Grave Disorder

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Vanian and Sensible credit producer David Bianco — a 1995 Grammy Award-winner for his engineering work on Tom Petty’s “Wildflowers”— with finessing this delicate balance. “We had a short list of producers that we’d listened to, but the main problem, I think, was finding a producer who was able to work with different sounds and different types of music,” Vanian says. “We tended to get CDs sent to us from producers of songs that sounded very much the same. They were kind of like 20 different punk bands, basically, and I wanted to hear something with a piano on it, or a ballad.” Sensible admired Bianco’s restraint. “He’s extremely good at capturing the live vibe,” says the guitarist. “It’s not an overproduced album.” Song.com” is an ironic blend of surf sounds with lyrics bemoaning the addictive qualities of Web surfing. “Absinthe”, “’Til the End of Time” and “Beauty of the Beast” convey a more romantic and gothic atmosphere, as well as reflecting Vanian’s continuing fondness for psychedelia. “She” is in fact, a gorgeous, soaring ode, an epiphany of Goth psychedelia, and the most moving song on the album. “Absinthe” is lovely and transcendent, a tour of the unreal world guided by the green fairy herself, as voiced by Vanian. Sometimes it takes 25 years for a band to get its due respect. While the Sex Pistols and the Clash are usually credited as the seminal English punk bands, it was actually the Damned who put out Britain’s first official punk single when they released “New Rose” in October 1976. With its machine gun-style guitar riffing, infectious pop hooks, and catchy, anthemic chorus, that two-and-half-minute classic is loudly echoed in the poppy punk of Green Day, the Offspring, and just about any angst-fueled tune being banged out in a garage today.

Distributed by Caroline, the Huntington Beach, California-based Nitro Records was founded in 1994 by Dexter Holland, lead singer of the Offspring. A longtime Damned fan, Holland saluted his idols with his own band’s 1995 cover of “Smash it Up.” It's just as energetic and fresh as they were 25 years ago when they helped form the UK punk scene along with the Sex Pistols and The Clash, among others. Unlike most "new" albums from older bands on long hiatus, this album really feels as passionate (if not more so) than their earlier efforts, a real album and one of their best in fact.Songs like "W" (about the 2000 election and George W. Bush) have a sound very reminiscent of Britpop (such as the sound they exhibited on Strawberries). "song.com" offers a tongue-in-cheek commentary on the Internet, while "Democracy?" offers a rebuke of what they see as the futility of democracy and political revolution.

But when they were a punk band, they were a helluva punk band. They had, hands-down, Rat Scabies, the Best Drummer Punk’s Ever Produced. Both original guitarist Brian James and Captain Sensible were beyond the “bludgeon riffs.” And Vanian croons . For a vampire, he can really sing.

Track List

Nevertheless, the show was a memorable one. Vanian began the night in his typically elegant Draculoidal attire. He returned after intermission with a freshly shaved head a la Nosferatu to sing Bauhaus’ “Bela Lugosi’s Dead.” Their two sets spanned the breadth of their 43-year career, proving the Damned were much more than a three-chord punk band. By the early eighties, the Damned came to California, and discovered the retro 60’s garage punk and psychedelia of bands such as L.A.’s Unclaimed, and San Diego’s Crawdaddys, who drew complete and accurate influence from originals such as the Chocolate Watchband, the Music Machine, Sky Saxon and the Seeds, and the literally hundreds of obscure bands compiled in collections like Pebbles and Broken Dreams. The impact of this music was so profound that Vanian launched a side project, Naz Nomad and the Nightmares, which recreated these vintage classics lovingly, but with the Damned’s own unique interpretation. Naz debuted with “Just Call Me Sky” on an early post-Batcave compilation, The Whip, followed by one album, Give Daddy the Knife, Cindy, released in 1984. Booking the vast London Palladium, they presented “A Night Of A Thousand Vampires,” inviting the audience to join singer Dave Vanian in donning the garb of the undead. Plenty did. But audiences borne of punk culture are notoriously contrarian, so many didn’t sign the guest book. Sadly, the Damned’s claim to have assembled the world’s largest gathering of vampires couldn’t be substantiated. Read more: These five Misfits albums left scorch marks on the veneer of punk Sure, the Damned had a gothic-pop phase and have indulged interests in psychedelia and prog. And Sensible’s exceptional guitar work is as much Carlos Santana as it is Brother Wayne Kramer. These factors keep them interesting, alongside their sense of humor and devil-may-care attitude. They were always a random chaos-and-destruction machine, laughing their way through their shambolic life. Below are five essential albums you need to hear. Read more: Top 15 punk albums of 1977 that undeniably defined the year Damned Damned Damned (1977) Vanian gets to fully showcase his vocal talents on the eerie and hallucinatory power ballad “Absinthe,” as well as the evocative horror film tribute “Beauty of the Beast.” He indulges his romantic side on “She,” a raunchy valentine to Morrison, who happens to be his wife. “In lots of ways it’s purely Patricia’s pushing that got this whole thing off in the first place,” Vanian admits. “She really worked hard on building the band up.”