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elcome to the Digital Meltd0wn Music Blog. The aim of this blog is to introduce the readers to music that is out of print, commercially unavailable, released under a creative commons license, or with approval by the featured artist. The majority of the music posted here would be considered underground. Don't let that fool you into thinking that the music featured here might be any less enjoyable than that of the mainstream artists you hear on the radio, as this couldn't be further from the truth. Please keep in mind that the majority of the artists that appear on this blog, along with their respective record labels, are not wealthy and need your support. If you enjoy the material that you find here, please support the artists/labels by purchasing their material afterwards. If you are an artist/label that would prefer to have your material removed from this blog, simply leave me a comment, and I would be more than happy to promptly remove the offending post. In addition to running this blog, I also work on a few other projects during my spare time. You can find links to those, as well as a few other important links associated with Digital Meltd0wn in the menu bar above.

Monday, April 30, 2007

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)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

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/

Zer0_II said...

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.

Zer0_II said...

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.

swensonate said...

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.