Germs - MIA: The Complete Anthology
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Free Music Notes for MIA: The Complete Anthology
Free Music Review: A Punk Masterpiece
Hit: 5 Stars
This is good stuff. Any real punk enthusiast will love this C.D.Free Music Review: Essential
Hit: 5 Stars
The germs are bad musicians, but their music really rocks!Free Music Review: you remember the circle"armband"
Hit: 5 Stars
this collection sums up darby's best times.Free Music Review: Will The Circle Be Unbroken?
Hit: 4 Stars
While browsing this website, Amazon informed me that I should rate this album and that I would probably give it four stars. That sounded about right, so in the words of Darby Crash, "Here goes..." This CD of the Germs is an enhanced compilation of the original GI album along with songs from an early EP, some stray singles and five songs produced with the intention of possibly being used in William Friedkin's movie, "Cruising" (They weren't). This L.A. band came from a small group of disaffected, delinquent kids who decided to form a group and perform before knowing how to play their instruments, yet managed to evolve into a high-powered punk/metal/whatever unit. Their initial single "Forming" sounds like a chugging, barely competent garage band, appropriately recorded in the guitarist's garage on a two-track recorder. "Sex Boy", the next cut and original flip side of "Forming", is an early live cut from The Roxy, but could have been recorded in the Le Brea Tar Pits across town. The band was drunk, rotten food was apparently thrown about, and there are sounds of glass breaking. As with most venues they played in, the management asked them not to return. With the third song, "Lexicon Devil", from their initial EP, the band's sound started to come together. Unlike many garage punk bands that bludgeoned like a high-speed industrial press in 4/4 time, the Germs, at their best sounded more like a fusillade of firecrackers. Pat Smear's rudimentary guitar and simple staccato riffs intertwined with problem child poster boy Darby Crash's crazed vocals had an effect similar to live high voltage cables snaking and snapping wildly. The lyrics came from reams of notebooks Crash had filled during his middle-high school days and they're a manic mix of adolescent angst, Nietsche narcissistic philosophy, and supposedly include inspiration from Oswald Spengler's Decline of the West (Never read it myself). Darby Crash doesn't sing, of course, he snarls. His preferred mode of verbal attack vacillates between a stretched out guttural sneer (barely comprehensible) to an attempt to cram as many words as possible into a short span of time (barely comprehensible). Lyrics are included in the booklet for your convenience (Cool photos, too). The vocals usually fly past at high speed but when phrases or words are discernable, flying out like sonic shrapnel, they sound, well... just swell. The timing of the inspired amateurism of the Los Angeles punk scene provided a perfect entrance for Darby Crash, though his exit was less well timed. Possibly inflated with his own importance, but probably more deflated from excessive B & D (booze and drugs), he committed suicide with a lethal dose of heroin only to have any notoriety eclipsed by the media blitz of the news of John Lennon's murder the following day. The collection is a mixed bag of course, but the standouts (i.e. personal faves) are: Lexicon Devil (single version), Circle One, Ritchie Dagger's Crime, Manimal, We Must Bleed, Media Blitz, Throw It Away, Not All Right. Enjoy.Free Music Review: Closer to what the Pistols should have been
Hit: 4 Stars
Of the L.A. scene, I think the Germs just may be one of the greatest bands of their time. Maybe because I'm also not educated enough to know whether or not I'm actually right. But I can tell you that I do love the Germs. For one thing, I like the style in which Pat Smear plays guitar. He is what makes some of the songs what they are. Like in "Richie Dagger's Crime", possibly my favorite song on here, it works really well.
Some of the recordings on here are really shoddy. Take for instance the live performance of "Sexboy" which sounds like it might have been recorded from the audience even. Actually, most rather than some and that's the most standoutish of that.
Most of these songs are pretty enjoyable. Although I don't really like the drums, I find myself entertained by "Shut Down (Annihilation Man)", in spite of its nine-and-a-half minute length (and they did this 25 years before Green Day did it). The bass is admittedly repetitive, but I guess its flaws that also make it interesting, with humanlike quality. I like the random spiels of the track as well. Then there's tons of others that are lots of fun and great lyrically like "We Must Bleed". Most of it I'd say is pretty good, even if not perfect. I'm not punk but I can tell you that I enjoyed this.
Another standout is the booklet. It's nice to learn about the band as well as getting to hear some of their music. There are a couple of articles on the Germs and it only adds on to the legacy.
I also like the way how the early punk bands put most of their recorded output into a single disc so that we wouldn't have to spend 3x the cash. Even if that sacrifices my interest in listening to the record in a single setting sometimes. What we get is the full "Forming" single, "Lexicon Devil" single, "G.I." in full, "What We Do Is Secret" b-sides, and more.