Christgau Consumer Guide
"AVENGERS" (CD) These 14 cuts constitute the recorded output of a late-’70s San Fran punk band best remembered for “We Are The One,” the finest U.S. indie single of 1977, and a 1979 Steve Jones-produced EP. The notes extol their “breakthrough—however brief—into a vision of life expressing firsthand passion and revolt,” but to me Penelope Houston sounds like a valley girl with too much attitude.
Christgau Consumer Guide
ROBERT CHRISTGAU
"AVENGERS"
(CD)
These 14 cuts constitute the recorded output of a late-’70s San Fran punk band best remembered for “We Are The One,” the finest U.S. indie single of 1977, and a 1979 Steve Jones-produced EP. The notes extol their “breakthrough—however brief—into a vision of life expressing firsthand passion and revolt,” but to me Penelope Houston sounds like a valley girl with too much attitude. If her “We are not Jesus/We are not fascists/We are not capitalists/We are not communists” confounded cant on the single, over the long haul her anti-political railing, lapsed-Catholic obsessions, and assertions of self-sufficiency protest too much. And I wish she knew she was singing flat. Address: 1230 Grant Avenue, Suite 531, San Francisco, CA 94133. B
CHIC
"Believer" (Atlantic)