D.I.Y.: Anarchy In The UK - UK Punk I (1976-77)

I ultimate voted for the favorite because how could I not and am basically happy with the results.

Re Penetration/Pauline Murray, I'm much like Dan: loved "Don't Dictate", didn't think much of Penetration's other stuff, then loved "Dream Sequence", her first single with The Invisible Girls in 1980. Listening again, I'm thinking her vocal style may have influenced Girls At Our Best.

I bloody LOVED Generation X during the summer of 77, though: they did two Peel Sessions before "Your Generation" came out as their debut single, which I taped and played incessantly. Granted, "Your Generation" does sound a bit silly in hindsight, but I took it then as sincere, and only later realised how much posturing was involved.

I'll make a point of getting into Penetration.

Honestly, I feel I'd rather listen to at least half the songs on Germ-Free Adolescents over "Bondage".

I was initially a bit disappointed with the studio recording of "Bondage", as I already knew the version from the Live At The Roxy comp very well indeed, and I missed what Lora Logic had done with it on sax; the replacement saxist (Rudi) changed part of the break, which took a while to get used to.

Are you sure Lora Logic doesn't play on the "Oh Bondage" single? First I've heard this.

Should I poll the other volumes in this series?

Based on the turnout for this poll, I'd say yes!

Seconded.

thirded.

Honestly, I feel I'd rather listen to at least half the songs on Germ-Free Adolescents over "Bondage".

same, but just shows how great a band they were. i think they sound better and better with age.

The New York volume was a big influence on me.

My feeling about these collections when they came out was that, while they didn’t exactly my experience of this stuff the first time around, it was about as close as it was gonna get.

The New York volume was the only one I never actually had my hands on. I also never owned the first UK installment, although I'd occasionally see it used. The rest I scored from Walmart cutout bins for $2 each (always in cracked cases), with exception of UK Punk II, which was a princely $6 from Borders' cleaner cutout bin (undamaged cases!).

xp re “Bondage”: yeah, Lora had left and Rudi took over. I met Rudi and Paul Dean (X-Ray bass) at the Nashville in 1980, as their next band (The Outpatients) was supporting TV Smith and a colleague was in the band. I was just 18 and a bit starstruck… then I heard the set. Ouch. TV Smith was unexpectedly fantastic, though.

Poly Styrene's voice and lyrics are incredible but she's let down by her band. Whereas 12XU just sounds in context of the compilation leering, sniggering, and alien. It is the most visceral rock song yet pointing somewhere beyond rock entirely; that was my choice.

in a way "neat neat neat" might be the most influential of these, it's the precursor to hardcore

"Neat" is great but it still has too much rock choogling for hardcore. Versus "Machine Gun Etiquette" which, setting aside the glitterbeat bridge, gets all the way there. God what a great band

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3ppk94JF18

D.I.Y.: The Modern World - UK Punk II (1977-78)

FWIW, the original line-up for the Damned is reuniting in the UK (finally - this was originally planned a few years ago, but it's been delayed continuously due to the pandemic), and they'll be playing the first shows of the tour later in October.

Really wish I could see it - there seem to plenty of tickets. (I wound up missing their recent shows here in NY, but it was their current line-up, not the original. To be fair, it's likely their current line-up is in better form, especially with two younger players who have been doing an excellent job.)

I listened to a long interview with Daryl Jennifer of Bad Brains on the Turned Out a Punk podcast and he said of all the original UK punk bands The Danmed were the one they all bonded over

ppl say similar things in the "We Got The Neutron Bomb" oral history of LA punk, that Starwood show was a cultural bomb going off

I actually know someone who was there who says the same, everybody was blown away

there is a recording on torrents that is super audience-level lo-fi but also totally awesome

https://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/the-damned-the-starwood-los-angeles-ca
Richard Cromelin begs to differ.

Dammit, forgot to vote in this. Mine would have been "Neat Neat Neat" in a close finish over "New Rose." I played the hell out of this comp when I got it and it was my introduction to a lot of this stuff, though not The Damned. "Oh Bondage" is great of course but it's no "Day The World Turned Day-Glo" and for that reason I exclude it. Actually, if I were able to vote after the fact, I might throw one to "Baby Baby," which doesn't really fit with the rest of this music but boy is it one of the best things ever in the "what if pop sounded like THIS instead of like THAT" genre (I would also include "I Love My Baby 'Cos She Makes Good Sculptures," which I learned about from another one of these Rhino comps)

Oh, the comp with "I Love My Baby 'Cos She Makes Good Sculptures" is the one that just went up on the other poll!

Baby, Baby - The Vibrators 0

I blame myself. Though "Whips and Furs" would have been a surer thing.

Which track?

― Les hommes de bonbons (cryptosicko), Thursday, September 22, 2022 5:27 PM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

One Chord Wonders. And I have to say, after going back to both albums, I forgot how much I love the Adverts. New Church, Great British Mistake, Cast of Thousands, I Surrender... amazing.

One Chord Wonders sits between "Johnny Remember Me" and "Party Fears Two"

I never listened to the 2nd Adverts record til last year. Bit less awesome, but still plenty interesting.

"Bondage" is great, but "The Day the World Turned Day-Glo" is my favourite. Same with "One Chord Wonders"--like "Gary Gilmore's Eyes" even more. "Gary doesn't need his eyes to see/Gary and his eyes have parted company" is one of my favourite lines ever.

"Dot Dash" or "Mannequin" over "12XU," "Breakdown" over "Orgasm Addict," "Another Girl, Another Planet" (of course) over "Lovers of Today." A lot of these come up short for me behind other favourites.

I never listened to the 2nd Adverts record til last year. Bit less awesome, but still plenty interesting.

So much of the received wisdom about certain punks albums being crap is just plain wrong, this being a prime example.

Well yes, but. It kind of reaches in a glam direction that was maybe unfashionable at the time. I think where the Damned and Stranglers went was a similar place, but maybe with more memorable highlights.

there are so many albums/periods of bands I ignored because people were like "oh that's when that punk band added synths and got new wavey or proggy or arty" until one day I was like "wait a minute, I LIKE those things!"

Ha, exactly.

Alternative TV's "Vibing Up The Senile Man" and "Strange Kicks" are weird and fabulous and not even close to punk in sound (but in spirit!). Vic Godard put out a swing album that's tons of fun. Siouxsie's early work as The Creatures is full of great Polynesian rhythms. Hugh Cornwell put out an album with Robert Williams. Andy Partridge put out a collection of cool dub experiments. There's a bunch of one-off singles and EPs that are also worth your time from punks maturing as artists.