(GI)

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(GI)
Studio album by The Germs
Released	1979
Recorded	1979
Genre	Hardcore punk
Length	38:14
Label	Slash
Producer	Joan Jett
Professional reviews
Allmusic link
The Germs chronology
Lexicon Devil (1979) (GI) (1979) What We Do Is Secret (1981)

(GI) is the only studio album from American punk band The Germs. The title stands for "Germs Incognito", an alternate name the band used to obtain bookings when their early reputation kept them out of Los Angeles-area clubs. Often cited as the one of the first full-length hardcore punk LPs, it was released in 1979 by Slash Records^[1] in the United States as SR-103 and later in 1982 by EXPANDEDMUSIC in Italy as EX-11. After (GI)'s release, the band would only undertake one more recording session, for the soundtrack album to the Al Pacino movie Cruising. A year after (GI)'s release, lead singer Darby Crash committed suicide on December 7, 1980.

The entire album appears on compact disc as part and parcel of Germs (MIA) - The Complete Anthology.

Production

Joan Jett, a longtime friend and heroine of many of the band members since her time in The Runaways, was asked to produce the album. Lead singer Darby Crash had originally wanted former Paul Revere & The Raiders vocalist Mark Lindsay to produce, but while Lindsay was willing to do the job, he turned out to be too expensive for Slash Records to afford. Jett's production was initially thought to be too thin when the album was finished and released, compared to the album Crash wanted Jett to emulate (the Sex Pistols' Never Mind the Bollocks).

Recorded fairly quickly and released in 1979, the album's clarity proceeded to encapsulate the Germs for California audiences who had only seen the band thrash around onstage while an intoxicated Crash avoided singing into the mic as much as possible.

A lone outtake from the sessions, "Caught in My Eye", would later appear on the posthumous EP What We Do is Secret and on the Warner Bros.-distributed cassette reissue of (GI), at the end of side one.

Track listing

Side one

1. "What We Do is Secret" – 0:41
2. "Communist Eyes" – 2:15
3. "Land of Treason" – 2:09
4. "Richie Dagger's Crime" - 1:56
5. "Strange Notes" – 1:52
6. "American Leather" – 1:11
7. "Lexicon Devil" – 1:44
8. "Manimal" – 2:11
9. "Our Way" – 1:56
10. "We Must Bleed" – 3:05

Side two

1. "Media Blitz" – 1:29
2. "The Other Newest One" – 2:44
3. "Let's Pretend" – 2:34
4. "Dragon Lady" – 1:39
5. "The Slave" – 1:01
6. "Shut Down (Annihilation Man)" [Live] – 9:40

Musicians

• Darby Crash - vocals
• Pat Smear - guitars, backing vocals
• Lorna Doom - bass, backing vocals
• Don Bolles - drums, backing vocals
• Donnie Rose - piano on "Shut Down" (credited only on some European editions)

References