The Urinals / 100 Flowers

[captain2man]

So, I just picked up 'Gimme Indie Rock: 500 Essential American Underground Rock Albums 1981-1986' by Andrew Earles:

http://www.amazon.com/Gimme-Indie-Rock- ... indie+rock

After having been ingrained in punk/hardcore/independent-underground rock music since about 1986 (13 years old was sort of ground zero for me), I realize just how much I haven't heard (probably the same for all of us), and this guide seems like a good place to sort of play catch up on a lot of these older records that just flew under my radar.

It's a fun throwback to pre-Internet times when I used to collect all sorts of different record guides.....the Trouser Press guide by Ira Robbins was an absolute bible for me.

The first entry in the book is the 100 Flowers self-titled LP that came out on Happy Squid in 1983.

I can't say I've had no experience with 100 Flowers. I used to have an old Flipside VHS that had a live video of "California's Falling Into the Ocean". I had also bought the comp CD - '100 Years of Pulchritude' - pretty cheaply - but has sort of stayed on the shelf for the most part.

Before diving into the LP, I checked out some old Urinals stuff first. Pretty incompetent musically, but still some interesting songs and some genuinely good ones ("Black Hole" is a great one).....and of course I knew "Ack Ack Ack Ack" from having heard the Minutemen do it.

But that 100 Flowers LP (same three guys I believe who just decided to take it a bit more seriously) is something else. The songwriting and musicianship is hugely elevated.....this is especially noticeable in the bass playing, which goes from utterly simplistic (in the Urinals) to being very inventive.

And I have to think for 1983, this was some ground breaking stuff - combining an early punk rock sound with definite folk-rock influences (these guys definitely listened to a lot of The Byrds)...and using - *gasp* - acoustic guitars!

I think a band that came a few years later - Angst - took what 100 Flowers were doing and took it to another level songwriting wise (was hoping their excellent 'Mending Wall' record would have made it into the book, but it didn't) and of course, now, "folk punk" is a long established thing.

But was there much of this prior to the one (and only) 100 Flowers record? I don't think so.

Can't say it's going to end up as one of my favorite all-time records - but there are definitely enough great songs on it to recommend it.

[scannest]

I was thinking about picking that book up. In some ways the internet has squashed the need for those, but they are fun. As the Trouser Press Guide was for you, the Christgau Consumer Guides ('70s and '80s) were bibles for me. And I loved Chuck Eddy's "Stairway to Hell" as well.

[JGJR]

I'd be more inclined to pick this up if the guy who wrote it didn't fail to credit us for an interview we did with Bob Mould in 2009 for his book on Husker Du.

I've only heard a few songs by 100 Flowers (maybe on the Warfrat Tales comp or Keats Ride a Harley?), but I dig the Urinals. They were kind of like an American version of Pink Flag-era Wire, but even more stripped-down, etc.. There were tons of bands (especially in LA) who mixed '60s influences like The Byrds with a punk rock base/aesthetic. Salvation Army, The Bangs (pre-Bangles), Dream Syndicate, Rain Parade, very early Three O'Clock (same band as Salvation Army; they had to change their name), The Last (of course) and stuff like that is what you should check out next, though I don't think any of them really used acoustic guitars all that much. Many were more influenced by "Eight Miles High" -era Byrds if you catch my drift.

And you know the Gun Club, right? Blues-punk and not folk-punk but worth mentioning here (plus they were one of the best bands ever).

[obik]

I have that Urinals disc somewhere, but don't recall being terribly impressed with it.

Also, if folkpunk is yer thing, Patrik Fitzgerald did it before anyone else.

[Chris Shary]

I love both bands. Quite under the radar.
"You spit on the Urinals" - TONYAGE (Milo Goes To College)

[lewdd]

I have that Urinals disc somewhere, but don't recall being terribly impressed with it.

Also, if folkpunk is yer thing, Patrik Fitzgerald did it before anyone else.

I've got a safety pin stuck in my heart for you.

[JGJR]

I love both bands. Quite under the radar.
"You spit on the Urinals" - TONYAGE (Milo Goes To College)

I think it took me a decade of listening to that to figure out that line and who Urinals were, etc. Of course, I knew who Darby Crash was when I first heard Milo when I was 17.