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SLAPSHOT - Back On The Map
The city of Boston is well known in the Hardcore lexicon as having raised a certain Hardcore aesthetic in its early days. The original “Boston Crew”, principally composed of SS Decontrol, DYS (that’s Department Of Youth Services), and Negative FX, took up the Straight Edge mantle originated in DC with the kind of machismo and general townie bravado that helps to make the state of Massachusetts all that it is. Dudes who wore sleeveless black t-shirts, enjoyed red meat, weight lifting, brawling, and their Camaros (that’s pronounced “CAHHH” in Beantown), were at the center of this clique, and while they got along reasonably well with the other upstart bands of the day (Jerry’s Kids, FU’s, Gang Green), there’s always been something that set these three apart in some way. They dismantled the UK82 sounds bands like GBH, Blitz, Discharge, and injected their own ineptitude and unabashed Americaness into the reconfiguration creating the template for the Boston sound. They played the most violent shows. When they went to NY they were known to incite bloodbaths of violence on the dance-floor. But then everything went wrong (as you probably know). The townie in the members of the crew triumphed, and DYS and SSD made terrible rock albums that don’t even come close to the local legacies they sought to join (Aerosmith, etc.). Negative Fx for their part shattered relatively quickly, with only a few shows and demo recordings logged on the books, eventually having one of their demos released as an LP on Taang records.

By ‘84 Boston’s luster had faded somewhat, though there were still plenty of good bands. Jack “Choke” Kelly, of Negative Fx, attempted to start a new band, Last Rights, but all they could manage was one powerhouse single and a notorious show. Undeterred though Kelly put together another band, Slapshot, and for all the shit they did after the 80’s, their first few records are gloriously reactionary, hooligan oriented, muscle-core. If anything it’s more confrontational, more macho, and more violent than SS Decontrol. The songs are heavier, with a mid-paced Oi feel, but still very American too.

Back On The Map was the first Slapshot record, a 7 song mini-lp and features a one time contribution of DYS 4-stringer, John Anastas. Though he may not have realized it at the time, you can kind of view Back On The Map as a better interpretation of what DYS and SSD tried to become, that is, hardcore bands that ‘rock(ed)’. The riffs and songs are simple and repetitive. Drummer Mark Mckaye (no relation to Ian) plays with the kind of efficiency and spareness that AC/DC’s Phil Rudd is known for, and other than the rudimentary solos, guitarist Steve Risteen uses a similar approach in his guitar playing. Only what’s needed, nothing flashy, just lean and HARD. Choke’s barking vocals are probably what make Slapshot most recognizable to the ears of others, moving up and down the scale and mixing the style of British Oi bands with the out of control insanity of SSD’s Springa. This dude was just born to yell over recordings of abrasive guitar and drums arrangements. As for the band’s output after the year 1990 - let’s just pretend it didn’t happen.

Only the first run of this thing actually comes with an inner sleeve and it’s quite hard to find. Looks like the Taang mailorder list of the day is in there too, and on the whole this copy looks quite clean.