Ripped the Plasmatics Vice Squad recordings from vinyl to MP3 last night. Those records were made on the worst vinyl possible. It pops and clicks more than any record I've ever heard. And, they did the worst job of recording themselves on the first 7" than any other record that I'm aware of. But, less than a year later, the third record was out and the sound was the classic Plasmatic growl we all loved to see live. It's too bad Wendy O needed the fame so much that when it went away she became depressed. She attempted to kill herself three times until she finally succeeded. Their first LP on stiff records, "New Hope for the Wretched" is a true punk classic, and had they stopped there, they would forever be remembered as one of the greatest and most outrageous Punk bands ever. In 1980 the Plasmatics were king. They signed to Stiff, released, two 7"ep's, a 12"ep, and an LP. Then they released Beyond the Valley of 1984, in early 1981. That made them huge underground favorites. And that lasted for most of 1981, till they put out Metal Priestess. As soon as I saw it, I groaned. It was over. The most outrageous punk band ever, had gone over to the dark side. Before I criticize them, I'll mention that I still consider their first LP to be one of the finest 'punk' records ever. I saw hem perform numerous times, and even got half a guitar from Wendy at a show in West Hartford. On with the Plasma-bashing. They released "Beyond the Valley of 1984" it was heavy, it was hard. It kicked ass, which was enough to get the emerging Metal Heads attention. Iron Maiden? Judas Priest? Fuck that. Here's a mostly naked woman, blowing up cars, and fronting a band that was never afraid to go head to head with anyone. And they rocked. Masterplan, a song from Beyond The Valley of 1984, got the attention of Lemmy from Motorhead, and that was that. The Plasmatics reinvented themselves as a metal band, lost the outrageous costumes, and the next two records were abysmal plas-metal. Metal Priestess was a damn good thrash metal album. But it showed that the once mighty Plasmatics were sinking, and it wouldn't be long before they were just K-Mart bargain bin metal crap. Wendy made a couple of movies, "Candy Goes to Hollywood ", a 1979 porn movie, and "Reform School Girls" being the best. RSG is a classic throwback to the 50's but updated for the 80's and Wendy O. If you like camp, then I recomend RSG. "New Hope for the Wretched" is still a classic. I'd recommend it to anyone who likes the Sex Pistols or the Dead Boys. Both of whom, self destructed before they could ruin a perfect slice of early punk. Here's to Wendy, may she rest in peace, and for the rest of us, well, we should throw on "Monkey Suit" and be glad it existed.

I also ripped Let them Eat Jellybeans. This was a half hardcore, half post punk compilation put out in 1982 by Alternative tentacles records. This LP was everywhere. Everyone who liked hardcore got this LP for the Hardcore side. It had, The Dead Kennedy's, Black Flag, Circle Jerks, Bad Brains and Flipper. All of them would be huge within a year. Hard core was still out there, plugging away, day in and day out. The Dead Kennedy's were still kicking, and Black Flag, and Misfits were still club bands. Punk wasn't dead. It survived the Plasmatics, but it would never again see anything like them.