"What's Your Country Been Doing To You": A Brief Review Of The Reissue Of This Seminal Avengers Single

While Record Store Day Black Friday is, like anything promoting capitalist excesses on that day, largely a gimmick, it's a gimmick that makes sure some great stuff is back in print. And this seminal single from American punk legends The Avengers is one such example.

The excellent Superior Viaduct label is bringing out "The American in Me" single from West Coast punk legends The Avengers. Produced by Steve Jones (Sex Pistols) and released in 1979 as The Avengers ended their first run as a band, this 3-track offering is one of the best things that passed for punk ever to come out of this continent. Rough and ramshackle flip "Uh No" may sound a tiny bit like The Runaways, but lead track "The American in Me" is snarly genius. As astute in its way as "Anarchy in the U.K.", or, more appropriately, "We're Desperate", this single is proof that the Yanks were capable of raging against the rot of the status quo even before harDCore made that crystal clear. Penelope Houston's vocals here, and trenchant lyrics, suggest a fire being fanned into a conflagration. If "Cheap Tragedies", another flip here, owes a debt to U.K. acts like The Clash, "The American in Me" remains one of the great punk singles. Ever.

Kudos to Superior Viaduct for putting this out. Grab it now before it's gone.

More details on Penelope Houston and The Avengers via Penelope.net.

[Photo: Avengers Facebook page]