You want to hear two total killers from late in the first punk era? Right here, right now? OK, first I’ll grant access to THE VAMPS’ “Carving Knife”, a great NY Dolls-like stomper from San Antonio in 1980. It missed all the Killed By Death comps somehow but it’s as raw & unhinged as anything on there. These guys opened for the Sex Pistols at “Randy’s Rodeo” down there – remember those scenes from “D.O.A.”? Second up is “Amateur Surgeon” from Buffalo, NY’s THE VORES, a 1978 high-tempo scooter with some nutty lyrics about medical accidents. Both unheralded classics. Download them for your homemade “KBD alternates” CD-R comp.Play or Download THE VAMPS – “Carving Knife”
Play or Download THE VORES – “Amateur Surgeon”
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3 comments:
Another nice post! The Vamps track is great- they had 3 7"s between 79 and 80. I've heard 2 out of 3 of them, and the song "Used To Be Cool" is a great tune too. The singer, Frank Pugliese, went on to sing in the Mystery Dates who put out 2 EP's back in '82- some decent tunes and some clunkers. The great EV label put out a posthumous Mystery Dates EP back in '96- it had superb unreleased tunes from '82. The great Good Bad Music blog posted one of the Mystery Dates EP's recently- go here: http://www.goodbadmusic.com/?p=278
After the Mystery Dates, the singer Frank went on to the garage-y Sons of Hercules in the 90's. I think he's now 55 or so and still rocking out which is nice to hear.
That whole Vores "Love Canal" EP is great! I've heard that their other, later 7" is pretty bad though.
P.S. I remember that both of these tracks were on the same volume of one of the old "Hyped To Death" CD-R comps- did you rip them you both from said comp?
- TONY
Tony, you caught me. I never claimed to be a true record collector, just a scavenger off someone else's hard work.
Thanks for The Vamps tune.
Frank Pugliese still plays this and other Vamps/Mystery Dates songs in the Sons of Hercules. It's true that The Vamps opened for the Sex Pistols @Randy's Rodeo on that ill-fated 1978 tour. Other semi-legendary Texas Punk band The Next was trying to get the opening slot, but Frank's brother Joe(Vamps keyboardist and concert promoter) gave them free tickets instead. The Next drummer Arthur Hays would later join Frank in the Mystery Dates.
There are some Vamps and Mystery Dates flyers you can see on the San Antonio Texas Punk Rock Archive- http://www.satxpunk.com
I'm in the process of tracking down some Vamps photos and possibly some video[fingers crossed] of them to add to the website.
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