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Outta Style Volume 8
It's no secret that I like punk that is either from the late 70s/early 80s, the Midwest or is goofy. My mind instantly thought of two split albums that fill all three criteria, The Bizarros and Rubber City Rebels split and the Gizmos and Dow Jones & The Industrials split. While I really like the Bizarros and Rubber City Rebels split I think it really doesn't compare to the Gizmos and Dow Jones split.
I couldn't tell you when I first became aware of this. I never know. I'm sure I came to it due to loving Dow Jones' Can't Stand The Midwest (from here on out refered to as CSTMW). The Dow Jones songs here are definitely more akin to the rocking weirdness of their song Indeterminism than the punky and super catchy CTSMW so I'm sure I was initially turned off by this, but have come to love it (along with the rest of their 7"). Songs like Set Yourself On Fire and Hold That Coed have become just as essential in my life as CSTMW. Even the goofy Rocking Farmers is still pretty awesome.I feel like Mr Science's synths seem to pop in a little more here also than on the 7". Here's a clip of DJ&TI playing Hold That Coed, this came on the bonus DVD with the Dow Jones Discography that came out a while back.
The Gizmos side doesn't slack. It is actually probably more so non-stop hits than the Dow Jones side. It definitely has an innocent teen feel to it. Especially on songs like Bible Belt Baby. Progressive Rock is silly as they come but still rocks and makes me laugh (and gets stuck in my head constantly). Pay is probably the hit though, it's one of those tunes that bops hard and makes it hard for you to not nod your head back and forth to the beat. It sounds like a Pointed Sticks outtake without any synth. All the songs feel like they could have been the A-side of some unknown 70s punk 7" that's worth hundreds of dollars now. Here's the Gizmos doing a silly lip synced version of Pay.
It's funny because really I couldn't think of many good punk splits. Hardcore has a plethora of them (most featuring Totalitar or Disclose) which I guess makes sense since if you have ten songs that don't add up to that many minutes it's hard to fill up a whole record. I'm sure if I dove into split 7"s I'd think of a ton but I was trying to stick to lps for some weird reason.
Anyways for my sake post your favorite punk/weird splits in the comments. I'm sure I'll feel like an idiot for ones I forgot.
I couldn't tell you when I first became aware of this. I never know. I'm sure I came to it due to loving Dow Jones' Can't Stand The Midwest (from here on out refered to as CSTMW). The Dow Jones songs here are definitely more akin to the rocking weirdness of their song Indeterminism than the punky and super catchy CTSMW so I'm sure I was initially turned off by this, but have come to love it (along with the rest of their 7"). Songs like Set Yourself On Fire and Hold That Coed have become just as essential in my life as CSTMW. Even the goofy Rocking Farmers is still pretty awesome.I feel like Mr Science's synths seem to pop in a little more here also than on the 7". Here's a clip of DJ&TI playing Hold That Coed, this came on the bonus DVD with the Dow Jones Discography that came out a while back.
The Gizmos side doesn't slack. It is actually probably more so non-stop hits than the Dow Jones side. It definitely has an innocent teen feel to it. Especially on songs like Bible Belt Baby. Progressive Rock is silly as they come but still rocks and makes me laugh (and gets stuck in my head constantly). Pay is probably the hit though, it's one of those tunes that bops hard and makes it hard for you to not nod your head back and forth to the beat. It sounds like a Pointed Sticks outtake without any synth. All the songs feel like they could have been the A-side of some unknown 70s punk 7" that's worth hundreds of dollars now. Here's the Gizmos doing a silly lip synced version of Pay.
It's funny because really I couldn't think of many good punk splits. Hardcore has a plethora of them (most featuring Totalitar or Disclose) which I guess makes sense since if you have ten songs that don't add up to that many minutes it's hard to fill up a whole record. I'm sure if I dove into split 7"s I'd think of a ton but I was trying to stick to lps for some weird reason.
Anyways for my sake post your favorite punk/weird splits in the comments. I'm sure I'll feel like an idiot for ones I forgot.
Here's a quick run down of what I've been listening to lately.