Various – Subterranean Records 1979

No Alternative – Johnny Got His Gun / Flipper – Earthworm

Tools – Asexuality In The 80’s / VKTMS – Ballad Of Pincushion Smith

First release on San Francisco’s best loved record label, three great studio tracks and a live track from Flipper…This was the first time Flipper had been on vinyl. Flipper went onto become a massive influence on the rest of the  post punk scene worldwide when after a couple more singles on Subterranean, the band released the ‘Generic Flipper’ LP. The other bands on this 7″ single I know little of…but the track by VKTMS is very good, and must be checked out. Kind of like early X from L.A or The Avengers.

Tim Yohannan (sadly no longer with us) from the San Francisco magazine ‘Maximum Rock And Roll’ talks to Subterranean Records and comments thus: Read here

2 comments
  1. Nic
    Nic
    February 19, 2008 at 1:12 pm

    Great compilation…It would have been a blast to be at some of the Deaf Club concerts in SF back then, getting a full-on blast of Flipper and early Dead Kennedys…

    And, yeah, Flipper obviously kill the whole thing outright with that killer version of ‘Earthworm’: total sludge scum fuckery…

    The VKTMS were great though, weren’t they? Definitely a Siouxsie influence…
    Have you ever heard the first EP by them? It’s got a great song on it called ‘My Baby’s A Midget’ which features some great lyrics like:
    “My baby’s a midget – and that’s alright with me,
    ’cause he’s a real first-class lover, and he’s only 3 foot 3!”
    Their later single “100% White Girl” is also a great sleazy New York Dolls-inflected blast…
    Nina (vocals) died in 2000…RIP…

    No Alternative generally had a Clash / SLF influenced sound to them, and this is one of their better tracks: it was inspired by Dalton Trumbo’s ‘Johnny Got His Gun’…
    They put out a single in 1980 which has a couple of throwaway tracks, but also has a great song called ‘Make Guns Not Love’ which features a minimal riff that is incredibly similar to ‘Victimised’ by Chaos UK (hmmm… 😉 ) and a lead guitar line that mimics the siren of a police car (a very important thing to do in the 80’s 🙂 )…
    They were still gigging recently…

    The Tools put out 3 other singles (including an ep in 1981 featuring ‘Asexuality…’)…they’re a bit too square for me, but OK…

  2. edu
    edu
    February 20, 2008 at 12:19 pm

    man oh man… that song from flipper is a masterpiece!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

KILL YOUR PET PUPPY
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.