(GI)

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(GI)
Studio album by Germs
Cover

Publication
(s)

October 1979

Label (s) Slash

Format (s)

LP , MC

Genre (s)

Punk rock , hardcore punk

Title (number)

16

running time

38 min 14 s
41 min 39 s (cassette)

occupation

production

Joan Jett

Studio (s)

Quad Teck

chronology
Lexicon Devil
(1978) 		(GI) What We Do Is Secret
(1981)
Template: Info box music album / maintenance / parameter error

(GI) (Germs Incognito) is the 1979 only studio album by the American punk band Germs . Produced on a budget by Joan Jett , the album is now considered a classic of the genre and a forerunner of hardcore punk . Germs frontman and lead singer Darby Crash , who contributed all of the lyrics, committed suicide a year after the LP was released.

production

After the single Forming (1977), the three-track EP Lexicon Devil (1978) and contributions to the genre sampler Tooth and Nail (1978) produced by Chris D. , (GI) was the Germs' fourth studio recording Tape only one more time for recordings for the Al Pacino film Cruising in the studio.

The sessions for (GI) with sound engineer Pat Burnett took place in a small studio in Los Angeles and lasted about three weeks. Joan Jett , who at that time already had considerable success with her band The Runaways , could be engaged as producer . Darby Crash's preferred candidate, Mark Lindsay, turned out to be too expensive for the label. The cost of production amounted to 6,000, according to Slash Records dollars .

To the displeasure of Darby Crash, the proceeds from the record sales were not invested in further work with the Germs, but in a contract with the rival band X. The album did not turn out to be the hoped-for career springboard, especially because the Germs were banned from all clubs in LA and the surrounding area just a few months later due to violent riots during their concerts.

Track list

All pieces were composed by Darby Crash and Pat Smear .

A side

  1. What We Do Is Secret - 0:43
  2. Communist Eyes - 2:15
  3. Land of Treason - 2:09
  4. Richie Dagger's Crime - 1:56
  5. Strange Notes - 1:52
  6. American Leather - 1:11
  7. Lexicon Devil - 1:44
  8. Manimal - 2:11
  9. Our Way - 1:56
  10. We Must Bleed - 3:05

B side

  1. Media Blitz - 1:29
  2. The Other Newest One - 2:44
  3. Let's Pretend - 2:34
  4. Dragon Lady - 1:39
  5. The Slave - 1:01
  6. Shut Down (Annihilation Man) (Live) - 9:40
  7. Caught in My Eye - 3:25 (CD and cassette versions only)

reception

source rating
Allmusic
Rolling Stone
PopMatters
Piero Scaruffi

Hardly noticed by the critics at the time of publication, (GI) is now regarded as a genre classic. Allmusic summarized the LP as an "explosion of self-tearing LA punks" and praised the music and lyrics as well as the production, which was originally criticized as "thin". The Rolling Stone listed the album in 2016 at number 28 of the 40 Greatest Punk Albums of All Time and number 16 of the 40 Greatest One Album Wonders . Although it is impossible to capture the chaos of a Germs concert on record, producer Joan Jett Punk is able to capture the "ruthless and self-destructive climax". Darby Crash's poetic ridicule transports the nihilism of his British role models, while the game of his bandmates transforms into hardcore punk at a speed that makes the Ramones look like “shabby loafers”.

The simple artwork is also considered remarkable. He is credited with having moved the graphic revolution in punk away from the cover design popular in the London scene - like letters cut out in a ransom note. Robert Dimery included the album in his book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Marc Spitz & Brendan Mullen: We Got the Neutron Bomb. The Untold Story of LA Punk. Three Rivers Press, p. 207. ISBN 978-0609807743 (English).
  2. ↑ a b The death and afterlife of an LA punk. The Guardian , August 24, 2008, accessed March 31, 2017 .
  3. ↑ Brendan Mullen: Annihilation Man. LA Weekly, December 27, 2000; accessed February 25, 2017 .
  4. ↑ a b AllMusic Review by Ned Raggett. Allmusic , accessed on March 31, 2017 .
  5. ↑ Acclaimed Music - (GI). (No longer available online.) Acclaimed Music, archived from the original on November 1, 2016 ; accessed on May 2, 2019 .
  6. ↑ The Germs - (GI). PopMatters, accessed April 1, 2017 .
  7. ↑ Scaruffi.com - Germs. Piero Scaruffi , accessed April 4, 2017 (Italian, English).
  8. ↑ 40 Greatest Punk Albums of All Time - 28. The Germs, '(GI)' (1979). Rolling Stone , April 6, 2016, accessed March 31, 2017 .
  9. ↑ 40 Greatest One Album Wonders - 16. Germs, 'GI' (1979). Rolling Stone , July 14, 2016, accessed March 31, 2017 .