Rudi can’t sit still down under in Perth and seems to have endless access to hard cash: Flying the troops into the studio in Perth and recording just another hit single … this time he turns to an instant classic from Hanover:
Beware of the 3 LP Box “Missing the 2000 Schuppen Scene” currently being planned by Hrorst Hrubesch Hrecords and Holy War Records. Whilst that is still in plan please ensure you pick up copies of the current releases (“Hamburg“, “Berlin“) from Rudi in Blackpool this summer! They are cheap as fuck and they suck – not. Don’t wait, spare yourself a pint at the pub rather!
V/A – Tooth and Nail (Upsetter Records UP WR 1&2, 1979)
And that is another cool compilation – as i said in a previous version of “my loveliest vinyl” there was little spare money back then and i went for a lot of compilations as they provided more bang for the buck and a chance to experience new and unknown stuff.
I think this was the first US compilation i got, must have been in 1980. A friend did tape me some stuff, included there i think it was U.X.A.’s signature song and that got me (as i do like women singing punk songs). And it is an absolute smasher my dear!
The verdict:
1977 – yes, but US Style (and you can smell a scent of H/C and things to come – do i have to say “The Middle Class”?)!
published by a cool label – Upsetter Records – a complete DIY effort by the Fleash Eaters frontman Chris D. (and named in fame of Lee “Scratch” Perry i’d recon)!
found in a cool shop – cheapo bin at local Membran (back then a local record store chain) outlet in my northern suburb in 1979!
catching sound – For fucks sake, this can be injected into my veins anytime – it is the perfect blend of punk and to-come hardcore!
the lyrics – Thanks to Chris D. for having a lyrics insert (he dodged that one on a later reissue) and thus allowing me to actually work it out (with a dictionary)!
Just that this one from said “U.X.A.” – you can wake me up anytime anywhere and i am able to sing this chorus:
How fast three minutes seem to pass these days
when all your sacrifices haven't changed a thing
how fast your life will seem to disappear away
when you finaly wake up from your sleep
No, honestly, this is most likely the greatest moment in US Punk glued to Vinyl. It has the DIY ethos, it has exclusive recordings never featured anywhere else and was driven by an enthusiastic individual – Chris Desjardins from the Flesh Eaters.
He was around in LA forever, starting as a writer for Slash and funding member of endless bands including said Flesh Eaters. He also branched into writing, acting and even directing: “I pass for human” is a 2004 horror movie that plays on the fact that heroin addicts escape death – heroin leaves its users never quite dead, yet never quite alive. And that is full circle back to Tooth and Nail, as Chris D. in 1989 whilst sporting a nice heroin (and alcohol) addiction was in need for money and did a repress of Tooth and Nail, the only re-release ever done.
You can read more on Chris D. here or here (beware, that one is in German).
He recalls Tooth and Nail in John Doe’s “Under the Big Black Sun” as follows:
Chris D. on Tooth and Nail ( (c) 2016 Da Capo Press)
For me this record was the door opener for The Middle Class (and soon after i did buy the “Out of Vogue” EP at Konneckschen, soon to be presented here) and specifically to the Germs. Little did i know about the band itself but their “What we do is secret” 12″ and the LP soon also found home in my collection and they became a mainstay!
So whats makes it stand out – listen up and for yerself! Here my 4 loveliest songs from that record, but just by inches!
The Controllers – Jezebel
Aaaahhhaaaahhhaaahhhhaaah
If ever the Devil was born without any horns
It was you, it was you
If ever a pair of eyes promised paradise
It was you
If ever the Devil's plan was made to torment me girl
Deceiving me, grieving me, leavin' me blue
Jezebel, it was you
If ever the Devil was born without any horns
It was you, it was you
If ever a pair of eyes promised paradise
It was you
If ever the Devil's plan was made to torment me girl
Deceiving me, grieving me, leavin' me blue
Jezebel, it was you
If ever the Devil's plan was made to torment me girl
Deceiving me, grieving me, leavin' me blue
Jezebel, it was you
Aaaahhhaaaahhhaaahhhhaaah
If ever the Devil was born without any horns
It was you
If ever a pair of eyes promised paradise
It was you, It was you
If ever the Devil's plan was made to torment me girl
Deceiving me, grieving me, leavin' me blue
Jezebel!
(Word & Music W. R. Shanklin)
Flesh Eaters – Pony Dress
Stick a mirror between the bars
see what'S happening to me
you in your pony dress looking up into my face
there's a nasty little tear befor the sheets hit the floor
there's a sticky gleam of sweat like the firemen get
I'm gonna trip my holster, draw the bell spur
blur with the ringing in your pony dress
She can't escape, she meaning I, from the private world
She can't escape, she meaning I, from the menstrual delusion
She can't escape, she meaning I, from the private world
She can't escape, she meaning I, from the constant derision
You're an axe cage screaming from justice
roaming in the alleys, crying in the dark
you're breaking up breakdown, my big day against the house
I'm stringing along the city to upset sex
expecting to end but marked to live
I'm gonna trip my holster, draw the bell spur
blur with the ringing in your pony dress
She can't escape, she meaning I, from the private world
She can't escape, she meaning I, from the menstrual delusion
She can't escape, she meaning I, from the private world
She can't escape, she meaning I, from the constant derision
You look so pretty in your pony dress
you're so pretty in your pony dress
You look so pretty in your pony dress
you're so pretty to me ...
(Words & Music Desjardins)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48rSLbJyA-s
U.X.A. – U.X.A. (United Experiments of America)
Let's forget this and that again
and talk about the nightmares about the nightmares
the froozen city of Baltimore
those slippery terrors traditions affairs
What do you think you're dying for?
it's changed you name changed your name
youir friends will call you famous doctor or Jim Jimmy
impossible crime
How fast three minutes seem to pass these days
when all your sacrifices haven't changed a thing
how fast your life will seem to disappear away
when you finaly wake up from your sleep
(Repeat verse and chrous)
Famous doctor
but you're blind
you can't see, you just can't see
Famous doctor
that's all you've got
that's all you've got to show, but anyway
In the U.X.A. why did you die today?
In the U.X.A. why did you die today?
In the U.X.A. why did you die today?
In the U.X.A. why did you die today?
(Words: DeTroit/Kowalski, Music: Piscioneri)
Germs (GI) – Strange Notes
Billy Druids face is marble
he keeps every thought in its place
he lets the days turn tomorrow
someone's always walking on his grave
He wears the lines just like Garbo
and talks at a saturnine pace
listening to the strange notes' marvel
only giving what it takes
It's a sad man's world
and for Billy, it's sure to crown
dragging beauty into darkness
inflicting a pale white frown
And the matter the runs
through Billy's head -
is too concerned to fall -
(Words: Darby Crash Music: The Germs)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jF0reqsjqyI
In a nutshell? This is for sure the best southern Californian punk compilation ever, if not for all of the US. It is the “link” between classic rock based punk and faster hardcore. And it is just a hell of a great effort, by one individual and with a load of friends. One of the best scene documents from out there. Lovely. One of my lovliest vinyl records in me collection!
It’s not any longer a big secret, that ‘Meine Schuppen’ (one of Germany’s finest fun punk bands) are proud to be back again. After more than 30 years of hibernation, they brought us first their 6 track Hamburg EP, which was full of fun and action about their beloved hometown.
Schuppen 2000 – Berlin EP (Hrorst Hrubesch Hrecords / Holy War Records / Screwed Up Records, 2016)
Now they continue to amaze with old and almost forgotten stories, anecdotes and unsung fables, when they take on the capital Berlin in their newest 6 song release.
The songs are slightly more modern punk sounding, compared to the ‘oldschool rock’n’roll punk’ of the previous EP. But the themes are very much alike and likeable, when they sing about further riots, road trips, town visits, punch up’s, hardcore kids, and the usual stuff what happens on punk shows etc.
Coming not from Berlin themselves, of course they view the town from a visitors point of perspective and refer mostly to events they’ve took part when visiting, or sing about friends and people they know in the capital. This explains the rework and the altered lyrics of Ideal’s ‘Berlin’, the only cover song on the EP:
One exception is ‘Kreuzberg gegen Tempo’, as they revive some old events around the band Tempo at the 3rd Punk Festival in the Markthalle, Hamburg, in 1979 where some unfriendly Berlin Punks kicked the band from their hometown off the stage:
That said, the song ‘Wizo sind die Ärzte keene Terrorgruppe’ has at first glance only the title related to Berlin. The lyrics are more about people, who are constantly whinging about those Bands, who after years and years of touring finally made it big:
It’s just too easy to now call them ‘not punk’ or just to hate them for the fact, that they have been just that little bit better, longer around, more professional or even luckier than the most kids with their bands which started just a few days ago. They mention only 3 known bands from Berlin, but you probably can put Die Toten Hosen, Abstürzende Brieftauben, Killerpilze, Die Goldenen Zitronen and ZSK also in that pot of bands, which the casual punk hates for having a bit of (or in some case major) success.
They also pay a tribute to the largest punk radio station in Berlin:
It quite astonishing that a band like SCHUPPEN 2000, who enjoy airplay around the world big time, pays homage to that large station – would it not be the other way around normally?
The next one is a tribute to one of Rudi’s own trips to Berlin, the beauty of hitch-hiking a trip and crashing at a fellow member of the punk rock fanzine elite:
Last but not least SCHUPPEN 2000 do provide a trip down memory lane – this is a reminiscence to a mid-80’s show of Missing the Scene (Meine Schuppen successor and as such SCHUPPEN 2000 predecessor, but by now Meine Schuppen are in succession anyway) and the dislike of the Metalcore scene back then:
Looking at the cover, the band seemed to have made some changes also in the personal line-up, which might explain the different sound and musical style to their previous release. By the looks of it Rudi has now surrounded him with trusted and experienced musicians, rather then relying on old friends and the need to cover his police record.
Schuppen 2000: Christian e.F. (Drums), Mr. R. von K. (Lead Vocal & Guitar), Unfug Toni T. (Bass), New Rose Frank N. (Guitar, Soundeffects) ( pic (c) 2016 gehkacken.de)
All songs are recorded as usual, in the famous GARD HAAR STUDIO in 2015 and mixed by a guy who calls himself Grobi and who happens to be from Berlin himself. Now how about that?
