Germs: The Missing Link

As I've been researching the history of punk and metal, I find that many publications spew out the same history word-for-word. But after doing some digging of my own, I find a few anomalies that don't quite fit the chronology I've been told. The biggest one that comes to mind is an LA punk band called the Germs.


So here's the history of pre-1980s punk rock as I've been told:

First there was protopunk. This is a retrospective term used to describe punk-y bands before punk was punk, after punk was punk. You might have to read that a few times before it makes any sense. Basically it's a bunch of artists like MC5 and The Velvet Underground that started playing rock-n-roll a little faster and messier than other bands, but it wasn't yet called punk. The term "punk" would go on to describe the following wave, and the term "protopunk" wouldn't even exist for many years after that.

So punk rock surfaced in the mid 1970s with (relatively) thriving scenes in both New York and London with groups like Ramones, Clash and Sex Pistols. This incarnation was radio-friendly rock music and doesn't quite fit my definition of punk music that I grew up with.

Then I was told that hardcore punk burst onto the scene with Black Flag at the forefront of the movement, followed by Minor Threat and Bad Brains on the east coast. I'm told these are the "big three" and they started hardcore punk. I've been told that multiple times from multiple sources.

But after doing some of my own little research I found an anomaly in the chronology that I had been told time and time again. That anomaly, is a little group from LA called the Germs.

Germs -- "We Must Bleed"

While Black Flag were still trying to solidify a line up, Germs were regularly getting kicked out of concert venues for completely destroying them. Germs released their debut album (GI) in 1979--over two years before Black Flag released their critically acclaimed debut album Damaged in December 1981.

In fact, still before Black Flag's debut album, the lead singer overdosed and the band broke up in 1980, and apparently left a pretty big mark on the southern California punk scene. The mighty Bad Religion showed interest in writing an album with "Germs-style songs" for their 2010 album The Dissent of Man, but ended up going classic rock. NOFX and Melvins among others covered Germs songs on a tribute album.

To me they sound far noisier, messier and chaotic than anything that immediately followed them in the history of punk rock, and yet they're almost never mentioned. Now that I'm aware of Germs, I feel more people need to be aware of them as well.

After their demise, their guitarist Pat Smear went on to briefly play live guitars for Nirvana, then followed Dave Grohl into Foo Fighters for period of time. Interestingly, Smear only performed on Foo Fighters two most critically acclaimed albums: 1997's The Colour and Shape and this year's Wasting Light (which although this hasn't happened yet, it's obviously destined to end up on many critic's best of 2011 lists).

In 2007 someone made an indie film biography on the Germs titled What We Do Is Secret which I highly recommend if you're into SLC Punk and other period-films. The film stars pretty boy Shane West who went on to tour with the group, and is expected to record a few songs with the Germs that were originally written by their late lead singer. Because it's a hollywood pretty boy, naturally this was met by a negative reaction from the rest of the punk community.