He's Dead Jim - "New Gods For The Smug" (Self released Cassette) 1983

This is how pop music should be. Played by dilettantes* outside of the accepted system,with only a passing thought of appealing to an audience other than themselves. With no other discernible ambition other than to create something fleeting; worthwhile only to a small section of the planet, and be satisfied with that! A healthy bi-product of this healthy attitude, is that it often leads to something bordering on greatness. Not saying that He's Dead Jim are Great, but they definitely score 10 out of 10 for doing it right. This is perfect Pop music,done perfectly.

More thoughts on the subject by Neil Christie(HDJ)  :

"New Gods For The Smug: another bunch of garage recordings, this time from 1983.
This captures us at a point where we had started to sweeten the primitive metallic sludge of our earliest recordings with touches of melody and even, occasionally, vocal harmonies of a sort. It's still not exactly Haircut 100 though.

We were quite proud of the (mostly inaudible) lyrics to Terry Burns, a song about lovers (perhaps the same Terry and Julie from Waterloo Sunset) who burst into flames:

Thrashes to ashes, lust to dust
When humans spontaneously combust.
There's no explanation for the conflagration
When humans spontaneously combust.

The song Oil was a move away from our usual subject matter of science fiction and gurls with its biting critique of the oil industry and its effects on our home town.

Oil - boring! Oil - boring! etc

Poetry? I think so."


 *

dil·et·tante/ˌdiliˈtänt/

Noun:

A person who claims an area of interest, such as the arts, without real commitment or knowledge. A person with an amateur interest in the arts.

Track Listing:

1 His Own Number
2 Haywire
3 The Hour Steals On
4 Terry Burns
5 Oil
6 Jeepster
7 Wonderful Times
8 Prisoner of the Atom
9 Jenny Channel
10 Point Blank range
11 Backburner

DOWNLOAD and be very smug HERE!