The Gizmos The Gizmos in New York 1980–81 cassette
In the spring of 1980, the GIZMOS (at the time, Dale Lawrence, Billy Nightshade, and Tim Carroll) left their hometown of Bloomington, IN to make a go of it in the Big Apple—someone’s gotta teach those New Yorkers how to rock and roll! It was a brief sojourn, though—they would split up and go their separate ways by Summer of 1981. But it ended up being a pretty productive period for the group, and it even birthed one of their best known songs, the Red Snerts standout “The Midwest Can Be Allright.” This cassette compiles the complete recordings from that time period, including a lot of tracks that are getting their official debut. “Now I Wanna Go Fast” and “Pig Nose”—two revved-up punkers—are maybe the best of the bunch. I’d probably prefer to have this on LP, but any release in any format from the GIZMOS is going to be essential, and this is no exception.