(Virgin, 1978)The Flying Lizards’ version of Cochran’s mass-mind standard “Summertime Blues” stutters and lurches in the opposite direction from Blue Cheer’s guitar-freakout blat-cover of same with no longing looks back. Total mechanized harshness with aggressively icy femme mumbling – rebellion is boring, so is the rawk formula by ’78. Kraftwerk and Bowie had worked at times in a roughly similar realm, but those guys had at least some finesse and grace on display in what they did… the Flying Lizards are clunky, clang-clang-clang industro-crud with about zero concessions made to HUMANITY and FEELING; “petulant minimalism,” sez an insightful sleevenote. B-side “All Guitars” (a group original) is similarly alien soundtrack/instro stuff, a more rudimentary Tubeway Army, mebbe. Interesting and unsettling all around. These folks ran in the same circles as fellow pop-destructocons Family Fodder, appropriately enough, and if you imagined the stripping of that band of all energy and emotion, you’re mentally moping in Lizard League, see. Picture = got.
1 comment:
Personally, I just love the way she says, "I'll take my problem to the United Nay-shuns" with about the feeling with which one might say, "I'm gonna ask for my money back."
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