Long Lost '70s Punk Surfaces With Help From Punk Legends

What do you do when you've been part of punk's legendary underground for more than 20 years and want to put out another solo album? Simple: Get The Stooges' Scott Asheton and The Damned's Captain Sensible to be your rhythm section. Then proceed to call up all your favorite guitarists and friends, who just happen to be rock gods, to pitch in. Easy, right? If you're Sonny Vincent, who did just that, the answer is yes. The result is his fifth solo effort, The Good, the Bad, the Ugly, due out March 18 on Acetate Records.

The dirty, guitar-driven punk-rock record features Television's Richard Lloyd, the MC5's Wayne Kramer, Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore and Jim O'Rourke, Black Flag's Greg Ginn, Walture Lure (of Richard Hell and the Heartbreakers), Ivan Julian and Robert Quine (of Richard Hell and the Voidoids) and many more. Each contributes guitar parts, typically solos or leads.

Though Vincent intended initially to record the album with a trio — himself on guitar and vocals, Asheton on drums and Sensible on bass — the project turned into what he calls, in the liner notes, "an epic journey!"

Vincent originally expected to record the album in about 10 days; instead, it took over a year, with sessions in various studios in Los Angeles, Detroit, New York, England, France, and Vincent's hometown of Berlin. Along the way he decided that the primary aspiration for this, his fifth solo album, would be "to get all my favorite guitar players to play on a different song."

On a tight budget, Vincent managed to track down his many guitar heroes, and they agreed to play on the album. He found studio owners willing to cut him a deal. "I must have been blessed by angels because it all came together," he wrote, "without advance planning and very little money — only dreams and passion.

"I can only attribute the success to the fact that it was created in an environment of inspiration, chaos, excitement and lots of support and faith," he later adds.

The 14-song album also includes, The Offspring's Dexter Holland, Sonic Rendezvous' Scott Morgan, Brian James (who's played with The Damned and Lords of the New Church), Generation X's Bob "Derwood" Andrews, The Zeros' Javier Escovedo, The Weirdos' Cliff Roman and The Muffs' Kim Shattuck. Newcomers included are The Hangmen's Jimmy James, The Bellrays' Tony Fate and The Superbees' Dave James.

Coming at a time when underground rockers are embracing punk's seedy past, the record throws a curve ball at retro throwbacks by offering the authentic real deal. Having actually lived through New York's underground, Vincent (who founded the noisy, dissonant punk band The Testors in 1976) can't help but create '70s-style punk rock. Rather than evolving away from its sound, he's continued to pursue it in its rawest form.

The Good, the Bad, the Ugly sounds as you would expect — like the result of all its contributors getting together. It's loud, it's fast, mean and, most of all, overflowing with gritty, grinding, crunching, spiraling and always excellent guitars riffs and solos.

About the recording experience, Vincent wrote: "Always funny stuff was happening, and between inspired moments we had a lot of laughs. At one point I threatened to list on the album credits two separate columns, one for the players who stood up while they rocked out and the other column for the ones who sat in chairs. Of course, after I mentioned that, no one sat around in chairs much during recording!

"There also could be a column for those who smoked grass before recording, those who guzzled Jack and those who did yoga," he continued, "but I suppose that would be too personal. Just suffice to say there was quite a bit of variety dealing with all the different personalities and character types."

Vincent plans to tour the U.S. this spring following the album's release. Check his Web site for upcoming tour dates. — Jenny Tatone [Monday, Jan. 27, 2003]