Lillian from Grass Widow.
Images
It’s not easy curating a definitive selection of the best sub-underground, late 70s UK 45s and comp tracks from the heyday of do-it-yourself record making, but I’ve put together a start. I’ve culled my newest 8Tracks mix, “SUB-UNDERGROUND UK DIY” from multiple sources: the “Instant Pop Classics” comps, various internet downloads, “Messthetics” and my own collection. Just like the compilation I posted yesterday of female-fronted riot grrl/garage punk, it’s available right now to listen to on computers, smartphones and tablets.
Outside of the fairly-well-known (such as it is) DIY pioneers like The Desperate Bicycles and Animals & Men, most acts on here are ultra-obscure and maybe only lasted for one 45 or a couple of compilation tracks, sometimes only on cassette. 23 tracks in all. Most given to that tinny, experimental, slipshod and faraway sound that characterizes the best of the best of this posthumously-defined genre.
Come listen to "SUB-UNDERGROUND UK DIY" here.
Tracks:
- DESPERATE BICYCLES – Smokescreen
- ANIMALS & MEN – Don’t Misbehave In The New Age
- MIDNIGHT CIRCUS – The Hedonist Jive
- I JOG & THE TRACKSUITS – Redbox
- DEVIL DYKES – Fruitless
- BEYOND THE IMPLODE – Lassitude
- STEVE TREATMENT – Danger Zone
- METROPAK – OK Let’s Go
- SCISSOR FITS – I Don’t Want To Work For British Airways
- BONA DISH – Mutation
- DESPERATE BICYCLES – The Medium Was Tedium
- ANOREXIA – I’m a Square
- DANNY & THE DRESSMAKERS – Don’t Make Another Bass Guitar Mr. Rickenbacker
- THE PETTICOATS – Normal
- REFLECTIONS – 4 Countries
- SCRITTI POLITTI – Is & Ought The Western World
- SUBVERSE – Chance Romance
- TRONICS – Shark Fucks
- BEARZ – She’s My Girl
- ANOREXIA – Pets
- BASE – One Way Girl
- GERRY & THE HOLOGRAMS – Gerry & The Holograms
- WAVIS O’SHAVE – Mauve Shoes Are Awful
SOUL ASYLUM, taken from 1987 Away From The Pulsebeat fanzine. Believe me folks, this was once a ripsnorter of a live band.
OK, brand-new 8Track mix has been completed and is live for you to listen to right now on yer computer or smartphone. It’s all-female, super uptempo 1990s low-fidelity bashing, which loyal Dynamite Hemorrhage readers know is one of our musical calling cards. I’m calling it “Object To I-Dent”, after the Pussycat Trash song included in this mix. Whatever that means. Sounds gnarly.
Half of the 17 songs here come from the riot grrl primordial swamp, the other are rooted more in learning-to-play, third-wave garage punk. Where you draw the line is up to you. You’ll hear quality entertainment from a variety of whooping and screeching young women plying their rough trade two decades ago. I’m especially proud that it’s 17 songs in 27 minutes. Pure blitzkrieg.
Come listen to “Object To I-Dent” here.
Tracks:
- SALLY SKULL – Tear Out
- PUSSYCAT TRASH – Object To I-Dent
- SKINNED TEEN – Dance All Night
- THE RONDELLES – Backstabber
- BUDGET GIRLS – French One
- GOLDEN STARLET – Baby
- LUNG LEG – Theme Park
- MAN TEE MANS – Man Tee Mans (Theme)
- HENRY’S DRESS – Zero Zero Zero
- SKINNED TEEN – Secrets
- MICRAGIRLS – Neki
- GOLDEN STARLET – Boy Scout Club
- THE GORLS – Tracie
- THE RONDELLES – Safety In Numbers
- PUSSYCAT TRASH – 1,2,3,4
- KITTY CAT SPY CLUB – The Searcher
- LUNG LEG – Rock Song
Insert taken from SALLY SKULL’s “Tantivity Tracks” 7"EP from 1995, which I just purchased and received in the mail yesterday.
Interested parties can download the final AU PAIRS show, taken from a 1983 cassette, right here.
This is from a 1988 LAZY COWGIRLS show live at the Anti-Club in Los Angeles, scanned from Australian fanzine B-SIDE in ‘89. Their shows there and at Raji’s were blessed monthly events that carloads of folks from Santa Barbara, where I went to school, would caravan down for.
See the dork with the stern look and the Radio Birdman shirt? That’s me. See the smiling, bespectacled dude to his right? That’s my cousin Doug Miller. I assure you, I was having a mirthful time – slammin’, stage divin’ and getting in fistfights.
Wow, the kids are going crazy for 1990s Jane Egypt from LUNG LEG!! By popular request, here’s another shot of Jane in action with her band, this time in 1997 Glasglow!
When I was 20 and 21 years old, I “interned” at SOUND CHOICE magazine, which was a large-circulation music magazine devoted to the obscure corners of cassette culture and independent music. Dave Ciaffardini, the editor, was a DJ on the same college radio station I was, and he was in need of someone to mail boxes, solicit ads and – and – jeez, I don’t even remember what I did there besides hijack promo copies of records I wanted.
Ciaffardini was a very friendly guy who wanted to help mold me into a journalist/publisher, and to some extent he helped me along – giving me my first forum for written record reviews, which later led into me publishing my own fanzine. I’m not sure I would have let some 20 year old dum-dum write reviews for me, but there you go. Here’s one I wrote on The Flesh Eaters when their “greatest hits” collection came out on SST in 1988.
AGONY SHORTHAND 