'Lost' Bands (Updated: The Scientists)

SLOW




Okay so in about 1984 or there about's a bunch of unkept long hairs and short hairs from Vancouver set about making the wildest sleaziest raw power drug rock at the time, and they kinda succeeded with their one and only release (apart from a scant few Singles) the crazily incendiary 6 song EP Against The Glass (1985).

The thing just smoked anything around it including their straight laced squareheaded Hardcore and Metal contemporary's. Tom Anselmi yowls and howls like a Birthday Partied Nick Cave or Canuck Stiv Bators which is to say he is a whole lotta Iggy. And man those guitars are so filthy you'll have to take a shower after listening to the thing.

I mean with their location and sound these guys could be seen as important Grunge inventor's or precursor's, these guys definately in the same camp as other mid 80's bands Green River, Lime Spiders and Smack as being bands firmly rooted in Sleazy 60's and 70's garage punk who thought that splicing dumb headed 70's metal might be a great idea. Hey it was you just were 5 years ahead of your time.

The band self destructed at this infamous incident recounted on Wikipedia (Don't worry it seems genuine):

Slow are most famous for a controversial incident which both marred the Expo 86 festivities and effectively ended the band's career. On the opening night of the Festival of Independent Recording Artists, several people who were not attending the concert wandered into the pavilion, witnessed the band's outrageous live show, and rushed out to complain to Expo management. The officials turned off the power, ending the band's set. Anselmi expressed his displeasure by mooning the audience, and Hamm quickly followed suit, also exposing himself frontally.
The band were detained by the Vancouver police, who considered charging them with indecent exposure. Expo officials initially cancelled the evening's concert, citing security concerns.
Some of the fans in attendance got onstage and refused to leave the venue, others began to riot, and yet another group stormed BCTVs onsite studios, where they protested the concert's cancellation so loudly and persistently that the station had to pull its 11:00 p.m. newscast.
The following day, Expo announced the cancellation of the whole concert festival.


.....Anyway if you like your metal wild, dangerous, beaten and scarred like the Stooges and with a fair bit of psychosis bubbling underneath then go and get this great EP if you can or if you ask nicely i'll send you a link to download it from.


For Fans Of: Stooges, Green River, Mudhoney, Smack, Lime Spiders


Slow - Against The Glass promo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFIRdq-2Vas

Slow - Have Not Been The Same promo

Nice stuff, that I had never even heard of...Cool!!

If anything these guys prove there's a fine line between being obscure or seminal, that line was the Canadian/US border and the distance between Vancouver and Seattle.

Could easily be talked about in the same sentance with Green River and even seen as a seminal band on the start of the Seattle scene......if only they lived a 100 miles or so south.

Ok favorite lost bands one would be Gun (I believe they are from Scottland), very cool band had a minor hit with the song " Better Days", hair metal dude Adam Bomb, but only his first album "Fatal Attraction" because it features former Aerosmith man Jimmy Crespo and former Riot drummer Sandy Slavin, and also would include Manitoba's Wild Kingdom

Shiney wrote:

Okay...In 1973 a group of Boston area kidz got together...bound by a love of fuzzy guitar and loud rawk & roll...they emulated their idols: ALICE, MC5,STONES...they looked like soething dragged into the streets and shot twice only to be dragged in again by the cat. Unattractive men in make up and raggamuffin attire.

In 1975 they began work on their first recorded material...Played as many shows as they could and eventually relased a stupid cool single entitled "Hot For Teacher" (How VAN HALEN ever made theirs without nary a grumble from these guys is beyond me) In 1977 they dropped the big one..."Teenage Suicide" was their debut full length and contains several cuts of sleazily glorious blues based boogie down rawk....It was NEW YORK DOLLS by way of NEW ENGLAND...It was a dash of BLACK OAK ARKANSAS with THE STONES on top...It was one of the greatest sleaze albums of all times....and this band should have been HUGE worldwide...but there is only so much press and AEROSMITH was using it all up...

But don't listen to me...check them out...go to cdbaby listen to the samples and buy the glorious remaster of "Teenage Suicide"...Read on the Boston hard rock scene of the mid/late 70's and see how many times THUNDERTRAIN come up....and then shake your head and say 'Why the hell have I never heard these guys!?"

[url=http://cdbaby.com/cd/thundertrain

http://cdbaby.com/cd/thundertrain[/quote[/url]]



Here you go Sahb.......give us your opinion on your newly acquired Teenage Suicide cd.

THE SCIENTISTS



I could go about this bands whole sordid history, but it's just too long. So i'll keep it short so i can get back to sipping drinks on "Hell Beach".

Band leader Kim Salmon formed the band sometime in the late 70's in Perth (Otherside of Australia) were the original incarnation played great upbeat Heartbreakers/Only Ones power pop punk rock n' roll....but then something happened. Kim and the band were lending their ears to the exciting new (old) sounds of a couple of infamous American bands, and the rest is history.

The new sound was like if the Cramps dug up Johnny Thunders and had him front the Gun Club in some backwards outback swamp. Creedence Clearwater Revival, the Birthday Party and Captain Beefheart also show their ugly heads in the Scientists murderous sludge n' burn swamp rock. This new sound was some of the dirtiest, heaviest and most dangerous rock n' roll ever.

Their the missing link between the Gun Club and Mudhoney.

The Scientists almost single handedly invented Grunge, well that's what Mudhoney and Nirvana would tell you....and really that's all you need to listen to. Older American indie scene veterans Henry Rollins and Sonic Youth were smitten by them and they influenced rafts and rafts of bands like Mudhoney, Nirvana, My Bloody Valentine, Jon Spencer, White Stripes, The Drones etc.

Don't listen to just me, heres some more testimonial.....

The Scientists turned my head around and made a man out of me! They grew hair on my palms and made my socks stink!
Jon Spencer

They wrote fantastic singles and looked like they just crawled out of the ooze. What more could you ask for?
Warren Ellis (Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds)

The Scientist proved to me that rock n roll could be played by gentlemen in fine silk shirts half unbuttoned and still be dirty, cool and real.
Thurston Moore

Kim Salmon is a national treasure
Henry Rollins

Anyway Kim Salmon would end up forming the Beasts Of Bourbon, who are like the greatest rock n' roll band ever. But that's a story for another day.


For Fans Of: The Gun Club, Stooges, Cramps, Mudhoney, Beasts Of Bourbon

You can read more about them here...

http://www.scientists.com.au/

You can listen to samples here (Check out Swampland):

http://www.buy.com/prod/blood-red-river-1982-84/q/loc/109/60501744.html


The Scientists - Blood Red River promo (Good song not their best though)

This thread might come to good use after all. A friend in Minneapolis just mentioned he was going to do a spoof cable show called "Rock discussion" and wanted to include a character very similar to myself like"The Uncle of The Uncool". This is a pretty talented guy actually, he's been in LA for years, and used to be married to Holly Vincent.
RP, sadly the Teenage Suicide album is still sitting on my nightstand with a lot of other good stuff. Maybe I'll tag team it with The Answer, which I should get in the mail tomorrow.

Wait a minute, let's back it up here. Holly Vincent! Thee Holly Vincent of Holly & The Italians. The Right To Be Italian is one of my favourite records ever.

I need to get me some SCIENTISTS...

Ok Rattpoison you convienced me to check out the Scientists

rattpoison wrote:

Wait a minute, let's back it up here. Holly Vincent! Thee Holly Vincent of Holly & The Italians. The Right To Be Italian is one of my favourite records ever.

That's her. They have a son who loves stoner rock, he's 18 now.

[quote="rattpoison"]

Shiney wrote:

Okay...In 1973 a group of Boston area kidz got together...bound by a love of fuzzy guitar and loud rawk & roll...they emulated their idols: ALICE, MC5,STONES...they looked like soething dragged into the streets and shot twice only to be dragged in again by the cat. Unattractive men in make up and raggamuffin attire.

In 1975 they began work on their first recorded material...Played as many shows as they could and eventually relased a stupid cool single entitled "Hot For Teacher" (How VAN HALEN ever made theirs without nary a grumble from these guys is beyond me) In 1977 they dropped the big one..."Teenage Suicide" was their debut full length and contains several cuts of sleazily glorious blues based boogie down rawk....It was NEW YORK DOLLS by way of NEW ENGLAND...It was a dash of BLACK OAK ARKANSAS with THE STONES on top...It was one of the greatest sleaze albums of all times....and this band should have been HUGE worldwide...but there is only so much press and AEROSMITH was using it all up...

But don't listen to me...check them out...go to cdbaby listen to the samples and buy the glorious remaster of "Teenage Suicide"...Read on the Boston hard rock scene of the mid/late 70's and see how many times THUNDERTRAIN come up....and then shake your head and say 'Why the hell have I never heard these guys!?"

http://cdbaby.com/cd/thundertrain[/quote]



Here you go Sahb.......give us your opinion on your newly acquired Teenage Suicide cd.

I shouldn't say anything after one listen as I expect this will be a grower, but the obvious comment is that if DMZ was the Stooges of 70's Boston Mass, then Thudertrain was the Dictators. There's that Dictators attitudinizing shout, which I can't always hack, but the thing that caught me was the beautiful Lonesome Dave Foghat leads that stand out all the more due to the roughness of the whole package.

SAHB Healer wrote:

I posted somewhere recently on the following band, but it got lost so I'll do it again here. Sorry no pictures or anything.

Russia s/t (1980).
There is absolutely no hope that this will ever see re-release on CD, but if I could request anything to be re-released this would be it.
Russia was a Pomp/New Wave/Glam hybrid with a great sense of humor. The closest comparison would be the Canadian band Zon from the same era, but other similar bands would include Sparks, Strapps, and Skyhooks. Their lone album was a great mix of infectious, catchy, and fairly heavy songs. Poppy, but with a unique personality, and loads of it. Unfortunately they went nowhere.
They changed their band name to Force Ten and made a second record (same approach, but not quite as good) which flopped as well. Luckily I was able to find copies of both records on vinyl.
I really don't think this one will ever see the light of day again. Lost indeed.

re-issue due October 14th! Number One on my want list for almost ten years now! Thanks for the heads up Wargod!

These are my Scientists suggestions.....

The Scientists - Blood Red River 1982-84


This is the best place to start, damn essential.

This is the cheapest i've found on the web used....

http://www.amazon.com/Blood-Red-River-1982-1984-Scientists/dp/B000056L0J/ref=pd_bbs_2?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1223005167&sr=8-2

The Scientists - Human Jukebox 1984-86


Great companion to the Blood Red River comp. Very cheap as well.....

http://www.amazon.com/Human-Jukebox-1984-1986-Scientists/dp/B000066API/ref=pd_bbs_5?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1223005167&sr=8-5


If you get those 2, that's all you really need.

There's also this comp which which covers from 82-86 that was released on Sub Pop back in the day. But it's missing some key tracks by them and only recommended if you want a cheap introduction to them.