Just a few comments about the Rock, Etc., column in the October 1 Reader:
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Historically, Naked Raygun’s earliest years (documented on the 1981 compilation Busted at Oz) consisted of a sound a lot closer to the punk of England’s the Fall, and even Chicago’s own Silver Abuse, sort of an antimusic punk rock. One of Raygun’s feature instruments of that period was a synthesizer, which was more of a new-wave tool for other bands back then. I first saw them play back in ’81 or ’82, opening the night at the legendary Club C.O.D.’s, onstage before Husker Du, the Effigies, and the Dead Kennedys, in that order. Raygun was constantly booed, with the audience constantly yelling at them, “Get off the fucking stage!” but they never got off. They kept playing, wasting time between songs, playing more nonhardcore stuff, pissing off the audience. They relished the audience banter. Pezzati sneers in reply to the audience on one Busted at Oz interlude, “The stage doesn’t fuck!” Hmmm. Misplaced modifiers as a source of comedy. Smart. Funny.
That era culminated with Basement Screams, which had to be one of the hottest records of the year on Chicago’s college radio. Schizophrenic? That record held its own on all alternative rock formats. The album cover itself was state-of-the-art, long before Adobe Photoshop. The facilities/process (involved in the creation of the album cover art) made the record credits on its own merit alone. At that time, Raygun was bidding to be the best Chicago punk band ever, with a sound like no other back in 1983. If I’m not mistaken, even Dave Grohl did a Basement Screams cover of “I Lie” with his group Foo Fighters. I guess even he remembered its impact.
Speaking of raw meat, I was at Metro that Thanksgiving night. I believe it was Haggerty on the chain saw, with Pezzati being the good host, tossing out the pieces of bird–well, at least those pieces not already flung about by the chain saw.
Evanston
