Dmz

Limited Edition

Four Craig Leon-produced tracks released on BOMP -- which is the parent company of Voxx -- and five demo tapes that were recorded on four-track comprise this excellent collection. When I Get Off was the number two Garage Record of the Year in 1978 in Boston's Real Paper, and it is a psychedelic masterpiece. The dueling guitars, slashing riff, and great Corraccio bass complement Mono Mann aka Jeff Connolly's blitzkrieg vocals. Here is a slice of pyschedlia that is the fans outdoing the bands they idolize. Also, as with Willie Alexander's demos, it seems Craig Leon did a much better job on smaller budgets. The lyrics are sexist, but fun in Barracuda -- definitely not the Heart song -- Lift up Your Hood, and the aforementioned When I Get Off. There is also a cool cover of Roky Erickson's You're Gonna Miss Me and a fantastic album jacket of the band photographed at what looks like the Rat nightclub inside a red background covered in barbed wire fence. There's even a cool inside joke, Bomb records instead of Bomp, the famous label founded by Greg Shaw. A definite statement about the heart and soul of demos having a special something major-label homogenization fails to establish. Rudy Martinez of Question Mark & the Mysterians has even covered a Connally composition written for Mono Mann Jeff's current group, the Lyres.

Originally released in 1978 on Sire Records, DMZ's first and only LP never really fit into the punk/new-wave mold that was forced upon it. These 5 shaggy haired dudes from Boston were more interested in the Sonics than the Sex Pistols and their goal, as stated by frontman Jeff Mono Man Conolly was fusing the sound of the Chocolate Watchband and The Stooges.

Produced by Flo & Eddie, of The Turtles' fame, this album was much maligned at the time but has come to be accepted as a classic record that helped jump start the ongoing garage-rock revival that began in the '80s. Reissued on 180 gram vinyl and available in the LP format for the first time since its initial release.