Telescope - Bye Byes (Ain't Nice) - Pentagon Records ‎PENT 5 - 1977

Some Telescope records included a glossy insert with a picture of Telescope himself. The keen observer would notice that the person pictured is also on the Italian sleeve for 'The Crunch' by RAH Band and is the keyboardist for RAH Band's Top Of The Pops performance. Apparently, this air-keyboardist is Andy Clark who played with Be-Bop Deluxe among others and wrote a string of KPM library music records.

Carlo Trenta & The Demons - Tough Boy, Rock Da Box - CJT Records CJT-130 - 1981

Carlo Trenta (a.k.a Carl J. Trentadue) writes that this album was advertised on NBC 900 times. It features a keyboard player who went on to play with Steppenwolf and a guitar player/songwriter whose career highlights are inclusion on some soundtracks, most notably the animated Transformers movie soundtrack from 1986, a couple of Jean-Claude Van-Damme movies and the Sailor Moon dub. 'Tough Boy, Rock Da Box' has since been re-released digitally under Carl's new moniker, 'Capt. Johnny Rush And The King Chinook Band' and with modified cover art. This is likely due to the fact that Carl now identifies as a Christian and has left the world of demons and semi-nude ladies behind him. What isn't clear is why the reissue calls the first song 'Tough Boy's A Hunk' rather than 'Tough Boy's A Punk.' It's not as though the vocals were re-recorded to accommodate the title change. Perhaps it is just another of the many typos on his fascinating cdbaby page.

The redesigned cover art is littered with cut and paste clippings of fish conservation slogans and seafood company logos. He writes "Captain Johnny Rush and the King Chinook Band will be touring and during their show will be talking about what can be done with the government to clean rivers and increase the number of salmon in our Pacific Ocean, rivers, and lakes. Captain Johnny Rush owns a seafood company. All pictures on the front of the album cover are special dedications to Mr. Trentadue's business associates. None of the pictures are intended to denote sponsorship." Carl recently uploaded a somewhat sleazy music video for 'Wild Cat Woman' from back in the day.

Chaps - Les Roses Blanches / Parlez-Moi D'amour - Philips 6172 056 - 1977

This record only credits the songwriters from the 1920's and 1930's who penned the originals. It's unfortunate, because the production ain't bad, although I'd say I'm most interested learning the identity of the graphic designer. Probably the worst part of this record is the songwriting, and they're the only ones who'll get the royalties for the likely very few times this record was played on the radio since 1977.

Blanchard - Meunier, Tu Es Cocu - Barclay 813 853-7 - 1983

I guess by 1983 even the accordion players decided to have a go at punk. Unfortunately, only Gerard's wristband is studded, not the accordion. This punk version of a public domain french folk song probably didn't cost them much to make, but it was worth it. Luckily the Plastic Bertrand guitar riff drowns out the accordion early on in the song.

The Latin's Punkers - Skate Punk / Dancing Cha Cha - JMN Records ‎5001 - 1978

Why not try to cash in on two fads at once? I imagine whoever came up with this idea was more concerned about how the record looked than how it sounded. Because once someone buys it, they're stuck with it, even if it sounds like Duane Eddy with someone shouting 'punk' over the chorus. As there are a couple grammatical/spelling errors (in the band's name and in a song title on the record) it makes me wish this wasn't instrumental, because some poorly proofread lyrics would have made this a little more interesting to listen to.

Bigoudis - Punk And Roll - Carissima ‎2097 804 - 1979

Hey, that font has nipples on it. Maybe all the nipples is the reason for the alternate sleeve, as this was apparently only released in France. Interestingly, 'Bigoudis' translates into 'Curlers,' as in hair curlers. Two Dominiques (Labarre and Urruty),  who were a pair of library music composers that played with folk-prog outfit Asgard, with Mya Simille, the writer behind Chrys Alice's faux-punk number 'Qu'Est C' Que J' Deviens Dans Tout Ça' put their heads together to come up with this record. It appears they were Carissima staff, because they all appear on the fascinating Carissima comp 'Vous Avez Aime - Indicatifs Radio Et Television Fonds Sonores,' which is full of songs completely different, but more interesting than this one.

Paul Marco & De Bristolstampers - Punk De Funk - Mamicha Music MM 1116 - 1978

Easily, the best thing about this record is the sleeve. A font made of fingers plus a clown with a safety pin through his ear? Looks good to me. Also, a loose translation of 'de Bristolstampers' is 'The Bristol Pistils.' Unfortunately the music is terrible and is neither punk nor funk.

Roberto Fera - Shock Rock - Jezabel Records ‎JR 104 - 1980

This depressed looking Roberto Fera looks a lot like the depressed looking fellow in Eau De Cologne, which he produced, so it probably is him. And I wonder if he's also the "punk guy" pictured on the 'Pretend' single by Souvenir which is also on the Jezabel label. It appears that all of his other music credits are for disco music. And all of his modelling credits are for looking bored and down in the dumps.

Naold 'n Draod - Nettie ('k Zie Oe Geerne) - Safety Pin SRS 510.036 - 1978

This is on Safety Pin records, which would indicate that someone thought this record could fall somewhere in the neighborhood of punk music. I'm not sure how they wanted to convey the record's punk qualities, since the sleeve doesn't seem to indicate anything of the sort. The A side 'Nettie ('k Zie Oe Geerne)' translates as 'Nettie (I Love You) and the B side is apparently a phoenetic spelling of what translates to something like 'Try It Yourself.' Since it's instrumental, I assume they wanted the listener to sing along.

Colin Malice - J'y Pense Et J'oublie Pas - CBS ‎6313 - 1978

Colin Malice was a pseudonym adopted for just one single by two corny pop-singing brothers knows as Les Costa. The A side is a cover of the Carvells' skateboarding-themed 'L.A Run', instead with lyrics about a girl and her four brothers getting in the way. Side B gives half the writing credit to 'swinging mademoiselle' Dominique Cozette and the production to her former boyfriend Patrice Fabien. Patrice, interestingly enough also produced Edith Nylon as well as WC3's 'Poupée Be Bop' and went on to produce a bunch of stuff for the Reflexes label as well as his own Fabien Garage.