100 Flowers
In 1980 or thereabouts the three members of primitive LA punk trio the Urinals upped and changed their name to 100 Flowers, for no other reason than their increasing musical ability and songwriting skills dictated a move away from the fuckitall minimalism the band’s previous name conjured. Where the Urinals celebrated their rudimentary talents, 100 Flowers featured more dynamic songs and sounds that can lazily be tagged as “art-punk”. In addition to some compilation appearances (Hell Comes To Your House, Keats Rides A Harley, and Life is Ugly, So Why Not Kill Yourself? amongst others) 100 Flowers would record would release a 3 song 7″ in 1982 and record enough material for a full LP and 12″ EP on Happy Squid. Both 1983’s self-titled album and 1984’s Draw Fire 12″ were released after the band had called it quits. In 1990 the vast majority of this material was released as 100 Years of Pulchritude. I happened across this one sitting in a used bin for $2 and speculated. 10 years later I’m still happy I didn’t pass it over. Highlights:
100 Flowers - Reject Yourself.mp3
100 Flowers - Our Fallout.mp3
100 Flowers - Poltergeists At Home.mp3
100 Flowers - California’s Falling Into the Ocean.mp3
100 Flowers - Triage.mp3
100 Flowers - Contributions.mp3
Notes:
>>Check out Happy Squid records and the Urinals here.
>>100 Years of Pulchritude is out of print. I’m hoping that with the recent reissue of Keats Rides A Harley, the Urinals old material, and new Urinals album that this once again sees the light of day.
>>You can find the Urinals second 7″ @ 7InchPunk. Good Music for Bad, Bad Times has the 3rd Urinals single. Somebody probably has the first one posted somewhere, but I’m too lazy to search for it.
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http://lastdaysofman.blogspot.com/2006/02/first-7inch-by-urinals.html
My site was actually named after a Urinals song of all things!
That’s right was I was gonna be saying - Joe’s fab site! And for the needy - I also have the very rare “Happy Squid” 7″ comp with additional URINALS available.
Good post. I LOVE the song ‘100 Flowers’.
You are very damn lucky getting that CD, but that’s how it goes with super obscure music … you either can’t get it for love or money, or you pick it up for next to nothing. As a mad Urinals fan, I’ve been after the 100 Flowers for years, but to no avail. Rhino said they’ve got no plans whatsoever of re-issuing it when I mailed them probably three years back.
The reunion Urinals is better than you’d think, too, although it took me about five times of listening to it (and hating it) before I GOT it.
Saw the Urinals, right after the name change to 100 Flowers at one of the many Vex clubs. They still sounded like the Urinals, they weren’t all polished up yet.
Also on the bill were the VKTMs from SF & the Angry Somoans with Jeff Dahl singing (and spitting beer in the air and catching it in his mouth, etc)
Warning Label Records has plans for a rerelease.
minutemen do ack ack ack almost perfect … or they did
I thought the LP came out before they broke up ’cause I swear I remember being bummed when I heard they were gonna pack it in ’cause I loved the LP so much (and still do).
That CD used to be in cutout bins everywhere for a few dollars. Here’s one for $14:
http://product.half.ebay.com/100-Years-Of-Pulchritude_W0QQprZ3124445QQtgZinfo
If you’re patient I bet you could find it on eBay cheaper. Also check GEMM — I’d be there’s some on there.
as mentioned above, warning label:
http://www.warninglabelrecords.com/
is reissuing the 100 Flowers comp, as well as some other cool stuff like Monitor and BPeople.
A few years ago I took my favorite songs from the Urinals CD and the 100 Flowers CD and made a single CD called 100 Urinals. It has 42 songs!