Way back in the Reagan days Lawrence, KS had its hipness quotient significantly elevated by the presence of a hardworking teen band initially known as The Mortal Micronotz. As they honed their strain of US punk the Mortal was dropped, briefly reapplied and then nixed again, but other than a switch of vocalist the lineup remained constant throughout their existence. The discography remains appealing; curious newbies need only proceed to Bar/None’s digital reissues of the band’s back catalogue, and those with a fancy adequately tickled should be on the lookout for secondhand copies in stores and at record fairs far and wide.
The Mortal Micronotz formed in 1980, just in time to latch onto the waning popularity of punk as an inspiration over not fitting in; by the following year guitarist John Harper, bassist David Dale, drummer Steve Eddy, and singer Dean Lubensky cut a demo promptly chosen by Bill Rich for the Fresh Sounds from Middle America (Vol 1) cassette on his label Fresh Sounds; the other participants were The Yard Apes, The Embarrassment, and Get Smart!
Some might be fatigued by yet another band from the ’80s underground receiving a resurrection of availability. All this writer can say is the iceberg is still largely submerged: The Psycho Daisies, U-Men, Turbines, Better Than Death, Al Perry and the Cattle, Sister Ray, Hullaballoo, Nice Strong Arm, The Texas Instruments, Rifle Sport, Couch Flambeau, Tar Babies; the list of acts waiting in the wings could go on for quite a while.
This Micronotz roundup might only be a digital drop in the bucket, but it’s an admirable gesture and it pairs well with Bar/None’s ’95 2CD Embarrassment retrospective Heyday 1979-83 (the label also put out their ’90 reunion album God Help Us). But please don’t get think the Micronotz’ first album is qualitatively comparable to The Embos, a group whose best stuff sat near the top of the early ’80s US u-ground class.
Although they were tapped by the elder band as openers (before they’d even fully formed as a unit), the Micronotz’ debut is basically a likeable snapshot of high-school punk energy at the dawn of American Hardcore. As such, there is a fair amount to admire across the ’82 LP; for starters, there is Lubensky’s raspy punk snarl, Harper’s raw guitar tone and a non-rudimentary rhythmic template in “It’s Not Alright.”
All four members clearly benefited from extensive practice and across the 14 selections they do a pretty consistent job of eschewing the formally generic; at the same time, there’s an intensity in the delivery that underlines their alignment with the nascent hard fast uprising. Notably, they forged an early relationship with fellow Midwesterners and transitory HC travelers The Replacements, playing with them in Lawrence and Chicago.
It’s true that the lyrics often read as punk typical, e.g. “Take 2 (Individuality)” and “Police Force,” but as a bunch of alienated teens, this spews forth naturally and isn’t really a fault. Plus, on one occasion the words are onto something considerably different; that would be “Old Lady Sloan,” which features a limerick given to the band by Kansas resident William S. Burroughs, the connection established through the Beat cornerstone’s friendship with Bill Rich.
James Grauerholz, Burroughs’ biographer and the literary executor of his estate, gets the credit of co-producer on The Mortal Micronotz, though Rich is more likely the man responsible for the less than prime sound quality. Specifically, while the album fluctuates between effective and adequate sonically, in the right hands it could’ve delivered a haymaker. Still, on the positive side, “Blonde-Haired Ghost” is prescient of ‘80s emo-core (in the best way), and “Let it Out” is a nifty closing rethink of The Hombres’ ’67 hit.
1983 brought the eight song “SMASH!” EP (as simply the Micronotz), the group successfully balancing the responsibilities of book learning with practice, recording, and playing; they undertook short, mostly Midwestern jaunts amid numerous hometown gigs including a slot as openers for a legendary performance by industrialists SPK (documented by Fresh Sounds on the cassette The Last Attempt at Paradise).
The songs on “SMASH!” are a smidge faster but the thrust still melodic as Eddy never succumbs to the era’s polka-esque beat. The production, this time shared by Rich and the band, continues to be a weakness (another possible culprit is Karl Hoffmann, who recorded The Mortal Micronotz, this EP and a bunch of other Fresh Sounds releases), but the energy level and the general aura of overachievement prevails; “Feels Like” is especially fine advanced punk.
A culminating cover of The Stooges’ “I Got a Right” does much to shed light on a key element in their attack; while not as strong as Dredd Foole & the Din’s version, the Micronotz definitely do it justice. As Eddy and Dale finished school the Micronotz attempted a video project, though by the end of Harper and Lubensky’s senior year the former was a National Merit Scholarship finalist and the latter the recipient of a scholarship for painting from New York’s Cooper Union.
It proved an opportunity Lubensky couldn’t turn down, and as he exited the band the video was left unfinished. It did produce the “Live Recording of the Video Soundtrack” 7-inch (briefly returning Mortal to the name), its five songs capturing sustained raucous punk frenzy easily reinforcing hardcore bona fides, particularly the bruising and blistering “Cleo” and Dale’s bass thunder and Lubensky’s increasingly elastic utterances in the aptly-titled finale “Dean’s Lead.”
And so the end of one phase; upon the recruitment of new singer Jay Hauptli the second commenced, with the difference in vocal style the most immediately distinctive characteristic in ’85’s The Beast that Devoured Itself; where Lubensky branched out from the template of the wiry, spiky haired shirtless punk urchin (the way of Darby, essentially), Hauptli possessed a beefy growl that forecasted the direction post-hardcore Midwesterners would follow in the later ’80s.
Trucking along as inspired as they ever were before, the dual guitar attack of Harper and Hauptli fires on all cylinders during opening stomper “Way Too Loud” amid a noticeable uptick in production quality. And yet it’s an album sometimes belittled in comparison to the prior material and their slightly higher profile final LP for the Homestead label.
The Beast that Devoured Itself benefits from maturity as they persisted in harnessing the punk energy that’d propelled them from the very beginning; in this writer’s perspective it’s approximately the equal of 40 Fingers, and as the cuts unfurl it’s perfectly clear why Randy “Biscuit” Turner of the Big Boys contributed the cover art; highlights include the potent riffing of “Brain Arrangement,” the speedy catchiness of “War,” the rich melodicism of “Decide Tomorrow,” the pummeling intensity of “Polyester Slave,” and the emotionally raw tunefulness of “Oh Baby.”
40 Fingers is the record most often cited as the Micronotz’ best, which is understandable given the comparisons made between it and the work of Hüsker Dü, but it’s also sometimes an overstated point. Far from copyists, hard-edged melody had been a part of the equation since the start, with the prior album’s “Decide Tomorrow” and “Oh Baby” two of their finest examples.
But there’s no denying 40 Fingers’ rate of success, and the band even manages an acceptable cover of Simon and Garfunkel’s “Scarborough Fair.” Hauptli occasionally reduces the gruffness of his outpouring as backing vocals augment a number of tracks including the powerful “Psychodeli.” “Push it Out” is a showcase of instrumental dexterity, and as the disc unwinds not a bum note is hit, though as is the case across the Micronotz’ discography some tracks wield more impact than others; overall, it’s kind of a drag that 40 Fingers served as the end of their run.
By far the saddest part of the story is David Dale’s suicide in 1992, its sting salved a little by the appearance in 1995 of The Mortal Micronotz Tribute! The CD helped to reinforce their legit importance (for a while they were as well-known in the Midwest as the ‘Mats), and a definite highlight is the recording of “Old Lady Sloan” by Burroughs and the Eudoras.
Truthfully, a lot of underappreciated ‘80s u-ground junk really isn’t all that elusive; obtaining vinyl copies of the Micronotz shouldn’t prove too tricky or pricy, and two retrospective CDs also came out in the mid-’90s. Let Bar/None’s digital reissues serve as the juice for the search…
The Mortal Micronotz
B
“SMASH!”
B+
“Live Recording of the Video Soundtrack”
B+
The Beast that Devoured Itself
A-
40 Fingers
A-
