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)
4 comments:
I nearly shit myself when I found this in a Portland record store for $2. Get their other here:
http://www.kbdrecords.com/2006/10/11/the-victims-no-thanks-to-the-human-turd-ep-7/
Thanks hdvns. Actually I've already got No Thanks to the Human Turd and was planning on uploading it next. It's always nice to have alternative links though.
I just realized that hdvns was the original uploader of both of the Victims albums that I posted. I made sure to give credit where it was due, and thanks once again hdvns for the link which made that possible.
so this may be a dumb question, but when wikipedia says only 1000 were pressed does that mean EVER? because i downloaded this off a blog and fell in love with it and then found it in a record store for cheap but assumed it must have been some repress...
so anyways, just wondering.
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