Next in my series of Lookout! Records releases, and today it's the turn of a band called Corrupted Morals. Hailing from California, they were active from 1986-1990 and were one of the original Gilman Street bands, appearing on the legendary 'Turn It Around' compilation. Their debut release was a 7" entitled 'Chet EP', released as Lookout! Records number 2 in 1988. I've owned a copy of this 7" for getting on for 30 years now, but just recently took the opportunity to upgrade to this first press copy from my friend's collection.
Fun fact - the picture on the cover is an illustration of a scene from the film 'Weird Science', with the character of Chet being payed by Bill Paxton. I managed to find a screenshot of it online:
The first pressing is denoted by the number stamped on the back cover. For some reason, each of the first 4 Lookout! 7" releases had this same stamped numbering system applied to the back cover, all in red ink and probably done with the same stamp (the others being the Operation Ivy 'Hectic EP', Crimpshrine 'Sleep, What's That?' and Isocracy 'Bedtime For Isocracy'). Despite being numbered, it's not clear how many of each were actually made, although I have seen numbers in excess of 1500, so I would guess at 2,000 copies of each. This now completes my collection of these numbered 7"s, and about bloody time too.
I also decided to keep their second 7", which I hadn't even seen before. This one is titled 'Think About It EP' and was released on Very Small Records in 1989, and it's quite hard to find as there were far fewer copies made of this one than there were of the band's first 7" or full length. In total there were 624 copies of this one made. It sounds like a reasonable amount by today's standards, but to put it in context, it means that probably only one in every five people who owned the first 7" could also own one of these.
I've never really known how to describe this band musically. But to me they just sound like the bands I used to hear on H-Street skateboard videos back in the day. Bands that just played fast songs that had melody but were also kinda messy sounding. A bit too metal to be punk, but not really punk either. Perfect.
3 comments:
Marcus, not sure if you knew a about this one but…
Chet got expanded to a 12” last year with their demo added to it, every bit as good as the tracks on Chet too, plus the 12” is on your fave color - pink vinyl! They also tweaked the artwork in some nice ways - back cover live shot is a different pic from the same gig, etc. A nice package well worth seeking out:
https://lavasocksrecords.bigcartel.com/product/corrupted-morals-chet-12
Also FYI the same label, Lavasocks, also released a reissue of Nuisance’s wonderful Confusion Hill again with updated artwork (which I think also looks great) and on color, I know you are also a fan of them:
https://lavasocksrecords.bigcartel.com/product/nuisance-confusion-hill
Miles
Thanks, Miles. I have seen those reissues, and they do look great. However, I'm really trying to cut right down on the number of reissues I buy these days, so not planning to pick them up.
You still in NYC?
Yes, but not at Generation any more.
And you absolutely need to check out the 2nd Monsula album, best thing they did.
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