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Just go with it, right? What started out as a gimmick—toot! toot! nyuck! nycuk!—has become a surprising deep well, a rabbit hole with so many unexpected saxophonal fuzzy bunnies hopping out of it. Punk songs with horns. Who knew there’s so many? The fucking internet and its listicles didn’t. And I don’t think we’re dredging pond scum with dented horns at the bottom to just prove a point. There are plenty of flat-out rippers in this episode.
This time, Ethan and I do some zig-zagging. Ethan starts Swiss and ends goth. I revisit my mid-’90s listening habits, then realized how deeply imprinted songs became on me when I used to live in the high desert and drove a car without air conditioning in the late ’80s when I was still finding my punk legs.
Enjoy
–Todd
Thanks to this episode’s model Toby Tober.
This episode is dedicated to the memory of Nick Tesco of The Members.
Here are some band/song notes:
Grauzone: the drummer and bassist played in one of the very first Swiss bands, Glueams.
Buzzcocks: Singles Going Steady really is one of the best not-an-LP, but a punk singles collection that works as a flawless LP. Their song was originally released as the B-side on the “Running Free” single.
Cows: Todd saw them play for Halloween one year dressed as a cow and Sugar Ray opened up for them. That was weird.
Scratch Acid: It’s a Jesus Christ Superstar cover.
Spazz: “Sweet Home Alabama,” is not a Skynyrd cover.
Violent Femmes: Art Ettinger mentioned this song a couple of days after Todd thought of it, too. Nice looking out, Art!
Sad Lovers & Giant: This is the call back to Ethan playing the Bromure cover of this song in an earlier episode.
Oingo Boingo: Ethan vetoed “Dead Man’s Party” for being too well known. Fair enough.
Todd just liked that song when he mowed lawns as a kid, but he’d never heard this song prior to Ethan’s mentioning it.
Tracklisting:
Grauzone, “Eisbær,” Eisbær 12” (WRWTFWW)
- - -
The Members, “Solitary Confinement,” At the Chelsea Nightclub LP (Drastic Plastic)
The Boys, “Sway (Quien Sera),” Alternative Chartbusters LP (NEMS)
Buzzcocks “What Do You Know?” Singles Going Steady LP (IRS)
Cassie, “Change My Image,” “Change My Image” b/w “Will You?” 7” (Reminder)
- - -
Cows, “Peacetika,” Peacetika LP (Amphetamine Reptile)
Scratch Acid, “Damned for All Time,” Just Keep Eating 12”EP (Rabid Cat)
Spazz, “Sweet Home Alabama,” La Revancha LP (Slap-a-Ham)
Preening, “Rapt Fashion,” Dragged through the Garden LP (Ever/Never)
- - -
Gino And The Goons “She Was Crushed,” She Was Crushed 7”EP (Slovenly)
New Bomb Turks “Defiled,” At Rope’s End LP (Epitaph)
RVIVR “Big Lie,” The Beauty Between LP (Rumbletown)
The World, “White Radish,” Reddish (Lumpy)
- - -
The Cure, “Close to Me,” The Head on the Door (Rhino)
Violent Femmes, “I Held Her in My Arms,” The Blind Leading the Naked
Sad Lovers & Giants, “50:50,” Lost in a Memory…. Something Something 7”
Oingo Boingo, “Burn Me Up” Live from the Universal Amphitheatre LP
- - -
Alien Sex Fiend, “Clockwork Banana Banana,” Open Head Surgery LP (Anagram)