Gizmos 1976/1977: THE STUDIO RECORDINGS (Gulcher 401)

When we recorded that first burst of adolescent angst and rockin' stoopid, the Ramones were still a local New York band and the Sex Pistols weren't even a rumor in the U.S. The Gizmos was a group of teenage fanzine writers, rock cultists, and heavy-metal dudes with one thing in common: the urge to ROCK! at a time when too many folks had forgotten how. The strong influences of the Dictators, the MC5, the Stooges, the Velvet Underground, 60s garage bands, and 50s rockabilly crashed head-on with teen musicians self-trained on Led Zep, Sabbath, Aerosmith, Santana, and Hendrix. The underground success of the first EP led to another session in April 1977, which spat forth two more EPs: AMERIKA FIRST (just as Amerika was starting to seriously sputter) and GIZMOS WORLD TOUR (the original Gizmos' swine song).

On the occasion of the Gizmos' 30th muffday, Gulcher is semi-proud to present the THIRD pressing of 1976/1977: THE STUDIO RECORDINGS. This CD collects the original Gizmos' three EPs, along with eleven previously unreleased outtakes from the two sessions. The 16-page CD booklet contains mostly unpublished photos, Richard Meltzer's original liner notes for the first EP, and extensive liner notes by yours truly Eddie Flowers. Thrill once again to these classic odes to teen sex: "Muff Divin'," "Cave Woman," and "Pumpin' To Playboy"! "That's Cool (I Respect You More)"! "Chicken Queen" and "(I'm Just A) Regular Dude"!? And don't forget the pleasures of gluttony ("Human Garbage Disposal"), TV ("Mean Screen"), rockabilly ("We're Gonna Rumble"), and underground kulture ("Hey Beat Mon!")!!! Salute the flag to "Amerika First" and then burn it! Stolen riffs, broken hearts, cheap booze, inside on the top and outside on the bottom the Gizmos will never die!!! The disc also includes guest appearances by MX-80's Rich Stim and Johnny Cougar Mellencamp (no kiddin'!).

Following the Gizmos, Ken Highland joined the U.S. Marine Corps (for real!), and then went on to to record with a long succession of East Coast bands: O. Rex, the Afrika Korps, the Hopelessly Obscure, Johnny & The Jumper Cables, the Exploding Pidgins, the Kenne Highland Klan, the Vatican Sex Kittens, and probably some others I can't remember. Rich Coffee, who was one of the three Gizmos guitarists, has been in a long string of bands too, including Thee Fourgiven, the Unclaimed, the Tommyknockers, the Egomaniacs, and the Excessories. He's currently retired from the music biz, and living in Vegas. Dr. Ted Niemiec still lives in the Midwest, where he works in the medical profession, and is compiling a LIVE IN BLOOMINGTON double CD straddling the Gizmos 1977-1978 period of transition. Last I heard, Dave Sulak is the parts manager at a Chevy dealership in Indiana. As for me, I now live in the stupid city of Los Angeles, and have led the ever-mutating Crawlspace since 1985. The other '76/'77 Gizmos are currently M.I.A.

All right now, here's the way we did it before punktitude and stoopidity got self-conscious, self-important, and turned into "punk-rock." Dig it!

Eddie Flowers
Slippy Town
March 2006