FORMATIVE YEARS ROCK

I wasn't looking for this because I didn't know it existed. A live broadcast of an Avengers show from 1979. If I don't post it now, I'll forget. The Avengers were one of the early San Francisco punk bands from 1977. Blah, blah, blah. There's three songs down there from their first EP from '77. The live thing is from two years later and is kind of sloppy but, having been recorded for a radio broadcast, the sound quality is better than a bootleg. What the hell. Years ago I would have killed for a thirty minute set by the Avengers, but these days, well, shit I've listened to Avengers a lot over the years. Might as well be "Johnny B. Goode" at this point. Still, this goes out to my twenty year old self.

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

Listen:
The Avengers - We Are The One mp3 at Killed By Death
The Avengers - I Believe In Me mp3 at Killed By Death
The Avengers - Car Crash mp3 at Killed By Death
The Avengers – In Concert at Old Waldorf, San Francisco – June 13, 1979 – KALX-FM broadcast mp3 at Past Daily

OKAY, NOW LET'S LOOSEN THOSE NECKS

This isn't one of the Avengers' better known songs and I haven't really listened to it in years. Hearing "Second to None" again, I now hear Suzi Quatro, the Sex Pistols, Gen X, and Joan Jett doing a Slade song. That's not the actual truth, but Steve Jones did write the music and I think he played on it and produced it as well. I think that's the story. You've got more time on your hands than I do, you look it up.

The other song, "The American In Me", was their first 7". Just down there for filler.

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

Listen:
The Avengers - Second To None mp3 at Mod Punk Archives
The Avengers - The American In Me mp3 at Mod Punk Archives

START OF SOMETHING BIGGER

You might think that any old fart that listens to punk rock from thirty odd years ago is stuck in the past, or trying to bring about a feeling of deja cool. But when I revisited the stuff below, the first thing that I flashed on was what the feeling was like, not the feeling of the music, or the feeling of what it felt like to be in with the out crowd. When I heard these, it reminded me of the the excitement of the open ended possibilities that these records represented. These tiny upstart record companies that seemed to pop up over night were not lapping up the condensation as it dripped off of the major labels tall cool one. They stepped in the puddle and went another day without water.

With the possible exception of the odd private pressing, or token 45 by a local bar band, these were the first independently released records that most of my friends had ever heard. They most definitely were for me. Just as in that old punk rock cliche "they can't play and they're in a band, and I can play three chords...", these records proved "I can put out a record". And many did. The links below lead to a good size chunk of ground zero for the L.A. punk scene and the surge of independent West Coast labels. These records and others released about that same time did no less than change the game.

These links lead to separate posts at Killed By Death, each with two to four songs, with the original sleeves . All of these records were released within a span of about two years on L.A. based labels, and all of the bands were from L.A., with the exception of the Dils and the Avengers, who from San Francisco.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY KILLED BY DEATH ~ 

Listen:

The Dils - I Hate the Rich Two songs
The Weirdos – Destroy All Music E.P Three songs
The Avengers – We Are The One E.P. Three songs
The Bags – Survive Two songs
The Dils – 198 Seconds Of…  Two songs
X – Adult Books Two songs
Black Randy and The Metro Squad – Trouble at the Cup E.P. Three songs
Randoms – ABCD/Let’s Get Rid Of New York Two songs
The Weirdos – We Got The Neutron Bomb Two songs
What Records Comp. E.P. Three songs, Contollers, Eyes and Skulls
The Deadbeats – Kill The Hippies E.P. Four songs
The Germs – Lexicon Devil E.P. Three songs
Black Randy and the Metrosquad – I Slept In An Arcade Two songs

RECORD STORE DAY IS SATURDAY

Record Store Day is this Saturday, so I'm setting the wayback machine to 1977. But it's more because of the records that drew us to the stores, than the stores themselves. That's because, after years of major label domination of "cutting edge" music, the DIY mentality of punk rock had pulled the independent label movement right out of the mud. Though the indies never really went away, there were just very few of them. But when punk hit, it was as if someone was cutting a path through all of the bullshit. Deals were made on handshakes (or clinking beer bottles), artists were given control, and distribution avenues grew. It was one of the most important, and longest lasting, aspects of original punk rock movement. Nowadays "punk rock" is for the masses, a sound and a look, more than it is a movement, way of life, or DIY business model. Sure, there's still indie punk labels, but what's disconcerting is that a lot of the music is too derivative, too much the same, too punk rock.

In 1977, all these punk labels started popping up in L.A.. Notably early were Bomp (who put out the first Weirdos and Zeros 45s) and What Records (the first Dils and Germs records),; but, by far, the one label that had it down, and released the bulk of the significant shit, was Dangerhouse. I can remember eagerly waiting for the first crop of Dangerhouse releases to hit Monty Rockers, my record store of choice. I mean that literally. I was there when they were delivered. So, that's the segue to Record Store Day. A stretch, I know.

Within a five month period, Dangerhouse released 45s by the Randoms, Black Randy & the Metro Squad (two), the Avengers, the Dils (their second), the Weirdos (their second), the Alleycats, and X. Just a few months later, amongst others, they released 45s by the Deadbeats, the Bags, and the Eyes. At the very least, there are a half dozen landmark punk records in that bunch. And, notably, they're not all really punk rock. Because it wasn't just about a look or a sound. I mean, jeez, the Alleycats were a sped up rock band that had been playing biker bars. X's John Doe & Exene started out as poets. The Weirdos were just loud ex-art school guys. The Dils were really just aggravated, well-versed, ex-rock guys. And the Deadbeats were a total fucking freakout. Nevermind the fact that the Screamers were never properly recorded, they were undoubtedly on the Dangerhouse wish list, what with former Screamer David Brown being one of the labels principals. So just listen to some of the songs on the pages below. Really, at least just listen to the Deadbeats' "Brainless," and think of that the next time you see a kid in a black hoodie and skinny jeans.

This post at 7 Inch Punk has:
The Avengers: We Are the One, I Believe In Me, Car Crash
The Dils: Class War, Mr. Big
Randoms: ABCD, Let's Get Rid of New York
Black Randy & the Metro Squad: Trouble at the Cup, Loner With A Boner, Sperm Bank Baby

This post at 7 Inch Punk has:
The Weirdos: We Got the Neutron Bomb, Solitary Confinement
The Alleycats: Nothing Means Nothing Anymore, Gimme a Little Pain
X: Adult Books, We're Desperate
Black Randy & the Metro Squad: Idi Amin, Say It Loud Pt 3, Say It Loud Pt 13, I Wanna be a Narc

This post at 7 Inck Punk has:
The Deadbeats: Kill the Hippies, Brainless [HIGHLY recommended], and three non- Dangerhouse songs

Dangerhouse history & discography at Break My Face; Pt 1, and Pt 2
An exhaustive history, with interviews and side stories.

Record Store Day official site

ROLL UP YOUR SLEEVES

"This victory alone is not the change we seek - it is only the chance for us to make that change. And that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were. It cannot happen without you."

~ Barack Obama, November 4, 2008..

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During the last days of the presidential campaign, I was on the way home from my nightly swim when I ran into my neighbor Patty, a semi-retired oceanographer, on her way home from her nightly run feeding the stray cats up the block. After commenting on her Obama badge, we began talking about the election and our hopes that things would change, that the pendulum would swing towards making things better for all Americans, with an eye on global repercussions of our foreign policy..

After a couple minutes, another neighbor walked up. Matt is a Marine and member of a bomb disposal unit with two tours of Iraq under his belt. During the course of the campaign he had switched his allegiance and was to vote for a Democratic president for the first time. He opined that, with where the country had gone in the past eight years and where he saw it headed if McCain would be elected, he could not vote along party lines with so much at stake.

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At this point in our street corner conversation, the sun was down, I'm still dripping wet and getting butt-ass cold. Right when we were getting ready to part ways, Willie, another neighbor from across the alley walked up. He was on his way home from work, as a cobbler & shoe shine man. He's a fixture in Ocean Beach, and has been here since I was a little kid. A few years ago, some racists burned his shoe shine stand to the ground (he's African-American) and some locals rebuilt a better one for him the very next day. His take was that it was much more than the last eight years. He had been waiting a long time for this, and while not going into detail, I knew from past conversations with him, that stealth racism was something that troubled him deeply. He doesn't bring it up much now that he's given up drinking (under doctor's orders), but when I used to run into him on his way home from the VFW bar, he'd let it spill.

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After a few more minutes, the four of us went our separate ways. The three of them had each made two new friends, we all felt a sense of community and hope, and I went home shivering, feeling warmer then I had in quite a while.

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Though more detached, I've experienced that same sense of community the last few days while visiting mp3 blogs. t's been really interesting to see the comments and song selections posted in reaction to election. Rather than just download songs, you really ought to check out the hosting blogs and take in what they're saying; from "Dream Come True", on Crying All the Way to the Chip Shop, a blog from a Brit expatriot, to the succinct "Fuck Yes!!", posted on the largely punk rock blog, Last Days of Man on Earth.
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Bob & Marcia - Young Gifted and Black mp3
The Impressions - We're a Winner mp3 at Crying All the Way to the Chip Shop

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James Brown - Funky President mp3
Lee Dorsey - Yes We Can mp3 at Funky 16 Corners
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X - The New World mp3 at Visions and Revisions
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We Are the One - The Avengers mp3 at The Last Days of Man on Earth