The Curse!

In the late 90s, Other People's Music began putting out The Punk Hole of Fame, CDs of vintage 70s Toronto punk bands - The Ugly, The Mods, The Secrets, The B Girls, and so on. In many cases, this was the first time the bands' music had been available in 20 years, and there were tons of bonus/unreleased material to boot, so it was a Big Deal.

One of the CDs I most enjoyed in the series was that of The Curse, a sexy, sleazy treasure called "Teenage Meat". The Curse were noteable for being North America's first female punk band, their premiere gig (after only three weeks of practising) being an opening slot for The Viletones at Crash'N'Burn in 1977. A month later, they were in NYC playing CBGB. A year after that, they headlined at Max's Kansas City!


The Curse were known for crazy shows - singer Mickey Skin spraying the audience with whipped cream or throwing phallic hot dog weenies at them. To say nothing of bloody tampons... Their songs are short and rocking, sometimes dubby, sometimes slinky; the lyrics are amazing, full of freaky scenes and hot summer nights. Imagine if they'd put out an LP at the time, how different punk history might be. Joining Skin were Trixie Danger on guitar, Dr. Bourque on bass, and Patsy Poison on drums.



The Curse's only* release during their brief lifetime was the Shoeshine Boy/Killer Bees 7" on Hi-Fi -- the A-side tackling the then-recent sexual torture/murder of 12-year old shoeshine boy Emanuel Jaques. They even sent a copy to the accused!


Not surprisingly then, most of the music on "Teenage Meat" is basement recordings and lo-fi to the extreme. Still rules though. Be sure and check out "If It Tastes So Great, Swallow It Yerself!"

Now that's the stuff!!

The Curse - Teenage Meat

*Singer Mickey Skin also appeared on "Raw", the first track on "Teenage Meat", of which more here:

The building that was housing [Crash'N'Burn] was owned by the CEAC (Centre For Arts And Communications) who recruited The Diodes and The Curse (actually just vocalist Mickey Skin ranting) for a double-sided single. The extremely rare single, "Raw/War", was a propaganda newsletter for the CEAC and was issued under the guise of Crash And Burn Records.