The Sound Of Hollywood – “Destroy LA Fanzine”LP (1983)
OK, a couple more Mystic LP’s and we’ll call it quits for a while. This one has all the makings of a great comp and has some top-shelf LA Punk on it—the Shattered Faith and S.V.D.B. tunes topping the list. But there’s a couple of stinkers in the mix, so be warned! The music of The F-Beat might have you hungering for the blood and guts no-nonsense rock assaults of Wham! or Huey Lewis and the News. Also, the Bad Religion tracks are from the “Into The Unknown” era.
REAR COVER
SAMPLE TRACKS:
BAD RELIGON – WAITING FOR THE FIRE
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Insolents – “Spit In The Mirror” LP (1987)
Happily, I have a much better sound system for listening to my crap records than I did as a kid so, sometimes when I play some old record I haven’t heard since my early 20’s, I’ll be surprised that it sounds a lot better than I remember it. Thus, I had some really high hopes for this thing, thinking that, perhaps, I would be able to enjoy some of the subtle nuances of this music—like maybe being able to understand the vocals or not have the guitars sound like the mics were buried under a pile of wet towels. But no such luck! No, this LP sounds about as murky as I remember it and did I mention it’s on Mystic? These guys had a 7” EP, as well, that I must have held in my hand at least a dozen times back then, but it never made it’s way to the cash register. I heard it sounded better than this LP.
Another point of interest is that the Mystic catalog described these guys as a “thrash” band—not Punk or Hardcore. I have to admit I’m a little foggy on my musical definitions but, if memory serves, the term “thrash” was a legitimate musical description of some sort of fast / heavy music for about two weeks in the mid-eighties, after which the term was used and abused to the point where it became ambiguous and ceased to have any real meaning to me. So are Insolents a “real” thrash band or what?
SAMPLE TRACKS:
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Tony Randall and Lynn Redgrave – “The Power Is You” LP (1979)
As a cynical bastard, there’s nothing more fun than throwing stones and insults at some desperate characters seeking to save the world through their religion or political group or what-have-you. Of course, the problem with all these people is that, once you get down to brass tacks, all of their brilliant schemes for saving humanity and peace on earth seem to hinge on everyone agreeing on some key point or points, failing to realize that, if people were innately capable of collectively achieving that condition on a global scale, we wouldn’t have all these problems in the first place. But you gotta love them for trying, although some of these characters can really get on one’s nerves.
So here we have Felix Ungar and Georgy Girl attempting to bring light and spiritual uplifting to our troubled species and, in truth, it’s really hard to knock them, prick that I am. Basically, they offer some pretty sensible advice that transcends religious dogma. Unfortunately, they use the medium of Broadway show tunes to convey it, making this a very odd listen. Even more odd is that this came out in 1979—way past the point where this sort of Hippie love-your-brother philosophy was in vogue. In fact, by that time, people were getting good and ready to start hating each other again and indulge in a nice healthy streak of selfishness and materialism!
Love the cover art on this one, as well: a rainbow blasting into the top of some sexually ambiguous human’s skull and leaking out it’s tits and hands. Or is the rainbow blasting out of the skull? You see it your way; I’ll see it mine. I can’t help but wonder if there was some sort of stage show or TV special that went along with this thing, but I’ve never found any evidence to confirm this. A train wreck? This thing starts bouncing off the tracks about ten seconds into it!
REAR COVER
RAINBOW BLAST!
SAMPLE TRACKS:
We’ve Got To Get Back To Basics
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Copulation – LP (1984)
Well, we’ll keep going with the old Mystic albums for a few more posts. This was one of the better comps they put out, if not the best. All the bands are pretty well known and, of course, the subject matter was one that most Punkers could agree on. And, yet, strangely, this one was never reissued. I suspect legal issues and, of course, a certain former lead singer of one of the bands on here probably has enough money in the bank to drag them over the coals for a royalty check if he wanted to. Let’s hope, whatever the problem is, it gets resolved, ‘cuz this one is too good to fade into oblivion. Essential stuff here with nothing but winners.
Rear Cover / Bands / Track Listing
SAMPLE TRACKS:
SVDB – Your Friendly Local Police
America’s Hardcore – Cops Are Criminals
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Scared Straight – “You Drink, You Drive, You Die” LP (1988)
This was one of those records I got as a “substitution” from Mystic while trying to purchase some other record through the mail and, apparently, based on the comments I got for the “Covers” LP, I wasn’t the only one. Actually, everyone I’ve ever met who owns this record seemed to either get it in a trade or for a couple bucks in the used bin or some other indirect fashion, leading me to wonder if anyone actually went into a store and bought it new! But all the same, I am going to stick my neck out and expose myself to possible ridicule by defending this LP—it’s not that bad! Firstly, I have to give one obligatory thumb up just because it’s Mystic—that’s a given. Secondly, when this thing was released, everyone was pretty well burned out on “mid-tempo” Hardcore and this record was classified by many as being almost ridiculously generic. OK, fine, that was 22 years ago—let’s hear this thing again in 2010. Not to beat my “time heals old wounds” analogy into the ground again, but this thing sounds a lot better to me now. This is a very juvenile, somewhat corny record, obviously written by a bunch of 15-18 year-olds and that scores points with me in the same way those Flyin’ Spiderz LPs do. And, granted, the music on this LP never really picks up speed—there’s no shouting, screaming, or craziness. The disk basically hums along at it’s own merry speed, making this adequate music for such engaging tasks as folding clean socks, fresh out of the dryer, or, perhaps, fixing yourself a nice tuna casserole. I give it 1.5 Poopy thumbs up.
Insert
Band Pics
SAMPLE TRACKS:
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Whitewood – S/T LP (197?)
When I was a kid, I used to find these ads in the back of comic books and smut mags, advertising how you could send your lyrics in to some company and they would put them to music and press you a couple copies of the record. Personally, I found the entire concept totally hilarious and, had I the funds, would have loved nothing better than to have pulled a John Trubee and mailed these guys some stupid shit just to see how they would fit it into a song. Well, according to the liner notes on this LP, that’s how these songs were written and, in fact, I bought this record based on the write-up on the back cover, never having heard of these guys. Supposedly, only 600 were pressed, so I’m glad I snagged it.
So I’m expecting an entire LP of “Blind Man’s Penis” quality material, but this was not the case. Actually, the lyrics to these songs are excellent and I would describe them as “serial killer lyrics”, as they all have a dark, twisted, antisocial bend to them, without any undo flourishes or “artiness”. Whoever wrote the lyrics was not a happy camper. Given that it was the 70’s and Goth or Punk hadn’t been invented, yet, they were probably at a loss as to what music to put these warped lyrics to, so they went with 60’s psych / garage and, in it’s own goofy way, it works pretty good. For some reason the psychedelic collectors have claimed this as one of their own and, for the most part, give it somewhat lackluster reviews. Clearly, this thing is high weirdness and should appeal more to the younger crowd of Goth kids, Punkers, freaks, and weirdoes.
Lyrics
Liner Notes
SAMPLE TRACKS:
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Mystic Radio Presents Covers – LP (1985)
Like a lot of U.S. Punk fans in the 80’s, I had a fling with Mystic Records, an affection that was strong enough to get me to send money to said label in the hopes of getting some of the records I couldn’t find in the stores. At some point, I managed to get it in my sixteen year-old head that the idea of a bunch of Punk and Hardcore bands doing covers of Classic Rock songs had to be the height of hilarity and wit, so I sent Doug Moody my hard-earned (and scarce) cash to purchase the record you see above. But he didn’t have it in stock for whatever reason (despite the fact that it had recently come out), and he substituted a piece of crap that I didn’t ask for, rather than reimbursing me—a stunt he pulled a couple times. We’ll get into those records later! So the end result was I didn’t get to hear this record until I was twenty-six and, what do you know? The thing wasn’t nearly as hilarious or witty as I thought it would be! Fancy that. But it’s still a good record, with a couple of known bands and your typical entourage of Mystic unknowns. My personal fave would have to be Government Issue’s rendition of “Wild Blood” by The Seeds—not because they do a wild send-up, but because they attempt a note-for-note, deadpan rendition! Stukas Over Bedrock do an interesting interpretation of “Careful With That Axe Eugene” by Pink Floyd, as well.
REAR COVER / TRACK LISTING
SAMPLE TRACKS:
Sado Nation – Back In The Saddle
False Confession – Freedom Of Choice
Stukas Over Bedrock – Careful With That Axe Eugene
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Claude Coma And The I.V’s – “Art From Sin” LP (1982)
From what I’ve been able to gather, Claude Coma was San Diego’s answer to Wayne County and the Electric Chairs, insofar as the man was a cross-dresser and an older guy with older rock influences. While this LP came out in 1982, what we have here is more along the lines of Class of ’77 KBD-ish Punk with one notably un-Punky tune and a couple of songs that sound a bit like early Radio Birdman. Another notable feature about this LP is that the man can clearly play guitar, but prefers playing shit Punk in lieu of showcasing his technical skill—you gotta love that! He has been written about elsewhere on the web, for anyone who cares to find out more, but what remains unclear to me is his discography. I’ve heard tell that this was his only album, but I know I’ve seen at least one other record. What’s the deal? At any rate, this is an honest Punk record from an old school Punk weirdo and it’s worth a listen.
SAMPLE TRACKS:
And here’s the backwards message on “Let’s Go To Hell”.
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Lori Burton – “Breakout” LP (1967)
Another “guilty pleasure” here, I guess, but I think this one has universal appeal, nonetheless. At the very least, it provides me the chance of accusing the naysayer of not having a dick instead of no sense of humor. So who decided it was sexy for a female vocalist to sound like she’s singing through her nose? Not me—the female vocalists of today are fucking terrible and so are the mentally retarded imbeciles who write their shit music. No, Lori Burton had a husky, sensuous set of heavy pipes, filtered through a New York City accent, with just a touch of sleaze and snarl. The gal could write a song, as well, and this LP was a showcase of tunes she wrote with another female songwriter named Pam Sawyer. Actually, both women went on to more successful songwriting careers writing for Motown, several individual groups such as Young Rascals, and doing session work with some of the biggest names in the business, while this record tanked and has remained relatively obscure. There are some nice, unappreciated gems on here that deserve a brighter place in the sun. Boyd Rice later featured “Love Was” on his “Music For Pussycats” compilation and the entire LP was remixed and briefly re-issued on CD with a handful of Disco songs she did in the 70’s that, apparently, aren’t so great.
What we have on this LP are some late 60’s Soul / Pop / Rock songs, done in the style of the time, short and sweet, sung by a white chick. A couple of the songs are a little kitchy and sound like a rip-off of other hits of the day, while others are excellent, with songs like “Gotta Make You Love Me”, “Love Was”, “Nightmare”, and “Gotta Get Over You” topping the list. Sadly, as the younger generations of music listeners appear to have no interest in this sort of thing, these songs are probably doomed to fade into oblivion, although I wouldn’t be surprised if, forty years from now, some nursing home attendant found herself prying this LP from my cold, dead hands.
SAMPLE TRACKS:
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