Nasty Facts Drive My Car 12″ reissue
Teenage punky power pop perfection! While too many KBD slabs have been elevated to “essential” status by virtue of little more than their scum stats, this is a legitimate ripper, and a really important one at that. NASTY FACTS first came together as four grade school Brooklyn tweens playing covers in 1975, an origin story that would probably be enough in and of itself to cement their legend, but bassist/vocalist KB Boyce was also Black and queer, commanding space in a scene that has generally been synonymous with lovelorn white men fixating on women as lyrical subjects/objects of unrequited desire. The band tears through the three tracks on their one-and-done 1981 single with the wound-up melodic velocity of the BUZZCOCKS (bobbing bass, blazing guitar, restless drumming), with KB’s vocals exuding effortlessly cool teen nonchalance on the unassailable A-side “Drive My Car”—the line “I’d rather dance than read a book” in one verse precedes “I’d love to hit you with my car / Don’t ever look at me that way” in the next(!), with some SHANGRI-LAS’ “Leader of the Pack”-style car crash sound effects thrown in to really underscore that sentiment. The B-side (“Gotta Get to You/Crazy ‘Bout You”) is killer, too; a double-trouble dose of fierce, anthemic bubblegum punk right up there with the likes of SCREAMING SNEAKERS and the MNM’S (if you know, you know). Such a crucial record in so many ways.