The 1981 Listening Post - Plasmatics- Beyond the Valley of 1984

 Plasmatics- Beyond the Valley of 1984

#213

By Aaron Conte

Plasmatics

Beyond the Valley of 1984

Genre: punk shock rock

Allen’s Rating: 

Rating: 1.5 of 5

Stand out trax: 

Pig Is a Pig

Sex Junkie

I was lucky enough to review the debut Plasmatics record, New Hope for the Wretched, and this is (was) their second release in 1981. Great cover art, great title, great idea to release a second record, but...only if it wasn't this. There is zero growth here, but I feel as if I'm nitpicking if I even as so much mention "growth" in something as wild as punk rock. This band was really much more of a freedom of speech statement than a band looking to grow and appeal to a wider audience. Plus they made an indelible mark with the first release, this could never match or surpass that mark. It definitely is mixed differently than the first and is absolutely a quieter album...making for a decidedly corporate sounding brand of punk rock. Their first album was bright, scary, aggressive and bold. This has way too much sheen on it as well as conditions. You can feel the deadline hovering and the money clock ticking in these recordings. Disappointed. 

"Incantation"

Putting this on in my little town for my little friends really established me as someone to beware of...from what I can tell it's a black mass opening chant on a loop - church organ - that if you listen close enough, sounds like they're saying "omni plasmatics" Clever way to open your record really. Put a spell on the listener. 

"Masterplan"

Kick ass metal chords with Wendy's voice right up front in your face.

Can't say you will come away from this one knowing what the plan is however, but you will know that they blew it.

"Headbanger"

Tame. What's going on here?? Production has the band dialed back, maybe in favor of Wendy's lyrics, but...it really doesn't serve the overall impact, nor does it represent the band on the cover of this album. I want my money back! 

"Summer Nite"

Parody of a 1950's date night song. Young man murdered at a rock and roll club in front of his girlfriend, who ends up killing herself to end the pain of her loneliness. Pretty cool!

"Nothing"

Ah finally - some speed. This is more like it - probably should have been the lead off track (well, after the black mass). 

"Fast Food Service"

Punk rock filler?? Never heard of such a thing. Man this is worse than I remember it.

"Hitman" (Live in Milan)

With all the overdubs and mixing tricks on this record, it's hard to take this seriously...is it live or is it memorex? Crowd sounds huge. Was there a giant italian audience for the Plasmatics in 81? 

"Living Dead"

I'm not a zombie fan. I just don't get, never got, the whole phenomenon of zombies; as in for real undead people who walk the earth looking for brains. There seems to have been a resurgence of the genre over the last couple years, and this song is the only-thing-zombie I like.

"Sex Junkie"

Harder faster chorus, the coda type slowed down ending, and her yelling "eat me!", my favorite parts. 

"Plasma Jam" (Live in Milan)

Eight minute instrumental - competent band on a repetitive riff.

Time for Wendy to gas up her chainsaw and replace nipple tape.

"A Pig is a Pig"

Curve ball! Wendy gives a great Grand Ole Opry introduction to what becomes your run of the mill Plasmatics formula uptempo little ditty. Wendy railing against authority of all kinds. General outrage. Obligatory Big Brother reference for the record with 1984 in the title. Pig oinks to finish.

I'm glad this band kept putting out records and drawing attention to themselves, and I'm glad we had Wendy O in our lives for the short time we did, but there's no need to give this one a spin. 

https://open.spotify.com/album/2q0rVjyWwIND1zGAk6TVY7?si=LWcVwfyeRFaPQXpv-D5Lzg

The 1980 Listening Post - The Plasmatics - New Hope for the Wretched

 The Plasmatics - New Hope for the Wretched

#388

by Aaron Conte

October 2 1980

The Plasmatics 

New Hope for the Wretched

Genre: Shock Rock Punk Rock and Roll. 

Allen’s Rating: 2 out of 5

Aaron’s Rating: 3 out of 5

Highlights:

Butcher Baby 

Monkey Suit 

 Hail Satan 

It's taking me forever to write this review, and it shouldn't. I've been pretty depressed these last few weeks. I'm letting the virus get me down and living with it, coping through it, simply dealing with what it is doing to us has me at times paralyzed. What helped was reliving a more positive and optimistic time via youtube. 

When I was twelve, my parents let me stay up to watch the new show Friday's ("Live! From Los Angeles!") and this was a terrific window to what I was missing musically growing up in a small rural town in central New York. 

In fact, late night television was key to my adolescent musical upbringing (that and my dad buying me Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols). So when The Plasmatics exploded onto the screen in my bedroom at around 12:30am Friday night/Saturday morning one freezing upstate New York January night, it didn't take long for me to warm up (see? my writing sucks now). 

Wendy O Williams was the lead singer of The Plasmatics. Animal activist, macrobiotic cook, lifeguard and gemini (she shares May 28 with me and Allen), she started the band with her husband, Yale grad Rod Swenson. They put the group together and quickly took the New York punk scene by storm. 

New Hope for the Wretched is their debut album. It combines early metal with punk energy ala Motorhead, while highlighting a very new for the time aggressive female voice and presence. Sounding like Patti Smith being punched in the gut, Wendy mocks and snarls her words that are both terrifying and exhilarating. This is absolutely music I would have to turn down when I knew my mother was near my room, it was that scary. It is also that good! 

As I have written in the past, good new rock and roll should be unsettling; making the listener feel as if maybe they don't like what they are hearing, or that there is something just a bit off, but then in a day or two you need to keep playing it over and over again. It sounds great just like plain old electric guitars, bass and drums do when recorded with no effects, no jive, but alive in a room letting the drummer count off songs by clicking their sticks. One very unusual and unsettling detail is that for a few songs here, there is the count in of "one two three four" in Japanese. Giving the listener the feeling that there was some kind of hidden message that we might be missing. Great idea. Visuals always took the front driver seat and music most definitely came last. Actually chain sawing guitars in half, sledge hammering televisions, a man with no eyebrows, wearing eyeliner, a blue mohawk, a tutu and garterbelt stockings. 

Not to mention Wendy; almost always topless or approximately with black tape over her nipples. I was twelve, did I mention, and this was all I needed to throw all my chips in with this band. Guilty. Songs like "Butcher Baby" and "Monkey Suit" are absolute must spins, but the record does just mix punk and rock with a simple formula that I think is now offered at most colleges. No review of mine would be complete without some allusion to KISS, so why should this one be any different? Later in the early eighties, Gene Simmons got the whole band together around Wendy to help produce her solo career. Naturally the band who put high theater, shock rock on the map (after Alice Cooper) would see her on the radar and want to be a part of what she was doing. The Plasmatics were one big giant, fully realized performance art band I think. In the end it's tons of fun to put on some of their music and get into it, but the show was really what put people in the seats, and money in the register. 

Also, and for now, the much needed dopamine release that most certainly comes with this band. I suppose remembering some of my formative years in a time that was exciting and new, together with the music is what's keeping me buoyant. 

I do love the idea that The Plasmatics New Hope for the Wretched album is pulling me out of the doldrums. Wendy took her own life with a pistol in 1998 outside the home she shared with Rod, her husband of twenty two years. She had left him love letters, his favorite noodles and some seeds to plant. She helped to combat sexism in the rock industry, always worked hard for the sake of the show, she was not a drug addict nor an alcoholic. She cared about animals, was shy and a defender of the voiceless. She was always in great shape and good health having adopted vegetarianism at an early age. At some point she just couldn't deal with people and yes there was depression. This Plasmatics review is not meant to be a public service announcement for people who suffer with depression, but I am sure we all have found ourselves staring off into the distance at least once or twice since April, lost in whatever troubles us today wondering where we will be tomorrow, next week, next month, next year. 

Do yourself a favor, do me a favor, and get in touch or put on one of the records we are reviewing. It helps and that's the point. There is new hope for the wretched. Sweet Jesus, what's happening to my writing?!

https://music.apple.com/us/album/new-hope-for-the-wretched-metal-priestess/78612914

The 1986 Listening Post - Wendy O. Williams - Kommander Kaos

Wendy O. Williams - Kommander Kaos

#53/1220

February 21 1986

The Plasmatics (Wendy O. Williams)

Kommander Kaos

Genre: Metal

3.75 out of 5

Highlights:

Hoy Hey (Live to Rock)

Ain’t None of Your Business (Live)

Work That Muscle (Fuck That Booty)

Imagine what this might sound like if it was produced well. Might. Operative word.

I loved Wendy. Not her voice or her stage persona or really anything that she ever did publicly. I loved what she was. A staunch middle finger to just about everything. She basically ushered in the era of Jerry Springer all by herself. She was what Wrestlemania wanted to be, dressed up in nipple covering gaffer’s tape and a growl that made Joan Jett sound like Celine Dion in comparison. 

My heart broke for her when I learned of her suicide. But I bet the only kind of person who could do or be something like Wendy (a female GG Allin in a way, much less scatological and much more accessible) had some deep seated demons to wrestle with. 

I really wish this didn’t sound like it was recorded in the Holland Tunnel. 

I’ll take her storytelling on “Ain’t None of Your Business (Live)” over any heartland Springsteen story, any day. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/kommander-of-kaos/78418434

The 1984 Listening Post - Wendy O. Williams - WOW

Wendy O. Williams - WOW

#333
1984 Housekeeping
Wendy O. Williams
WOW
3.25 out of 5

Highlights:
I Love Sex (and Rock and Roll)


I have to believe that the opening track "I Love Sex (and Rock and Roll)" with it's pounding bass & drums and big power chords is Wendy's answer to Joan Jett. The first two notes of the chorus are exactly the same. So, if there was ever a supporting argument, it's that.

My heart has always broken for Wendy. I think she was most like a heavily damaged person and I never found her alluring or compelling in any way. She was fodder for the shock radio/tv circuit before almost anyone. And then she blew her brains out. (Boy, rock really does invite the damaged people, huh?)

I kept thinking that this album sounded like someone was trying really hard to make Wendy accessible and radio friendly and then I looked at the liner notes only to discover that it was produced by Gene Simmons, he and Stanley wrote on it, Ace, Eric, Paul all played on it in various places...it was Kiss as fronted by a woman. A woman of decidedly minimal vocal talents, but still. That's what it is. And yet, did you know that Wendy was nominated for Best Rock Vocal performance Grammy for this album?
I did not.
Good for her.
R.I.P. Wendy

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/w-o-w/78676908