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Pop Rock Nation

Author: David Middleton

  • FORTY-FIVE REVOLUTIONS PER MINUTE #4: The Immaterial Ocean

     

    Squeeze's "Packet of Three" EP.
    Squeeze

    SQUEEZE  Packet Of Three EP:  “Cat On A Wall” b/w “Night Ride” & “Backtrack”(Deptford Fun City Records DFC 01, November 1979)

    Squeeze needs no introduction, so I’ll just dig right into the meat of this platter.  This is the 1979 reissue of their 1977 debut EP on the Deptford Fun City label from the UK.  Exactly how I ended up with this I’m unsure, but suffice to say it’s one of my favorite little time-capsules from the late-’70’s English punk/pub/power-pop explosion.  Not that I was there to witness it mind you, but some scenes you just have to experience vicariously, right?  Right.  So let’s move onward.

    Besides the obvious sexual implications, the EP’s title refers to the fact that it features 3 tracks:  “Cat On A Wall” adorns side A on its own, while “Night Ride” and “Backtrack” share the flip.  For some reason, the label fails to mention “Night Ride,” but it’s listed on the sleeve, so nevermind.  The disc is pressed on a red vinyl so dark it looks black;  when held up to light it gives off a dark cherry glow.  Nothing could be finer.

    Side A’s “Cat On A Wall” is pure hard-driving power-pop, the kind I wish Squeeze still made.  Granted, there’s lots of bands aping this sound today, but these cats are the MASTERS, let’s face it.  The blistering guitar solos, the octave harmony vocals, the drum solo bordering on Peartgasm, descending into pure acid-fried dissonance and back again, the run-off groove that lasts forever if you let it…who the hell else could get away with this and live to tell about it?  No one besides Squeeze, that’s who.  And the only bad thing I can say about this track is it’s way too short.  Ya gotta play it twice.  (I found a video someone else made, playing the original pressing.  It looks & sounds better than any vid I can make, so here it is.)

    SQUEEZE \”Cat On A Wall\” on YouTube

    “Night Ride” opens the flip-side with a tinny, distorted guitar playing eighth-notes on the open strings from low to high, leading into a raucous hard-rocker.  Then “Backtrack,” which basically sounds like Professor Longhair on steroids and speed, zips in and out of your ears before you can even realize what has hit them.  Former Velvet Underground violist John Cale produced all 3 of these tracks, as well as their entire debut album.  He’s even pictured with the band on the back of this EP’s sleeve.  Now, from what I’ve read, Cale and the band absolutely hated each other and never worked together again, but who the fuck knows or cares?  All I know is that Cale coaxed an amazing sound from these guys in this session, putting the levels up into the red, developing a thick, hard rock for Squeeze to build on.  And build they did.  But they never sounded quite like this again.

    NEXT WEEK:  What happens when a strangely-named English guitar virtuoso meets four mysterious masked-men from Shreveport in swinging 1970’s San Francisco?

  • FORTY-FIVE REVOLUTIONS PER MINUTE #3: Roped Into Something Unnatural

    Bedhead's single for "Bedside Table"

    BEDHEAD  “Bedside Table” b/w “Living Well”  (Direct Hit Records DH005RJN1, May 1992)

    It seems like a lifetime ago.  I had been living & working in New York City for a few years, and I really needed a break.  Working two jobs, taking odd night gigs playing bass, sleeping on a little cot in a warehouse.  It all was taking its toll on me fast.  I needed a change of scenery, so I did what any sane person would do in this situation:  I borrowed a car & drove to Texas. 

    Remember The Alamo?  The “Chirping” Crickets?  Janis Joplin?  The Butthole Surfers!  Fuck yeah, and Fuck Emo’s, The Lone Star State was the place I needed to be.  So I looked up an old friend when I got to Dallas, & we proceeded to hit every rib joint, thrift store, bowling alley, strip club, country bar, record store & porno shop from Houston to Austin to San Antonio, & all points in between.  We left no stone unturned, no beer undrank, no spliff unsmoked.  Braised rabbit and buffalo brisket in Deep Ellum.  The Grassy Knoll/The Book Depository.  Emo’s.  Threadgill’s.  Late-night coffehouses in Denton.  Waterloo.  And oh, yeah…The Alamo, too.  You name it, we did it, saw it, made fun of it & laughed at it.  But I only kept one souvenir.

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  • FORTY-FIVE REVOLUTIONS PER MINUTE #2: The Chums Of Chance

    CRYING LOTT  “Inside” b/w “The Beast”  (Lott Records .01 Oct. 1982)

    Ocean View, Virginia is a seaside community bordering the north shore of the city of Norfolk, nestled in the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay.  At the start of the 20th century, the OV resembled sister east-coast beach resorts like Coney Island and Asbury Park;  folks from all walks of life flocked to the shoreline to breathe in salty air,  bathe in seaweed-heavy waters, and dine on corndogs and onion rings (or fresh spot, flounder and steamed blue crabs) while enjoying an amusement park, a casino and a bevy of fine hotels.

    Also like its northern counterparts, Ocean View fell into decay in the ’70’s & ’80’s, becoming a blown-out shell of its former self.  Transient military personnel, shipbuilders & longshoremen traded fisticuffs with drunks, bums & derelicts on D-View Street.  Dark, unidentifiable sludge was washing ashore at Sarah Constant Shrine.  Burned-out motor lodges stood empty like rows of old shoeboxes along the coastline.  Old movie theaters like The Rosele and The Showcase became what are now remembered as “grindhouses,” showing 3rd-rate gore and grade-B softcore to near-empty seats.  This was not by any means a breeding ground for new independent alternative music, nor any art of any sort, for that matter.  This, my friends, is where I grew up.

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