Sunday, March 05, 2006

Cockscratch - s/t




Cockscratch s/t 7" (Needle, 1996)

With records like these you can really start to pick up the quite apparent Registrators influence going through the Japanese scene by the mid 90's, as opposed to Teengenerate. All three tracks by this here Cockscratch are purely in the vein of that band's pre-'Terminal Boredom' singles; fast (but not a blur), scratchy and completely illegible. Their 'Janglish' is best understood on the last track, a spot-on cover of the mightily underrated Models (UK) 'Man of the Year' 45 from 1978, probably because they are trying to annunciate in a propah English accent, 'roight? This was a 300 press that sold out very quickly and was veddy tuff to track down at the time, I had to depend on a UK-via-Japan source to get this copy into my trembling mitts. No sleeve issued, but it came with a big fold-out insert to tape up on the wall in your rabbit-hutch Tokyo apartment, but you'll have to take something else down first, hm... This band also has tracks on the superlative Chloroform compilation, which is probably the single best representation of 90's garage-kbd-styled punk from the Japanese scene. Every home etc.

Cockscratch also was the first record put out on the not-quite-notorious-yet Needle Records, apparently a side project hobby label for a member of fast power poppers Radio Shanghai (sic?). This label seemed to take several years off before exploding with a rush of great new records around 2003-4, which is remarkable as labels almost never come back from a fallow period, that's usually the end of the line. Here's hoping they don't sink back into that bear cave for another five year snooze. -Ryan W.


Comments:
Actually, the Needle guy was a memeber of the Privateways, not Radio Shanghai. Cockscratch is one Japanese record that I really wish I could get my hands on!
 
Right, Privateways, okay...that's why the (sic).

Cockscratch went on the 'bay for 30-odd in Jan.

-rw
 
Muchas gracias for this. Always loved their cuts on Chloroform. With a name like Cockscratch...it's gotta be good.
Didn't they evolve into another current band??
 
I believe they became Intimate Fags.
 
Cardwell belives right.
 
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