POX: PlasMaticS

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This'll separate the men from the boys....

http://www.modernatomic.com/plasmatics/images/smheartbk.jpg

In honor of Jeanne Fury for having the good taste and sound judgement to champion the legendary Plasmatics here (So, I picked up FEVER TO TELL.....), let's hear from those of you with the moxie to admit your favorites by Wendy & the Boys. (....and why do I have the feeling this will be the most sparesly attended thread in ILM history?)

Mine....

1. "Lunacy"
2. "Masterplan"
3. "A Pig is a Pig"
4. "Sex Junkie"
5. "No Class" - Motorhead cover
6. "Butcher Baby"
7. "Doom Song"
8. "Stop!"
9. "Living Dead"
10. "Party" - technically a W.O.W track from her second solo album, but sue me.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 29 April 2003 22:12 (twenty-two years ago)

Okay, this might be a thread tended to by the two of us, Alex, but it's still my favorite thread to date. Here are ten of my favorite Wendy O/Plastmatics tracks (i.e. I have more and this list would definitely change if you asked me tomorrow) in no particular order:

A Pig is a Pig
Butcher Baby
Tight Black Pants
Put Your Love In Me
No Class
I Love Sex (and Rock N Roll)
Ready To Rock
Dream Lover - cover song
Squirm
Beyond the Valley

― Jeanne Fury (Jeanne Fury), Wednesday, 30 April 2003 13:19 (twenty-two years ago)

I've tried in the past to vault the band into the ILM spotlight ( What If.....the Plasmatics Never Existed? ), but said thread was similarly sparsely traversed.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 30 April 2003 14:34 (twenty-two years ago)

Butcher Baby
Living Dead
Concrete Shoes
Monkey Suit
Squirm
Sometimes
A Pig is a Pig
Lunacy
Test Tube Babies
Dream Lover

― dave q, Wednesday, 30 April 2003 16:34 (twenty-two years ago)

I know barely anything about their music besides hearing it in punk bars every once and a while. I go, "Hey, what's this?" and someone will say, "Hey, it's the Plasmatics!" and I'll go, "Hey, aces, I gotta get that sometime." And then I never do. So tell me something to buy, and I'll buy it tonight, because I'm on a fucking shopping-therapy spree.

― Ally (mlescaut), Wednesday, 30 April 2003 16:38 (twenty-two years ago)

I'd say Beyond the Valley of 1984 is the best place to start.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 30 April 2003 16:40 (twenty-two years ago)

Yes, that's a damn good one. But I think I'd go for New Hope for the Wretched. You can't lose with either of those two.

― Jeanne Fury (Jeanne Fury), Wednesday, 30 April 2003 16:52 (twenty-two years ago)

You can, however, lose with Coup D'etat which, despite utterly MAGNIFICENT cover art (Wendy in triumphal Desert Fox role, fist aloft atop a big fuck you tank in the bowels of the Bronx, the boys below, inexplicably flanked by Doberman pincers), is a bit monochromatic in the sound department.....Wendy's vocal chords now shredded beyond all semblance of recognition. There are the odd tracks to quasi-redeem it, but it was not to be their finest hour (though certainly their most METAL album).

I'd say pick up the two-fer edition of Beyond the Valley... which appends the utterly asswhuptastic Metal Priestess mini-album.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 30 April 2003 17:16 (twenty-two years ago)

I definitely need to be in a certain mood to play Coup D'etat, but I definitely dig it. The first track "Put Your Love In Me" is one of the most fierce recordings I've ever heard. It's a much more menacing album all the way through. And Alex is so right about the cover art.

This is far and away the band (well, Wendy O) I most wish I had seen live. *Sigh*

― Jeanne Fury (Jeanne Fury), Wednesday, 30 April 2003 17:44 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah, I'd have quite liked to have seen the Plasmatics live (more so simply solo Wendy. Unless she came flanked by Richie Stotts, it just wasn't the same.) My friend's Mom (!?!?!) saw them at the old Palladium and said it was a complete riot. Supposedly, Stotts was so hammerred he couldn't remain standing, let alone play.

I have a trove of archival video that I've picked up at record shows and via eBay over the years, but the quality is never really that good, sadly. She/They still haven't quite gotten the respect/recognition they deserve.....even in death.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 30 April 2003 17:50 (twenty-two years ago)

I once had a rather heated e-mail debate with some folks on the Typical Girls e-mail list thingie. A few of the people were all up in arms over the fact that "the Plasmatics were just another pre-fab punk band" and stuff like that. I honestly don't think those people had half a clue about Wendy O otherwise they probably wouldn't have made such a generic statement. It's not like Wendy O sat down and thought "You know, I'd probably sell a lot more records if I got the shit kicked out of me by the cops." Pre-fab my ass. She had the biggest balls ... until she killed herself.

― Jeanne Fury (Jeanne Fury), Wednesday, 30 April 2003 18:27 (twenty-two years ago)

Wendy's story is really a tragic one. Imagine achieving that level of infamy/notoriety and then having it erode so utterly without any shred of any real recognition in its wake? Her name basically became a punchline and her life -- to her -- seemed like a dead end.

And this shouldn't be simply a gender issue. Credibly Punk or not, the Plasmatics broke a lot of the ground that the careers of many bands today are built upon, though no one cares to mention them unless out for a cheap laugh or sartorial appropriation.

As to whether the Plasmatics were authentic "punks" or not? Ultimately, who cares? Rod Swenson -- their Malcolm McLaren, as it were -- saw Punk Rock as the excuse to put the band together (which isn't really that far removed from the excuses other bands used...hello, Police!) The Plasmatics may have lacked the earnest ethos or effortless cool of the original Punk Rock bands (I'll let you fill in those hotly-debated blank spaces where band names should be), but they took what they did to an extreme that had until then remained largely unexplored. You can debate whether or not that's Punk or not, but it doesn't matter, because they were inarguably unique for their day.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 30 April 2003 19:28 (twenty-two years ago)

Couldn't have said it better myself. It's sad, you know, because for as nuts as she was onstage, everyone I've spoken to who has met her said Wendy O was the sweetest darling.

― Jeanne Fury (Jeanne Fury), Wednesday, 30 April 2003 20:08 (twenty-two years ago)

FYI amongst its millions of other faults, Kim's doesn't acknowledge the existance of the Plasmatics. Just thought you all might want to know.

― Ally (mlescaut), Wednesday, 30 April 2003 21:54 (twenty-two years ago)

Only because of the re-releases, m'dear. Hell, even F.Y.E. on 51st & 6tn Avenue acknowledges them (in that capacity) now.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 30 April 2003 22:53 (twenty-two years ago)

I said doesn't acknowledge their existance! I should've just went back to Tower. :(

― Ally (mlescaut), Thursday, 1 May 2003 02:38 (twenty-two years ago)

Ooh, sorry for the mis-read. Fuck Kim's.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 1 May 2003 11:52 (twenty-two years ago)

That's what I said! They had a Japanese dvd I wanted for only $17 though so I couldn't be too upset, but still. I've yet to actually find anything I go into Kim's looking for within their shelves. 3,000 copies of 2 Many DJs? YES! ANYTHING ELSE? NO.

Sorry to derail.

― Ally (mlescaut), Thursday, 1 May 2003 13:40 (twenty-two years ago)

Kim's doesn't acknowledge the existence of the Joke either......thus, the place should be burned down.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 1 May 2003 14:47 (twenty-two years ago)

The fact that they've got like 10,000 copies of Pavement albums is enough for me to want to burn them down, why are you giving me further ammo? I'm over in the area all the goddamned time, I get very tempted to do it just out of boredom, much less for valid reasons.

― Ally (mlescaut), Thursday, 1 May 2003 15:20 (twenty-two years ago)

I want Cartman from South Park to walk into Kim's and scream "Suck my balls!" That would rule.

― Jeanne Fury (Jeanne Fury), Thursday, 1 May 2003 17:42 (twenty-two years ago)

three months pass...

Kim's actually had a copy of the new Joke album on their new release rack this week. Zounds!

Still, they show no love for ye olde Plasmatics.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 13 August 2003 15:50 (twenty-two years ago)

two months pass...

OK Plasmatics fans, my girfriend loves 'Metal Priestess' - what should I buy for her from Wendy and Co. next? Harder is better.

― colin s barrow (colin s barrow), Thursday, 30 October 2003 00:20 (twenty-two years ago)

my girfriend loves 'Metal Priestess'

As well she should. The closest sonic relative of that album would be Beyond the Valley of 1984. In terms of 'harder,' though, Coup D'Etat made a giant, gravel-throated leap in that direction, so you might dig that, but Wendy swaps singing for growling on that one (and all others after that). Be warned.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 30 October 2003 00:23 (twenty-two years ago)

Ta v. much Alex.

― colin s barrow (colin s barrow), Thursday, 30 October 2003 00:41 (twenty-two years ago)

Just went shopping - Utopia in Sydney is full of Plasmatics vinyl, sealed and unplayed, apparently in original pressings. The only record mentioned above and on the other thread is Metal Priestess - they have all the others! Just thought I'd tell you that to make you annoyed, Ally and Alex.

― colin s barrow (colin s barrow), Thursday, 30 October 2003 02:36 (twenty-two years ago)

I had a tape copy of their rock opera about maggots that got beer spilled all over it but the four or five chances I had to listen to it made me understand why people used to listen to serial radio...

― Ann Sterzinger (Ann Sterzinger), Thursday, 30 October 2003 02:55 (twenty-two years ago)

New Hope for the Wretched is good too?

― colin s barrow (colin s barrow), Thursday, 30 October 2003 03:02 (twenty-two years ago)

New Hope for the Wretched is great. Every song is just a crazy blast of energy that ends when it should. A big influence on Venom, I think. There are also countless 12" releases from the late 70s.

What's amazing is how much play Plasmatics got in the mainstream press. For a time, they were a fixture in Rolling Stone, Interview, and the new york dailies. Sort of like the Residents, they were outcasts who latched onto the tail end of classic rock.

Anyone else ever see the Chelsea Piers video? They played a free concert on the west side, and thousands of raggy looking new yorkers showed up for the party. It looks like either casting call for the Warriors 2, or the day Yankees tickets went on sale. Everyone's holding 40-ozers and smoking grass, while the cops keep the stage area clear. The show is total destruction. Wendy drives a car into the East River, everything blows up and chaos rules. The city declared it would never happen again. I also remember a helicopter being involved.

― Ian Christe (Ian Christe), Thursday, 30 October 2003 19:31 (twenty-two years ago)

Anyone else ever see the Chelsea Piers video?

Yeah, it's completely crazy. Incidentally, you can buy a copy of it on the official site. Do check it out...

http://www.plasmatics.com/AccessMall.html

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 30 October 2003 19:34 (twenty-two years ago)

three years pass...

God bless the Plasmatics.

― Alex in NYC, Thursday, 20 September 2007 18:54 (eighteen years ago)

Amen!

― Soukesian, Thursday, 20 September 2007 19:18 (eighteen years ago)

What an undeniable under-appreciated friggin' CLASSIC!!!

She was about as tough as tuff gets - my god - what a beast of a woman -- little chunks of riot grrl wouldn't even show up in Wendy's stool. As early as the SCTV days, she simoultaneously titilated and repulsed me. She seemed so comfortable in that skin, i'm really suprised she had the nerve to blow her own brains out - I hope she never cared about the cred, 'cause she certainly never got any.

Most of the really good stuff has already listed up top. I'd like to add "12 Noon" off Metal Preistess just because it's one of the best telephone ringer inserts ever!

Ring
Ring
...Hello...
As of 12 noon tomorrow say goodbye to the world as you know it
...Hello...
Say goodbye to...

― christoff, Thursday, 20 September 2007 21:16 (eighteen years ago)

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