“Only in the case of the Gizmos it’s produced a record that’s better than anybody’s delusions of grandeur…they satirize and pay tribute to their influences at the same time, and in imagination and flashes of absurd brilliance they’ve got more going than anyone…X-rated Velvets, no make that Primitives – it’s a new dance craze…it’s got all the stupidity of the NY groups and the humor they all lack. I predict superstardom for the Gizmos…”
-Greg Shaw, BOMP (1976) *************************
“A band that spends the entire afternoon before their first recording session running around town ripping down hippie posters can’t be all bad…plans include an LP on their own Gulcher Records…The men don’t know, but the little girls understand.”
-Rick Johnson, CREEM (July 1976) *************************
“After reviewing the content of the tapes you sent us, we wish to advise that Queen City Album is a company that wouldn’t want to be involved with this type of recording.”
-Joseph Sluder, QUEEN CITY ALBUM (1976) *************************
“Within a seven-day period, the Gizmos, a Bloomington group have (finally) released their punk-rock epic EP…The diversity in the two products says something for the gritty authenticity of the Gizmos…the Gizmos are clearly the favorites here…The music is a tough-garage-band sound that militantly battles with the lyrics for listener attention…In a way this is sort of what punk-rock is all about. But in the Gizmos’ case, we know that the punk credentials of this group have been filed much earlier than another equivalents now cashing in on the craze…The Gizmos are Hoosier exorcists, ridding themselves and their listeners of pent-up punk feelings…the boys in B-town pull it off with the grittiness that punk-rock deserves”.
-R. Stim, HERALD-TELEPHONE (October 1976) *************************
“…this Gizmos LP is the best pom-pom-eating sound on vinyl. With a beat somewhere between Eddie Cochran undergoing a sperm attack and the Velvets squirming under a collective radar-spew, these ratjags can’t miss. Like R. Meltzer says in the liner notes, ‘…the Gizmos have truly captured the NEW MID-AMERICAN DATING ETIQUETTE,’ and that’s the drooling truth.”
-Rick Johnson, CREEM (January 1977) *************************
“They might loosely be described as Zappa during his fruitiest phase meeting a twilight version of Jonathan Richman in a rusty tin can that someone mistook for a recording studio. Goodtime sleaze rubs shoulders with slapstick energy, fun and willingness to experiment.”
-Ian Birch, MELODY MAKER (August 1977) *************************
“The tunes are great and perhaps the finest aspect of this media-trapped cargo-cult punk rock band…Ted Niemiec does some good writing on ‘Ballad of the Gizmos’ but his vocals on this and ‘Regular Dude’ are devastating. Ditto for Davey Medlock’s interpretation of another tune, whose title must go unmentioned.”
-Rich Stim, HERALD-TELEPHONE (September 1977) *************************
“The Gizmos EP is a grand romp through teenage sex, violence and frustration that works”.
-Ralph Alfonso, CHEAP THRILLS (1977) *************************
“The Gizmos were the only band apart from the Dictators who seemed to understand the necessity of positing post-rock cultural values in rockist terms in order to have them understood. Those EPs, esp. the first couple, were as perfect a distillation of suburban post-glitter confusion as I’ve ever heard.”
-Byron Coley, CIMARRON WEEKEND (2000) *************************
“Ted Niemiec (ex-Gizmo with the seventies power-pop underground sound down pat!)”
-BLOG TO COMM (May 2004) *************************
“In case you didn’t know, the Gizmos weren’t only one of the better mid-seventies punk rock supergroups, they were the only mid-seventies punk rock supergroup! Think of it, the mid-seventies, when punk rock was really punk rock, and I’m talkin’ punk as a composite sixties-garage/Detroit spasm/Velvet Underground thick-glasses nerd and high-school decadent worship and throw in all of that extraneous stuff in while you’re at it style and form. You know what I’m talkin’ about...at a time when, well, hardly anyone knew or perhaps cared! Y’know, the punk that walked proud before the punque sniveled, best sought out in the pages of all of those crazed seventies fanzines I’ve mentioned over and over who either shone brightly or nova’d out of existence. Thaz the Gizmos!”
-Christopher Stigliano, BLOG TO COMM (July 2004) *************************
“This makes the Gizmos simultaneously the funniest / greatest rock / roll group ever to run a beer umbilical straight from the source.”
-VOLCANIC TONGUE (November 2006) *************************
“As far as a live set goes I don’t think you could do much better unless you somehow could affix yourself to the backbrains of the key Gizmo members (besides Niemiec, Kenne ‘Gizmo’ Highland, Eddie Flowers, Rich Coffee and Davey Medlock) sorta like those flying pieces of Egg Foo Young that got to Spock on some long-forgotten episode of STAR TREK”.
-BLACK2COM.BLOGSPOT (November 2006) *************************
“They are from the Monroe County public Library and the first Cincinnati Punk Rock Festival at Bogart’s- this is the show-stealing disc and a f***ing mind-blower…as a bonus there’s 3 extra tracks from Bogart’s from the original GIZMOS line-up. Disc 2 contains 27 tracks from the Ted Niemiec / Dale Lawrence embodiment recorded at 5 shows from the Monroe County public Library, Bluebird and Knightbridge Manor. . I just can’t stress how exhilarating it is to hear this and it’s just such a pity that rock ‘n’ roll
metamorphosed into what it did (and let’s not even talk about what happened
to punk rock) with all the thrill and urgency sucked out of it…the sound on
here is the sound I f***ing live for, it’s so gripping and urgent and makes
more sense to me today that 99.9% of contemporary rock ‘n’ roll and that’s
f***ing sad. I have to live real rock ‘n’ roll through records that were
recorded before I was even born or from when I was a toddler because most of today’s sh*t is just so sterile and un-exciting. This represents everything
great about rock ‘n’ roll, all the fun, all the rawness and all the electrifying energy…killer stuff. Totally real and absolutely fantastic, this is uber-essential listening.”
-Marco, NOFRONTTEETH.UK (January 2007)
"In the 1970's, Bloomington was such a hotbed that something great could be happening a couple of blocks away and you could miss it entirely, experiencing only the seminal results and aftershocks! The environment was diverse enough to enable a wide array of artistic and scientific expression, and there were voids aching to be filled." - 'The Gizmos Live In Bloomington' - Gulcher Records
Hi, Ted - just dropped in to say hello and listen to HB-B&G again and ask you if I could trouble you for the lyrics to Tilt-a-Whirl. Could I trouble you for the lyrics to Tilt-a-Whirl? Happy weekend.
hola hola como estamos x estos lados.... pasaba a dar un gran saludo.... suerte!! waz goodie just came thru 2 say watup... a mi nivel-da mixtape coming soon!!
