Pure Punk Picks
Vertigo – The Screamers
“Things are getting frantic on the panic train. Need a mechanic on the panic train.”
No, this isn’t Cat Stevens, offering you a gentle ride on the peace train- this is something of a different story.
In the late seventies, early eighties, punk and hardcore music was anything but mainstream.
In Boston, to hear the music of a band from the West Coast, that band had to have recorded with a major label (Dead Kennedys, X, Angry Samoans) or had enough loot or luck to make an EP (The Avengers). That would, at least, get played on local college radio.
But the West Coast fanzines always seemed to make it here.
I remember the wonderful “Slash” from Los Angeles.
Sometimes, you might have to buy one from Newbury Comics, but mostly, they were for free- stuffed into slots below music clubs’ bars or on the ground near club entrances.
Thrash N Bang is modeled after the early fanzines, like Boston’s The Noise and Boston Groupie News or New York’s “New York Rocker.”
I would read every word of any fanzine I could get a hold of, unaware, that I would be writing someday for The Noise and then, the world renowned Thrash N Bang.
I would read about some bands on the West Coast that had no recordings but sounded, word-wise, intriguing as all hell.
One of these bands was The Screamers. I knew they had a singer, a drummer and two keyboard players! With nary a guitarist or bassist in sight!
Maybe six or seven years ago, I was talking with my young female friend, KJ, at a show who is a big fan of the early punk bands. She mentioned how much she liked The Screamers.
I inquired where she had heard them, as I hadn’t, and she replied, “On You Tube.”
That’s where I finally got to hear them and was duly impressed. I was waiting three decades before I heard The Screamers’ scream their songs.
And I was pleased that, not only did they meet my expectations, but they exceeded them, as well.
“Let’s Go! Vertigo!…Oh, No! Vertigo!”
So yelps, screams, sings Tomatu du Plenty, and you know he’s exhorting us to follow him into his manic panic joyride. Accept it at your own peril!
With a keyboard line that sounds like it could be played by ancient horns and trumpets declaring the entrance of a Queen. Well, Tomatu will suffice in that role, albeit, a hysterical one!
But really this is an exasperated, thrilling, emotional song that is extremely expressive and impresses and draws one in.
There’s a verse that hardly existent and then a bridge, which is now what they call a “Breakdown.” Where the tempo puts on the brakes and the chords descends with the singer leading us “down, down, down, down,” until, like a sugar rush, we’re brought back into the fray, once again.
This song just vibrates with energy and spirit without any need of any instrument with strings, and displays a band that is more punk than most bands with guitars and basses could ever hope to be.
Tomatu was, obviously, a gay person- who is sadly not with us now. But he is another example of how the early, punk community excepted gay folks, respected women as musicians and didn’t discriminate against minorities who wanted to join in on the festivities.
I’ve stated this before and I’m sure I’ll state it again. I’m proud of the wonderful music the early punk scene created but I’m most proud of how the punk community accepted gays, women and minorities long before the mainstream, rock community did.
And maybe The Screamers made no recordings in their time, were not as successful as other bands starting at their time.
But really their material lives on for people to listen to and be inspired from, and actually, people don’t need to buy it- just keep an open mind and open ears about it all.
I just said this band was less successful but that’s because we live in a capitalist system where monetary success is put above all less, let it be religious, moral or lifestyle.
But artistically and of musical worth I feel this band was one of the best of its’ time.
And I feel we need to realize that monetary value pales in comparison to work that is rich with honesty, energy, passion and feeling.
And I feel, no- I know! That the young folks are figuring this out for themselves, while the old folks fritter their old lives away.
The Screamers are just one of those odd bands that fit so easily into the early punk/hardcore scene- much like Devo or the B-52’s.
And that’s why this band was so great and that’s why, the scene that excepted them, was equally as great- as well.
(Slimedog)
