Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Gents (South Africa, 1980)

Staying with South Africa we have a 7" from the Gents. They also released an LP in 1982. More info here, where I borrowed the 7" sleeve scan from.

Gents - School Kids / 1917 7" (RPM 00548, 1980)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Fantastic! That SA rock site is fantastic, isn't it? A great and distinct rock scene that I've taken a strong liking to. I remember getting KBDs 40 and 41 on the same day, mind blown that there'd been punk bands in Argentina, Brazil, Greece...and South Africa, a place I think everyone feels odd about. It was the Wild Youth single and at it seemed thin and "snotty" in all the wrong ways, like a bad mod single. Compared to Dog Detachment and Pop Guns (my only other SA exposure in the next 10 years, on that MRR tape) Wild Youth's inspiration on the single is just that they did it. When I finally heard Six From the Best (the "Streets" of South Africa) I realized they were a force. "Record Companies" starts out at least chunkier than the single, but midway thru it turns desperate like Raw Power Stooges doing an Negative Trend song? "All Messed Up" seems similar to those by teens of the "Death Trip" like the Outsiders, Kriminella, or Glo. Lead gtr plays like he's 2 minutes to get kicked out the instrument shop.

So one thing I was wondering (tho I doubt): are there any photos of Leopard? They're feisty. I bet they'd like these Gents. Those songs were like the Donkeys' best, or in local terms a less progressive Asylum Kids (I think they're related to Safari Suits or Corp.Punishment...and they all come out of the Radio Rats).

We gotta get this album, dude. If it's reissued, fuck it I'm paying shipping; I've got the Radio Rats, first two Dog Detachment longplayers, the Afrika Korps compilation tape, all the Asylum kids...and a best-of by a weird sort of New Wave rural pink floyd band called Falling Mirror. And a weird tribal thing called Wildebeast that could be described at Pigbag with Joni Mitchell singing. (Freedom's Children, John Kongos, A-Cads, Suck, and McCully Workshop cover it oldieswise, and dl'd all the Durban hardcore on Power Noize...but for Punk, New Wave, Powerpop, man I'll help you out any way I can.)

The News, Lancaster Band, the Pop Guns, and Dog Detachment all have early singles I'd die to hear. A comp (with Pop Guns)called Mountain Rockers came out in 82. My #1 want is a vinyl-sourced Peach LP (or any singles) since the mp3s I have are bad sounding. With the Asylum Kids they're my favorite, despite my distaste for ska.

I do of course have some other wants to throw out:

The MD's Brain Damage LP (the only punk/kinda retro garage LP from Puerto Rico, 81 or so.

The Mother's Ruin "Dany Hot Dog" single, I love that track but I don't have the flip. Well that's about it for now, thank you enormously!