Malcolm McLaren had done it in the UK and Rod Swenson in the U.S. – however obscene you might find today’s casting shows, you should never forget that in a way, the casting idea had played quite a role in the early days of Punk. THE PLASMATICS basically were put together by Swenson – or better yet, the band had been built around Wendy O. Williams. Or better yet: Around the body of hers.
When in the case of the SEX PISTOLS, Punk was threatening and intelligent, the PLASMATICS were not much more than a rather daft outfit. Wendy’s role, sexually outrageous and violent, was definitely of unseen before dimensions, but other than that, the PLASMATICS had little to offer. Blowing up cars on stage, cutting down guitars or t.v. sets and other forms of ritual destruction of goods (a Punk Potlatch) were quite a spectacle in the late 70s / early 80s, but as soon as the band adapted the “Mad Max” outfit (mistaken as Punk), the whole scheme became really ludicrous.
I liked the PLASMATICS a lot when I was a kid and I had tried everything to see them live when they played Switzerland in 1981 (in the Volkshaus in Zurich – the PLASMATICS concert ended in rioting and destruction and became famous as the last Punk show at this venue) and needless to say, I liked them best when they turned more and more Metal. Nowadays I’m a it more sceptical about them. Some of the music is good and Wendy’s voice is truly unique. The combination of both Punk and Metal was there from the very start and added a lot of power.
In early April 1998, Wendy had been missing for a few days and, believe it or don’t, it was Rod Swenson himself who found her in the back of her house. She had blown her brains out.
This is the first, selfproduced version of the first PLASMATICS EP. It was repressed in 1980 on Stiff Records, with different cover, different version of “Butcher Baby” and a different b-side (one might say, it was all different,haha). Every single PLASMATICS record was available on colored vinyl (often multicolored), this didn’t really occur to me until recently. And yes, my vinyl is very, very noisy. I even tried and bought another copy for a quality upgrade, but guess what. A “ex” record turned out to be a fucked up as my previous one.
Oh yeah – here’s the infamous Lemmy & Wendy O. 7″.
Butcher Baby.mp3
Fast Food Service (live).mp3
Concrete Shoes (live).mp3
34 Comments
Hi Erich- thanks for posting this! I needed some better rips of this to replace my dubbed copy on cassette that I’ve had for years. Nice thoughts about the band, 30 years later they DO look so ridiculous in those Mad Max outfits. They could have been extras in one of those “punxploitation” movies from the 80′s. But the first few singles are great between ’78 and ’80! This version of “Fast Food Service” is one of my favorite Plasmatics songs. The “Monkey Suit/Squirm” 7″ is good too. And I think I have some complete live show from 1978 on cassette that is good too.
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Admin Reply:
March 11th, 2010 at 15:59
That live show sounds interesting! And yeah, the 2nd 7″ is great too and I forgot to mention that I especially dig the 12″EP.
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the best punk band for ever!!!!!! And diamon Head was soooooo great also.
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I agree that the Plasmatics music didn’t quite stand the test of time as a lot of the other punk bands of the time did. And for me it was the pleasure of watching Wendy jiggle around her goodies
that was the main appeal of the band. I think this is the first time I’ve seen the original sleeve of this. Thanks for posting. Rest in Peace , Wendy O..
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and her goodies were nice
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I wrote off the Plasmatics back then as a gimmick. These days I like them a lot more. First album and all the singles are good. There is a great documentary DVD with stunning live footage. Google “Plasmatics DVD.”
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I’ve loved them since the first LP. Was so jealous of my friend who had an older relative that worked as a reviewer and gotten a promo copy with a B/W photo of Wendy and the band. Of course my friend got hold that copy and later handed over it to me.
My copy is noisy as hell too. So maybe it’s the pressing of it? And believe it or not but I’ve had this one in the posting queue since August 2007 ha ha
. There´s some really great early footage floating around of live shows and interviews. I got my stuff from punktorrents.com.
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Admin Reply:
March 11th, 2010 at 17:05
Oh yeah, forgot to mention you were about to post this one too. I’m curious to hear your rip – maybe it’s the pressing indeed that is entirely fuckd up.
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My copy of this is on splatter wax and sounds a bit cleaner.
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Admin Reply:
March 12th, 2010 at 09:01
That’s actually the 1980 repress on STIFF, with different b-side.
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always wanted to hear this band. nice. thanks. not that noisy. thanks again.
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I could hardly walk out of the club, after seeing them when I was 15!!! i can’t remember if there was a band or not…hahahaha
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you keep forgetting to mention that the Stiff records version is a completely different recording. It is the recording from the New hope LP
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Admin Reply:
March 12th, 2010 at 12:51
Yes, I keep forgetting. That’s life.
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oh yeah I also find it amusing that people who love metal so much are complaining about gimmicks.
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Admin Reply:
March 12th, 2010 at 12:49
Who is complaining?
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Yet another connection between metal and punk is that the idea of the gimmick was absolutely essential to the history and formation of both.
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Admin Reply:
March 12th, 2010 at 17:26
That’s exactly how I see it. As if, for example, the Clash’s take on social issues, the aestheticication of rebellion, was anything else but a gimmick. An ideologically charged view tends to take these aesthetics for a certain kind of larger-than-life reality, a bizarre surplus.
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I agree. In the metal world there was Sabbath’s “horror show” aesthetic (they did say that one of the reasons for sounding the way they did was to entertain people like horror movies did,) Priest’s leather, Venom’s Satanic cheese, etc. The punk world seems full as well, from the Ramones’ dress code/stage surnames/musical style onwards. Maybe this stuff comes from the music that precedes both styles? For example, Alice Cooper, the Stooges, etc. definitely used several gimmicks as well.
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If music is good, why doe’s it need “aesthetics”? ; )
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thomas Reply:
March 12th, 2010 at 22:42
Good question – guess because human perceive the world visually, long before they talked on the iphone about the new vegan restaurant, they had to glimpse if the dust overthere in the distance is a herd of nutrition stomping along their empty stomaches way.
Probably. Correct me if I’m wrong. I’m either drunk or lying. And an old metalhead.
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Cos aesthetics make cool stuff cooler and distract up from noticing how Shit everything else is. Think otherwise? You’re either blind or a boring poser. Great fucking band the plasmatics
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thomas Reply:
March 12th, 2010 at 22:52
didn’t know, Sid had a little brother
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Steve Reply:
March 13th, 2010 at 00:50
I think Sid had a higher intellect for sure!
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Fuck. Rose to that bait
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i saw some wanker cover band clled the spazmatics at the motorcycle races. basicly all they did was try to cover all the hit songs from the 70s. it was fucking stupid. for some reason i thought these guys were new wave. maybe because of the name. thank you for proving me wrong.
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Whoever can name me ONE bandthat is free of “aesthetics” can have my entire record collection for free.
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While I’m not a big fan of wikipedia, the following might help to clear things up a little ….
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aesthetics
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Steve Reply:
March 13th, 2010 at 01:06
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Thanks!
you forgot to mention another w-o-w post here, the one with the duet with Lemmy (Stand by youuurrr maaaaaan!)
I also thought it had a different version than the Stiff one. And yes this one here it’s a different take, slower, with the guitarist doing funny arpegios and the violin solos, hahaha. It’s good finally getting to hear it.
Dear Adminbärchen
Saludos
Fernando
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Admin Reply:
March 13th, 2010 at 14:38
It’s definitely different, I just forgot to mention. As I forgot to link the “Stand by your man” 7″
yours – the adminbärchen
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justin Reply:
March 13th, 2010 at 17:38
I too was titillated by the band at first, what hetero sexual male (and maybe lesbian female) wouldn’t be? But this wasn’t a drop in the pan band. Some seriously all around good music and when “metal Priestess” came out I was blown away. That is a damn good ep. With the output these guys had I feel like you’re taking the lightly Erich?
The idea of music as a “gimmick” seems to trivialize it a bit. Another word would be “shtick” right? When you talk about aesthetics it makes me wonder if there is a way to over analyze the music. How does that account for Jay’s painful boner? Aesthetics in music seems somehow connected in marketability. Can you find that in primitive ritualistic music? If not you owe me all your records sir.
Did Mad Max inspire the Plasmatics or was it the other way around?
Wasn’t that Lemmy/Wendy thing the reason Fast Eddie left Motorhead?
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Admin Reply:
March 13th, 2010 at 17:47
Aesthetics, Jay, is not “optics”, “appearance” per se. It ishow things are perceived, first. That said, there’s just no way of consuming art without aesthetics. One could say much more about this, but let’s leave it at that (for the moment).
I guess you owe me your collection, haha.
And if there was such a thing as “primitive ritualistic music” and even if you reduce the aesthetics of it down to how the musicians appear: It’s hard to imagine anything more “aesthetic” (n the justin-way of saying) than this.
Yeah, I seem to remember that Wendy & Lemmy thing pissed Fast Eddie off quite a bit and thus ended Motörhead (for me, at least).
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I just don’t see any other blog dedicated to Punk or Metal who had debates going on like this here and many others. But then again not everybody has so much to say about music like the guys over at goodbadmusic.com. best blog and biggest source of inspiration for me. respect.
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great post. I would love to hear the first Diamond Head 7″ next prettyprettyprettyplase.
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From my own music “career”, I remember that it’s more fun to play concerts when you also play around with your image and with gimmicks. That’s a good enough reason to do it, isn’t it. It’s fun.
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Admin Reply:
March 13th, 2010 at 21:27
BTW, Thomas: Checked out your band and thought it was really good. Let me know if you ever play in little big city.
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Thomas Reply:
March 14th, 2010 at 17:50
It’s my ex band actually, unfortunately (I have 4 children which means no time for band life). I’ll let you know when they come to ZH.
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Thomas Reply:
March 14th, 2010 at 17:51
And thanks!
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Thomas Reply:
March 14th, 2010 at 20:58
Monday 10 May 2010, Bosch Bar, Zürich: A TREE IN A FIELD Label Night with FLIMMER, Combine Harvester, Papiro, Antenna Tony Monorail. Enjoy.
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And again the scary spooko thingo. Because the other day I kept thinking about messthetics and one thing lead to another, Crass’ motto “Be warned! The nature of your oppression is the aesthetics of our anger!” – that made me think about what violence could have given birth to the heavy metal thunder (& protopunk) in the lovey 60′s, and so (among others) Jimi came to mind. And what do I see next day?, a pic of Jimmy Jimmy the voodoo childo up there in the GBM page.
An interesting thing (well it’s interesting for me anyway) is how the HM-singing style was forged. It wasn’t in Vulcano’s forge like Hawkwind would lead you to believe. You see, the pioneers, like Steve Marriot (of whom, say, Bon Scott was a big fan and whose style in songs like “You need loving” Roberto Planta ripped off wholelottatotally) or the vocalist of the Jeff Beck Group (some guy called Rod Stewart), what these guys were doing was trying to imitate some blues singers like Screamin’ Jay Hawkwinds. The poor results of the imitation created a new style, hahaha. Well that’s my theory anyway but anybody can check it. History is sometimes fun…
Saludos,
Fernando
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Admin Reply:
March 14th, 2010 at 17:30
The Hendrix-thing makes it clear: I have brain powers that transcend the merely physical world.
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justin Reply:
March 15th, 2010 at 01:40
:-O
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What's the Truth? Reply:
March 14th, 2010 at 17:41
Interesting thoughts, Fernando!
My 2 cents: One of the major factors in the birth of proto-punk and proto-metal was a reactionary attitude against the aesthetics and ideals of 60s “hippie” music. One complaint cited by a variety of bands from the Stooges to Sabbath is that the hippie idealism and “instant peace and love” attitude did not appeal to them (partially a class thing, I think…Sabbath and the Stooges were both from very run-down, dead-end lower working class areas filled with factories and poverty; they knew of the failures of simplistic idealism already.) Either they dropped the hippie idealism for a more extreme political stance, like the MC5, who were White Panthers in their early days, or they went for a certain nihilism like the Stooges, or even in a less extreme but still less hippie direction. I think this accompanied a certain turn to a harsher sound/aesthetic.
Some bands like the Stooges also cited the increasingly bloated nature of rock…15 minute drum solos and whatnot. Iggy was really interested in the idea of the “primitive” and spent hours at his local college library reading tons of anthropology books looking for inspiration for constructing the ultimate “primitive” aesthetic, which he certainly helped to do (wearing no shirt onstage, limiting himself to a certain number of words per song, etc.)
Maybe these are a few factors?
As for the singing, I agree as well! The racial history of rock is a fascinating subject on its own, and certainly, much of what we think of as “rock and roll singing” originates from white singers trying to affect the vocal styles that were popular among Black people from the American south, from Elvis to the Rolling Stones. Chuck Berry tried to sound more “white,” but it’s not his voice that people remember as associated with the idea of the wild rock singer.
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Okay I understand circumstance and I understand that musicians (people in general) can be reactionary, but is music always that well thought out or planned. Where the emotion and the irrationality.
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Admin Reply:
March 15th, 2010 at 07:38
Nobody said that, Justin. It’s how we understand it. On the other hand: Nothing is done purely emotionally, especially not music. Just think of what it takes until music lies on your computer or turntable, how many steps lie in between.
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justin Reply:
March 15th, 2010 at 15:46
You know I gave the whole aesthetic idea some more thought and was kinda grooving to seeing that in the music. It’s just sometimes I feel like we over analize things and that potentially overshadows the emotion. I can remember being in the sweaty stinky cramped rehearsal space with carpet covered walls, a little high and a little drunk, and that feeling of elation the first time you play a song that you’ve been working on, tight. There are a lot of steps that led up to that moment, but when you’re there, there is nothing else but that moment. As far as the steps that put my music on my computer turntable, they really vary don’t they? Sometimes empirically well thought out, but other times it might be as simple as the cover looks interesting or almost completely random and just a bunch of unknown stuff in a lot that was going for cheap on ebay.
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Admin Reply:
March 15th, 2010 at 21:08
I don’t mean to sound like a jerk, Justin, but the point is this: When we talk about music, we talk not about the music per se. We’re constructing it, forming it, giving it shape through language – metaphors, explanations and even emotions (which, just like music, are nothing rock solid either – not to speak of memory).
There’s no world outside of our language, if you really go to the bottom of things. And the language is not like a tool you use – in some ways, language uses you.
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I got you, you jerk.
If 6 turned out to be 9, I don’t mind.
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Oh man, who can forget this video, with Wendy’s nipples creamed up and pegged and Richie Stotts in his most appealing little outfit…what memories are made of. The song with the car being blown up is cool too but the one where she chainsaw’s the guitar lacks something – the music being dubbed over isn’t quite right – we want to hear the REAL sound of a guitar being murdered!
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A bit late, but who cares…
@Admin: “I have brain powers that transcend the merely physical world”. Oh, I thought it was the other way round… Or is it that “we are all one”? (what an ugly thought, hahah)
@WTT / Pontius Pilate: Agreed. And I was joking when talking about the ‘lovey 60s’. Shit is everywhere. But protopunk goes earlier than the reaction to hippism. The early Kinks, or the Who, were very violent bands. And the Seattle scene from the early 60s (Wailers, the Sonics…). (The scene were Jimi came from, precisely.) And, before them, Link Wray (even the titles! ‘Rumble’, ‘Jack the ripper’, …). And. And.
@admin II “There’s no world outside of our language, if you really go to the bottom of things. And the language is not like a tool you use – in some ways, language uses you.” Sounds like St John to me. Thats how postmodernism goes back to the bible. Now serious, got your point but ain’t you going too far? Language may be a cage and have a big maze inside but you can see through the bars. Or else, can you explain a man born blind what is blue? Or a dumb guy what is music? or…? To speak with Fox Mulder, ‘the truth is out there’
(which btw answers to WTT’s alias) 
Grüsse,
Fernando
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Jimi was never part of the Seattle scene. He joined the army, then started playing rhythm on the “chitlin’ circuit”.
A lot of what’s called protopunk is just rocknroll. If we call Elvis a punk, then rock is redundant and punk meaningless. The MC5 were well into the commune scene; Iggy went “macrobiotic”; the Pink Fairies and Hawkwind were hippies for sure. Simply Saucer was as much prog-psychedelic as proto-punk. Third World War were maybe the most punk act back then and they still did 10 minute songs and a 2 part suite. Hippies idolized people like the Hell’s Angels; they threw more bricks than punks ever did. I see punk as being a mix of lower-class youth culture (influenced by hippies, especially by the drugs, but unable to participate in Berkley/Airplane rallies or “drop-out” as easily) and the focus on concept of the Mods, Velvets, Krautrock, Glam, and “horror rock”. The distaste for long solos and revival of the 2-3 (then 1-2) minute song is important as far as simplicity and unsophistication are part of the concept, but who would deny “Sister Ray” or “Eva Braun” fit into punk? The main conflict between hippies and punks is that one idealizes the rural-natural, and the others idealize the urban-realist. Countless punks listened to prog and Zeppelin before cutting their hair. Many returned to that territory in artier phases (Mark Perry, Black Flag, Crass). Many more turned to the pre-hippie 60s for inspiration. All the other conflicts are mostly typical generation gap ones. Punks in 77 were ten years older than their 67 components; some hippies had been through a surf, R&B, or garage band phase in 64-66 (Back from the Grave years), while their collegiate brethren went through the left-wing folkie phase (and the highly produced, upwardly mobile R&B of Motown. Punks mostly cut out the folkie influence (except maybe Syd Barret and Oar, which were popular) and embraced the bubblegum and glam stuff hippies hated — remember the Paul Revere boycott? — in order to better emphasize their youth. They also embraced raw, fast, harsh sounds, and a mix of egalitarianism and nihilism that would force all but the most prejudiced and reactionary to be unable to take them at face value. (Now I was born in ’77 in a very hippie town — Portland, OR — and I like all kinds of rock. Hardcore I never got as into — blame the crust bands infesting our town in the ’90s, but this blog is doing a great job of opening me up, however — I don’t automatically assume something from ’85 is going to suck.) Anyway thanks for giving me a forum to spout off my theories — of course I wasn’t there then, but the same forces are still in play. The difference is an overwhelming anxiety of influence on the better bands, and a bankruptcy of influence on the majority. Thank you, good man in Switzerland; your blog, KBD, and LDofM give me what I used to have to beg Routenburg, Yu, Behjan, and my pals at Discourage for tapes of.
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Thanks much Brian for sharing your thoughts and I hope you make massive use of this blog for your theories and views. That’s what it was made for.
Can’t say much at the moment concerning your short historical sketch other than that it sounds interesting. Being born in ’77 doesn’t make your view less valuable – eye witnesses often know shit about what they saw, or as historians say (a bit more sophisticated): Eye witnesses are the historian’s natural enemies.
Glad you like the blog.
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Thank you for the reply! This blog makes me feel like I did when I first picked up the CD reissue of KBD #1 back in ’95. I’ve always been a big Priest and Saxon fan, but finding all these lesser known NWOBHM bands and how good and original most of them are . . . it was one of my blind spots.
My biggest blind spot has always been hardcore. I owned RP and Minor Threat and that’s it. There was a series called Punk Territory with volumes of American (Jerry Kidz, Abuse, Shell Shock, The Mob, White Flag . . . ) and Italian hardcore (all taken from demo tapes I think) and they grew on me but I used to think of it more like industrial music w/ rock instruments. Or like Sinatra fans probably thought of all r’n'r. I also had a repress of Solger, but I never even listened to Poison Idea, despite running into Pig many times (he was fatherly towards me after he saw my band was named after an Electric Eels song — Spin Age Blasters — more of a big deal back then — and we covered The Sleepers “No Time” and the Wipers’ “Youth of America” (and other then-exotic numbers as “Twisted Road”, “(West) Hillside Strangler”, “I’m Stranded”, “Heart of Darkness”, “Son of Sam”, “Shaking Hell”, “Shot by Both Sides”, Subway Sect’s “Ambition”, and about 10 Joy Division songs . . . the missionary in me was more proud of our covers than our originals.)
Some people said we were really good, but the crust mafia literally ran the show back then, and the “elders” who should’ve known better were strung out/spun out. The all-ages clubs relied on this group of maybe a few hundred walking cliches and the unwholesome noise I doubt even they enjoyed. There were a couple sub-Mummies-type acts and the usual sub-REM guys from PSU, and touring bands were either grunge+funk bottom or early signs of the Emo plague. (There were also weird Christian alternative bands on this label called Tooth and Nail. For a long time I thought their name was from the Upsetter comp so I was eager to set up shows with them . . . until one day I was told the horrible truth.
It seems hard to believe, but for the whole of the ’90s there were no punk bands in Portland. I booked the 2 biggest all-ages clubs, heard all the demo tapes, and besides us and my friends whom I’d corral into different bands because I was so hungry for a scene, punk meant hardcore and hardcore meant CRUST. I taped and re-taped the tapes I was blagging off collectors (Paul Routenberg once sent me 12 C90s after my house burnt down . . . Behjan made me several . . . Dan from Acute sent me D.Bikes and Homos CDs in exchange for Mike Finney of the Distractions phone number . . . Ron Rancid even made me a couple . . . everybody’s got a story about him! So when it comes to downloading out-of-print, local and unknown records, I’ve come to think it’s the only way we’re going to break the cultural impasse . . . the hippest kids in my high school were into the Pixies and Jane’s Addiction, nobody even knew the Velvets . . . but now I meet kids all the time who’ve got their PHD in KBD, with a taste for stuff like the Pop Group and No Wave, without losing appreciation for heavy metal! (It’s even hard to believe punks were “programmed” to hate metal; Priest and Crue dominate every jukebox in town.) The really hard part is for the kids in bands to forget the retro buffet of influences and play their own way. Starting out doing a lot of covers is an important lesson, I think, but at band practices I’ve taken to the expression “21st Century Rock” . . . not meaning the Strokes but for us to trust our instincts again. There may be good live bands again, but on record it always comes off a one-dimensional xerox; and either way overmic’d, or lo-fi enough to be a joke. Whereas even something like Hugh Beaumont can give all sorts of impressions (its hard to think of one new wave single that didn’t grow on me a little bit — there’s plenty in rockabilly or prog or hippie or ’60s I can’t stand — but the new wave years were special and I credit you for running a thoughtful site which greatly widens the scope . . . the Italians and Japanese, who aren’t represented much KBD era, seem to have fertile ground for hardcore. The idea of third-world and iron block countries getting in on the act is exciting too. I remember how disappointed I was to find the Dragons album wasn’t recorded in China. (Besides here the only place I’ve found with ideas beyond stamp-collector talk is Shit Fi . . . I think they understand Foucault and I was excited to hear you mentioning him because, post-war, the eagle eyes have been his, I think. Most students have encountered Discipline and Punish, but without History of Sexuality and Madness and Civilization (and the speeches; my first impression of Archaelogy of Knowledge was something like Hegel attempting Finnegan’s Wake, or really it was like my first impression of hardcore) the clearest even a smart punk can see is akin to old standby Nietzche . . . or that idea of “social darwinism” . . . or otherwise muck around in familiar voices like Bangs or Black Randy or Jello or Lydia Lunch or Jon Savage or Julie Burchill or Tesco Vee or Handsome Dick or Rollins or Ian MacKaye or R.Meltzer or an especially bitchy Kugelburg or the guy from Crypt or the Blog to Comm guy (who reviewed my first record last year only 13 years after sending it to him!) or getting worse that guy who used to manage the Dils and write in Search and Destroy and is now some kind of Muslim Neocon anti-Wahabist . . . or god forbid, Boyd Rice . . . I used to run into him when my ex-wife had a radio show and he was like super-sensitive, fat and burnt out, while attempting to present the opposite. A lot of people in Portland worship that guy without knowing what he’s really like; ex-punks and hipsters tend to join these pseudo-cults and take over different bars, just like the crusts used to (the crusts are mostly on heroin these days; they go up and down the coast).
We met R.Meltzer too, a total sad-sack, like Rice example of living your life absorbed in pop culture while pretending that you aren’t, via ridicule or fetish . . .
My point is that, as evidenced by people’s attempts to create drama in the comment section, both punk, and social hobbies, are perverse implantations, I think Foucault would put it. And on the internet, the variety of punk “personality types”, can collide and BS with impunity. The anti-intellectual strands in punk (blamed on Oi, skins, and boys club hardcore, but IMHO the result of mini-nationalism in every scene ((Clash to Skrewdriver, Contortions to Minutemen)) and the fear of outsiders that goes along with it.
Maybe that’s why I’m finding indie metal and foreign hardcore very refreshing. It seems like there’s less of that bullshit. I’ve been focusing on some very insular scenes which still turned out great original bands. I saw a presentation by the guy who ran the Masque and he said Fear’s favorite opening act was Johanna Went. It takes a lot of thought to accept that others are worthwhile even if they seem to contradict your own lifestyle. Portland is small, but very xenophobic, since so many “artists” have moved here from all over. There’s also a lot of drug use, jealousy about billings, and a mob presence in most of the clubs (seriously; if they don’t make what they tell you they wanna make, your gear stays till you cover it). Just three of the reasons my friends with the most talent play out the least.
While I idealize insular scenes (I’m Welsh so very interested in anything from there; Portland has its particular sound; the ESR scene in Texas is fascinating; the album from the Swedish youth club is priceless; I managed to get most of the early Twin/Tone and Break’r labels from Minnesota; Flying Nun put out a couple dozen brilliant records; the Zoo label in Liverpool and the Sheffield industrial sound were amazing; the proto-punk scene in Prague was amazing like the Akron and Cleveland scenes; the Clone label is a great example of prog-punk fusion; the Hospital label in Cincinnati was all incestuous and got to date Sheer Smegma!; one of the wildest records I’ve heard is that Steepe Punks EP from Kazahkstan (!) For years I’ve also been saying that while the Dutch scene made plenty of great records, they were always overrated next to Belgium and France. Danish punk is underrated too — that Paere Punk comp is great, with total variety. I’ve also always thought that Switzerland had a great scene way out of proportion to its size, but only now have I heard more of the records.
I wanted to ask if you knew much about the Soilant label. I liked MD and I was wondering if they put out any other cool experimental stuff? Were they Swiss or German?
Also, do you know if any good NWOHM-type records made it out of USSR? How about elsewhere in E. Europe? A lot of the best progressive comes from there. I’ll be on the lookout for postings of any NW, metal, or hardcore from any of those places (and Wales) and from the rest of world.
(Then I can imagine playing music in a less anesthetized, jaded, bad artist-infested town; just me and my resourceful friends making waves like friends used to do. If you search for Fringe-Weird, or Spin Age Blasters “An Instant Attraction”, or “Standing with his back to the Door”, I think somebody had MP3s up for a time . . . or so I heard. Of course, I’d be happy to mail you some records, and maybe I’ll get around to putting my box of demos onto CDr . . . even the stuff when I was 16 is pretty good. Artier and weirder than most punk, but definitely noise-y and rockin’. I don’t want to get into the “revenge” the crusties got on that first band of mine, but needless to say it’s Karl Rove-level absurd).
As you can tell I do have the urge to write a good book about punk et al. Something like Rock and the Pop Narcotic (by Joe Carducci) but funnier, more autobiographical, and less reactionary. Thanks for letting me ramble, thanks for the music, and I’ll see you on the interweb!
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I saw them at the Whisky A Go Go in the fall of 1980.
They had chickens running all over the stage and flying
into the audience. At the end of the show, Wendy’s electrical
tape slid off her sweaty tits! This was an all age show! Classic!
Your copy isn’t that fucked up! Thanks for the downloads!
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I saw them at the Markthalle in Hamburg/Germany in 1981, it was something like a Punk comic, surreal & bizarr. They played together with Big Balls & the Great White Idiot from Hamburg and the stage was just too small to blast off a car, so Wendy killed another guitar with her chainsaw and the show was really L-O-U-D. As far as I remember, when they blast off the speakers you could see, they were empty and it was all a big hoax.
Nevertheless, all in all a very amusing spectacle from America and I think the first 7″s are really good in a positive way!
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I had the pleasure of meeting Wendy several times in the early 80′s backstage at various venues. I became even closer to her when she moved not too far from me at the CT/MA border and visited her frequently at the health food store she ran with Rod. What she is/was like in real life was :far: different than anyone would ever guess. She never ate processed foods, ice cream, etc., and even managed to get her pic on the cover of “Vegetarian Times”. My copy of Butcher Baby on Vice Squad came from her, and it’s noisy as well!! RIP Wendy…miss you tons
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