Reviews: "Hot Wire My Heart" / "Baby You're So Repulsive"

The Boston Groupie News

CRIME - this band is so hot you gotta get there 45 right now!  "Hot wire my heart" b/w "Baby your so repulsive" $3.50 but it's worth it!  CRIME Music, 537 Jones Street, Suite 9062, S.F., California 94102.

The Aquarian

Best of this whole bunch is CRIME with "Hot wire my heart" b/w "Baby you're so repulsive" (CRIME).  Both sides are only half realized combinations of Lou Reed, Iggy, the Dolls and the Ramones but they're both good tries and they both rock.  Plus they've got a great knack for inspired r & r titles and eye catching handbill ads.  This may be sold out by now but Bomp Records should still have some along with most of the notable New Wave records at Box 7112, Burbank California, 91510.  CRIMEs address is 537 Jones Street, Suite 9062, San Francisco, CA, 94102.

Punk Magazine (undated) - loose translation from the original French

 CRIME in California emerges in the fore-front of the movement.  Frankie Fix (on the guitar) and Johnny Strike (same instrument) form the nucleus of the group.  Ron the Ripper (bass) and Rickey James (drums) strongly add the remaining impact.  This group gives its all to achieve Raw Power.  To date they have issued a limited edition 45 with the titles "Hot Wire My Heart and Baby You're So Repulsive", which together takes a full quarter hour to play, as in the tradition of the Velvet/Dolls, which connects (tradition) San Francisco with New York and London.  All this generates from the same locale, which with scant cordiality, detests the various groups dressed like hippies, the escapees of 1968...

...Their material proclaims the (school of music) of "Fast - Hard and Raw", and is resplendent with elegant titles like "Murder My Guitar - Terminal Boredom - Manic - Dillinger's Brain -.  The songs are original, and properly devastating, corresponding to the environment of their scene, and their behavior reflects this totally.  True consideration can be given to justify their description as: "New Wave and San Francisco's First Rock and Roll Band".  You would certainly be making a grave error in not obtaining their record.  Write to CRIME Music - 537 Jones St. - Suite 9062 - San Francisco, CA., 94102.  You should do your best to obtain and listen to this marvelous 45 until they come out with another! (Frederic Thyctique)

Melody Maker (undated)

CRIME: "Hot wire in my heart" (CRIME Music).  The chainsaw is running menacingly slow and the track is long.  Rather like the Damned at 33 rpm.  Dave Vanian, if he's recovered from the C.B.G.G.'s, would turn in his leather death suit.  The "A" side is penned by Johnny Strike and the "B" side "Baby you're so repulsive" is written by bandmate Franki Fix.  "So far", their promo states, "they've played two shows - both were met with mixed reactions."  Now, I wonder what they throw at punks in San Francisco?

Not a patch on Thundertrain but better than, er- I can't think for the moment.  Detectives should send for blood samples to:  CRIME Music, 537 Jones Street, Suite 9062, San Francisco, CA, 94102.

TROUSER PRESS (October 1977)

 "Hot wire my heart" b/w "Baby you're so repulsive" - CRIME.  There's no label name and no record number, and in the shuffle of trying to avoid reviewing it I managed to lose the address.  But it's available in stores like Golden Disc, Rather Ripped and Rhino, who carry lots of domestic punk stuff.  They sure have the pose down, judging from the picture sleeve, showing four Nazi-oid leather types with the hipper-than-thou look.  Great titles too.  But though they may pose cooler than the Pistols (who are grungier than thou), their music is a bunch of noise.  Maybe you had to be there.

Cowabunga # 11 (undated)

CRIME (also from S.F.) have put out a vicious 45, entitled "Hot wire my heart".  A perfect cross between the Stooges and the Ramones (what could be better).  Enough to make everyone forget about the Grateful Dead.  $2 from Bomp, P.O. Box 7112, Burbank, CA 91510.

Future (undated)

CRIME - "Hot wire my heart"/"Baby you're so repulsive".  This always knocks me out!  Loud, crummy, bad recording - one of the best rock n' roll singles in a long time.  The a side is a hard-grundge sounding song with good T.S. Bonniwell/Trashmen vocals.  The b side which I love is really great.  Real energy!  If ya think the Ramones or N.Y. DOLLS were good pick up on this - it's better than both.  Also has neato pic sleeve.

New Musical Express (undated)

 CRIME: But you're so repulsive (CRIME Music), on the other hand, is more likely to end up on the turn tables of serious collectors of punk rock rarities and if you think that people who fall into that category are missing the whole point of the scene they are so desperately exploiting under the guise of nurturing then you oughtta try to listen to this.

CRIME bill themselves as "San Francisco's first rock and roll band", they dress up in S&M bikeboy outfits, their names are Johnny Strike, Ricky Tractor, Frankie Fix and Ron the Ripper, they mailorder this privately pressed artifact for a mere $3.50 (two quid to you.  Value for money, huh?) and they sound as if they wrote the song not because they know someone repulsive who they wanted to inform of their opinion or even because they imagined they did, but simply because it's what's happening.

Probable purchasers: people who run fanzines, explain punk-rock to the better class of daily paper, and Giovanni Dadomo, who will vote it into Time Out's Other Singles Chart as soon as he sees the sleeve.  Plus a few people who liked the Stooges, the Ramones and the Velvets but never new why.  Moving Right along to the nice pop records...

 
Slash (undated)

CRIME (CRIME Music) Hot wire my heart/Baby you're so repulsive.  Where do they come from anyway?  Where have they been hiding?  They look like neo-nazis perverts, and they sound like your average terminal speed-freak nightmare.  Truely dangerous anti-music, even the recording engineer must have fled the room ten seconds after they started (which explains the incredibly shitty-but-effective mixing: everything is buried under everything else, and the singers voice appears and disappears at random moments).  This must be the trend that is scaring everyone right now, from big rock superstars right on down to the secretaries at the big record companies reception desks and the ladies that put the records in their sleeves in the basement!  I mean, how do you seriously package this stuff?  Somehow they did it (three cheers for CRIME Music, whoever they are) and the results are awsome.  If these creatures keep it up they gonna start banning rock music all over again, which means they must be doing something right.  Not too sure what it is yet (it can only be taken in very small doses, you know!) but it could be the next big menace to civilization.  (If some fanatic of the old order does not go after them with a .44 magnum!) get it if you can.  You can always insult me afterwards, if hearing it hasn't turned you into a drooling idiot! (Kickboy Face)

 
Unknown (undated)

CRIME burst out of our New Bands section into international prominence.  Their latest single, "Hot wire my heart"/"Baby you're so repulsive", has become an eagerly sought-after item in Europe, where they like their leather shiny.  While the group kicks out some Marshalls in live performance, we can tell you it's available from 537 Jones St. (9062), San Francisco, Calif. 94102.