DAMNED + WAYNE KRAMER + MAGIC MICHAEL + STORMCROWS

Cast your mind back to a few short days ago when I plopped a hodge-podge of VIBRATORS cuts from various mix tapes in your lap and just kinda left it steaming. Well, it wasn't just VIBRATORS on those tapes, and without a clear vision for the rest of the shit on those tapes I'm just gonna do the same thing again. Because I want to, and because the tracks are killers...
    • Two song Dodgy Demo from THE DAMNED, primal '78 versions of "Love Song" and "Burglar" that will remind you what perfection sounds like. 
    • Two more from a 1987 STORMCROWS session. I know nothing about the band, but these hit like dirty almost goth punk with notes of CRAMPS and GALLON DRUNK. The recording is completely off putting, which is absolutely part of the appeal.
    • I've told you the story about Wayne Kramer's drummer passing out in our kitchen in 1996, right? Dude was also the session drummer on Toni Basil's international pop hit and kept complaining about how he was only paid $150 to play on the song....but I digress. I wonder what Kramer's position was in the eyes of the early 1980s - legend for sure, or at least legendary. But whether or not people cared about his music is a different question, and cuts like "Talking Something" really puts that question into context. This seven song session from 1983/84 hits like a recording from someone who would have been opening for Don Henley or Corey Hart or some shit, a far cry from kicking out jams and preaching. 
    • And finally the A side of MAGIC MICHAEL's only single from 1980. A hopelessly essential slammer from 1980 that deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as JILTED JOHN and ALBERTO Y LOS TRIOS PARANOIAS. Captain Sensible and Rat Scabies are the nucleus of the backing band here so the quality isn't a surprise, but even bearing that in mind, this song is indescribably good.

DODGY DEMO