Astralwerks Beat: The 101ers

A Monthly Check-in on Sounds Coming From Music Spectrum Supporter, Astralwerks


I suppose grudgingly I’d admit it was fortunate that my mom didn’t dress me in black leather, torn jeans, safety pin piercings, and a Mohawk when I was three as the Sex Pistols began to break open what would be the Punk scene. However, that also means that by the time I knew enough about what was going on Sid and Nancy were dead, Johnny Rotten was looking for PiL, and London Calling had been mellowed a bit for “Rock the Casbah.” Punk was becoming something else, the New Wave which seemed less connected to the past musically than what Punk had meant originally.

So now as a child born to late for the Punk explosion, let alone seeing how rock ‘n’ roll was a ticking time bomb waiting to go off in 1976, now it’s time for Elgin Avenue Breakdown Revisited, a reissue of the 101ers album along with extra rare tracks, alternate takes, and live cuts. The 101ers were Joe Strummer’s band before he left to help form the Clash. In Strummer’s voice, guitar, writing, eclecticism, and passion, you can hear every bit of what would lead to “Clampdown,” “Train in vain,” and “London Burning.”

Elgin Avenue is therefore a history lesson, because the 101ers are not punk. They are a rockers rockabilly band, the mid-70’s chapter of the oft-repeated rockabilly groove-bounce. It started way back with the old bluesmen who didn’t just play their acoustic guitars quietly into the night. Then came Sun Records and Elvis, Johnny Cash, and Jerry Lee Lewis. Watch Walk the Line, and you can see all of punk rock’s predecessors jump, jive, and boogie in their edgy performances. Then came the Beatles who found their sound in the old rockabilly covers they banged out at the beginning. Finally, Strummer and the 101ers write their own rockabilly chapter with music which feels as if it could explode anytime.

“Keys to Your Heart” is pitch perfect 50’s rock beat with enough of Strummer’s muddy snarl vocal to be something too dangerous for the Leave It to Beaver era. Two version of “Keys” are included with version 2 being a faster re-recording for the BBC and stronger for its tighter feel. As the first tune Strummer ever wrote, it shows that Strummer was extremely gifted from the git-go.

“Letsgetabitarockin” has the speed of punk, the slur of words over the frantic sock hop beat. “Rabies (From the Dogs of Love)” has a fat guitar plunking out a pop rock progression seen just a couple of years later on the Cars’ debut album. Chuck Berry’s “Maybelline” is one of many Berry covers the 101ers played live, and here they smash through the song like duck-speedwalking. Included also is Van Morrison’s “Gloria,” the band’s traditional set closer showing both how raw Them (Morrison’s band) was and how Strummer’s band was taking all of that R&B-influenced energy and just breaking on through to the other side.

Thank you to the Astralwerks for the review copy.