Germs “Cat’s Clause” 1993/2020. Radiation Records. Limited edition, gatefold, includes a 60×60 poster of the album cover. Today, August 5th, is Germs co-founder and guitarist Pat Smear’s birthday (b. Georg Albert Ruthenberg, 1959) – he also toured with Nirvana, has been on again/off again with Foo Fighters, was briefly in 45 Grave and has recorded with acts as diverse as Mike Watts to Paul McCartney. Cat’s Clause is a comp of live Germs shows and rehearsals from ‘79 and ‘80, originally a 10″ on Spanish label Munster Records released in ‘93. Some of this material I already have (because I’ll literally buy any Germs material that crosses my path) but most of it is new to me – not necessarily the songs but the live versions that appear here. I don’t recall hearing their cover of PiL’s “Public Image,” which leads off the album, from their infamous Dec. 3rd 1980 concert at the Starwood. I definitely had not heard “Germ’s Riot” recorded at the Great Gatsby in Redondo Beach in January 1980…and never need to hear it again as it’s about 3 hours of crowd sounds, mostly incoherent yelling and arguing (hardly a “riot” – it’s also only 5 minutes long but it feels much much longer). Also new to me are the two tracks recorded at Fleetwood in Renondo Beach, 1980: “My Tunnel” and “Communist Eyes” (which of course appears on the Germs’ only official LP G.I.) as well as the renditions of four songs from the Canterbury rehearsals (for G.I.) in ‘79 – “Strange Notes,” “Circle One,” “Forming” and “What We Do is Secret.”