Teengenerate - The Singles, 1993-1996 (White Trash Soul Real R'n'R No.15)

 

The other day, I finally found the time to sit my old ass down and start watching the Teengenerate documentary ("Get Action!!"). Along with the Devil Dogs, The Hellacopters of the "Supershitty to the Max"-era, The Infections and The Humpers, these Japs were my favourite garage punk rock 'n' roll band when I was young, loud and snotty myself! 

The story goes like this: Fifi and Fink, two brothers with an addiction to all things punk rock, grew up in a rural port town located about two hours outside Tokyo. They thought capital was something of a Mecca for rock 'n' roll and figured that if they moved there and started a band, they would find other fanatics like themselves. This wasn't the case, though. They formed the American Soul Spiders in 1987. The band -of course- took its name from the Flamin' Groovies' song. They released a single on 1+2, which led to them being signed by Long Gone John's legendary now, Sympathy for the Record Industry label. Surprisingly, things went more than well and they released even more material and toured the States with punk rock icon Jeff Dahl. However, the American Soul Spiders music was heavily influenced by Detroit bands such as MC5 and The Stooges, and the two brothers wanted a more traditional rock 'n' roll sounding outfit. The opportunity arose when Dezaki, the singer of the Spiders, revealed that he was staying in New York after the tour ended and the band split up.

Impressed by the Devil Dogs' records, Fink started Teengenerate with the remaining American Soul Spiders members in 1993. This time they named themselves from a song by the Dictators. In May, a college friend of Fink's named Warabi founded Wallabies Records, with the 'Get Me Back' EP serving as the initial release. Teengenerate set off on their first American tour under their new name. They were loaded with an amazing 7inch and their first stop was the Estrus Records' Garage Shock festival. This led to offers from a large number of labels and the rest is history.

For a band that was only active for three years, their catalogue suggests they were around much much longer... They released two LPs and numerous singles on Australian, Japanese and American trademark garage punk labels such as Crypt, Dionysus, Rip Off, Estrus, Dog Meat, etc. They built a reputation in the US and beyond thanks to their rowdy live performances and supercharged punk rock 'n' roll recordings. Singing in (half?) english also helped them gain a steady and rapidly growing fanbase.

For me, Teengenerate was another important case study. It was through them and their mind-blowing cover versions that I first became intensely interested in bands like The Pagans, The Nervous Eaters, Angry Samoans and The Fun Things, to name a few. Their sloppy '50s rock 'n' roll attitude and utterly unhinged song execution, reminiscent of Jerry Lee Lewis played by the early Black Flag, made me a lifelong fan. I mean, really now, these skinny Japs made The Mummies sound like a cheap Damned imitation (and maybe they were, who knows?). Anyone and everyone who hears Teengenerate for the first time feels as though their eardrums have been blasted by a nuclear bomb or something. I remember doing this to my father's expensive, high-end stereo and him coming in, furious and yelling that he hadn't built this sound system to play that shit!

Here's another homemade compilation for your listening pleasure and your neighbour's disapproval. As the title suggests, it contains all of their 45s (except for "Bum vs. Teengenerate", I wasn't able to find it anywhere and obviously, I don't have it), including tracks shared with other bands on split single releases. While I am unable to pinpoint a particular release as the most outstanding, I must make an exception in stating that the EP "Wild Wild Teengenerate", featuring Steve Baise from the Devil Dogs/The Vikings, it's the very definition of punk rock: Lo-fi, high-octane and with unparalleled ferocity, the drums and the bass struggle and strain to keep up with the slashing guitars! They managed to improve three of the best songs that The Kids ever wrote and performed, man!!

Anyway, not all my rips, but as always, I carefully processed the audio, mostly balancing it, to make them all sound as if they were made by one person. Many thanks to everyone, who helped me create this by sharing many of these singles. 

The Dimestore Haloes (Hit List Vol. 1 No. 5, November-December 1999)

 

(Right click and select 'open link in new tab' for full scans resolution)

The Exploding Hearts - Live On KBOO, May 2003 (White Trash Soul Real R'n'R No.14)

This is a band that I was practically the same age as back then and I listened to them fanatically. Unfortunately, as (perhaps) everyone knows by now, the story of the Exploding Hearts is a tragic one: Three of its members died in a car accident while returning from a show that would have put them in the big league. These Portland powerpopers were barely in their twenties and were about to sign a major deal with the label of Green Day and The Queers, Lookout! Records, which was a big deal back then. And they had just released a modern classic, "Guitar Romantic", on Screaming Apple which received a huge amount of positive reviews that compared them to The Buzzcocks, The Chords and The Undertones. Each melody on the band's sole album feels clearly visible, yet the reverberations of Motown and Bomp! Records are so charming and infectious that it's hard to label them as pale imitators, because they weren't. 

Let's face it, the Exploding Hearts were the answer to the question of what punk rock with POP sensibilities should have sounded like in a world after "Dookie". Twenty-three years later, "Guitar Romantic" has emerged from obscurity to become a widely recognised and appreciated cornerstone of its era. I'm still proudly sporting their t-shirt (I've made a new one, the old one doesn't fit anymore, you know middle age stuff), apart from writing this post and trying to pass on their brilliance to a younger generation of punk rock and powerpop fans.

So, here's an amazing artefact by them on KBOO. The session was recorded during the station's long-running punk rock programme, 'Life During Wartime' two months before their untimely earth escape. This broadcast is one of the few high-quality, documented recordings of their live performances and the line up is featuring King Louie Bankston on keys.

PS: A page about a documentary on them used to be seen on Instagram, but the updates were suddenly halted. If the creators or producers ever stop by this site, please leave a message 'cause I need to get my hands on this.

Dedicated to the memory of Adam Cox, Jeremy Gage, Matt Fitzgerald and Louie Bankston. #StillShattered

The Jim Jones Revue - "B-Sides & Rarities" (White Trash Soul Real R'n'R No.12)

 

When did you last hear a real rock 'n' roll band? Since the Devil Dogs split up? Or was it back in the 'Soulseller' era of the Hellacopters? After the Jim Jones Revue broke up, Nick Curran and the Lowlifes were the only ones who could keep the fire burning. I mean, I can't think of anyone else since Nick's untimely death. Don't get me wrong, I love The Righteous Mind and the All Stars and Jim Jones seems to be the only guy around doing this ramalama bamalama loo thoroughly, but as much as I like the post-Revue bands, they don't have the manic '50s rock 'n' roll energy of Jerry Lee Lewis amplified through the MC5 with Gerry Roslie on vocals sound, that Revue had. 

The Revue was a rock'n'roll intelligentsia full of fundamentalism. It was a group of punk rock jihadists who managed the considerable feat of being both serious and tongue-in-cheek and who drank diesel and poured out smoke. Little Richard's leather-clad gospel evangelists and Johnny Thunders' mourners. Imagine Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs with velvet waistcoats and sideburns doing funerals. The Jim Jones Revue was a stark reminder of just how dangerous rock 'n' roll used to be. 

This compilation brings together all of Revue's b-sides, as well as a few other rarities and it's as hot and dry as a desert wind.

Rocket From The Crypt - "Scream, Dracula, Scream! - White Trash Soul Edition"

 

Fact is a lot is written already by me about the '90s, but that's the era I grew up in - be kind (or fuck off). Now that I have enough distance to draw reliable conclusions, I believe it really was a fantastic time to be a young prick! There were so many incredible bands and records around floating almost every week, If you had been there, there would be no way you could have forgotten it. As that impartial judge called time has shown, many of these have stood the test of time and are now rightly considered just as essential as their '60s and '70s predecessors. Right? Right!

Punk rock was no exception to this. A healthy underground scene existed globally that put to shame the bands under that tag that did make it commercially. OK, "Dookie" was fantastic record, and Rancid did well too, either by rejecting Madonna's offers or by releasing "And Out Comes the Wolves" but I couldn't stand bands like NOFX and I still can't stand them. After gaining momentum, Epitaph was no different to the majors in terms of what it was putting out. The last great band to come out of Bad Religion's CEO label was The Humpers, but the crowd and the establishment needed caricatures, not a rock 'n' roll band with a name like that and that junkie Johnny Thunders and The Heartbreakers feel and attitude.

To this day, amazing and most importantly, genre-defining groups are still under most people's radars. When I talk about gangs like The Stitches, The Infections, The Rip-Offs, The Devil Dogs, Teengenerate, Bladder Bladder Bladder, Dimestore Haloes, The Riffs, New Bomb Turks or Chinese Takeaway, only a handful of people are willing to rant along. And when I mention names like Mudhoney or Rocket From The Crypt, I usually get a "that's not punk" reply. You morons! Mark Arm and Co. were more garage punk than your Fuzztones and RFTC were the reincarnation of the first three Saints albums.

This leads us to the main subject of this post, which is the unsurpassed punk rock mayhem of "Scream, Dracula, Scream!" By the time this record was released, I was already a fan and had acquired "Circa Now". This Stax-abilly sound was right up my alley and it was epitomised by a band with greasy pompadours. Man, you just can't get cooler than this! Named after the infamous '70s black horror b-movie "Scream, Blacula, Scream!" and featuring the band's name and record title in the font of (San Francisco’s First and Only Rock 'n' Roll Band) Crime, you knew instantly what you were holding. The liner notes on the CD couldn't make it clearer: Our desire is to Rock 'n' Roll. Punk is dead.

In the midst of the '90s highly commercialized "punk", RFTC rejected their father in favour of their grandfather and kept the rock 'n' roll torch burning. Much to my surprise, 'On a Rope' dared to breach the charts. For a moment, I thought there was hope for humanity, there wasn't, let it all burn. These San Diego motherfuckers mixed rock'n'roll guitars on the same channel with horns in order to blow your ears and speakers and they succeeded. From start to finish, this album is the hottest garage punk and '50s R&B since when Bailey and Kuepper were still on good terms and would get shitfaced before heading into the studio.

Rocket from the Crypt released three singles from "Scream, Dracula, Scream!", all with great b-sides that deserve to be heard. There's even a cool Real Kids cover among them! I don't understand why such a high point of '90s punk/rock 'n' roll hasn't received an expanded reissue yet, which is why I decided to do it myself. Here's the complete classic release, including all the songs missing.