The Pagans

Of all rings that burst away from Cleveland within the mid- to later-’70s punk explosion, perhaps one of the most unjustly ignored was the Pagans. Despite splitting up in 1979 (they, nevertheless, reunited many times since), these grimy bohunks performed fast’n’loud piss-and-vinegar garage area rock that respected alienation and, sometimes, extreme bad flavor. Led with the honking rasp of Mike Hudson as well as the rapid-fire electric guitar of Mike “Tommy Gunn” Metoff, the Pagans hardly ever performed it secure, nor do they enter the rock and roll & move wars attempting to earn any friends. Which, eventually, was a very important thing, for like their pals the Deceased Children, their anti-star create and carpe diem attitude supposed that their finest songs (and you can find a number of) sound as though they were established to auto-destruct on the tune’s end. Although their don’t-give-a-damn attitude lends itself more often than once for some sexist japes and homophobic ranting, the Pagans eventually didn’t treatment who they offended. Actually, listening to some of their classic materials (1977-1979), you’d believe offending individuals were their creative raison d’être. As Treehouse Information president Tag Trehus opines within the liner records to the fantastic collection Buried Alive, “the Pagans had been as unwrought, impudent and gnarly a buncha rock’n’roll bedlamites as America’s ever spewed outta its queasy underbelly.” Bit more need be stated.