The Specials - More Specials

Another one from the trunk! I thought I had this in digital format, and on closer inspection, I was wrong. So I ripped it and thought I'd put this up. This isn't as good as that first album, which is truly great, but the follow-up has its moments.

They definitely tried to stretch themselves a bit musically on this record, drawing on American Soul, Morricone soundtracks, 40's pop songs, and so on. It does make the album seem a bit scattershot compared the focused all-ska sound of the debut. "Enjoy Yourself" is a 40's song, and is a fun album opener (and closer, the reprise is sung with the Go-Gos, believe it or not...)  and "Man at C & A" is an outstanding psychedelic ska cold war song.

Anyway, a fun album, and certainly worth a listen. Throw it on at a party some time, it would fit right in.

Enjoy!

The Dicks - Hate the Police

Well, we're into day one of the not-so-daily format, where I go and track down stuff that seems relevant to the rest of this blog and see what I can do with it. Thanks for the kind comments as I wrapped up chapter one, I appreciate it.

This is an early 90's bootleg of a 1980 Austin TX punk rock classic. I first heard this song from Mudhoney, of course, who covered it. This is one of those songs that if you're a fan of punk rock in any form, you should hear it. It stomps, all while painting a scathing picture of Texas cop culture.

It took me years and the wonder of the internet to even hear the original version. I figured I'd track down a few more songs by this legendary band, but their recorded stuff is so rare, it gets really pricey. The original non-bootleg 7" goes for about $700. I snagged this for much much less. The quality of the recording could be better, much better, really, but oh well. Next time I have $700 to spare... The other songs are solid and worth listening to, but not quite in the same stratosphere as "Hate The Police".

Frontman Gary Floyd  is quite the character. True punk rock, in that he really didn't give a shit about what others thought of him. A cross-dressing openly gay lead singer was a liability in the early days of hardcore, which was just as macho a culture as, well...the police.

A: Hate The Police
B: Lifetime Problems, All Night Fever
Removed by request...

Minutemen - Paranoid Time

Goddamn, I love the Minutemen. I picked this up in Cambridge in some basement record store that I doubt is around anymore. I'm pretty sure that this was a 1990-1991 or so SST re-release. It's on emerald green vinyl.

Mike Watt is about the nicest guy you could imagine. I was a shy, star-struck kid at a Firehose show at Pearl St. way back when, and I saw him getting a beer at the bar well before the show and went over to say hi. Sensing my awkwardness as I approached, he pulled me aside,  pulled out a seat, and said "Hey kid, what's yer name? Sit here and hang out with me while I make up my set list." So I did. I asked a few questions about life on the road, and how Firehose came about, and he answered them while scratching his chin and jotting down song names. He didn't have to tolerate some geeky 19-20 year old hanging around him, he could have just as easily gone backstage. It all adds to the "regular guy" legend of Mike Watt, I suppose.

There's seven tracks stuffed onto this little 45. Most are under a minute long. This was their first release, and they got a bit more polished as time went on. Watt gets all the fame for his bass work, but Hurley is one hell of a drummer, and Boon could play, too. I wonder what would have happened had Boon stuck around a bit longer.

A: Validation, The Maze, Definitions, Sickles and Hammers
B: Joe McCarthy's Ghost, Fascist, Paranoid Chant
Enjoy!