Formed: 01/01/1984
Disbanded: 01/01/1989
John Petkovic - vocals/guitar
Doug Gillard - lead guitar
Steve-O - drums replaced by, Dave Swanson
David James - bass, background vocals
Inspired by hometown heroes Pere Ubu, Cleveland's
Death of Samantha experimented with avant-new wave punk during the
mid-'80s, but moved to more straight-ahead alternative rock later
in the decade.
They were one of the strongest rock bands around,
with an ace double-guitar attack that can satisfy the most fundamental
riff-lust but never descends to sodden cliché. Formed by
vocalist/guitarist John Petkovic, guitarist Doug Gillard, and drummer
Steve-O.
After a couple of singles on the band's own label,
Strungout on Jargon displays
the pronounced influence of Cleveland gods Pere Ubu, particularly
on "Coca Cola & Licorice," where Petkovic's clarinet
squeals recall the soprano sax and recorder yelps on various Ubu
LPs.
Too much of the record falls into a generic alternative
slot but, as debuts go, Strungout is definitely promising.
Although the group sounds as if it's in a holding pattern, Laughing
in the Face of a Dead Man is quite an entertaining circle. The
cover of "Werewolves of London" is hysterical in several
senses of the word, and the tape-and-instrumental "American
Horoscope and the Bad Prescription" shows more Dub Housing-era
Ubu influence.
The group laid off for two years before recording Where
the Women Wear the Glory and delivered a real stunner. Aside
from Petkovic's choked-sounding-because-he-can't-do-it-any-other-way
vocals (DOS's only potentially off-putting feature), the band divests
itself of any outré tendencies and just rocks out with fire,
anger and intelligence. The opening "Harlequin Tragedy"
is Petkovic's best song, wrapping a perfect hook around a dour,
on-target metaphor for modern life and summing it up with "We're
living for nothing/and dying for less."
Every cut is outstanding; in one last bow to tradition,
the album includes a fairly lavish (strings and everything!) cover
of Peter Laughner's "Sylvia Plath."
Come All Ye Faithless is considerably
denser - even darker and more difficult than Women - but equally
rewarding. Not as rollicking as the previous record, it presents
a terrific set of songs with which to crawl into a dark corner.
Most of the members of Death of Samantha subsequently
formed Cobra Verde.
[Glenn Kenny]
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