The Victims - Television Addict (7" Single)

Television Addict was the A-side of the debut single by The Victims, an early punk rock band from Perth, Western Australia. The song is a mainstay of compilations of Australian punk from the 1970s, and has been recorded by the Hoodoo Gurus, You Am I, The Hellacopters and Teengenerate.

It was co-written by singer-guitarist Dave Faulkner (known at the time as Dave Flick) and drummer James Baker. The slow, menacing, bass line, played by Rudolph V (Dave Cardwell), is also a prominent feature of the recording. The Victims released the single independently in late 1977 or early 1978 (sources vary), with "I'm Flipped Out Over You" on the B-side.

Lyrically, "Television Addict" revolves around a youth "who went out and shot someone", and whose lawyer then attributes his actions to violence on television: "blame the ratings for his crime." The song is, in large part, a satirical comment on the tendency to blame popular culture for crime, rather than individuals, or broader social problems.

The band broke up in 1979. During the mid-1980s, Baker and Faulkner were briefly reunited in the Hoodoo Gurus, who sometimes performed "Television Addict" as an encore. The Hoodoo Gurus (without Baker) later recorded "Television Addict", and issued it as a bonus track.

Track List:
1. Television Addict
2. I'm Flipped Out Over You

Download: The Victims - Televison Addict (3.6MB)

VA - 30 Seconds Before the Calico Wall

In the ongoing chronicling of obscure '60s garage band singles, Arf Arf delves into the super psychedelic side of the equation with 28 utterly amazing 45s culled from the late '60s. Best future Trivial Pursuit rock & roll question is served up on "I Want to Hold Your Hand" by the Moving Sidewalks, featuring a young Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top on guitar. Other highlights include "Speed" by Ron Wray, "Once Upon a Taste" by the Omen, and "Steamshovel" by Marshmellow Steamshovel. This is one trippy little flashback that truly delivers the goods.
(Year of Release: 1995)

Track List:
1. Trip on Out - Haymarket Riot
2. What Good Is Up - Inexpensive Handmade Look
3. Visions - Looking Glasses
4. Me - The Brain Train
5. Apothecary Dream - Sound Sandwich
6. I Want to Hold Your Hand - The Moving Sidewalks
7. The Black Door - Loose Enz
8. Speed - Ron Wray Light Show
9. Of Dreams [45 Version] - Morgan
10. Semi-Psychedelic [It Is] - Pepper & The Shakers
11. Love-In - Noah's Ark
12. Don't Miss the Turn - Trees
13. The Face of Time - The Plague
14. Desert Maiden - The Shaprells
15. The Third Eye - The Dovers
16. Flight Patterns - Dennis & The Times
17. Once Upon a Taste - Omen
18. Death Bells at Dawn - The Lords
19. Light the Glass Candle - Glass Candle
20. Six Feet Under Theme - Six Feet Under
21. Lost - The Tyde
22. 99th Floor - T.N.T.
23. Reference Man, Pt. 1 - Chateaux
24. He's Comin', Pt. 2 - Magic Swirling Ship
25. High Towers - Legends
26. Blue Shoes - News
27. Steamshovel - Marshmellow Steamshovel
28. Young Heartbeat [Instrumental] - The Lords

Download: Thirty Seconds Before the Calico Wall (97.1MB)

Thee Mighty Caesars - Wise Blood

Another Billy Childish band, this one after the Milkshakes... Always good, low-fi grunge punk rock with a nod to fifties and sixties beat. More punkier than Thee Milkshakes, still Rhythm and Blues, but less rock and roll. As the sleeve notes to Caesars Pleasure goes "This is Punk Rock / Rhythm and Beat as it should be; three chords, cheap gear, and a healthy dose of hatred and contempt for the outside world." Go out and make yourself a purchase of one of their CD's to get a decent cross section of the raw punk. - from trouser press

I would like to thank RYP from the Twilightzone! blog for originally posting this. Be sure to check out his blog if you haven't already.
(Year of Release: 1989)

Track List:
1. I Can't Find Pleasure
2. Come Into My Life
3. Signals Of Love
4. I Self Destroy
5. The Wise Blood
6. The Bay Of Pigs
7. The Double Axe
8. Tushunka Witko
9. Stay The Same
10. Kinds Of Women
11. Signals Of Love (Slight Return)
12. Action Time Vision

Download: Thee Mighty Caesars - Wise Blood (37.8MB)

Yesterday's Children - Yesterday's Children

I found this little gem on DC++ (if you want to try DC++ and need the address to a few excellent hubs, where you can find almost anything you need, just let me know) not too long ago and was highly impressed by this album immediately. Yesterday's Children were an obscure Connecticut group who recorded this one LP and a classic psychedelic garage punk single which appears on the Psychedelic Unknowns compilation. While the debut single was classic beat garage of the period 1966, by the 1969 album the group expanded into more hard rock and progressive styles -- and this album is drenched in the lead guitar blitz of Reggie Wright. Hunter's Moon and She's Easy are equally wonderful tracks which display Wright's abilities on guitar. The group was led by brothers Denis Croce on guitar and Richard Croce on vocals, and Chuck Maher and Ralph Muscatelli on bass and drums. The group is not to be confused with a Chicago-area group of the same name and era who appeared on the Pebbles box set. The reissue on Italian obscure specialist label Akarma is a stunning object to behold and an audiophile remaster of this underground classic.
(Year of Release: 1969)

Track List:
1. Paranoia
2. Sad Born Loser
3. What of I
4. She's Easy
5. Sailing
6. Providence Bummer
7. Evil Woman
8. Hunter's Moon

Download: Yesterday's Children - Yesterday's Children (46.3MB)

It's Good to be Back

I'm going to leave this post on top for a little while. I am currently adding albums, and they will be posted below this as they are uploaded.

After a much needed break I have decided to resume uploading albums for this blog. During my time away I have received numerous messages from people asking me to return and thanking me for turning them on to bands that they were unfamiliar with. I would like to thank all of you for your words of encouragement. So far there have been over 52,000 visitors to this blog, which is more than the population of the city I reside in. I never would have thought that so many people would take interest in this blog. As some of you may have noticed I've been working hard to remove all the spam messages that were posted during my absence. I hope that my absence hasn't permanently turned away some of the people who regularly visited here in the past. I look forward to seeing your comments and insight once again. It's good to be back!

Avengers - Avengers LP

The Avengers probably need no introduction to fans of the punk rock genre. From the first wave of 70s punk in Northern California (San Francisco to be exact), they were around for a very short time, but left their mark and influenced generations of punk to follow. They were one of the first female-fronted punk bands in the USA. Fronted by the electrifying Penelope Houston, and powered by Greg Ingraham's amazing guitar playing, they were far ahead of their time.

The story of this record is one wrapped up in confusion and turmoil. It seems that the label somehow strong armed the band into signing their life away, and also included the Dangerhouse recordings on this when in actuality they had no legal right to do so. This album also came out a couple years after the band broke up. Rumor has it that the band tried to reclaim the recordings and the label actually sued the band over it! When Frontier Records reissued some of the Dangerhouse Records catalog, David Fergusson, owner of CD Presents sued Frontier claiming rights to the Avengers Dangerhouse recordings which was proven not to be true and thus he lost the lawsuit. He promptly filed for bankruptcy upon losing the lawsuit, in an effort to get out of having to pay the enormous legal fees.

All controversy aside, this stands as one of the all time greatest punk albums and deserves a spot in every person’s collection. Unfortunately no one can go out and buy it on vinyl, or any format anymore for that matter, with the exception of a poor sounding bootleg LP. The label, CD Presents, ceased operations years ago and the owner hasn’t bothered to reprint it even on CD, or even license it to anyone. It is as if the record is being held hostage and there is a whole new generation of music fans being cheated out of the opportunity to own this. Thank god for the internet.
(Year of Release: 1983)

Track List:
1. We Are The One
2. Car Crash
3. I Believe In Me
4. Open Your Eyes
5. No Martyr
6. Desperation
7. Thin White Line
8. Paint It Black
9. The Amerikan In Me
10. White Nigger
11. Uh-oh
12. Second to None
13. Corpus Christie
14. Fuck You (live)

Download: Avengers - Avengers LP (76.3MB)

Shadows of Knight - Back Door Men

The original LP version of this album, the second by the legendary Chicago garage punk/blues outfit, was one of the most sought-after artifacts of mid-'60s punk rock. Back Door Men was a loud, feedback-laden, sneering piece of rock & roll defiance, mixing raunchy anthems to teenage lust ("Gospel Zone," "Bad Little Woman"), covers of Chicago blues classics (Willie Dixon's "Spoonful," Jimmy Reed's "Peepin' and Hidin'"), raga rock ("The Behemoth"), folk-rock ("Hey Joe," "Three for Love," "I'll Make You Sorry"), and a blues-punk grab off of commercial Top 40 ("Tomorrow's Gonna Be Another Day") all on one 12" platter. What makes the record even more startling is that every one of these tracks, however far afield they go from one another, works. The band strides across the music spectrum with a reach and boldness that most listeners usually only associate with the likes of the Beatles or the Rolling Stones, as they slide from electric guitar into extended Chess-style blues instrumentals.
(Year of Release: 1967)

Track List:
1. Bad Little Woman
2. Gospel Zone
3. The Behemoth
4. Three For Love
5. Hey Joe
6. I'll Make You Sorry
7. Peepin' And Hidin'
8. Tomorrow's Going To Be Another Day
9. New York Bullseye
10. High Blood Pressure
11. Spoonful

Download: Shadows of Knight - Back Door Men (38.4MB)

Crushed Butler - Uncrushed

Special thanks to the Green Fuzz blog for originally posting this. It's a great blog so if you like this please take the time to visit it.

Usually when music writers throw around the phrase "proto-punk" it doesn't mean to much, but this is the true thing right here. Very few bands managed to fill the post-73-Stooges, pre-76-Ramones void that was the sputtering dying hippie dream of peace, love, and paisley pants. Sure their was Glam, and Prog, and some tough-as-nails rock'n'roll, but not much really that matched the mountain of fuzz and nothing-to-loose attitude that the Stooges has established as far back as '69.

Not so, as this absolutely killer 6 song E.P. of unreleased demo recording clearly shows. Apparently recorded over the course of 3 years in 3 different studios, Crushed Butler learned the had way that being way ahead of your time usually means no one understands you. Subsequently, you won't be appreciated, you won't make money, and you'll be kicked out onto your asses before you even get started.

Legend has it that when drummer Darryl Read, guitarist Jesse Hector, and bassist Allen Butler were invited to record EMI studios on a wave of local success, they were graciously brought in on limousine, but after laying down a few tracks of their gnarly working class street-skum anthem "Factor Grime," were then less then graciously given the boot and had to ride the subway back home.

The drums are relentless, the guitar moronically-brilliant, the vocals strained and desperate. PERFECT! All the songs are scorchers, even "Love is All Around Me" which sounds weak but isn't. "Love Fighter" is a slow dirge number, but still heavy-as-shit and thick-as-bricks. "High School Dropout" is a bit more standard I-V-IV rocker like Back in the USA era MC5.
(Year of Release: 1970)

Track List:
1. It's My Life
2. Factory Grime
3. Love Is All Around Me
4. My Son's Alive
5. Love Fighter
6. School Dropout

Download: Crushed Butler - Uncrushed (38.4MB)

Redd Kross - Phaseshifter

On Phaseshifter Redd Kross has stripped away many of the '60s and '70s pop-culture trappings that figured prominently on earlier recordings (covers of Brady Bunch and Charles Manson songs, for instance). As a result, the band (basically brothers Jeffrey and Steven McDonald) have brought their strong melodic sense, psychedelic punk/metal mix, and fine harmonies to the fore on standout tracks like "Lady in the Front Row", "Monolith", and one of the band's best rockers "Crazy World". The brothers' '70s-TV obsession certainly hasn't disappeared, though, as evidenced by songs like "After School Special" and the Partridge Family-inspired cut "Dumb Angel" (Susan Dey being replaced here by keyboardist Gere Fennelly). For some great Redd Kross music, get both Phaseshifter and the band's 1997 release, Show World.
(Year of Release: 1993)

Track List:
1. Jimmy's Fantasy
2. Lady In The Front Row
3. Monolith
4. Crazy World
5. Dumb Angel
6. Huge Wonder
7. Visionary
8. Pay For Love
9. Ms. Lady Evans
10. Only A Girl
11. Saragon
12. After School Special


Download: Redd Kross - Phaseshifter (40.3MB)

The Dukes of Stratosphear - 25 O' Clock

After the total commercial failure of their last two albums (Mummer and The Big Express), XTC decided to try their hand at something a little different. Assuming the name The Dukes of Stratosphear and various different pseudonyms for themselves (Andy Partridge became Sir John Johns, Colin Moulding morphed into The Red Curtain, Dave Gregory became Lord Cornelius Plum, and temporary member Ian Gregory adopted the name E-I-E-I Owen), the band set out to create an EP of songs based on the music of the 60s which they had grown up listening to.

It sounds like a fairly simple concept, however the songs that resulted from the project are superb and created with a great deal of love and respect for the artists they are inspired by. It's a lot more expert than a simple "Let's pretend to be the Beatles" sort of thing. Right down to muffled samples, backward sounds, hidden whispers, and specific chords, each song is crammed full of references to bands of that glorious era.
(Year of Release: 1985)

Track List:
1. 25 O'Clock
2. Bike Ride to the Moon
3. My Love Explodes
4. What In the World?
5. Your Gold Dress
6. The Mole From the Ministry

Download: Dukes of Stratosphear - 25 O'Clock (38.3MB)

The Sonics - Psycho-Sonic

Everyone would agree that the Sonics reached their peak on their 1964-65 recordings for Etiquette. This 29-track compilation has everything they recorded for the label, extended not just to everything from their singles and two albums, but also with an alternate take of "The Witch" and live recordings of "Psycho" and "The Witch." Consequently, it's the best Sonics release on the market, though you should be warned: it's not wall-to-wall greatness. After the first half-dozen or so songs, you might well be ready to buy into their legend as one of the great (and certainly rawest) '60s garage bands, as those tracks include their toughest elementary riff-fueled pounders: "The Witch," "Psycho," "Boss Hoss," "He's Waitin'," and "Strychnine." But too much of the rest is filled out with covers of '50s and '60s rock and R&B standards, and the relentlessly frantic bang-it-out frat punk and throat-tearing vocals get blurry after a while, though at least they threw in a little-covered tune with their version of Adam Faith's "It's Alright."

Track List:
1. Witch
2. Do You Love Me
3. Roll Over Beethoven
4. Boss Hoss
5. Dirty Robber
6. Have Love, Will Travel
7. Psycho
8. Money (That's What I Want)
9. Walking the Dog
10. Night Time Is the Right Time
11. Strychnine
12. Good Golly Miss Molly
13. Hustler
14. Psycho [Live]
15. Cinderella
16. Don't Be Afraid of the Dark
17. Skinny Minnie
18. Let the Good Times Roll
19. Don't You Just Know It
20. Jenny, Jenny
21. He's Waitin'
22. Louie, Louie
23. Since I Fell for You
24. Hitch Hike
25. It's Alright
26. Shot Down
27. Keep a Knockin'
28. Witch [Live]
29. Witch [Version 2]

Download: The Sonics - Psycho-Sonic (72.5MB)

Electric Prunes - Stockholm 67

Stockholm 67 is some kind of a miracle. This is a previously unreleased performance from a nearly unknown US band 37 years ago, back when live recordings barely existed. Well, the sound is astonishing. It could have been recorded in the nineties, you wouldn't tell the difference. And when it comes to music, it's even more amazing. It's raw rock'n'roll, with a light garage touch, strong vocal performance and incredible guitar sound. The band fully captures the essence of British sound and adds to it a bit of American roughness. The Electric Prunes even outperform the Yardbirds on the cover version of Smokestack Lightning. Second only to The Who's Live At Leeds for what regards live albums. (Year of Release: 1967)

Track List:
1. You Never Had It Better
2. I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night)
3. Try Me On For Size
4. I Happen To Love You
5. I Got My Mojo Workin'
6. Long Day's Flight (Til' Tomorrow)
7. Smokestack Lightning
8. Get Me To The World On Time

Download Electric Prunes - Stockholm 67 (64.3MB)