is considerably less than the $315 someone had to dig up for a copy in 2009 before the reissue was released by Sing Sing Records in 2010, I couldn't be bothered to bring up anything close to that.

I'm very happy having found a NM copy of the by now also kinda hard to find repress with a pricetag you'll find on most of the recently rereleased classics.

Next time I take out some records to spin for an audience this one will most definitely be among them.