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You know that I love supporting music new and 100 percent all the way, but you have to admit that sometimes you have to think about that budget, especially as a music listener who still has that fever to actually own the damn thing. Back in The 70's, the bargain bins were almost like a calling to some, knowing that the more outcast the music the better it might be. In the MC5 Documentary A True Testimonial, High Time Producer Geoff Haslam even said that the thrust of musical development comes from the outside...many events through the years have proven that strong and all too correct.

Through The 70's, there was something wild happening that was released to the public that either did not know or even did not want to know in the era of AOR, MOR, and Muzak. Kids with a couple of dollars to spare and an addiction for vinyl sometimes looked in the budget bins, especially those who were not happy with the Top 10 and wanting something a little different. In a way, you could say that Punk, Alternative, and possibly even Techno (hey, who knows, maybe your favorite DJ started buying Disco past the assumed sell by date and just rocked to the beat) were partially born from the Cut Outs, outcast sounds given loving homes and sometimes influencing the listeners to do something.

in recent years, some of the most important of these albums have seen extensive re-issues, and that makes me feel good.

CUT OUT THEN, IMPORTANT NOW


In the Internet, quotes are usually used in the worst of ways, and following that great tradition, I will gladly use myself, my experiences, and what I learned through the years as a customer of the Music Industry who loved going through the Cut Outs to learn that some of my purchases through my teen years and those of cheap teens looking for a vinyl fix in a time when records were flying out of the production lines sometimes form a cult following that sometimes leads to important music scenes and usually to very expensive re-issues featuring all kinds of bells and whistles for you to part with your hard earned cash for a good reason. Every one of these albums usually has that group of johnny come lately people who were never around when the original article was out and about, ignored and flopped into a cheap bin, but always use those albums as proof that music of a long time ago was better than it is now once that influential album gets a powerful release to a waiting and wanting group of buyers who wanted to know (I was sometimes in that group, so it takes one to know one!).

Yeah, it was a great time, but as back then as now, the good stuff can be described with a very important comment from one who knew. The Co-Producer of The MC5's High Time, Geoff Haslam, stated "The real thrust of musical development comes from the outside", and back when Music was an important commerce-driven industry, a lot of that development was shunned off to the Cut Outs after the original release flopped and failed with few sales of a fresh pressed copy. Back then, a lot of music-driven Teens with very little money but a lot of reading and researching or with a drive and an instinct to find out about that edge that was never promoted for various reasons (usually half the band's own - half the industry that wanted to shove them off) decided to part with a couple of dollars for a taste of real music education.

I'm sure there's a modern day Internet-based comparison, although to me it lacks the feeling of going to a store and finding something that was cut which would possibly lead to something in the future. Yeah, I'm showing my age, but at least I don't dismiss downloaders who are seriously into the music and the alternatives. Enough of my thoughts, let's get into the music!

One of my favorite examples, released a little before my time in the marketplace, is Iggy and The Stooges Raw Power. This was the very album that kids in LA actually parted their pennies for once it hit the 99 cent bin after knowing of his wasted presence in the Sunset Strip/Rodney's English Disco scene which was a part of forming it's very influential Punk scene. One look at that cover, knowing of the MOR crap that hit the American Top 10 (now you understand why I don't side with Carpenters Retro Fans who knew in my time it was Us Vs. Them), and you could just feel the inspiration.

Released in what's possibly Columbia's final time when they did not mind sending albums to that valley of the damned (after the Mid 70's, they put a major slow down), there was a brief time when it faced going full on out of print until a group of Punks in The UK showed that there was an audience for it. There have been many re-issues ranging from a Nice Price release as 1) it was produced by David Bowie and 2) It's an important album for a lot of musicians who formed the basis of Punk and Alternative.



There were those who claim with all the right to that The MC5's albums were slapped into the Cut Outs who bought them at first 99 Cent Sight, with their two Atlantic albums landing in the fastest. As someone who actually spotted High Time at a high price with "That Mark" as well as Back in the USA with the C/O Hole, you can quote The Beatles by saying "Yes it is, it's true". A number of Michigan Musicians wanting to know what they were like in a time when The 'Nuge and Bob Seger were making their hit records (and when singer Rob Tyner was milking the name with a new backing band as a warm up act and playing small clubs and ran down theaters) finally found out what it was like before FM Album Rock turned into a boring molten mess to hear that MI actually had a real alternative. Some of them wanted to join up what was going on in the Late 70's after hearing a lot of people in England bringing up their name in major respect.

While The 5 shot themselves in the foot many times over through their original existence, for every mistake there was another progression, possibly the fate of ground breakers of all eras. The lean production of Back in The USA which was a relief from the bloated Hippie jams of the day led to Punk (especially in England where that title was possibly as mentioned as much as Raw Power in some circles) and the fuller sound of High Time was just a full on sharp attack of excellent music heard by few back in the day. It was almost like you were part of a secret society of those who knew it was an important album.

I was very young when High Time escaped, about 5-6, but if I would have knew then, I would have been a believer as well.





In the Late 80's, the PVC label was a company that found a lot of it's records in the cheap bins, especially once it went out of business as a sub label of Passport circa 1988, and possibly the most talked about album in that batch when one thinks of important albums is Big Star's Third/Sister Lovers. The release may have been called not the definitive article, and in fact Producer Jim Dickenson called the PVC release "a bootleg as far as I'm concerned" for a Mojo article in 2000, but I'm convinced that if everyone that heard Big Star's music became a critic (or wanna-be critic) in a time when their music was not seen as a commercial path for musicians that were instead encouraged to form bar bands, then Third was the one that inspired a small group of musicians who got into the darker areas and covered them to greater success...yes, I'm looking at you This Mortal Coil (great covers!)...or just get into the great melodies for learning on how to create memorable Pop (hear Kizza Me) and that seriously goes for possibly every 80's Alternative band around the world who caught wind of the album through hipster mention or band name drop.

The lack of any industry support after a Stax Records test pressing was made in the company's original final days in 1975 (early in the next year it would claim Chapter 11), Big Star's troubled life in it's pre-reunion round, and PVC's first release helped create an army of people who loved it. Through the Late 70's and Early 80's, it was almost like a manual for Alternative bands with This Mortal Coil's covers of "Kangaroo" and "Holocaust" only adding more interest within the Underground. In a time of New Pop's bloated era and the days when The 'Mats, REM, and even Husker Du were very known in the Late 80's, copies of Big Star's Third were finding their way into the cut outs through Passport's closing which effected the future of PVC releases, and those who were only starting to catch on found out that a good amount of what they listened to had some of it's beginnings in an album that was recorded in 1974.




Speaking of PVC, it also had US Distribution of some albums released in the UK through Some Bizzare (a very influential Indie who licensed Soft Cell to great success to Sire), Self Immolation (Really, Jim Thrilwell), and Ze. The fate of Big Star's Third also wound up with the first US releases of albums like Scraping Foetus Off the Wheel's Hole and Einsturzende Neubauten's Drawing of OT. While technically they were not really "Cut Out" in the normal definition, they found their way into the cheap bins at better record stores in one way or another. That was where I found them, with bonus 12" discs!

After finding the world of New Pop a dead end, you can say that those on the outside with a couple of dollars found some answers or new expressions in these albums. Some of the Industrial scene got it start here...remember the "Outside" Haslam was talking about? For The 80's, this was as outside as it could get!




Sometimes being cheap can be a good decision. Of course buying a Cut Out was not going to lead to artist support at the time, but in some cases it did lead to a lot of influence that would at least give the music some exposure that led to a greater audience which helped later on.