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The Incredible Shrinking Dickies (1979)
8
Give It Back / Poodle Party / Paranoid / She / Shadow
Man / Mental Ward / Eve of Destruction / You Drive Me Ape (You Big Gorilla)
/ Waterslide / Walk Like an Egg / Curb Job / Shake and Bake / Rondo
(the Midget’s Revenge)
Ever want to feel like you did way back in the ignorant days when you were just a little school kid having fun in the park, helping flies to get red of their wings and throwing firecracker’s and a bucket of pebbles in old ladies’ mailboxes? Here’s your chance, because The Incredible Shrinking Dickies might be the good-natured, simple, naïve, goofy and hilarious soundtrack to your immature behaviour you’re looking for. The Dickies proved that punk bands needn’t always have some ideological program or anger/outrage to vent, like most other bands at their time and place (they were from Los Angeles), but that having a whole lot of immature fun and a crazy ride through pop culture could do the trick as well. You could compare them to The Ramones, minus a few brain cells, with a British touch most apparent in singer Leonard Graves Phillips’ snarly tone and the band’s poppy side that’s reminiscent of bands like The Jam and The Buzzcocks. On top of that, it was a gig by first generation British punks The Damned that inspired them to form a band, and after a lot of touring Sparks manager John Hewlett decided to produce the band’s debut album, which is often still regarded as the pinnacle of their birthday party inanity.
Their reputation may also have something to do with their legendary covers, as their takes on Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid,” P.F. Sloan’s “Eve of Destruction” (Barry McGuire anyone?) and the Monkees’ “She” are all performed at the same, insane breakneck speed, while Phillips’ stuffed up nose and helium-powered delivery will have you wonder whether you just bought yourself a 78RPM record. Despite the fact that The Dickies never did away the pop elements from their music, their ferocious attack sometimes resembles the single-minded fury of hardcore punk, lending them a unique American/British appeal. As for the rest of the album: comic book simplicity, B-movie camp and delightful humor never let up: these are songs about getting bullied on the way to school (“Give It Back”), meeting the “trashman junkman elevator operator” (“Shadow Man”) and the downside of staying in a madhouse. Some of the songs come off as a bit too fluffy (“Mental Ward,” “Walk Like an Egg”), but they’re hard to resist and remind you it’s okay to act a bit silly once in a while. More convincing stuff comes in the way of the terrific album opener “Give It back” (perfect falsetto backing vocals), the keyboards-dominated “You Drive Me Ape (You Big Gorilla),” and “Waterslide,” one of the best Buzzcocks imitations/tributes ever recorded. If that’s not enough already, there’s some more poetry waiting for you: “I’m just a lonely egg, peel me down, I’m not afraid, what will we do” (“Walk Like an Egg”). For the Belgian readers (I know who you are, you two), it’s also interesting to know that the instrumental “Rondo (the Midget’s revenge)” later served as the theme song to the satirical TV-series “In de Gloria” in a slightly different version. Stay clear from The Incredible Shrinking Dickies if you’re infatuated with the complete writings of Bourdieu, Baudrillard, Foucault and De Man, because it’ll all be over your head anyway. On the other hand, if you’re the type that insists on blowing out candles and wearing paper crowns on birthdays (even though you’re 25), if you think He-Man should’ve run for president, or if you dig the goofiness of The Ramones, The Violent Femmes, The Dead Milkmen, Ween and Camper Van Beethoven, you might get a kick out of it.
Note: The 2000 CD-reissue adds a few similar bonus tracks: covers of “Silent Night” (yes, that “Silent Night”), “Sounds of Silence,” the TV-theme to “Banana Splits” and three more originals (“I’m OK, You’re OK,” “Got It at the Store” and “Hideous”).