DMZ

Prior to launching Boston's seminal garage rock terrorists the Lyres, Jeff "Monoman" Connolly played in DMZ, a late-'70s prototype of that later band. Apart from a handful of personnel shifts, the two groups sounded fundamentally alike, although DMZ brought extra velocity and punk verve to their attack. Amid the late-'70s feeding frenzy that saw labels chase any act linked to the Boston or New York City punk scenes, Sire Records offered DMZ a deal. Displaying near-total artistic myopia, the label assigned production to the goofball has-beens Flo and Eddie. The resulting record drew negative notices yet stops well short of disaster, owing chiefly to DMZ's ferocity and trashy ebullience. Listeners drawn to mid-'60s rock by the Seeds, ? and the Mysterians, and the Kinks, and who maintain an unending jones for speedy trash-rock and whiny Farfisa organs, will find much to admire in DMZ.