The Germs
(GI)

THE REVIEW

The United States and Great Britain had the privilege of simultaneously sowing the seeds of what primarily was a counterculture movement that took the name Punk. A true mocking of the dominant culture, confronted with anger and dismay from both coasts of the Atlantic, not only by names like Sex Pistols, The Clash, or Ramones, who have certainly been reserved a front-line position in history. From the so-called Punk 77 (Damned even before Pistols and Clash!) came the origins of Anarcho Punk (in England Crass and Anti System), but also Street Punk/Oi! (Sham 69 and The Exploited), and Hardcore Punk (Bad Brains and Black Flag the most representative) among others, where it is not difficult to encounter groups with an inevitably brief existence, which today leave us with impetuous and far from predictable records that stand well alongside the works of the aforementioned leading names.

In California, The Germs in their brief existence (1977-1980) were much more than an underground band to which fortune turned its back. After numerous comings and goings, the group settled around the nervous rhythm section of Don Bolles (drums), Lorna Doom (bass), and the two rebellious yet charismatic Darby Crash (vocals) and Pat Smear (guitar), expelled from the University High School of Los Angeles. Born as Sophistifuck (and later also Revlon Spam Queens), they helped to stir the buzz around the band that rose to fame, creating shows characterized by acts of self-harm and insults that were far from a superfluous backdrop to the combined roar of the instruments. The 45 RPM "Forming" (on What? Records) came out in July 1977, and just like the tracks from the subsequent EP LEXICON DEVIL (May 1978), they leave no doubt about the genuineness of their proposition: simple, raw, and immediate music, yet effective at the same time.

It's the fall of 1979, and the coveted achievement of the first LP is reached. The flame that ignites the irreverent spirit of the band takes shape through tracks that, despite their brevity, manage to concentrate and flaunt an innate aversion to an ordinary existence, conveying their dissent unequivocally. Emotions with a primordial taste reflect the bitterness of those who have understood adversity as a reason for living, amplifying the tones of dissent and even better expressed through three blazing chords. An affinity between one track and another that makes it pointless to dwell on individual episodes, but cannot dissuade the writer from inevitably focusing on the unbridled primitiveness of "Communist Eyes" or the malice of "Richie Dagger's Crime," which are well accompanied by the howls of "Strange Notes," perhaps the first seed of the hardcore punk that is to come. The sick melodies of "Our Way" and the frontal assault of "Media Blitz" hold up well, while the meat-grinder riff of "Lexicon Devil" properly anticipates "Manimal," where Crash's bestial screams externalize that sense of self-destruction that would lead him to a premature end, committing suicide with a heroin overdose on December 7, 1980, at just 22 years old.

Just over thirty-eight ruthless minutes of well-conceived music, capable of dragging you into a reckless and autobiographical whirlwind of angry and desperate feelings that find in a devastating and vehement sound a cohesive adhesive, making it absolutely unthinkable that such a one as Dottie Danger, none other than the pseudonym of Belinda Carlisle, the singer of the delightful Go-Go's a few years later and destined for an even more rosy solo career, would be beating the skins for the Los Angeles ensemble.