In 1999, the original line-up of Certain General, including Phil Gammage reunited for an album called These Are the Days that was recorded in the CBGB club’s basement studio for Hilly Kristal’s CBGB Records. The French label Fantastica Records officially released the album, and the band mounted a tour of France accompanied by the Fleshtones, a band that came along with the early punk and new wave bands but was basically a garage rock band.
These Are the Days by Certain General was produced by Genya Ravan, the former lead singer of perhaps the very first all-female rock band Goldie and the Gingerbreads. She was also in the band Ten Wheel Drive and has released several solo albums; I have Urban Desire (1978) myself. Among her other production credits are the Dead Boys’ first studio album, Young, Loud and Snotty (1977). That’s two important punk rock albums that I know of which were produced by women, the other being the 1979 album by the Germs, (GI), which was produced by Joan Jett (a veteran of another all-female band the Runaways).
Here follows a reprint of the Trouser Press Record Guide (4th Edition) listing for the SourMash family of bands. Though slightly garbled, it presents a fairly accurate overview of our thing in the 1980’s.
Holiday of Love EP (Labor) 1982
November’s Heat (Fr. L’Invitation au Suicide) 1984
Reissued w/ bonus tracks (Fr. New Rose) 1990; (Alive) 1999; (Fr. Fantastica) 2002
These Are the Days (Fr. New Rose) 1986
Reissued w/ bonus tracks (Fr. Fantastica 1999)
Cabin Fever (Fr. Barclay) 1988
Jacklighter (Fr. Barclay) 1990
Signals from the Source (CBGB) 1999
Closer to the Sun (Fr. Fantastica) 2000
Live at the Public Theater (Fantastica US) 2001
An Introduction to War (SourMash USA) 2002
Invisible New York (Easy Action UK) 2008
CERTAIN GENERAL / BAND OF OUTSIDERS
Far Away in America (SourMash) 1984
Far Away in America / The Live Side EP (Fr. L’Invitation au Suicide) 1985
(March 2015)