Sex Display

While mostly accurate, dismissing Never Mind the Bollocks as merely a series of loud, ragged midtempo rockers with a harsh, grating vocalist and not much melody would be a terrible error. Already anthemic songs are rendered positively transcendent by Johnny Rotten's rabid, foaming delivery. His bitterly sarcastic attacks on pretentious affectation and the very foundations of British society were all carried out in the most confrontational, impolite manner possible. Most imitators of the Pistols' angry nihilism missed the point: underneath the shock tactics and theatrical negativity were social critiques carefully designed for maximum impact. Never Mind the Bollocks perfectly articulated the frustration, rage, and dissatisfaction of the British working class with the establishment, a spirit quick to translate itself to strictly rock & roll terms. the Pistols paved the way for countless other bands to make similarly rebellious statements, but arguably none were as daring or effective.

While mostly accurate, dismissing Never Mind the Bollocks as merely a series of loud, ragged midtempo rockers with a harsh, grating vocalist and not much melody would be a terrible error. Already anthemic songs are rendered positively transcendent by Johnny Rotten's rabid, foaming delivery. His bitterly sarcastic attacks on pretentious affectation and the very foundations of British society were all carried out in the most confrontational, impolite manner possible. Most imitators of the Pistols' angry nihilism missed the point: underneath the shock tactics and theatrical negativity were social critiques carefully designed for maximum impact.

For a band that rescued rock & roll from the Uriah Heeps of the world in the late '70s, and made a mark on everything that followed, the Sex Pistols left behind precious little in terms of their recorded legacy. Their only official release being the earth-shattering NEVER MIND THE BOLLOCKS, enthusiasts have to turn to collections of outtakes and live material to further satisfy their Pistols jones. This brings us to the mysterious NO FUTURE U.K. With virtually nothing to go on in terms of liner notes or credits, it's hard to determine exactly where these alternate version of well-known Pistols songs like "Pretty Vacant" and "Liar" are from. Are they rehearsal recordings? Demos? Outtakes? We may never know for sure, but one thing is for certain, they are relatively well-recorded, full of patented Pistols energy, and among the band's finer performances, all of which puts NO FUTURE towards the front of the posthumous Pistols pack.

After a slow start, Cigarettes After Sex saw their fortunes swiftly reversed by a whirlwind of YouTube hits. Although they formed in 2008, CAS waited nearly a decade to release their debut record, and rather fittingly it unfolds at a lethargic pace. The music that Greg Gonzales and his fellow bandmates produce is slowcore in the extreme. The shimmering guitars, placid percussion, and wistfully delivered vocals also reveal their debt to dream pop and shoegaze. More than anything, early supporters of the band have praised Gonzales' unashamed sentimentality and dyed-in-the-wool romanticism. You don't have to venture beyond the opening track to experience his hazy passion.

In the fall of 1977, the Sex Pistols were the most infamous rock band in the U.K., beloved by rock & roll upstarts for their stripped-down, angry sound and outlaw attitude, while they were also hated by people who disliked their open disrespect for authority, hygiene, the Royal Family, and the accepted rules of British show business. The Sex Pistols were soon to release their wildly anticipated first album, Never Mind the Bollocks Here's the Sex Pistols, when a mysterious bootleg, Spunk, appeared in hipper record shops. As it happened, Spunk collected the original demo recordings of the Sex Pistols' best-known songs, as recorded by their soundman Dave Goodman and featuring original bassist Glen Matlock before he was sacked in favor of Sid Vicious…

Even in the often strange and incestuous history of New Zealand rock, few bands enjoyed a more bizarre career than Mi-Sex; led by onetime cabaret singer Steve Gilpin, the group emerged from art-rock beginnings to later reinvent themselves in the style of the new wave.
In 1979 they issued their debut LP, Graffiti Crimes (Computer Games for the international release). A single, "Computer Games," topped the Australian charts, and the group made a triumphant return to New Zealand. A second album, 1980's Space Race, was also a hit, but when a planned American tour fell through, Mi-Sex's momentum took a serious blow; even at home, audiences were dwindling, and 1981's Shanghaied made little impact…