Bad Dress Sense: Gothic Monstrosities
May 5th, 2008 by EdNever one to turn down a request, here’s the very first BDS demo, Gothic Monstrosities (for James R). Recorded over a couple of days in the basement of a used car salesroom in Kingston in (I think) 1986. The engineer was a lovely bloke called Hick. He even played sax on one of the songs I think. Martin Hawkes (aka Marty Tuff) from the Stupids played lead guitar on a couple of songs (listen out for anything that sounds remotely competent and that’ll be him!). I had no idea what I was doing and relied on Jason and Paul who had both been in the studio already with earlier bands. I’d hung out with the Stupids for a couple of sessions and done a 4-track recording with Frankfurter, but this was the first ’serious’ session I’d ever done. Listening back now I honestly can’t say any of it sounds too clever…in fact most of it’s pretty embarrassing, but I’m amazed at the number of people who like it 20+ years later. To be honest I’m amazed that anyone’s heard it at all.
- Nick Norris - Vocals
- Paul Condon - Bass
- Jason Cook - Drums
- Ed Wenn - Guitar
We Rule: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download All The Same: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download Obsession: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download Dark Knight: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download Need To Love: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download Never So Funny: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download We've Been Waiting: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download Why Even Bother?: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download 11.59 (orig by Blondie): Play Now | Play in Popup | DownloadA lot of it’s punk-by-numbers and influences were very much in evidence. Here’s a rundown of the more obvious steals:
- Obsession = London Dungeon by the Misfits.
- Dark Knight = Heard It All Before by Stupids (or the Marginal Man track that they nicked it from).
- Never So Funny = No More Pain by Embrace (just the intro which is taken from Chris Bald’s bassline)…also a nod to the Stupids again with their song title Always Never Fun (which is way cleverer than my feeble attempt).
- Why Even Bother? = Generic 7 Seconds riff.
Posted in Bad Dress Sense |
May 6th, 2008 at 9:49 am
>>To be honest I’m amazed that anyone’s heard it at all.
I still have it! There was a Stupids interview in one of the music broadsheets and an address at the end to get this and the Frankfurter tape and I sent off and ages later I finally got it.
I remember listening to this in ‘87 and early ‘88 a lot. I recall some flanged guitar in particular.
I remember getting various replies from the Stupids/Vinyl Solution with stickers and flyers for gigs in London. Always fun and not something that happens so much with email these days.
May 6th, 2008 at 2:08 pm
Thank you thank you thank you… Ed you’re a genius… this stuff is as good as the day it was released! I’ve actually never heard this - for ages I only had goodbye… + the peel session (taped on the hop from a peel show back in the day)… I’ve always liked BDS a lot - had a great sound… lot’s of melody - a fore runner to sink/big ray - different but similar! Much appreciated…. thx.
May 6th, 2008 at 2:47 pm
Glad you like it, gents. Truth be told there is another demo which was recorded just before we completely changed our sound and became the first official ‘emo’ (ahem!) band outside Washington DC. This second demo has some strengths and also a fair amount of weaknesses…primary amongst which is the worst guitar sound I’ve ever had courtesy of the engineer who whacked some effect on my guitar without telling me it was going to tape and not just in my headphones. THAT never happened again, believe me
Anyway, I’ll try and find the time to post the second demo (stylishly entitled, “Roman Ruins”) sometime this week.
July 17th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
hi ed,
big thanks for all the stuff you’ve put up,never heard bds before,and i have to say its pretty cool stuff! esp the peel session!
hey i cant dl track 7 [weve been waiting]of the demo,any chance you could repost that track? would be awesome!
ta
rob