The Punkles - Punk! 
(Bitzcore) www.bitzcore.de,
www.punkles.com 

It was not easy getting your hands on good rock and roll in 1977, especially if you were 8 years old at the time, like I was. But there I was at Cheapo's (still around- I bought on overpriced Cactus record there a couple weeks ago), two crumpled dollar bills in my hand, looking for sonic action. I was actually hoping to find another Sex Pistols record, not knowing 'Never Mind' was their sole contribution to rock and roll at the time. Hit Parader magazine wasn't really much of a help, unless you really dug Styx. The goatee'd guy at the counter explained punk's inherent worthlessness to me, steering me away from the Ramones, and convinced me that I really ought to pick up a Beatles record. I didn't want to- I mean, I had already heard them on the goddamn radio every day of my life, and quite frankly, preferred Sabbath- but back then we listened to our elders. He hooked me up with "Sargeant Pepper's" and sent me off to play in the traffic. I got about halfway home before I ran into this older kid Eddie, who was kind of a creep, but had sold me a pretty good stolen bike for five bucks earlier that summer, so I felt obligated to talk to him. 

"So, what record you got?" He asked me. I was already aware that it really wasn't that cool to be dragging around a Beatles record in these days of KISS and Alice Cooper and Johnny Rotten, but if I refused to tell him, he would have just taken the bag anyway. So I showed him. "The Beatles?" He sneered, derisively. "Nobody listens to this old shit anymore. The Beatles are out, man. Punk is where it's at." And it was true, but for Christ sakes, I was 8, and there was only about 5 punk records in existence at the time. I snatched my record back and went home, determined to get my two buck's worth of enjoyment out of it. 

Didn't really work, though. First of all, I had heard all of the songs on it already, and worst of all, the guy at the record store said it was their "Psychedelic" record, but my friend Ricky's older brother played me some 13th Floor Elevators when we were hanging around his basement, watching him smoke pot, and he said that they were psychedelic. And "Sgt. Pepper" didn't sound nearly as cool. A few days later, I traded it with this guy Jeff for a bunch of Mad magazines, and I never bought another Beatles record. 

Which neatly brings us to the Punkles, a Hamburg-by-way-of Liverpool supergroup comprised of Andi from stoner space jammers Nixon Now and his heavy friends, thrashing up Beatles hits and crowd pleasers. I like it alot better than the real thing. Stacey would like to point out that these covers are not "Really punk, they're just fast", but let us not get mired in nuance. The Punkles manage some neat liquor tricks along the way- copping a Pistols riff for the intro to "Yesterday" is particularly inspired- and although I'm still not convinced that it's cool to like the Beatles, I am absolutely sure it's all fuckin' right to dig the Punkles.