Ducks Battle Satan

There are many stupid things I’ve done in my life. Many. Up there, in the hall of fame of stupidity, was my decision to off-load my collection of vinyl in 1997. Some very good records indeed were sold for a fucking pittance at my local rip-off indie record store. I sold those records because I decided to follow my then girlfriend overseas. At that time she was way more important than my regularly pawed copies of Die Kruezen, Big Black’s Atomizer, my mint Au-Go-Go copies of Evol and Bad Moon Rising in the plastic sleeve with bonus poster, that great 12 inch copy of Dinosaur Jr’s Just Like Heaven with the etched art on the noon-existent b-side … fuck I could go on. Three months later I was back in Australia, single and with nothing to show for my abandoned record collection but a credit card debt the size of Tasmania, self loathing and regret.

One of my favourite records that was abandoned in the purge was this one. My quest to find a new copy started three years ago but being another classic, though sadly out of print record, meant that copies now commanded rather large mounds of cash. In my quest I managed to get hold of lead singer, Michael Gerard, by email (gotta love those German fan sites). He confirmed what I already suspected. Everything was out of print and there were no plans to re-release them although he was hoping to have a “Best of” released but even that prospect was up in the air. An email to Touch and Go met with a similar response. So the hunt was on. I no longer own a record player so I had to find an affordable copy on CD. Two weeks ago the quest was successfully completed and today a nifty package arrived from the UK. The front slip looks like someone spilled a drink on it but the disc is in perfect nick.

Ah, the pleasure. For Ladies Only was originally released as a box of four, seven inch singles which I think were on coloured vinyl. Killdozer already had form for loving a good cover so they stretched the idea to the logical extreme and released their covers album. There is nothing smart or smug about For Ladies Only. It’s eight very well know songs played Killdozer’s way and it’s as if no prior thought went into how they’d approach each song. All of the songs covered here sound like Killdozer wrote them. This is no mean feat when you consider what’s on offer here. Don McLean’s American Pie, Bad Company’s Good Lovin’ Gone Bad, Deep Purple’s Hush and Elvis Presley’s Burnin’ Love. There’s a liberal dose of good humour on For Ladies Only and it backtracks significantly from the shambolic, intense punk rock infused with midwestern gothic malice of 12 Point Buck and Little Baby Buntin’.

It’s a real shame this is out of print. I know Michael Gerard has visited this blog so I wonder how that “Best of” is coming along.