The Germs are the first band from the first wave of punk that I got into. I assume many Xennials tread the same path...into Nirvana, noted the CV of the new guitar player, tracked down the comprehensive CD compiling the majority of their output...and lived lives of pure debauchery from there onward.

A few years back, while Third Man was working on our Carole King Vault package, I connected the dots that the main person we were dealing with it (Lou Adler) had also produced Cheech And Chong's "Up In Smoke."

And there's this long-told story that the ONLY group cut from the "Battle of the Bands" scene in the movie was the Germs.

Respective of nothing, I asked Lou one day if the footage from that performance still existed somewhere. He was pretty noncommittal about it all and I dropped it.

Months later, without warning, I get an email link to a Vimeo clip that has not only that performance, but multiple camera angles!

I damn near shit my pants.

The biggest takeaway from that footage, to me, was how YOUNG they all seem. The Germs were absolute babies. And that makes me appreciate this recording in a different way. So raw, so primitive, yet so singular in their vision that the absolute ripsaw bad-ass attitude of "Lexicon Devil" not even ten months later seems like a foregone conclusion. Necessary, important, dare I say...formative.

Clip below is a weird bastardized version NOT that I saw, but closest available on YouTube. I believe Lou licensed the clip exclusively to the Punk Rock Museum in Las Vegas, but I could be mistaken.