Stiv Bators
Disconnected [25th Anniversary Edition]
and L.A. Confidential [Deluxe Edition]
Bomp!

Dead Boys
Live At CBGB's 1977 [DVD]
MVD


These days, there's so much ersatz punk rock out there it's hard to remember what the real thing looks like. Here's a hint — it looks a lot like the late, great Stiv Bators.

And now seems a good time to reflect on the Bators legacy, what with a pair of solo CDs newly released from Bomp and a DVD with the Dead Boys from MVD.

Bators' first solo album, Disconnected was recorded in Los Angeles following the breakup of the Dead Boys. It's got more of a garage pop/Nuggets vibe than the work of the Dead Boys—he even covers the great Electric Prunes track "I Had Too Much Too Dream Last Night." But even though he professes to be an evil boy, he does it with a charm that's pretty irresistible.  The original 1981 LP is augmented with a half-dozen studio outtakes and live tracks that add to the package. The outtake versions of the aforementioned "Evil Boy" and "Swingin-a-Go-Go" are both more raw and stomping than the previously released versions.

Around the same period as Disconnected, Bators recorded a bunch of singles for Bomp as well. These are compiled on L.A. Confidential. You thought the Stooges did a retarded version of "Louie Louie?" Check out the version here, renamed "LA LA." It'll set your IQ back a few points, but it's so perfect you won't mind.

But while his power-pop period is overlooked and underrated, it's impossible to say too much positive about the Dead Boys. They had it all—the Midwestern energy, the New York decadence, the British sneer. In fact, no less of an authority than the late Greg Shaw once wrote that Stiv's stage presentation "was somehow a lot more immediate, out of control, and indefinably real than anything English has ever been... it takes an American to really pull off the 'I don't give a fuck' pose and not give in to the temptation to make a political statement out of it."

And that energetic punk glory is front-and-center on the DVD Live at CBGB's. Stiv's power as a frontman and the muscle of Cheetah Chrome, Johnny Blitz and Jimmy Zero as a band are as obvious as the bologna safety-pinned to Stiv's shirt. Most punk rock moment: when Stiv yanks a piece of said bologna from its safety pin, blows his nose in it, and chows it down. The revulsion and comedy inherent in such an act sums up more about the Dead Boys than I can with words.

Taken together, these releases comprise a time machine. In fact, they're your electronic dream!