(photo by James Stark)Listen, I don’t know what’s going on with all the music I’ve been posting here the past couple years. Swear to Christ they told me they were taking it all down yesterday, but this morning, Tuesday 10/28/08, you can still go ahead and download full tracks from all the 45s and compilations I’ve shared here. We’ll see how long it lasts. I’ve got a backup plan in any case. Detailed Twang will continue, and indeed, persevere. We’ll either move the new files to a new server, or we’ll just go ahead and keep using the old one, and hope that the threat of removal was a nasty, nasty dream. So there it is. (late-breaking news - I have been locked out of Box.net for new files, so this track below can be played or downloaded from DivShare).
Next up on our cavalcade of lost hits is this total smoker from LA-by-way-of-San Francisco’s U.X.A., circa 1979. This eponymous track, “U.X.A”, was one of two thumpers from Chris D.’s 1979 compilation LP of LA bands, “TOOTH AND NAIL”, certainly one of the great compilations of that and any other era, boasting contributions from THE FLESH EATERS, THE GERMS, MIDDLE CLASS, CONTROLLERS and others. UXA have mostly been a punk rock footnote from that era, and perhaps deservedly so, though if all the songs were as ripping as the one I’m posting here I suspect singer DeDe Troit would be lionized and worshipped by many a “punter”. Her/their LP “Illusions of Grandeur” from 1980 is sort of a one-note mid-tempo bummer, but I will admit that when I saw the reformed UXA live in LA at Raji’s in 1990 (only 11 years after the real deal – just like seeing a 1997 band today, right?) they were great, and played louder-faster-shorter punk rock like they were back at The Masque, right down the street. And DeDe looked great, a total hot lipsticked punk banshee snarling in everyone’s face. That’s the band I choose to remember.
So the other night I went to this Target Video Night in Berkeley were they showed old clips from “back in the day” (no UXA, though), and someone in the crowd made a comment during the Q&A that DeDe Troit “went Christian” and that everyone needed to pitch in to “deprogram” her. A bit harsh perhaps, but hey, that’s a bitter old punk for ya. Anyone know the truth of the matter? Oh, and caught up in all this conjucture I forgot to remind you for the fourth time to please take a listen to “U.X.A.” by U.X.A. below!
Play or Download U.X.A. – “U.X.A” (from 1979 compilation “Tooth & Nail”)
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7 comments:
A pedant writes: surely you mean eponymous, not pseudonymous!
The photos on James Stark's web site are crazy! Awesome stuff, never woulda known it was there if you hadn't posted the link.
I've always loved the lyrics of this song. "How fast three minutes seem to pass these days..."
DivShare is a good choice. I've used it for a year without any problems. Hopefully it will stay under the RIAA radar.
side two of the lp was had it's ups and downs, but side two was pretty darn good
Hello there! I wish I would have seen this post a couple years ago. My name is Gabe and I played bass with De De in the last line-ups of UXA for 10 years on and off from April 2000 to October 2010. The last times we played San Francisco was Halloween night with Ritchie O'Connell on drums in 2007/08??? at club 443 (old on Broadway/Mabuhay) and Annies Social Club (formerly Covered Wagon Saloon which we played also back in 2001 or so) We played this punk reunion thing for a record that to my knowledge never came out which included Jennifer Blowdryer and Bite among others.I have been friends with De De since 1998 and it is true that she is now a devout born again Christian sort of hellbent on saving people. In all honesty after ten years of devotion to this band, I called it quits because her christianity is too much for me to take anymore. We are still good friends and I don't ever regret being part of the band. It is awesome to be the band's longest running member (I'm only 30 now by the way)and I have lots of good memories and photos and stuff. I am always on the lookout for UXA vinyl and video I don't have. Very cool to own. ANyways, take care.
Yesterday was her birthday....god bless u DEDE Love Love Love U.
That's too bad, because she had so much to say, I've spent my whole life playing punk rock music while keeping my own brand of faith separate. I wish I could talk to her because it was her lyrics that got me to veer back toward reality when I was younger, maybe I can return the favor somehow.
With me it was some calamity that turned me toward religion when I was in my teens, something that scared me so much that religion seemed to be the only way to cope with it, and maybe something similar happened to her.
I saw her sometime in the 80s when it was "De De Troit and the cartoons, it might have been before summer of 81 or after winter of 85, I remember was that there wasn't a whole lot of people there but people just kinda came in and laid down on the floor while she was playing. The music wasn't really that much like UXA, it was more like what the singer from x-ray specs used to do after she quit x-ray specs
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