Urinals - Negative Capability (2013)

Urinals - Negative Capability
Happy Squid Records (2013 comp)
Vintage American punk rock
Mp3 @ 320

A compilation of recorded and live material from one of the early LA punk scene's most original and most frequently overlooked bands, spanning from 1978-81. Free mp3 download came with album purchase, so I thought I'd share.

From the sleeve: "In a milieu in which glam rock residue was abundant, the Urinals were as nudely uncostumed as the beach punk bands that would gush along in their wake. The Urinals evinced similar disdain for standard song formulae. Their best tunes were small, jagged shards busted out of some unwritten whole. At the time comparable only to early Wire, their songs were short enough and monochromatic enough to seem utterly unresolved the first time you heard them. One riff per song was often enough, one vocal line could suffice. While the Urinals compositions sometimes offered more than these basics, the material frequently seemed pared down to absolute minimum number of elements required for them to exist as verifiable 'songs.' Many others subsequently used the same technique: San Pedro's Minutemen, Boston's Mission of Burma, Dunedin's The Clean and even Aberdeen's N******. Indeed, the Urinals played a crudely refined brand of avant-garage art-punk at a time when most youngsters were still trying to figure out the chords to 'Neat Neat Neat.'" (Byron Coley)

Tracklist:

The Urinals (1978)
1. Dead Flowers
2. Hologram
3. Last Days of Man on Earth
4. Surfin' with the Shah

Another EP (1979)
5. Black Hole
6. I'm White and Middle Class
7. I'm a Bug
8. Ack Ack Ack Ack

Sex/Go Away Girl (1980)
9. Sex
10. Go Away Girl

Happy Squid Sampler (1980)
11. U

Misc. Studio Tracks
12. Scholastic Aptitude
13. I Hate
14. She's a Drone
15. Male Masturbation
16. The Return of Jake Boodler
17. Presence of Mind
18. Sex (acoustic)
19. I'm Like You

Live @ Parking Structure 8, UCLA (??)
20. Orange Anal Sin

Live @ Club 88 (3/7/1981)
21. Salmonella
22. I'm a Bug
23. Ack Ack Ack Ack
24. Mr. Encore

Live @ Hong Kong Cafe (4/19/1980)
25. Why Are We Sleeping (Soft Machine)
26. Shape of Things to Come
27. You're Gonna Miss Me (Roky Erickson)
28. Hologram
29. Jetsons Theme

Live @ Dykstra Hall, UCLA (10/31/1978)
30. Don't Make Me Kill Again
31. You Piss Me Off

Enjoy and please seed. Like music? Support your local record store