13 Bands You Didn't Realise Were One Album Wonders
13. Germs
If there was ever an album that had rabies, it would be Germs (GI). It foams at the mouth and wants to take a chunk out of your leg. Germs were the hardest of hardcore punk bands out of Los Angeles in the late seventies famous for their rowdy live performances. And by rowdy, I mean they were a full on riot. LA style. Band members would be stumbling all over the place out of their minds on heroin and cheap beer, vomiting on the stage and playing with a feral nature that would quickly get them banned from most of the clubs in LA. Spearheaded by frontman Darby Crash and future Foo Fighters guitarist Pat Smear, (GI) has all the subtlety of a sledgehammer. Listening to this album is like having ear surgery in an alleyway. With the eternally cool Joan Jett handling the production, (GI) turned out to be Germs only full length studio album as Crashs behaviour became more and more erratic as well as heroin dependent. One year after its release, Crash took his own life through an overdose in a suicide pact at the age of just 22. Unfortunately his death went largely unnoticed by the media and fans alike due to the shooting of John Lennon the very next day, leaving one of punks pioneering kingpins largely forgotten with only one album to his name.
