The Barraducas - Drop Out With The Barracudas (Deluxe Edition)

This three-CD deluxe version of Drop Out With The Barracudas, the debut album from The Barracudas, was compiled by the band's songwriter and guitarist Robin Wills.  He dug deep into his personal archives for twenty-one previously unreleased recordings, that are included amongst the sixty-one bonus tracks, including singles, demos, early rehearsals and live cuts in this outstanding collection.  

The Barracudas got their start at a Dead Fingers Talk show at the Speakeasy club in London when vocalist Jeremy Gluck met guitarist Robin Wills and they bonded over their admiration of The Seeds.  After Jeremy returned to Canada, they exchanged tapes and letters and Robin said if he ever came back to London he should sing a song for his new band.  Jeremy took him up on that and returned to London.  At this time Robin had been working with a bassist named Mike Sarna and they recorded a cover of The Standells' “Barracuda". Once Jeremy got there, they started writing songs with "No Ideals" being the first one they recorded.  At this point they changed their name to The Barracudas, got rid of Mike, then brought in brothers Starkie and Adam Phillips on bass and drums and recorded a couple more tracks.  Still looking for members more in touch with what they were doing, they replaced the brothers with bassist David Buckley and drummer Nick Turner, and the lineup was complete.  In January 1979 they recorded some demos and then in June their first single ("I Want My Woody Back" / "Subway Surfin"). Another set of demos was recorded in November of that year, whic got them interest from several labels including Epic, RAK and Sire, with them eventually signing with EMI. They released the single "Summer Fun" and after it sold 50,000, they went in to record their debut album Drop Out With The Barracudas.  

While their initial singles were more of a punky surf pop, the band had decided they wanted to move in a more folk and psychedelic garage rock direction.  Due to this the album was split in two stylewise with side one called the “Down Side” and side two the “Up Side”.  After kicking the album off with the catchy power pop and garage rock punch of “I Can’t Pretend” they go into full on ringing guitars mode of The Byrds on “We’re Living In Violent Times”. “Don’t Let Go” is a really cool, kind of stripped down tune that to me strangely has echoes of The Cure’s “Boys Don’t Cry”.  In a complete reversal of their surf side, their fascinating cover of Buffy St Marie’s “Codeine” slows things way down with almost droning guitars and a little Byrds jangle.  With some really heavy hitting drumming from Turner, “This Ain’t My Time” is a driving garage rocker full of buzzing guitars.  The psychedelia and organ of “I Saw My Death In A Dream Last Night” is described perfectly by the band in the CD booklet as “an homage to the pop psych of The Electric Prunes”.  Closing out the “Down Side” is “Somewhere Outside”, an easygoing jangly rocker.  The “Up Side” opens with the first single “Summer Fun”, a super catchy track with the hooky punk punch of The Ramones, the harmonies of The Beach Boys and tons of Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba’s. It is followed up with “His Last Summer”, a fun death disc (a la The Shagri-Las’ “Leader Of The Pack) given the surf treatment.  “Somebody” is a ragged sixties tinged, garage rocker and “Campus Tramp” has a slight bit of a jangle to it, but more of an alt rock vibe (interestingly, there is a guitar riff that pops up throughout the song that is very reminiscent of The Pretenders’ “Back On The Chain Gang”, which was released the following year).  The surf sounds are in the forefront on the tracks, “On The Strip”, reminiscent of The Rivieras’ “California Sun”, but with a garage rock edge, and “California Lament”, which meshes a little Beach Boys, some of The Byrds’ jangle and big Phil Spector wall of sound vocals.  After starting with some surf harmonies, the anthemic, hard charging, punk tinged garage rocker “(I Wish It Could Be) 1965 Again” closes the album out perfectly.  The first eleven bonus tracks round out disc one and include the B-sides to all of their singles, some alternate takes, demos and a compilation track.  The single B-sides “Chevy Baby” (also included here in a darker demo version), the Ramones-y “Rendezvous” and “The K.G.B. (Made A Man Out Of Me)” are some of the highlights.  Other tracks of note are an alternate Kenny Laguna version of “Summer Fun”, with more prominent backing vocals from Joan Jett, a demo version of Ian and Sylvia’s “You Were On My Mind”, which is better known by the version from We Five, and “Watching The World Go By”, a track from the compilation A Splash Of Colour, that found them venturing into psychedelia and doing it quite well.  

Disc two is an absolute treasure trove, crammed with twenty-five demos recorded at various sessions between 1979 and 1981.  Starting things off are six cuts recorded at Freerange Studios in 1979 including demos of Drop Out… tracks “Don’t Let Go”, “(I Wish It Could Be) 1965 Again” and “His Last Summer”, along with power pop gem “Neighborhood Girls”, a demo of future b-side “Surfers Are Back” and a great cover of “Little Red Book”.  While the performances themselves are often a little rawer and edgier (something I actually prefer) they are well produced and sound great.  Next up are a couple of demos from 1980, with an early version of “Summer Fun” and the somewhat generic rocker “Radios In Revolt”, followed by seven tracks from sessions at Manchester Square.  “Tokyo Rose”, another solid power pop track from the band’s early days, comes from a session in 1980, while the rest were recorded there in 1981, including the dark and moody “On A Sunday” along with demos of “Grammar Of Misery”, “Ballad Of A Liar” with it’s chiming guitars, and the psychedelic “Shades of Today” all of which would end up on their second album Mean Time.  In 1981, after being dropped by EMI, they recorded some demos for Polydor, which are the next seven tracks.  Two of these tracks, the rootsy pop tune “Bad News” and The Byrds-like psychedelic “You’ve Come A Long Way” ended up being rerecorded for their next album Mean Time, while the punchy garage rocker “Laughin’ At You” and “She Knows”, a rocker with a bit of bluesy swagger, ended up on their third album Endeavour To Persevere. The remaining cuts from that session include a demo version of the previously mentioned comp track “Watching The World Go By”, more jangly rock with “I Need” and the punky garage rocker “Takes What He Wants”.  Closing out the disc are three demos recorded at Mayfair Studios on 1981 with “Inside Mind”, a really good track with a hint of psychedelia, the organ drenched “Hear Me Calling” (later appearing on Mean Time) and “Next Time Around” meshing Iggy and The Stooges aggression with sixties garage rock (rerecorded for their House of Kicks 12").

The third disc is an interesting collection of odds and ends opening up with the two tracks from the band’s debut single, which was released on Cells Records in 1979.  “I Want My Woody Back” is a quirky, but fun, surf rock singalong while the flipside “Subway Surfin’” is a punchy rocker with a surf rock foundation.  Next up are five demos recorded at Elephant Studios in 1979.  These mark the first time Jeremy, Robin, Dave and Nick all recorded in a studio together and include early versions of “Rendezvous”, “Campus Tramp” and “The K.G.B. (Made A Man Out Of Me)”.  You can definitely hear the nervousness coming through on these tracks, but they provide an interesting insight into the early days of the band.  While the next handful of songs are probably not ones you would listen to over and over, they show an even earlier picture of the band and are definitely interesting to listen to, starting off with a snippet of the aforementioned cover of The Standells' "Barracuda" that was recorded in 1977 in Mike Sarna’s basement and consisted of Robin on vocals and guitar and Mike on bass, which leads into a live performance of the straight-up punk RAF track “No Ideals”, recorded at The Roxy in March 1978.  A couple of two track demos, “If She Cries” and an early version of “Subway Surfin’” are up next and were recorded with the Phillips brothers, before David and Nick joined the band.  The bulk of the remaining cuts were recorded at two separate rehearsals in 1979 and 1980.  The sound quality of the rehearsals isn’t the greatest, but it’s actually better than what you would expect, especially considering the first one was recorded in a basement.  The performances themselves are really good and full of energy.  The second is even stronger than the first with them sounding tighter and more professional.  Highlights of the first set include the raw, aggressive garage rock of “Dead Skin”, the power pop punk of “Incredible Shrinking Mind” (with Robin on lead vocals) and covers of The Surfaris’ “Wipe Out” and “Let’s Dance”, made famous by Chris Montez, and for the second they include “Summer Fun”, “Chevy Baby”, “The KGB (Made A Man Out Of Me)” and their cover of The Outsiders’ “Time Won’t Let Me”.  Closing things out on this disc are a chaotic, anything goes demo recording of The Surfaris' "Surfer Joe" and a fast and heavy, live cover of the Flamin' Groovies "Slow Death”, which is the perfect way to end this collection, because the band was thrown off EMI that night after berating the label in front of annoyed label executives who were in the crowd.  Rounding out the box set is an outstanding thirty-six page booklet with a new interview with the four members of the band at that time and some great commentary on all seventy-five tracks.  

(Lemon Records)