Wednesday, January 19, 2022

ARSON - White Folks 7'' 1979

Five piece from Toronto hereby invite you to listen to their only great & rare 7Inch on Motor Records, which was released in a limited edition of 900 copies, and since I can't talk about the How’s, Why’s and Wherefore’s, because I wasn’t there at the time, I found a small but shiny & informative anecdote from someone who knows better, here we go: In 1977, at the height of the punk rock pandemic that was effortlessly engulfing the globe, vocalist and composer Rude Tuesdai fortuitously joined forces with guitarist Marcel Lafleur to begin a musical friendship that has spanned more than three and a half decades and spawned the incendiary band ARSON, the rest of the gang were Chic (guitars), Spyke (bass), Mike (drums). Ask anyone who’s ever heard them live and they’ll tell you that ARSON sonically sutures the Detroit destruction of the Stooges and MC5; the New York noise of the Velvet Underground and New York Dolls; and the British brainpower of the Stranglers and Clash. I could go on, so I will. Arson has independently toured all across North America and played countless concerts in a myriad of notorious rock’n’roll breeding grounds like New York, Detroit, and Chicago while sharing stages with (and stealing spotlights from) much influential legendary luminaries as the Dead Boys, Misfits, Suicide, Troggs, Destroy All Monsters, etc…. Meanwhile, Rude and Martin continued to douse the band’s smoldering ashes with new songs until the time was right to finally tap their past and craft a contemporary sound containing the unflinching fury of their earlier incarnation.

Aided and abetted by John Sutton (Weakerthans) on bass and David Quinton (Mods, Dead Boys, Stiv Bators) on drums, Arson recently recorded an in depth profile for Toronto radio station CIUT while recent concerts have garnered a whole new generation of rave reviews. That not hyperbole, that’s a fact and you can take it from me because I actually was there back in 1977 at the height of the punk rock heyday. So who you gonna believe: me or your own ears? (Bio by Jeffrey Morgan)

Two amazing songs and really too little for a talented band like Arson.


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