The Sickness Post #2 - Aussie Rock, The Exploding White Mice

 O.K., so the last post got me listening to more Australian shit. Specifically The Exploding White Mice.

When I first started really getting into Punk Rock and bands from smaller labels and such, one of the first bands that really made an impact on me was The Mice. Funny too because it was them and the Hard-Ons that quickly became my two favorites of the time. Both were from Australia.
I guess they took their name from the mouse scene in "Rock And Roll High School".

A Friend of mine Kevin, had brought over a pile of records for me to check out, and we ended up listening to his some-what small, but awesome catalog for that entire summer.

Included on the soundtrack from that summer ('88) was Dayglow Abortions - "Feed Us A Foetus", Rudimentary Peni - "Death Church", a couple records by the Lime Spiders, Peace Corpse - "Terror Of History", a bunch of Dead Kennedys, a shit-ton of Ramones, The Exploding White Mice - "In A Nest Of Vipers", and The Hard-Ons self titled L.P. which was an American issue of "Smell My Finger" with The Girl In The Sweater" single added to it.

I associated the "Mice" with the Ramones a lot, because I thought of them as "The Australian Ramones", some time later I would learn that I wasn't the only one with this particular point of view.

I just assumed it was because we were listening to a lot of Ramones as well.

Both the Hard-Ons L.P., and the Mice L.P. (E.P.?) were on Bigtime Records. Which I'm assuming had some deal with Aussie labels like Greasy and Waterfront since that's what both of these records were on. "In a Nest Of Vipers" was originally released in Australia on Greasy in 1985 titled "A Nest Of Vipers".

A local record store called Northern Lights, had just gone out of business and they ended up throwing a lot of new imports out at a buck or two a piece. I picked up brand new copies of "Black Metal" by Venom (original on Neat), Motorhead "Iron Fist" (Bronze), Motorhead "Bomber" (Bronze) and "Brute Force And Ignorance" (1988) by the Expolding White Mice, on Greasy Records.

Upon my second trip to the blowout sale I found my copy of "In A Nest Of Vipers" (Bigtime). This record really blew me away! It was raw, simple, noisy, everything that was essential to me in a new band. By the time I got into "Brute Force.." I was a full fledged "Mice fuckin' NUT". I still really love them, in fact, I still look them up on regular rounds.

This was a really cool summer for me, 1988. Good people, great memories. And this band provided a large portion of the soundtrack of that period. It's one of those bands that will take me right back to that place and that time, anytime, everytime. Probably forever.

Later on I found two 7" E.p.'s. "Make It" b/w "Ain't It Sad" and "I Just Want My Fun" b/w "The First Time Is The Best Time" and "Do The Crunch"

The latter single seemed a bit more mellow to me at the time, but upon recent spins, it still does the exact same thing to me that the Mice have always done. Not as raw as "Nest", but true to formula.

Somewhere down the line I found a copy of the "Breakdown #2" b/w "Bury Me" 7" that I read a review for. It used to drive me crazy trying to find that 7" after I read about it, but most people I talked to around here didn't really know all that much about the band. Both songs are from "Brute force..", and "Breakdown #2" in my opinion, is probably one of the highest points of the album. And there are a lot!

Just finding articles on the band was hard enough. And even still, I've only found one more copy of  "In A Nest.." since. together with the copy that Kevin owned I've only seen three, ever! And I've never found anything else since.



There's two more older 7" singles that I don't have, "Blaze Of Glory" b/w "He's Gonna Step On You Again" (1987), and "Fear (Late At Night)" b/w "Without Warning" (1988).

 After Greasy went out of business, they released a half studio/half live album in 1990. It was released on Normal Records from Germany, and NKVD Records in the U.S.A. It was after this release that Paul Gilchrist, the lead vocalist left the group and I've never herd them without him. Those can be testy waters. I know replacing a front man can greatly effect the sound of a band, but I remain optimistic, and eager to hear them without him.

In 1992 thet released an album called "Colateral Damage", and their final album "We Walk Alone" came out in 1994 on Au-Go-Go.

Odds are I'll write something here whenever I find them.

The Sickness. Post 1, "Thin Lizzy is a gateway drug"

The following post is from another blog I do from time to time called, "The Sickness - Confessions of a vinyl junkie". From time to time I think I should only be writing one stupid blog, and the fact of it is I just can't make up my mind just how I'd like to mesh the two... either way, whatever... 

 
Voilla! (or "Wallah!") I'm not a very strong speller in English, let alone French, either way....Ta Da!

Two Days Ago, I finally completed my Thin Lizzy collection with the purchase of their first eponymous L.P. It set me back $50, BUT, like I said, it was the final piece of my Thin Lizzy vinyl L.P. collection AND.... It was in really great shape. So I rolled over for it. No bartering required.
I began my quest for a complete Lizzy collection quite recently actually. I'd say the last four years. And that's without specifically searching via Ebay and the like. But It's been a regular inquiry on every outting since. The next step for a dork like me is imported pressings.

And that's where my next issue comes in to play.

U.S. L.P. Cover

All of my copies are U.S. pressings. With the addition of a copy of "Black Rose" from Germany, and a couple other doubles. Goldmine only lists U.S. issues, so that's kinda what I've been going on. But I have seen some alternate cover art on foriegn C.D. jackets (specifically "Fighting").

C.D. cover, English I believe.

I do however, have a discography that was printed in Classic Rock from the U.K. and they list another album that I don't know of ever being pressed in the U.s. According to this discography, the first three Lizzy albums were all first issued on Decca. Whereas the first two from the same period were released in America on London.

The first L.P., "Thin Lizzy" was released on Decca in the U.K., and London in the U.S. and both were released in 1971.

"Thin Lizzy" Decca - U.K.

The second album, according to Classic Rock, was "Shades of a Blue Orphanage" named after the previous groups of Eric Bell (Shades Of Blue) and Phil Lynott and Brian Downey (Orphanage) came out in 1972.

"Shades of a Blue Orphanage"

The Third, "Vagabonds of the Western World", again, was released simultaneously on Decca (U.K.) and London (U.S.)in 1973.

And here I thought I was finished!

Well, kind of. See, Vertigo is such a cool label, I'm committed to fining Lizzy's entire catalog on Vertigo. Which they all are after "Vagabonds".
At least I think a couple, (the first two anyway) should be on the highly collectable "swirly" Vertigo label. (Sexy!) But I do not have, nor have I ever seen "Shades of a Blue Orphanage". I'm very curious about this, yes. Which brings me to "The Rocker 1971-1974".
It's apparent that this compilation contains song off the 1st L.P., as well as "Vagabonds...". With other tracks that were only available as singles and their B-sides, as well as one unreleased song.

The English discography, at least this one, excludes "the Rocker 1971-1974", Live and Dangerous", and "Life" - Live". All of which I think were left out because they all contain previously released material.

Already I know I'm gonna go nuts looking for this album. As I said, I've never seen it outside of this particular discography. To those of you "in the know", your all probably laughing at me. Which is fine. This, to me, is the fun part.

I've so far only bought one of the 180 gram re-issues "Jailbreak". And I bought that to replace my original (in the shrink no-doubt) that was heisted from me in "The Great Vinyl Heist of '09".
I guess what I'm getting at is, I've only just begun to collect Thin Lizzy. Especially since while editing this post, and adding pictures, it looks as if "Shades..." appears as if it says "Derham" on the cover. Really?!

I generally have a rule when it comes to original pressings. And from what I can tell, It's both unique, and frustrating for people.

Almost allways, people who are specifically looking for original pressings tend to look for the first issue from the country they reside in. For instance, for all my American friends, next time you have the chance to compare, see how much an original press from Canada is compared to an original U.S. press.
It's a bit (or sometimes a lot!) cheaper. I'm (speaking strictly monetarily, not quality)
At least that's what I've observed at shps and record fairs.

But my guideline for originals is, I look for the first pressing from the country that the band is from. And this is just a rule I apply when I'm not sure what the origin of the first pressing is. A lot of times, bands are picked up by foreign labels LONG before they have domestic appeal. But in most cases, especially when dealing with indie or punk bands, their first release is either put out by the band in small numbers, or a label from their scene and they tend to be from the same country and in a lot of cases, the same city.

But this is very different when dealing with bands that start out on majors.

So, I got a little bit off track with this post. That's gonna happen when I'm writing about records. I only wish I could type quicker, as thoughts pop up and maybe I wouldn't lose direction as easily.

My other purchase, The Music Machine's first album, was exiting to me for a number of reasons. Besides the fact that it's in wonderful shape, and, the stereo version. I actually started listening to this band a lot lately, thanks to Machine Gun Thompson's blog and his "Jukebox". But it was right there staring me in the face as I walked into the store. That's almost always the sign of a good record store day. And, I did in fact end up having to put a few things back. BUT.......

The first is, it's not often I come across a new scene or open up doors to a whole new genre that I haven't spent at least a little time with, but lately, I've been getting into a lot of 60's Freak Beat Garage Punk kinda stuff, and for the first time in a long time, I'm finding myself getting into a whole new thing with tremendous enthusiasm. I'm finding myself digging deeper than I ever have in this area and yet have only scratched the surface. Really, It's exciting!

It started with the 13th Floor Elevators and a recent Rocky Erickson kick I fell into the last time I saw Antiseen. I bought a copy of their "Two Headed Dog" single, an original from a batch they dug up before they went on tour. I bought one of the last three.
After You-tubing 13th F.E., I started following the links on the right side of the screen and found myself listening to The Sonics, The Renegades, The Seeds, The Music Machine, and what looks to be a billion others I've yet to discover.

Now, most of these are bands I've heard of, and even heard to some extent in the past but only now, have I began paying much attention to them. The Music Machine was familliar to me because Alice Cooper covered "Talk Talk" on "Flush The Fashion". And for the longest time, I never knew that was a cover. Nor did I know that "7 and 7 is" from "Special Forces" was a cover of Love. I found that out when I saw them open up for D.K.T./MC5.
I once heard the original "Talk Talk" at a record store and asked who it was, but had long since forgot.

But the second reason is, I'm going to look back after five years of collecting this new, (to me!) exciting music from what must be a hundred thousand small, obscure, wild fucking bands and say, "that was my whole introduction to this shit!"
What's even cooler, is there seems to be a resurgence in new bands popping up playing this type of R'n'R! Fuck yeah...

Not only do I now have plenty of catching up to do, (which is one of the funnest parts!) but, I can also ride this other "New Wave" for the first time since the '80's!

Score indeed!