ALVARO Drinkin My Own UK Private LP Avant Punk 101ers

	£		39
	$		51

** RECORD COLLECTOR **

ALVARO, The Chilean with the Singing Nose

Drinkin My Own Sperm

Original UK Private LP released on Squeaky Shoes Records in 1977.

A name from the past that wasn't mentioned at the rather depressing induction of the Clash into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame or any of the eulogies to the late Joe Strummer was Alvaro, the Chilean with the Singing Nose.

"Who?" I hear you ask. "Strummer was a punk, he didn't have anything to do with singing gnomes...."

Nose. Singing Nose. Here's the story.

Alvaro Peña-Rojas was born in Chile in 1943 and released a couple of singles there 1965 there in a band called Los Challengers, followed two years later by "El Twist del Infierno" as a member of Los Bumerangs.

In 1973 he fled Chile after Pinochet's fascist coup and took his saxophone to England, where he met up with Joe Strummer (who at the time went by the rather unpunk name of "Woody" Mellor) to form El Huaso and the 101 All Stars — named after the squat where they lived at 101 Walterton Road, Maida Vale, in north London. The band, whose name became shortened first to the 101 All Stars and then the 101ers, played fast, earthy r'n'b, what was then known, not always approvingly, as pub-rock.

The band played for two years, released "Keys to your Heart" on Chiswick before splitting in 1976. Their last two gigs were supporting a bunch of upstarts called the Sex Pistols. It was seeing the Pistols that made "Woody" suspect that playing old Chuck Berry riffs in sweaty London pubs was a dead end and the future lay elsewhere. So when Mick Jones and Paul Simonon came around asking if he wanted to form a band with them he didn't need to be asked twice....

For pub-rockers the 101ers gave birth to some unlikely musicians. Aside from the renamed Strummer, other members went on to join the Raincoats, PIL and the Passions.

But Alvaro was the most unlikely of all. He put away his saxophone and recorded the curious, infamous Drinkin My Own Sperm, 500 copies of which were released on his own Squeaky Shoes label in 1977 — and mainly disappeared without trace.

Ever since, punks and collectors have been intrigued, confused and horrified by this record. It turns out to be mostly rudimentary piano thumping, nursery rhyme flute-tooting, minimal percussion and "ridiculously schmaltzy singing". This album could be considered "outsider music" but for the fact that it is playful and catchy, even when it's as disturbing as the title song. "Don't worry about the bum notes," say the sleeve notes.

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This is his highness’ Alvaro Peña-Rojas' first 1977 solo record.

Recorded after his 1965-67 rock'n'roll days with Los Challengers and Los Bumerangs back home in Valparaiso (Chile), and his early seventies experiments with the  pub rocking' The 101ers in London.

This man (writing, putting out records and touring to this day) plays in a league of his own.

He is one great phantom figure of Chilean culture, standing tall in the shadows behind more than a generation (Nicanor Parra, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Raul Ruiz) of highly personal, acid-humored individuals (Florcita Motuda, Carlos Cabezas, Mauricio Redolés, Jorge González).

Did I mention his claims of having invented punk?

This record, put out by the man's own Squeaky Shoes imprint, pretty impossible to get by on vinyl, is a collection of 7 rather lengthy incursions into a lo-fi, Latin/Andean folk fragment-rock-avant-garde implosion-dorky ingenuity-cheery party tune-foggy introspection vortex, remarkable for it's sheer (in)formal audacity.

For seekers of the unusual and overlooked, this could be considered at the verge of outsider music, if he was not such an… artist.

Apart from Alvaro's lyrics, singing and enfant terrible piano chops, Antonio Narvaez and Cathy Williams back up on a “bombo julero”, stones, laughs, “rrrrrrrs”, piano, assorted percussion, pinquillo (a five-hole Aimara flute), double flute, bass and whistle.

The sperm drinking thing is about a supposedly monastic masturbatory technique involving lifting your legs up the wall while laying on the ground.

Right on!

Tracks Are :-

Side Heads

Latino America

Palido Sol

Drinkin My Own Sperm

Three Trees

Side Tails

The Whip Of Indifference

Valparaiso

Lost For Words

Released on 'Squeaky Shoes Records' in 1977

Catalogue No. SSRDR1

Disc is in EX condition

Sleeve is in EX condition

Please contact me via Ebay Messages with any questions I will try my best to get back to you as quickly as possible.

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CD's £2.50 FOR THE FIRST THEN 50p FOR EACH ADDITIONAL

*********DOUBLES COUNT AS TWO*********

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