The Murder City Devils are one of my favourite groups of all time.
They were around from 1996 to 2001 and came from Seattle. They were on Sub Pop records but certainly didn’t have the typical grunge sort of sound. Instead they had a much more punk/garage/rock ‘n’ roll style to them and the inclusion of keyboards gave them an added uniqueness.
But what really made the Murder City Devils stand out in my mind were the lyrics and how on many of the songs they conjured up all these images of heartbreak, broken dreams, heavy drinking and loneliness.
As an example just take the track 364 Days from their last EP, Thelema. Only the Murder City Devils could take Father Christmas and imagine him as sad, lonely and drinking for the rest of the year when he isn’t wanted by anyone.
So as my Christmas post here are two Christmas related tracks by the Murder City Devils – the above mentioned 364 Days plus Hanoi Rocks cover Dead By Christmas, as well as eight demo tracks by the proto-Murder City Devils outfit, The Hookers, including a couple of tracks that would go on to appear as Murder City Devil’s songs.
This is a quick addendum to my previous blog concerning Adam and the Ants. Although he wasn’t in the original line-up, the member of the Ants who had the most creative input along with Adam Ant (continuing throughout Adam Ant’s solo career) was the guitarist Marco Pirroni.
Those who know their punk trivia/history will be aware that for the first gig that Siouxsie and the Banshees played at the 100 Club punk festival Marco Pirroni was on guitar, while Sid Vicious was on drums.
Marco was also in a couple of other groups as well before linking up with Adam Ant. These were the very punk rock Models and the more experimental/post-punk Rema Rema.
Here are the singles released by both these groups.
As I’m sure many of you will know, December 7th is the anniversary of Darby Crash’s death. He was supposed to have committed suicide, by taking a heroin overdose, in an attempt to immortalise himself and create another infamous rock ‘n’ roll legend of someone who lived fast and died young.
Of course the next day John Lennon was murdered, which of course dominated the news more than the suicide of an LA punk rocker ever could.
Now the death of John Lennon was a very significant event for me as a young kid. Up until that point I’d never really paid any attention to music at all – too busy playing with toy soldiers and reading war comics – but of course even I couldn’t fail to notice the huge amount of news coverage and pick up on the fact that obviously something momentous had happened that a lot of people were really affected by.
So I asked my dad what it was all about and as a way to explain he dug out his old Beatles records for me to listen to. I’d never even heard of the Beatles before but very quickly I became a huge fan and of course at this time there was a huge amount of Lennon’s solo stuff being released in the wake of his death, which I also got into.
After a while I then began to explore my dad’s record collection further and discovered all kinds of amazing music from the 50s and 60s – Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly and the Crickets, Jerry Lee Lewis, Beach Boys, The Hollies, The Searchers, The Byrds, Bob Dylan to name just a few.
Now that my mind had been opened to all these great artists and their music, I also began to be aware of what was happening around me in the current music scene and when my birthday came around I asked for my very first album as a birthday present. Adam and the Ants – Prince Charming. Yes, at that time I couldn’t imagine anything cooler than being a dandy highwayman.
Now admittedly in retrospect this was the album that killed the Ants cool image – probably because too many little boys who thought highwaymen were cool started listening to them, but up until that point they had a real cult following in that they seemed to inspire much more devotion in their fans than most other groups around. I remember seeing mainly older girls with those ‘Ant music for sex people’ badges and the band logo on the back of their jackets and feathers tied into their hair. There was a definite look that went along with being an Ants fan. Of course my mum would never buy me any of those style of clothes.
Now this actually ties back in with Darby Crash. At some point after the Germs had split up, Darby Crash had visited London and seen Adam and the Ants, which had really impressed him. When he got back to LA he formed the Darby Crash Band with Pat Smear and adopted a look very similar to that of the Ants.
So anyway, to mark the anniversary of Darby’s death and also my introduction to music here are the first two Germs singles (my bootleg copy of Lexicon Devil seems to have two extra tracks).
01.Plastic Surgery 02.Deutscher Girls 03.Young Parisians 04.Lady 05.Zerox 06.Whip In My Valise 07.Cartrouble 08.Kick 09.Physical 10.Friends 11.Beat My Guest 12.Dirk Wears White Sox 13.Fat Fun 14.Hampstead 15.Punk In The Supermarket 16.Puerto Rican 17.Mice In Freefall 18.B Side Baby 19. It Doesn’t Matter 20. Il Duce 21.Fall In
And finally here is some footage of The Darby Crash Band and news coverage of his death.
By the way, I recently saw the Germs film What We Do Is Secret and while I was impressed that there has actually being a film made about the Germs, I have to say the film itself is far from impressive.
