THE OFFS First Record JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT Original Issue WHITE VINYL 1984 LP NM

$

501

ONE OWNER: From the collection of Gary X Indiana.
Description: WHITE VINYL, which we'll call NM instead of mint, simply because it's not a "new" record. Although owner can't recall if he's ever played it. Maybe not. Very close visual inspection shows no defects, dirt, wear of any kind on the vinyl. (Same for the labels.) It was not played to check it for this sale because it may be "virgin vinyl." COVER: Somewhere between VG+ and EX. Front: Artwork is essentially pristine. Slight ringwear on front only. Minor scuffing outside of that. Some little stress lines at top. Corner tips are scuffed bare. Small crease at bottom of lower left corner, lower right corner slightly folded with slight stress line above that. Rear: Upper left corner has small fold. Slight scuffing on top edge. Spine: Very slight scuffing on top edge.
Inlay and insert are pristine.
Matrix / Runout (Side A): CD 025 A EDP[in an ellipse] STERLING Matrix / Runout (Side B): CD 025 B EDP[in an ellipse] STERLING "EDP" stands for the plating company, Europadisk, while STERLING refers to the mastering facility, Sterling Sound. Both of which show that this is a quality product.
Owner bought this 1984 release in San Francisco, apparently circa 1987. CD Presents' catalog insert lists their product up to that year. According to Discogs, the 1984 release was on black vinyl and on white vinyl (a "few hundred" of the latter, according to "The Punk Vault" blogger Mike Vinikour, who was told that by the late David Ferguson, owner of CDP). One recent seller claimed that the total original run was 2500, although no reference for that claim was provided. (Sounds reasonable though.) Rereleases occurred in 2008 and 2019. This record was not shrink-wrapped by the factory. (Unknown if any of the original release were.) When it left the CD Presents warehouse, the worker there put their current catalog insert into it.

About "First Record":
"After releasing [4] 7? singles, The Offs found a new home with CD Presents who released this, their only full length album and their final release... The Offs First Record came out way back in 1984 and the album is full of some really catchy art punk/ska songs. The band were way ahead of their time as a decade or so later that type of sound became a lot more popular." - Punkvinyl.com
"The posthumous First Record (an LP released after singer Don Vinil's 1983 death) was produced by jazz clarinetist Roland Young. Richard Edson (from SF's Alterboys and NYC's Konk [also Sonic Youth]) played trumpet, and Jean-Michel Basquiat drew the album cover. The band had chops. [Original] Offs bassist Denny DeGorio was part of Jorma Kaukonen's trio Vital Parts with drummer John Stench (from Chrome and Pearl Harbor & The Explosions), and Denny later played with Alejandro and Javier Escovedo in The True Believers. Offs' drummer Bob Steeler had been a member of Hot Tuna, and saxophonist Bob Roberts played with Ruben & The Jets." - Jonderblog
"Basquiat [a protégé of Andy Warhol] illustrated the work for the album cover for his friends, The Offs, a Punk/Ska band originally from San Francisco. The band moved to New York and soon became a regular act at underground venues such as The Mudd Club and Max’s Kansas City, which were popular with artists in the East Village scene.
With the help of their friend Andy Warhol, the band was signed by San Francisco punk label, CD PRESENTS, and their first [LP] was released in 1984. David Ferguson, President of CD PRESENTS [an old friend of Warhol], chose to reverse the original image done in blue and black oil stick, to white on black, keeping more in line with the punk sensibility of the times.
In Basquiat’s typical Neo-Expressionist, primitive, instructions-infused style, the artist repeats the band’s name three times in the composition, placing the album’s simple title at the bottom. Using images and symbols found throughout his work during the 1981-1983 period, in The Offs First Record, raw oil stick lines delineating the body extend to form a crown of thorns above the skull. This same imagery is also found in a cycle of totemic figures realized during this early period: perhaps emphasizing the band’s role as hero or martyr caught in the travails of the then shifting cultural landscape, as Basquiat too saw his career experiencing this same shifting landscape." - Venice Modern Art publicity.
More About The Offs:
"The Original line-up of The Offs was: Billy Hawk - guitar, Don Vinil - vocals, Fast Floyd - bass, & Bob Steeler - drums. They were later joined by Bob Roberts - saxophone. The Offs' singer, Don Vinil (who sadly died of a heroin overdose on Ninth St. in New York in 1983), was one of the first openly gay people in the West Coast punk scene. V.Vale of Search & Destroy & RE/Search introduced Vinil to guitarist Billy Hawk after Vinil was kicked out of his first band, Grand Mal. The Offs formed in late 1977 as just a goof between Billy Hawk, Don Vinil, & [Olga DeVolga]. They played around, various wanna-be musicians drifted in & out of the band. Gradually everyone involved got more & more serious. " In 1980 they moved from the West Coast to New York but continued going back frequently to play shows in San Francisco and L.A. "The Offs were unique among the first wave of West Coast punk bands in maintaining a home base on both coasts... In New York City, they hung out with Basquiat (who scrawled their album cover).. The greatest thing about this San Francisco sextet was their inability to be pigeon-holed. Were they punk? New wave? Avant-garde? Art rock? No New York noise? A new strain of art jazz? Some odd form of mutant ska gone wrong with bleating sax & screeching vocals? Like their U.K. contemporaries, Blurt, they were sort of all these things, & still others with names that haven't been invented." - Nothin' Sez Somethin' blog.
About the photos: 1-8 item; 9 Basquiat’s original art; 10 May 1985 review from Andy Warhol's "Interview" magazine; 11 2008 article about the first re-issue; 12 design of a "wicker" effigy of Basquiat’s art planned for the 2020 Burning Man and Art Basel/Miami Beach events.