The Nuns in Bloomington, MN

San Francisco punks the
Nuns
are remembered today -- if at all -- as the first blip on
Alejandro Escovedo
's march to finding his voice as a singer/songwriter. But that's not fair, because the
had no trouble standing out in a scene that produced such a wealth of distinctive bands. No less than three people share the microphone, though
Jennifer Miro
-- who sounds uncannily like her
Blondie
counterpart,
Deborah Harry
-- possesses the most appealing voice.
Miro
's glacial keyboards also carry the main melodic load on tracks like
"Suicide Child"
-- which laments a friend's self-destruction -- and "&Walkin' the Beat," a salute to city night life. Guitarist
Pat Ryan
is also a distinctive presence, lending the appropriate quota of muscular barre chord parts on
"Media Control,"
"World War III,"
and
"Child Molester"
-- which takes an unlikely look at the issue from the offender's eyes ("Where are they gonna put me?"). Old friends also fall out in
"Getting Straight,"
which gives the
punk
-versus-mainstream wars yet another airing. But it's
's barbed charisma that captivates -- whether she wants someone to be her
"Savage,"
proud of being
"Wild,"
or simply
"Lazy."
The latter number is a solo piano ballad on which
asserts that falling in love is too bothersome, so she'd rather just watch TV. It's a lovely admission of vulnerability from behind the hardbitten sheen. Where the
could have gone from here is anybody's guess -- since this is such a schizophrenic album -- but worth revisiting as a minor classic of the late-'70s
era. ~ Ralph Heibutzki