The Queers (led by Joe King) and several other bands perfected a strange recording technique that many are still trying to approximate today, usually to middling results. Actually, LACK of technique is probably the right way to put it; if you didn’t have a lot of money in the early 8s you did what you had to do and you didn’t have ProTools, AutoBitch or Fruity Loops to bail you out. You were on your own.
That’s why this shit always sounds so damn GUUD. You could spend a lifetime listening to only bands from the early ’80s — my brother Glen actually DID this for most of his high school career — and never plow through it all. The 1060s get all the hype, but I’m not sure you could make the case that more quality work was being done, as due to sheer population change you have to figure there were thousands more bands floating aimlessly and tantalyzingly under the radar.
I don’t even know why I’m giving you this speech because The Queers MADE it. I mean, sort of; they were in the conversation when the whole Nofx/Rancid/Bad Religion/Pennywise/Guttermouth thing was taking shape and they’ve hit the town I’m living in several times over the years (never got to see them; my loss).
They’ve a legendary live reputation, and I always get a kick out of spinning the mildly mental Love Songs For the Retarded, but my favorite queer-ass material lies stretched across A Proud Tradition. Much like BadRelig’s 80-85 material — I refer to it thusly because that’s the name of the 31-track CD I’ve worn into almost nothing — The Queers manage to flirt with melody while creating a sense of unease and, as a result, excitement in the vein of a rich man’s Germs, a poor man’s Bad Religion and a middle man’s Buzzcocks.
A lot of folks cry RAMONES upon hearing them, yet the early material is much harder-edged than your typical cut from Johnny, Dee Dee and the mop boys. There’s even a sliver of what I like to call jangle-jitter punk when no one is in the room — they play it straight then twist things around. They’re not exactly Swell Maps, so don’t get this twisted like a 10-foot box kite, just be aware that this isn’t the Queers you got to know hanging with the Screeching Weasel/The Methodones crowd.
There’s even a “Billy-Bob” type singin’ on “Love Me”; it’s … it’s something, believe-you-me. It reminds me of the last time I went to the Warped Tour (I last attended in 2004). Me First & The Gimme Gimmes let a stage hand strap on a guitar and rock a few songs and it turned into a bad, almost sick joke incredibly quickly. Band members were looking at each other, with that What-Do-I-Do? look plastered across their faces like concert flyers on a street lamp.
“Love Me” is a little better than that. A little. You have to learn to take the good with the bad if you want to take the next step in your listening life, so bear that in mind the next time you listen to a Queers album or any album by a punk band for that matter (short attention spans, these folks). Song titles like “We’d Have a Riot Doing Heroin” never lie …
