Brian Turner from WFMU's Beware of the Blog has a post about an 80s band I've never heard of -- The Men with No IQ's. The two MP3s ("Can't Resist It," and "Dreamin'") are really good. Here's a comment from The Men with No IQ's' My Space page (run by a third party):
"When I was 15 I used to sneak in to a dive called W.C. Don's in Jackson, Miss to see the monthly hardcore shows that seemed to come around at that point. Inevitably, Men With No IQ's would be opening the show. They were three African American guys who looked about as out of place as anyone ever could. The bass player, Booger Man White and the drummer, Steve Harris (no relation to the bass player from Maiden) were so huge that they would literally dwarf their tiny pawn shop instruments. Sylvester was the hot shot of the band, and he had like 10 Peavey practice amps, all stacked up on one another. Sylvester would always play with his shirt off while the other two guys wore custom MNI shirts and baseball caps that were most likely made at one of those iron-on shops in the Jackson Mall. THEY WERE AWESOME. I regret to say that I didn't appreciate them nearly enough at the time but they would always SLAY."Men With No IQ's: True Black Metal from Mississippi
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More like bad 80s postpunk music. I found the beats to be slow, uninspired, and dull. And the vocals, just yuck! The vocalist sounded like a dog being dragged behind an ice cream truck, and not in a good way.
The bass player is way behind the beat on the first track. Good to see they were able to break all the stereotypes!
Dig it. So many good times to mine from the past. Internets' long tail rocks. Literally.
It would sound a lot better if it hadn't been a budget recording. It sounds to my ears like it's little more than a demo tape.
Get those boys some good equipment and a good sound engineer, I bet they'd leave a much better impression.
Thank you for posting this!!! Such a brilliant way to start an otherwise sluggish day.
@Chocodile: "I found the beats to be slow, uninspired, and dull." I'm sorry, but when I read this line, I can't help but imagine it being spoken by Harris Trinsky, the übergeek from "Freaks and Geeks."
I remember seeing these guys many times back in the 80's, raw, raucous, and full of fire. None of us knew what we were doing, and none of us cared. Thanks for bringing back a memory!
I just sent this to a friend who worked at W.C. Don's in the '80s. Her response:
Cool.. I like it. As soon as I heard the vocal I thought of Thin Lizzy.. so that has to be a good thing. Bass is better on 'dreamin'.. nice p-bass tone. This is the kind of guys I wish I could find right now to jam with..... grrr I hate the 2000's. 80's come back!!
WC DONS!!! aka We Cant Decide On a Name!!
Best damn bar I've been to in 2 continents (disclosure, mississippi is my home land). I, being a young'un, only went to it in its last location, an old gutted office type building next to hal n mal's.
Also awesome story about an obscure mississippi band!
They look like like an alternate world Minutemen. Awesome.