CLIPS
In the great Midwest, while bands like Pere Ubu, the Dead Boys and the Suicide Commandos were getting all the nationwide press, the late-’70s punk explosion was probably best typified by Lansing, Michigan’s outstanding Your Mother—who did all the dirty work and got none of the glory.
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CLIPS
This month’s Clips were written by Dave DiMarti no and John Kordosh
YOUR MOTHER Live
(Classic Rock Video)
In the great Midwest, while bands like Pere Ubu, the Dead Boys and the Suicide Commandos were getting all the nationwide press, the late-’70s punk explosion was probably best typified by Lansing, Michigan’s outstanding Your Mother—who did all the dirty work and got none of the glory. This unusual 30-minute clip—it looks like it came from a public-access cable station—features the original band at their 1979 peak, and it’s a “mother”! What made the band so outstanding was, among other things, their instrumentation (two guitars, bass, drums, excellent organ, two saxophones, clarinet) and their stunning songwriting ability. Luckily, the best song they ever produced—“Dog ’N’ Suds,” now covered by Detroit’s own Let’s Talk About Girls—is spectacularly performed, as are other YM classics like “Celebrity Sex Change,” “Doggie Daddy” and “Pizza Mama.” Though this tape omits the band’s unbelievable version of “Mozambique,” from Amon Duul M’s Viva La Trance album, it largely captures would could’ve been America’s best band ever at their zenith. To call it the most spectacular rock video ever made would be seriously understating the case! Want a copy? Send me $150, care of this magazine! D.D.
THE MUTANTS DO IT UP RIGHT FOR COLLEGIANS!
(FTM Music Video)
At last! An aural/visual document of Detroit’s legendary Mutants, who brutally dominated the Midwest from Toledo to Westland, Michigan, during the late ’70s. This show—filmed at Michigan State University—captures the sheer grandeur of the quintet, as they roll off 29 (!) songs, almost all being the cynical (yet paradoxically, quite chipper) originals they were widely known and admired for. Some highlights: the extraordinarily handsome bassist/vocalist John Amore, dressed as a priest, singing “Coffee With My Fellow Employees” and the moving “Jesus Was A Hard Workin’ Man”—years before Stryper became multimillionaires!; the ^ slightly less handsome (yet vocally brilliant) Art Lyzak crooning “Make A Date” (an upbeat number advocating “a suicide for two”) and his own smash composition, “So American”—perhaps the band’s best-known song, although uncharacteristically poppish; the blazing guitars of Tom Morwatts and Pasadena, neither who could be described as plain, as they smoke through twin leads on Morwatts’s masterful “Piece O’ Shit” (an amazing indictment of the very concept of playing in a band) and “The Boss,” a moody instrumental reminiscent of the glory days of Blue Oyster Cult; and the metronomed power of Steve Sortor’s drumming, as he does more with fills and five-second solos than others could do in days of endless bashing! Possibly the most incisive look we’ll ever have at a tragically-overlooked band, The Mutants Do It Up Right For Collegians', is an awesome document and will remain so forevermore. Send me $150, I’ll get you a copy. J.K.
THE INTERGALACTIC SPACE FORCE Right On!
(Gala Duke Issue! Video)
What a treat! Almost like manna from heaven comes this trailblazing film, a 30-minute special put together by the Dade County School Board in 1971. Featuring Miami’s legendary Intergalactic Space Force—the IGSF, to their many fans—the video includes several Miami high school students discussing the sort of teachers they’d prefer to have, were they able to choose, and an incredible soundtrack you’ll want to hear again and again! Why? Because, simply put, the IGSF were light-years ahead of their time! Beginning with the guys “jamming” in the studio, in a manner highly reminiscent of Quicksilver Messenger Service or early Pink Floyd, Right On! tells it like it is both musically and spiritually! Though the band went to great pains to preserve their anonymity at the time—sort of an earlier version of the Residents, I suppose, but much more talented—the very good-looking quartet (guitar, bass, drums, excellent piano) should soon become a household name, if this stunning audiovisual document gets the distribution it so richly deserves. Those of us there at the time will remember how the IGSF so effortlessly blended the best rock music of the time (a great cover version of “Candy Says,” among others) with their own unique originals (“Hot And Slimy Weenie,” “D”) and hope it will all become commercially available. In the meantime, this’ll just have to do. Clearly, a masterpiece. Want a copy? Send me $150, care of this magazine! D.D.
ELVIS MODERNE
(Faux Music Video)
Jumpin’ caterpillars! This has got to be the bootleg video item of all time, anql perhaps even the year! Filmed In Hamburg, Germany earlier this year, it features Bruce Springsteen (touring Europe at the time), Elvis Costello, Lou Reed and Shane MacGowan onstage together, singing nothing but the best of Elvis Presley! Although Reed’s stirring rendition of “I Believe In The Man In The Sky” is certainly the artistic highlight of the show (and I must note that Springsteen, Costello and MacGowan make a fabulous New Jordanairres), it is Costello who electrifies the crowd with his extended reading of “Viva Las Vegas.” No cynical Elvis, this! If you can find a copy of this rarity, scoop it up—but don’t be surprised if the asking price is $150 or more. J.K.
