Does anyone own a copy of their "Who needs wildlife anyway?" 45. I've been looking for a copy. Would pay or possibly make a trade if anyone wants to part ways with it.

Supposedly it's the first punk 45 to come out of NM. Anybody have mp3s of this material at least?

Grackles are blackbirds, and so are Gracchi. Saw heaps of them in Austin.

Zac - contact Mark Andrews (Strawberry Zots) - it was his band. I'll email you his address.
I had that 45 back when he gave it to me in '84 - have no idea where it is now. If I find it - you CAN'T have it!

Mark swears they were the first punk band in Albuquerque (from his blog):

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Wednesday, March 07, 2007

The First Punk Rock Band In NM?

Way back (yes we're old) in 1976 the Grackles released what I think was the first punk rock record in the state of NM. It was a simple 45 with a simple black and white label. The 45 consisted of four songs: 1) Who needs wildlife anyway? 2) Don't get me wrong 3) It's my party ( Yes, the Leslie Gore Masterpiece --- complete with an excerpt from one of Hitler's Nurenburg speeches) 4) She's a Fool (another Leslie Gore tune done in the style of the Buzzcocks --- whom we had not even heard of at that point).

If anyone knows of any NM Punk records that predate June 1976 please let me know.

Thanks

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Also - he's got mp3s up on their myspace profile:

myspace.com/thecosmicgrackles

I'd say Mark is right, although when I was given a copy in the winter of 1976, it was presented to me as Garage/Weirdo rock, rather than Punk. The record was given to me by some nerdy stoner who was living in Coronado dorm where I knew a few heads. He was all into regional and locally produced music. I couldn't believe a local band outside of Al Huricane could put out a record (I was ignorant of the process then). A couple years later when I worked at KUNM, I routinely spun that disc and ended up with a second copy when a major regime and format change was going down (no, I didn't steal it, and there was still three other copies.).

There were a few bands at that time that were promoting themselves as Punk/New Wave (The Wongs, The Generics, The Philisteens), but the Cosmic Grackles were the first to lay it down on vinyl, as far as I can tell. Although as I mentioned, they never promoted themselves as Punk, and even by the standards of the day back then, they didn't sound Punk.

this should go to mark

http://www.akoolstik.com/app/webroot/strawberryzots/contact.htm


if you contact him, and he gets all sentimental about the old days, just kick him.

i will also pass it on.

quote:

Originally posted by black:
I'd say Mark is right, although when I was given a copy in the winter of 1976, it was presented to me as Garage/Weirdo rock, rather than Punk. The record was given to me by some nerdy stoner who was living in Coronado dorm where I knew a few heads. He was all into regional and locally produced music. I couldn't believe a local band outside of Al Huricane could put out a record (I was ignorant of the process then). A couple years later when I worked at KUNM, I routinely spun that disc and ended up with a second copy when a major regime and format change was going down (no, I didn't steal it, and there was still three other copies.).

There were a few bands at that time that were promoting themselves as Punk/New Wave (The Wongs, The Generics, The Philisteens), but the Cosmic Grackles were the first to lay it down on vinyl, as far as I can tell. Although as I mentioned, they never promoted themselves as Punk, and even by the standards of the day back then, they didn't sound Punk.

Yes, but the stuff I'm digging into these days is all this proto-punk stuff. This sounds so right up my alley. The best punk was never called punk to begin with. Stuff like the electric eels and that whole midwest scene come to mind. I have no idea what these guys sound like but I've heard mention of the track "Who needs wildlife anyway?" in the past.

If you want to sell one of your copies I'll pay decently for it!
Pleeeeeease!?

Jamie, let me know if you find your copy. I'd love to hear it at least!
-Z

This is by no means 70's punk, but does anyone remember the burque band "The Jonny Cats"? I remember seeing them back maybe 15 years ago and they rocked.

Oh man, I hope you still have a copy at least? I know those guys lost practically all of their zots recordings due to a flood they had in their house a few years back ('95 I think). I could only buy old zots recordings from EBay.

That record's gotta be priceless now. I need to look through all of my boxes in the garage. He says it was a black and white label but I remembered it being green.

quote:

Originally posted by Five Minute Sin:
This is by no means 70's punk, but does anyone remember the burque band "The Jonny Cats"? I remember seeing them back maybe 15 years ago and they rocked.

The Jonny Cats were one of the best rockabilly bands around. Kenta Henmi is now living here and in a new band called, the Sick Sick Sicks (the name of which is HIGHLY controversial.) I think they're playing most Thursday nights at Atomic if you want to catch his new band. He was also in The Blastamottos.

Unfortunately the mp3s on their myspace are not that particular 45. Sounds like stuff they did in the 80s to me.

Yeah-- I was looking for his version of "It's my party" that was on that 45 with Leslie Gore singing backup (he knew her when he lived in Chicago). Better email him.

quote:

Originally posted by black:
even by the standards of the day back then, they didn't sound Punk.

i thought punk music was originally not any exclusionary style but an alternative to the blowdryer bands and so-mellow-they-ripen-and-rot california acts prevalent at the time.

although none of them claimed it themselves, the cbgb contigent were the first to fall under that tag en masse: ramones, voidoids, blondie, talking heads, televison, patti smith and even dead boys and pere ubu. musically they have as much in common as marilyn manson and lawrence welk.

hell i was just reading some old creem magazine reprints that called the new york dolls music punk...in 1973!

it seems the term punk really solidified when so-cal assholes like jack grisham(tsol) and other like-minded jock-offs (not a typo)took over the scene. to me, those guys embody punk values least of all out of anyone, unless you think being punk means being a testosterone-addled idiot.


apologies for bringing up this tired old subject yet again but everytime someone claims they're the first to do anything, i guarantee if you keep digging you'll find someone else who hasn't made the claim but fits the bill. like, that first modern lovers demo seems punk as hell to me. it was recorded in 1971 and 1972.

quote:

Originally posted by captain america:

quote:

Originally posted by black:
even by the standards of the day back then, they didn't sound Punk.

i thought punk music was originally not any exclusionary style but an alternative to the blowdryer bands and so-mellow-they-ripen-and-rot california acts prevalent at the time...

You thunk correct sir. And by that (very correct, in my opinion) definition of Punk, the Cosmic Grackles would fall under that catagory. But the Cosmic Grackles didn't sound like any of the bands you mentioned (which I suppose in some ways keeps them into the Punk catagory.) and that was what I was more or less basing my opinion on. Plus I can't ever recall the Cosmic grackles playing out and they weren't filed under Punk/New Wave/Experimental at the Radio Station or at Natural Sound (when they were on Harvard)

And around that same time, I too was turned on to the early Jonathan Richmond stuff and was told it was Punk, which sort of made sense until the same person who gave me that album claimed Eddy Money was Punk/New Wave as well.

All in the eye of the beholder, I suppose...

quote:

Originally posted by black:
...claimed Eddy Money was Punk/New Wave as well.

yeah everyone gets tagged with it sooner or later.

for my money (no pun intended) if you claim you're punk, you ain't.

quote:

Originally posted by C.C. California:
I had that 45 back when he gave it to me in '84

quote:

Originally posted by black:
although when I was given a copy in the winter of 1976,

Your weiner's bigger than mine.

quote:

Originally posted by captain america: marilyn manson and lawrence welk.

That is a bill I'd pay to see. But who headlines?

quote:

Originally posted by captain of industry:

quote:

Originally posted by captain america: marilyn manson and lawrence welk.

That is a bill I'd pay to see. But who headlines?

it alternates each night of the tour. but the best part is each covers the other's songs.

quote:

Originally posted by C.C. California:

quote:

Originally posted by C.C. California:
I had that 45 back when he gave it to me in '84

quote:

Originally posted by black:
although when I was given a copy in the winter of 1976,

Your weiner's bigger than mine.

well that's a relief. to me anyway.

quote:

Originally posted by captain america:

quote:

Originally posted by captain of industry:

quote:

Originally posted by captain america: marilyn manson and lawrence welk.

That is a bill I'd pay to see. But who headlines?

it alternates each night of the tour. but the best part is each covers the other's songs.

The funny thing is, it isn't a stretch to picture that AT ALL.