VOTD 6/28/2023

 Jon the Postman's Puerile: Puerile (Bent Records)

Purchased at Fungus Books and Records

Another vinyl oddity. Like yesterday's post, this has a handmade cover, rubberstamped. Befitting the artist, it appears to have been sent through British post in 1978. 

This turned up in the Fungus racks. What the hell is it, I wondered? I know a great deal, and if I don't, there's usually enough information on the cover to figure it out. This just had the title on the thin cover, no inserts, while labels on the record. 

Whoever was at the desk at Fungus put it on for me. Was it serious? One side, cut at 33 1/3, is a super sloppy, mostly spoken version of "Louie, Louie" with no attempt at recreating the original lyrics. And that sounded remarkably like Mark E. Smith from The Fall speaking at the beginning. It just keeps going and going and going, a real room clearer.

Side two was cut at 45rpm. Some moaning vocals, followed by super-primitive punk rock. 

I was almost surprised to find there there is a discogs.com page for this artist and release, and discovered that I'm missing the inserts with credit information. For example, that IS Mark E. Smith at the start of the first side. "Guinea Pigs" is/are credited with backing vocals on one song, and in fact I think it's a literal recording of Guinea pigs mixed into the song. 

So what was Half Japanese doing at this time? Their earliest tapes precede this, but their first commercially released records came later. No New York was released the same year.

I guess I'm trying to find a context for this record. There was a lot in the air at the time, and I think it's fair to say that punk rock was a much more vital cultural force in England than the US. JG Ballard said so. The Sex Pistols documentary, The Filth and the Fury, has some good insights as to why it all began too. 

And is this any more or less listenable than any Jandek record? 

One commenter on discogs: "This is arguably the worst thing I've ever heard on record." Not much arguing with that, yet here it is, 45 years after its release, and I'm trying to say something serious about this. Maybe there just isn't that much to say, and it's another snapshot of a time and place.