Not the Grateful Dead cover band but an LA punk group formed 1977, and this was their only single. While the “Kill the Hippies” cover catches your eye, the b-side sound of “Brainless” is the weirder wonder, with some nice arty No New York style blipping short-stroke guitar work. Geza X was on guitar and went on to perform and produce some stellar early CA punk recordings.  B-side “Kill” smells kinda Fugs, as in “Kill for Peace.”

This is just one of the thousands of Punk-era 45s I’ve been sorting through and listening to as ARC-in-Exile tries to catalog them all (donate yours?) for a book. As I check the sales sites this transparent gold version has actually sold for $199.00 and hard to find from anyone who knows better for less than $100. Ours was a gift back in the day from the wonderful Dangerhouse (1978-1980) label when we were working on the first edition of the Volume discography.