**** Dead Boys

YOUNGER, LOUDER & SNOTTIER: THE ROUGH MIXES

(Bomp)

Twenty years later, here's the way the Dead Boys imagined their classic punk debut, Young, Loud and Snotty, with excessive stereo panning, too much sizzle on the cymbals, thinner guitars (but more of them), and a dirtier all-around sound. This mix, done by engineer Bob Clearmountain and the band before Genya Ravan tightened things up for Sire, is a reminder of the immediacy of circa '77 punk. The music sounds as if it were bursting out of the players, clawing its way toward the streets and clubs. Which it was. Hearing "All This and More," "Ain't Nothing To Do," "I Need Lunch," "Caught with the Meat in Your Mouth," and "Sonic Reducer" again today reminds me why I loved these guys then: naked energy, smart and desperate lyrics, raw git-tahs, Stiv Bators's mewling vocal melodies. Shit, these dumb-asses from Cleveland were geniuses (or at least savants) -- among the greatest overlooked heroes of '70s rock.

-- Ted Drozdowski