Circle Jerks: Group Sex
1980
Frontier Records
Format I Own it on: Vinyl
Track Listing: 1. Deny Everything 2. I Just Want Some Skank 3. Beverly Hills 4. Operation 5. Back Against the Wall 6. Wasted 7. Behind the Door 8. World Up My Ass 9. Paid Vacation 10. Don't Care 11. Live Fast, Die Young 12. What's Your Problem? 13. Group Sex 14. Red Tape
This is one of the first punk albums I ever bought back when I was just getting into it in the early 90's...The version I had was a twofer CD that also had the "Wild in the Streets" album...I think I might have touched on this before...
But yea. this album is one of the reasons that I'm still obsessed with punk rock to this day...I pretty much blindly picked up CD's by groups I had read about....
I guess technically an old 8-Track of "Combat Rock" would have been my first punk album, but I wasn't really aware it was supposed to be punk...To me "Rock the Casbah" wasn't part of some anarchic musical upheaval, it was simply the song that came on the radio after "Hungry Like the Wolf." So yea, I'm not counting that one...
Same with "City Baby's Revenge" by Charged GBH. I was really into heavy metal when I first heard it and I just thought it was another heavy metal album, albeit a very succinct and catchy one...To me it kinda sounded like the first Iron Maiden album, so I lumped it into that category...
The first punk album that blew my mind and made me rethink my undying allegiance to heavy metal was actually "Earth A.D." by the Misfits. I listened to the cassette with my friends J.J. and I can distinctly recall my entire world being turned upside down...But that was nothing...
I eventually picked up "Walk Among Us" and it blew "Earth A.D." outta the water in my mind! The greatest thing I've ever heard hands down...There was probably a good decade or so where I played this cassette every-single-day...And I still bump it quite often...
So after hearing those Misfits album I nabbed every punk album I set my eyes on...Right around this time, my Parents took me to the mall and I got to buy a few punk Cd's..I realize how un-punk it sounds to have your Parents drive you to the mall to buy punk albums, but fuck you...Anyway, I grabbed the aforementioned Circle Jerks CD and...
Dead Kennedys: Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death...
Sex Pistols: Never Mind the Bollocks...Here's the Sex Pistols
There were probably a couple others but I can't remember them at this point...But yea, the album holds a lot of good memories for me...Endless hours sitting in front of my stereo listening to Keith Morris shout teenage truths that you'd never hear on the radio:
"Every night would be so great,
I'd take you home to meet mom & dad,
and they'll be so glad,
they won't think their boy's a fag..."
...and what kid doesn't love these lyrics:
"Twisted mind, withered brain,
you know I'm going insane,
I just tell them to get back,
when they tell me how to act,
I've got the world up my ass!"
I can remember listening to "Live Fast, Die Young" and hearing, "I don't wanna live to be 34, I don't wanna die in a nuclear war..." and thinking that 34 sounded so old. I had no idea I was going to be there one day...Hell, I was 34 three years ago! And if I had a dime for every time I died in a nuclear war! Sheesh!
And I still find that the power of "Group Sex" hasn't diminished one iota... The damn thing moves so fast the dust has never gotten the chance to settle...The guitars remain a permanent blur, the drummer never lets up and the 14 songs are over in 15 minutes...When this is playing, you have no choice but to pound a couple cheap beers and jump up and down...
That old Cd is long gone, but I now own this on vinyl...The guy at the record store claims it's a second pressing...Apparently you can tell by the yellow label and the size of the ring impression, blah, blah, blah...
I guess I don't really care about all that...All I care about is tossing on the best album the Circle Jerks ever unleashed upon this unsuspecting world and pogoing in my room to "Live Fast, Die Young" all night...
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