GIMMIE GIMMIE THE OTHER THING

The Germs' Pat Smear, 1977. Picture by... oh, you already know?

The recent news of former Germs drummer Don Bolles' incarceration for possession of soap (a punk crime if ever there was one) added another bizarre chapter to the already highly surrealistic Germs saga. A bunch of Queen fans team up to form California's most primitive, peanut-butter-smearing punk band; two years later - with the help of Joan Jett - they turn out the tightest and fastest record of its era. Singer has a Charlie Manson-style following, seems barely able to talk most of the time, but produces some of the greatest, most poetic (or incomprehensible?) lyrics ever heard in punk. In his quest to become a legend he kills himself... a day before John Lennon gets killed (in Holland they call this "doing a Gerrie Knetemann"). I'm looking forward to seeing the movie!

Although the Hardcore years seemed like one big NOW, with new bands and records popping up almost weekly, there was one old band always lurking in the background, the band that had already been there years before...you guessed it. Hell, there were even pictures of Darby Crash holding a "Germs"-emblazoned skateboard! I first heard the Germs on the Tooth And Nail comp which I bought secondhand around this time; I still remember how s-l-o-w the Controllers tracks sounded to my HC-brainwashed 16-year old ears. (Hmm, brainwashed ears?) But the Germs (as well as the Flesh Eaters and Middle Class, also on the LP) more than made up for it. Apart from playing fast they had a wild jumpin-at-ya sound, with Pat Smear's trebly Hagstrom guitar and Darby's "caged panther" growl way high in the mix. Although tracks like Strange Notes were pretty intricate, the band constantly sounded as if they were almost descending into chaos. A little later I scooped up their posthumous What We Do Is Secret mini-LP, which was even better! Their 1977 cover of Chuck Berry's Round and Round (recorded with future X drummer D.J. Bonebrake) has the longest false start ever, the tracks off their Lexicondevil EP are pure genius, and the live stuff's great and very funny, too. I think I prefer this shambolic version of the Germs to the tightened-up warhorse Germs you hear on the famous (GI) LP. I won't deny (GI)'s greatness, but it kinda sounds too good, too tight and streamlined; it sounds like a very well-produced mid-80's HC record instead of a 1979 punk record. Well, check it out for yourself:

Round And Round (1977, What Records session)
Lexicondevil
Circle One (1978, from What We Do Is Secret)
Manimal
Strange Notes (1978, from Tooth And Nail)

P.S.: These Lexicondevil and Circle One mixes sound very different to the versions I've heard on any reissues; I prefer these mixes, but that might be out of familiarity. The CD (and 7 inch?)-versions have some very irritating clean guitar overdubs. Also, I think on all reissues they've left off Round and Round's false start.