Monday, June 4, 2012

The Imperial Dogs Captured In 'Flipside'!


"Classic super obscure glam-punk-sleaze-riff-rock heavily under the spell of the Stooges, MC5 and Dolls from a quartet of South Bay sickos fronted by future rock critic Don Waller from the fabled Lost Age of pre-'77 American garage-punk, now being issued (except for two tracks which came out in '77 as a posthumous 45) for the first time ever," wrote Mike Snider, reviewing the Imperial Dogs' Unchained Maladies: Live! 1974-75 album -- issued by Australian indie Dog Meat Records -- way back in the Spring 1990 issue of the semi-legendary, Southern California fanzine Flipside.

"Sloppy and FTW through and through, and remarkably contemporary in light of the current interest in Motor City sounds," continues Snider. "Crude, distorted and noisy in the best scuzzrock tradition, with sound quality worthy of GG Allin (this WAS recorded on a cassette recorder, some of it live at pre-Van Halen, pre-pay-to-play but still detestable Gazarri's, the rest done in a garage literally). 'Unchained Maladies' abounds in that sort of ingratiating abrasiveness that is the essence of the protopunk spirit -- not just a historical document ("This Ain't The Summer Of Love" was reworked and re-arranged by BOC on "Agents Of Fortune," the Imperial Dogs' biggest and only claim to fame until now) but a pretty cool record nevertheless, too!"

And a special howl 'n' woof from the Imperial Dogs to Carmen Hillebrew for pulling our tails to this "arty-fact," which we had ab-soul-utely no idea even existed. Until now.