A promotional Forgotten Rebels (more HERE) CD from 2000 that acts as 'Greatest Hits' sort of thing. While occasionally marred by mystifying choices. ("AIDS" is one song they should've pretended never existed) it does represent the band through all it's phases (even a track from the Boys Will Be Boys EP makes it on). One assumes that this is 'for promotion only' because it contains songs from every release on every different label and they'd likely never have the legals right to put a comp like this together. And that sucks because the bands should own their music. Hopefully one day they'll land the rights to thier back catalog and you can ditch all the MP3's we've offered during this series and lay your nads (or your what-have-you's) upon the real thing.
Track Listing:
1. 3rd Homosexual Murder
2. Angry
3. Bomb The Boats
4. I Think Of Her
5. Fuck Me Dead
6. Elvis Is Dead
7. Surfin' On Heroin
8. The Me Generation
9. Don't Hide Your Face
10. Can't Wait
11. Little Girl In The Snow
12. Sadie Sadie
13. Rock N Roll Is A Hard Life
14. AIDS
15. Evelyn Dick
16. Criminal Zero
17. Autosuck
18. Hockey Nite
19. No Place To Hide
20. Highschool Hookers
MRML readers, does this set represent the best of the Forgotten Rebels? Let us know where you stand in the COMMENTS section (which is where you'll find the Brief Anthology link).
Having failed to connect with the hair-metal contingent in 1989, The Forgotten Rebels (more HERE) returned in 1994 with their ...wait for it...grunge album. (Check out the fish-eye lens photo on the back cover *eye roll*). Typically of the thirty-something punks who felt a bit cheated, rightly perhaps, by these these flannel pretenders, the Rebels tried to make their sound thicker, louder, uglier and less tuneful. The results, like the pretty-crappy "Do It To You", are predictably mixed - especially in the early going.
While the first half of the album has the passable single "Buried Alive" and some tried-n-true smutty Rebel-isms like "Autosuck" and "Karaoke Night in Attica" it's the end of the album where the band really pulls out of this potential nose-dive. After running through a batch of loud and often-cheerless numbers, the band stops to cover of the punk/new wave rarity, "Views" by the Sex-Pistols-related band the Lightning Raiders and things take a quick turn for the greater. "New Flag" sounds like vintage Rebels and "Shit For Brains" is tacky-as-hell but sure does play to DeSadest & co.'s strengths.
MRML readers, whaddya make of the Forgotten Rebels grunge album? Let us know
where you stand in the COMMENTS section (which is where you'll find the Criminal Zero CD link).
Today's post comes to us courtesy of both Vic G. AND John R. who each provided MRML with a fine rip and scan of this disputed classic.
Circa the mid 80's, and following the success of Billy Idol, quite a few seventies punks tried to tart-up their sound in a late-ditch effort to get on the radio. In Canada we had Teenage Head change their name and slick-up their sound, we had DOA team up with mainstream Rock producer Brian "Too Loud" McLeod, not too mention former Young Canadian Art Bergmann adding a radio-friendly keyboardist to his band Poisoned. As a bit of a punk purist, it's clear why I should loathe such crass commercialism but instead I'd argue - and have done so ad nauseum - that these releases are all (well, maybe not the Teenage Heads EP) worthwhile efforts.
Let's add to that list of arguably-worthy wanna-be-also-rans, the Forgotten Rebels' (more HERE) Boys Will Be Boys 12 " EP. When Hamilton's finest released this terribly-packaged (nerdy axe-man Mike Mirabella really suffers visually here) four song EP knee-deep in 1985, they were clearly trying to sneak in alongside the rush of pop-glam-metal bands like Twisted Sister then finding chart action. While their punk rock obstreperousness has been tamed, their infatuation with the kind of seventies glam-rock they so clearly adored circa the album, This Ain't Hollywood gets played to the hilt. The Rebels real concessions here are the bigger drum sound, the flashier guitar work and a willingness to get to the chorus that borders on the obsessive-compulsive:
At the time, I spun both power-poppers "Boys Will Be Boys" and "Can't Wait", a lot, the more hard-rockish "High School Nervous Breakdown" only a little bit and the breathy ballad, "Reason to Dance" hardly at all. It's difficult to guess exactly how this would sound to someone hearing it for the first time now. Maybe they'd think it sounds like a drag race between Cheap Trick and The New York Dolls where the finish line is a whorehouse. Why don't you let us know what you think, we're braced for a variety of reactions.
MRML readers, is this nadir of the Forgotten Rebels career or a charming sideways move? Let us know where you stand in the COMMENTS section (which is where you'll find the Boys Will Be Boys 12" link).
Pity the Forgotten Rebels (more HERE), between this album (and hard-to-find 1985 EP, Boys Will Be Boys) the band proved that they'd like to be accepted by the world of hair-metal.
Unfortunately, for their commercial aspirations, their 1989 album, referred to as Untitled, proved to have too many elements of seventies punk, glam-rock and bubblegum to ever fit into the narrow, preening and humorless hair-metal scene.
It`s a passable rock n' roll record with some typical Rebel antics moments like The Johnny Cash parody, "I Gotta Axe" but it`s certainly the first album by the band where the covers ("Science Fiction Double Feature" from The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Tommy Roe`s "Dizzy") far outstrip the originals.
Track Listing:
1. Behind Bars
2. Touch Me
3. Dizzy
4. Good Times (Never Last)
5. Tea & Crumpets
6. Wild-Eyed Darlin'
7. I Gotta Axe
8. The Girl Can't Come
9. Evelyn Dick
10. Don't Die Alone
11. Science Fiction Double Feature (Theme From The Rocky Horror Picture Show)
12. Bomb The Boats *
13. I'm In Love With The System *
14. Let's Go Back *
15. A.I.D.S. *
16. I Left My Heart In Iran *
17. Rock & Roll's A Hard Life *
18. Little Girl Thrills *
19. Live Strippers In Action *
20. Hell Begins At Home *
21. Elvis Is Dead *
22. Surfin' On Heroin *
23. FMD *
* Tracks 12-23 from Surfin' on Heroin
MRML readers, let us know what you think of this double shot of glam-punk madness in the COMMENTS section (which is where you'll find the Untitled/Surfin' On Heroin CD link).
So, The Forgotten Rebels (more HERE), after ten years in the fetid trenches of punk rock, signed to semi-major label (and fiasco-waiting-to-happen) Enigma Records. To capitalize on their previous decade, the label had them re-record their back catalog at 1988 studio prices. Surprisingly, it works damn well (even MRR'S curmudgeon-in-chief, Tim Yohannon, grudgingly accepted it). On top of the clearer-but-not-slicker versions of eight FR hits, you also get four brand-new tunes. "Let's Go Back" is a catchy parody - if we can use the word - of American jingo-ism (though "A.I.D.S." is definitely one stink-dumb song however you analyze it) and"Rock N' Roll is a Hard Life" is their most loving homage to Mott the Hoople yet:
Track Listing:
1. Bomb The Boats
2. I'm In Love With The System
3. Let's Go Back
4. A.I.D.S.
5. I Left My Heart In Iran
6. Rock & Roll's A Hard Life
7. Little Girl Thrills
8. Live Strippers In Action
9. Hell Begins At Home
10. Elvis Is Dead
11. Surfin' On Heroin
12. FMD
MRML readers, let us know whta oyu think of the Rebels major label debut in the COMMENTS section (which is where you'll find the Surfin' On Heroin link).
An archival CD of various Forgotten Rebels (more HERE) material from the late seventies and early eighties that Bacchus Archives released in 1997.
Track Listing:
1. In Love With The System
2. You're A Rebel, Too
3. The Punks Are Alright
4. Time To Run
5. They're Coming To Take Me Away (Live)
6. I Left My Heart In Iran (Live)
7. I Think Of Her (Live)
8. Fuck Me Dead (Live)
9. Bomb The Boats (And Feed The Fish) (Live)
10. Rich & Bored (Live)
11. Elvis Is Dead (Live)
12. Bones In The Hallway (Live)
13. Nazis (Live)
14. You're A Rebel, Too (Live)
15. Time To Run (Live)
Let us know if you still want more Rebels rarities in the COMMENTS section (where you'll find the link for the Executive Decisions CD).
Back in 1986, I bought this LP from The Forgotten Rebels` (more HERE) merch table, put it on tape and played it to death on my Walkman. After the sanitized 1985 EP, Boys Will Be Boys,this was the Rebels in all the crude n' hooky glory. For censor-baiting we have a slew of tracks like "Ethiopia", "Live Strippers in Action" and the musical contagion known as "(I'm in Love With Your) Underwear". For the punked up covers we have a fun run-through of The Beatles' "Rain" and an even-better roughing up of Status' Quo's "Pictures of Matchstick Men". To keep things mixed-up we have a Cramps-ian rockabilly track, "Graveyard Rock", a power-pop tune, "Sadie" and yet-another version of "Surfin' On Heroin".
Track Listing:
1. Ethiopia
2. Sadie
3. Graveyard Rock
4. Rain
5. Little Girl
6. Hiding In Your Room
7. I Am King
8. Bomb Russia
9. Matchstick Man
10. Live Strippers
11. Underwear
12. Surfin' On Heroin
Other People's Music re-mixed, re-titled, re-packaged and added bonus tracks to this album in 1996. This is a rip of the original vinyl, you may still be able to find the later version in the links below.
What do? Let us know what you think of this albuim in the COMMENTS section (where you'll find the link for the The Pride and the Disgrace LP).
* Update: Mediafire is down, so I tried Megaupload - let me know if it works! *
Who'd have guessed the foreign affairs positions tabled by the The Forgotten Rebels (more HERE) 25 years ago, would become the doctrine adopted by N.A.T.O., following the United Nations Resolution 1973 that authorized member states to take collective military action against now-deposed (and departed) Libyan dictator Col. Moammar Muhammad al-Gadhafi:
"All good Americans wanna fight
Bomb Khadaffi now
we could do it overnight
All good soldiers wanna fight
Bomb Libya
for the sake of human rights"
By posting this song, I mean no disrespect for the triumphant people of Libya, who are charged with monumental task of building a civil society from ruins, or even for the UN's sanctioning of N.A.T.O.'s military actions, which history may well vindicate. Rather, I just wanted to point out that all of the words used to describe The Forgotten Rebels over the years, this might be the only time a fitting adjective would be 'prescient'.
Track Listing:
A. Bomb Khadaffi Now
B. Surfin' On Heroin
What do you make of this song in light of the events of this past year? Let us know in the COMMENTS section (where you'll find the link for the Bomb Khadaffi Now 7")
“It’s time that we be nice to each other. And if somebody’s acting out
of line, he gets his ass kicked. Racism is stupid. People should listen to our music
for what it is. I was making fun of rednecks in “Bomb the Boats”. More
than anything, I was just making fun of that. But I guess it came across
the wrong way."
Mickey DeSadest
The Forgotten Rebels (more HERE) first album, 1980's In Love With the System, showed off the offense-for-offense shtick that would define the rest of their career. In that way, I'm glad I heard the more starry-eyed, glam-pop-punk album "This Ain't Hollywood..." first and this album second. In Love With the System is an unsettling mixture of charging guitar, glorious hooks and the sort of crude, provocative irony that is now solely the domain of Juggalos and right-wing radio hosts. Of course, back then most listeners, myself included, took these gallow-humoured lyrics - most of which aren't really offensive at all - as satire. Not for a second, then or now, did I believe that an actual racist would write a line like, "they're commies, sub-human subversives, commies, they're human living curses." It's clearly the kind of dumb-yet-clever phrasing that marks an unreliable narrator. That said, some of the rough charm of this album's lyrical excesses may have been lost to time. Blame it one the inexactitude known as 'political correctness' or more likely just on the simple fact that our mores are ever-changing. Either way, this album remains a Canadian punk milestone, just one we now might have to explain before we laud.
A1 Bomb The Boats And Feed The Fish
A2 I Think Of Her
A3 In Love With The System
A4 The Punks Are Alright
A5 Rich And Bored
A6 Time To Run
A7 Fuck Me Dead
B1 No Beatles Reunion
B2 You're A Rebel Too
B3 I Left My Heart In Iran
B4 Elvis Is Dead
B5 Bones In The Hallway
MRML readers, do the lyric for songs like "Bomb the Boats" harm this album or not? Let us know in the COMMENTS section (which is where you'll find the In Love With the System link).
Before becoming a clearing-house for Band-related albums, Other People's Music was a Canadian label that re-issued tonnes of Canadian punk rock. Back in the nineties they put together this collection of vintage Forgotten Rebels (more HERE) material.
1
National Unity
2
3rd Homosexual Murder
3
Reich 'N Roll
4
Angry
5
You're A Rebel Too
6
In Love With The System
7
New Wave Girl
8
National Unity
9
Reich 'N Roll
10
Angry
11
Surfin' On Heroin
12
Own Little World
13
This Ain't Hollywood
14
Poppies
15
Bomb The Boats
16
White Trash Of America
17
I Think Of Her
18
Fuck Me Dead
19
Elvis Is Dead
Tracks 1 to 4 from "Tomorrow Belongs To Us E.P.", 1978
Tracks 5 to 10 from "Burning The Flag" cassette, 1978
Tracks 11 to 14 from "Chris Houston Demos", 1980
Tracks 15 to 19 from "Ceder Lounge Live", 1980
MRML readers, if you want more Rebels rarities, keep filling up the COMMENTS section (which is where you'll find the Tomorrow Belongs To Us link).
Of all the early punk bands from the Toronto area*, The Forgotten Rebels are the one that I love the most.
While this predilection can be kind of embarrassing at times (leader
Mickey DeSadist's ghoulishly obscene lyrics can be cringe-worthy), the
band did consistently write great songs, glam-damaged pop-punk songs so
infernally catchy you'd actually have to clamp your hand over your mouth
to not incriminate yourself by singing any of those scabrous lyrics in
public.
* Like Teenage Head (see HERE), the Rebels are unashamed Hamiltonians.
(1st pressing cover)
Seeing the band play two full-on rock n' roll blow-outs, first at a basement club called
Wellington's and at a barn-like social hall named Le
Rendez-Vous, all the way back in nineteen-and-eighty-and-four probably also accounts for some of my deep-seated affection.
Interestingly,
I actually had the band's album "This Ain't Hollywood" long before those shows,
long before I actually even listened to it. Back around 1982, my
brother's girlfriend had been staying in a hotel somewhere in Ontario
where the band were playing and they insisted on giving her a copy of
their album. When she returned, she disdainfully passed the record onto my brother. We, as incipient music geeks, puzzled over it. We'd never heard of
the band (they had precious little national media exposure at the time)
and the low-budget pinkish sleeve didn't tell us much what to expect.
So
for over a year that record sat unplayed in my brother's closet. Then,
when compiling a mix tape, my brother dusted off the record and, his
words, "blew a freak" over the song "Surfin' on Heroin'". The album
became a source for our mix tapes for years to come and every person I know
got to hear "Surfin' on Heroin", including my old friends who listened
exclusively to classic rock radio. And they all loved it. It later
became fascinating to me that this same cycle of exposure repeated
itself all over the world. That song, with no radio airplay, became the
band's calling card. It gives a a strange faith in the idea of the
'great song'. After all we needed no music critic, no DJ, no publicist
to make us see SOHs greatness, it's just deafeningly obvious to any one
who's willing to take the album out of the closet and listen.
Soon enough, I came to love the entirety of This Ain't Hollywood...This is Rock N' Roll. It's a glorious, occasionally cheesy (and long OUT-OF-PRINT) album by a band of
Anglophiles who loved loud English rock n' roll be it deadly serious or a
total goof. The Rebels were clearly smitten with the Sex Pistols AND the Dickies not to mention Mott the Hoople AND Gary Glitter. Give it a spin and maybe you'll love it too.
This Ain't Hollywood (1981)
Produced by Bob "Cowboy" Bryden
Star Records
Tracklist:
Hello Hello
Tell Me You Love Me
This Ain't Hollywood
Don't Hide Your Face
Memory Lane
Surfin' On Heroin
Rhona Barrett
The Me Generation
England Keep Yer Stars
Eve Of Destruction
Your Own Little World
Save the Last Dance For Me
It Won't Be Long
MRML readers, I know opinions on Forgotten Rebels are divided, so let us know where you stand in the COMMENTS section (which is where you'll find the This Ain't Hollywood link).
MRML is a blog about the devestating effects of culture: music, politics, comics plus etc. blah blah blah. At times MRML will post fine, unpurchasable three-chord obscurica (punk, pop-punk, new wave, mod, power-pop, gospel, reggae, hardcore, rockabilly, folk, country...whatever.) - - - - - - "The otherwise unavailable files in this blog are posted for a limited time and are intended for educational, non-commercial use. These files were transcribed from what are believed to be out-of-print sources. If you are aware of any of these items being readily available from commercial sources, or if any of these files infringe upon rights that you hold, please notify us so that we can quickly remove the referenced items immediately." - - - SUPPORT THE ARTISTS - BUY MUSIC!
If you have any questions or music to donate you can contact me at musicruinedmylife (at) gmail (dot) com
Re: Re-Ups
MRML does not plan to restore all of the content lost in The Great Mediafire Gutting of 2012. Polite requests may be made in the appropriate section, regular commenters will get priority.
