101 Damnations (album)

After completing his education, James Robert "Jim Bob" Morrison got a job at an advertising firm in London's West End. During this time, he formed Jeepster, which went two years before playing their first gig. Although that was the band's only show, Bob left his job to focus on music. While performing with the Ballpoints, Bob came across bassist Les "Fruitbat" Carter of Dead Clergy at the rehearsal space The Orchestra Pit in Streatham, South London in 1979. When the bassist for the Ballpoints left, Fruitbat took his role. the band split and the members pursued different projects, including busking, children's entertainment and solo careers. Bob formed Jamie Wednesday, while Fruitbat used the moniker Cartoon Carter; the pair separately wrote several songs that would later be re-worked for their next project. After obtaining a drum machine, Jamie Wednesday was initially billed to play that show, but had broken up shortly before, leaving Bob and Fruitbat with one week to write new material. They composed six songs, namely, "Everytime a Churchbell Rings", "An All American National Sport", "The Taking of Peckham 123", "Good Grief Charlie Brown", an early version of "A Perfect Day to Drop the Bomb" titled "Will I Go to Hell If I Kiss in Front of Jesus" and "G.I. Blues". in September 1987, and closed out the year with three more gigs across London. ==Development and recording==

Between February and November 1988, Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine played further shows throughout London; as Fruitbat was unable to pass his driver's test, they were forced to use buses to travel to their gigs. During this period, Adrian Boss became their manager, and subsequently, their driver of hired cars. They recorded demos at Important Notice Studios, which earned them their first recording contract which was around the time Bob noticed that they were starting to attract a fanbase. The Treworgey Tree Fayre in Cornwall in summer 1989 marked the band's first festival appearance, ending with them not being paid. Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine recorded their debut album at Important Notice Studios; the band and Painter acted as producers. The studio was located in the back garden of Painter's residence near a council estate. The band would regularly cycle to-and-from the building each day; Bob referred to the studio's size as a "garage ... [and] when I say a garage, I doubt you could have kept much more than say, a Smart car or something Noddy might drive in there". ==Music and lyrics==

Overview 101 Damnations incorporates drum machines, samples and loud guitars, employing extensive cultural references and puns, Ned Raggett of AllMusic characterised the album's musical style as "brash, quick, punk/glam via rough early eighties technology pump-it-up pogoers" and described the heavy usage of puns as "Carter's calling card as much as anything". James Muretich of Calgary Herald considered it to be a mix of the work of David Bowie and Pet Shop Boys "while adopting the literary, politically appropriate, socially sarcastic British pop intellectual stance". and later after signing, they attempted to call it Cunt. Explaining the samples, Bob said he would be sat next to a TV or a radio and recording bits using a cassette recorder for useable portions. As Fruitbat owned a copy of the film Head (1968), they extensively took samples from it for the album, most prominently on "A Perfect Day to Drop the Bomb". Tracks Bob said "The Road to Domestos", the album's opener, was a recording of a hymn they had stolen, ending with the sound of machine gun fire. "Twenty Four Minutes to Tulse Hill" details a train ride through South London; It also features a sample taken from Quadrophenia (1979), which had influenced Bob. "An All-American National Sport", which had gone under the titles "Digging a Hole" and "Cardboard City Cut-Out" with different publishers, discusses a homeless person being set on fire by two strangers. "The Taking of Peckham 123" is largely about the Peckham area of London, where Jamie Wednesday's label The Pink Label was based. Bob has compared the song to "Evelyn" (1987) by contemporaries Pop Will Eat Itself. and sees him reciting marriage vows in the style of a vicar by its conclusion. HuffPost writer Tom Thornton said "Midnight on the Murder Mile" served as a "depiction of a paranoid, post-nightclub cross-borough trudge home". Its title refers to a length of road dubbed the Murder Mile where Bob would walk from a bus stop in West Norwood to his residence in Crystal Palace. It features samples of the band ringing and hanging up on the emergency phone number 999 and fight sounds from The Firm (1989) during the instrumental portion. "A Perfect Day to Drop the Bomb", which begins with a clip of an Atari ST booting up, reuses the hook from "The Message" (1982) by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. Rob Sheridan plays the piano solo in the track; ==Release==

Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine embarked on a four-month long tour of the UK between September and December 1989. During this time, "Sheriff Fatman" was released as the lead single from their upcoming debut album in November 1989. The music video for "Sheriff Fatman" consists of live footage of the band with close-up shots of their instruments and the crowd. 101 Damnations was released on 15 January 1990 through Big Cat Records, with distribution from Rough Trade Records. against a white background, while the title is a reference to the film One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961). At the time of its release, the duo were associated with the grebo scene alongside Ned's Atomic Dustbin and Pop Will Eat Itself. Stoker said that "as the rest of the country looked towards the 'Madchester' scene, Carter were starting a riot down south"; when they embarked on their first tour of mainland Europe, consisting of three shows in Holland. Upon returning home, the band continued to tour the UK until April 1990, and followed this up with a longer stint in Europe. On the latter trek, some of the crowd in Germany were not fond of the band lacking a drummer, often asking "where's the drummer?", with a few of them thinking the pair were miming the entire time. On one occasion, an attendee tried to go behind the stage, expecting to find a drummer there. Preceded by a launch party in Kentish Town, it was promoted with a UK tour throughout June and July 1990, ending with a performance at the Astoria. Reissues and related events "Sheriff Fatman" was reissued in 1991 through Big Cat and Chrysalis Records. The two labels reissued 101 Damnations in the UK on 8 August 1991 and in the United States five days later. Big Cat Records reissued it in 2004, and then in 2011 with additional tracks; the latter edition was re-printed in 2018. It was re-pressed on vinyl in 2018 as part of the box set The Studio Recordings 1988–1998, alongside their other albums. "Sheriff Fatman", "Rubbish" and their respective B-sides were included on the compilation Handbuilt by Perverts (1990); "Sheriff Fatman" and "Rubbish" were then featured on the compilations Straw Donkey... The Singles (1995) and Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere ...The Very Best of Carter USM (2000). In addition to those two tracks, "Twenty Four Minutes from Tulse Hill", "Midnight on the Murder Mile", "A Perfect Day to Drop the Bomb" and "G.I. Blues" were included on the anthology compilation You Fat Bastard (2007). In 2009, the band performed their first four albums in their entireties across two shows in London, which included 101 Damnations. That performance and the performance of their second album 30 Something (1991) were released as a two-CD set under the title The Drum Machine Years Volume 1 (1990–1991) (2010) through Concert Live. ==Reception==

Reviewers generally praised the songwriting found on 101 Damnations. In a retrospective piece, Raggett said in the "duo's own unusual way, Carter were something of a unique and thrilling prospect at its best, which the highlights of Damnations show." Stoke was similarly impressed that the band "had ideas and energy to spare". Muretich said it was: "Clever, yes. Contrived, yes. And that's where this London bridge between social criticism and music falls down. Not enough melodic muscle, lyrical gusto". In Artforum, veteran critic Greil Marcus described 101 Damnations as "the noisiest and smartest record I’ve heard since early Wire—and more hysterical, in both senses of the word." Other critics were drawn to its sound quality. Lamacq considered it the band's "(Tooting) Broadway debut, a big screen collage on a shoestring budget - rough-edged Rascal Pop with a searching script". Record Collector Jonathan Scott wrote in a 2011 review that the band were the "most interesting" of their contemporaries, saying that their music featured "both a naïve, DIY charm and a rousing anthemic quality". At the end of 1990, NME ranked it at number 29 in their list of the top 50 release of the year. In 1992, NME included it in their list of the 20 best debut albums, writing that it stood in contrast to the Madchester boom of early 1990 by "[capturing] Carter's live resilience and ability to translate punk's social awareness into a new pop phenomenon", while also praising its DIY qualities. In The Rough Guide to Rock, Stoker commented that 101 Damnations bolstered Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine's reputation as "inventive agit-popsters". ==Track listing==

All tracks written by James Morrison and Les Carter. Some CD versions combine the first two tracks into one. Side one • "The Road to Domestos" – 0:46 • "Everytime a Churchbell Rings" – 4:13 • "Twenty Four Minutes from Tulse Hill" – 3:26 • "An All American National Sport" – 3:55 • "Sheriff Fatman" – 4:43 • "The Taking of Peckham 123" – 4:22 Side two • "Crimestoppers A' Go Go" – 2:48 • "Good Grief Charlie Brown" – 3:39 • "Midnight on the Murder Mile" – 3:30 • "A Perfect Day to Drop the Bomb" – 5:42 • "G.I. Blues" – 3:57 ==Personnel==

Personnel per booklet. Musicians • Jim Bob – performer • Fruitbat – performer • Rob Sheridan – piano solo ("G.I. Blues") Production and design • Sex Machine – producer • Simon Painter – producer, engineer • Carter – sleeve design • Dee Eff – sleeve design ==Charts==