NEUTRON BOMB ON YOUR FACE

A friend mentioned the Weirdos the other day, so I did what a bored person with their computer on does. I poked around YouTube and found a couple clips I hadn't seen before. One would be a good example of what they were like back in the day, for those not familiar with them. The other is for those with their fingers stuck permanently in the three finger salute, those who, like me, have always had a soft spot for the Weirdos.

The first clip is just one song, "Life of Crime", and although the quality isn't the best, it is one of the best early clips of them floating around. It feels just like it did seeing them live back then, like you're drunk. The video quality just adds to it. Back then, I never got that buzzed. It was just how you felt watching them. Even when their whole collage as dress code thing started to dissipate, there was still something there that made you feel off kilter. Not to say they didn't bring it. They did. They were an extremely tight outfit. Bomp label owner and fanzine editor Greg Shaw once said that, musically, they were better than most UK punk groups of the same era, and he was right (sample some of the mp3s below). And their lyrics were great too. The wording was comical, but often with an underlying message. A random example, "We Got the Neutron Bomb", a song about military dominance:

We got the neutron bomb, gonna drop it all over the place. You're gonna get it on your face. Foreign aid from the land of the free, but don't blame me.

We got the neutron bomb...Don't understand you, don't know what you mean. We don't want you, we want your machines. United Nations and NATO won't do, it's just the red, white and blue.

Quote singer John Denny:

"We [Los Angeles] had our own look, our own sound. It was apart from New York or London.... We were staunchly against safety pins, we tried to parody punk rock at first. We did happy faces onstage as a joke sometimes, which was the exact opposite of what New York was doing. We were just thumbing our noses at everything. Everything was a joke; punk was a joke, we were a joke. Nonetheless, we were still serious about rocking."

The second video below is for you who were around back then. I've no idea how it would look out of context, because I'm very familiar with the band and the songs and, like I said, I've always had a soft spot for them. It's a live show from last year. Despite the fact that they're whittled down from a five piece to a four piece, there's little noticeable empty space. That guitarist Dix Denny is able to make it work says volumes. As a confessed Weirdo softy, I gotta say, it's good to see Dix Denny and his brother John can still doing a bang up job, hardly coming up for air between songs. To think that they're both pushing sixty is pretty remarkable when you consider that many that age have started eyeing the early bird specials.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:
The Weirdos - We Got the Neutron Bomb mp3 at Punk Rock Music
The Weirdos - Solitary Confinement mp3 at 7 Inch Punk
Alternate link, the second 45:
The Weirdos - We Got the Neutron Bomb mp3 at Killed By Death Go here to get it
The Weirdos - Solitary Confinement mp3 at Killed By Death (Ditto)
The first 45:
The Weirdos - Destroy All Music.mp at Killed By Death Go here to get it.
A Life Of Crime.mp3 at Killed By Death (Ditto)
Why Do You Exist.mp3 at Killed By Death (Ditto)
Video:
The Weirdos - Life of Crime (Live) at YouTube Los Angeles 1978
The Weirdos at the Dive (Live) at YouTube Las Vegas 2014, a full set, 56 minutes