Punk Rock Canon #8: The Germs “GI”

Welcome to the Punk Rock Canon, a monthly feature on Mai Tai Happy Hour where Hambone, a guest host and I sit down and argue over whether a particular punk rock album should be inducted into the pantheon of rock and roll. Sometimes we discuss one album and occasionally we pit two albums by one band against each other. Regardless, the final choice is yours. Everyone can vote for which album goes into the Punk Rock Canon by visiting the survey on my Facebook page. It typically runs for one week and is open to everyone. 

George: On this month’s Punk Rock Canon, we are going to talk about another legendary Southern California punk band — the Germs.

Hambone: Southern California really pumped out the good stuff back in the day.

George: New York had a great late ’70s punk scene, but from ’79 to ’82 it was all about Southern California punk rock. Up for entry this month is GI by the Germs, a legendary hardcore album, even though us East Coast punks could argue that it sounds nothing like the agro hardcore we grew up with.

Hambone: Our hardcore will end you. I don’t go to New York hardcore shows because I’m not tough enough.

George: The second show I was ever knocked out at was an Agnostic Front show.

Hambone: And that’s why I’ve never gone to see Agnostic Front live.

George: Josh, his girlfriend at the time, Beth, and I went to see Agnostic Front at Maxwell’s the night after Raybeez died, and the energy was already strange that night. I was standing behind Beth in the front by the PA, and someone windmilled me to the bridge of my nose and I collapsed on her. I just dropped. Dead weight. Completely knocked out. Big hardcore dudes tried to lift me up, not for my safety, but more because they thought I crushed Beth. Luckily, she was fine.

Anyway, the Germs GI came out in October 1979 on Slash Records and is often referred to as the first hardcore-punk album. We know the Germs mostly from their part in Decline of West Civilization I, Penelope Spheeris’ legendary documentary about the LA punk scene. If you don’t own it, it is available as a Blu-Ray box set right now, with the far superior Decline II. Hambone, what are your earliest memories of the Germs?

Hambone: My earliest thoughts of the Germs was that they couldn’t play their instruments. I really liked it, but they were terrible. The idea of punk rock, when I was growing up, was you could learn a few chords and start a band. The Germs were the epitome of that. It was great, because it gave me hope that I could do it. Say what you will about the Ramones, but they were great musicians. They were very well polished musicians.

George: Their biggest influence was the Beatles and they were basically making pop songs on speed.

Hambone: With the Germs, I figured I could play guitar better than them, so I could start a band. But the Germs are not a band that I can listen to on a daily basis, because their music is all over the place.

George: The Germs were one of those bands that I felt I needed to listen to because of their legendary status. This would have been around 1996, before I ever saw Decline I. While I was working at Sam Goody, I went on a binge buying every influential punk album because I could get them at a deep discount. I special ordered the anthology, which includes GI and listened to it twice before thinking the exact same thing – this is very difficult music to enjoy. I think it’s because I was so weened on bands like Bad Religion that had harmonies and better song structure. I thought the Germs were garbage.

What’s funny is that Joan Jett produced GI, so you would think that would have brought some semblance of musicianship to the table, but it didn’t.

Hambone: What’s funny is that it’s 1979 and they are releasing this record on Slash, which at the time was a pretty big record label that also released Walk Among Us by The Misfits. On paper, GI was a major album with Joan Jett behind the deck, but it sounds like a garbage record made by people that can’t play their instruments. However, it was a punk rock record and sounds like what a real punk rock record is supposed to sound like. By comparison, if you look at Nevermind the Bullocks by the Sex Pistols, you see a polished rock and roll record.

George: Which I also hate, but we won’t get into that now.

Hambone: With that said, GI is one of the most authentic sounding punk records that’s ever been produced. It can never be duplicated. It would be too meta for someone to recreate that kind of sound. That’s why it’s such an important album.

George: Here’s a quote from the band at the time: “We felt our thing was for real. Darby (Crash) had this great power to draw peoples’ minds into his thing. The hearts and minds of the people were often his wherever he went. It was more like a secret society bent on world domination than it was a band.” The person at his t-shirt company said “Every generation of 15 year olds rediscover the Germs.”

It’s true. I was watching GLOW and the young girl in the show was wearing a Germs shirt and that was supposed to be of the era. If you watch Decline of Western Civilization you see Darby Crash falling apart. Much like the infamous scene where Ozzy Osbourne is shaking while pouring milk into his cereal, the scenes with Darby just nodding off while high are sad. Also, unlike the Osbourne scene, the Darby scene was real. He died soon after in 1980.

Hambone: Darby was one of the first legendary punk rockers to go. He was falling off the rails in the documentary and then boom, he was dead.

George: The legend of the Germs became bigger than the band ever was and it helps that they had an epic logo. The teal circle is one of the most important logos in punk rock.

Hambone: Back in the day, the only way punks could design flyers and record covers was by cutting things out of magazines, taping things on top of each other and them photocopying them at Kinkos. Yet they made this logo for one of the most iconic record covers of all time. Think about what a band like the Germs would do now if they had the ability and the technology to make an album cover. Would they be able to recreate the simplicity of it, or would it just be a subject of the times? I love it and I think it’s a great album cover.

George: I think that’s the best thing about the Germs.

Hambone: Are we going to throw down now?

George: Name me a song on that album besides “Lexicon Devil?”

Hambone: I can’t. It’s funny because I was listening to the album on the way here and knew this Punk Rock Canon would be a tough one. The Germs have “Lexicon Devil,” “What We Do Is Secret” and “We Must Bleed.”

George: What We Do Is Secret was a horrible movie, but to be honest, the reunion that followed was actually pretty great. I saw the Germs at the Asbury Lanes with Shane West on vocals and they were excellent. The music was solid, the crowd was into it and I had an excellent time. Shane West performed like he was possessed by the spirit of Darby Crash. He even kept the fake fucked-up teeth that they gave him when he made the movie. Pat Smear from the Foo Fighters was still in the band and he killed it. It was definitely worth going to and way better than this album.

So what do you say? Does GI go into the punk canon?

Hambone: Yes. I say it does. And I say it does because of all the records that we can put into the Punk Rock Canon it is the most authentic punk rock record. There is a reason for it. You might agree that the band only got big because the singer died right afterwards and they couldn’t put out more albums to shit up the image, but this is an album that kids always come back to. This is an album that will launch a thousand ships and it goes in the Canon.

George: I disagree. I just don’t hear anyone saying that they were influenced by the Germs. I don’t hear bands citing them and few ever cover them. Everyone loved Darby Crash and loved the band for their place in time, but I don’t know of any bands today that sound like they were influenced by the Germs.

Hambone: I beg to differ, and I think there’s a place for GI in the Punk Rock Canon. Maybe this is the band that kids see the logo and hear the stories of Darby Crash and go buy the record. Maybe they don’t listen to it as much as they tell their friends that they do, but this is the stepping stone towards finding a band that they will love that will send them on the right path.

George: As a side note, if you look at the other bands on Decline I — Fear, Black Flag and X — those are bands that were so much better and more important than the Germs. When I think of the Germs, I don’t think greatness.

Hambone: They are the drizzling shits, but they brought a lot of kids to the party.

George: I wonder if their legacy would have lasted if that logo wasn’t as cool as it is. That’s where I stand. That’s why I don’t think they belong in the Punk Rock Canon.

Hambone: I think they have a couple of things working in their favor. They have the logo, they have the Decline documentary and then Darby Crash dies. That’s the trifecta for a band that lives forever.

Listen to the full episode of Mai Tai Happy Hour where we discuss whether the Germs GI should go into the Punk Rock Canon.