Void - Condensed Flesh ep (1992)

A demo originally recorded in 1981 at Inner Ear and engineered/mixed by Don and Ian, but not released until 1992. I can't explain how much I love this band and just how revolutionary they were way back when, nothing like them existed. No wonder bands like the Business and Vice Squad lost their appeal pretty quickly when compared to this....poles apart.

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I managed to trade, beg, borrow & steal many a demo tape and I got a copy of this unreleased album and kinda quickly realised why it remained unreleased. It's just not up to the standard of their other stuff, but worth the odd spin nonetheless.

It follows the route taken by others at the time of trying to move beyond their roots and what they did best, but not quite managing to do so. Having said that I still like it. Recorded in '83 and still not officially released.

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Possibly the best album of 2011???

So way back in the early 80's I was a fan of Hanoi Rocks, they weren't punk, but they certainly had an attitude and played some great tunes. Their first two albums are the best, but by album 4 they'd lost me altogether.

I've followed various members bands and solo careers ever since, with varying degrees of interest. Did you know that Sam Yaffa was a member of Murphy's Law...interesting music fact. I've got one Mike Monroe solo album and it's ok so, to be really honest, I wasn't that enthusiastic when a guy at work turned me on to his latest solo effort, but I gave it a listen...and wow it's great. Thanks again John.

His current band consists of two parts Hanoi Rocks: - Himself and Sam Yaffa on bass
One part Wildhearts - Ginger on Guitar
One part New York DOlls - Steve Conte on Guitar
and one part Danzig/Chelsea Smiles - Karl Rockfist on drums...what a rock n'roll name!

The whole album is great with not one filler track....this is the first single from the album.

His site is here.

Poly Styrene - RIP

a lifted cut and paste.......

Former X-Ray Spex singer and punk legend Poly Styrene ( aka Marian Joan Elliott-Said) has died of cancer age 53, according to the NME.

A spokesperson for the singer confirmed the sad news with NME following hours of speculation by her fans on twitter.

Her death comes less than two months after Spex announced her battle with Breast Cancer and only weeks after the release of her highly anticipated solo album Generation Indigo which was described by the BBC as “…a pop dance album par excellence bristling with positivity, tunes and ideas.”

Captain Sensible radio interview

A nice little listen - here.

If you click on Captains name he's uploaded some demos as well......

Whale.....

...Hobo Humpin Slobo Babe...a song, and band, I'd almost forgotten about until I unearthed a dusty box of cd's.....glad I did.

Alloy - Untied 7'' (1992)

Vic Bondi time again......

He formed Alloy with Roger Marbury - Bass (Dag Nasty, BMO), Patrick Mahoney- Guitar and Colin Sears - Drums (Dag Nasty, Minority of One). However by the time this record was released, in England, Colin had been replaced with Pete Hines (Murphy's Law, Cro Mags).

The A side is about the end of the cold war and is pretty much what you'd expect from Vic Bondi. This is a mid tempo release with a really nice hook, well I think so anyway, but I'm bias. They released two 7'' and three albums, all of them are well worth tracking down.

My Space

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Spastic Rats - Rodentia 7'' (1985)

Don't be put off by the name, this is really good.

Another of the bands who ended up on my wants list after reading a review in MRR who kinda raved over it...and they mentioned that it was mixed at Inner Ear and produced by Don Zientara, a name that made me add any record to my list. When it arrived I was well happy.

I would go on to ramble on about the band, but if you like what you hear have a look at their website created last year here it has some nice history.

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Condemned to Death - Diary of a Love Monster (1984)

C2D came out of the Vats, mentioned earlier in the post about the Sluglords. The Vats was an abandoned brewery where people squated and bands rehearsed/formed, along with the Sluglords/C2D it was also home to MDC and DRI....imagine getting to hear those bands each week for free!!

Condemned to Death formed in San Francisco in early '83 Keith Chatham (bass) completed the lineup of a bassless band rehearsing in the Vats. The other members were Eddie Morgan (vocals), Tim Nelson (guitar), Mike Chubka (drums). They released a demo, one 7'' and this excellent, uncompromising slab of hardcore.

Just as they were recording this album singer Eddie decided to leave the band and the album was completed with the addition of Scott Wilkins, as well as some songs being sung by the remaining members. This lineup wasn't destined to last a long time as Keith moved to Australia and joined Death Sentence/Vicious Circle, Mike and Scott joined fellow Vats band Verbal Abuse and Tim to the Serial Killers. All these bands releases are worth tracking down.

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Over hyped and rightly so......part 2

If you like your punk slightly poppy with catchy as hell choruses, then look no further; these two are diamonds.

The Edge

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Detention

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Stiv Bators - Last Race (1996)

After the Lords of the New Church disbanded in the late 80's Stiv was living in Paris and he'd started to record some songs for another solo record. He recruited a number of people to assist him, including: -

Dee Dee Ramone - Bass

Johnny Thunders - Guitar

Neal X - Guitar (Sigue Sigue Sputnik - incidentally one of the worst live gigs I've ever seen was these guys)

Tony James - Bass (Gen-X, SS Sputnik)

Kris Dollimore - Guitar (Godfathers)

Stephen Richie - Drums

So the story goes, on day one Dee Dee had an argument with Johnny and after a few teddies were thrown they both stormed off back to the states. Stiv continued with replacements and this cd was the result.  It's not the finished article as not long into recording he was hit by a car, got up, dusted himself off and went home, dying later that night from internal injuries. Such a shame.

There are rumours that demos exist of the first day, but I'm not holding out. This is as close as we'll get I suppose. Stiv Bators was great, there's not a single release of his that I dislike. 

Music

The Wards - The World Ain't Pretty & Neither are We 7'' (1983)

Formed in the late 70's in Vermount by teen school friends: -

Tea Curley - Vocals
Beano Parker - Guitar
Eric Heisse - Bass
Seman Lincoln - Drums

The songs on this, their first 7'', were written between 79-81' but werent' recorded until '83 when they released them on thier own label. They had a few more releases, all very good, but this one blew me away and still does 28 years later. Back then I'd have a huge wants list A5 booklet that I'd post all over the shop to various people. I was alerted to these from reviews in MMR and Flipside which made it sound interesting, I wasn't disappointed when it arrived.

They manage to mix real lo-fi punk/hardcore with the right amount of garage to make an excellent snotty record. Reading about them live makes it sound like a right hoot as they'd play until they were forced to leave the satge, they'd order pizza mid gig and eat it, have fights and generally cause mayhem. Sounds like fun to watch.

Music

New York Dolls - Dancing Backward in High Heels.

I'm always a little dubious when a band reforms after a long break as it can sometimes just mean they want to make some cash and run the nostalgia circuit; Sex Pistols anyone? I'm not against that per se but I prefer it when a band reforms and continues to releases records, so the Dolls reforming was an "oh shit" moment as it could've been a disaster. Gladly, if you bought Coz I sez So, you'll know it wasn't as it's a bloody good record.

They just played my home town recently and I neglected to go, a move I might well regret, but thanks to a guy at work, hi John, I've now heard their latest album - Dancing backward in high heels. This wasn't as instant as the previous one, but it's still a good record and definitely worth investing a few quid in.

Here's a track from their previous album: -

Johnny Thunders - So Alone (1978)

I like the early New York Dolls, but I wasn't a massive fan, they were just a decent band imo. On the other hand i was a huge fan of The Heartbreakers and Johnny Thunders; this is his first solo release and something he never managed to better, again imo. The line up who played on this record is just a who's who of artists I love: -

• Steve Jones and Paul Cook of the Pistols.
• Paul Gray and Steve Nicol - Eddie and the Hot Rods
• Chrissie Hynde - The Pretenders
• Phil Lynott - Thin Lizzy (yep....I love them)
• Steve Marriott -Small Faces 
• Patti Palladin - Snatch
• Walter Lure and Billy Rath - The Heartbreakers
• Peter Perrett and Mike Kellie - The Only Ones
• Steve Lillywhite - producer extraordinaire

This was recorded after the Heartbreakers split due to pressures from recording LAMF. I'd be hard pushed to pick between the two albums; LAMF is straight ahead punk/rock album, while this is Thunders in a more relaxed mode. It's a great, great album.

I got to see Thunders quite a few times, and the Heartbreakers, and he was mostly good to great, but the last time I saw him playing has left a bad memory as he was completely wasted, missing chords, forgetting lyrics and playing for far too short a time. Sad really.

It's 20 years this month since he died/was murdered...who knows, I guess we never will.

RIP Mr Genzale and many thanks for the great music.

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Idols - You (1979)

After the Heartbreakers disbanded Jerry started a band with a couple of ex early London scensters and an ex doll: -

Steve Dior - Guitar/Vocals
Barry Jones - Guitar
Arthur Kane - Bass
Jerry Nolan - Drums

This was their only release and it's really good, but sadly after a stint back in the states Jerry was refused re-entry to the UK due to his previous drugs infractions and it ended the band. Steve and Barry kept playing around and they eventually morphed into the London Cowboys with Glen Matlock.

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Jerry Nolan - Take a Chance with Me 7'' (1982)

Jerry's solo single using an old Heartbreakers song as the A side, interesting if not destined to set the world on fire. The cover photo was taken by his wife Charoltte Nedeby; the A side featured Sylvain Slvain on keyboards.

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