Why Can't I Touch It...?

The Party Animal...
One of the films of my youth. By looking at the cover of my old VHS copy above you would probably say it's obviously a pretty average run of the mill college sex romp of a film from 1984...
And you'd be partly right, it is a college sex romp film from 1984, but it's not average, it's possibly the best of this generally frowned upon and berated genre, as in... it's actually pretty funny.

So, yes it's a pretty good romp of a film, but the thing that stood out most for me (stop sniggering at the back..) was the music...
A shedload of Buzzcocks, a couple of tracks from The Fleshtones and Gerald Michenaud as well as tracks from Chelsea and The Untouchables, it also featured R.E.M. with the track Radio Free Europe which was the very first time I had heard them... sadly I think it all went down hill for R.E.M. after this... ahem!.

As far as I can gather this was Matthew Causey's (who played the lead character Pondo Sinatra) only film, which is a bit of a shame. He's now a University lecturer and apparently hates anyone mentioning the film... Ooops!

But Simon, where oh where can we get a copy of such a fantastic film I hear you say...
Well It's just about to be released on DVD for the very first time, in fact it's never had a re-release at all since 1984, so go and grab this puerile little gem of a film.

Sadly though there has never been a release of the soundtrack, and as far as I know there are still no plans to release it... bummer.
I guess you'll have to do with a couple of tracks from me.

The Fleshtones - Roman Gods

Brilliant track that features in the film quite a lot, funky ass bassline, handclaps, cowbells, great guitar riff and smashing brass...
This first appeared on the album Roman Gods in 1981 and was released as a single later the same year.
Sadly though the album is currently unavailable... double bummer.

The Fleshtones are still going to this day, and have a new album out in August...

"The once and future kings of garage, The Fleshtones are back with another helping of high-energy Super Rock served raw the way you know you like it. Since nearly the dawn of time, The Fleshtones have been oozing sweat from every pore they own just to satisfy you, the people of earth. They don't ask for fancy plaques and awards, all they want in return is a promise to shake your stuff while listening to their time-tested premium blend of garage-ified rock and R&B on their new disc Beachead. Produced in living color by Rick Miller (Forty-Fives, Moaners) and The Dirtbombs Jim Diamond (White Stripes, Andre Williams)."

So there you go.

Buzzcocks - Why Can't I Touch It?

Anyone with an even vaguely passing interest in Buzzcocks will already know this track inside out I guess, but to all those that don't, this is not very representative of their output at all... but it's just so bloody good I had to use this track.

I will no doubt be doing a full post on Buzzcocks at some stage, so I wont go into too much band history and stuff here, just to say that this first appeared on the b-side to the Everybody's Happy Nowadays 7" from 1979 before turning up on one of the greatest (if not THE greatest) ever compilation albums... Buzzcocks - Singles Going Steady.

Buzzcocks split up for a while in the 80's but reformed and have released 5 studio albums since reforming, they also have another album planned for release later this year.
If I was only allowed to buy one thing by them though it would be the mighty Product box set which compiles all the tracks from the first 3 studio albums plus all the tracks from Going Steady and some bonus live tracks too... great stuff.
There's a problem though... It's unavailable... triple bummer.


Buy - Party Animal on DVD... yay!
Buy - The Fleshtones - Blast Off!
Buy - Buzzcocks - Singles Going Steady [Bonus Tracks]
Visit - The Fleshtones
Visit - Buzzcocks

Simon
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