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One was called “King Size Cigarette,” a fantastic, ultracatchy garage tune by a band from Des Moines, Iowa, called the Law, reputedly the state’s first punk act. It’d been released as a single in 1980, but WPRB had transferred it to a cart–a bulky cartridge containing a tape loop, usually used for commercials or public service announcements (I know this because I eventually got to DJ on the station one evening in 1986). Another fine song from the single, “Reason for Treason,” also got some airplay. The Law’s front man, Charlie Chesterman, later moved to Boston, where he started Scruffy the Cat. A great holiday song by the Law called “What Did Santa Claus Bring You for Christmas?,” cut in 1981, eventually turned up on the My Pal God Holiday Record, a compilation released by WPRB alum and former Chicagoan Jon Solomon.
Not long after I moved here in 1984, the Fems played in Chicago at the West End, a great club at the corner of Racine and Armitage that was booked by Sue Miller–who, of course, went on to book shows at the Cubby Bear and later Lounge Ax, joining founder Julia Adams. I don’t remember much about the show, except that I thought the Fems were terrific. Onstage their sound was much fuller than the lo-fi “Go to a Party” recording, and the singer had a wonderfully warped persona, a kind of unhinged intensity that made him seem like an escapee from an asylum. (It didn’t hurt that he was missing a bunch of teeth.)
BJ Nilsen & Stilluppsteypa, Passing Out (Helen Scarsdale)Peter Delano, For Dewey (Sunnyside)Brötzmann/Wilkinson Quartet, One Night in Burmantofts (Bo’ Weavil)Bob Dylan, Tell Tale Signs: Bootleg Series Vol. 8 (Columbia/Legacy)Richard Pinhas and Merzbow, Keio Line (Cuneiform)
