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The Alleycats “Nothing Means Nothing Anymore” b/w “Give Me a Little Pain”is a huge personal favorite in the early US punk/KBD/proto-HC category. Even though it’s considered to be one of the 2nd teir Dangerhouse releases, I’d actually take the song on the A-Side over most other tracks that were released on the label (exceptions being maybe “Solitary Confinement” and “Let’s Get Rid Of NY”). I’ve always loved this obnoxious little riff that has a little ascending bunch of notes that then flip around and come back down. It’s tense but still pretty rockin. The guitar drops out in time for the verse so that main man Randy Stodola can be the focus of the action, while Dianne Chai (a great bassist and a good singer too), and drummer John McCarthy hold the track together. By the way McCarthy is a pro too. In fact in the now classic BreakMyFace.com internet round up of the Dangerhouse label, it’s noted that the band was exceedingly efficient during the recording session, basically just ripping right through the tracks on tape. Stodola stretches and slurs his words like any good punk singer would in ‘78 and builds tension before the songs big rock n roll chorus thats slathered in “whoas”. Stick a good bar rock solo in there in place for the 3rd verse and you’ve got a winner in my book. There’s nothing out of the ordinary for Nothing Means Nothing, it’s by the book, they just happen to nail it.

The flip side is Give Me a Little Pain, which might have actually been a better A-side because it’s a little poppier and thus more catchy. It’s also got some backup singing presumably by Chai, which leaves it kind of sounding like a de-Rockabilly’d X, which is totally awesome in my estimation. If there’s one thing that I get weary of when listening to X it’s John Doe and Billy Zoom’s fucking hotrod slick hair sky blue Cadillac bullshit. But that’s a different post for a different day (and BTW I sitll like X a lot). Sorry to digress.

There’s 2 different sleeve variations of this single, the more common is a live photo with a fold over cover, but this version has a shot of the band hanging out backstage and comes with a 7×7″ square cover.

The Bags - Survive b/w Babylonian Gorgon is another classic Dangerhouse slab of proto-hardcore. Continuing the pattern of most of the best singles on the label being female-fronted, the Bags were led by one, Alice Bag who was better than most at both screaming, as well as melodic singing. The band take a similar approach, able to make a noisy racket, or a tight tuneful sound.

Survive opens with kind of faux-pulp detective music before the main verse, which moves along at a swift nearly-hardcore clip and is led by Alice’s sneering shouts and Terry Bag’s muscular 16th beat. The guitars jangle just enough to be clear, but have a good vintage fuzz and the bass rumbles as well as any melodic punk song from ‘78. After the first chorus is the guitar solo, and lead guitar player Craig Lee (R.I.P.) isn’t afraid to let loose and make some noise filling out a couple runs of random notes, before letting the solo congeal into a rocked out variation on the main riff. When the second chorus wraps up with an ear-splitting scream by Alice, it leaves you wondering how hardcore became such a male-dominated sub-genre. Here’s someone outperforming most of her peers, male and female from the time. You think more girls would have wanted to pick up the mic and shout. I’m no sociologist though, and so onto the b-side…

Babylonian Gorgon starts off with a more mournful sounding guitar line, but once the lead guitar and drum beat get going it has plenty of energy. Alice delivers the vocal in the verse with a little more restraint and control on this side, but still sounds authoritative  tough, and good. The chorus is the most poppy moment on the single, the vocals are a tad bit crooned, and the riff is a melodic one. The song repeats each part a few times, but keeps the structure pretty standard and just lets the attitude of the band carry it, which of course they’re more than able to do.

The Bags never really managed another proper release. They had a third song from this session on the Dangerhouse compilation Yes L.A. as well as another outtake comped on one of the posthumous Dangerhouse anthologies. In-fighting and member departures led to Alice and Craig forming the Alice Bag Band who were featured prominently in the Decline Of Western Civilization documentary, performing two newer songs, one of which is found on the soundtrack album for the film, neither of which quite matches the greatness of the two on this single. After a few years of semi-legit bootlegs, a few lost songs turning up on the Live at the Masque anthologies, and other odds and ends, Artifix records finally took up the noble task of collecting most of the Bags music to an anthology lp last year - All Bagged Up. That album contains most of their known/surviving material, including the session for the Survive 7″, as well as a few other studio demos, and some decent quality live material. The overall song quality does vary, but it’s encouraging that this stuff has been preserved. Alice still pops up for interviews and retrospectives on the early punk scene and seems to have aged gracefully, so thank god for that.

One pressing on this one, some copies have the labels on the wrong sides with stickers or writing added to correct the misinfo. Something like 1200-1500 pressed in all. Actually I believe I have an extra with a damaged cover if anyone’s looking to trade.

Here’s what most agree is the hardest to find standard edition of a record on Dangerhouse — Rhino 39 Xerox/No Compromise b/w Prolixin Stomp. Every record on Dangerhouse has a couple of defining aspects that make it special and unique to the others. This one is kind of known for being more hardcore than most of the rest of the lot. Strictly speaking this is probably still “proto-hardcore”, but it takes a faster tempo than most other records/bands from 1979. Kind of sounds like a better version of the Middle Class “Out Of Vogue” 7″ to me. Another interesting fact, and maybe the reason it was actually faster than most of peers, was that Rhino 39 were high school aged at the time of this 7″. Sadly, singer Dave Dacron was actually never able to graduate because he was killed in a car crash a little before graduation. That also ensured that the Rhino 39 legacy ended up rather brief. They did have some demo tracks that have turned up on various anthologies over the years, and also later reformed with a new singer and less intense sound, but the group at their peak (i.e. this record) didn’t really get the chance they should have.

The A-side has a nice 1-2 punch with Xerox (about people with Xerox personalities…”norms”), and then cuts into No Compromise (a little too fast for me to decipher much of the lyrics). Both are done after about 1 minute and are really catchy and tight. The B-Side has a more mid-paced number “The Prolixin Stomp” which is at more of a pogoing speed but is as catchy as they come on Dangerhouse. Maybe this is the best of the Dangerhouse 2nd string.

Typically when I find myself in New York City, I’m concerned with one thing: getting out of it. Yes, for all my love of NYHC, all the long praises I’ve written about the bands, the city itself makes me sick. Sick with anxiety, and disgusted by the piss stench everywhere I turn. Excuse my misanthropy please. It’s all good though because there will always be a song that perfectly sums up how I feel. I’d even say it’s one of the best punk songs, no… one of the best rock songs ever written. I’m not talking about the well liked Fear classic “I Love Livin’ In The City” (”NY’s alright if you like saxophones”), I’m talking about The Randoms - “Let’s Get Rid Of NY”. I can play this song over and over and over again. I can listen to the two minutes and thirty seconds of pogoing perfection for hours with the only pause being the time it takes to push the needle back to the beginning. I’m like a teenage girl in 1964 with a copy of “I Wanna Hold Your Hand”, absolutely mesmerized. When this perfect tune plays, it’s the only song in the world. When the chorus kicks up with that scrappy Chuck Berry on 78rpm’s riff and I hear the declaration of “Let’s Get Rid Of New York”, I think it’s the way a devout church goer feels each time the congregation shouts “hallelujah!”

I want everyone to know, as I’m aware many readers of this blog are from the NY area, I have nothing really against the people of your city, I certainly love many of the associated musical traditions, but there is something about the city itself that I hate. It’s not because I live in Boston, it’s just the way I feel. Like the way you might feel about mayonnaise on your food. Please don’t take it personal New Yorkers (although I know you will).

So you see, when you combine the perfect punk music, with the perfect lyrical sentiment, it makes sense that you can only declare such a composition, one of the greatest rock songs ever written (beyond all criticism etc.). Why in the name of everything holy and unholy then, is this song on the B-Side? I can only imagine it’s a joke, because even though “ABCD” is a fine song in its own right, it’s the “Let’s Go Away For A While” of this package. Now let me just shock you and say, after all that praise… this is only my SECOND favorite single on Dangerhouse.

Number ONE: the untouchable “We’ve Got The Neutron Bomb” by The Weirdos. As a package it nudges out the Randoms just barely for having what I think is the stronger A-Side (the title track), the real treat though is inexplicably on Side-B again: “Solitary Confinement”. Maybe it’s the angry boy in me, but all the bouncy pop fun of “Let’s Get Rid Of NY” is easy to forget when you hear this proto-HC slash ‘n burn job. I know I’m drowning in my own hyperbole right now, but try to listen to Solitary Confinement without playing air-guitar — I guarantee you will fail without the aid of a handful of sleeping pills (and I don’t do that shit so I’m screwed). I’m sorry to 2-Time the Randoms like this, I really am, but this is also one of the greatest rock songs of all time. It’s one for the books folks. Take “Search and Destroy”, strip off the silver pants and make-up, and proceed to rip it up at full volume with a chorus roughly the size of one of Jupiter (the planet).

I don’t have all day, so I can’t even talk about the raging screams of Alice Bag, or 2 of the 4 good Dils songs. Likewise I’m gonna have to skip explaining why the Deadbeats suck, and I’d rather listen to Howard Werth. Another day, although since everyone in New York and surrounding areas has abandoned me, that day may never come.

One of the more popular and desirable releases on the timeless Dangerhouse label is the
Avengers - We Are The One single, and one of the more collectible Dangerhouse variations is the original first pressing of this record which comes in a sleeve that is different than that of subsequent pressings. This version is commonly referred to as the “crucifix sleeve”, because lead singer Penelope Houston is in a mock crucifixion pose on the cover. It’s a very cool and iconic photo, which is typical of Dangerhouse releases (the iconic nature, not the crucifixion pose).

Dangerhouse is a label that’s fetishized like only a select few others, the gold standard of early U.S. punk, hardcore, and “new wave” (early being ‘77-’79), and is also one of the most consistent labels I can think of content-wise. We Are The One itself is known for being one of the three records on the label with a female singer, each larger than life in their own ways. Penelope Houston was the woman that sang in the Avengers, often with a faux-British snarl, and at times with the kind of self-empowered, can-do, tough-girl vibe that Pat Benetar cultivated shortly thereafter in the mainstream. Typically when you see an Avengers write-up now the writer will go to great lengths to talk about how this is the precursor to Kathleen Hannah and all her half baked philosophy, but I think that’s quite a short sell for the band even if it was. Before anything else the Avengers could write a tune and a hook, something I’ve heard few self-proclaiming “Riot Grrrl” acts do, and that’s a big part of the Avengers’ charm.

Like the majority of the bands who did singles on Dangerhouse, this is their finest hour. We Are The One itself is the kind of anthem any straight ahead punk band aspires to write. You either open or close with this song. Car Crash and I Believe in Me feel like b-sides but only because the choruses aren’t as stadium sized as the opener. Actually I think they show a little more personality at least in the vocal, if for nothing else than being a little more spontaneous and spunky.

Note that the copy up for sale here has the blacked out “33 rpm” on the label (which is common for this pressing), and the sleeve has a smooth matte finish, as opposed to recent bootlegs where the sleeve is glossy.