“The Happy Squid Sampler” was originally released in 1980 on the Urinals’ Happy Squid Records. The 7” sampler features the Urinals as well as the band’s alter ego, Arrow Book Club. Danny and the Doorknobs (an early moniker for Trotsky Icepick), The Vidiots, featuring the late Rik L. Rik with their memorable “Laurie’s Lament,” and experimental synth artist Phil Bedel round out the A side. Neef, who has more in common with Pierre Schaeffer and Robert Rental than any group on Dangerhouse or Slash, takes up the entirety of the B side.

“The Happy Squid Sampler” is an incredible EP capturing how eclectic Los Angeles’ music scene was in 1980. The Urinals bridged several scenes, from LA punk to LAFMS, and that’s what they captured here. “The Happy Squid Sampler” was originally released in a small run of 500 and has been out of print for decades. Spacecase Records is proud to reissue this outstanding collection.

Limited to 300 copies.

-Ryan Leach

The URINALS started Happy Squid to release their debut 7” in 1978, but this 1980 label sampler effectively foreshadowed some of the scattered directions that the members of the band would follow as they drifted further away from ramshackle punk into the ’80s, from their soon-to-be reinvention as tense post-punks 100 FLOWERS to the moody college rock of DANNY AND THE DOORKNOBS and TROTSKY ICEPICK. The EP leads with three tracks directly from the URINALS family tree, starting with a perfect half-minute of the parent group’s primitive bashing (“U”), followed by DANNY AND THE DOORKNOBS’ “Melody,” a dark, lo-fi punk jangler like the URINALS gone Paisley Underground, and then an organ-buzzing improv noise instrumental called “Get Down, Part 4” by ARROW BOOK CLUB (actually the URINALS incognito). For the remaining three tracks, things are turned over to a handful of URINALS peers from the L.A. underground—VIDIOTS (featuring Rik L Rik on vocals) offered “Laurie’s Lament,” a speedy, Dangerhouse-style burner that’s weirded-up midway with a PERE UBU-ish synth break, PHIL BEDEL’s “Caterpillar Stomp” is squelching, instrumental post-DEVO synthwave, and NEEF rounds things out with a lengthy (the EP’s entire B-side) neo-musique concrète jam. Punk to waaaaaay beyond punk in just six degrees.
-Erika Elizabeth, Maximum Rocknroll