County's first release following the less than pleasant dismantling of the Electric Chairs was this dramatic recounting of a New Year's Eve 1979 show in Toronto, Canada. Dominated by an absolutely phenomenal rendering of the already supercharged title track, it's a magnificent album, rounding up an intelligent selection of both the classics ("Paranoia Paradise," "Fuck Off," "Cream in My Jeans") that brought County such notoriety elsewhere in the 1970s and the savage rockers that proved he/she was so much more than Just a ...
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County's first release following the less than pleasant dismantling of the Electric Chairs was this dramatic recounting of a New Year's Eve 1979 show in Toronto, Canada. Dominated by an absolutely phenomenal rendering of the already supercharged title track, it's a magnificent album, rounding up an intelligent selection of both the classics ("Paranoia Paradise," "Fuck Off," "Cream in My Jeans") that brought County such notoriety elsewhere in the 1970s and the savage rockers that proved he/she was so much more than Just a Pretty Weird Face. Remarkable reinventions of "Night Time" and "Hanky Panky" are pure garage pop brilliance, while "Rock 'n' Roll Cleopatra" serves much the same purpose in County's career-long catalog of self-definition as "Man Enough to Be a Woman" did a couple of years before. One can lament the fact that the original Electric Chairs weren't around to fire up the show even further, but this is still a great-sounding live recording, with a brutal band and a frontman in the finest fettle. The punk/new wave era really didn't produce many great live albums -- but here's one, regardless. ~ Dave Thompson, Rovi
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