Tuesday, October 28, 1980

DOA "Something Better Change" LP


This is considered the debut LP of DOA's, even though things like "Triumph of the Ignoroids" came out. This LP was recorded between 1977 and 1980 and was released on a label titled Friends Records. Joey's label re-issued this as a CD on Sudden Death Records. Songs on here are:

1. New Age
2. The Enemy
3. 2 + 2
4. Get Out of My Life
5. Woke up Screaming
6. Last Night
7. Thirteen
8. Great White Hope
9. The Prisoner
10. Rich Bitch
11. Take a Chance
12. Watcha Gonna Do?
13. World War 3
14. New Wave Sucks

Friday, October 24, 1980

The Demics LP

Hypnotic Records, a label owned by Tom Treumuth, with a re-recorded version of "New York City". A lot of people think this was a shittier version of the song. Chris Spedding produced this recording. Steve Koch was in this version of the band. The Demics broke up shortly after the release to internal tensions within the band. The songs on this release are:


1. I Won't See You No More
2. Blueboy
3. New York City
4. The Grey and the Black
5. The 400 Blows
6. Talk, Talk
7. The News
8. The Least You Can Do
9. Lucy
10. All Gone Wrong

Download of this material can be gotten at O' Canadarm! - http://ocanadarm.blogspot.com/2007/01/demics-canada.html

Wednesday, October 15, 1980

Teenage Head "Frantic City" CD


Teenage Head were from Hamilton. Their Ramones meets dolls inspired punk sound was catchy as fuck and got so many of us into punk. The band was made up of Frankie Venom on vocals, Gord Lewis on guitar, Steve Mahon on bass, and Nick Stipanitz on drums. "Frantic City" was the Head's first full length and it came out on Attic records. The band has recently self-released a CD version of it. Songs on here are:

1. Wild One
2. Somethin' On my Mind
3. Total Love
4. Let's Shake
5. Infected
6. Those things You Do
7. Somethin' Else
8. Take it
9. Brand New Cadillac
10. Disgusteen
11. Let's Shake
12. I Wanna Love You

Teenage Head "Frantic City" LP


The first full length by Hamilton's Teenage Head. Teenage Head were Frankie Venom on vocals, Gord Lewis on guitar, Steve Mahon on bass, and Nick Stipanitz on drums. the record originally came out on Attic Records and has been re-issued in a CD format by the band. Songs found on this are :

1. Wild One
2. Somethin' on my Mind
3. Total Love
4. Let's Shake
5. Infected

6. Those Things You Do
7. Somethin' Else
8. Take It
9. Brand New Cadillac
10. Disgusteen

Friday, October 10, 1980

The Diodes "Action/Reaction" LP

This record came out in October 1980 on Orient Records which was an independent label run by Willi Morrison and Ian Guenther. The Diodes decided to leave CBS after their second record "Released" was shelved. John Catto describes this record as their "commercial" album.  It has a huge sound from a production standpoint and the band had been touring extensively with bands like U2 so they were also at the top of their game from a musicianship standpoint.  John Hamilton had left the band and Mike Lengyell replaced him on drums. "Strange Time" and "Rock It" were the first single released from this record which came out around the same time. John Catto and Ian Mackaye felt "City of the Dead" was the strongest on this release. "Catwalker" was the song that got them rotation on radio. This was released as the second single along with the title track. However "Polaroid" is the hidden gem on this release in my opinion. The artwork is a photo of a collection of rayguns that George Whiteside which was fun and stunning. You can hear the band talk about this release on a show we did on November 13th, 2011. The songs on here are:
1. That Was The Way It Was
2. Catwalker
3. Strange time
4. Polaroid
5. Action Reaction
6. City of the dead
7. Rock it over and under
8. Everything I am
9. Edge of darkness

Bongo Beat Records has made this material available again on a CD which contains a number of other songs which are:

10. Survivors (an out take from the Action Reaction recording)
11. Ghost Story (recorded April 8, 1981 at Stagesound)
12. Heat of the beat (recorded April 8, 1981 at Stagesound)
13. Catwalker (recorded at Eastern Sound on December 1979)
14. Spanish Main (recorded at Eastern Sound on December 1979)

15. Play with fire (Live at Horseshoe and broadcast on CFNY on June 7, 1980)

Thursday, October 2, 1980

Martha and the Muffins "Trance and Dance" LP

This is Martha and the Muffins second album released in October 1980. Although the album didn;t produce any hit singles like "Echo Beach" the songs on here are:

1. Suburban Dream
2. Luna Park
3. Was Ezo

4. Teddy the Dink
5. Symptomatic Love
6. Primal Weekend
7. Halfway Through The Week
8. Am I On?
9. Motorbikin’
10. About Insomnia
11. Be Blasé
12. Trance and Dance

Zine - Smash It Up


This is another issue of Smash It Up that came out somewhere in the fall of 1980. The editorial on the second mentions that this is the eigth issue to come out in the year so I imagine it would have been out in September or October. The cover is in Russian and in true Smash It Up fashion fills a need to play with the name of the publication. It was a provocative thing to do given that 1980 was the height of the Cold War being played out through a nuclear arms race. The zine plays up like a Russian issue that has been translated. The circulation of the zine was somewhere between 25 and 50 copies and was sold for $0.20 a copy.

This issue starts out with an interview with Gary Numan at the Holiday Inn, which was more like a shrug off. On the same page is a playlist and a list of new releases that had just come out.

The next feature is a piece on heavy metal with brief descriptions of bands like Sabbath and Priest and Saxon and KISS.

The next piece is about a band named the Civilians and they were about to release a record on Star Records (the label that put out the first Forgotten Rebels LP). The Garys thought they were too metal so they never booked them.

There was an interview with the Demics just after the album had been released. One of the big concerns by that record gets asked which is about the album sounding too overproduced.

There is a piece on the Sharks that took four attempts to get. The inteviewer spent some time trying to interview the band (four times) and there are some answers but different members in some of those times. But at the end the interview read a bit like the Tyranna interview that followed. I liked te Tyranna interview better.

There is a review section on punk films and one of those was a showing of a film named Crash 'n Burn about the club in Toronto that was shown in an art gallery. There was reviews of "D.O.A.", "Punking Out", "The Great Rock 'n Roll Swindle" and some reggae films like "The Harder they Come" and "Dread, Beat and Blood". There is also a big piece on a film which had the Clash in it called "Preacher Man".

There is also some great record reviews which includes one of the Talking Heads "Remain in Light".

The back cover had a neat poster photo of a band named the Feds that promotes a new single and a show for November at the Edge.

Thanks to Dhaibid James of Moondog Ballroom for loaning us the issue to scan.