The Penetrators on Windian Records

1982. There was a little band releasing some pretty great punk/new wave stuff from Syracuse called The Penetrators. I thought at first writing 'Syracuse New Wave!' on the back of their singles was a joke, maybe making fun of Flock of Seagulls or the advent of synths in everything, the opposite of their raw, sleazy garage they were playing from but this A-Side really combines that cranky production quality with a weirdo punk Devo sound that is actually the good stuff you would call new wave. Weird and fun, perfect for MTV, who they submitted a video to for this song and even include the rejection letter as the insert. Oh what could have been.

A-Side's "Shopping Bag" opens on a heavy crackling riff broken down into raw single note melody that Jack follows with his sneering vocal sliding in right behind these notes. That chorus that jumps in barely a verse later is the best, perfect '80s attitude, being on the outside looking in. That melody follows nothing but more importantly is the slappy paper bag snare that almost comes off as a cheapo drum machine perfect sounding drenched in treble. The video is priceless and captures that punk rejection of the rampant consumerism that was the order of the day in that era of Regan. This version sounds different than the video track though. A fuzzy garage solo between this chorus of Shopping bag / Shop / ping Bag / live your life in a is beyond perfect. You know they're goofing on this in a pop way that almost fits who they're talking about. Making anti-music for those consumers. If this was played even for a week on MTV that would have been the best biting the hand scenario.
B-Side's "Everybody Needs Lovin'" is more of their now goofy punk with what must be a heavy influence of the '80s at work, the vocals selling this sleezy character after the ladies. Another expert single note melody for a perfect pairing with that A-Side. You can't help but laugh with this weirdness but they actually are more than competent performers which just confuses things further...were these guys playing the shitty punk spots in Syracuse or pulling the wool over some eyes at the New wave spots? Both? I thought I liked them before, but this one is exactly the place you should have ended up in the early eighties.

Get this reimagined reissue, since it never actually came out once they spent all their money on that video(?)- from Windian Records.

Curtis Seals / Christian D'Orbit on Fred (Windian) records

There's no end to overlooked obscure punk seven inches. First there was Sing Sing Records, inspired by Captured Tracks and Rob's House reminding the world about old, fantastic, impossible to find punk singles and Last Laugh followed shortly with their own represses of early '80s punk from all over and now Windian Records has their say in unearthing awesomeness from Syracuse with this Penetrators double sided single of one off's from drummer Curtis Seals and Christian D'Orbit.

Curtis Seals side "The Scandalizer" is winning me over with this sound quality like it was produced by Mike Rep himself, a muddy sax blows into the low end of the track just absolutely buried and almost warbling on this tape transfer. Great organ and lead from Curtis giving this thing that backroom soul feel. That underground gentlemens club that serves way too much alcohol and guys from the neighborhood sing covers with the house band. It's all recorded together with the rest of the band yelling from the background about being 'the best around'. Half weird joke, this starts to fall apart towards the end but they pull it together and nail this raw, stripped down bluesy soul sound with metallic reverb.
Christian D'Orbit does "Drive Me Crazy" opening into a watery phaser chorus guitar under big time jangle and this side is even better with Christian on snotty punk vocals her first line - "I used to be obnoxious!" Even though this feels like it's running the straight and narrow of shuffling pop rock, she wouldn't have anything to do with contemporary music in '81. Even less with her lyric that he's "driving me crazy" and not in a good I'm in love kind of way. I think more like he burned the house down and crashed the car again. Seriously the band is keeping this groovy rhythm as she peaks out the mic and is driven to screaming her lungs out. Both sides are the beat up heart and the soul of The Penetrators...I'm seeing these guys in a new light.

Pick this one up from Windian Records for the very reasonable price of $5.50.

The Penetrators on Windian Records

Windian Records sent this single in a little while back, a rerelease of a single from Syracuse's own The Penetrators, who, when I was barely one living about an hour away in Rochester, Fred Records released this garage rock single to the post Nixon world. For all the bitchin my dad did about bands not being as good as classic rock and roll countdowns on the AM radio, The Beach Boys, Jan and Dean....I wish I could have told him about local bands that were tearing it up like this...but 30 years later, I'm still getting caught up picking up late '90s singles I missed out on so I can tell my kids that their music sucks and they should have been around during 'lo-fi'.
This single just proves the point I've always knew....there is good music happening in every time, and every place if you just work head enough to find it. Could you even imagine a time when there was no internet and you'd have to talk to someone in Syracuse and find out who the good local bands were, let alone score this single from The Penetrators? I guess in that way people were more 'connected'? Oh hell, it just seems crazy that's all, and you have to respect that.

I love that this A-Side "Gotta Have Her" starts right out with Jack Penetrator introducing the band with a 'Good evening Syracuse, we're called The Penetrators and we're happy to be in town tonight'...this live intro is a genius touch, thinking about them in some studio recording that loose start makes this totally classic, and sets up Jack's verse talking delivery. Spike is echo-ing Jack's chorus in a junkyard dog snarl off in the background, completely drooling into the mic 'You know I gotta have her'. Basically this girl is going to make him forget about everything, who cares about school, you name it...all slightly echo'd over this surf reverb gritty guitar with thin all treble drums...and legitimately sounds like a lot that could have just come out of Floridas Dying or Goner a month ago...even this plain sleeve. But 1976 was a long time ago, and if you say this band was the very beginning, then I'm going to believe you and that's not a bad legacy to have left behind.
The B-Side, "Baby, Dontcha Tell Me", gets real jangly and raw, more melodic and stripped down. Definitely could be a Kinks sound/riff influence, with great vocal quality here just blowing out into the red, and Jack's passionate as hell, really selling this bluesy rock. Even getting to screaming a little bit, because someone is going to tell him what to do? No way...as much as they might have a west coast surf influenced sound, they have a more underlying dangerous edge, real biker gang, working class leather here...actually makes me reminisce about upstate NY. Both of these tracks have still got it...if you've ever heard of Sing Sing or Last Laugh then you should pick this up.

I'm a little worried that it's not listed on Windian's merch page...oh god have I become one of those site's that I always hated...talking about singles that aren't even for sale anymore? NOOOOOOO!

Ok I think I found it after all....did I mention this is faithfully reprinted, down to scanning the original sleeve?