KBD punk original press ELECTRIC MANCHAKOU Hey/She Said/Murder 7" IGGY STOOGES

$

40

This is an auction for a set of 1 gently USED, but mint condition vinyl record for fans of ELECTRIC MANCHAKOU ""Hey/She Said/Murder" 7" EP on Innocent Records 1989. Obvious, Electric Manchakou was too f#cking obvious for words. Stooges wannabees, a one trick pony, a two-single deal, case closed. Maybe so, but I’d vociferously beg to differ. For, if Italy’s London-based Electric Manchakou was Stooges-obsessed – which they most certainly was – then it certainly manifested not in the all-too-typical-ain’t-I-rad ennui synonymous with most of the genre of acolyte deadbeat artists (GG Allin via Steve Bators), but rather with the same exuberance and clean pristine confidence that the sound of The Velvet Underground informed the early songs of The Modern Lovers, or the neatnik way in which specky Buddy Holly was obsessed with Bo Diddley. That is, Electric Manchakou burned with a wide-eyed enthusiasm rarely seen down among your regular line of Dee Twatt Mung Worshippers. Led by the tall, gangly and vacant-looking pretty-boy Marc Duran, with his trusty inch-high guitar-slinging sidekick El Tel Tannier, Electric Manchakou was a brightly youthful and unworldly spark, possessed of a teen glamour and a curiously athletic and un-nerdy high school sheen of confidence. Taking drugs? Nah, not even sniffing glue just yet… still on the weekend trips of Benylin Expectorant and dad’s QC sherry. Whereas The Stooges’ garbage was ill-making enough to have had to be contained in a rusting Chernobyl skip overflowing with chemical slop, Electric Manchakou’s was in comparison a clean moulded yellow plastic waste paper basket filled with unfinished essays fused together with chewing gum and cum-ingrained tissues. Eater? No, too young and pre-pubescent even to yet be horny. The Undertones? Nere, too gauche and Jilted John-ish to be as sexy as these horny Manchakou motherf#ckers - moreover, the Derry boys were just too achieving and disciplined. Indeed, it’s mighty obvious from Manchakou photographs and song content that they was just too damned busy out shagging to have wrestled much time to write such things as songs. The frivolity of The Damned? Yup, weez getting closer… So how about the secretly delighted fake ennui of the early Damned doing ‘Fan Club’? Sure that’s solipsistic and self-obsessed and proto-Emo enough to fit my Electric Manchakou analogy. Furthermore, the Manchakou may have had a thing for limited editions of 666 copies, but demonic they never coulda been. On one record sleeve, they even appeared in their winter cosies! Now, would Iggy have ever been seen on a record sleeve in his dressing gown? Never. Especially on his debut… But the cake-splattered Damned sure would. Plus, being post punk, the Manchakou was also always gunning for the clean overdrive of Alan Vega’s first two solo LPs as well. That simple Space Rockabilly that so propelled Vega’s self-titled debut and second classic LP COLLISION DRIVE is fetched up here within the grooves of the Manchakou. And, as on Vega’s COLLISION DRIVE, Electric Manchakou also employ the pure hiccupping sound of Suzi Quatro’s ‘Primitive Love’– a sound that can only be brought on by recording loudly and quickly with few instruments, each one louder than the other. But you know what? F#ck Stooges Wannabees, this Electric Manchakou was something else again. Like Lou Reed and Ron Asheton, El Tel Tannier was one of those great punk rhythm-guitarists-who-was-obligated-to-be-seeing-to-play-lead. Moreover, the melodies of singer Marc Duran always grabbed the listener from the first instant, his asinine repetition guaranteed to insinuate itself into your brain merely seconds after it had first invaded your lugholes. And Duran never let a lyric get in the way when a scream, holler or irksome Kim Fowleyan belch could suffice. Barks, barfs, pops, screeches, any outpouring of bile-based squark would do for Duran. And maybe they were Stooges acolytes, but these barely post-adolescent Italians wanted also to be the cheerleader-dating younger brothers of BACK IN THE USA-period (clean production’n’all) MC5 and debut LP Dictators GO GIRL CRAZY (ie. parents supposedly still doing your washing, and dry humping your way to a bruised bell-end because full penetration wasn’t yet an option). But these greedy Manchakou motherfuckers wanted also to be every volume of those PEBBLES, BACK FROM THE GRAVE and CHOCOLATE SOUP FOR DIABETICS compilations (not forgetting NEW ENGLAND TEEN SCENE, natch), every Troggs single, every Buzzcocks 45; PLUS they was also (just about) grown up enough to recognise the need to incorporate that pounding ‘Declaration of War’ funk that Reichfuhrer Ronald Rank Asheton had introduced into his aborted (but oft-genius) immediately-post-Stooges project The New Order (the Detroit ‘75 incarnation that often wore full German outfits, and who were all ex-MC5, ex-Amboy Dukes, ex-Stooges). If yooz only paying attention to the Electric Manchakou singles, then perhaps you’re justified in dismissing this bunch, because the first one – 1989’s ‘Hey’ - was generic in the way that all but the most inventive songs of Metal Urbain can nowadays seem a little samey; whilst the second 45 – 1990’s ‘Animal Man’ – was (even with its catchy bastard chorus of ‘I’m an animal man, I love my s#it’) another too-safe bet achieved with a pickup rhythm section, limited studio time and no proper distribution from tiny record company. But it’s a safe bet that the real reason they were ignored is because no one else was in that headspace at the time…because, gathered together across the two sides of an LP, these Manchakou dopes start to make sense. ‘R’n’r Is Such A Serious Thing’ Check out my other items, as shipping discounts on multiple items are offered! We ship in sturdy cardboard mailers designed to protect vinyl. Will gladly ship internationally. Canada is $5.99,UK/Europe is $10, Japan/Australia $12 (e-mail for other countrys rates) Serious bidders only! If you dont plan on paying for your auction, please dont bid!