Static “Toothpaste and Pills”

sfilzen — Wed, 23 Mar 2022 17:33:44 +0000

Static “Toothpaste and Pills” (Demos and Live 1978-1981), 2021. Third Man Records. Tonight we’ll be seeing Midwest hardcore punk OGs Negative Approach (along with 7 Seconds!) so I’m spinning Negative Approach’s John Brannon’s early glam-punk band Static. They were so young that the A-side, a collection of demos, was recorded at “Mrs. Brannon’s” in Grosse Pointe Park, aka his mom’s basement. According to the liner notes written by Negative Approach’s Pete Zelewski, by 1979 John’s mom “finally had enough of the late night Static rehearsals and parties.” Listening to the super-raw, loud and down-and-nasty demo tracks like “Punk Nation,” “TV Show” and “Toothpaste and Pills” I am more than a bit sympathetic to Mrs. Brannon’s point of view. It’s great garage punk in the spirit of The Stooges but the screams, yelps and heavy beats are hardly after-dinner relaxing tracks. “We’re So Cheap We’re Divine,” the final song on the Demos side of the record, is over-the-top glam silliness, with pounding piano and drunkenly show-tune vocals; it would fit in nicely on a Rocky Horror-like soundtrack. The Live Side is a collection of songs from ’79-’81 recorded at a Grosse Pointe High School (“Ain’t No Stranger” and, fittingly, “Hight School Riot” which is less of a song and more a total performance breakdown which finds them regrouping briefly into an impromptu and abbreviated “Anarchy in the UK” plus a lot of swearing) and three clubs: Plewa Hall and Nunzios (both in Michigan) and Coronation Tavern (Ontario). The recording quality is pretty shitty – the acoustics in a high school gym are generally not…great – and the club shows aren’t much better (too bad as “Video Deficiency” is a killer track). That said, it’s a really cool snapshot in the evolution of Midwest proto-punk/glam into what would become a hardcore punk band that is still kicking 40 years later.

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Static “Toothpaste and Pills”