I don’t know why this record by The Scientists is called The Pink Album. I believe it’s their first full length record, but it’s not the first by them that I bought. If it were, it might have been the last of their stuff I got. I was a big fan their later work that some call “swamp rock,” but CCR they most definitely ain’t. Their music was primarily heavy, noisy, arty dirges. Being a semi-completist, or incomplete-completist, I bought this to fill the hole in my Scientists collection. When I first heard it I couldn’t believe this was the same band, except there was front man Kim Salmon clearly pictured on the back cover. Also in the band at this time was drummer James Baker, who would later join the Hoodoo Gurus.
It turns out The Scientists had two distinct periods. The latter being what I described above, and what I got hooked on, and the earlier stuff which is more garage rock or “punk” like The Buzzcocks, but not nearly as good. Still, being a part-time occasional completist, I will keep it. I think I bought this at a record store in NYC.
The Scientists were a much more important band than this record, and this post, would lead you to believe. The good stuff is coming. Stay tuned.
More about The Scientists
Interview with Kim Salmon
- Artist: The Leaving Trains
- Title: Fuck
- Year: 1987
- Format: Vinyl 12 in.
- Rating (1-10): 6
- Owner: Tracy
- Acquired: 1987 – Promo at Mother’s Records
- Keeper: Maybe
I apologize. And with that out the way let’s talk about the only record I have by The Leaving Trains that I didn’t buy. This one must have been a promo we got when I worked at a chain record store in a shopping mall. You can see from the last pic that the label, SST, ran a display contest. “Win a Plane Trip to a Trains Show.” I guess back in 1987 that would have motivated some folks, but there is no way a chain store in the mall was going cover a wall with record cover reprints, or “flats” as they were called, of an album titled Fuck that just happened to have “FUCK” printed big and bold on the front.
A couple decades later a title like that seems more like a cheap attention-getting gimmick than it did to me at the time. It might work now, but I’m pretty certain this did nothing to help them sell records then. It’s not my favorite of the three LT records I have, but there are some great garage-punk-rock, body-moving songs on this album.
Are The Leaving Trains still making music? I can’t tell.
- Artist: Nine Nine Nine
- Title: Concrete
- Year: 1981
- Format: Vinyl 12 in.
- Rating (1-10): 10
- Owner: Tracy
- Acquired: 1981? Maybe a little later.
- Keeper: Yes
I’m throwing out a lot of “10″ ratings but these records all deserve it. This right here is the greatest band you’ve probably never heard of. Nine Nine Nine. Concrete is one of the most fun, sing-along, punk pop rock and roll records ever. It includes two great covers: “Little Red Riding Hood” and “Fortune Teller.” But the best songs are the originals. A couple favorites are “So Greedy” and “Break It Up.” The musicianship and song craft are tops. Every song leaves me wanting more. Hearing damage or blown speakers, which will come first?
Nine Nine Nine is still kicking it. I need to get their latest.
Nine Nine Nine official site
Punk 77 article (with recent interview)
- Artist: The Hives
- Title: The Black and White Album
- Year: 2007
- Format: Vinyl 12 in.
- Rating (1-10): 10
- Owner: All of us
- Acquired: 2008
- Keeper: Yes
I want to be in The Hives! The suits alone are enough incentive for me, but the music on The Black and White Album makes the dream of band membership irresistible. I like all their records but this is the best one yet. The Hives have that essence rare that reminds me of The Fleshtones: familiar but fresh, fun but not dumb, and always rocking even when the music is low key. At times this record is more punk than punk rock and more funky than funk. I can’t get enough of it. I’m probably playing it, in its entirety, at least five times a day. It’s hard to pick favorites but one standout is the fast rocking “Won’t Be Long.” It has a glockenspiel riff that is a perfect layer of icing atop a multilayer rock and roll cake, like the recorder solo in “Wild Thing” by The Troggs.
Visit their site, buy their music, watch the videos, see them live. Look for me playing glockenspiel in the back.
Everyone’s a loser in the modern world
Look at all the sad and gloomy little boys and girls
I know all you got is troubles all you got is woes
Shake the chips off your shoulders here’s how it
goes…
Whoooo Hoooo!
“Well All Right!” – The Hives
- Artist: The Germs
- Title: (GI)
- Year: 1979
- Format: Vinyl 12 in.
- Rating (1-10): 7
- Owner: Tracy
- Acquired: Long long time ago…
- Keeper: Yes
(GI) is the only the studio album The Germs ever recorded. It’s been a long long time since I last played it, and to be honest I never played that much. I probably wouldn’t be playing it now if it weren’t for this site, which is really just an exercise I concocted to make me play everything we own at least one more time.
I was surprised how hardcore punk it sounds; this was only 1979. Reading about it I saw that (GI) is considered one of the first records of the hardcore genre. There are a number of well-known folks with a Germs connection, including guitarist Pat Smear (later in Foo Fighters), very briefly Belinda Carlisle, and it was produced by Joan Jett. Singer Darby Crash is probably best known for dying in a sad, deliberate and stupid heroin suicide.
There aren’t many memories for me associated with The Germs other than going to see the excellent movie The Decline of Western Civilization. It’s by director Penelope Spheeris and it’s about the early LA punk scene. I went with my friend Jeff Arthur, and maybe some other folks, to see a late night showing of it at the Naro Expanded Cinema in Norfolk, VA. The audience was full of teenagers looking as punk and hard as possible, and generally acting stupid. We blended right in.
(GI) is just one of those records a punk (rocker) of my vintage feels obligated to have, and keep, so I guess I will.
More about The Germs.
The Decline of Western Civilization
