Photos embedded directly from Da Slyme’s web archive: http://www.abandonstream.net/slyme Credit to Da Slyme, and D. Stevenson.

“Ozzy Osbourne, eat yer heart out!”

Frontman Snotty Slyme proclaims as “Fear & Loathing in the East End” appropriately dissolves into buzz saw feedback, prodding a tongue in cheek comparison of the lead riff to that of Black Sabbath’s Paranoid.

Best known for their widely sought after double LP which sells from the mid to high hundreds on the collectors market, Newfoundland’s first punk rock band Da Slyme formed in 1977 and were much more than a list of punk rock tropes bitten from New York or London. Da Slyme had sauce, humor, and boozy wit drizzled with a distinct Newfoundland flavor, as thick and salty as mudders brownest gravy.

Musically, their material was rubbed with more Beefheart than Sex Pistols (members actually saw Captain Beefheart perform at Memorial University in St. John’s, “in the gymnasium just outside and below the MunRadio studios circa 1972“). With saxophone, bongos, and screaming electronics muddled in the mix, Da Slyme represented a fun and theatrical ethos that gets easily lost in the modern world of punk music, it was one of chuckling and sharp experimentalism in a genre that should exist without confinement or borders.

The Da Slyme 2xLP, 1980

Da Slyme’s double LP is one of legend. It was one of the first full length punk rock releases in Canada, and argued by some as THE first punk rock double LP ever released. Recorded throughout the late 70’s, the LP was dropped in 1980 with a limited self-released run. Each copy was packaged in brown paper bags, or sleeves from bargain bin artist LP’s hijacked with a “Da Slyme” stencil on the front cover. The peculiar and one of a kind treatment to each individual record, as well as the limited number of albums distributed, has added to the lore, and the ludicrous collectors value of the album.

But the point and purpose here is not Da Slyme’s bottomless jug of historical amusement (you can spend a few hours flipping through an extensive Da Slyme history archived on their website back in ’99), or to riff off on the importance of the coveted double album. The purpose here is to share a deep cut from the lesser known pit of Da Slyme material.

Photos embedded directly from Da Slyme’s web archive: http://www.abandonstream.net/slyme Credit to Da Slyme, and D. Stevenson.

In 1999 Da Slyme released The 20 Year Scam, a CD featuring 22 tracks from an unreleased Da Slyme show recorded live in 1984. The buzz surrounding the CD has fizzled away in the last 16 years, with many people who chase the double LP completely unaware of the CD’s existence. It is likely due to the fact that CD’s themselves hold little in the way of collectors value, and the format didn’t seem to age well after falling under the trampling of digital download.

But, fuck that. The 20 Year Scam is an extremely important collection of material in the history of Newfoundland music. It is the only available representation of Da Slyme material in the years that followed the holy grail double LP, and it houses some of my favourite Da Slyme tracks to boot.

Though The 20 Year Scam still contains the anthemic classics that even the worst of Da Slyme fans remember such as “Piss Eyed Sleazoid”, “No Talent”, and “I Hate My Job”, my favourite cuts tend to lean toward the lesser known “Margaret Thatcher for Possum Queen”, “Speedballin’ With Granny” and today’s deep cut: “Fear & Loathing in the East End”.

Intro’d with Da Slyme’s 12 second war cry “The One-Chord Punk Rock Song” (which simply explains “This is a one-chord punk rock song, we know it’s the shits but it doesn’t last long”), take a listen to “Fear & Loathing in the East End” for a taste of REAL St. John’s townie traditional music, and read along with Da Slyme’s lyrical magic below.

Fear & Loathing in the East End (Sic-o-via, Stilletto)

The TV went and told me an open/shut review
Terrorists are all bad boys and naughty persons too
They blew up a porn shop, an electric station too
And power concentrates itself in the hands of the few

And Justice for no one in the jailhouse and the schools,
As your attorney I advise you to break all the rules

The hungry came and told me that the racists want to fight
And torture them and shoot them in middle of the night
The TV said it was all lies they deserved their pitiful plight
Guess it’s God and the national news that makes the mighty right

Out there in the schoolyard they build a doomsday bomb
Working through recess time it didn’t take them long
It exercised their idle minds so no one gave a hoot
By weekend no one had the guts to give them all the boot