Germs M.I.A.: The Complete Anthology CD

The Germs: Darby Crash (vocals); Pat Smear (guitar); Lorna Doom (bass); Don Bolles, Donna Rhia, Nicky Beat (drums).
Includes liner notes by Pleasant Gehman and Nicole Panter.
Personnel: Darby Crash (vocals); Pat Smear (guitar); D.J. Bonebrake, Don Bolles, Donna Rhia, Nickey Beat, Don Bonebrake (drums).
Audio Remixer: Chris D. .
Photographers: Melanie Nissen; Jenny Lens; Ed Colver; Glen E. Friedman.
Unknown Contributor Roles: Lorna Doom; Darby Crash; Don Bolles; Pat Smear.
Another hot punk nostalgia artifact. When this L.A. quartet's lone LP, the Joan Jett-produced (GI), was released in 1979, no one could conceive a Germs anthology, but history has proven the vitality of the maligned West Coast late-'70s punk explosion. "Copying the English" was the putdown du jour, but after similar retrospectives on the Weirdos, Dils, Avengers, Zeros, Crime, and so on, (MIA) answers that fraud again. On their first two singles (one the very first Slash record!), these crazy, inept juveniles had no clue. But when "No God" (with its anti-Yes "Roundabout" intro) and (GI)'s vicious, scorching "What Do We Do Is Secret" crash in, the effect is still startling. These heretofore churlish, charming vagrants and louts had suddenly lassoed the beast. Darby Crash snarls like the Screamers' Tomato Du Plenty over Pat Smear's lashing guitar and Don Bolles' hyper power-drums -- his voice is primal, raw, and animalistic grunting, yet the lyrics reveal a brutal social critic hiding amid the total mess, chaos, drugs, and 1980 suicide-at-22 that characterized his "too fast, too soon" life. No "beat on the brat" here. "Communist Eyes," "Land of Treason," and "Media Blitz" are testaments to disaffection, wild desire, and disdain in words and sound, desperate calls to arms that still resonate years later. And (MIA) -- which tacks on other rare tracks, including some from the long-lost Cruising film soundtrack, making this CD 30 songs in all! -- has no "cool" pose. They were just having fun, but they were the real thing, and it burns. ~ Jack Rabid
It's a shame that the Germs are better known for their trashy, charismatic singer Darby Crash's demise than for their music, because M.I.A.: THE COMPLETE ANTHOLOGY proves that they were easily one of the best bands on the LA punk scene in the late 1970s. (According to legend, Crash's fatal overdose wasn't an accident, but a deliberate homage to his idol, Sid Vicious, in an attempt for gruesome rock & roll immortality. Unfortunately, John Lennon was murdered around the same time, and Crash's death never made a blip on the media radar.)
The aptly named collection begins with the astonishingly primitive, yet bizarrely compelling and genuinely hilarious, first single "Forming" (a later re-recording with X drummer D.J. Bonebrake closes the set). M.I.A. also includes the entirety of the chaotic, furious WHAT WE DO IS SECRET release and the streamlined, Joan Jett-produced GI album, plus six previously unreleased songs recorded for a film soundtrack shortly before Crash's death. This 30-track compilation traces the too-brief career of a group that had perhaps more untapped potential than any other American punk band of their time.

Old#828808

Rolling Stone (2/24/94, p.57) - 4 Stars - Excellent - "...the Germs' contradictions are not only terrifying but exhilirating, and they aren't willing to reconcile themselves to some Gen-X vision of a cynical young consumers' Utopia...."
Spin (5/01, p.110) - Ranked #30 in Spin's "50 Most Essential Punk Records".
Spin (10/93, p.101) - "...anyone with a taste for the real thing will grasp the essential greatness of the Germs via their set..."
Entertainment Weekly (8/13/93, p.74) - "...one of the seminal late-'70s L.A. punk bands....this is potent, raw, messy stuff..." Rating: B
Musician (10/93, p.93) - "...the best music on [M.I.A.] backs up the stagey threat in [Darby] Crash's smack-up flamed-out image...the apex of punk madness in southern California..."