Rocket From the Tombs “The Day the Earth Met The…” Subtitled “Live From Punk Ground Zero, Cleveland 1975.” 2002. Smog Veil Records. Subtitled “Live From Punk Ground Zero, Cleveland 1975” on marbled vinyl. Spinning this pre-Dead Boys comp of demos and live tracks in honor of Cheetah Chrome (b. Eugene Richard O’Connor 1955, d. September 13th 2026) who died yesterday at the age of 71. We briefly met Cheetah almost 10 years ago in April 2017 at Rush Mor Records (and saw he and Johnny Blitz perform later that night down the street at Club Garibaldi). That’s Cheetah giving Joe bunny ears. Sides 1 and 2 were recorded in February 1975 at the band’s rehearsal loft onto a borrowed reel-to-reel; Sides 3 and 4 are from a show on July 24th 1975 at The Piccadilly Inn in Cleveland (Television also performed and the internet tells me tickets were $3). I wrote about this LP back then and here’s what I had to say:

The Stooges-influenced 70′s band, plagued with internal strife from the outset, split after just a couple of years and formed The Dead Boys (Chrome and Blitz plus the fantastic Stiv Bators). The other half, Peter Laughner and David Thomas (Crocus Behemoth) formed Pere Ubu. This double LP (“the greatest album never recorded”) has early versions of “30 Seconds Over Tokyo” and “Final Solution,” which Pere Ubu would later rerecord and self-release as singles, as well as the entirely insane “Life Stinks” (on The Modern Dance). “What Love Is,” “Ain’t It Fun,” “Down in Flames” and “Sonic Reducer” all showed up on on the Dead Boys’ debut Young Loud and Snotty. RFTT also honor The Stooges with fairly authentic covers of  “Raw Power” and “Search & Destroy” plus there’s a sludgy punk version of the Rolling Stones’ “Satisfaction.”

Here’s a video from someone who was at that Club Garibaldi show in 2017:

Love and Rockets “Motorcycle” 1989. 12″ single, Beggars Banquet records. “Motorcycle” was the lead single from their 1989 s/t record (their fourth studio LP) Love and Rockets. I’m not sure if it charted or not; if it did, it wasn’t nearly as successful as the second single “So Alive” which hit #3 on the US charts. I loved that record (though I liked their earlier material a bit more) and had the cd around the time it was released in ’89. Now the singe/record/band is lumped in with “alternative rock” but that term either didn’t exist in ’89 or was not on my radar. We just called it “cool” and danced in the alternative/punk/industrial clubs to this song and other L&R tracks. Also on the 12″ is “I Feel Speed” which is essentially a slowed-down version of “Motorcycle;” the band does this fairly frequently to their songs (see “Mirror People” from Earth, Sun, Moon and “All in My Mind” from Express). Side Two has two industrial dance-styled instrumentals: “Bike” and “Bikedance.” Both are hypnotically pounding and a bit experimental (which I suppose is why another genre they are thrown into is neo-psychedelia).

New Order “Brotherhood” 1986. Factory Records/Qwest Records promo copy. New Order’s fourth LP released almost exactly 40 years ago. Synth-forward post-punk, the album went to #9 on the official UK album chart (#1 on the indie chart) and to #117 in the US. New Order released just one single from the record, “Bizarre Love Triangle” – it hit #4 on the US Dance/Disco charts and #5 in Australia; it only went to #56 in the UK.  A new mix of “Bizarre Love Triangle was included on the 1994  The Best of New Order and that went to #98 on the US Hot 100. In 2003, Rolling Stone ranked the song was ranked #204 on its “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time” list, considered by many as an example of a synthpop masterpiece. While “Bizarre Love Triangle” was the only official single from Brotherhood, the single “State of the Nation” (US Dance chart #4, UK #30) was included on the CD release as a bonus track; it is not on the vinyl release. A 2024 extra super-duper re-release (has all the tracks plus a ton more) also has the single-only/Pretty in Pink soundtrack “Shellshock” (released in early ’87). Besides “Bizarre Love Triangle,” which is excellent, my top picks include most of Side B (the synthpop side): “All Day Long” and “Angel Dust” transports me square to the dance floor in an alternative club in the late 80’s. Side 1 is great, too, though slightly less techno/pop: “Paradise” and “Weirdo” are definitely danceable but both feel more angular and experimental. The bass on “Broken Promise” is amazing – another great dance track.