Gen X “4″

sfilzen — Tue, 01 Mar 2016 21:06:37 +0000

Gen X “4″ 1981. 12″EP. Released after the departure of Bob Andrews and Mark Laff who were replaced by former Clash drummer Terry Chimes and Chelsea’s guitarist James Stevenson. Generation X shorted their name to Gen X and released Kiss Me Deadly in ‘81, upon which “Dancing With Myself” appears (and sounds pretty much exactly as the hit Billy Idol single, also released in ‘81). “Untouchables” is fairly slow-tempo and eerily foreshadows 80′s hair metal ballads. “Rock On,” by contrast, is a rollicking rocker with a whiff of punk but to my ears more reminiscent of 70′s American classic rock-n-roll. Then “King Rocker” brings us all the way back to the heyday of 50′s rockabilly (with a British accent).

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Generation X “Generation X”

sfilzen — Mon, 30 Nov 2015 16:43:41 +0000

Generation X “Generation X” 1978. Today, November 30th, is Billy Idol’s birthday (b. William Broad 1955): Idol co-founded Generation X with other ex-Chelsea bandmates in ‘76 and released this debut album in 1978.

Unabashedly glammy pop-punk, the album is rocking melodic with lyrical “whoo-wee-oohs” liberally sprinkled throughout, a decidedly more New York Dolls meets Buzzcock-ish punk sound than The Clash or Sex Pistols. They even give a tease to future 80′s hair metal bands (with a very British punk sneer) on the power ballad “Kiss Me Deadly.” Generation X reached #29 on the UK charts, the single “Ready Steady Go” made it to #47 in March of ‘78. “One Hundred Punks” is a great power-pop track, probably one of my favorite songs on the album. This is the US release which has a different track listing than the UK version, including a cover of John Lennon’s “Gimme Some Truth.”

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Gen X “4″

Generation X “Generation X”