The Scientists were born in 1978, in the cultural isolation of the Western Australian capitol city of Perth. Restless teenage singer/guitarist Kim Salmon, inspired by such far-off icons as the Stooges, the Velvet Underground and the New York Dolls, teamed with some like-minded locals to launch the Scientists, helping to spark a nascent local punk scene in the process. Through subsequent relocations to Sydney and London and assorted lineup changes, the Scientists continued to mutate and evolve in uncompromising and unexpected directions, with the band eventually returning home to Perth to live out its final chapter.
In their turbulent decade-long history, the Scientists blazed an indelible trail through an often-hostile musical wilderness, creating a uniquely iconoclastic body of work that remains unmatched for sheer ferocity and seething intensity. With a sound that was simultaneously swampy, primal and modern-urban, the Scientists spurned all but the most rudimentary and elemental of rock structures to create a sound all their own. Although the quartet spent much of its existence laboring in relative obscurity, the music that they created has endured as a massive influence on multiple generations of rock, punk and grunge acts.
As Jon Spencer noted, “The Scientists turned my head around and made a man out of me! They grew hair on my palms and made my socks stink!”
Or, as Thurston Moore put it, “The Scientists proved to me that rock ’n’ roll could be played by gentlemen in fine silk shirts half unbuttoned and still be dirty, cool and real.”
Now, nearly four decades after the release of the band’s landmark indie debut single “Frantic Romantic,” the Scientists’ seminal catalog gets the archival treatment that it has long deserved with the Numero Group’s release of A Place Called Bad. The elaborate four-CD, 80-song package encompasses the band’s complete studio recordings — incorporating such now-classic releases as Blood Red River, You Get What You Deserve, Atom Bomb Baby and Weird Love — along with a previously unreleased live set and a 64-page book featuring vintage band photos, extensive liner notes and a sprawling family tree. Numero is also releasing a two-LP vinyl edition of A Place Called Bad, including 22 classic tracks and a 24-page book.
In celebration of the impending August 19 release of this crucial collection, Big Takeover is proud to present the song that started it all. So great!
