C.C.T.V. – 4-Trak 7″ Diameter Record

“People who follow punk below the meniscus know all about the Hammond/Terre Haute microscene that’s spawned a bunch of bands (Coneheads, Big Zit, Liquids, C.C.T.V.), basically all the brainchild of a couple of people and their friends, most recognizably guitarist Mark Winter who’s in nearly all of them, and with lineage that goes back at least a few years to Chicago and Indiana HC bands like Raw Nerve and Pukeoid. Varying degrees of slop go into each project, with Coneheads and C.C.T.V. being the tightest among them (the latter receiving a vinyl release from the shared brain behind St. Louis slimepunx Lumpy & The Dumpers), tight along the lines of a Contortions record’s quick-firing synapses, with the wrist strength of Devo (think those sawed-down Telecasters) or MX-80 Sound and not with dissimilar messages, here delivered in a detached no wavo-meets-Nina Hagen-esque demeanor by a woman named Jenn. Serious hats off to how hard these folks nail the sound of antiquity; they could have been on TMI 015, or the Big Hits From Mid-America or Fresh Sounds comps, or No New York, or some Vinyl-On-Demand Serbian “post-punk during the regime” 5×10” box set. C.C.T.V. is really great music but as far as punk singles go, this one almost seems a manufactured rarity, with production tweaks between all four songs which would indicate they were recorded at different times, and the actual band as something its members are only thinking about in the moment. I don’t see them growing as a band at all, and I don’t think that’s the point anyway. All 600 copies of this record sold out from the source in about three hours, which makes me wonder how many people are actually gonna take scissors to the sleeve and mail it in with a fiver for a t-shirt or whatever. I hope someone does, as it’ll mean they take it for granted as much as anyone inside this scene would. It’s fun for now – right now, just as any of the bands that in one way or another influenced this sound, down on the nth rings of their own scenes, might have felt. Party music. Done in five minutes. I’d recommend it but since you can’t get a copy, there’s plenty of other ways you can find something similar strewn throughout the past.” – Doug Mosurock

Label: Lumpy Records – 9203

Format: Vinyl, 7″, 45 RPM, EP

Country: US

Released: 2015

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