The Newtown Neurotics
I never wanted to be the MP3 blog guy but I was driving around today listening to these guys and I was just thinking about how its a shame nobody knows about them. The Newtown Neurotics were a late-70s/early-80s punk band from England and they are criminally overlooked. They played unabashedly leftist anthems heavily influenced by The Clash, but they were also like a proto-emo band with lyrics about how women are mistreated and men can’t cry in public. Except unlike the emo-crap today they totally kicked ass. I’m really only familiar with their early singles and their first LP Beggars Can Be Choosers. After that they dropped the “Newtown” and got a little more slick like a lot of bands in the era, with two more albums Repurcussions and Is Your Washroom Breeding Bolsheviks as well as the live album Kickstarting A Backfiring Nation. They disbanded for a long time and just played some shows last year in England only, jerks! I first discovered them through Jack Rabid, perhaps the nicest guy anyone could ever know and of course publisher of The Big Takeover. You should all subscribe right now.
I’m not going to get into their history heavily or anything, there are some links and a couple MP3s below that say it all better than I could. They currently have a CD in print called The Punk Collection which is all their singles plus their first LP on one disc, and you can’t go wrong with that. I encourage anyone who enjoys this music to support the artists involved and go out and purchase their recordings new. MP3s could disappear at any time so get them while they’re hot.
LINKS
MP3s
- “Hypocrite” - their first single
- “No Respect” - from Beggars Can Be Choosers
- “Does Anyone Know Where The March Is?” - from Beggars Can Be Choosers
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- John Brion on Sound Opinions (October 16th, 2006)
February 9th, 2006 at 2:58 pm
Why did you never want to be an mp3 blog guy? You certainly have the music collection to do a good one. The handful that are well-done are a valuable source of rare music and/or introductions to bands I’ve never heard of. I hope these are still up in time for me to snag them tonight after work.
February 9th, 2006 at 3:28 pm
I just think that blogs like The Punk Vault and Something I Learned Today have much deeper knowledge than I do, and there’s very little I can add that they’re not already doing. Probably about 80% of the bands on SILT I’ve never heard of before, and there’s not a lot I can add to that. That said, when I come upon something left behind I’ll probably do something on it.