First Wave Hardcore Volume Eight

Posted on December 26, 2010 by Joe

To quote myself from Volume One:

Recently a friend of mine got married and for his wedding present I put together a bunch of comps of first wave (primarily) US Hardcore. The purpose of these comps was to highlight all of the more obscure bands operating (primarily) across the US in the classic period of Hardcore. What is the classic period, you ask? It is the period from 1978 (when Out of Vogue was released) to 1990 when the scene sort of collapsed on itself in a mess of crossover, posi-core, youth crew, neo-Nazi bullshit, jingoism, and overall sillyness. The next period, which would have been the 1990′s, I decided not to cover because I checked out at that point and became a new waver.

I read somewhere once that Minor Threat set the template for US Hardcore in the same way that Discharge set it for UK and European bands in general. I agree with this a lot and I always saw bands like Discharge as much more firmly rooted in the punk aesthetic than US Hardcore which was some bizarre sociological phenomenon that resulted from post boomer rebellion, suburban boredom and Reagan. What the fuck was First Wave US Hardcore all about? A lot of people struggled with this question in the 1980′s and you will see all kinds of ideologies pasted onto a template of loud-n-fast music. In the end, what did it really accomplish? Not much. But my life has been way more fun because of it.

If you wanna look at all eight in all of their glory, go here.

Espasmodicos from Madrid, Spain and Underdog from NYC

Sin 34 from Santa Monica, CA and Soulside from DC

Here is the eighth and final set of tunes (Right Click And “save as”). More to come:

First Wave Hardcore Podcast #8

Born Without A Face Black Narcissus
Deadline Closed Door
Negative Gain 16 – Destiny’s Uncertain
No Thanks Who Me?
No Direction Reaganomics
Sluglords Knucklehead
Espasmodicos Mata
Cancerous Growth Had Enough
Underdog True Blue
Power Of The Spoken Word Plague of Pain
Sin 34 Nuclear War

Fathead Suburbia The Masses
Massacre Guys Living End
Section 8 “Fat, Drunk, & Stupid”
Suburbacide XFugitive
SS-20 Right Wing Death Squad
Forced Anger Colored Rectangles
The State No Illusions
NOD (Nuclear Overdose) Big Man
Bored Youth Sympathy (demo 1981)
Scapegoats I Like The Street
UXB Breakout

SLIME Untergang
Bill Of Rights “No rights, No chance”
Raped Teenagers moder jard
Rude Awakening Used
Tar Babies The New Poor
Political Justice? O Lady Liberty (Introduction Pt 1)
Damage festering
SVDB chain reaction
Project X Dance Floor Justice
Sluggo Up And Over

The Misguided You Bore Me
The Young And The Useless Rise And Shine
Psycho Contempt
Toejam requiem
Shell Shock My Brain Is Jelly
Soul Side Problems Faced When Travelling
Dehumanizers God Men Of The Future
Nihilistics You’re to blame
Pariah Running For Cover

Posted in hardcore, podcasts | 3 Comments

First Wave Hardcore Volume Seven

Posted on December 20, 2010 by Joe

Sons of Ishmael from Toronto, Canada and Flesh D-Vice from Wellington, NZ

Ignition from DC and The Frantix from Denver

Here is the seventh set of tunes (Right Click And “save as”). More to come:

First Wave Hardcore Podcast #7

Deathwish Condemned
Viktimz Of Society Miss America Sucks
Stetz MADD
The Unwanted (Canadian HC) ThriLL
Angst Die Fighting
The Stupids Who Do You Think You Are?
Mission Impossible I Can Only Try
Toxoplasma Miriam
Death Sentence (Aus) Tension
Imminent Attack My Skin

The Blood Megalomania
Killing Children Majority
Sons Of Ishmael Governors of Death
Anti Nothing Means Nothing
Spermbirds Cave
Betrayed Betrayed
M.A.D. Everything Is Beautiful
Flesh D-Vice Fuck Off Embarrasment
Bunchofuckingoofs In Dog We Trust

The Scam No Reason To Live
Dead Pigeons Force Fed Life
Stranglehold She’s not leaving
Suburban Mutilation Deprogram
5150 ambitious demons
Outpatients land of the lost
Whipping Boy Blank Stare
Attack & Decay In My Grave
Bitter Uproar Different Like Me

Sudden Impact drunk driving
Ignition Cancellation
Graven Image Close Your Eyes
Frantix Cat-Mouse
Soylent Greene Taxed
The Unaware Race War
The Partisans Power & The Greed

Posted in hardcore, podcasts | 12 Comments

First Wave Hardcore Volume Six

Posted on December 15, 2010 by Joe

Siege from Boston and Gorilla Biscuits from NYC

PTL Klub from Boston and Boom and the Legion of Doom from Ohio

Impulse Manslaughter from Chicago and Flesh Columns from Windsor, Ontario

Porcelain Forehead from Ottowa and Slow from Vancouver, BC

Here is the sixth set of tunes (Right Click And “save as”). More to come:

First Wave Hardcore Podcast #6

Siege Sad But True
Ill Will Mr Government
Gorilla Biscuits Big Mouth
PTL Klub Join PTL
Skate Death Thrap
Target Of Demand Man’s Ruin
Mr. Epp and the Calculations 04 – Mohawk Man
JERK WARD 01-UFO
Deep Wound Lou’s Anxiety Song
Boom & the Legion of Doom Not Enough Food
Tongue Avulsion Libyan Hit Squad
Honor Role Uptown
Impulse Manslaughter Ratbag

Hates Do The Caryl Chessman
Crucial Youth Wake up and Lift
Wrecks I Love to Shoplift
Armed Citizens The Thrill Of It All
Marching Plague Mom and Dad
White Suburban Youth My Way
problem children thrashing with your parents
Savage Circle Kill Cops
Wrecking Crew Guts and Glory
Special Forces Torture
Sado Nation No USe
Flesh Columns Muammar Khadafi

Porcelain Forehead How High?
Neos Racist Act
VIRUS Rhetoric
Dissent Shut My Eyes
Toreros After Ole corre
Plasma Alliance History
The Red Tide War criminals
Zany Guys Hardcore

Death Sentence (Canada) Fake
Teenage Depression Working for the Kremlin
Bill Of Rights Shot In The Ass
Slow Against The Glass
Ghost Dance Shrunken Heads
Gray Matter Flash in Time
Down Syndrome Values

Posted in hardcore, podcasts | 2 Comments

First Wave Hardcore Volume Five

Posted on December 10, 2010 by Joe

Steven Blush kinda stole my thunder with these but whatevz….It took me a lot of time to put ‘em together. Picking up where I left off back in November. Ahhh hardcore, how can I possibly stay away from ye? How about a second dose of insanity? Three more to come after this….

Moving Targets from Boston and Husker Du from Minneapolis

No Trend from DC and Savage Beliefs from Chicago

Useless Pieces of Shit from Tuscon and Fearless Iranians From Hell from Texas

BGK from the Netherlands and Ultraman from Saint Louis

Knockabouts from Alabama and Token Entry from Philadelphia Queens

Here is the first set of tunes (Right Click And “save as”). More to come:

First Wave Hardcore Podcast #5

Moving Targets Changing Your Mind
Unseen Force Don’t Know
Send Help Buffy’s Dead
Jackshit hicktown
Conflict (AZ) See what i’ve done
Koro blap
Hüsker Dü You Think I’m Scared
Groinoids Empty Skull
Attitude Adjustment 08 DSFA
No Trend Mass Sterilization Caused By Veneral Disease

Any Three Initials Worst Thing
Life Sentence Punks for Profit
Fuck-Ups I Hate You
5051 Too late
YYY Wanderlust
Savage Beliefs Big Big Sky
Red Meat Another Day
The Hated I Don’t Like You
Neurotic Arseholes BW-Mörder
Law and Order Violent Waltz

Moss Icon What They Lack
Useless Pieces of Shit junkie punks
Urgent Fury tet
Executioner Nagasaki
Fearless Iranians From Hell Theme
BGK Action Man
Sorry Honesty
Ultraman Axe
Bang Gang Dickhead
Whoppers Taste Good Corinthian Leather Warrior

Upright Citizens I Hate Church
Russian Meatsquats Powerplug
Clitboys Gay’s Okay
The Knockabouts Aimless Youth
Compos Mentis Confused
America’s Hardcore Cops are Criminals
Token Entry Antidote
Nip Drivers Tiki God
Scum exit death
Dissonance Cruise Control

Posted in hardcore, podcasts | 14 Comments

The Best of America Underground

Posted on December 2, 2010 by Joe

BERJAYAThe Best of America Underground (ROIR Cassettes) 1983. I picked this up at The Great Streetside Records Purge of 1994 and I have never been the same since. This tape, more than anything else, reintroduced me to the New Wave underground of 1980s America. Sure I was familiar with The B-52s and the Talking Heads but by 1994 my mind had been so abused by Hardcore, Noise, Grunge, Pigfuck and just general guitar based squall that I remember thinking the song World War III by The Suburbs sounded positively revolutionary, what with its rollicking melody and catchy guitar riff. All of a sudden, those Live Skull records I had bought on Homestead seemed kinda boring and I began falling in love with New Wave all over again. There are just so many classic songs on this compilation; from the sugar-sweet powerpop of The Shoes to the avant-Eno stylings of The Styrene Jass Band. How about the classic New Wave ska sounds of the Erector Set and the fractured grooves of Pylon as they “eat dub for breakfast”? And that is just part of the A-Side of this classic tape, released by ROIR, a cassette-only tape company that used to advertise in the back of Trouser Press and was responsible for more cool releases than you can shake a stick at. Other standouts include Algebra Suicide with their poetic True Romance at the World’s Fair and the Tweeds with the powerpop of Underwater Girl. How about the art-punk of the Bizarros and the New Wave fun of the Dub Rifles? And then of course, they end the tape of with Armand Schaubroeck doing a shortened version of the Independent Hitter, a completely indescribable piece of performance art. I have swapped out the shortened version of the song with the full length version of it from his classic album Ratfucker because I am, at heart, a giver.

Here is the whole album (Right Click And “save as”).

The Best of America Underground

01. Chris Moffa & The Competition / You Know How Hot (It’s Been Getting Around Here)
02. Martha Hull / Feelin’ Right Tonight
03. Norman Salant / Tickets Are Free
04. Erector Set / Inside Out
05. Poli Styrene Jass Band / Drano in Your Veins
06. Shoes / Like I Told You
07. Nerves / Working Too Hard
08. R. Stevie Moore / Manufacturers
09. Residents / The Booker Tease
10. Pylon / Dub

11. Gary Valentine / The First One
12. Fans / True
13. Tweeds / Underwater Girl
14. Bunnydrums / Crawl
15. Wrinklemuzik / A Move to the Right
16. Algebra Suicide / True Romance at the World’s Fair
17. Suburbs / World War III
18. Dub Rifles / Stand
19. Bizarros / I, Bizarro
20. Armand Schaubroeck Steals / The Independent Hitter

Posted in New Wave | 7 Comments

The Tikis – Junie / Surfadelic 7inch

Posted on November 29, 2010 by Joe

BERJAYAThe Tikis – Junie // Surfadelic (Thermidor Records) 1981. Speaking of Thermidor….what kind of music do you think the band Monitor would make if they decided to do a one-off single with Paul B. Cutler of 45 Grave, Vox Pop, and the Consumers engineering it and international noise collaborator Boyd Rice doing the cover art? I bet what you imagined is a hell of a lot more chaotic and noisy than this 7inch which is actually the most commercial sounding thing the band Monitor, under the assumed name of “The Tikis”, ever did. But it is actually Monitor, a subversive group of avant garde wierdos who were making music in the early 1980′s in LA and had loose ties to The Los Angeles Free Music Society, BPeople, Human Hands etc. The most subversive thing about this single is how unassuming and straightforward it is. In fact, the B-Side Surfadelic is a great slice of New Wave Surf Music that would not have been out of place on a Raybeats album. The A-Side Junie sounds like a Human Hands song. Not the most earth-shattering release in the history of music, but a fun little slice of Surf-n-Turf as I begin my second summer of 2010 Down Under.

Posted in California, New Wave | Leave a comment

Oil Tasters – What’s In Your Mouth / Get Out of the Bathroom

Posted on November 26, 2010 by Joe

BERJAYAOil Tasters – What’s In Your Mouth // Get Out of the Bathroom (Oil Tasters Records) 1980. In an alternate universe the Oil Tasters would be a household name among midwestern-based post-punk fans. All three of us. I mean, here was this band from Milwaukee, Wisconsin of all places mixing surrealism, jazz, rock, and funk. Bassist and vocalist Richard LaValliere and drummer Guy Hoffman both had been in the famous KBD Milwaukee band The Haskels of Taking The City By Storm fame. The band had no guitar player but instead saxophonist Caleb Alexander’s thrashing sax took the leads and solos, while LaValliere strummed the bass like a rhythm guitar. If this approach sounds reminiscent of anything at all it is probably the “low rock” of Morphine who started playing similar music in the 1990′s in Boston. Now I am not trying to call Morphine derivative, Mark Sandman’s low and breathy vocals were definitely different than LaValliere’s nasally whine but I am pointing out that the Oil Tasters were mining similar territory a good ten to fifteen years before Sandman and company. The trio, founded on Milwaukee’s East Side, released this 7inch in 1980. It included What’s In Your Mouth backed with Get Out Of The Bathroom, a track which also appeared on the Sub Pop 5 cassette compilation in 1981. That same year, a second 7inch EP entitled That’s When The Brick Goes Through The Window, was released. The Oil Tasters then released an LP recorded for Thermidor (1982), a Berkeley, California-based independent label associated at times with SST Records. A few years ago, Henry Rollins was actually going to reissue that Oil Tasters on the 2.13.61 label, but then it went bankrupt. Guy Hoffman of the band had to go to Rollins’ offices to get the masters. All of the bands material were subsequently re-released on the Australian label Lexicon Devil and is available on the Forced Exposure Website. Hank by the way, was cool about it; he plays it sometimes on his radio show. Quite a CV for a band that most of us have never heard of, no?

Posted in New Wave, No Wave, Wisconsin, post-punk | 2 Comments

Executive Slacks

Posted on November 23, 2010 by Joe

BERJAYAExecutive Slacks – The Bus , Thirty Years // Cinema , So Mote it Be (Red Music) 1983. Executive Slacks were another really cool old Philadelphia band that is all but forgotten today. Influenced strongly by Killing Joke, these early industrial noisemongers would have been a good fit alongside Ministry and Front 242 on the early Wax Trax! Records label. In fact, these guys were making quite a ruccus while Al Jourgensen and company were still trying to sound like Depeche Mode. Instead, Executive Slacks recordings were released on the Fundamental and Red Record labels and I think that may be why they are more obscure to a lot of folks than Ministry. I have not heard their later recordings but this, their first release, captures them in all of their nihilistic glory. The standout track for me is Cinema which musically reminds me of Red Exposure-era Chrome and has some great New Wave vocals. So Mote it Be is excellent as well and sounds like it could have come off of Voice Of America-era Cabaret Voltaire. If all these names I am dropping are any hint, then yes, I think this EP is up there in the top echelon of proto-industrial. Never having been a huge fan of industrial as a genre, this release has enough new wave sheen to it to transcend the limits of its genre.

BERJAYA
Executive Slacks plus Youth (Killing Joke) plus Larry Bud Melman. A band picture you don’t see every day

 

Posted in New Wave, Philly | 5 Comments

Human Hands – Trains Vs Planes

Posted on November 19, 2010 by Joe

BERJAYAHuman Hands – Trains vs Planes // Blue Eel (Faulty Products) 1981. A band I have been meaning to post for years, Human Hands represent the epicenter and apex of a certain early Pasadena New Wave sound in this bloggers’ humble opinion. A supergroup from an alternate universe, made up originally of Dennis Duck, Juan Gomez, Bill Noland, Rick Potts and David Wiley, all future and past cross-polinating characters from other seminal outfits like The Romans, The Consumers, Wall of Voodoo, Monitor, The Dream Syndicate….need I say more? Shit, I could probably leave the review at this and you would have all the reason in the world to listen to this amazing 7inch. But unfortunately for you dear reader, I have even more to say. The genius of Human Hands is how they subtly incorporate surf, psychedelia, C&W, new wave and the beatnik poetry of singer David Wiley into a cohesive whole that is not derivative of any of these sub-genres but instead, just sound like Human Hands. This is most evident in the first five seconds of Trains Vs Planes which makes you think that you are about to listen to a surf song, what with the rush of the waves and reverberated Dick Dale style guitar, but then all of a sudden it becomes so much more. The B-Side Blue Eel performs the same magic feat with a Monitor-esque avant punk spazzfest morphing back and forth from a Country and Western riff. After this release and a subsequent EP, Dennis Duck joined Steve Wynn in The Dream Syndicate , Bill joined Wall of Voodoo and Juan formed The Romans. Rick performed with the experimental group Solid Eye, among others. David sadly passed away in 1986. The band has been continuing off and on for many years and they are still a very eclectic and creative bunch. All of their original material has been re-released as well, so if you like this, go check them out.

Posted in California, LA, New Wave, post-punk | 1 Comment

Executioner – Fix Me / Hellbound 7inch

Posted on November 17, 2010 by Joe

BERJAYAExecutioner – Fix Me / Hellbound // Flat Lands, Marked To Die (Patac Records) 2010, originally recorded in 1982. While putting together my hardcore podcasts I contacted Dan Patac from the Boston-based label Patac Records and he hooked me up with some Executioner. Who is Executioner? Only one of the best West-Coast hardcore bands that you have never heard of from the first wave of hardcore which existed from…oh, forget it , nevermind. Executioner came from the San Jose, CA skatecore scene which also included Ribzy and The Faction among others, but Executioner were something altogether different from those great bands. Seemingly influenced by both California hardcore and the more UK metal of Discharge and Motorhead, Executioner came up with a pretty unique sound for their time and place. I guess you would call it “crossover”, before there really was such a thing. To put this in perspective, DRI released the album Crossover in 1987, which would have been the heyday of the metalcore thing. This was five years before. Compounded on this, the kids in the band were still in high school. Nothing like trailblazing new dimensions in sound while you are still in yer shortpants, eh? The biggest accomplishment of my high school years was getting a girlfriend. Like I said, kinda puts it all in perspective. Anyhoo, Mr Patac has a bunch of other early tracks by the band and he plans to release them shortly. I’ve heard them, they shred. But this 7inch is already on the market, and you should buy yourself one if you really know what is good for you….

Posted in California, hardcore | 2 Comments