The Dictators - Demos and Rare Tracks (US 1973-76)
Size: 167 MB
Bitrate: 320
mp3
Found in OuterSpace
Some Artwork
The Dictators are an American proto punk and punk rock band formed in New York City in 1973. Critic John Dougan said that they were "one of the finest and most influential proto-punk bands to walk the earth." The Dictators are represented in the "Punk Wing" of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in Cleveland, Ohio. Steven Van Zandt called them "The connective tissue between the eras of The MC5, Stooges, NY Dolls, and the punk explosion of the mid to late 1970s".
The original recording line-up consisted of songwriter/vocalist/bassist Andy "Adny" Shernoff, lead guitarist Ross "The Boss" Friedman (aka Ross Funicello), rhythm guitarist Scott "Top Ten" Kempner, and drummer Stu Boy King. It was this line-up - along with roadie/occasional vocalist and "Secret Weapon" Handsome Dick Manitoba - which recorded the band's 1975 debut album, The Dictators Go Girl Crazy! for Epic Records, produced by Sandy Pearlman and Murray Krugman (best known for their work with Blue Öyster Cult). The album sold poorly at the time but is now considered to be the starting point for American punk rock . Entertainment Weekly wrote "Go Girl Crazy's junk-generation culture and smart-aleck sensibility did provide an essential blueprint for '70s punk. With its TV references and homely vocals, this ground-breaking and long-unavailable album continues to inspire underground groups everywhere."
During this period the band was christened with their nickname, "The 'Taters". This culminated in an incident during a tour with Uriah Heep and Foreigner in which Foreigner's roadies strung a net filled with potatoes above the stage and released it during the Dictators' set.
By 1978 Mendoza had left the band (he soon joined Twisted Sister), and Shernoff had returned to his original position on bass guitar. It was this line-up of Manitoba, Shernoff, Friedman, Kempner, and Teeter which recorded Bloodbrothers (yet again produced by Pearlman and Krugman with songs written by Shernoff). It was the first album to feature Manitoba as the group's vocalist on all the songs, though Bruce Springsteen - a big fan of the group to this day - can be heard counting "1-2-1-2-3-4" during the album's opening track, "Faster and Louder." The album's "Baby, Let's Twist" was a minor hit on a number of east-coast radio stations, but the lack of mainstream success caused the band to split the following year. Shortly before the split, drummer Mel Anderson had left Twisted Sister and joined The Dictators, replacing Teeter. [Wikipedia]
Go Girl Crazy! But that's not what happened. There were complications with record companies (Epic dropped them after their first album, 1975's The Dictators Go Girl Crazy!, and Elektra had little idea of what to do with 1977's Manifest Destiny and 1978's Bloodbrothers), personnel changes (onetime bassist Mark Mendoza left for Twisted Sister; original drummer Stu Boy King was replaced by Richie Teeter), radio hated them, critical response was wildly mixed, and lots of audiences didn't get the jokes; supporters remained loyal and vociferous (especially Meltzer), but it didn't turn into anything tangible.
They did manage to release three fine albums, but after 1978's Bloodbrothers, their strongest fusion of hard rock muscle and punky snark, was greeted with public apathy, the group's members began moving in different directions. Kempner put together the fine roots rock band the Del-Lords and the Little Kings, which paired him with New York rock legend Dion, and he recorded as a solo act. Ross the Boss spent a few years in the over the top, macho heavy metal band Manowar and later joined Shernoff and Manitoba in the punk/metal combo Manitoba's Wild Kingdom. And Shernoff worked as a producer. However, as Shernoff put it, "The Dictators never broke up. Sure there were occasional gaps of a few years between some shows (we had lives to lead) but deep in our hearts and souls we always knew we were Dictators. We couldn't escape it even when we tried."
The Dictators continued to launch occasional tours (most notably in Spain, where they'd gained an especially loyal following), but as Shernoff and Kempner devoted more time to their solo careers, the Dictators splintered, and in 2012, Handsome Dick launched a new band, Manitoba, which featured himself, Ross the Boss, drummer J.P. "Thunderbolt" Patterson (who played in Manitoba's Wild Kingdom and the D.F.F.D.-era Dictators), guitarist Daniel Rey (formerly of Shrapnel, and a writer and producer who worked extensively with the Ramones), and bassist Dean Rispler (ex-Murphy's Law and a respected producer). The band initially focused on the Dictators and Manitoba's Wild Kingdom songbooks as well as full-bodied cover material, and in 2013 they changed the name to the Dictators NYC and began working on new original material.[AMG]
Manitoba's Wild Kingdom
Manitoba's Wild Kingdom emerged out of the legendary New York City punk band, the Dictators. While the Dictators were always known as a great live band, bassist and producer Andy Shernoff formed Manitobs'a Wild Kingdom in the late eighties. Daniel Rey, who is the brother of the late Joey Ramone of the Ramones was part of the original line up but left the band soon after they started recording their album. By the time the band was complete, the line up was three Ex-Dictators including Handsome Dick Manitoba on Lead Vocals, Ross the Boss on Guitar, Andy Shernoff on Bass and Vocals and Future Dictator J.P. Thunderbolt Patterson on Drums and Vocals. The result was a Killer Punk/Metal album called . . . AND YOU ? This album is packed with 10 rocking songs that showcases lightning speed riffs, thunderous beats, savage vocals and amusing lyrics all rolled up in under 26 minutes. Manitoba's Wild Kingdom continued into the early nineties but eventually evolved back into the Dictators along with original member Scott "Top Ten" Kempner on Guitar. Since then, they have only performed as Manitoba's Wild Kingdom on a few occasions. While performing as the Dictators, they still play songs from . . . AND YOU ? often openin.g shows with NEW YORK NEW YORK or THE PARTY STARTS NOW !!
Members:
♦ Ross "The Boss" Friedman - lead guitars/backing vocals
♦ Richard Manitoba - lead vocals
♦ Andy Shernoff - bass/keyboards/lead & backing vocals
♦ Scott "Top Ten" Kempner - rhythm guitars
♦ J.P. Patterson - drums
Former:
◊ Stu Boy King - drums (1973-1975)
◊ Ritchie Teeter - drums (1976-1979; died 2012)
◊ Mark Mendoza - bass (1976-1978)
◊ Mel Anderson - drums (1979)
◊ Frank Funaro - drums (1996-1998)
Discography
• Go Girl Crazy! (1975)
• Manifest Destiny (1977)
• Bloodbrothers (1978)
• D.F.F.D. (2001)
• Viva Dictators (2005) (live album)
• Every Day Is Saturday (2007) (compilation of rarities)
• Faster... Louder - The Dictators' Best 1975-2001 (2014) (greatest hits)
as Manitoba's Wild Kingdom
• ...And You? (1990)
Demos 1973
01. Weekend
02. Backseat Boogie
03. Master Race Rock
04. California Sun
05. Fireman's Friend
Demos 1975
06. Interstellar Overdrive
07. Tits to You
08. Too Much Fun
09. Dogs
"Jabberwalk" Session March 1976)
10. America the Beautiful
11. Sleepin' with the TV On
Demos 1975
12. Heartache
13. Search & Destroy
14. Disease
15. Sleepin' with the TV On
16. Exposed
Live 1976 Reference to "The Wayne County Incident"
17. Smash That Faggot's Head (clip)
18. 1977 Radio ad
1. Demos
or
2. Demos
.
The Dictators - Live at Gino Club Stockholm 1996
Bitrate: 320
mp3
Ripped by: ChrisGoesRock
Artwork Included
The Dictators are a rock and roll band formed in New York City in 1973.
Critic John Dougan said that they were "one of the finest and most influential proto-punk bands to walk the earth."The Dictators' debut album, The Dictators Go Girl Crazy! (1975) was perhaps the first album released by a New York punk group. They found relatively little commercial success, and their smart-guys-playing-dumb shtick would be further refined by later punkers -- notably The Ramones.
The Dictators are represented in the "Punk Wing" of the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame, in Cleveland, Ohio. Steven Van Zandt called them"The connective tissue between the eras of The MC5, Stooges, NY Dolls, and the punk explosion of the mid to late 1970's".
The original recording lineup consisted of bassist/vocalist Andy (aka "Adny") Shernoff, lead guitarist Ross "The Boss" Friedman (aka Ross Funicello), rhythm guitarist Scott "Top Ten" Kempner, and drummer Stu Boy King (who was, in fact, the band's fourth drummer since forming in 1973). It was this lineup - along with roadie/occasional vocalist and "Secret Weapon" Handsome Dick Manitoba - which recorded the band's 1975 debut album, The Dictators Go Girl Crazy for Epic Records, produced by Sandy Pearlman and Murray Krugman (best known for their work with Blue Öyster Cult). Although the album sold poorly at the time, today it is considered one of the most important albums ever recorded by a New York punk band of the period, and still stands as arguably one of the funniest records ever made.
Frustrated by the lack of sales, the band broke up for a few months in late 1975, but reconvened in early 1976, with bassist Mark "The Animal" Mendoza replacing Shernoff. After a few months Shernoff was persuaded to return to the group as the group's keyboardist. This lineup soon secured a contract with Asylum Records (at least partly due to the notoriety the group had developed following a well-publicized brawl between Manitoba and Wayne County) and released their second album, Manifest Destiny, in 1977. The album - again produced by Pearlman and Krugman - is usually considered the weakest of the group's first three albums, and featured a considerably more mainstream sound. The band resisted playing songs from Manifest Destiny for several years because the album hadn't been re-released on CD.
During this period the band was christened with their nickname, "The 'Taters." This culminated in an incident during a tour with Uriah Heep and Foreigner in which Foreigner's roadies strung a net filled with potatoes above the stage and released it during the Dictators' set.
By 1978 Mendoza had left the band (he soon joined Twisted Sister) and Shernoff had returned to his original position on bass guitar. It was this lineup of Manitoba, Shernoff, Friedman, Kempner, and Rich Teeter which recorded Bloodbrothers (yet again produced by Pearlman and Krugman). At the time it was - and still is - generally considered to be a stronger album than Manifest Destiny. It was the first album to feature Manitoba as the group's vocalist on all the songs, though Bruce Springsteen - a big fan of the group to this day - can be heard counting "1-2-1-2-3-4" during the album's opening track, "Faster and Louder."
Although Friedman had spoken to the press with some bitterness about The Dictators during the early Manowar period, he and the other members of the band began reuniting occasionally in 1981, and later that year ROIR released the cassette-only Fuck 'Em If They Can't Take a Joke, which featured numbers from all three of the group's studio albums, covers of the Velvet Underground's "What Goes On" and Mott the Hoople's "Moon Upstairs," and two new Shernoff numbers; "Loyola" and "New York New York."
Other than occasional reunion shows, little was heard from The Dictators during the next five years. However, in late 1986 Shernoff and Manitoba (along with guitarist Daniel Rey) formed Wild Kingdom, releasing a version of "New York New York" on the 1988 soundtrack to Mondo New York. By the time of the band's 1990 MCA Records debut, ...And You? (by which time they were now billed as Manitoba's Wild Kingdom), Rey had left the group and had been replaced by Friedman, making it - for all practical purposes - the fourth Dictators album (the group was rounded out by drummer J.P. Patterson). ...And You? - clocking in at a whopping 25 minutes in length - received excellent reviews, with Rolling Stone calling it "the first great punk rock album of the '90s." Following a club tour that year Kempner (who had been previously occupied by his work with the Del Lords during much of the 1980s) joined the group and Manitoba's Wild Kingdom was replaced by The Dictators.
The ...And You? album cover was a source of some controversy at the time since it was lifted from a Nazi recruiting poster dating back to World War II. It was not the first time members of the band (most of whom, ironically, were Jewish) had been associated with charges of this sort since Go Girl Crazy had featured the songs "Master Race Rock" and "Back to Africa."
By the 1990s much about the lives of the band's members had changed markedly.
Shernoff had recorded and briefly toured with The Fleshtones, become a wine expert, and written with Joey Ramone.
Manitoba opened a successful East Village bar called Manitoba's, and currently sings lead vocals with the surviving members of the MC5, and is a Sirius Satellite Radio DJ on Little Steven's Underground Garage channel.
Kempner had developed a certain degree of respect from roots-rock audiences due to his 1980s work with The Del-Lords. In 1992 he released his highly acclaimed solo album Tenement Angels and joined The Brandos in 1993.
Friedman's work with Manowar and Brain Surgeons had given him a certain cachet with heavy metal audiences.
However, the group - first with Frank Funaro on drums, then again with Patterson - began recording a fourth Dictators album in the late 1990s, which was eventually released as D.F.F.D. in 2001. The album was well-received, and a couple of the songs - particularly "Who Will Save Rock 'n' Roll" and "I Am Right" - should be regarded as legitimate classics of the band's catalog. However, Shernoff has remarked that it will probably be the group's final studio album of new material since he finds writing rock songs to be more difficult as time goes on. He is currently compiling an album of demos, rarities, and unreleased songs recorded at various times over the band's thirty-plus year career. However, even following Kempner's move to California in 2002 and his departure from the group, The Dictators continue to perform to a devoted audience, and released a new live album, VIVA Dictators (with Kempner on rhythm guitar) in 2005.
Since February 2005, Manitoba has been singing lead with The MC5, a Detroit pre-punk rock and roll band. Manitoba also has his own show, "The Handsome Dick Manitoba Program" on Little Steven Van Zandt's Underground Garage channel, on Sirius Satellite Radio. Manitoba's, a New York City rock n' roll bar on 99 Ave B (btwn 6th & 7th St) NYC: Lower East Side, was opened by Manitoba on January 14, 1999
01. New York New York 03:23
02. Haircut and Attitude 02:54
03. Master Race Rock 04:27
04. I want You Tonight 02:48
05. Faster and Louder 02:55
06. Baby Let's Twist 04:14
07. I'm Right 04:30
08. Call me Animal (MC5) 02:52
09. The Party Starts Now 02:09
10. I stand Tall 04:25
11. Science Gone Too Far 03:47
12. Had it Coming 02:26
13. Search and Destroy (Iggy Pop "Raw Power") 03:56
14. The Next Big Thing 04:32
15. Stay With Me 05:36
1. Gino
or
2. Gino
Enjoy!!!
%2B(UK%2B1968).jpg)
