Something I Learned Today

Punk Rock and Other Assorted Bullshit

The Gears

February 01st, 2007 | Posted by: Eric | Category: 70's Punk, 80's Punk

Thought about posting about The Gears a couple of months back only to find the excellent Last Days of Man on Earth had just posted The Gears 7″. Six months later and I’ve looped back around, ready to dish out a couple of tracks from the CD reissue of the band’s 1980 LP Rockin’ At Ground Zero on Dionysus. The press release sums it up:

“Rockin’ at Ground Zero” is by far the most rockin’ album to come out of the final days of the original Los Angeles punk rock explosion of 1977-1980. Here’s a band that wanted to have FUN; get drunk, do drugs, get laid and make some damned good music! They were ahead of the curve and made a super-musical concoction by mixing together styles that were a direct or indirect influence on the original punk scene, surf and rockabilly groups and even The Ramones

So there you go. While there are a couple of duds on this, the majority is melodic punk with a greaser rock undercurrent. Bonus points for tacking on the band’s 1979 7″.

The Gears - Baby Runaround.mp3
The Gears - Don’t Be Afraid To Pogo.mp3
The Gears - The Last Chord.mp3
The Gears - Heartbeat Baby.mp3

I prefer the version of “Hard Rock” from Bloodstains Across California to the remixed version on the CD
The Gears - Hard Rock.mp3

Notes:
>> The Gears on MySpace
>> Buy Rockin’ At Ground Zero

13 Comments so far

  1. crilo in p-gro February 2nd, 2007 1:19 am

    My bud and erst next-door neighbor (RIP Renny!) was a cousin of Axxel G. Reese and passed his copy of the his cousin’s record to me back in the 80s, and I’ve always loved it. Coincidentally, my best bud (across the country, in the Navy at the time) had gotten the one and only EP (Lock And Load, produced by Billy Zoom!) put out by the D.I.s, Axxel’s post-Gears band. Both are prime slices o’ beachabilly punk. Good luck finding the latter; glad someone re-released the Gears.

  2. OTTO February 2nd, 2007 10:26 am

    Timeless stuff! Sounds as good today as it did in the day. Nice choice.

  3. fred February 5th, 2007 10:12 am

    I got that D.I.s ep. Not to be confused with the singular D.I. with Casey Royer.

    I landed a copy of the original Gears 45 (without any Crazy Ruben signature) at Blue Meanies for 50 cents(!) in the very early ’80s when I felt like I was the only one in LA collecting old ’70s punk. I wasn’t, but it sure felt that way.

    The LP with the original cover used to turn up on every visit I made to So Cal after I moved. The Salvation Army in Agoura had a huge stack of unopened copies with a record store sticker “3 for a dollar” on it. Good for me as at least one copy of mine was stolen. Different cover than the one on this blog.

    Loved the Gears live as well. Dave Drive’s drumming!!! He was in some other bands where he used those incredible beats s well.

  4. fred February 5th, 2007 10:13 am

    Oh, and “Hard Rock” is a rewrite of Elvis’s “Hard Knocks”!

  5. scott February 5th, 2007 12:49 pm

    thank you for turning me on to yet another band i was unaware of.

  6. mike manifold February 5th, 2007 7:11 pm

    the link to the gears site is to a fan page. the “real” link operated by me(mike manifold) is here:
    http://www.myspace.com/thegearslosangeles

  7. mike manifold February 5th, 2007 7:13 pm

    oh yea, axxel just found some old DI’S tapes that we will be remixing and releasing soon!

  8. Chewie February 5th, 2007 11:35 pm

    I never knew anything about these guys until I read about them here. The description had me intrigued so I listened to the tracks posted - and damn are they great! I ordered the CD the right away. “Last Chord” fucking rules. Thanks for posting this!

  9. fred February 8th, 2007 10:10 am

    Nice Gears page on MySpace. Axxel’s face finally cleared up? There is hope for acne sufferer’s everywhere.

  10. timmythepunk March 2nd, 2007 7:55 am

    yeah chewie ‘last chord’rules, so much energy, i still think the 1979, 45 has a harder edge, this stuff is so tight and loaded with attitude.

  11. Drunkinstarz March 8th, 2007 2:20 pm

    Wow!! This is my boyfriend’s uncle’s band and this is my first time hearing them. There f*ck*n BADASS!!!

  12. Tom October 11th, 2007 9:00 pm

    Nice to see this album (”Rockin At…”) get recognized for the masterwork it is. They didn’t know at the time they’d put a stamp on punk that was indellible, and therein lies the beauty. The Gears probably always thought of themselves as ‘just a band’ but they certainly were a God-Damned amazingly ahead-of-their-time GREAT one as far as I’m concerned! Their album remains as fresh and important as they come. I saw them in Pomona w/ the Cheifs at a ‘Boxing Club’ back in 1979 or so. Amazing. Thanks for posting this about such a killer band.

  13. Christopher March 27th, 2008 12:35 am

    Glad to see there are others out there who also hold the Gears near and dear. Got to see the Gears twice in the late 90s - once at Linda’s Doll Hut in Anaheim and once at Club Mesa in Costa Mesa. Carla from the Controllers was there as well. Needless to say, both shows were amazing. This CD is great - mine has a different cover though.

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