The story of (Irish!) Cuddly Toys just seems to get stranger and stranger the more you look into it. They formed originally as the punk band, "Raped," in 1977. (Although some would argue that since they didn't form in 1976 or before, they weren't a real punk band.) They changed the name to "Cuddly Toys" shortly thereafter, for obvious reasons (presaging Steve Albini's similarly ill-fated band "Rapeman" by several years.) Their first EP was "Pretty Paedophiles." Ahem. It seems like just another band crassly, cynically, reprehensibly seeking publicity. Which would make sense, given the climate of those early punk years. But nevermind: somehow their first hit, "Madmen," was penned by none other than both David Bowie and Marc Bolan. I don't know the story behind this collab, but it's pretty remarkable. (The poster of the youtube video apocryphally states that the band found old bootlegs of unfinished T. Rex and Bowie songs.) Marc Bolan died shortly thereafter. The band friendly-ed up its image with glam gloss and a stellar groove with the release of this album "Guillotine Theatre." (Honesly, I don't know if "Pretty Paedophiles" by "Raped" is available--I'm afraid to look for it.)
Anyhow, the musical result is pretty interesting; they represent a nexus of some past and present major preoccupations of mine in guitar/rock built music: Punk Rock, Glam Rock, and the post-punk thereafter. They sound like a punk rock band with a serious glam influence. Not surprising. Glam had a huge influence on early punk--see New York Dolls--(which was mostly stripped, to its detriment, IMO, in hardcore.) The influences don't quite gel, and the move past punk isn't as paradigm-shifting as it is in Devoto's Magazine. But Cuddly Toys deserve a place in the post-punk pantheon, and also will provide a good springboard for future post-punk posts on punk on this blog.
There's more Diamond Dog Bowie in this than anything else. The Marc Bolan influence is there too...I have to say I can't really listen to whole albums of Marc Bolan. I certainly love a T. Rex song sprinkled in a mix here and there. And there's probably lots of bands that are much better than Cuddly Toys. I'll have to post the ones I know in the future, such as Virgin Prunes, The Sound, Sad Lovers and Giants, UK Decay, Danse Society, Wolfgang Press, Teardrop, not to mention some Brazilian and Svensk shit I got. (And Ero hinted at some Bunny-action.) But this is a good place to start. I feel good about it.
http://www.mediafire.com/?hnmmn5fkefj
RAPED? It's a raped-based economy.
Who are YOUR favorite post-punk bands? Marilyn Roxie has a kick-ass list here.
