8.13.2012

PETER & THE TEST TUBE BABIES.

I remember listening to this record for the first time - I was living in my Aunt Gloria's basement in downriver Detroit, circa 1986. I was 17, freshly out of high school in my small Tri-Cities Area town - (Bay City) - and trying to "live the dream" of moving to Detroit to be a "skatepunk". I was bagging groceries during the day & driving my shitty car all over to The Motor City at night looking for skate spots & girls & generally a good time, ya know?

(I didn't mention that my aunt was / is a born-again X-tian who put up w/ my heathen ass, but none the less, she was awesome as fuck & let me do my thing. She also made some serious carnitas & homemade chorizo, so why would I bother to complain)?

Anyways, to make a long story short, I first heard this while listening to a "Brave New Waves" radio broadcast on CJAM out of Windsor, Ontario, Canada. That's also where I heard a ton of stuff ranging from bands like Alien Sex Fiend running the gamut of "alternative" all the way to Black Flag & all points of chaos / art-damage in between.

I haven't listened to this album in a really long time, but every time I hear it, I still feel as though it is a "classic" U.K. punk album. The mix is a bit thin, but the riffs on this thing are epic. Excellent rhythm section & vocal harmonies abound as well. A band that definitely has their own sound. Not much of the rest of their catalog speaks to me, but it ain't bad - it's just that this album (for me anyways) is their pinnacle.

Peter & The Test Tube Babies - The Mating Sounds Of South American Frogs
Link in comments.

8 comments:

  1. You had me hooked at "riffs"!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Love these guys, got into them in the 80's when I heard them on the punk and disorderly compilation. Thanks for posting this.

    ReplyDelete
  3. They went to my school (a couple of years before I did) Moped Lads is about the kids who went to school on their crappy mopeds!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Awesome shit! how did this get away from the teenage me? perfect mix of poppy punk, Oi and may I say a little post punkiness? gonna be on repeat for a while.

    ReplyDelete
  5. great record but i feel that the loud blaring punk rock album is there best stuff it's very very rude and crude and funny sadly later test tube babies they turned into a shity indy rock band

    ReplyDelete
  6. I'll still take this one as my favorite - not too keen on the others so much.
    Might be all the Limey-ness vocally, and dick jokes / joke bands in general aren't my thing.
    Unless it is THE MENTORS we are talking about...

    ReplyDelete
  7. I remember not liking this when it came out because it didn't sound "punk enough" to me for some reason. Now I can totally agree that it was their best record. Does that mean I'm getting old? Ha!

    Killer blog. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete

Please refrain from posting as "ANONYMOUS", thanks!