I have never been much of a punk guy. I was born too late for its first wave, or its second, or its third (depending on how you count), so I was only there for the genre's afterglow as punk-pop. I was there when Green Day were big, and when The Offspring broke through, and I liked the occasional song, but have never been a punk-fiend. Later I picked up some of the classics (Ramones, Clash, The Replacements) which I like fine enough but wouldn't play for hours on end either. But other than, say, The 'Mats the whole second and third waves throughout essentially the whole 80s completely passed me by, I mainly know bands like Black Flag or Hüsker Dü for the bands they inspired, mostly in the alt country genre. My beloved Uncle Tupelo or Whiskeytown were heavily influenced by these acts, but that didn't necessarily entice me to check them out more, and when I did I didn't find much that spoke to me.
You know what I know even less about than punk rock from the U.K. or U.S.? Why, punk rock made in my current homecountry. Which of course will not stop me from posting some, of course. A little taster, un hors-d'oeuvre if you will, was Trust's apparition with "Antisocial" at the tail end of my last foray into French rock'n'roll, La Vraie Rockollection. These guys were right on the line between hard rock and punk rock, "Antisocial" also dutifully shows up here, in a cover by Martin Circus. These guys probably merit a word, starting as one of France's first prog rock groups, then slowly turning into a pop and even disco outfit, before trying their hand without much success at new wave before calling it quits in 1987, only to briefly reunite in 2001 to record this one tracks for a tribute album to Trust.
Much like my first and so far only foray into garage rock, a genre I know little to nothing of substance about, I sometimes like to post things that are clearly out of my wheelhouse exactly because they are out of my wheelhouse. It brings a little unpredictability when One Buck Records is getting a little too comfy in its comfort zone between country rock, classic rock and singer-songwriter stuff that makes up most of its music offerings. I don't want this place to become inoffcially known as OBG's ol' Americana corner, you know. There are other similarities to The Trip, the main one being that this is also sourced from that weird 100 Titres Rock boxset, that sourced the music on The Trip. As explained there, it's a Warner Brothers release, but it seems they just scooped up some releases from indie labels they gobbled up and threw them all together, ending up with a rather, uh, eclectic group of garage rock, some alternative rock, the occasional hair metal song, and a disc made up of French punk rock and hard rock.
And so my favorite tracks from the punk disc are making up the One Buck Record of the day. Don't ask me for any inside information on these bands or tracks because I don't really have any. So I'll just be brief and mention that one of my favorite's here is "Darla Dirladada" as done by The Rolling Bidochons, known for parodic covers and piss-takes on songs, also named after French comic book characters. The original was first a sort of ethnic French language schlager by Italian-French diva Dalida (Dirla-Dalida-da?), but this version with its goofy, knowingly ridiculous lyrics comes from French lowbrow comedy classic Les Bronzés and also sufferde a horrible Eurodance/techno makeover by something called G.O. Culture that became the huge, brainless summer hit of 1993 and might still be brought out by a DJ with no taste even nowadays to, you know, laisser commençer la fête, if you pardon my French.
The term punk rock is kept large as it should be. "Les Fantomes Du Pogo" is ska-rock, while "Allo Le Monde" by Ici Paris is closer to New Wave and "Au Nom De La Race" by Les Porte-Manteaux veers into straight up into the hard rock side of things. More traditionally, "Generation Anormale" by Red Def sounds like The Ramones while managing to reference the ideas of both The Who's "My Generation" and Generation X's "Your Generation".
Anyhoo, so, not much insight from me today (hey, who mumbled 'thank God' in the back row there?), just the music. Matez le matos, mettez le matos, faites le pogo et puis voilà...
P.S.: C in California, this one's for you, pal!