Friday, February 21, 2014

Nubs on Last Laugh Records

The best songs are about the dumb, mundane parts of life; finding a job, borrowing the car, doing the dishes, teen spirit, 53rd and 3rd, waiting rooms, being a dog....
This trio from San Francisco (different Nubs from the Northeast ones) basically recorded this in the early '80s and called it quits ( well they played semi-recently - ed), leaving the massive legacy of this sought after single recently released by your pals at Last Laugh.

David is on drums and vocals for "Job" yelling 'HEY MOM" into the silence before the guys drop into scuzzy chords that keep flying up the neck. David then yells at his dad about crashing the car. To the folks he does more bad shit, then yells at the cops. This is definitely what punk was about in 1980, you just want to make some kind of statement to the world. I'm fucking here, at the bottom, in the underground while the rest of you assholes chase yuppie dreams here's the real cultural movements happening on the edge of society. Like the state of NYC at the moment, David Byrne isn't far off. How much longer before all creativity in dead in the city? How much higher can rents go before all creative people who want the time to practice their art are pushed out the suburbs. Is there going to be some weird renaissance around major cities then? Future Nubs bands who don't want anything to do with the Starbucks and chain stores and condos. This is leveling pure frustration and aggression over everything. The combo of this guitar tone and the energy of a three piece playing with that quiet then loud fucking noisy mess sound. It's classic when you have the balls to put together a track this completely ridiculous and messy but that's what makes this one great at the same time. Who would have the audacity? Another overlooked punk single from another band I missed, even if I was five. It's short, to the point and would piss off anyone within earshot. This should have been on every tweens turntable back in the early '80s. The cold war and reagan, Jesse Helms and the PMRC. Dark days lead to this.

B-Side's "Little Billy's Burning" has low end guitar crunches in a sort of a poppy groove with bluesy little twists. After that first side, these guys obviously have a knack for a story track. This one is about the house being on fire, grandmas's on pills and she can't do anything about it. TOO BAD BURN! This one is shorter than the other side with a rawhide rhythm, the guitar and bass following each other on this fast rumbling trail. Grandma was retarded? Billy's burning down the house. I think there were a lot of these boundaries to push in the early '80s and these guys do it with style. Proficient, catchy snapshots of a disenfranchised age where no one would ever care you were writing songs about burning down houses or antagonizing cops. They will also play your house, send them an email.

I would suggest a new tagline for Last Laugh Records, "Finding the best shit that history forgot" or "Digging up a better past", or "These are the records you should have actually given a shit about". Pick this up from Last Laugh.

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