I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: if music was the only consideration in life, and I could time machine back to any era, it wouldn’t be Vienna in 1910, Detroit in 1969 nor New York in 1977. Nope, it’d be to Hollywood in 1977-78, so I could get all beaned up on stimulants at the Canterbury House every weekend with my ne’er-do-well friends, & then head over to The Masque to watch The Bags, The Germs, The Weirdos, The Flesh Eaters, Middle Class and all the rest of the crew. Man, when that bootleg “ME WANT BREAKFAST” compilation came out in 1986 with all the early Dangerhouse 45s on it, it was a total life-changer for me. Later, in 1991, “The Dangerhouse Collection, Vol. 1” LP came out (officially, this time). At the time I couldn’t make much sense out of the lone synth-driven track on there, BLACK RANDY & THE METROSQUAD’s “Trouble At The Cup” – it was not of a piece with the rest of the roaring, well-recorded punk rock screamers, and I figured it was some lark put out by friends of the label. In a sense that was true, but as it turned out, Black Randy ended up having more releases on that short-lived label (4) that anyone did, including a full-length LP (“Pass The Dust, I Think I’m Bowie”).
There are untold stories of the depravity and the cunning stunts pulled by Jon Morris, aka Black Randy, a guy who was already 27 years old when punk rock fully arrived in Los Angles. Many of these can be found in the great oral history paperback, WE GOT THE NEUTRON BOMB. The music he & his gang of Dangerhouse friends & family put together has gathered a head of steam in recent years as well, and deservedly so. I’ve not only made my peace with it, I’ve really come to dig it myself. It’s sloppy, loose, angry, comedy-driven synth punk, and more on the level of contemporaries or near-contemporaries like ½ JAPANESE, SMEGMA and WHITE BOY, minus some levels of out-and-out noise. I’m posting the first single here, from late 1977. Members of The Screamers, The Eyes and The Dils play on this one, as they did on subsequent releases – they were, in fact, “The Metrosquad”. Enjoy.
Play or Download BLACK RANDY & THE METROSQUAD – “Trouble At The Cup” (A-Side)
Play or Download BLACK RANDY & THE METROSQUAD – “Loner With A Boner” (B-Side)
Play or Download BLACK RANDY & THE METROSQUAD – “Sperm Bank Baby” (B-Side)
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9 comments:
"comedy driven synth punk" - right on.
That Me Want Breakfast comp. was my all-access backstage pass to the Dangerhouse crew, too. The fella who sold it to me pointed out: "you can tell it's a bootleg, 'cause the stripes are going the wrong way."
http://blackrandy.com/
John Doe from X was a member too.
you can find more black randy and other dangerhouse stuff here:
http://www.7inchpunk.com/?p=747 and here:
http://www.kbdrecords.com/2007/02/11/black-randy-and-metrosquad-i-slept-in-an-arcade-7/
http://terminal-boredom.com/forums/index.php?topic=10373.0
-Tippet
Great Stuff Mr.Twang
Has anyone else got that Live From The Masque 3 CD set? There's 4 BRatMS tunes on that one; the version of Trouble at the Cup is wasted and slow and... DICKS FIGHT BANKS HATE!
http://www.furious.com/Perfect/blackrandy.html
2008! Time to get down! Summer of hate!
Goner's got all 3 live at the masque cds... we bought a ton of 'em. they're great!
also- big ass black randy dbl lp coming out soon on some label or other - i read about it on the termbo train.
Black Randy material on 'Live From The Masque' is almost as good as 300 capsules of Omnibionta 3 especially his introduction to The Randoms : "Just take it easy and let it groove...". Do a You Tube search (not that I am in the habit of advertising their services), there is a great clip of Black Randy & The Metrosquad playing live from some B-grade flick.
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