The Damned

They are rarely cited as the most important of the first wave of British punk bands, nor one of the most influential, but in many respects, The Damned can honestly claim to be first. They released the first U.K. punk single (1976's 'New Rose b/w Help'), the first U.K. punk album (1977's 'Damned Damned Damned') and were the first British punks to tour the United States. They were also one of the first major bands on the scene to break up, and were later ahead of the pack when they reunited. Few of their peers have had a longer or more interesting career path. Playing music that was dark but playful at the same time, The Damned started out as a loud, hell-bent-for-leather punk quartet. They soon began adding psychedelic and garage rock influences into their music (1979's 'Machine Gun Etiquette'), detoured into epic-scale pop with a dash of prog (1980's 'The Black Album'), and embraced a tuneful but muscular take on goth (1985's 'Phantasmagoria'), all within their first ten years. While the strong, mannered but witty vocals from Dave Vanian remained a constant, the band's personnel and style were in flux as the group broke up and reunited with remarkable frequency. They finally found a relatively stable lineup in the 2000s, led by Vanian and co-founder Captain Sensible, delivering a slick but enthusiastic fusion of pop, rock, and goth on latter-day albums such as 2008's 'So, Who's Paranoid?', 2018's 'Evil Spirits', and 2023's 'Darkadelic'. Through it all, the band's ability to take their music seriously without taking themselves seriously endeared them to a tremendously loyal fan base.

 
The first spark of The Damned occurred in 1974, when guitarist Ray Burns and drummer Chris Millar met while both were working backstage at London's Croydon Fairfield Hall. Burns and Millar, who would be better known in later years as Captain Sensible and Rat Scabies, kept in touch as they struggled in the stagnant mid-'70s London music scene. Things took a turn when Scabies talked his way into a rehearsal with London S.S., the ground zero of U.K. punk whose shifting lineup included future members of The Clash, Generation X, and The Boys. There Scabies met guitarist Brian James, and around the same time, Scabies was introduced to theatrical singer Dave Vanian, still working through his obsession with the New York Dolls and Alice Cooper. Vanian's own history allegedly included singing "I Love the Dead" and "Dead Babies" while working as a gravedigger, but whatever the background, he proved to be a perfect frontman, with a fine voice and striking stage presence. Scabies put Sensible in touch with Vanian and James, and The Damned were born, with Sensible switching over to bass while James handled guitar and songwriting.

 

 

In July 1976, The Damned played their first show in public, opening for The Sex Pistols at London's 100 Club. After a few more gigs, the band's speedy, raucous style caught the attention of a new independent record label, Stiff Records, which was looking for iconoclastic bands with a sense of humor. The Damned certainly fit the bill, and Stiff wasted no time putting them in the studio with producer Nick Lowe, cutting the breakneck original "New Rose" and a high-speed cover of The Beatles' "Help." The 45 appeared in October 1976, beating The Sex Pistols' "Anarchy in the U.K." into shops by five weeks.

 
As the British media were busy making punk rock into the next big thing or a national scandal, depending on your outlook, The Damned's profile rose, and they were booked to take part in The Sex Pistols' "Anarchy" Tour along with The Clash and Johnny Thunders & the Heartbreakers. After the Pistols' infamous television appearance in which they repeatedly swore at presenter Bill Grundy, most of the dates were canceled, and The Damned ended up dropping out after disagreements with Pistols' manager Malcolm McLaren. In February 1977, Stiff released a full-length album from the group, 'Damned Damned Damned', and they landed the opening slot on what would prove to be the final British tour for T. Rex. They next headed to the United States for a few shows, including a memorable Los Angeles date that proved wildly influential on the nascent Hollywood punk scene.

 
Stiff Records and The Damned (who had become a quintet with the addition of second guitarist Lu Edmonds) wanted a second album right away, but the group were eager to have Pink Floyd founder Syd Barrett produce the LP. It had been years since Barrett had been seen in public, and instead Pink Floyd's drummer Nick Mason ended up in the producer's chair. No one seemed happy with the finished product, 'Music for Pleasure', which appeared in November 1977; Scabies left the band, replaced by Jon Moss (who would later join Culture Club), and Stiff dropped The Damned from their roster. Frustrated all around, the group broke up in February 1978.

 

 

Sensible debuted the retro-psych act King and Vanian temporarily joined glam oddballs The Doctors of Madness, but neither were satisfied with their new projects. While James had no interest in re-forming the band, the other three members realized they still enjoyed working together. Settling the legal rights to the name after playing some shows incognito in late 1978, The Damned bounced back, with Sensible moving over to lead guitar and Algy Ward of The Saints taking over on bass. (Ward would go on to be replaced by Eddie & the Hot Rods refugee Paul Gray and Bryn Merrick would subsequently take over for Gray.) Vanian's smart crooning and spooky theatricality paved the way for goth rock, and Sensible turned out to be a better guitarist than James, a master of tight riffs and instantly memorable melodies (and, when needed, a solid keyboardist). Scabies' ghost-of-Keith Moon drumming was some of the most entertaining yet technically sharp work on that front in years, and The Damned were widely judged to be better than ever.

 
Their comeback album, 1979's 'Machine Gun Etiquette', boasted instant classic tunes like "Love Song" and "Smash It Up," showing greater sophistication while still sounding like nose-thumbing punks. 1980's 'The Black Album' was even more ambitious, a double set that boasted richer production, more adventurous songwriting, and the 17-minute goth/prog epic "Curtain Call." Their next long-player, 1982's 'Strawberries', found them creating another fine release, but to less public acclaim than Captain Sensible, who surprisingly found himself a solo star when his cover of "Happy Talk" from the musical "South Pacific" hit the top of the British singles charts. While his dual career lasted for a year or two, The Damned found themselves starting to fracture again with little more than a hardcore fan base supporting the group's work. Sensible finally left in mid-1984, and second guitarist Roman Jugg, having joined some time previously, stepped up as the lead and the band forged ahead.

 
To everyone's surprise, The Damned enjoyed their greatest chart success following Sensible's departure. They signed with a major label, MCA, which issued 'Phantasmagoria' in 1985, and scored a massive U.K. hit with a cover of "Eloise," a melodramatic '60s smash for Barry Ryan. It was vindication on a commercial level a decade after they started, but 1986's 'Anything' received their worst reviews since 'Music for Pleasure' and had unimpressive sales. After a full career-retrospective release, 1987's 'The Light at the End of the Tunnel', the band undertook a variety of farewell tours, including dates with both Sensible and James joining the then-current quartet. The end of 1989 brought a final "We Really Must Be Going" tour in the U.K., featuring the original quartet in one last bow.

 
Of course, in typical form, The Damned changed their minds, and the suitably named "I Didn't Say It" tour was mounted in 1991, with Paul Gray rejoining the band. It was the first in a series of tours throughout the '90s that essentially confirmed the group as a nostalgia act, concentrating on the early part of their career for audiences often too young to have heard them the first time around. After some 1992 shows, The Damned disappeared for a while, but when December 1993 brought more dates, an almost all-new band was the result. Only Scabies and Vanian remained, much like the late '80s lineup; their cohorts were guitarists Kris Dollimore and Alan Lee Shaw, and bassist Moose. This quintet toured in Japan and Europe for about two years, while also recording demos Vanian claimed were for a projected album with both Sensible and James. Scabies decided to work out a formal release of those demos as 'Not of This Earth', first appearing in Japan in late November 1995.

 

 

Vanian had reestablished contact with Sensible during the former's touring work with his side project The Phantom Chords, and he responded to 'Not of This Earth' by breaking with Scabies, reuniting fully with Sensible, and recruiting a new edition of The Damned. Initially this consisted of Gray once again, plus drummer Garrie Dreadful and keyboardist Monty. However, Gray was replaced later in 1996 following an on-stage tantrum by punk veteran Patricia Morrison, known for her work in the Gun Club and The Sisters of Mercy. Scabies reacted to all this with threats of lawsuits and vituperative public comments, but after all was said and done, Vanian, Sensible, and company maintained the rights to the name.

 
Once the legal dust settled, this version of The Damned toured regularly, despite instability in the drumming department -Dreadful left at the end of 1998, first replaced by Spike, then later in 1999 by Pinch. While Vanian continued to pursue work with The Phantom Chords, for the first time in years The Damned started to become a real band again, the lineup growing strong enough to warrant further attention. In 2000, The Damned signed a contract with Nitro Records, the label founded and run by longtime Damned fanatic Dexter Holland, singer with The Offspring (who covered "Smash It Up" for the "Batman Forever" soundtrack in the mid-'90s). Meanwhile, Morrison and Vanian married, making them perhaps the ultimate punk/goth couple of all time. 

By 2001, the Vanian/Sensible-led Damned looked to be in fine shape, releasing the album 'Grave Disorder' on Nitro and touring to general acclaim. The fractured history of the band was captured in a seemingly endless series of releases, authorized and otherwise, from all periods of their career, live, studio, compilations, and more. The year 2005 found both eras of the band being represented; while the new lineup was touring and working on a new album, the original lineup was honored by the three-disc box set 'Play It at Your Sister', which was released on the Sanctuary label. The limited-edition set covered the years 1976 and 1977, featuring all the tracks from the first two albums along with John Peel sessions and live material. It soon came time for the lineup to issue their own album, which arrived in 2008 in the form of a slick, pop-influenced record titled 'So, Who's Paranoid?' Extensive touring ensued, and in early 2015, with Sensible present, a documentary titled "The Damned: Don't You Wish That You Were Dead" premiered at the SXSW Film Festival. Former bassist Bryn Merrick, who had been performing in a Ramones tribute band, died later that year of cancer. 

 

In 2016, The Damned played a 40th anniversary show at the Royal Albert Hall and announced their first studio album in nearly ten years. The following year, Stu West left the band and was replaced by returning bassist Paul Gray. In 2018, The Damned's 11th record, 'Evil Spirits', was finally released. It was recorded by Tony Visconti (David Bowie, Morrissey) in New York, and was preceded by the lead single "Standing on the Edge of Tomorrow." The group toured in support, playing Europe, the U.K., and even a handful of North American dates, including a headlining appearance at uber-hip garage punk festival the Burger Boogaloo.

 
In October 2019, drummer Pinch announced he was leaving The Damned; the news coincided with the arrival of a new career-spanning compilation, 'Black Is the Night: The Definitive Anthology', while the final four songs Pinch recorded with the band were issued on the EP 'The Rockfield Files'. Also in 2019, the group played a special concert at London's Palladium Theatre, designed to be a unique theatrical experience. The show was recorded for posterity, and was issued as a live album, 2022's 'A Night of a Thousand Vampires'. 2022 also saw the original 'Damned Damned Damned' lineup reunite for a handful of British live shows, and the tour was documented with a limited-edition live set, 'AD 2022 (28th October London Eventim Apollo)'. In April 2023, The Damned -Vanian, Sensible, Gray, keyboard player Monty Oxymoron, and drummer Will Taylor- unleashed their 12th studio album, 'Darkadelic', followed by two months of touring in Europe and the United Kingdom. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC]

 

Barbara Manning

The idiosyncratic but rewarding Barbara Manning is a little too spiky and odd to fit comfortably in the Lilith Fair crowd, but her best work outshines those of her bigger-selling peers. Manning's artistic restlessness and her tendency to jump in and out of bands and recording situations makes it difficult to follow her career -her discography must be one of the most confusing in all of the '90s indie scene- but it also makes her one of the most vital and interesting singer/songwriters of her era.

 
Born in San Diego and raised in Northern California, Manning's first musical venture was 28th Day, a jangle pop band the singer/bassist formed with guitarist Cole Marquis and drummer Michael Cloward in 1984. The group's promising self-titled EP was released in 1985 and reissued twice thereafter, on an expanded CD in 1991 and an even more expanded cassette featuring live tracks and outtakes released on Cloward's own Devil in the Woods label. But although Marquis would remain an important musical ally for Manning -who recorded several of his songs on her solo records- 28th Day split up in 1986.

 
Starting the pattern that would remain her usual practice for the next several years, Manning's next move was to simultaneously join her friend Brandan Kearney's band World of Pooh and start her solo career. Manning's "Lately I Keep Scissors" was both a highlight of World of Pooh's 1989 debut 'The Land of Thirst' and the title-track to Manning's powerful solo debut, which had been released the year before. Though World of Pooh broke up in 1990, Manning continued with her solo career, releasing the lengthy EP 'One Perfect Green Blanket' in 1991. That EP's title illustrates Manning's baseball obsession, which also fostered her next band, The SF Seals, whom she named after a defunct minor league team. The SF Seals, which also included drummer Melanie Clarin (ex-Cat Heads; she had also played on Manning's solo debut), guitarist Lincoln Allen, and secondary singer/songwriter Michelle Cernuto. The quartet debuted in 1993 with the EP 'The Baseball Trilogy', two old baseball-themed novelty songs, and Manning's own "Dock Ellis," a suitably psychedelic groover about the first man to pitch a no-hitter while tripping on acid. 1994's 'Nowhere' was very much a group effort, but by the time of 1995's 'Truth Walks in Sleepy Shadows', The SF Seals were firmly under Manning's control; it's indistinguishable from her solo records.

 

 

Also in 1995, Manning sang a song on 'Wasps Nests', the first album by Stephin Merritt's all-star side project The 6ths, and recorded 'Barbara Manning Sings With the Original Artists', in collaboration with former Young Marble Giants leader Stuart Moxham that nicely slots Manning into the jazz-tinged minimalism of Moxham's own work. Finally, in this exceedingly productive year, Manning released 'Northern Exposure Will Be Right Back', an experimental tape loops and noise collaboration with zine publisher/performance artist Seymour Glass under the name Glands of External Secretion. (Manning and Glass had recorded a pair of singles under this name earlier in the decade.) 

1997's '1212', named after Manning's birth month and day, was originally planned as the third SF Seals album, but Manning decided early on to retire that conceit. Her strongest work since 'Lately I Keep Scissors', the album features "The Arsonist's Story," a complex, side-long suite. By contrast, the 1999 EP 'In New Zealand' features Manning recording with a Who's Who of Kiwi musicians in a loose, live-sounding setting. 

After a closet-cleaning set of singles and loose tracks, 'Under One Roof', Manning formed a new band, the punk-poppish Go-Luckys, and recorded 2000's 'Homeless Is Where the Heart Is' and 2001's 'You Should Know by Now'. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC]

 

The Frogs

One of the more remarkable acts to emerge from the indie rock scene of the 1980s and '90s, The Frogs were a group with something to attract and offend nearly everyone -they were canny songwriters who could write and perform melodically satisfying tunes in a variety of styles, but they enjoying marrying them to lyrics that were usually absurd and frequently offensive, drawing eccentric humor from issues of race, sex, contemporary culture, and the music business. While the larger mainstream audience never embraced them, for a band so eager to polarize they managed to be exposed to far more listeners than one might have expected, largely because their fan following included a handful of important alt-rock tastemakers, including Kurt Cobain, Eddie Vedder, and Billy Corgan.

 
The Frogs were formed in 1980 by two brothers from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, guitarist Jimmy Flemion and percussionist Dennis Flemion (both doubled on keyboards), and while a number of other musicians would work with the group over the decades, the Flemions would remain the creative core of The Frogs, often performing and recording without further accompaniment. The Flemions started playing coffeehouse gigs in their hometown as a duo, and expanded to a three-piece with the addition of bassist Jay Tiller, who also worked with the group Couch Flambeau. The Frogs' enthusiastic embrace of the absurd and the outré made itself know early on, when Jimmy fashioned a large pair of wings (resembling those of a bat or an angel, depending on who you ask) he took to wearing on-stage at their frequent shows in the Midwest, along with wigs and faux-glam rock costumes that were part of the band's low-budget stage spectacle. In 1988, The Frogs released their self-titled debut album, a set of tunes that walked a tightrope between power pop and glam rock; the album came and went with little notice, but a few months later, a set of lo-fi living room recordings by the Flemion Brothers made their way to Gerard Cosloy, then running the noted indie label Homestead Records. Cosloy was quite taken with what The Frogs called their "made-up songs," partially improvised as the tape rolled, and he assembled 14 of their dozens of "made-up" tunes into an album. 1989's 'It's Only Right and Natural' consisted of eccentric folk-rock numbers dealing with homosexuality, suggesting a fusion of David Bowie's 'Hunky Dory' and Tyrannosaurus Rex, and embracing a gleeful tastelessness on songs like "I Don't Care If U Disrespect Me (Just So You Love Me)," "Dykes Are We," and "Been a Month Since I Had a Man." Facetiously billing The Frogs as "gay supremacists," Homestead turned 'It's Only Right and Natural' into an underground success, and for their next album, The Frogs planned to up the outrage factor with 'Racially Yours', in which the Flemions wrote and sang first-person accounts of racism from characters who were mostly African-American. (As if this wasn't problematic enough, the cover artwork featured Dennis Flemion in blackface.) However, in 1990, Cosloy left Homestead Records to help run Matador Records, and the new regime at Homestead refused to release 'Racially Yours'. While Matador issued "Now You Know You're Black" as a single in 1994, Cosloy couldn't persuade his partners to put out the full album, and efforts to find a label willing to release 'Racially Yours' proved futile, though it circulated among fans as a bootleg. In 1995, Matador released a Christmas-themed Frogs single, "Here Comes Santa's Pussy," and another album of "made-up songs," 'My Daughter the Broad', followed in 1996.

 

 

While The Frogs' recording career seemed to have hit a plateau, as a live act they were faring quite well; Kurt Cobain, who was a fan of 'It's Only Right and Natural', had taken to talking the band up in interviews, and their fame spread among savvy fans of underground rock. Billy Corgan was fond enough of The Frogs' music that he invited them to open for Smashing Pumpkins on a 1993 tour, and in early 1994, Eddie Vedder followed suit, booking The Frogs to open for a string of Pearl Jam dates. Beck sampled a line from 'It's Only Right and Natural' for the song "Where It's At" on his landmark album 'Odelay' in 1996, and in the summer of 1994, The Frogs played the second stage of that year's Lollapalooza tour, with Corgan regularly joining them to play the jaded rock star's anthem "I Only Play 4 Money." Vedder would also sing the same tune with The Frogs on-stage, and in 1995, they received a unique endorsement from Pearl Jam when The Frogs' cover of "Rear View Mirror" became the B-side of Pearl Jam's "Immortality." In the summer of 1996, Smashing Pumpkins lost their touring keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin to a drug overdose, and Dennis Flemion was recruited to take his place for an arena tour that extended into early 1997, making him a genuine rock star for a few months.

 
The Frogs' relationship with Smashing Pumpkins also helped to kickstart their recording career. Corgan produced an EP for the group, 'Starjob', a song cycle about one alt-rock star's rise and inglorious fall (with Corgan credited as "Johnny Goat"), and when Corgan's bandmates James Iha and D'Arcy Wretzky helped launch a Polygram-distributed label called Scratchie Records, The Frogs were signed and 'Starjob' became their first release with major-label distribution. However, the disc sold little better than The Frogs' indie label releases, and their next album, another collection of their "made-up" home recordings called 'Bananimals', was released in 1999 by the independent Four Alarm Records. In 2000, Four Alarm worked up the nerve to finally give 'Racially Yours' an official release, and The Frogs' first and final full-length album for Scratchie, 'Hopscotch Lollipop Sunday Surprise' (once again produced in part by "Johnny Goat") appeared in 2001, not long before the label became inactive.

 
The Frogs toured extensively behind 'Hopscotch Lollipop', but they grew increasingly cynical about the music business, and in 2005 they cut back sharply on their live appearances and stopped releasing new music, though their archives of "made-up" songs circulated widely among fans. The Frogs seemed poised for a revival when the group released two albums digitally in July 2012, 'Count Yer Blessingsz' and 'Squirrel Bunny Jupiter Deluxe', but only a few days after the albums were released digitally, Dennis Flemion went for a swim while joining family and friends for an afternoon of boating on Wind Lake in Racine, Wisconsin. He went missing, and was discovered dead several days later; he was 57. In a memorial essay posted on the Matador website, Gerard Cosloy praised The Frogs, writing "With the possible exception of Bob Pollard, it's hard to think of anyone nearly as prolific as the Flemions, and you could certainly make a case for their catalog being every bit as impressive." [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC]

 

Chain Gang

Like the Loch Ness monster, this venerable New York quartet creates both heated excitement and intense apprehension among those who’ve followed its murky existence through more than two decades of irregular surfacings. Chain Gang began with the onset of New York’s first punk scene, having played its initial gigs (under a prior name) in the early part of 1975; the band’s aggressive, occasionally outright violent, approach would have fit right in if the deportment of its devotees hadn’t gotten the group banned from most of the city’s venues.

After releasing a handful of singles, Chain Gang went underground in the early ’80s, only to return with the blindingly intense 'Mondo Manhattan', the soundtrack to a mythical video project the group purportedly spent years working on before abandoning. Picking up where "Taxi Driver" left off, squalid songs like “Are You Wearing Gold Tonight” and “Gross Out on 40 Deuce” chronicle the Big Apple’s slow slide into the void -an inevitability that doesn’t seem to bother singer Ricky Luanda all that much. Although parts of the album are likely to be all but impenetrable to those living west of the Hudson, the guitar splatter that surges from the heart of songs like “Kill the Bouncers at the Ritz” and “I Read” (captured live, in a 1982 version enhanced by the sax honking of scene stalwart Bud Struggle) is absolutely universal. 

Another stretch of self-imposed exile came to an end when the band recorded the 'Deuce Package #2' double 7-inch and then compiled 'Perfumed', matching those studio tracks with live material from various eras -evidence that the quartet has carefully preserved every ounce of the nihilistic vitriol it’s emitted over the years. Luanda proves as sharp as ever when it comes to anti-authority harangues like “Cut off the Drug Czar’s Head.” (In a show of solidarity for Body Count, Chain Gang challenged every band in America to follow its lead and integrate a version of “Cop Killer” into their sets.) Larry Gee’s pinned-pupil guitar scratching adds more than enough menace to anti-everything missives like “Murder for the Millions.” But don’t let those titles give you the idea that Chain Gang plays only punk rock. As evidenced by the mid-’70s recording of O. V. Wright’s soul classic “That’s How Strong My Love Is” and the contorted funk of “Beijing” (which spotlights the freakishly synchronous bond between bassist Ted Twist and drummer Phil Von Rome), it’s far more out there than that. This is the real sound of the decline of Western civilization. [SOURCE: TROUSER PRESS]

Pizzicato Five

Godfathers of the Shibuya-kei scene, Tokyo kitsch-pop deconstructionists Pizzicato Five originally began taking shape as far back as 1979, when university students Yasuharu Konishi and Keitaro Takanami first met at a local music society meeting. Agreeing to form a band, they soon recruited fellow society member Ryo Kamamiya; their search for a suitable vocalist proved frustrating, however, and only in late 1984 did they settle on singer Mamiko Sasaki. The first Pizzicato Five single, "Audrey Hepburn Complex," followed a year later, and in 1986 the group issued the EP 'Pizzicato Five in Action'; a slew of subsequent records established the Pizzicato Five among the most popular acts in Japan, in spite of a series of lineup fluctuations that saw both Kamamiya and Sasaki exit in 1988, replaced soon after by vocalist Takao Tajima (who in turn quit the following year). Beginning with the 1990 single "Lovers Rock," Maki Nomiya was the new Pizzicato Five vocalist; their popularity at home continued to soar, and in 1994 the American indie label Matador agreed to issue the compilation EP 'Five by Five'. Takanami quit shortly after its release, however, reducing the group to a duo; after a pair of other U.S. compilations, 'Made in USA' and 'The Sound of Music by Pizzicato Five', in 1997 they issued 'Happy End of the World', the first of their LPs to enjoy simultaneous Japanese and American release. 'The International Playboy and Playgirl Record' followed two years later, and the group's last proper album of the '90s, 'Pizzicato Five (tm)', appeared in November 1999. Soon after the turn of the millennium, Konishi and Nomiya announced that Pizzicato Five would disband after a final show in Tokyo on March 31, 2001. The group left a legacy of acclaimed recordings as well as the kitschy blueprint for J-pop used by many Japanese bands to the present day. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC]

 

Silkworm

The noisy, bracing Seattle-based post-punk unit Silkworm formed in their native Missoula, MT, in 1987. Originally comprised of vocalists/guitarists Andy Cohen and Joel Phelps, vocalist/bassist Tim Midgett, and drummer Ben Koostra, Silkworm rose from the ashes of the band Ein Heit; a prolific and eclectic group from their inception (everyone but Koostra, who exited in 1989, contributed to songwriting duties), they issued their debut cassette 'Advantage' in 1988. After two more tapes, 1989's 'Girl Harbrr' and its companion 'Girl Harbrr Out-Takes' EP, the remaining trio moved to Seattle in the opening weeks of 1990, quickly recruiting drummer Michael Dahlquist to complete the lineup.

 
Silkworm's "official" debut 'L'ajre' followed in 1992, spotlighting the band's evolving, dissonant sound, anchored in Midgett's propulsive bass work. After the following year's 'His Absence Is a Blessing' EP, the quartet signed to the C/Z label for 1994's 'In the West', recorded by fellow Montana native Steve Albini (who continued to oversee the majority of the group's work). After 1994's strong 'Libertine', Phelps left the band, resurfacing in 1996 under the name Joel R.L. Phelps with the solo effort 'Warm Springs Night'.

 

As a trio, Silkworm signed to Matador and in 1996 issued 'Firewater', a sprawling yet finely honed set which ranked as their finest record to date. 'Developer' followed in 1997, and a year later the group jumped to Touch & Go to issue 'Blueblood'. Around this time, the band finalized their re-location to Chicago. 'Lifestyle' was released in mid-2000, and they toured into the following year to support the release. 'Italian Platinum' followed two years later and featured vocals from Kelly Hogan and keyboard work from the New Year's Matt Kadane. 2004's 'It'll Be Cool' would be their last album. In July of 2005, Dahlquist and two fellow Chicago-based musicians were killed when the car they were occupying was struck by a car driven by a woman intent on ending her life. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC]

 

Bailter Space

Led by former Gordons guitarist Alister Parker, noise rock unit Bailter Space emerged from Christchurch, New Zealand in 1987. Originally comprised of former Clean and Great Unwashed drummer Hamish Kilgour, Pin Group alum Ross Humphries on bass, and Glenda Bills on drums, the group issued its debut EP, 'Nelsh', on the famed Flying Nun label later that year; both Humphries and Bills departed soon after, resulting in the addition of former Gordons bassist John Halvorsen in time to record the 1988 full-length 'Tanker'. A tour followed, but when The Clean re-formed, Kilgour joined them on a permanent basis; his replacement in Bailter Space was Brent McLachlan, also the drummer in The Gordons.

 
Despite the restoration of The Gordons' core roster, however, Bailter Space were a clearly distinct entity, their sound more dense and imposing than in their previous incarnation; the trio resurfaced in 1990 with 'Thermos', mounting a tour of the Northern Hemisphere the following year. An EP, 'The Aim', appeared in 1992, and in 1993 Bailter Space released 'Robot World', their most acclaimed outing to date. Their prolific output continued with 'Vortura' (1994) and 'Wammo' (1995) and then slowed down for the last half of the decade, during which the group issued two albums for the Turnbuckle label: 'Capsul' (1997) and 'Solar.3' (1999). In 2004, during a protracted hiatus, Flying Nun issued a self-titled compilation. Eight years passed before the band released another album, 'Strobosphere' (Arch Hill, 2012), followed by 'Trinine' on Great Britain's Fire Records label in October of 2013. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC]

 

The Freeze

The Freeze is an American punk rock band from Cape Cod, Massachusetts, United States, formed by a group of teenagers in 1978. They released the first single, "I Hate Tourists" in 1980 and contributed eight songs, including the title track to the 1982 hardcore punk compilation 'This Is Boston, Not L.A.'. The band is known for their dark lyrics, original punk rock melodies, and their longevity. A lot of their early lyrics deal with alienation, drug-use/abuse and paranoia (especially of the church, government and those exercising authority over others in general). A constant theme or thread regarding apathetic observers or people willing to give up their freedoms for fear of losing their "security" is also apparent in their work.

 

Influenced by The Ramones, The Clash and other early punk bands, Clif "Hanger" Croce put together The Freeze in 1978. A friend scraped up enough cash the next year to make 2,000 copies of the band's debut single, "I Hate Tourists". The Freeze's music was then picked by Newbury Comics' in-house label, Modern Method Records, which released several of The Freeze's songs on the Boston hardcore compilation albums 'Unsafe at Any Speed' and 'This Is Boston, Not L.A.' in 1982. The Freeze's title track for that album was used in a television commercial for Newbury Comics on local UHF music video station V66, with the song's penultimate word bleeped out. The band also re-recorded "No One's Ever Coming Home" for 'Flipside Vinyl Fanzine, Vol. 1', released by Gasatanka Records in 1984.

 

The 1983 album 'Land of the Lost' and 1985's 'Rabid Reaction' followed before Modern Method folded. The group was picked up by Taang! Records for their 1991 album, 'Misery Loves Company'. . 'Crawling Blind', an album released in 1994, told tales about people who were slaves to addiction. In 1996, 'Freak Show', "continued a downhill lyrical theme,” stated frontman Croce. He explored mental illness on songs such as "Creeping Psychosis" and "Suspended Heaven". The cover of their 1999 album, 'One False Move', featured fellow Cape Cod artist and author Edward Gorey. After a twenty-year gap The Freeze released another album called 'Calling All Creatures' on Slope Records, in 2019. [SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA]

 

FU's

The band initially consisted of John Sox, Steve Grimes, Bob Furapples, and Wayne Maestri. The band name was taken from a comment made by Wendy O. Williams in an interview in which she said something to the effect that "Smashing TVs is a great way to say 'F you' to society." The F.U.'s started out playing fast, thrashy hardcore punk, and their first recorded output was on the 1982 Modern Method compilation, 'This Is Boston, Not L.A.' which also featured tracks by Gang Green, Jerry's Kids and The Freeze. A companion 7-inch EP, 'Unsafe At Any Speed', included another F.U.'s track. Later the same year, their debut album, 'Kill For Christ', was released on X-Claim Records, featuring cover artwork by Septic Death frontman Brian 'Pushead' Schroeder, known for his work with Metallica, and Danzig depicting Jesus with a machine gun. 

 

Their second album, also on X-Claim, 'My America', saw them labelled as right wing nationalists due to its patriotic lyrics (which were sarcastic), and artwork. The satirical punk band The Dead Milkmen poked fun at the band's supposed right-wing views on their song "Tiny Town" from the album 'Big Lizard in My Backyard'. The band's final album as The F.U.'s, 'Do We Really Want To Hurt You?' followed in 1984, on Gasatanka/Enigma. With this album, the band had begun to take a more heavy metal direction, which was taken further when the band changed name to Straw Dogs, with guitarist Steve Martin and drummer Chris "Bones" Jones added to the line-up. As Straw Dogs, the band released an EP followed by two albums. Drummer Chris Jones died tragically in a car crash the day after the debut 'Straw Dogs' EP was released. 

 

The F.U.'s material has been re-released on Classy Records and more recently on Taang! Records. The band is no longer on Taang! and have a release on it's own label, Yankee Vandal. John Sox reintroduced the music of F.U.'s and Straw Dogs by forming the band Payload! in 2006 with Richie Rich, Bobby Frankenheim (who later joined the reunited DYS), Jack Snyder, and Mick Stunt. 

 

When approached by Katie Goldman of Gallery East to participate in an upcoming documentary "All Ages", about the original hardcore punk scene in Boston in the early 1980s, being produced in association with Stone Films NYC, Sox decided to reunite all of the original members with members of Payload! to form the first hardcore supergroup for lack of a better term. Sharing the stage for a sold out live show at Club Lido in Revere were, Sox, Grimes, Furapples, Maestri, Rich, and Stunt. The F.U.'s performed a reunion show in the Boston area on August 29, 2010, in support of the "All Ages" a documentary. Having had a good deal of fun and a great crowd reaction at the show, The F.U.'s have become an ongoing concern, playing gigs in the US, and Europe, recording a song for a compilation called 'Cashing in on Christmas Vol. III' for Black Hole Records and Recording a split vinyl EP with Söm-Hi Nöise from Catalonia, distributed by Thrashtocat. [SOURCE: REVERBNATION]

 

The Groinoids

The Groinoids was an early '80s Boston hardcore band, featured on the 'This Is Boston Not L.A.' compilation LP as well as its follow up, the 'Unsafe At Any Speed' EP. In 2008, an EP was released featuring both of the compilation tracks plus three other songs that were recorded during the 'This Is Boston Not L.A.' sessions at Radiobeat, entitled 'Radiobeat Sessions' EP. Members went on to form Kilslug. [SOURCE: LAST.FM]

 

The Proletariat

The Proletariat are a punk rock band from Southeastern Massachusetts, whose heyday was during the 1980s, when they were active in the early Boston hardcore scene, sharing the bill with many of the best punk and hardcore punk acts of the time, despite their recorded output having a decidedly non-hardcore aesthetic; The Proletariat show more strongly the musical influences of early British post-punk bands such as Wire and the Gang of Four in their fractured guitar sound and Marxist-themed lyrics. 

Formed in early 1980, The Proletariat started as a cover band playing at hardcore punk shows in the Boston area, just as the local scene was breaking. Belligerent British-sounding American singer Richard Brown fronted the group with two friends, both former classmates of his at Apponequet Regional High School: guitarist Frank Michaels and bassist Peter Bevilacqua. The three had enrolled at Southeastern Massachusetts University together, where they studied history, finance, and industrial relations, respectively, but, after exposure to left-wing politics, and despite having no previous musical experience, all dropped out of college during their senior year to form a punk band, which Brown would name The Proletariat. In wanting to align themselves with the working class, Brown took work as a delivery truck driver, and Bevilacqua as a supermarket clerk; Michaels, for his part, devoted himself to managing the band. 

Brown initially played snare drum standing up while he sang, until the slightly younger high-schooler Tom McKnight, who worked as a gas station attendant, completed the band as their drummer in September 1980, occasionally accompanied by Brown on cowbell. After a few months of practicing at Brown's parental home in Assonet, the group played their first gig on February 14, 1981 at the Lafayette Club in Taunton By mid-1981, after playing a few shows in Southeastern Massachusetts, doing mostly Sex Pistols covers. The Proletariat evolved a new sound that melded the straight-ahead sound of early records by The Clash with more angular rhythms, and agitprop political rhetoric under the influence of the Gang of Four. They grew into a sound unlike other Boston punk or hardcore bands, characterized by drums holding an almost militaristic steadiness while guitars alternated between jarring upstrokes and overdriven chords. People drew comparisons of the band's music to that of the anarchist group Crass and post-punk group The Fall, bands that The Proletariat's members only listened to after fans tipped them off to it. 

Between November 1981 and March 1982, they recorded material at Boston's Radiobeat Studios with producers Jimmy Dufour and Lou Giordano, and brought a couple of songs as reels for airplay on local radio, making some stations' top-ten lists. In July 1982, after the group gained national exposure via the hardcore punk audience on 'This is Boston, Not L.A.', a compilation of bands from the local scene just released in May of that year by Newbury Comics' Modern Method Records label, they self-released a limited edition seven-song cassette EP called 'Distortion', which received positive response from local critics and DJs. In the late summer of 1982, the band would appear on 'Unsafe at Any Speed', the six-song follow-up EP to 'This is Boston, Not L.A.' [SOURCE: TAANG! RECORDS]

 

Jerry's Kids

Boston hardcore/thrash metallists Jerry's Kids (named after a long-running fund-raising organization that comedian Jerry Lewis formed for children with cerebral palsy) formed originally in 1981, rising out of a local scene that included such bands as SS Decontrol, The F.U.'s, Freeze, Negative FX, and Gang Green (the latter of which would often swap members with Jerry's Kids off and on). Jerry's Kids caught their first break in 1982, when they were featured on a compilation of local talent ('This Is Boston, Not L.A.'), which created a buzz for the band beyond just Boston. 1983 saw the release of their debut album for X-Claim Records, 'Is This My World'. The group spilt from the label shortly thereafter, leading to the album being shortly out of print, before the Taang! label reissued it. 1989 saw the release of their second and final release, 'Kill Kill Kill', before splitting up. Although there were plenty of switches in the Jerry's Kids lineup, the best-known included members Rick Jones on vocals and bass, Rockin' Bob Cenci on lead guitar, Dave Aronson on rhythm guitar, and Jack Clark on drums. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC]

 

Lunachicks

Lunachicks are a rowdy, irreverent, and influential N.Y.C. band with a sound rooted in punk, hard rock, heavy metal, and twisted pop. Emerging in the late 1980s, the band amassed a rabid fan base in the '90s with their notorious live shows and uncompromising studio albums like 'Babysitters on Acid', 'Jerk of All Trades', and 'Luxury Problem'. Despite going on hiatus in 2004, the bandmembers remained active -post-Lunachicks projects include Theo and the Skyscrapers and Bantam- and in 2021, they reunited for a series of shows and chronicled their rise from punk upstarts to feminist icons in the memoir "Fallopian Rhapsody: The Story of the Lunachicks".

 
The Lunachicks were formed by singer Theo Kogan, guitarist Gina Volpe, and bassist Sydney "Squid" Silver while all three were students at Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts in New York; they met up with Sindi Benezra, another rock-minded student who played guitar, and began writing songs, most informed by the more outrageous elements of popular culture or the concerns of semi-crazed teenagers (one early tune involved the non-accidental death of two of their teachers). With the arrival of drummer Becky Wreck, the group's first solid lineup was in place. Souping up their shows with outré costumes and deliberately offensive theatrics, the Lunachicks became regulars on what became known as the "Scumrock" scene (largely comprised of other noisy pre-grunge bands with equal portions of fuzzy guitar and snarky wit), and one memorable show was attended by Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth. Gordon and Moore were taken with the Lunachicks and told their friend Paul Smith of Blast First Records to check out the band.

 

 

Blast First ended up signing the Lunachicks, and released a double 7" EP of early recordings in 1989, with their debut album, 'Babysitters on Acid', following in 1990 (the same year that saw the release of 'New York Scum Rock: Live at CBGB', a multi-artist collection recorded during a series of shows at the iconic New York punk venue that included the Lunachicks' "Makin' It [With Other Species]"). In 1992, the Lunachicks jumped to the American indie label Safe House, issuing their second LP, 'Binge & Purge'. In 1994, Becky Wreck left the band; Kate Schellenbach of Luscious Jackson briefly filled in for Wreck until Chip English came aboard as the new Lunachicks drummer. English made her recording debut with the Lunachicks on the 1995 album 'Jerk of All Trades', which was also their first release on the New York punk rock label Go-Kart Records. In 1997, the Lunachicks returned with their fourth studio album, 'Pretty Ugly', but the year also saw the departure of guitarist Sindi Benezra, and the group opted to continue as a quartet. The concert album 'Drop Dead Live' arrived in 1998, while 1999 brought the studio set 'Luxury Problem'. 

By this time, the group had a busy touring schedule, headlining clubs in the United States, Europe, the U.K., and Japan, while opening for the likes of the Ramones, the Buzzcocks, No Doubt, The Go-Go's, Rancid, and NOFX and appearing on the Vans Warped Tour. In late 1999, Chip English left the group and Helen Destroy took over behind the drums, but in mid-2000, the Lunachicks were in need of a rest and announced they were going on hiatus. Since then, they haven't released any new recordings, and outside of two shows in 2002 and 2004 with Chip English on drums (one of which was a benefit), the band remained inactive. While the Lunachicks have been on hold, Theo Kogan has recorded and toured with her band Theo and the Skyscrapers, as well as pursuing careers in acting and modeling. Elsewhere, Sydney "Squid" Silver has worked as a tattoo artist and restaurateur, Gina Volpe formed and fronted her band Bantam, Chip English plays drums with the group Suicide King, Becky Wreck was percussionist for The Blare Bitch Project, and Helen Destroy tours with Led Zeppelin tribute band Lez Zeppelin. 

Lunachicks reconvened in 2021 and played their first live performance in 17 years at Punk Rock Bowling in Las Vegas. That same year saw the release of the memoir "Fallopian Rhapsody: The Story of the Lunachicks". In 2022, the group performed at N.Y.C.'s Webster Hall and Chicago's Riot Fest. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC]

Claw Hammer

Purveying a music squarely located at the more brutal end of the hardcore punk rock spectrum, Claw Hammer were formed in Los Angeles, California, USA, in the mid-80s, taking their name from a Captain Beefheart lyric. Among their earliest releases was a track-by-track cover album cassette of Devo’s 'Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!' They made their debut in 1989 with the 'Poor Robert EP', followed by a self-titled debut album for Sympathy For The Record Industry a year later. The engaging 'Double Pack Whack Attack EP', meanwhile, included versions of material by Patti Smith, Pere Ubu, Brian Eno and Devo once more. However, it was not until the mid-90s when the band, which features Jon Wahl (vocals, guitar, ex-Pontiac Brothers), Chris Bagarozzi (guitar), Rob Walther (bass) and Bob Lee (drums), first achieved mainstream prominence. 'Pablum', released on Epitaph Records in 1992, attracted rave reviews, but immediately afterwards they moved away from the label to Interscope Records, though they retained the services of Epitaph head Brett Gurewitz as producer. Their debut for Interscope, 'Thank The Holder Uppers', was another devastating blast of angst-ridden punk blues, with Wahl’s unhinged vocals and irresistibly macabre lyrical images holding centrestage. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC]

 

Mad Daddys

The Mad Daddys were a punk rock n' roll band out of New Jersey. Disbanded in 2006. Members along their history were Zeus Simmons (guitar), Fletcher Sirs (drums), Slim Chance (bass), Stinky Sonu Buoni (vocals), Screamin' Johnson (guitar), Wrongo Starr (drums), Eddie Cochring (guitar), Pete Moss (bass) and Malcolm Tex (drums). Their music is full of Cramps type garage rock and roll -pounding beat, raw guitar, and silly lyrics. [SOURCE: MAXIMUM ROCKNROLL]

 

Psychotic Turnbuckles

The Psychotic Turnbuckles are an Australian garage punk band that originated in Sydney, which was formed in 1984. The group's original members were Jesse the Intruder (vocals), The Grand Wizard (guitar), El Sicodelico (guitar), The Creep (bass and vocals) and The Spoiler (drums), who died in 2013.

 

The Psychotic Turnbuckles were part of a wave of hard rock bands that sprang up in Australia in the first half of the 1980s with roots in the US 1960s punk and 1970s big-energy Detroit rock scenes. Comprising former professional wrestlers who re-located to Australia around 1982 from their hometown of Pismo Beach in California, after being banned from the Pismo Beach Wrestling Alliance by promoter Sammy Duke.

 

They drew on influences like The 13th Floor Elevators, Radio Birdman, The Moving Sidewalks, The Masters Apprentices, The Sonics and The Aztecs. Psychotic Turnbuckles quickly became a regular attraction on the healthy Sydney live music circuit and shared stages with the likes of The Troggs, The Hitmen, Dark Carnival, Beasts of Bourbon and The Screaming Tribesmen. They were adopted by the Petersham Inn in Sydney's inner-western suburbs as the regular house band and had a bar (The Pismo Bar) named in their honour. Two members of touring US band Guns and Roses, Duff McKagan and Slash, attended a 1992 show by the band at the Lansdowne Hotel, Sydney.

 

The band existed for a decade during which time they signed to US label Sympathy For The Record Industry as well as several Australian imprints. The band eventually dissolved as members moved back to the US in the early 1990s. Inspired by a fan's Facebook page, the line-up of Jesse the Intruder, El Sicodelico, The Grand Wizard, The Psychedelic Unknown and Gorgeous Karl Domah (aka Lord Domah) re-convened in Sydney in December 2012 for a one-off show. Encouraged by the reaction, they signed to Australian label Citadel Records who offered to issue a retrospective double CD set ('Destroy Dull City') summarizing their career. The band has since played shows in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. The band still play sporadically up until present time. [SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA]

 

Jet Boys

The Jet Boys took off in the late 80's after wild man Onoching cut his teeth with seminal female-fronted punk group Nickey & the Warriors. By the mid-90's, the Tokyo "Back from the Grave" scene had created a buzz from beyond which got acts like The 5.6.7.8's, Guitar Wolf and of course Jet Boys noticed overseas. The band subsequently released material in the US on Sympathy for the Record Industry and Black Lung Records. During the 90's Onoching played alongside Yoshiko (Ronnie) of The 5.6.7.8's and Drum Wolf in Pearl Schwartz, a band fronted by The Devil Dogs' Steve Baise. One of the legendary Japanese punk bands still playing regularly, The Jet Boys still shock audiences with a berserk stage show that includes mayhem, milk showers and daikon grating action. [SOURCE: PBS FM]

 

The Pontiac Brothers

"Our singer was a drummer, our drummer was a bass player, and collectively we had all the drive of a perpetual hangover," wrote Ward Dotson of his band The Pontiac Brothers, and while that statement gives you a clear picture of the band's self-effacing attitude and fondness for beer, it doesn't tell you that they were one of the best and most purely enjoyable American bands of the '80s, embracing the joys of vintage hard rock with a punk's jaundiced eye well before the grunge explosion made such things fashionable (and doing so with far greater humor and less pretension than the Seattle contingent). Ward Dotson, the group's de facto leader, was best-known as a former guitarist for punk blues trailblazers The Gun Club, but he left the group in 1983 and formed The Pontiac Brothers with fellow guitarist Jon Wahl, bassist Kurt Bauman, percussionist D.A. Valdez, and lead singer Matt Simon. The band cut their first album, 'Big Black River', for a French label in 1985, but when the band finally scored an American deal with the L.A. indie Frontier Records later that year, they dropped half the songs and recorded a batch of new material for their stateside debut, 'Doll Hut'. Wahl had left the group by the time they cut 1986's 'Fiesta en la Biblioteca', which added a weightier '70s hard rock edge to the group's "Replacements meet the Stones" approach. While the band earned a loyal cult following (including kindred spirits The Replacements, who stuck a copy of 'Doll Hut' into their video for "Bastards of Young"), the band's witty meat-and-potatoes rock was somewhat out of place in the mid-'80s indie rock scene, and they never found the larger audience their work deserved. After 1988's 'Johnson', The Pontiac Brothers decided to hang it up, but four years later, the band gave it one more try, writing and recording the witty and surprisingly open-hearted 'Fuzzy Little Piece of the World' within the space of a month in 1992; the band mounted a West Coast tour to support the album, and haven't worked together since. Since then, Dotson has led The Liquor Giants, who briefly employed Matt Simon as their drummer; short-time guitarist Jon Wahl went on to form Clawhammer. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC]

 

Jack Lee

A shadowy but important figure in American power pop and the earliest days of punk, Jack Lee was a member of The Nerves, a wildly influential trio that also included Peter Case (later of The Plimsouls) and Paul Collins (who went on to front The Beat). Lee wrote the group's best-known tune, "Hanging on the Telephone," which went on to be a hit for Blondie and became a pop perennial covered by many artists, and it typified his brand of sharp, hooky rock & roll with a punky lyrical edge. Lee did not record frequently after the breakup of The Nerves, and the 2016 collection 'Bigger Than Life' collected the two solo albums he recorded during his lifetime in full. 

Jack Lee was born in Alaska on March 25, 1952. In the early '70s, he left home and traveled to San Francisco, California in hopes of making a career out of music. Initially, Lee had trouble getting gigs, and he busked for change along Fisherman's Wharf. There he met fellow street musician Peter Case, who was also an aspiring singer and songwriter. Lee and Case liked each other's songs, and soon they teamed up with New Jersey exile Paul Collins, another tunesmith looking to form an upbeat rock band. In 1974, they started playing out as The Nerves, with Lee on guitar, Case on bass, and Collins on drums. In 1976, The Nerves relocated to Los Angeles, and self-released a four-song EP that featured two songs from Lee, "Hanging on the Telephone" and "Give Me Some Time." The group set out to spread the word with a nationwide tour they booked themselves, and when they came home to Los Angeles they started booking independent shows for themselves and other L.A. bands. While The Nerves' sound was lean but hooky pop with a British Invasion influence, they admired the spunk and D.I.Y. attitude of the burgeoning punk scene in Los Angeles; dubbing their practice space the Hollywood Punk Palace, they began hosting shows with bands such as The Weirdos, The Screamers, The Zeros, and The Dils. The Nerves were building momentum but came to an abrupt halt in 1977 when Lee quit the band; Case and Collins briefly continued as The Breakaways, but by year's end that band had also broken up.

 

 

Initially, Lee laid low and was barely visible on the music scene, but in 1978, just as his phone and electricity were about to be shut off for nonpayment, he was contacted by Debbie Harry, asking if he would mind if Blondie recorded a version of "Hanging on the Telephone" for their third album. Lee gave them his blessing, and Blondie's cover of "Hanging on the Telephone" rose to number five on the U.K. singles charts, and hit the Top 20 in Ireland, Belgium, and the Netherlands. The song was included on Blondie's 1978 album 'Parallel Lines', which went on to sell over a million copies in the United States alone. Later on, Def Leppard and L7 would also cover the song, and Cat Power cut a version for a television commercial. "Hanging on the Telephone" proved to be a lucrative copyright for Lee, and in 1979, Suzi Quatro recorded another of his tunes, "You Are My Love," for the album 'Suzi … and Other Four Letter Words'. And in 1983, Paul Young cut Lee's "Come Back and Stay" for his debut album, 'No Parlez'; the single became a major international hit, going Top Ten in ten countries, while two other songs by Lee, "Sex" and "Oh Women," were also featured on the album.

 
Lee was doing quite well as a songwriter, but that didn't translate into a successful recording career. Lee released his first album, 'Jack Lee's Greatest Hits, Vol. One', in 1981, through his own Maiden America label. Sales were modest, and it was 1985 before Lee issued his self-titled sophomore effort, which appeared on the French label Lolita Records. That same year, Lee left for London, where he would spend two years working with other artists before he came back to Los Angeles. After working in the film industry, Lee seemed to drop out of show business, though in the 21st century he played a handful of shows with a band called The Jack Lee Inferno, and said he was recording a new album. That LP failed to appear, but in 2016, Lee's two out-of-print albums from the '80s were reissued by Alive Naturalsound Records (which released a Nerves anthology, 'One Way Ticket', in 2008) in a collection titled 'Bigger Than Life'. Despite his low public profile, Jack Lee continued to write songs and work on his music in private until his death on May 26, 2023 at his home in Santa Monica, California. Lee was 71. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC]