plasmatics beyond the valley of 1984 rareware

#Plasmatics beyond the valley of 1984 rareware full

“Summer Nite” is heavy yet laid back like 70s proto-metal. Wes Beech's riffs are beefier, though jump between so many influences they can't be pegged to a single style. The whole record hits harder than the previous had, but that's mostly down to something which was heresy to most hardcore fans at the time: the introduction of heavy metal.

#Plasmatics beyond the valley of 1984 rareware full

After the twanging stops the song breaks into direct, pounding punk in the mold of the hardcore scene that was then in full swing. Dialing up the social commentary that was only hinted at with their debut New Hope for the Wretched, the band's second LP for Stiff Records, Beyond the Valley of 1984, takes aim at a society who thinks a woman simulating masturbation on a sledgehammer is indecent, but policeman roughing up that woman is not.įinal track “Pig Is a Pig” alludes to the Milwaukee incident in a slow honky tonk intro where Williams dedicates the song to “the sickie sadist who hides behind his police badge”, as well as “cowardly journalists”, “assassins”, and other “creeps”. The two were later found innocent, owing in no small part to a photo showing police officers kicking Williams while she was pinned to the ground screaming, in freezing January weather no less. In 1981, Williams and band manager Rod Swenson were arrested on obscenity charges during a Plasmatics concert in Milwaukee. Williams' hair for those who didn't know what a mohawk is. This was a time when news articles about the band had to explain singer Wendy O. Sexual antics that would be cheap shocks nowadays-maybe constituting a week's worth of folderol for the professional opinion class-were eyed with profound disquiet in the America of the early 80s (post the Great White fire, their penchant for blowing up cars on stage would be more controversial today). The Plasmatics' outrageous stage shows seized media and public attention, yet their performances carried real risks.