bidhardcore.com

Alright here’s a nice looking Underdog 7″for sale, noted as being first press. Presumably it is because if it were 2nd press it would be blue vinyl. Underdog still stands alone as such a weird band of their time. The riffs are really groovy and heavy for something recorded in ‘85 and even though they always point to the Bad Brains as an influence, there’s something way different about them. The soulful vocals threw me off as a kid, I thought they sounded like 80’s metal. I regretted thinking that later (now). Underdog is really right on the line where Hardcore crossed over from the first to the second generation of participants, and started to have much less to do with “Punk”. From around this point onward there seemed to be a lot more emphasis on precision in the music, speed seemed less important, production became more modern, there was a sound and aesthetic that became more self contained, and nowhere was this was more noticeable than New York City and its surrounding areas. Some could say it was the influence of Heavy Metal’s rising popularity, and in part it was, but I think, even if in a more subtle way, that street culture and early rap music played a part too, especially in New York. Look no further than Underdog’s classic Say It To My Face for a pseudo-rapped vocal delivery, and a musical groove, that I can’t describe any other way than “bouncy”. In some way or other it just sounds like the New York you’d picture from the mid-80s set to a song. My memories of that place are as dim as could be, I only visited once, and I was a child so maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t think so. For these reasons and probably some others, the Underdog 7″ strikes me as one of the earliest examples of a record you just can’t explain to punk “purists”. They hear Say It To My Face, or True Blue, and it just doesn’t resonate to them like Urban Waste or early AF. It’s too far removed, maybe too clean or not “crazy” enough. For me it’s just a different kind of power and anger, more focused, maybe less out of control, but not any less meaningful. Btw - check this seller’s other stuff for plenty of other great NYHC picks.