(GI)

Infobox Album
Name = (GI)
Type = Album
Artist = The Germs


Released = 1979
Recorded = 1979
Length = 38:14
Label = Slash
Producer = Joan Jett
Reviews =
*Allmusic rating|4.5|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:qt5uak4k5m3p link]
Last album = "Lexicon Devil" (1979)
This album = "(GI)" (1979)
Next album = "What We Do Is Secret" (1981)

"(GI)" is the lone studio album from influential American punk band The Germs. The title stands for "Germs Incognito", an alternate name the band used to get bookings under when their early reputation kept them out of Los Angeles-area clubs. It was released in 1979 by Slash Recordscite web |url=http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/discography/index.jsp?pid=4710&aid=7664 |title=The Germs – (GI) |work=Billboard |accessdate=2008-08-10] in the United States as SR-103 and later in 1982 by EX"PANDED"MUSIC in Italy as EX-11.

Joan Jett, a longtime friend and heroine of many of the band members since her time in The Runaways, was asked to produce the album. Lead singer Darby Crash had originally wanted former Paul Revere & The Raiders vocalist Mark Lindsay to produce, but while Lindsay was willing to do the job, he turned out to be too expensive for Slash Records to afford. Jett's production was initially thought to be too thin when the album was finished and released, compared to the album Crash wanted Jett to emulate (the Sex Pistols' "Never Mind The Bollocks"). In retrospect, "(GI)" actually sounds cleaner and more polished than the Pistols' album.

Jett allegedly passed out during the sessions, as claimed by Crash while the band were recording "Shut Down" live in the studio.

Recorded fairly quickly and released in 1979, the album's clarity proceeded to encapsulate the Germs for California audiences who had only seen the band thrash around onstage while an intoxicated Crash avoided singing into the mic as much as possible.

A lone outtake from the sessions, "Caught in My Eye", would later appear on the posthumous EP "What We Do is Secret" and on the Warner Bros.-distributed cassette reissue of "(GI)", at the end of side one.

After "(GI)"'s release, the band would only undergo one more recording session, for the soundtrack album to the Al Pacino movie "Cruising". A year after "(GI)"'s release, Darby Crash committed suicide on December 7, 1980.

The entire album appears on compact disc as part and parcel of "Germs (MIA) - The Complete Anthology".

Track listing

ide one

#"What We Do is Secret"
#"Communist Eyes"
#"Land of Treason"
#"Richie Dagger's Crime"
#"Strange Notes"
#"American Leather"
#"Lexicon Devil"
#"Manimal"
#"Our Way"
#"We Must Bleed"

ide two

#"Media Blitz"
#"The Other Newest One"
#"Let's Pretend"
#"Dragon Lady"
#"The Slave"
#"Shut Down (Annihilation Man)"

Musicians

*Darby Crash - vocals
*Pat Smear - guitars, backing vocals
*Lorna Doom - bass, backing vocals
*Don Bolles - drums, backing vocals
*Donnie Rose - piano on "Shut Down" (credited only on some European editions)

References