Monday, June 12, 2006
Headache / TV Killers - Teenage Sapiens
Headache / TV Killers Teenage Sapiens 7" (Total Heaven, 1995)
This record sort of functioned as my introduction to the modern French rocking punk scene, hidden in yet another split 7" rolling into MRR amidst the torrent of mid-90s 7"ers. You would not belive the sheer number of black 'n white sleeved two-band 45s coming in from Europe in those days, eeeeeh. My fellow reviewer Jeff Random got it for review, and I pulled it out of the stack as well and threw it on to give the French one more chance, more of a chance than they had been giving themselves for what seemed forever. The Headache side I remember as having one good song (here it is) but it was the flipside band who ruled. The TV Killers have a sort of floppy production take on this that robs the song of alot of its muscle-bound propulsive power, but it's that evisceration that enables you to hear the damn guitar, which is properly itchy and scratchy. Ah, mid-90s bands sure loved their wall-of-Ramones guitar wash, especially the New Bomb Turks, who perfected the sonic pummel that reduced alot of potentially good 45s into a soupy grey mush. It ruins the other two songs on the Headache side of this record. Here the TV Killers break the mold.
The TV Killers put out lots more records through the 90s and early 00s, most of which were cursed with terrible cover art that kept away possible converts, cie la vie. Their records, other than this debut EP and their first (really really good) LP on Total Heaven, are pretty easy to find. -Ryan W.
// posted by W/S @ 9:50 PM 
