3.17.2006

And the winner is....




Avant Gardener s/t 7" (Virgin, 1977)

Too often overlooked in the DIY punk sweepstakes is the Okehampton band, Avant Gardener. According to Punk 77, these smelly lads, got their one record by winning a Virgin Records sponsored talent contest. How and why they won remains a mystery. Sure, Virgin had a rep for introducing difficult music to the world, but the Avant Gardener seems a but too rough around the edges & utterly without radio pop sense to win a record company talent contest. Not that I object. I would be overjoyed if something like Avant Gardener spoiled the stage of American Idol. My god, that would be a dream. Even better if the whole show was stocked with bands like Avant Gardener. Imagine that! This week Avant Gardener goes up against Stickmen with Ray Guns, Tampax, the Godz, and Sheer Smegma. I would love to see Paula Abdul try to cough up possitives about the Stickmen's rousing rendition of Scavenger of Death. And what would Simon say about UFO Dictator? American Idol: Punk Edition would be the show for the ages! I know it will never happen, but as you listen to Okehampton's finest, just imagine them on the Idol stage, a thousand tools in the audience doing the wave to Strange Gurl in Clothes.


# posted by Scott Soriano : 19:45
Comments:
there is also an Avant Gardener Lp released only in Italy, it has some good stuff on it - henry w
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : 12:52
 
According to Chuck Warner's notes in "Messthetics #6" the band released two LPs in Italy.
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : 08:26
 
Yeah, 2 lps in Italy from 1980 and 1983, the first is good the second is not, and another 7" from around 1982 with one great track on it. I believe the guy (and whoever he got to play with him) was a proud psych-guitar mechanic holdout in an era of minimalism. -Ryan W
# posted by Blogger W/S : 15:37
 
I LOVE this. Especially the notion of THIS BAND winning a Virgin Records talent contest.
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : 18:30
 
damn- I have been trying to hunt this one down on Soulseek since you posted it- no luck yet!
# posted by Blogger Gregory Jacobsen : 16:56
 
I still have the vinyl ep and a cd rip of this but no idea how to share, i can post it to an email though from Stu leave comment and your email
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : 06:30
 
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