| Coup d'Etat | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 1982 | |||
| Recorded | Dierks Studios, Cologne, Germany, 1982 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 38:48 (52:43 with bonus tracks included) | |||
| Label | Capitol | |||
| Producer | Dieter Dierks | |||
| Plasmatics chronology | ||||
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Coup d'Etat is the third studio album released by punk rock band The Plasmatics in 1982.
In 1982, a deal was signed with Capitol Records and Dan Hartman offered to produce a demo of the album for Capitol with Rod Swenson at Electric Lady Studios, Jimi Hendrix's old studio, in New York. A demo was arranged, recorded and mixed within a week, but not released. It would be released 20 years later as Coup de Grace .
The album was recorded at Dierks Studios, near Cologne, Germany and was produced by Dieter Dierks, who had just come off a number one album with the Scorpions.
Coup d'Etat was a breakthrough album that began to blend the punk and heavy metal genres, something that would later be done by bands such as S.O.D., Anthrax, and the Cro-Mags by the end of the 1980s. Singer Wendy O. Williams also broke ground for her unique singing style; she pushed her voice so hard she had to travel into Cologne each day for treatment to avoid permanent damage to her vocal cords.
Despite the band's rise in fame, they were dropped by Capitol Records shortly after the album's release when sales proved less than hoped for and their stage shows, which often featured Williams destroying tables, chairs, and other home furnishings with a chainsaw, created considerable controversy.
In 2005, Rock Candy Records re-released the album with expanded liner notes, bonus tracks, and a re-master of the entire original album.
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [1] |
| Robert Christgau | D- [2] |
The Los Angeles Times called Coup d'Etat the "best slice of unrelenting heavy metal since the last AC/DC album", adding, "Williams makes Ann Wilson or Pat Benatar sound like Judy Collins". The newspaper's question about whether the heavy metal audience (predominantly male) would "accept a female screecher" underscored how groundbreaking Williams was. [3] This was previously entirely male territory.
A review in Creem called it a "breakthrough" record and Williams "an aggressive female"; the review went on saying it was "kicking down traditional barriers". Williams' "physicality...is (now) coming out of her voice."[ citation needed ] The Creem review, by Cyril Blight, attacked the sexism of those who "can't handle" or "even resent the very idea of a woman like Wendy Williams singing rock and roll with ferocity-which is to say the same qualities they would applaud if they were coming from a man, providing there was a man around today with the balls to do that."[ citation needed ]
Consumer Guide critic Robert Christgau panned the album and Williams, noting "Not only can't she sing (ha) she can't even yell," and suggesting she "might well be advised to start singing with her nether lips". [2]
J. D. Considine wrote in Musician : "Ever wonder what Black Sabbath would have sounded like with a chainsaw as lead singer?" [4]
In early 1983, as a part of the support for the album and an attempt to continue their transition toward a metal audience, the band opened for Kiss on their Creatures of the Night tour. It was during this time that Gene Simmons approached manager Rod Swenson about producing the next Plasmatics album (ultimately becoming the initial Wendy O. Williams solo offering, WOW ).
The song "The Damned" was covered by German thrash metal band Destruction on the Mad Butcher EP in 1987. During the 1990s, the music video was shown on Beavis and Butt-Head , in which the duo praised the song, the appearance of Williams, and the action stunts. The electro band Japanese Car Crash would perform "The Damned" live on their tours from 2007-2013. They replaced the guitar solo with a theremin solo.
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Put Your Love in Me" | Richie Stotts, Rod Swenson | 3:55 |
| 2. | "Stop" | Wes Beech, Swenson | 4:40 |
| 3. | "Rock 'n' Roll" | Stotts, Swenson | 4:23 |
| 4. | "Lightning Breaks" | Beech, Swenson | 3:58 |
| 5. | "No Class" | Eddie Clarke, Lemmy Kilmister, Phil Taylor | 2:36 |
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Mistress of Taboo" | Stotts, Swenson | 3:16 |
| 2. | "Country Fairs" | Beech, Swenson | 3:37 |
| 3. | "Path of Glory" | Stotts, Swenson | 4:45 |
| 4. | "Just Like on TV" | Beech, Swenson | 3:17 |
| 5. | "The Damned" | Junior Romanelli, Swenson | 4:21 |
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Uniformed Guards (work-in-progress)" | Stotts, Swenson | 4:07 |
| 2. | "Put Your Love in Me (demo)" | Stotts, Swenson | 4:13 |
| 3. | "Stop (demo)" | Beech, Swenson | 4:35 |
| 4. | "Coup D'Etat Radio Ad (previously unheard)" | 1:00 |
So Far, So Good... So What! is the third studio album by American thrash metal band Megadeth, released on January 19, 1988, by Capitol Records. It was the band's only album recorded with drummer Chuck Behler and guitarist Jeff Young, both of whom were fired from the band in early 1989, several months after the completion of the album's world tour. So Far, So Good... So What! features music performed at fast tempos with technical ability; lyrically, frontman and guitarist Dave Mustaine addresses a variety of topics, including nuclear holocaust and freedom of speech.
The Plasmatics were an American punk rock, hardcore punk and heavy metal band formed by Rod Swenson and Wendy O. Williams in New York City in 1977. They were a controversial group known for chaotic, destructive live shows and outrageous theatrics. These included chainsawing guitars, destroying speaker cabinets, sledgehammering television sets and blowing up automobiles live on stage. Williams was arrested in Milwaukee by the Milwaukee Police before being charged with public indecency.
Billion Dollar Babies is the sixth studio album by American rock band Alice Cooper, released in March 1973 by Warner Bros. Records. The album became the best selling Alice Cooper record at the time of its release, hit number one on the album charts in both the United States and the United Kingdom, and went on to be certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. The album has been retrospectively praised by such critics as Robert Christgau, Greg Prato of AllMusic, and Jason Thompson of PopMatters, but The Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004) gave the album only two and a half stars.
No Dice is the third studio album by British rock band Badfinger, issued by Apple Records and released on 9 November 1970. Their second album under the Badfinger name, but their first official album under that name, and first to include guitarist Joey Molland, No Dice significantly expanded the British group's popularity, especially abroad. The album included both the hit single "No Matter What" and the song "Without You", which would become a big hit for Harry Nilsson, and later a hit for Mariah Carey.
Shock rock is the combination of rock music or heavy metal music with highly theatrical live performances emphasizing shock value. Performances may include violent or provocative behavior from the artists, the use of attention-grabbing imagery such as costumes, masks, or face paint, or special effects such as pyrotechnics or fake blood. Shock rock also often includes elements of horror.
Blackout is the eighth studio album by the German rock band Scorpions. It was released in 1982 by Harvest and Mercury Records.
Wendy Orlean Williams was an American singer, best known as the lead singer of the punk rock band Plasmatics. She was noted for her onstage theatrics, which included partial nudity, exploding equipment, firing a shotgun, and chainsawing guitars. Performing her own stunts in videos, she often sported a mohawk hairstyle. In 1985, during the height of her popularity as a solo artist, she was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance.
Richard Eugene Stotts is a musician, who was the first guitarist and one of the founding members of the punk/metal group Plasmatics.
Stand by Your Man is an EP released in 1982. It is a collaboration of the bands Motörhead and the Plasmatics. It is notorious as the reason "Fast" Eddie left Motörhead, more so than the bad reception the EP received. Lemmy and Wendy O. Williams had organised to do a duet of the famous Tammy Wynette country song, though most critics, and fans, to this day are baffled by the choice, Wendy coming from the punk scene in the mid-late 1970s and Lemmy from a mixture of Rock genres.
Chris Romanelli was the bassist of the punk rock band Plasmatics from 1981 until 1983 and again in 1986 to 1987, during a time, in 1983, he was the keyboardist. He played on the Metal Priestess, Coup d'Etat and Maggots: The Record albums. After that, he had some brief stints with several other bands but largely faded from the music industry in the mid-1990s. He is currently a practicing attorney in New York.
New Hope for the Wretched is the debut studio album by American punk rock band Plasmatics. It was released on October 2, 1980 by Stiff Records.
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Maggots: The Record is the fourth studio album by American rock singer Wendy O. Williams and her band Plasmatics. It was released on February 18, 1987 by Profile Records. Labeled as a special "9th Anniversary Album", it was the last album released by the band. Despite being labeled a "Plasmatics" album, it is often regarded as another Wendy O. Williams solo album, largely in part because her name is over that of the band, the merchandise for the tour has the WOW logo from her solo career, Michael Ray plays lead guitar here, and the only original member is Wes Beech on rhythm guitar. All music on the record was written and arranged by Michael Ray, except for "Propagators". Maggots: The Record was recorded in 1987 and is a concept album set 25 years in the future, where environmental abuse and the burning of fossil fuels have created a greenhouse effect, leading to an end of the world scenario. The album features various scenes of the White Family over the course of three days. The family is devoured while watching a TV game show. Valerie, the girlfriend of television reporter Bruce is devoured by three massive maggots while lying in her boyfriend's bed. The final scene of the record shows the entire human population is headed for imminent annihilation. The album was released through Profile Records under the WOW label in the United States and overseas by GWR Records, which had been started by Motörhead's longtime manager Doug Smith.
Coup de Grace is a postmortem release by punk / metal band The Plasmatics in 2000. The album is the original demo of the album Coup d'Etat.
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Kommander of Kaos is the second solo studio album released by Wendy O. Williams after her group, the Plasmatics, went on hiatus. The album was recorded in 1984 but not released until 1986. A live version of the Gene Simmons-penned "Ain't None of Your Business" appears on this album . Lead guitarist Michael Ray (guitarist),or M. ray, was previously invited by Gene Simmons to record tracks on the Creatures of the Night Kiss album, and was later hired by Simmons to play guitar solos on the WOW album. Michael Ray (guitarist) composed and arranged music tracks on the Kommander of Kaos album. "Hoy hey ", "Pedal to the Metal", "Goin Wild", "Fight for the Right" and "(Work that Muscle) F**k that Booty". The Kommander of Kaos album has been re-released by several independent labels in recent years.
Butcher Babies is an American metal band from Los Angeles, consisting of frontwomen Heidi Shepherd and Carla Harvey, guitarist Henry Flury (Amen), bassist Ricky Bonazza, and drummer Chase Brickenden. Their debut album, Goliath, was released on July 9, 2013, via Century Media Records. It sold 3,300 copies in the US during its first week of release and charted at No. 3 on the Billboard Heatseeker chart and No. 112 on the Billboard 200.
Michael Rea better known by his stage name Michael Ray or M. Ray, is an American guitarist, songwriter and record producer, not to be confused with Michael Roach Ray the country singer. Michael Ray was the lead guitarist for the punk rock band Plasmatics and for Wendy O. Williams solo projects. He also worked with hard rock band Kiss and toured with the English rock band Motörhead.
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