The Amazons
/One of the seminal (and hey, clean up after yourself!) bands out of the largely wishful Punk Renaissance in San Francisco, The Amazons were fronted by an old friend, mentor manqué, and not-at-all role model before he moved to New York City and got a real job to support his wonderful family while sneaking in lessons from Richard Hell on the side. True story.
From their rare, solo CD copy:
"Careening wildly from the heart of SF's Crocker-Amazon district, The Amazons emerge from a rolling miasma of blood, sweat, and carpet fibers to bring you this throbbing assortment of thrash-and-burn pop goodies. Characterized as a 'beautiful expression of love among men' by late Beat icon Allen Ginsberg, this Kingston Trio of rage augments its Mennonite approach to the idiom with the gusto of a young bull manatee in full rut, blending liberal doses of Joycean imagery, Velvet Underground-tempered angst, and Aolian cadences painstakingly cribbed from the Bulgarian Women's Chorus.
The savory gazpacho bubbling up from these tracks is a concentrated extract of The Amazons themselves. Todd Barker's local musical odyssey began with seminal deconstructivists The Whitefronts; Jason Brownell tempered his chops as a card-carrying member of Milwaukee's pop underground; and Matthew Rothenberg has helmed such genre-bending outfits as The Ho Hos, Three Guys Called Jesus, and Noise 292. But enough commentary: The evidence is now in your hands. Sit back, relax, and let The Amazons apply a vise grip to your aesthetic inseam."