In the fall of 1982 I dj'd a "video dance party" at Montgomery College on Rockville, Maryland. It was the first of it's kind on the campus. I borrowed some portable vcr's from a friend who ran a small business shooting wedding videos. And as for the music videos themselves we had to take what we could find. I had a beta tape recording of the very first MTV broadcast which included Devo and The Buggles. Also someone at Peaches Records donated a couple of promo videocassettes. One had several music video's for David Bowie's under rated "Lodger" LP. The other, I vaguely recall, was a mixture and included this new wave chap who called himself Shrink. I had remembered seeing his mini LP at a record store. He had his face and head painted up gold, the hair on half his head was shaved while the other half was spiked. By this point I was already into The Bad Brains, The Ramones, Sex Pistols, Stranglers, The Residents, Black Flag and so on. And so my friends and I thought this Shrink was pretty goofy at the time. But the funny thing is that when I hear this song now I think it sounds pretty fucking good! Especially when compared to some of the horsehit being passed off as rock music these days. "Valid or Void" has a sort of glam-punk sound that is kinda' catchy. I've dug deep into the Trash Palace archives and dug up my beta tape dub to present you with what I believe is the Internet debut of the lost music video for Shrink's "Valid or Void". The sound is a bit low so crank it up!
I dunno what the story was with Shrink or where he's gone off to. I guess he never made it too big but seems to have a small cult following of people that remember him. He did appear on tv at least 1 time. Check out this live clip which I found online from a Netherlands website. What must these people in the audience have thought?
This is the shit! Come back Shrink! We need you now more than ever!!
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3 comments:
Ossum! The internets are indebted to you, Sir!
Found out today that Shrink is still alive and seemingly well. Only found out was him earlier but I am hoping to get hold of some more of his material, if possibly some digital versions or even videos if any exist. I'd like to persuade him there is still a crowd out there very interested!
I met the gentleman known as Shrink today and checked out his stuff only to be very excited by it. Hoping to have more chats with him about it in the next few days but with his permission I would love to be able to share more of his old material, possibly in digital formats rather than straight vinyl rips, and if he has any videos or anything then even better! That live video is pretty interesting apparently. He was asked to mime playing guitar and just sing which he was dead against and ended up breaking his guitar, slinging it over his shoulder and singing like that in protest! Apparently there was royalty there and everything! What a legend. Nirvana on TOTP ain't got nothing on that!
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