NEW RACE/DENNIS THOMPSON

HEAR NEW RACE HERE

New Race was proof that good music can occur when “teachers” and “students” get together. In this instance, the “teachers” were ex-Stooges guitarist Ron Asheton and ex-MC5 drummer Dennis Thompson, who joined forces with “students” Deniz Tek, Rob Younger, and Warwick Gilbert, the latter three members of the seminal Australian punk band Radio Birdman.

Tek was a Michigan native who’d emigrated to Australia in the early ’70s, bringing his love of high-energy Detroit proto-punk with him. After Birdman’s demise, he contacted Asheton and Thompson to come to Australia and form this ad-hoc touring outfit. New Race toured Australia once in 1981, playing mostly small halls and releasing one legit live LP and a few lo-fi bootlegs.

While the resulting record, The First and the Last, benefits from a significant amount of in-studio sweetening (backing vocals are added, guitar solos overdubbed), it’s still an exciting, guitar-fueled rave-up. Fans of the early-’70s Motor City sound or early Aussie punk wouldn’t want to be without it.

Track Listing:
Crying Sun ( W Gilbert / D Tek ) (3:02 m:s)
Haunted Road ( D Tek ) (3:48 m:s)
Gotta Keep Movin' ( D Thompson ) (3:18 m:s)
Breaks My Heart ( D Tek ) (3:10 m:s)
Sad TV ( D Tek ) (4:08 m:s)
Loose ( The Stooges ) (3:09 m:s)
November 22, 1963 ( Asheton / Niagara ) (5:06: m:s)
Love Kills ( D Tek ) (5:51 m:s)
Alone In The Endzone ( D Tek ) (2:09 m:s)
Descent Into The Maelstrom ( D Tek ) (4:19 m:s)
Looking At You ( MC5 ) (7:03 m:s)
Columbia ( New Race ) (4:56 m:s)