The Germs

Seeking once again the title of the king of internet musical variety, today we select The Germs, a seemingly fairly insignificant hardcore punk band from Los Angeles ca. 1978-80. I've said before (see my previous posts of "Rodney on the ROQ" and Flipper, maybe others I don't know), this was really NOT my most favorite scene ever, due, in large part, to the fact that it WAS my younger brother's favorite scene, thusly, I heard just a bit too much of this stuff in my years living at Mom's house....several years ago he sold me all of his albums to support his lifestyle (ie being a bum), so once in a GREAT while I can shake these out when I'm in the particular mood (not terribly often)....

The band's lineup consisted of singer Darby Crash, guitarist Pat Smear, drummer Don Bolles, and bassist Lorna Doom. They released but one proper album, "GI" (produced by Joan Jett), which is MAYBE considered a "classic" in the small genre of LA hardcore, it's fairly unspectacular, I have a vinyl copy but might as well go with "MIA the Complete Anthology" which includes all of "GI" (I think without seriously checking) as well as some singles and EP tracks, I have a live disc here from my brother's stash but it is from an audience cassette and is LITERALY unlistenable. So, we'll go with "MIA", which will present as good a picture of these young gentlemen as would be possible.

If you've never heard this, I bet you can guess what it sounds like, a very sloppy Ramones (actually too the point of making the Ramones sound like The Young Marble Giants), thrashing punk tunes like, (perhaps the most well known) "Lexicon Devil", also "Forming", "Sex Boy", "What We Do Is Secret", and twenty seven OTHER tracks for your enjoyment. Personally I found the LA hardcore scene inferior to, say, the New York or London scenes of a couple years earlier, but fans any 1970's punk may enjoy this. Or not, we'll see.

The cultural significance of the Germs would likely be that Pat Smear would briefly be a member of Nirvana prior to Kurt Cobian's death (most significantly on the "MTV Unplugged" album), and the fact that Darby Crash committed suicide by overdose on the same day that John Lennon was shot dead (December 7 1980). His drug problems are well documented (a frequent, and mistaken,  notion I have heard is Crash killed himself on stage during the final Germs show, heard it several times and don't know where it comes from, but not so).....

So, either listen and reminisce of the late 1970's, discover something, or skip this altogether, whatever suits you......listened to it this morning on the commute and it has NOT "improved with age", shall we say. Nevertheless I am SERIOUS about winning this year's award for internet music upload diversity, so don't forget me when the vote is taken.

MIA- THE COMPLETE ANTHOLOGY-01 Forming/02 Sex Boy/03 Lexicon Devil/04 Circle One
/05 No God//06 What We Do Is Secret/07 Communist Eyes/08 Land Of Treason/09 Richie Dagger's Crime/10 Strange Notes/11 American Leather/12 Lexicon Devil/13 Manimal/14 Our Way/15 We Must Bleed/16 Media Blitz/17 The Other Newest One/18 Let's Pretend/19 Dragon Lady/20 The Slave/21 Shut Down (Annihilation Man)/22 Caught In My Eye/23 Round And Round/24 My Tunnel
/25 Throw It Away/26 Not All Right/27 Now I Hear The Laughter/28 Going Down/29 Lions Share
/30 Forming 2 

Link coming right up!