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.