“I’m not living my life so good, tell me, how about you?” What can we really say about 14th Wish, how did this band even exist? This record and band were COMPLETELY unknown up until the last couple of years, when we were approached by a notorious record fiend who was looking for more info after our official release of David Peel’s King of Punk LP. Here we have a band with no paper trail, zero online search results, and released in a tiny quantity on Orange Records in 1980, right alongside the first GG Allin and Eddie Criss Group LPs. But instead of a stylized gutter glam workout with a hot-shot studio guitarist, 14th Wish trip over themselves with a snotty/sloppy amateurism that veers farther into the beloved “Killed By Death” arena, with it’s sweltering TAPEWORM-style lead guitar freak-outs.

Fronted by the mysterious figure known as Halo Peace, both 14th Wish tracks offer a refreshing mid-tempo crud-punk slop-take on the sounds swirling around the drain of the Lower East Side at the end of the 1970s. Although both tracks aren’t lightning fast, their instant ominous catchiness and absolutely sordid and squalorous guitar tone suggests a more murderous background, as well. Mention of this record just drew blanks across from the board, from all of the rare punk record dealers, to the most avid international collectors, and even NYC scene members from the time. Never even turned up in a Mike Bastarache Want List! And of course, the internet was no help either. Was this really one that EVERYONE missed?

Recommended If You Like: Tapeworm, GG Allin & the Jabbers, Freestone, The Trend, Mentally Ill, The Gears, Killed By Death compilations