Germs (band)

The Germs are an American punk rock band from Los Angeles, California, United States, originally active from 1977 to 1980. The band's early lineup consisted of singer Darby Crash, guitarist Pat Smear, bassist Lorna Doom, and their most consistent drummer Don Bolles. They released only one album, 1979's (GI) (produced by Joan Jett) and were featured the following year in Penelope Spheeris' documentary film The Decline of Western Civilization, which chronicled the Los Angeles punk movement.

Germs disbanded following Crash's suicide on December 7, 1980. Their music was influential to many later punk rock acts. Pat Smear went on to achieve greater fame performing with Nirvana and Foo Fighters.

In 2005 actor Shane West was cast to play Crash in Germs' biographical film What We Do Is Secret (named after a song by Germs). He performed with Smear, Doom, and Bolles at a production party for the film, after which Germs reformed with West as singer. The new lineup of the band has performed a number of tours in the United States, including performances on the 2006 and 2008 Warped Tours.

Lexicon Devil

Lexicon Devil is a three-song EP and the second release by the American punk rock band Germs.

Background

Germs were already gaining notoriety ever since the release of their first single, "Forming", and their early live performances. However, their increasing success was not without some roadblocks. They did not have a permanent drummer at the time, Donna Rhia having long left the band. X drummer D.J. Bonebrake filled in at a few gigs, but The Weirdos drummer Nicky Beat ended up being the band's first semi-permanent drummer (The Weirdos were still a going concern at the time). Also, Pat Smear owned a Rickenbacker electric guitar at the time, but did not own an amplifier.

The band's second single came about when the publishers of Slash punk zine made an offer to Germs to release a record on their newly formed label Slash Records. The group agreed.

Production

Smear's non-ownership of an amplifier at the time actually led to the unique guitar sound on the record. Producer/engineer/musician Geza X was supposed to lend Smear an amplifier for the recording session, but had forgotten; instead Smear strung together some effect pedals and plugged directly into the studio's mixing board.

The Decline of Western Civilization

The Decline of Western Civilization is an American documentary film filmed through 1979 and 1980. The movie is about the Los Angeles punk rock scene and was directed by Penelope Spheeris. In 1981, the LAPD Chief of Police Daryl Gates wrote a letter demanding the film not be shown again in L.A. Over the years the film has gained cult status.

The film's title is possibly a reference to famous music critic Lester Bangs' 1970 two-part review of The Stooges' Fun House for Creem magazine, where Bangs quotes a friend who had said the popularity of The Stooges signaled "the decline of Western civilization". Another possibility is that the title refers to Darby Crash's reading of Oswald Spengler's Der Untergang des Abendlandes (The Decline of the West). In We Got the Neutron Bomb, an oral history of the L.A. punk rock scene collected by Mark Spitz, Claude Bessy claims that he came up with the title.

The film is the opening act of a trilogy by Spheeris depicting life in Los Angeles at various points. The second film The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years covers the Los Angeles heavy metal scene of 1986-1988. The third film The Decline of Western Civilization III chronicles the gutter punk lifestyle of homeless teenagers in the late 1990s.

The Decline

The Decline is an EP by NOFX. The CD version consisted of only the 18-minute title track, but the vinyl included a different version of "Clams Have Feelings Too" (from Pump Up the Valuum) on the B-side. The Decline is largely a satire of American politics and law, with an overwhelming concern for blind behaviors of the masses, such as complacency, indifference, gun violence, drug-use, and conformity, as well as destruction of constitutional rights, and condemnation of the religious right. Although the lyrics are somewhat disjointed, they all refer back to the unifying theme of the "decline" of America. The trombone is played by Lars Nylander of Skankin' Pickle.

According to the band,

The first 155 copies were pressed on clear vinyl, a version which is no longer available.

The first 1 min and 20 seconds of a live version of The Decline is played as an encore after "Stickin' In My Eye" on They've Actually Gotten Worse Live! (2007) before being faded out. A DVD featuring a live performance of The Decline was released on September 12, 2012.

Western culture

Western culture, sometimes equated with Western civilization, Western lifestyle, Western society or European civilization is a term used very broadly to refer to a heritage of social norms, ethical values, traditional customs, belief systems, political systems, and specific artifacts and technologies that have some origin or association with Europe, having both indigenous and foreign origin. The term has come to be applied by people of European ethnicity to countries whose history is strongly marked by European immigration, colonisation, and influence, such as the continents of the Americas and Australasia, whose current demographic majority is of European ethnicity, and is not restricted to the continent of Europe.

Western culture is characterized by a host of artistic, philosophic, literary, and legal themes and traditions; the heritage of Greek, Roman, Jewish,Celtic, Germanic and other ethnic and linguistic groups, as well as Christianity including the Roman Catholic Church, and the Orthodox Church, which played an important part in the shaping of Western civilization since at least the 4th century. Also contributing to Western thought, in ancient times and then in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance onwards, a tradition of rationalism in various spheres of life, developed by Hellenistic philosophy, Scholasticism, humanism, the Scientific revolution and the Enlightenment. Values of Western culture have, throughout history, been derived from political thought, widespread employment of rational argument favouring freethought, assimilation of human rights, the need for equality, and democracy.