Killed By Volume: Six

There in an invisible British top forty chart for the late 1970's. It features a deluge of kids with guitars, suits and a definite article who banged out brilliant pop singles that, owing to a glut of the same, never topped the real, paper charts of the time. Near the top of this invisible chart of great unknown hits is "Nervous Breakdown" by White Heat.

Formed in Newcastle 1976, White Heat, Alan Fish (Guitars), Colin Roberts (Bass), Bob Smeaton (Vocals), Bryan Younger (Guitars), and John Miller/George Waters (Drums) blew out out of the starting gate with their debut single in 1980. The A-side, "Nervous Breakdown", is a monster track that incorporates mod beats, rock n' roll guitars, a gargantuan hook, Springsteen-ish emoting and anti-pop lyrics that take dead aim at Barry Manilow. Everyone disses the Clash-lite B-side, "Sammy Sez", but it's still a pretty fair reggae-pop-punk number.

Do not miss the, more intense live version of "Nervous Breakdown" but avoid gawking at Bob's suspenders, his buffness or his propensity for dropping and giving twenty push-ups in mid-song!



Download Nervous Breakdown

"Let's Just Put This One Down For Kicks"

Here we have the young Bobby Dylan, that lone balladeer with a guitar who could blow an entire army off the stage.

This bootleg features forty-five publishing demos, recorded in a small room on music publisher Lou Levy's tape-recorder for Leeds Music and Witmark and Sons between 1962 and 1964. A dozen of these tracks have never been issued in any form and, while a few of the remaining tracks made it onto various editions of the Bootleg Series (after re-mastering), the bulk of this set has never seen the official light of day.

Performed, essentially, for an audience of one the results can be almost claustrophobically intimate. Dylan's talking right atcha, abruptly cutting off "Let Me Die in My Footsteps" for being "kinda of a drag" and stopping "I Shall Be Free" because he can't remember the rest of the verses. Adding to the immediacy are the vérité sounds, like the door slamming on "Masters of War", the foot-tapping on "Standin' on a Highway" and, of course, the inevitable coughing at the start of "Watcha Gonna Do".

"All Over You"


This release now forms the basis an official release, The Bootleg Series Volume Nine.

MRML's previous Dylan posts have included one with twenty covers of, "When the Ship Comes in" and a free digi-e.p. of Dylan covers by The Multitude ofSins.

Vinyl Parasites

The Parasites (see here), spent much of the nineties being recklessly prolific, sporadically brilliant and sadly marginal. Their 1996 single, Hang-Up did get released by big-time pop label Lookout Records but that never brought the band the audience it deserved. That single was another criminally neglected three-song e.p. where Dave Parasite channeled the ghosts of Joey, Dee and Johnny to create a pop music with guts.

Perhaps it's harder to build an audience when you release two tribute records in one year, one for the Beatles and one for the Misfits. But you, the audience of MRML, are too discerning a music obsessive to be anything but intrigued by such a curious juxtaposition.

Samples are here, download links are below the cover images and comments (y'know free speech) may be added at the bottom of the post.

Download Hang Up

Download Last Caress

Download En Homage aux Beatles

Parasite Time

Dave Parasite is man out of time. While Dave has lead an ever-mutating line up of the Parasites, (a California via New Jersey pop-punk band and not the thieving little organisms) for twenty years, little about the band ever changes. When Dave straps on his guitar and takes on the mike, it's Parasite Time - a little 1989, a lot of 1979 and, hell, even some 1969. Dave's contemporaries are late eighties bands bands like Sloppy Seconds and Screeching Weasel, all of whom worship the Ramones' 1979 LP Rocket to Russia but beyond that he's a classical pop song-writer who, when reaching back in time for covers, leans on such sixties tune smiths as the Beatles, Leonard Cohen and Joni Mitchel.

This 1992 single may still be the purest distillation of his work. Each song is a perfect shard of pop and...fuck it...just listen - it's all right here in glorious 192 kbps sound.

Download Paramania

Thanks to skutchy for the images

For further context here's an early comp they appeared on, their first album, another walloping single and and a witty and wistful band memoir that everyone who loves the spirit of D.I.Y. needs to read.

The new album is a devastating return to form and certainly the best full-length of the band's career. As an inducement to go and buy some new Parasites material, here's the sledgehammer pop of "Gonna Get You Back" from the brand-spanking-new Solitary.

French Electro-Punk Weekend

By 1988, Bérurier Noir along with Ludwig Von 88 and Haine Brigade constituted a sort of anarcho-electro punk French scene. This nifty poster sleeve benefit 7" depicts a pretty blunt anti-fascist, pro-united front message and the songs all rock out in a tinny, yet catchy way

Download Bérurier Noir/Haine Brigaide split

I bough this record years ago and, while I still have the vinyl, the poster has gone missing. So, therefore, thanks for this rip and scan is due to this site (if my translating skills are still workable).