1977

Born out of the ashes of several groups like ROCKET FROM THE TOMBS and FRANKENSTEIN came the fearsome foursome THE DEAD BOYS, a bunch of nice boys to introduce to Ma! Or at least have over to carve the turkey and your family come Thanksgiving. After Stiv mooned THE RAMONES and decided to try it one last time in New York, the story really begins. Jeff Magnum rounded em out after being pulled from a life of monotony behind a punch key machine in a factory somewhere in the Cleveland area. With little of their own material, they scraped together some old ROCKET FROM THE TOMBS numbers, a few originals, and a couple of covers and hit CBGB only to be signed to Sire and stuck in a studio with Genya Raven (who should've never be allowed to produce anything but bodily waste). The results? Ahhh, the nastiness! "Nothin' to Do" is a 4am drunk in a fistfight with a newspaper machine. "Caught with the Meat in Your Mouth" is Chuck Berry being raped by a grizzly bear with a bad attitude. The wailing intro electrocutes on contact with the ears. And "Down in Flames" is a romp stompin crude and rude number to end it all. Perfect note for note.

Truthfully, "Young, Loud, and Snotty" is overplayed and overhyped. But it's still a classick through and through, much like "Nevermind The Bollocks." There's probably more references to this than there are active listeners but what the fuck? It's punk rock right?

Picks of the litter, 1977: