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Turning this Metal Monday over to Stuart Schrader of Shit-fi dot com. Check it out it’s a good ‘un.

V8 “Luchando Por El Metal” LP
By: Stuart Schrader

V8 was the first true heavy metal band from Argentina and arguably the first from South America. Like the classic Argentine punk band Los Violadores, V8’s first LP was released by the independent label Umbral in 1983. “Luchando Por El Metal” is a landmark record, and it’s a shame it is not more well-known outside Argentina. It’s such a classic in Argentina that one can hardly walk down the street without encountering headbangers pledging allegiance to V8 (pronounced VAY-OH-CHO).

The online heavy metal archive site Encyclopaedia Metallum is full of effusive praise for V8, as is the South American metal history site Metaleros, which includes a great history of the band and Argentine metal in general. To really understand where the band was coming from, you need to know about Argentine guitar god Pappo, whom I’ll get to in a minute, but this riff-driven LP really just sounds like a mixture of Motörhead and Judas Priest, with a dash of Black Sabbath. It’s not NWOBHM, it’s FWOAHM. Some of the faster (and better) songs even have a feeling akin to metal-influenced UK hardcore of the early 80s, unfortunately minus Discharge’s drumbeat. Think GBH. (Fans of Canada’s Inepsy would probably love this record.) The production is perfect for this type of music, without any fancy embellishment: guitars prominent, bass drum and vocals next in line.

“Luchando Por El Metal” is not particularly rare because thousands were pressed, but it had zero distribution outside Latin America when it was released as far as I know. Also, Argentines do not have much of a collecting culture, meaning “mint” in Argentina is quite different from “mint” here in the land of Puritanism, and the flimsy stock used for the jacket doesn’t lend itself to durability. In addition, one listen to this LP will demonstrate why it tends to be in “partied-on” condition. It’s a ripper.

Like Los Violadores’ first LP, “Luchando Por El Metal” includes a printed inner sleeve with lyrics. And what lyrics they are! True headbanging fanatics will derive great pleasure, if not goosebumps, from songs like “Brigadas Metálicas,” “Tiempos Metálicos” (lyrics: “Basta de hippies / basta de rogar / estalló el tiempo del metal”), and “Hiena de Metal”—yes, Hyena of Metal! About that last one, which closes the album, V8 collaborated with their hero Pappo on this one (he plays the solo), which I found surprising because it’s the shortest and fastest tune on the record. It actually reminds me of Chelsea’s guest solo on that one Selfish song, if that helps: the whole band concept was inspired by this virtuoso and when he collaborated with them on a song, he threw a curve ball, unlike anything he’d done before. Anyway, the lyrics, as far as my rudimentary grasp of Spanish tells me, combine the dumb dark “poetry” typical to metal since Sabbath with cheeky irreverence, as in the song about a visit to a torturador known as the dentist! (In a country where people were actually being tortured and killed by the military dictatorship, such a joke probably came across as tasteless to both sides.)

To digress on Pappo (né Norberto Napolitano), who died in a motorcycle crash in 2005, this guy was without peer. He was a hero to millions, especially those who saw him as a working-class rocknroll outsider type, the perpetual underdog. He released over a dozen LPs and even more singles throughout his career, which began in the late 1960s. His group Pappo’s Blues, which released seven albums in the 1970s, was a pioneering hard-rock/psych/heavy blues-rock act. In 1977, he formed Aeroblus, another heavy blues-rock band. And in 1980, influenced by AC/DC, he formed Riff, which is the band of greatest interest to me. (I haven’t heard all of what he released, but Riff seems better than either of the previous bands.) Veering more toward heavy metal, away from blues rock, Riff is a band quite worthy of its name. Fans of riff-centric rocknroll would do well to check them out (obviously). I saw a few copies of their records in Buenos Aires; the first, “Ruedas de Metal,” is pretty cool. Don’t pay much more than US $20 for it because thousands of copies were pressed. Psych collectors seem to think that Pappo’s Blues Vol. 3 is the most desirable of his 70s albums, but it doesn’t move me much. Vol. 7 from 1978 was recommended to me as much heavier than Vol. 3, but this one seems to have some sort of “Southern” rock influence, with a bunch of slide guitar. It’s got some cool, slow riffs, but overall it’s not really heavy or ballsy in comparison to what was happening in the UK or Australia at the time. Headline: “Southern rock meets the southern cone: Scumbags rejoice, ride motorcycles, drink maté.” Oh yeah, most Pappo’s Blues songs are instrumentals. You’ve been warned.

Anyway, if you’re not ready to delve too far into Argentine 70s–80s rock, the only records you need from this site’s perspective are V8’s and Los Violadores’ first LPs. “Luchando Por El Metal” is on eBay relatively frequently for buy-it-now prices around $80. That’s too much, in my opinion. But I say you ignore this record at your own peril. One listen and you too will become a hiena de metal.

Colin Tappe has been really non-busy as of late. How non-busy? He’s been playing a Final Fantasy 1 marathon and sending me long emails updating his progress. I love this guy.

Colin’s December UK82 roundup: 

Hiya, I know I tend to only write about UK stuff on this site, but what can I say, I follow the bargains. This time around I found a US seller offing a batch of cheap, but essential, UK82 singles, and if, like me, you worship at The Steamy Temple of Combined Shipping, then you can recognize a good thing when you see it. I should clarify that I have no idea who this guy is, and just found these auctions through saved searches, so I don’t want to be accused of cronyism or anything. Here’re the highlights from what he’s got up:

• Attak: These guys are best known for being kind of a little brother band to Blitz, but to me they were on even more of an inept Motorhead trip than a hard oi! style. Basically all their songs sound like that Blitz track “Don’t Need You,” but worse, and with waaaay dumbed down drumming. I mean, make no mistake, I LOVE this band, and I actually think their LP is better than their singles (a RARE occurrence in this game, folks),  but they’re super retarded sounding in the best of ways.
• Charge: Anyone I know is probably sick of me hyping these guys up, but I can’t say enough good things about this band. I’ve loved everything I’ve heard, but this ep “Destroy the Youth” is their finest hour. Musically this ep blends the vitriol of anarcho punk, the tom-based, gloomy rhythms of the best bat cave/4ad bands, and the momentum and energy of UK82. Couple that musical approach with great songwriting and production and you got a full blown classic on your hands. I’m also reminded of early Proletariat, namely in the vocal department, but it’s obvious both bands were drinking from the same well anyways. And, as if that weren’t enough, you also get four tracks on this one, making it even more of a no-brainer, especially since this one won’t break $10.
• Exploited: Listen, I’m an unrepentant fan of the Exploited, but they had one major flaw, which was a lack of quality control. I mean, with 3 LPs and 8 singles between ’80 and ’83 you’d have your fair share of duds too, and unfortunately sticking to the singles won’t necessarily keep you out of harm’s way with these guys. I mean, if I never hear “Barmy Army” or “Singalong-a-Bushell” again, I’d be okay. But “Dead Cities” is a sure bet, all around. The a-side, “Dead Cities,” would be a strong contender if you had to explain the “generic UK82” sound in just one song. It has that bouncy, pogo pace to it, an instantly memorable sing-a-long chorus, and the power to instantly turn off any egghead boner who think’s Nick Cave’s “deep.” On the flip, “Hitler’s In the Charts Again” starts with an intro bass riff lifted off “Warriors,” and follows through with a similarly mid-paced fist-banger. I really like the delivery of “it couldn’t happen here” during the hook, too. “Class War” is kind of an afterthought, but it’s short, sweat, and has a great shouted chorus.
• Angelic Upstarts: I’m a recent Angelic Upstarts convert, and I gotta say, I’m a fool for sleeping on these guys this long. To me, their first single “The Murder of Liddle Towers” is kind of like the UK “Pay to Cum,” in the proto-hardcore sense. Stateside, people generally don’t consider bands like GBH and Exploited hardcore, and think of the “Leather, Bristles, Studs and Acne” crowd as “punk” for whatever reason, which is ridiculous considering the sizable percentage of people who swoon over Buzzcocks and the lot, but thumb their noses at all the Riot City bands and their ilk (then and now, by the way). To me, any of the early 80’s UK bands who weren’t consciously doing a retro-’77 thing (like Erazerhead or Anti-Nowhere League, for instance) were hardcore, period, and bands like Angelic Upstarts and UK Subs (check out their essential “Stranglehold” single this guy has for sale) who adapted and survived from the ‘70s into the ‘80s are analogous to bands like DOA, Misfits, Black Flag, etc. who formed in the punk heyday, but stayed relevant to hardcore audiences. I love the a-side of this single, with its ripping Townsend style leads, but it’s the flip, “Police Oppression,” that bridges the gap from ’77 to ’82. I mean, I like the Stranglers and X Ray Spex and shit, but I’m into hardcore, y’know, so as far as late ‘70s UK punk goes, it’s the harder edged bands like Angelic Upstarts who I can really connect with. As is often the case, this is the Rough Trade version of the single, which goes for way cheap, so check it out.

That’s all I feel like writing about now. All the singles this guy’s selling are fuckin’ solid, though, so if you need to fill out the meat and potatoes of your UK82 collection, have at it.

Good morning to all. Today M. Colin Tappe returns to drop some UK82 knowledge and opinion.Here ’tis: 2008 collector scum market getting you down? Tired of seeing 3rd and 4th tier unpolished turds hitting triple digits? Well, in times like these it may seem like you either gotta give up and go mp3punk (in 2008 we may have progressed to FLACcore, I dunno) or just bite the bullet and start paying the going rate for the records you want, even if the going rate is about twice as much as when you originally wanted them a few years back; sink or swim, if you will. There’re other options, of course, like hunting down stuff from various regions that haven’t quite shown up on the collector radar yet, “digging deeper,” all that, OR, you can quit being a fucking crybaby and embrace picking up decent condition vinyl with “punk condition” sleeves at 2001 ebay prices.

For instance, take this here Ultra Violent ep which looks like it was boiled for 5 minutes, stuck to a wall with wheat paste and peeled off like a bandaid after it dried, BUT, has pretty much perfect wax. You gonna kick this full fledged banger out of bed if it goes for less than $20? If you do you’re a fool, I say, or worse, have those things I’ve heard about called “standards.”The Ultra Violent ep has a pretty big cult following, and for whatever reason seems to be the only Riot City or even UK82 release I see on a lot of USHC collectors’ wantlists (I’ve heard some speculate this is due to their inclusion on the first Killed By Hardcore comp, but I’m pleading ignorance on that one). The scarcity of this record makes sense, as it was put out in ’83, towards the end of Riot City’s boom when punk 7”s stopped selling 1,000 copies in a matter of weeks in the UK, and by the tail end of ‘83 Riot City and No Future would stick to putting out 12” eps instead, but sonically, this record’s appeal amongst non-UKHC collectors has always confused me a bit. I mean, I guess one could say they sound a bit like USHC fist bangers Battalion of Saints, NOTA, Pig Children, etc., but realistically they have way more in common with their countrymen Broken Bones or GBH (who the aforementioned US bands were biting off of as well). Of course saying you’re into Ultra Violent gets you cool points, whereas writing GBH on your jacket if you’re not a teenager caries with it a certain stigma, so I’m guessing that has something to do with this record’s appeal. Having killer artwork and an intimidating title doesn’t hurt either.

All that shit’s silly to think about though, ‘cause really, this is a scorcher no matter how you slice it. You get the standard blaring, treble-heavy Riot City production with about a million guitar tracks it sounds like, and a ferocious singalong right out the gate. The mastering on all these old singles is way bright and in your face, which compliments the tunage perfectly. Fuck, it seriously makes me want to give up on life and live in a cave when I think about how even a factory style dummy punk label like Riot City was able to consistently crank out these rich, sonically perfect sounding records that still sound great after a quarter of a century or jamming, and when you pay $30 for some deluxe reissue these days it’s nothing but clipping, artificially loud mastering and surface pops fresh out of the packaging. Ugh.

But wait, we’re still talking about the good things in life, the Ultra Violent ep. The b-side starts out with a mid-paced skanker, “Where Angels Dare Not Tread,” and the ep finishes off with “Dead Generation,” which is just as fast and ragin’ as “Crime For Revenge,” though not quite as memorable.The singer Adie went on to sing on English Dogs’ fucking PERFECT “To The Ends of the Earth” 12,” and just by singing on those two records the dude’s gotta have one of the best hardcore resumes out there. According to Ian Glasper’s Burning Britain book, there was 4 songs recorded for this session, the unreleased track going under the name “Sign of the Times” and there’s a 4 track demo, neither of which I’ve heard, so hopefully someone’s industrious enough to put some effort into doing a nice reissue.

Stuart Schrader of www.Shit-Fi.com returns with a write up of the alltime classic Jezus and the Gospelfuckers demo tape.  Read on!

Jezus and the Gospelfuckers’ cassette, released in 1982, offers everything the discerning punk of today could desire: over-the-top Discharge-influenced lead-driven raging hardcore, song titles like “Kill the Police” and “Live Fast Die Young,” a crucifix-ejaculating skeleton crucified on a penis as a logo, a cassette-only release of course, and, the name, oh, that name!

As is rarely the case today, the music matches the reputation (and vice versa). J&TGF were a rowdy group of nihilistic leather-jacketed misanthropes who drugged, fucked, robbed, and stabbed their way from the ho-hum closing days of the 70s punk scene into the 80s and the by-the-throat musical inferno that exploded after Stoke-on-Trent’s shot heard ‘round the world, “Realities of War.” Yes, J&TGF’s anti-everything stance may not have neatly fit in with the politically engaged Dutch punks of the late 70s, but the music they played circa 1979 was above-average snotty pogo punk. Then, they heard Discharge and their attitude found its sound. But J&TGF were no clones. They used their own rabid energy and formidable musical chops to produce a sound no other band has quite matched. It is metallic insofar as, unlike so much hardcore, it does not eschew lead guitar. In fact, the lead guitar is wild, aggressive, and nonstop. It feels less like an indulgent, boring, predictable rocknroll solo (which is what hardcore meant to decry by avoiding solos altogether) than a Gatling gun stuck on kill. The nine songs on the tape are distinct, memorable, and drenched in adrenaline (or is it amphetamine?).

As cassette-only releases from the 80s go, this one is in the mid-range of rarity. Its sheer brilliance meant that word spread quickly and the band was able to distribute a lot of copies. But it is a cassette, so probably many fewer remain in existence than if it had been a record. The original is easy to spot because it has labels stuck on it. The j-card insert is nothing fancy, with the song titles, that logo, and the member names. For around 20 years, this cassette had the distinction of being considered by the cognoscenti the best hardcore recording never to be released on vinyl. A few years back, it was reissued on vinyl (and CD) as a split with Agent Orange (reissuing their two EPs), perhaps the only band that could be considered to have topped J&TGF at their own game—except it was pretty much the same band with some new members. Agent Orange, of course, recorded a new version of J&TGF’s anthem “Kill the Police,” though I think I prefer the slowed-down barbiturate swagger of the original. Anyway, the split LP includes a booklet with cool photos and perhaps the single greatest piece of writing about hardcore punk ever, the bands’ biography. The LP also includes a couple bonus tracks by Agent Orange and Genocide Express. If the madness of seeking out original cassettes from the 80s has not yet infected your cortex, this reissue should be relatively easy to track down. But this cassette is about as close as you can get to that bygone era, and the music it contains seems to me a pretty good justification for continued fetishization of something most would today find repulsive and frightening if encountered on the backstreets.

(This eBay seller is also auctioning some other essential 80s hardcore records, including Shotgun Solution’s lone EP, which is Southern Europe’s answer to J&TGF/Agent Orange and one of the most over-the-top records ever.) [editor’s note: there are 2 copies of the Shotgun Solution 7″ on ebay right now. wtf?]

Jezus and the Gospelfuckers demo tape

Today’s posting comes from the induplicable M. Colin Tappe of Life’s A Rape fanzine/label, and the rock band Crime Desire (who have a new lp you should check out). Read below:In an age when all the top shelf late 80’s UK crust monsters (Sacrilege, Amebix, Axegrinder, Hellbastard, etc.) teeter around $60, I’ve been really prompted to dig deeper and check out some of the oft ignored 2nd tier bands you don’t really hear too much about as a casual OG crust enthusiast. And I stress the “casual” angle, as I’ve only really cared about this stuff for a few years now, an important point to clarify when I’m in league with such guest posters and experts in their field as Stuart Schrader, Cooch, Rettman and Westbrook. But if you’re like me and are a bit new to the UK crust game, the two auctions I’ve plucked today might be the gateway drugs which motivate you to go beyond the most notorious groups (with the hardest to find records) in that scene.

First up is the Cerebral Fix “Life Sucks and Then You Die” LP. The Accused style cover art and the board shorts might have you believe this is some wankin’ crossover, and uh, maybe it is to some extent, but if you ever wanted a way less heavy Bolt Thrower without double bass and deathmetal vox, then this here LP’s your ticket. The band gets into that just-about-to-fall-apart-but-in-a-good-way area when they go into the quasi-blastbeat fast parts, which is pretty typical of bands who played this fast at the time (1987), and the mosh parts are as solid as they are plentiful. There’s definitely some great riffs lurking on this one if you give it the chance. Of course with most of this stuff at some point you have to ask if it should really be talked about as a crust record, or if the band has more to do with crossover or thrash, and since this is more a question of aesthetics than anything, I should note that the band had political lyrics and a thanks list filled with UK crust staples like Doom, Deviated Instinct, etc. but I think it’s that arbitrary distinction between genres that makes the records from that time so interesting. Bands like Hellbastard and Sheer Terror, who we now have categorized into two distinct and ideologically opposed sub-genres, at the time were basically just taking blind stabs at incorporating metal with the hopes of just turning out some intense and hard shit, and thankfully our record collections are a lot more interesting because they succeeded in the ways they did. Which isn’t to say there’s anything as interesting on this Cerebral Fix record as you’ll find on any of the aforementioned bands’ records, but that’s kind of the point, that if you take the time to dig deeper you’ll find that the main bands who we credit as the masters of pushing hardcore into more intense territories through the use of metal weren’t alone, and some of the peripheral bands whose records go for under $20 and you never see on a patch or shirt can still hit the spot in a pinch. I lagged on this write up, so the auction will probably be over by the time this gets posted, but add it to your saved searches, it shows up about once every two months or so.

I’ll admit that the Cerebral Fix record isn’t really my favorite style of crust, and I tend to go more for the melodramatic Killing Joke infused chugging of Amebix and the like than the stenchy blur of Bolt Thrower/ENT/etc. If you share my sentiment, then this Deformed EPis a must own for sure. Really the only reason I’m mentioning this in the context of late 80’s crust (this ep did come out in 1983, after all) is due to the fact that Deformed share the approach Amebix took on their early eps, which is to say borrowing the repetitive, tom-heavy rhythms of Batcave/Killing Joke records and adding the chugging distortion of the anarcho punk music they were perhaps more familiar with. It’s a deadly combination, as any Amebix fan can tell you, and I think Deformed might even have their shit a bit more together than Amebix had on the “Whose The Enemy?” Ep (but not quite as cohesive as “Winter”). Of course what I LOVE about this record is all the overt Satanic imagery, which was kind of a bold move for the time. There’s a pretty short list of punk bands in the early 80’s who were really pushing the Satanic/horror imagery (Screaming Dead, Criminal Justice, 45 Grave, and to a lesser extent Uproar and Void), outside of the Misfits and their fold, and thankfully Deformed hold nothing back, just littering their 6 panel foldout poster sleeve with drawings of skeletons, pentagrams, upside down crosses, goats, etc. Plus peep the song titles: “Ritual,” “Crypt,” and “From the Grave.” That has to rival the first Bathory record in terms of most straight forward collection of evil sounding song titles ever. One of the worst things you can do in hardcore is hold back, and thankfully Deformed didn’t hesitate for a second and think that maybe taking a group photo in front of an altar of candles and a plastic skull might be “cheesy,” or that putting a pentagram on the center label might be a bit much. They went all the way, and it’s that conviction, both sonically and aesthetically, that makes this record so convincing. The group has a myspace page with a fairly comprehensive bio, and a 2xCD on Poland’s Trujaca Fala label (they only had one other 7” and a song on one of the Bullshit Detector comps as far as vinyl goes) if you need more info.

Stuart Schrader of SHIT-FI.COM returns today to give you a lesson on AK-47’s “The Badge Means You Suck” single. This is a tier one material for the KBD game, and though it may not be the most strictly hardcore release, it more than has a place here. Without further adieu:

I once made the pronouncement, as I have been wont to do, that the single best anti-cop punk song is “The Badge Means You Suck” by Mikhailt Kalashnikov’s AK-47, released in 1980. To the question, “What about Black Flag’s ‘Police Story’?” my response was simple: “AK-47=smart. Black Flag = dumb.” (The equation may have been more complicated if the response had been “What about The Dicks’ ‘Hate the Police’?”) “Police Story”—with Dez singing, natch—does conjure up memories of getting nailed in the head by a police truncheon outside the Starwood, mostly among those who hadn’t been born yet. What’s more, name me one city that is not run by pigs. But AK-47’s power was in its refusal to attempt to beat the cops at their own game. They wouldn’t fight the cops in the streets. They would brilliantly channel their rage into a 4-minute tirade and match their rage with intellectual acumen by writing caustic lyrics and a chorus that diverted a Houston Police Department slogan. No, the badge doesn’t mean you care. The badge means you suck.

What may be a bit embarrassing to the LBS&A crowd is that the best anti-cop punk song was penned by hippies. Check out the background on the front cover. Then check out the photo of the guitarist printed on the insert of the estimable compilation “Deep in the Throat of Texas.” Then listen to that guitar solo—almost a minute of wild guitar licks played with aggressive reckless abandon. By a hippie. So the best anti-cop song and the best punk guitar solo this side of “Death, Agonies, and Screams,” or perhaps “Warsystem.” It’s starting to sound like I think this record is essential.

So what is it about this song? Well, the bile, the seething hatred of cops, is off the charts. The riff and the hooks are beyond the pale. Great use of phaser too. Actually, the intensity of the song makes me want to call it proto-hardcore, but it’s also punk and hard rock at the same time. And the lyrics. Oh lawd, the lyrics. AK-47 named names—not of cops but of their victims. The front cover of the record lists nine people murdered by the Houston Police Department, a notoriously racist and trigger-happy institution in the 1970s. The song itself details the murder of Milton Glover, a Vietnam vet shot eight times. A bullet, the listener is reminded, pierced the Bible he constantly carried with him. It also mentions Carl Hampton, perhaps the most famous victim of the Houston PD in the 1970s, a black radical who was assassinated after a long stand-off. AK-47 sing, “The man who killed Joe Torres / Never went to jail / The sniper who picked off Carl Hampton / Never paid any bail / The killers of Milton Glover / They might be pulling you over tonight / And if you happen to get shot / Well I guess you started the fight.” Impunity is the essence of state power, and cops are its chief beneficiaries. Perhaps the best defense we (meaning the entire public) have against police excesses is memory. That’s why naming names matters.

Punk songs by definition should not take into account posterity, and AK-47 were clearly engaged in agit-prop for the immediate present, when the Houston PD’s slogan was fresh in the minds of the citizenry. That the band managed to create a historical artifact of unmatched power was actually incidental. Aiming to do so would obviously have resulted in abject failure. But the band did get the attention of the Houston Police Officers’ Association, who sued, to the tune of a million bucks. Problem was, John Law couldn’t figure out the identities of the band members, who used pseudonyms on the record’s insert. So the lawsuit was eventually dropped. The suit, however, did help give the record legendary status—probably not what the boys in blue had intended.

As Texas punk records go, this one is in the mid to low range of rarity and price. It’s no Vomit Pigs. But, yes, in my opinion, it is essential. No serious punk collection is complete without it. This record exemplifies original vinyl’s superiority to latter-day reissues, with its crystal-clear and loud mastering. There were apparently two pressings, but no one seems to know how to differentiate between them. Copies of the sleeve without the back side printed (ie, blank on one side) circulate. A second insert has been spotted in some copies; it must be posthumous because it includes some info about the lawsuit. I’ve seen inserts printed on a variety of paper colors, too. The copy for sale here includes the insert on yellow paper; like most copies I’ve seen, the fragile sleeve appears to be slightly rumpled. I should mention that this record’s sleeve, besides being a brilliant and somewhat bizarre piece of political art, leaves the band name off the front, which is something I love. In this case, the band was subordinating itself to the message, it wasn’t just because they huffed too much glue or something, like Chemotherapy.

I’ll leave you with a quote on the contradictory nature of police under capitalism from The Iron Fist and the Velvet Glove: An Analysis of the U.S. Police, published in 1975: “Although the police are . . . a repressive institution that operates to contain the poor and powerless, they are themselves exploited, not only by miserable working conditions and social isolation but also as instruments of laws and policies which they neither control nor benefit from. The police protect private property but do not own it; as guardians of the peace, they defend government policies of imperialism and racism but do not derive any significant benefit from them; and in their repression of popular movements, the police legitimize a political order which they did not create.”

Oh yeah, the record has a flipside too.

Thanks to Ryan Richardson for spiritual guidance.

Class is in session! Below, Cooch breaks down the details that stand out about bootleg copies of United Blood. Don’t be swindled!

DUBIOUS EBAY AUCTIONS - BUYER BEWARE!

For some unknown (and embarrassing, at least to myself) reason I have never owned an original copy of Agnostic Front’s “United Blood” ep. I don’t know why this is, since I’ve had my hands on a good number of copies over the years and I own just about every other early NYHC record. So I decided this year I’m just going to plunk down the cash and buy one regardless of price (within reason). After getting beat on ebay for two bona-fide original copies around $300 within the last couple of months, I noticed a smattering of bootlegs for sale as originals.

I emailed the seller of the first copy, and he insisted it was real even though the cover has two telltale marks of the American made bootleg - the cover is a poor quality repro and the copyright information from the bottom of the back cover has made its way to the bottom of the front cover due to a poor print job (and as a result the repro is missing a bit of empty space over the AF banner that is present on the orig), and from the 2nd picture, the pressing marks do not match the original[1] (the boot has a wider diameter, shallower pressing stamper mark around the center hole, original is smaller and deeper). Anyways this unscrupulous seller (also selling many white power records, go figure) got $282 for this copy, I hope the buyer realized it was a boot upon receiving it and was able to get a refund (probably not).

Boot copy number two came up about a week later (sorry no link, same version as above) and I again emailed the seller to see what he thought, and the guy quickly realized it was a boot and canceled the listing. At least there are some honest people out there.

Currently listed copy #3 - Again this one looked like the shoddy cover bootleg so I emailed the seller. Here’s the back and forth -

Me: can you give me matrix information?
Seller: The matrix reads ; AF-001-A and BIOBH on the printed label side and the other label is black.
Me: Oh, that is a bootleg then, that “BIOBH” is actually the number 31634 and the B label should be white.
Seller: I dunno, the matrix #’s check out. If it is a boot, Its an older one, as these records were all purchased in the early 80’s.

At this point, the seller basically refused to acknowledge that he is selling a bootleg, or at least that he is misleading bidders who might believe it’s original, and thus is going to hose the high bidder for $160+ when the auction ends. Greedy/unscrupulous sellers like this are really what makes ebay a crapshoot to the entry level buyer, unfortunately. This seller also has up a lot of nice early 80’s USHC stuff, but obviously does not know much about the records themselves (many are incorrectly listed in regards to their respective pressings, see Minor Threat and Negative Approach 7″s), so, all I can say is… buyer beware!

Footnotes:

[1]Chalk it up to completely useless nerdery (but moreso being involved in releasing a good amount of records over the past 8-9 years), but you can differentiate pressings of certain records by the impression the pressing machine leaves around the center hole. On the original United Blood, the pressing mark is a small, deep circle about 1″ in diameter, and most other early 80’s NYHC singles have the same marks. I believe they were pressed by a plant called Variety that was located somewhere in the NYC area. Check your Mob 2nd 7″ for reference.

Hey everyone, it’s time for another guest posting, this time by Tony Rettman who you might know from WFMU radio, http://200lbu.blogspot.com/, or hanging around New Jersey record stores for the last 20 years (I’m guessing). Check out the radio show, lame bands like Mind Eraser get to play on it sometimes.

TR:

I’ve vented my spleen more than a few times over the revisionist ways of youngsters regarding the infamous Mutha label. How and why and where this label got the reputation it now has I cannot pinpoint. What I do know is most of their releases were laughed at, spat on and most possibly shat on when they were originally released in the eighties. There’s no denying the label is an intriguing chunk of underground history, but the amount of actual worthwhile material released on the imprint is miniscule at best. One slab they released that I will throw my weight behind is this Cyanamid seven inch from 1984. Cyanamid is one of those rare bands that just seem to sound stranger as time goes on. When I was a wee nip, their live sets were nothing more than a confusing mess. On record, they could sound like anything from Flipper on 16 rpm’s to abuncha wind up monkeys on outdated cough syrup. At the time of this six song seven inches’ release, I chalked it up as a novelty and that was that.
 
Upon further listening in the past few years, Cyanamid’s frenzied sound has reminded me alot of the slash-and-burn improvisational style of stuff like Rudolph Grey’s Blue Humans or late eighties Lower East Side noiseniks Demo-Moe. It is at this time I will stop typing and imagine the entire bid hardcore audience staring at their computer screens in utter confusion at those band names while the sound of crickets can be heard from outside their window. Hey…what can I say? I’m just trying to broaden some horizons…to turn some people onto some outlandish sounds…I’m also trying to get rid of some extra Blue Humans records I got laying around this place. Hi-Ya! Napalm Death send props out to Cyanamid on the inner sleeve on ‘Scum’* but I’ve always thought of Cyanamid as way more gnarled and loose than Harris and company. Nonetheless, you probably should get this to complete your Mutha collection and further your standings as a Hardcore nerdboy. I mean…even if you don’t dig it, at least you’ll have something to talk about with your pals at the next Punk Rock show before you go home to spend another wonderful night cold and alone with your records.

*note from cc: I was advised to fact check that they do indeed get a shoot out in Scum, however I was not able to because I originally owned it on tape (thankyou list was removed from the layout), the booklet to my CD appears to be missing, and the only vinyl I own is a test pressing (ahem, dated june ‘87). So while I’m not able to actually look this up, I can own up to having Scum on 3 formats, and of course that little ol’ test press.

Today’s guest blogger is Jon Westbrook from sunny (Southern) California. You may remember him from Knife Fight, or some bands he doesn’t want you to interview him about. In his words, “I don’t speak Spanish, so I don’t have anything interesting to tell you”. He’s also a purveyor of very fine vinyl platters.

I’m sure a lot of you saw this posted over at the livewire records message board, but cc’s on vacation this week and I’m working crazy hours these days (tax season….ok, I’m too lazy to scour ebay every hour in the hopes that some badass platters turn up, but honestly…tax season). Looks like we have the start of a whole collection being sold right now. Hopefully the seller didn’t blow his ebay load on this first batch though, because there’s some pretty good ones up there. Always better to build the hype if you want serious money for your goods. The most likely winner of the bunch will be the Antidote “Thou Shalt Not Kill” EP. I can’t imagine anyone not knowing this EP by now, but in case you’re a n00b, it’s a definite top 5 USHC ep, and in most cases top 2 (Negative Approach is better). Only 500 made, backups by JJ, feat members of M.O.I., yadda yadda yadda. Other gems include an original SSDecontrol “The Kids Will Have Their Say,” FU’s “Kill For Christ,” Rest In Pieces “My Rage,” and the ever popular XChorusX LP. The majority of this collection is in the straight edge vein (80’s and 90’s). And seeing that the seller is from Italy, maybe we’ll get lucky and get some Wretched, Underage, and Bloody Riot records next go around (here’s to hoping). But if there’s one thing to learn when it comes to record collecting for the person who’s serious about owning the best of the best, consider this anecdote: For many of my teenage years and into the early 20’s, I used to curse my parent’s names for waiting 8 years to have children. I thought paying $50 for a record was absurd, and thought “if only I was 5 years older, I could have paid “absurd” prices by 1989’s standards.” But a wise man once told me “if you have the money, just buy it because it’ll be worth more than that in a few years.” Just think about how dumb I’d feel now if I had passed on paying $75 for that Antidote EP in ‘97…