THE
FUNCTIONAL BLACKOUTS-

'The Very Best Of The Monkees'

CD

***TO BUY THIS ITEM CLICK HERE FOR MAIL ORDER PRICES***

There really isn’t any denying the sheer brilliance of this great Chicago band. Like any great band, the FUNCTIONAL BLACKOUTS sound really did evolve over the course of the 5 years that they were around. You can hear the evolution of the band starting out as a pretty straight forward Germs-ey, fuck all punk band in the Ryan Kill-A-Watt sessions of 2002. And evolving into the punk cum noise, Electric Eels/Screamers dreck of their later releases that the underground will always remember them by. It’s probably a good thing they recently split when they did. Because by the time the 2nd LP came out, their sound had really changed so drastically since those early sessions that it really was time to call it a day and change the name of the band. Their sound was always held together by a loose thread of loud, treble heavy, guitar nihilsm accentuated by Dr. Filths snide, spit laced vocal bile. And they really did quickly evolve from conventional to innovative in the first few years before pillaging forward into the loud, noisy, creative genius until the bands demise.

Well it really is quite fitting that the FUNCTIONAL BLACKOUTS choose their final burial plot at Dead Beat Records. If you’ve been following the band from the beginning, you probably know that the relationship between the BLACKOUTS and Dead Beat began pretty early on. Plans were discussed for an upcoming record on Dead Beat shortly after the release of their trail blazing ‘S/T’ debut on Criminal IQ. The BLACKOUTS were pushing for a single and I naturally wanted an album. We eventually agreed upon doing a 10”. Well as is the case sometimes in label land, the stars didn’t align and that record never saw the light of day. The BLACKOUTS foraged ahead releasing a slew of killer singles on Goodbye Boozy, Wrench and Floridas Dying. We kept in touch over the years and the band fulfilled their promise of giving me “some tunes” before they imploded shortly after Criminal IQ released the second LP.

So here is it...the final nail in the coffin from the FUNCTIONAL BLACKOUTS! ‘The Very Best Of The Monkees’ is a singles and rarities collection of sorts and spans the entire 5 year career of the band. From their earlierst recordings to the final recordings, this assortment nicely captures the transitional writing process of FUNCTIONAL BLACKOUTS! This 18 track monster includes the songs from their three out of print singles on Electrorock, Goodbye Boozey and Wrench; along with the songs from their split with Fashion Fashion And The Image Boys and their soon to be released split with KK Rampage on Big Beck! Some of these singles tracks I have hand picked unreleased alternate takes or restructured unreleased versions of songs that were originally released on the singles. So if you have the singles, you haven’t necessarily heard all the versions of the songs on this CD. Which songs? Well, check the disc out and find out for yourself. On top of that the ‘The Very Best Of...’ also includes their only two compilation appearances: 1 song from the ‘Maybe Chicago’ comp. (Criminal IQ) and 1 track from the ‘Pain In The Big Neck’ comp. (Big Neck). And for the completists....well yer not left in the dust!! ‘The Very Best Of The Monkees’ also includes THREE UNRELESED EXCLUSIVE TRACKS from thee final FUNCTIONAL BLACOUTS recording session capping the tail end of the bands recorded output!! And the packaging on this thing is fuckin sweet. All images were taken from Mac Blackouts personal archives. All artwork was done DIY style...either marker and painting or the more traditional cut and paste. Mac’s been doing most of the FUNCTIONAL BLACKOUTS Chicago area flyers since the band began and the cover/insert artwork nicely showcases some of his best work. All in all ‘The Very Best Of The Monkees’ is an impressive 18 track, career spanning epitaph from one of Chicago’s most noteworthy and influential punk bands. Simply put...essential in my book!!

For Fans of: Feelers, Terminals, Homostupids, Carbonas, Germs, Tyrades, Baseball Furies, LiveFastDie, Electric Bunnies, Hunches, Black Time, Electric Eels, Clone Defects, Daily Void, Night Terrors, Le Face, Red Red Red etc.

***TO BUY THIS ITEM CLICK HERE FOR MAIL ORDER PRICES***