Some FEATURED ARTISTS on this week’s Stronger Than Dirt (Saturday, 8-10pm) include the Opus 1, Saints, Hazel O’Connor, 100 Flowers (see promo), Shonen Knife, Monsters, Polysics, Fungi Girls, new music by La Femme (France), Smirk (LA), Waste Man (NOLA), Spread Joy (Chicago), Cripples (Seattle), and CDG (Portland), as well as the weekly Dusty Diamond.
PICTURE SLEEVE OF THE WEEK: The Monsters, a Swiss garage punk band (and previous Dusty Diamond), released “Youth Against Nature” in 1995 on the Record Junkie label. It features the work of the prolific Canadian cartoon artist Darren Merinuk. He was a favorite among 90s garage and punk bands, and continues to do cover and comic book art. Much of his work is heavily influenced by the EC and Marvel Strange Tales comics of the 50s. This “Youth Against Nature” album is a limited edition of 300 on red translucent vinyl, and comes in a spectacular fold-out cover. The outer sleeve depicts an idyllic suburban neighborhood scene, while the inner switches to a gruesome nightmare scene, replete with crazies, corpses and lots of blood. The album also comes with a cool poster and a Monsters “Voodoo Sex Coffee” trinket. Watch my show and tell in the video if you care to see the somewhat disturbing inner sleeve.
LAST WEEK’S DUSTY DIAMOND (a forgotten gem from the STD vaults): The Prissteens were a (mostly) female garage rock band from NYC that included the Devil Dogs’ Mighty Joe Vincent on drums. They released a couple of singles and an album in the mid 90s before dissolving in 1998. “Wildman” is an uninhibited Headcoatees sounding party rocker. It appeared on their first release, a 1996 single on the Ectoplasm label. Listen to ithere:
Promo art from a 1982 100 Flowers EP on Happy Squid Records. Photo by Kat Talley-Jones.