TITLE: "Let's Get Rid of New York"
ARTIST: The Randoms
RELEASE DATE: December 1977
I was reading an article in the latest issue of The New Yorker this morning about a new, thriving "Punk Rock" scene that's evidently taken root in Los Angeles. At this stage of the proceedings, I'd normally balk and grumble at the misappropriation of the term "Punk" to credibly describe anything that occurred or was recorded after 1982, but that's neither here nor there. While the genre/movement/style/cultural phenomenon that is/was Punk Rock is still feverishly dear to my heart, I can completely understand why people are entirely sick of hearing about or having it lorded over them. As far as I can tell, Punk Rock was housebroken, de-fanged and subsumed by the mainstream ages ago, and is now just another uniform like the ones its torchbearers initially sought to destroy.
That all said, I haven't been to Los Angeles since about 1995. For all I know, Sasha Frere-Jones (a music journalist of considerable repute) is completely right, and there is a new exciting burst of young, fiery activity. I just wish they wouldn't call it "Punk Rock". To borrow a line from a short-lived outfit from the mid-90's called The Lee Harvey Keitel Band, "Would it Be a Crime To Try Something New?"
In any case, the whole notion of Punk in L.A. got me thinking about that city's storied first wave of Punk, including seminal bands like X, Black Flag, The Germs and all the rest of'em, which -- in turn -- got me thinking of this track, "Lets Get Rid Of New York," by a trio called The Randoms. While initially pressed as a 7" single in November of 1977, I should point out that I didn't hear it until discovering it on a Dangerhouse Records (an early, pivotal indie) compilation in 1993. The Randoms themselves were essentially a jokey lark who only performed live once, featuring Dangerhouse founder Pat "Rand" Garrett on vocals and guitar, John Doe on bass and K.K. Barrett on drums. The names are notable, as K.K. Barrett went onto become the drummer of the infamous Screamers (who, sadly, never cut a record) and John Doe became a founding member of X.
Ostensibly a middle-finger to the then hotly touted, headline-grabbing New York Punk scene, "Let's Get..." is simply too thrilling and endearingly ridiculous to take offense to. To be fair, the Randoms also had a track called "Let's Get Rid of L.A.," so at least they were equal opportunity lambasters.
Sure, it's a time capsule piece of sorts, but with New York City continuing to mutate, I'm almost starting to earnestly applaud the sentiment. Play this loud and jump around like bug-eyed loon.
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