8.29.2008

El Gordo's Lost Sounds, Volume 2


In this second of the series, my trolling through the finer garage sales and garbage piles of New England has lead me to the discovery of this little '70s new wave band: Swansea, Massachusetts's The Sniffs. This tune, "Skylab (will kill us all (is going to fall))" is from their self-titled debut and was recorded as a protest to the U.S. space station, Skylab, which was starting to fall back to earth after six years of orbit (apparently, solar flares did it in).


I can remember actually worrying about Skylab hitting me on the head, so I can understand the band's apparent terror. All of us alive at that time felt it. The thing eventually came down near Perth, Australia, and we all went back to worrying about the Russians.


In the liner notes on the cassette tape, Bill Staskiewiczski, "Lead Insurgent and Instigator and Shaker of the Sleeping Masses," says this song "demanded to be written" and that America's "cosmic fascists needed to wake up and smell his boot in their ass." I'm not entirely sure what he meant by this.


The Sniffs released three more albums, The Fascists Can't Tell Me Where to Park, Hitler Wanted People to License Their Dogs, Too, You Nazi Jerks, and 12 Items or Less: I GOT THIRTEEN!.




2 comments:

Grendel said...

I love this so much I actually put it on my iPod.

El Gordo de Amore said...

The Sniffs are truly one of the great lost bands of the late 70s.

As you rock, I salute you.