The Stalin – Romunchisuto // Light My Fire (Climax/Tokuma Records) 1982. Alright let’s be totally honest here. There is punk rock and there is PUNK ROCK. You dig what I mean? I think what it takes to write and record a great punk single is a total conviction in what you’re doing mixed with minimal musical skills. Sure, I love good musicianship and all but I’m not talking about By-Tor the Snow Dog here peoples. I’m talking about PUNK fucking ROCK. I’m talking about this ridiculously good single by Japan’s The Stalin. I first heard this A-Side on one of those Killed By Death comps back in the day and I was instantly hooked. Who cares that I didn’t understand a word Endo Michiro was saying? I understood the sentiment and that’s all I needed to start jumping around like a lunatic. Years later I got a chance to check out the single and all I can say is the B-Side is the best Doors cover ever. Granted, I am not the best authority on Doors covers but I can’t conceive of a better one. And then there’s the band’s name of which Endo said, ”the name Stalin is very hated by most people in Japan, so it is very good for our image.” I got that from Wikipedia so you know it’s true.
Hardcore Podcasts
September of 2010 I put together eight Hardcore Podcasts. You can check them out here if you are interested. For more insight into how I came up with the years 78-90 for the First Wave you can read about The Hardcore Superiorty Myth.
Yeah, and that Endo cat is a Vietnam vet, just like Lee Ving! The Stalin appearance in the film Burst City and the three Stalin videos by director Sogo Ishii are effin crazy. Ishii has another cool flik you don’t wanna miss called Electric Dragon 80,000V!
STALIN!!! FUCK YES!!!!
I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO FIND THIS FOREVER!!!!
Incidentally, i’m casting a new season of big brother, and we need a hardcore punk blog nerd to play off our whimsical jewish lesbian
Chris G — I’m your man. Lets do lunch
Burst City!!I love it when the Stalin beat up the other band,bash out some noise and piss on the crowd,wish I saw that flick 25 years ago!!!
I’m not even sure if I can name another Doors cover off the top of my head… But I’m willing to concede that, if there are some, that can’t be better than this one.
On a side note — “Touch Me” is the worst Doors song. And I keep fucking hearing it on the radio.
This shit is undeniably great, but I’m still giving the nod to The Dead Milkmen’s “cover” of Love Me Two Times in the intro to Bitchin’ Camaro.
Another punk Doors cover: Break On Through by the Weirdos. Agreed, though, that Touch Me is the worst, yet funniest Doors song ever. “And now, let me get in touch with my silly Tom Jones side”. It’s right up there with “She’s A Lady” whoa whoa whoa. . . I used to bust a gut every time Touch Me’s vocal intro came on the radio. . . Wanna hear something cool by the Doors, track down the five 1965 demos, before they ripped off the Seeds keyboards. . . they sounded like Them or maybe the Animals. . . especially cool is the “Go Insane” tune. Some of the live boots from 1969-71 are fun too, the ones where Morrison is goin’ crazy, refusing to sing properly, clearly showing the inspiration for Iggy!
So ChrisGoesRocks was one of the best music bloggers ever, you can find stuff by him on PirateBay as well. But last week they shut down his blog, he opened another one, it was shut down, then one more, shut down again. Now I assume he is laying low. But it sucks, no one else comes close to the effort and quality this guy put forward, all 60s-70s stuff (and he was from Sverige! Land of the Bay)
Chris G: Forget Big Brother, Put Joe and thewhimsical jewish lesbian on the amazing race.
and torture joe by putting him thousands of miles from any worthwhile record store?
gladly
i’d love to see him clomping across a rustic rope bridge above the amazon
Ha… I could totally handle both the amazon and the whimsical jewish lesbian. Bring it!
Heyy Joe..lookit what I found: http://outofprintpunk.blogspot.com/2009/03/insted-what-we-believe-bonds-of.html
Jenny you gotta buy that! It strengthens bonds!
hitch up yer shorts and tighten the stitching on that tenderfoot patch! it’s posicore-time! last one there will get ribbon of participation like everyone else
Great disc this. A couple of good Doors covers come to mind, X ‘Soul Kitchen’ & ‘Crystal Ship’ + Saccharine Trust ‘Peace Frog’ (Jack Brewer had a stab at this on one of his solo discs too)
Thanks for this.