Customer Reviews

Mondo Birthmark

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

For those of you lucky enough to have seen The Tubes in the 70's, this is the disc to remind you of their creative zaniness, unique style, and incredible musicianship!

This collection of rarities could not be further from their commercial success of the early 1980's. This band was truly ahead of its time. Even some of the older tracks on their "Demo Daze" CD from 2001 have their work-in-progress roots on this CD.

This album features several cuts from the Tubes vaults that never made it onto a record, and some that probably kept them from even getting a record deal (if I may paraphrase from the liner notes).

The photo on the back of the CD package shows 9 members (instead of the more well-known 7) and the liner notes and credits list a total of 10 members, past and present. The track listing on the back is also missing one track, but the full and correct listing is on this Amazon page and in the liner notes.

Hard to believe The Tubes were ever this young!

Some bands were meant to be seen and not heard, and some bands were meant to be heard but not seen. This band was meant to be both seen AND heard! Hard to tell which was more important. The Tubes really knew how to put on a show, and this CD is more proof that excellent musicianship, theatricality, and creativity won't guarantee commercial success but just might generate the well-deserved cult status that puts most other bands and music to shame.

The photos in the CD booklet are not to be missed!

My first exposure to "The Beans" came on Audition Nite at Uncle Sam's in Sebastopol, CA for $.50. A friend of mine said "You got to come over and see this. There's a guy up there dressed as a chick." It was Fee as Carmen Miranda doing the Latin Set. The music that they were delivering was rough, but it was so different then anything I had ever heard. They mixed being a great club dance band and really pissing off the male elements as they refused to continually play in "éven" time, thus making it difficult to dance to...

On this collection, you will find great examples of odd time and unconventional tonality...On Hoy Boy, Wonderbread Bodies,Artaud Poem, The Tubes are doing what they do... Roger Steen and Vince Welnick were great soloists in that format. Along with More/Telstar, TV, and especially Dinosaur Blues (one of my absolute favorites), you have the essence of the early Tubes. Michael Cotton was not in the group at that time, thus no synthesizer. It's the type of music that as you listen to it, you just want to keep playing it until you wear the damn disk out.

The first time I saw the twin guitars and twin drummers, for an aspiring musician, it was magical. This is the first collection that I know of that has the late Bob MacIntosh along with Prairie Prince delivering the syncopated beat that made The Tubes special. They are featured in Artaud Poem and in Let's Do It...Just terrific stuff, and long overdue...The Tubes grew into a Freight Train, simply too big and powerful for most clubs to handle...and my band actually did open for them a year or 2 later...

In October 09, I saw them again in Annapolis for the first time in about 15 or 20 years...They still got it!

Despite the fact that The Tubes aren't as big as they should have been (personal opinion), they really can do no wrong with me. Okay, I do like their more commercial and rocking material best, but those very first albums also succeeded to claim their space among my fond memories. I mean, a lot of material is hilarious. And other just simply rock your socks off.

So now they hit us with this new album. Well, wait a minute, the album may be new, but the material on it certainly is not. The backside subtitle is "Mutant Memories from the early seventies". And that says it all really. What is on offer here are recordings from before the release of their official first self titled album from 1975. Or as they put it themselves, the songs that didn't get us signed. Brilliant humour as always.

Some tracks are in fact familiar. We find early versions of the classic White Punks On Dope or Mondo Bondage here. And some lyrics are so off the map, it is obvious why label reps were not eager to sign them based on that. But do we really care?
I guess it is safe to say that this is not going to win them many new fans. No, if you want to discover this band, try The Completion Backward Principle, Remote Control or Outside Inside first.
But for the aficionados like me, this is a wonderful insight in the early development of this vastly underrated band. Who, besides their keen eye for stunning live shows with all it's theatrics, are great songwriters too, who are very adequate on their instrument of choice.
Love it!

This release is a gift for the Tubes enthusiast covering their work prior to the release of their debut album. The demos versions of known (and unknown) songs are excellent in both performance and audio quality. There are a couple of live tracks included that show the burgeoning power of the corps Tubes unit. This is the group prior to the addition of Re Styles. The booklet contains great text and rememberences from key players and a photo look back at a very young group. If you like the first three Tubes LPs you will love this collection. If you are a "Talk to you later" era fan than I suggest you let this one pass. There is nothing here for you. Now if we can only get "NOW" domestically released on CD.

Sobering to realize just how good this band was before it even made its first album. The level of ambition and musicianship is remarkable, and even the demo recordings are of good quality, especially for those days of open-reel tape. Very, very fine.

Interesting collection of early 70 demos, in good quality, made for a nice listen, but they won't replace the versions on the 1st album.
If there's a ever a Tubes Box set, this will be disk 1.

Intriguing insight to early Tubes material with early versions of the classics WPOD, Haloes and Mondo Bondage. One for the collectors and true Tubes devotees, material that in subsequent years was to be highly polished into the outstanding spectacle of What do you want Live era.

The Tubes are the greatest band in the history of music. Mondo Birthmark is a stellar album and has unreleased music from the band's early days. "Wonderbread Bodies" is great music, theater, and consumer commentary. Also, a frozen ball of wonderbread during a hot Arizona summer sounds delicious. I look forward to the Tubes documentary [...] which I'm sure will have footage of some of the "Mondo Birthmark" songs. Others seem to like lesser bands like The Rolling Stones, but The Tubes have always been the soundtrack to my life. `Mondo Birthmark" is the perfect gift for all the white punks on dope on your holiday shopping list.