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hardcore records on ebay — aggregated and examined
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.
Lightening up a tad today, here’s Adrenalin O.D.’s debut lp, the masterpiece known as “The Wacky Hijinks of Adrenalin O.D.”
A.O.D. were a jokey band yes, and it’s common knowledge that joke bands suck, but honestly this band is no joke. I mean they’re funny, but they shred with the best of them. Need any proof just give a spin to A.O.D. vs. Godzilla, the album’s opening cut. An absolutely furious thrashing intro which my outside consultants (DFJ, Cooch) agree has the fastest straight forward (i.e. non-blast beat/paddle beat) hardcore drumming ever. By the way aside from being fast it has a great riff, and eventually gives way to an awesome mosh part too.
Most of the record holds down a similar feel, sometimes tuneful, often thrashy USHC with some really hard mosh parts for a band singing about like, White Castle burgers and shit (the song White Hassle is mandatory HB-Struting). I mean it is a goof-off fun-time album, but if you’re looking for deep meaning in every hardcore record, you’ve got this shit all wrong, (and you’re probably a really jackass in real life). Still though, there’s something about Wacky Hijinks fixation on daily banalities and American Junk Culture that’s truer to the spirit of the “Reagan Era” than your Dead Kennedys lps, or what have you. The truth is hardcore moved out of the cities and into the suburbs fast, and in the suburbs nothing that crazy happens. You go to White Castle, you drive around in your shitty used Trans-Am, you watch TV. No one in the ‘burbs is really rebelling or fucking with the system, least of all by listening to a “serious” recording. So in that way, A.O.D. just laid it down the way it was.
This is the original pressing from 1984 of course, on NJ’s own Buy-Our-Records label. It also got reissued this year as a 2xCD on Chunksaah this year which I highly suggest buying. The second disc has their 1st 7″, some comp tracks, and a live WFMU set from ‘82. One of the few CD’s I am actually willing to pay for at this point. Oh and in case you’re behind them times you can check out this famous you-tube vid of Darkthrone’s Fenriz wylin’ out to A.O.D.’s Rock n Roll Gas Station.
[CLICK] (skip to about the 8 minute mark)
Here’s a classic in the cult hardcore dept. Mental Abuse “Streets Of Filth” lp.There’s something about those NJHC lps from the early 80’s that the collector scum can’t get enough of. Mental Abuse are at least partially known because drummer Dave Jones also played in the Victim In Pain lineup of Agnostic Front. I believe there were also future members of AOD and at some point they had at least one of the Billys from the Psychos. But the prices their lp routinely fetches make them more than just a “members of” band.
Musically Streets of Filth a lot in common with AF’s United Blood phase, although it also reminds me a bit of Reagan Youth. Maybe halfway between the two. Stop-go-stop-go delivery and heavy bass driven mosh parts abound on this one while the production lives up to a name like Streets Of Filth with cheap fuzz and shaky at best precision drenching the guitars. The drums paddle and roll only the most basic patterns on each track and the lyrics are straight up juvenile, everything rhymes and the emotional depth is that of a 12 year old. That’s not any kind of disrespect on my part, it’s all part of the Mental Abuse charm. Adolescent Skins laments the rise of obnoxious young skinheads, Sock Woman tells some ridiculous story about a woman who wants to be a man, and No God is self explanatory. No sophistication or pretension, just bash your head against concrete, glue huffing, booze slopping, slime.
Streets of Filth was issued on Urinal Records in something like an edition of 500, although for how infrequently you’re liable to see it around I’d imagine a great many were destroyed or trashed. It’s also kind of hard to find with an unblemished cover, and I’d say the wear on this one is pretty normal. Considering it has never been repressed, and is unlikely to be in the near future (due to some member’s current ambivalence about the band), what matters most is that the vinyl is clean and playable. All in all I’d say this is a good bet if you wanna drop 3 bills, and the seller has plenty of other tasty treats for you too.
I feel like I have to blog Articles of Faith “Give Thanks” on Thanksgiving day. I mean the relevance ends with the title of the record, but still I’m doing it, whatever.
Give Thanks is the first Articles of Faith lp, although it came to be four years after their inception. It’s a dense slab of wax, this was at the point when they’d started incorporating 3 guitar players into their live set (vocalist Vic Bondi doubling as axeman #3). It’s a fairly transitional release, and despite the fact it’s produced by Bob Mould, it does not go down easy. The first song, the title track, opens with an ear splitting scream and jarring guitar riffs that shock you right into the chaos. It’s an anti-religion tirade, and it starts on your typical 84/Reagan era punk attack on middle-America and the value system that accompanies that. It’s kind of depressing and it can also be kind of over-wrought. But even when they lay it on thick (the redundant “5 o’clock” for instance) Articles of Faith don’t even touch the obnoxious moralizing they begat just a few years later.
Articles Of Faith were a big band in their day, but for me it’s somewhat dwarfed by the impact made by, by far their biggest imitator, a little band called Born Against. Unknown to Bondi and co, they basically laid the groundwork for the Nathanson/Mcpheters partnership that annoyed so many. Yes it’s not fair that I shit on Born Against in an Articles Of Faith write-up, or that I blame AOF for the travesty that is Born Against’s public persona. I even feel a little weird because I actually like both of the bands. What I’m trying to point out I think, is that the Born Against sound originates PRIMARILY here, on this album. The dead serious politics, the sombre melodies, the dramatic and impassioned delivery — all of this was copied, albeit without the precise musicianship seen here. Everyone can please save it by pointing out shit like “Well Fed Fuck” being a copy of Godflesh’s “Dream Long Dead”.
Anyway, now that I’ve got all that out… I think this is sort of the beginning of the end for Articles of Faith, at least for me. While I do like all their material, this shit is just so heavy handed, and they throw a really dated sounding proto-emo track in the middle called “Every Man For Himself”, complete with piano and introspective lyrics. The band still fire all cylinders on most of the tracks, In Your Suit and American Dreams are still powerful discordant hardcore, but they also don’t reach the heights of earlier songs like Buy This War or What We Want Is Free. It is somewhat interesting to hear them trying to break out of the confines of what was normal hardcore for the time. Working on slower sections, using feedback and unsettling interplay between the guitars to convey mood. It’s an effective white guilt statement by children of relative privilege, but it’s also hard to swallow for me personally at this point in time. I’d rather jam their 7″s & early comp tracks.
For the record this is not the original pressing, which is on Reflex records and has a red cover. This is ‘92 Bitzcore reissue which contains two bonus tracks tacked on the end, although at this point, this version isn’t exactly easy to come by either.
…and now back to this Twin Peaks marathon. Enjoy your leftovers.
Poison Idea - Feel The Darkness (American Leather/Vinyl Solution pressing) pt. II
Fuck it… I’m writing about the b-side of Feel The Darkness today because I listened to it like 3 times while driving around town yesterday, and for the here and now it fits right into my life.
I got pretty serious about the album yesterday when posting and I still feel pretty good about all that I said. The B-side though really is only a hair less perfect than the A. It opens with Alan’s On Fire, which is some real darkness. Heavy, midpaced, and hateful spring to mind as Jerry details a suicide where the victim sets himself on fire for all his family to see. It’s some low spirits shit, but it’s also sincere in the anger that comes across.
Step on me I’m here for you to see
I hope you choke as I go up in flames
I told you my problems but you never heard a word
This is the moment for once in my life I will be heard
I know there must be a better way but I don’t know how
You’ve lied to me and you’ve ignored me
but you won’t now
This is arguably the most bleak and desperate moment on a record that’s dark as they come. It just chills your spine and makes you feel sick.
The album doesn’t totally sink into the murk from here, there’s still more bellowing anger to go around. Welcome To Krell, though not what I’d call a signature track has a cool main riff that skips up and down the frets kinda start-stop-like, and keeps things running at a hardcore/Kings Of Punk type clip. Nation of Finks follows quickly and laments the way the code of the streetshas fallen to the wayside as well as the rise of constant surveillance of private citizens. Backstab Gospel probably comes the closest to a filler track on an album like this. It doesn’t have tuneful and catchy delivery of most of the other tracks, and would sound more at home on one of the previous Poison Idea lps (it might be a hold over from War All The Time), but I mean, that’s not a complaint. War All The Time is just as much a 5 star album in my book.
Painkiller follows, and it’s a classic PI drug and drink anthem. I can’t really relate, but they do a great job of stirring up the sound of addicted isolation, which as depraved and unsavory as it might be, was the reality that these guys lived (and some of them still do - R.I.P. Pig). I think part of what makes Poison Idea one of the greatest rock bands ever is that they always played music from the heart. Sometimes that meant they weren’t the most punk sounding band on the block, and sometimes that meant the words came from a pretty black place in Jerry’s soul, but that’s what makes it worth a shit.
Yesterday Judd posted this in the comments section about the title track and closing song:
Judd said: (November 7th, 2008 at 2:34 am)
Cosigned on this entire post. Also, supposedly the title track is about one of Jerry’s prostitute girlfriends who was murdered by a serial killer in Oregon, Dayton Leroy Rogers. “A sad description, five feet minus (two)” is a reference to the fact that Rogers would sometimes saw off the feet of his victims. Heavy shit.
I’m not really sure what insight I can supplement that with. It’s one of several PI tracks that start with someone opening and drinking a can of beer. It’s a slow and tortured song, clocking in at about 6 minutes, and it’s one of my favorite PI numbers, but that knowledge drapes quite a shroud on the whole thing, and also sort of brings into focus what this album’s really all about — the absolute most depraved and depth-sunk levels of American life. That’s nothing new on a rock album, but there’s only a few I can think of that paint the picture as vividly as this one.
At midnight my black heart’s fading - blue
A sad description, five feet minus - two
I can’t think about running back to - you
You started with nothing,but you ended up with less
Poison Idea - Feel The Darkness (American Leather/Vinyl Solution pressing)
Pound for pound, track for track, I fully believe Poison Idea’s finest hour is Feel The Darkness. This is the common opinion of many folks, but there are those that think it’s overblown and weighed down by its bombast. It’s certainly not the same band that made Pick Your King an early hardcore classic, but it’s in my eyes, a perfect mix of Punk, Metal, and Hard Rock. In their ‘88-’92 phase, Poision Idea had this vibe dialed. They were crossing boundaries and making records that people of all interests could appreciate. Their execution was powerful and their songwriting is to this day matched by few and surpassed by none.
Feel The Darkness opens with the signature P.I. track, arguably what you could even call THE Poison Idea song, Plastic Bomb. The song itself begins with a furious piano intro which is hardly how you would expect a classic hardcore punk album to begin, but after the ivory sets the dramatic tone, the guitars and drums crash in for an intro roughly the size of Mechagodzilla. It sounds a bit like the beginning to an Iron Maiden song, but soon the familiar PI riffing takes over with pronounced debts to the likes of Discharge and the Germs. The lyrics are dark and they start with little more of a spoken delivery, but as the song wears on Jerry A’s anger starts to mount and the tension starts coming to a head. When the cavernous ‘whoaaas’ of the chorus take effect and are then answered by Pig Champion’s ripshit axe shredding, there’s no doubt you’ll never forget this track. This is one of the greatest most perfectly crafted rock songs of the last 30 years. It’s an epic that plays like a pop song right down to being on that magic 3 minute mark, and it’s just track 1.
When Deep Sleep starts, it’s clear that things are going places. Jerry growls his way through a number about chronically sleeping in order to cope with his low spirits and misery. It rocks like Motorhead but it’s more combustible than Flag. It’s as simple as this — it’s a perfectly crafted hardcore song. I can’t break it down to a science, it just has the right stuff. The Badge is next working another sleazed up Motorhead type groove, this time with a bit less speed, but maybe even more anger. Yea, it’s a “hate the police” song, but it’s no pose. Poison Idea really do hate the police and the way they infringe on their lives. They hate the abuse and the corruption, and they hate the badge and what it really stands for. Like Jerry belows in the chorus, “some still call him pig”.
Just to Get Away is next, another alltime classic of a PI track. A true shitkicker for every fed up, let down, end of the rope person out there. It starts with a great set of drum breaks. It’s a song about being in love with your car, and leaving behind a mundane life in hopes that you can feel alive again. It’s also a song with one of the meanest main riffs in history ever. Ideally you should be smoking a cigarette or drinking a beer, starting a fight, or at least blasting this song out of a Camaro when listening to it.
Quit my job, told my boss to stand aside
Grabbed a gun, a fifth of booze, jumped in my ride
I got my girl, she’s sixteen and she’s really special
I can’t slow down, I’ve got a date with the devil
Two tons of steel, one hundred miles an hour
No looking back, grooving on the power
Responsibility made me quit
I’m sick of this motherfucking goddamn shit
There’s a road, beyond it lies, I don’t know
I just gotta run, I just gotta go
This is real punk rock and roll. This is real anger and bile and desperation. I mean this is basically the greatest song ever that’s not sung by Lemmy, Ozzy, Bon Scott, or a young Mick Jagger.
Gone For Good and Death Of An Idiot Blues give you a little room to breathe after 4 stone cold classics. It’s not that they’re not good, or even great, but they only get A’s instead of A+’s. Taken By Surprise closes out the A-side though and it has the kind of pop perfection that a breakup song needs, and the anger that Poison Idea doesn’t show up without. I firmly believe this is one of the 10 best breakup songs of any genre, any era ever. You will never write a song this good. Simple as that, this deserved to top the charts.
I think I’m going to stop here at the end of side A today, which is a shame because some of the best tracks are on side B. You should already know this. This is one of the great American guitar albums. Feel The Darkness.
This might be the best 7 Seconds record — Committed For Life. The recordings is the perfect rough and tumble early 80’s HC sound, and not all clean and polished like their later lps. The songs are some career bests, a couple were even rerecorded later on, but were never quite as good. It’s something about the band trying to be super tight and melodic, but not quite getting there all the way. Committed For Life, Drug Control, This Is Angry are classic mixes of british melodic oi/punk tendencies with Minor Threat’s delivery. Just fast humable tunes, and not anything close to pop punk. Love the sleeve on this too with the cartoon of the punks and skins and dayglo colors.
I don’t have a lot to say about 7 seconds, other than, they kinda went down hill from here. I still like everything up to (not including) New Wind, but the DIY vibe/sound of their first 2 EPs and some of the comp tracks just satisfies me more in some way.
There’s later pressings of this but the original is on Squirtdown (as I recall).
Well it’s fall again and it’s getting cold quick this time. You can’t really blame me for the sense of melancholy that’s set in on my day to day. Yea I know… “wah wah wah“, but there’s something about the fall, as well as the spring that always brings me back to Moss Icon. I could get philosophical and say that their music mostly deals with death and rebirth, and that’s why. I’m not sure if that’s philosophical or just accurate though.
I bought the Mahpiua Luta 7″ out of a box of used records at some crust show in ‘03 for $5. I was psyched, then I went to see Lost In Translation and fell asleep in the theatre. I think over time I’ve determined Mahpiua Luta has my 2 favorite Moss Icon songs. It’s a hair more subdued than their demo or first E.P. but in some ways it’s the best summation of their sound, the right amount of each ingredient in the mix.
The Life is the a-Side and is similar to their first single, but has a contemplative slower beginning, when it kicks in, it’s a quick mid-paced track, it actually reminds me a lot of the Ignition 7″s. The lyrics are mostly oblique references to loss and being unable to let go of something. The b-side, Kick The Can, goes further into contemplative territory, with vocalist John Vance acting as little more than a narrator to an abstract tale with a desert backdrop. Because of the desert imagery and downcast vibe that permeate the song, I’m sort of reminded of the quieter numbers on Meat Puppets II, although without the country influence. I think for American post hardcore it’s a really good song, actually I think both songs on the record are. As I’ve said in the past, John Vance is the only vocalist I find convincing with the shout/talk quasi-poet delivery.
There’s 3 or 4 different sleeves that turn up for this. All with the same image, but some have it glued to a manila envelope, some are folding sleeves, some I think are glued sleeves. I’ve never actually seen pressing numbers though, so I hereby appeal to the readers to post some info.
Welllll every day is another cult classic on ebay, and today please take note of the Deep Wound 7″, which is undoubtedly fitting of such a classification. If you’re not privy to the knowledge, Deep Wound was the semi-infamous hardcore band that featured future Dinosaur members J Mascis & Lou Barlow. Barlow also made a name with Sebadoh and Folk Implosion in the 90’s. Bassist Scott Helland, though never the indie sensation that his band mates were, also logged time in the severely under-rated Outpatients, and later Darkside NYC (so weird). Everything I’ve heard about vocalist Charlie Nakajima from other Western Massers, points to him just being a weird dude you see around town sometimes.
The E.P. starts with the song I Saw it which is kind of inconspicuous in that it’s a mid-paced punk song, and Deep Wound are remembered mostly for their speed. In fact Charlie Nakajima’s vocals rush ahead of the song more than once, like he’s not used to playing at anything less than a blur. Sisters is the next song and it follows the Deep Wound template a little better approaching grindcore type speeds though still maintaining the bratty teenage vocals of the first track. J Mascis’ drumming is of course violent and primal, and the guitars and bass are an elastic blur. For most of the rest of the E.P. the songs go so fast that the vocals and instruments waver in and out of time with each other, everyone is pushed to their limits. Video Prick which opens the B-side reverts to the pacing of I Saw It, with a basic rock riff, and Mascis stepping up on guest guitar leads that betray his classic rock roots. For a song about a kid touching video clerk, it sure is a toe-tapper, maybe my favorite song on the record. After that things get back to the all-speed formula, at least until the closer Dead Babies which I’ve never really understood. It has a clean guitar and a sombre delivery that doesn’t fit in at all. I always assumed it was a joke, but I really have no idea. Could totally do without it, but 8 out of 9 is still high marks in my book.
There’s been a couple boots of this, but most are on colored vinyl and have different labels, so they ought to be pretty easy to tell. I believe the original pressing was done at Master Disk, which should be pressed into the run off groove. According to Cooch the original pressing is the only one that plays at 45 rpm as well.
Naked Raygun - Flammable Solid 7″ is a contender for the best packaging award. Always just looked super cool to me with the full sized Flammable Solid sticker on the front and lyric sheet on transparent paper. Only 500 were ever made, a one time pressing on Ruthless, and although all three tracks later turned up on the Throb Throb lp in rerecorded versions, this is still probably the most collectible Naked Raygun release for scarcity and overall coolness. The versions of Surf Combat, Gear and Libido are a little faster and maybe sound like a demo session for the album. Raygun were often poppy, but sometimes pretty angular and fractured sounding for a band with a rep as a punk/pop band. Surf Combat, the first track on side A is a pretty good example of that with a garagey drum beat that guitars crash into and then cut back out of intermittently.
You should really check out the seller’s other listings too because there’s plenty of A-list material like the first 2 Meatmen 7″s, Urban Waste E.P., Dangerhouse colored vinyl, Electric Deads, Chiefs…
