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State - No Illusions

I mentioned this one last week in the Ron Asheton post, and now here it is for sale. The State - “No Illusions” 7″ on their own Statement Records. This is definitely one of the 10 best USHC 7″s from ‘80-’83 in my book. State were from Ann Arbor Michigan, not quite the hotbed for loud fast noize that Detroit is known to be, Ann Arbor was still the town The Stooges called home, and as such at least has a place in the formative history of punk and all rock music thereafter.

No Illusions opens with a blast of over-driven guitar muscle and plays like a more rocked out, but no less hardcore version of Discharge’s “State Control” (the song State took their name from, and which they were also known to cover). The vocals are delivered in a hard rasping style that reminds me of Rollins circa the SOA 7″, all throaty snarling. The guitar playing is fast as any hardcore band of the day, but works in the kind of loose ragged leads that the Stooges helped to pioneer, and plenty of other Michigan based groups fleshed out. Esentially that’s what makes this work. Hear Nothing era Discharge with thuggish American rock n’ roll undertones. New Right is a speedy Reagan era protest, while Attention has a pretty good call response thing going on and seems to focus on the military. Hardline, which closes out the a-side is one of the earlier instances of militant straight edge type sentiments, although these guys didn’t really stick to it in the end (no surprise).

The title track, which is the most rock out on the whole record opens up side b, and it has a pretty standard anti-religion message, which is well summed up in its title. Police State is another fast one, with a catchy breakdown. The lyrics are pretty self explanatory. Girl Violence closes the second side with a tale of getting beat up by a girl. There’s a really loose slow part that gets followed by a good thrash part in this one.

As far as USHC circa ‘83, you could totally sum it up with this record. It’s a perfect archetype. Muscular, lean, thuggish, and ut of control. Everything you need. This is a sharp looking copy too, with the fold out insert and a clean looking sleeve. Absolutely worth your money. By the way if you want to get the bargain version, there’s an ace reissue on Havoc Records that has a slightly modified sleeve, and a minorly different mix (seriously hardly noticeable, it’s not a shitty modern sounding remix). You can pick these up for a whopping $5 almost anywhere, and if you’ve never heard this record I absolutely demand you make the effort.

State started playing again a few years ago and has actually issued several records recently that are pretty solidly in the tradition of No Illusions. They did one lp in ‘86 that was a brief reunion attempt but despite its cool looking cover, it’s mostly weak goth tunes. There’s also a CD on the shitty Grand Theft Audio that you should download containing No Illusions, a demo session circa ‘83, an earlier demo session featuring Ron Asheton on guitar, and song live cuts. I actually played on the same bill as the State a couple years ago in Boston and they were relentless and awesome. Totally worth it if you get the chance.