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METAL URBAIN-Panik/Lady Coca-Cola ep (Cobra cob47004) 1977
Started in 1975 as the electronic instrumental group De Sade, they were heavily influenced by Robert Fripp, Hawkwind and Lou Reeds Metal Machine Music. They soon changed their name to Metal Urbain as a nod to Reed and the Velvet Underground.
“Metal Urbain was a concept, not just a rock band. We wanted to be different, we wanted to be innovators. An influence on our thinking that might sound weird to you is Oscar Wilde who belonged to the anti-naturalists movement. We tried to aply his ideas to our music. That meant a music of reprocessed sounds, nothing natural. Like Eno did in Roxy Music, voices went through synthesizers, guitars through filters etc. We had a complete aesthetic approach. We wanted to be creators, to be different. We were dandies. We wanted a new world because we didn’t like the world (especially the music) we were living in.”
Eric Debris, Synth/drum machine/vocalist and founding member of Metal Urbain.
On one of his many trips to London in ‘76, Eric Debris discovered that a new strain of agressive “rock-n-roll” (similar to that of metal urbain) began to flourish and was being tagged “punk” by the English music press. Singer Clode Panik joined the band soon after and with newly found inspiration from their “punk” brethren in London, began to hone their attack. Playing the Golf Drouot battle of the bands (with a bunch of soft rock bands, no less) they managed to incite a riot after just 3 songs. Although the performance got them banned from future battles, it also got them noticed by Alain Pons, a music journalist and PR man who introduced them to a newly formed COBRA records. Original guitar player Rikki Darling quit and was replaced by the twin attack of Hermann Schwartz and Pat Luger. This gave their already aggresive sound another level of fuzzed up mayhem. With some borrowed equipment and 1 week in the studio, they produced what is arguably one of the best punk records to ever come out of France.
“Panik”, the a-side, features the twin terrors on guitar and offer up brutal and monumental James Williamson- style riffage while Clode Paniks shouted French vocals easily match their ferocity. The b-side “lady Coca Cola” is the groups homage to Reed and V.U. at their reverb and feedback-soaked best.
The band went through many line-up changes and releases after this (and remain active in some form today), but this 7″ remains a testament to the ground breaking vision of “punk” they held. For more history and info check here and here
Ps: I swiped and manipulated most of the above text from the liner notes in “Anarchy in Paris” Metal Urbain discography, thanks to my fave Frenchie Jaques Amsellem
Tracks
Panik
Lady coca-cola
Posted by: SurlyOldPunk
here comes Surly again crankin’ out the fargin’ classics! “one of the best from France” my ass, they ARE the best. everybody statewide seems to have some negativity about the French, i don’t personally gotta problem with ‘em per-se, but these De Sade fanatic sicko-wackos are the creme-de-la-face of French attack-o! that they pay their props to the VELVETS is justice, though many here would probably disagree. seems alotta hardcores got sumthin’ against those NY posers, but consider the lineage: BOWIE, STOOGES, ROXY MUSIC as noted, all the 70’s Krautshit, JOY DIVISION, SIOUXSIE, thru to these assholes, not to mention every pie’n'ear outta Cleveland around this period, into the ’80’s with yer Bunnymens and your Rems and yer Morrisseys and yer J&M’s, nowadays with yer Strokeses and yer Belle Sebastianses and yer Franz Ferdinandses, and yer e.t. fuckin’ c. anyway i’m done kissin’ ass here, gotta take these young’ns to school sometimes, but now i gotta go back to work. thanx for another rockin’ post, Surlyman.
anyway, that sucked. i can hear the “nays” already, yeah they spawned a lotta corporate shit, but they spawned a lotta punk, too. ’nuff said, i’ll get my foot outta my mouth now.
GO BOOBLIKON GO!!
ive been physically assaulted over stating my complete DISDAIN of that whole crappy VU/Reed/NYC scene…i’ll leave it at that…
i freaking LOVE this band. their later (1982) LP is OK at best, but MAN!!! the 3 early 45’s they released; this one being the 1st…ill dig out the other 2 & rip/post them someday…absolute CLASSICS!!!
Absolute classic here… MU had a heavy influence on many future french punk bands (BxN being the best example), still today some bands use a drum machine.
This 7″ may be their best stuff, “Panik” is often covered at gigs. They became Metal Boys after this.
Just a correction, they did not become the Metal Boys right away, first there was Doctor Mix & The Remix, actually Metal Urbain under a nickname covering the Seeds, Roxy Music, Stooges, Troggs, David Bowie and Lou Reed in their own, inimitable style. The two singles, No Fun & I can’t control myself, are actually Metal Urbain recordings, they used to play them on stage. Then came Metal Boys, actually Metal Urbain singing in english, (Sweet Marylin = Lady Coca Cola translation) then they split, and two further LPs were released, Desperados, featuring the twin guitarists and Metal Boys songs, and Metal Boys, which is basically avant garde cold wave shit.
The new Metal Urbain band features original players Eric Debris and Hermann Schwartz with two younger upstarts. They just recorded an LP produced by Jello Biafra, coming in october on Alternative Tentacles. This above single, “Panik”, I will reissue on vinyl for the 30th anniversary next year.
Hi seventeen, please give us more info on the reissue of this single as it happens. I’m sure some of us on this site will be very intrested in getting a copy of it.
Now that my 7″ production section is up and running, with the recent release of the Guilty Razors 7″, I’m planning on reissuing “Panik” in march, right on time for the 30th anniversary. It will probably come in a combination of red, black and white copies