DMZ
DMZ

CBGBs becomes the hot spot. Max's Kansas City even offers happy hour, and so the new New York punk scene is all set. It's nineteen seventy-seven, everyone knows that.

Of DMZ, however, little is known, that they were a punk/noise band from Boston and nothing more.
So let me tell you (so you can also know a little something about DMZ) that if you take the garage beat rhythm of the Wailers and mix it with the guitar slashes of the Pretty Things and the punk'n'roll fury of the early Stooges, you've got DMZ. Frightening, huh?
Then I'll tell you about how they got permanently kicked out of CBGBs because the singer Jeff Conolly aka 'Monoman' laid a hand on Hilly Krystal’s wife (just someone, the owner of the place) in the women's bathroom, or I'll describe in detail how their "Mighty Idy" is the best plagiarism-tribute to Gerry Roslie in the history of garage punk. Or maybe I'll reveal to you that the last two drum beats in the recording of "Cinderella" are literally the sound produced by the fracture of the drummer's right hand (needless to say, that very take ended up in the final mix of the record because it was admittedly 'very punk').

DMZ. De Militarized Zone: while future sacred monsters like Dead Boys and New York Dolls were battling each other with electric guitars and beer cans, DMZ were studying in their headphones Eddie & The Hot Rods and Blue Oyster Cult to find cross elective affinities and sharpened their teeth by rediscovering the UK sound of the British Invasion, hence freakbeat and lots and lots of mid-60s garage that’s always good for your health. Fast, precise, reliable, and crazy like speedypizza guys who give you a punch in the gums at payment and speed off on motorbikes. At some point, they convinced themselves they were all playing in the Sonics (ten years later) but with the intent to cover the entire b-sides of the Troggs and rock much harder.
"It's 1977, and punk has become a bore, because this newly born love is already over, and heavy metal is already screwing us!". A cut above all the others and never acknowledged, there's genius in them. Just enough technique, loads of fury, straightforward and chaotic rock'n'roll but with style: DMZ's debut is the stroke of luck among the records you dreamed of. Because it delivers a series of stunning covers ("Cinderella" by the Sonics, "Out Of Our Tree" by the Wailers, and "From Home" by the Troggs) and would baffle any mortal just with "Bad Attitude" and "Don't Jump Me Mother" which sound like the best outtakes from Funhouse. What else do you want to know? That the bass line of "Border Line" was liked so much by Billy Idol that he used it in 'White Wedding'?

As we say around here, if you don’t know things... figure it out.