Germs “GI” 1979. Slash Records. Today is my birthday so I’m spinning one of my all-time favorite records, would-choose-it-for-a-deserted-island level of favorite. Every single song is a blast of feral fury and to my mind stands as the pinnacle of punk recordings. If I had to choose a few favorite tracks, they would be “Richie Dagger’s Crime,” “Lexicon Devil,” “The Other Newest One” and “We Must Bleed,” but each track on the LP is perfection. (We also have a copy of the Italian release of GI from 1982 on EXPANDEDMUSIC.)

This album provided part of the soundtrack for a pivotal summer during my teenage years, especially one particular epic evening with a group of friends involving unsupervised debauchery, which ended in a bunch of us crashing on the floor, hot and sweaty, exhausted and joyous, heads spinning. As we drifted off to sleep, this album played on the record player. My friend’s turntable had this weird glitch that caused the arm to lift up midway during track #5 (in this case “Strange Notes”) and start the album over from the beginning. We let this go on for about 10 times before dragging our lazy butts off the floor to turn the player off. But those songs are burned into my mind, and I don’t mind at all.