Angry Samoans: The Unboxed Set

Angry Samoans: The Unboxed Set

1995

Triple X Records

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing:  1. Right Side of My Mind  2. Gimme Sopor  3.Hot Cars  4. Inside My Brain  5. You Stupid Asshole  6. Get Off the Air  7. My Old Man's a Fatso  8. Carson Girls  9. I'm a Pig  10. Too Animalistic (live)  11. Right Side of My Mind (Live)  12. Gas Chamber  13. The Todd Killings  14. Lights Out  15. My Old Man's a Fatso  16. Time Has Come Today  17. They Saved Hitler's Cock  18.Homo-Sexual  19. Steak Knife  20. Haizman's Brain Is Calling  21. Tuna Taco  22. Coffin Case  23. You Stupid Jerk  24. Ballad of Jerry Curlan  25. Not of This Earth  26. Different World  27. Electrocution  28. It's Raining Today  29. Unhinged  30. Psych-Out 129  31. Somebody to Love  32. I Lost (My Mind)  33. Wild Hog Rhyde  34. Laughing at Me  35. STP Not LSD  36. Staring at the Sun  37. Death of Beewak  38. Egyptomania  39. Attack of the Mushroom People  40. Feet on the Ground  41. Garbage Pit  42. (I'll Drink to This) Love Song  43. Lost Highway



Holy hell, this is a good thing...Clocking in at 75 minutes and featuring the band's entire discography up this point...

I first heard of these guys via an advertisement in some Heavy Metal magazine. I think Triple X records was reissuing their albums on CD at the time and I was immediately fascinated by the various album covers (particularly "Back to Samoa") in the ad.  For the longest time I could never track down the albums, but eventually I got to hear the Samoans and somehow it was everything I expected it to be...Fast, antisocial, and Metal Mike sounded like a reedy, true-to-life asshole (I mean that in the best way possible)...

The band's sound changed a lot over the course of their first four releases, so it's probably easiest if I handle this album by album...ahem....Here goes...



Inside My Brain

1980

Wow, what an album cover! Is that for real? Ouch!

 Originally this was a nine-minute, six-song mini-album, but the version included here is the expanded 11-song version that was released in the 80's, filled out with a couple live tracks and three demos that hold their own against the band's best material.

This album kind of reminds me of a hardcore version of The Dictators for some odd reason...Maybe it's the politically-incorrect irreverence, the snotty, artless vocals or maybe just the title "Carson Girls"?  Actually, now that I think about it, I think the resemblance goes beyond the song title..."Carson Girls" really is a dead-ringer for the Dictators....Who knows...Bottom line it hits the same sweet spot for me....

You kind of get the feeling they didn't know what they had...With this much attitude and with such shocking imagery (cover and lyrics) the song's didn't really need to be this catchy...To be honest, a lot of time with hardcore albums, it takes me a few listens for the songs to sink in, but I could have sang this right back to you after the first listen...Although, it's more proto-hardcore now that I think of it...This doesn't really have the muscle-headed aggression that later became synonymous with the genre.

Defining moment: "Get Off the Air" where they mercilessly heap verbal abuse on  beloved KROQ DJ Rodney Bingenheimer...



Here's "Carson Girls" by the Angry Samoans...Enjoy...

Back From Samoa

1982

...and it turns out all that speedy, smart-ass punk on "Inside  My Brain" was just a warm-up for "Back From Samoa," which is hands-down, one of the fastest,  funniest, middle fingers to the world ever recorded...Easily the band's best record...

You can tell it's a whole different ballgame as soon as "Gas Chamber" kicks off...More frantic, pissed-off and claustrophobic as  Metal Mike desperately yelps, "I'm in my room all the time, I'm trapped inside this fucking mind!" Teen-angst so painfully realized and vivid it's hard to believe songs like this and "My Old Man's a Fatso" were coming from a guy pushing 30...

Defining moment: It's hard to choose between"Ballad of Jerry Curlan," which is a  thought-provoking character study of an upstanding, sensitive young man who also pukes though his nose while drinking toilet-water...and that's one of his milder habits...Boy, this is a song that would have people up in arms if they knew it existed...Balls-out performance and you can practically hear the singer's tonsils shredding during the rousing coda...Bravo...

...on the other hand, we have the enduring anthem "Lights Out"...

The call and response vocals, drop-out guitar and eye-gouging lyrics have undoubtedly stood the test of time and it's still as exciting as the day it was released (not that I heard it on the day it was released...I was probably watching Mr Rogers when this album dropped...But still, I can imagine...)

Anyway, Here's "Lights Out"...

Yesterday Started Tomorrow

1986

The band switched gears a bit on this  1986 ep...The album usually gets a bad rap, but I don't really know why...Maybe most fans of breakneck punk aren't fans of Nuggets-style garage rock? Hard to say...Since I'm a fan of both, this isn't a stretch for me...

The opening track "Different World" is catchy pop-punk, not quite as fast and furious as "Back From Samoa" but it would have sounded fine on "Inside My Brain." But suddenly "Electrocution" comes on and it's trippy, garage-psyche in the vein of the Electric Prunes...And add some electric jug to "It's Raining Today" and you have the 13th Floor Elevators. Hell yea, I'm all for it...The only thing that doesn't do it for me is their dull cover of Jefferson Airplane"s "Somebody to Love." They were more successful at capturing that elusive 60's spirit on the originals...

But yea, I like "Yesterday Started Tomorrow" and I enjoy it more and more each time I play it, so
nyahh!

Here's "Different World" starring Sinbad and Dwayne Wayne...

STP Not LSD

 1988

The "Unboxed Set" ends with the original Samoans swan song, "STP Not LSD,"  which is a pastoral collection of swan's swinging...or quacking...I don't know what noise a swan makes, really...

This album continues "Yesterday Started Tomorrow"'s sound, but expands upon it in odd ways...There's a hicky, almost cowpunk feel on some of the tracks ("Feet on the Ground," the title track and "Wild Hog Rhyde," (which is a better song than its title suggests)).

The real reason I love this album though, is the fact that there's a  song about "Matango" on here! That was one of my favorite movies as a kid! Once a year on Channel 5 they would have a horror movie week, where they would play random Hammer Horror films and "Matango." Except it wasn't called "Matango" then...It was called "Attack of the Mushroom People"...

I tried explaining it to people for years and everybody thought I was making it up or plain old lost my mind...But this was my proof of its existence in that pre-dvd era...

I greatly enjoy the "STP Not LSD" album, but I can see how it might not be for everyone, especially Angry Samoans fans who felt burned with "Yesterday Started Tomorrow," since this is probably even further removed from their early work than that ep was...60's psyche-rock fans who like it rough might want to check this out though...

Here's "Lost Highway" by the Angry Samoans....

They sure fit a ton of great shit on this single disc...I recommend "Unboxed Set" to any self-respecting punk enthusiast...Even if everything on here might not be your cup of tea, it's still a bottomless cup of coffee and the pysche stuff is worthwhile once you get over the shock...

I feel like going out swinging, though...Here's "Gas Chamber"...