Finally available again Texas punk classic ‘Panacea’ 12” plus four unreleased tracks! This is the secret story of this crazy record… “Originally, the 12” was recorded at Wells Sound in one day, & mixed on the next.

 

The band leader, guitarist Christian Arnheiter decided to record “Houston”, originally done by Dean Martin, in direct response to Wendy O. Williams’ amazing cover of Bobby Darin’s “Dream Lover”. It turned out to be one of the better decisions he’s made over the decades; people still ask to hear it at shows. And besides, what could possibly be a better tribute to the city that is the home of The Hates? Christian penned “Also Watched” specifically for this album, thinking along the Big Brother lines of spy satellites watching us as if we were the enemy. He was really proud of Lawrence’s drumming for that song.“Nuclear Age”, “Science’s Fiction”, “Punk 1301”, “This Year’s Model”, & “What Am I Living For?” rounded out the recording. As an experiment for this 12”, Paul suggested that they slow down the tempo on “This Year’s Model” even though they never played it that way live. And here’s an interesting note: this record was pressed in the same plant in Florida that helped to put out the Bee Gees & Eric Clapton albums the year before. Because Paul left to fulfill his psychiatry internship in Austin & Lawrence went on to get a higher education as well, Panacea was released without that lineup to represent it. While the record was being pressed by one company, the sleeves were printed by another company, & a third company printed the lyric sheets. When everything arrived, what could have been a boring job putting all those discs into sleeves turned into a little fun. Christian’s mother’s boyfriend, Lazaro, ended up helping out; he even took the finished 12” to a company down the street to get them shrink-wrapped. In fact, they actually put him in front of the machine & had him do it. How punk rock is that? Literally putting together your own album!” (Christian Arnheiter) So… after this… are you ready to get his album?!