Blondie

Released in 1976 by an indie company, this boho rock update of mid-1960s girl-group pop was given a major label outing the next year. Outside of Australia clutching "In The Flesh" to its chest this didn't cause much of a ripple except in "back to basics" punk circles. "Kung Fu Girls" and "Rip Her To Shreds" showcase the sound that would soon break the band.

These bands achieved their initial notoriety while playing in the same place (an esophagus
of a bar called CBGB, in lower Manhattan) and have been lumped together with other
habitués of this joint as purveyors of "punk rock." In their self-consciousness and liberal
open-mindedness, these bands are as punky as Fonzie: that is, not at all. Blondie is a
quintet which juggles genres of fast rock, from a thick, Spector-ish vision of stre... More >

Ahh, New York. I remember Debbie Blondie when she was singing with nursery-rhyme breathiness for a group called the Wind in the Willows. Now she sounds flatly cynical against a very funny aural montage of girl-group and original-punk usages from the prepsychedelic era--less blithe, certainly, but more, you know, together. Which is what new-punk posturing is all about. Special award: best use of trash organ since "Light My Fire." (Grade - B+)