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One of the better slices of KBD here on the ebay machine:

The Authorities - Soundtrack For Trouble e.p.

2 different tracks on here were comped on the original Killed By Death anthology, and I have to say it’s not a surprise those are the better of the four songs by a long shot. The opener “Achtung!” is in my opinion spotty at best. For almost the first minute it doodles around with a surfy intro reminicient of the Wipers that just doesn’t work for me. In the hands of another band it could be frantic or sinister, but here it just sounds dry and unnecessary. Something to pad out this side of the record. When the main riff kicks in it doesn’t have much to do with the intro portion, and instead takes a simplified Dead Kennedys kind of approach with a decent overview of the problems that were facing Reaganized America at the time. Again what could be a great spiraling start-stop hardcore track is left limp in the hands of the Authorities. The vocals are trying too hard to stay on key, and not hard enough to sound pissed, the riffs sound circusy. Basically this is a terrible start to a highly collectible EP. Sorry folks that’s the truth from my perspective, this song is unremarkable in its blandness.

Track 2 is a hit though - “I Hate Cops”. The opening lines: “I hate cops/They’re all fuckin’ piggers” is sung with such obnoxiousness that you know this dude really does hate cops, as opposed to his half-hearted “lets drop the bomb”-s in Achtung. The chorus, a simple “I-Hate-Cops” set to a great melodic and speedy riff. In addition to being on Killed By Death vol. 1, this song was on 2 different Mystic records comps. It’s a one-hit-wonder style classic.

Flip over to the B-side for “Radiation Masturbation”, the other “hit”. This song is great goofy punk wave, like a bunch of striped shirt fools hopped up on goofballs. It’s total nonsense and I’m a little lost as to how it fits with the vibe of the other songs on the record, but it’s catchy and that counts for a lot. It’s also the archetypal KBD style punk song. It’s mildly offensive, a little bit goofy, melodic, and energetic. The last song “Shot In The Head” tries to work a half decent call/response setup around a couple 2nd tier riffs that kind of ensures you won’t remember this song. 

I say you’re fine with just a copy of KBD 1. It’s got the 2 songs you’ll actually care about heaing a 2nd time.

A couple years ago I was flipping through the 7″ bins at Amoeba on Haight st. and yanked out Ice 9’s 1979 KBD shocker, “Out Out Out” b/w “Revolting Mess” // “27.3″. Marked at $5 it was clear that someone had screwed up and thought they were pricing a record by the mid-90s Rorschach influenced band (of “split-with-Charles-Bronson” fame). Ice 9 were a pretty good rockin’ punk band imortalized (ha!) on one of the KBD comps (was it 9? 11?) from Portland OR. One of the members, Count Vertigo, also had a solo record I think. I’m not a huge KBD’r and so I fuck up on some info like this. Because there’s a number of variations of the record, I ended up emailing the people at Discourage records, Portland’s main squeeze for rare punk/HC/garage/rock and/or roll/etc. The following is excerpts from 3 emails that I got from Abe, one of the dudes who keeps Discourage running smooth.

Hey Chris,

There are 3-5 variations(depending on how you count them) of original circa 1979-80 band made picture sleeves that we know of.

1st edition were screen printed on white paper.  We’ve seen blue ink, green ink, and a blue-green ink.  When they either ran out of or got tired of screening these they had a print shop run more off (several hundred i’m sure).  These 2nd edition are litho printed, not silk screen, and are done with black print on green paper or yellow paper.  We’ve seen green more than yellow.  About ten years ago when we got in touch with the band we got i guess 25-45(?) 2nd ed. green picture sleeves and perhaps 5-10 yellow sleeves. 

We also got maybe 50(?) sleeveless copies for which we xeroxed new sleeves in the fashion of the 2nd edition (green, yellow, and also blue paper i think).  These are new xerox made copies and have always been sold as so (for about 1/3 the price of the sleeved copies).  You can tell the difference because xerox ink sits on the surface of the paper.  It makes a crack line when folded and the ink doesn’t bleed through the paper (isn’t really visible from the blank side).  If yours is a white paper screen printed copy you are a lucky guy.  If you think it is a 2nd edition and you don’t want to crease it to find out then you can try scratching a little of the black ink.  If any flakes off then it is one of our xerox made covers.  If not then lucky you again. Also look on the back and see if some of the printed ink has bleed through the paper.  Finally, most re-issue sleeve copies also either have our rubber-stamp or some hand writing stating that they are a xerox on the back.  Hope that helps.  Just out of curiosity please let me know what you found.  -Abe

After a little bit of clarifying we determined that I’d picked up one of the 2nd edition copies from the original batch circa 1980. This also seems to be what’s for sale here. Out Out Out is a great A-side cut, super nervy the way they all sing “Out Out Out” together. As if to prove my affinity for juvenile hardcore though, I ended up trading this record for a copy of the Together comp w/ all the inserts. I’m sure I’d get kicked right off the bus to the collector scum convention, but that’s just how I roll.

Black Market Baby - Potential Suicide (Limp)

Black Market Baby were a classic example of a band that just never was right with their timing when they were around.  They had a couple of aborted singles before Potential Suicide b/w Youth Crimes finally became their official debut. It’s a great slab of up tempo British influenced punk, but it came out the year hardcore happened in DC, and while there were plenty of people who took notice of the band, they never really got that much recognition, although if they’d released the Crimes Of Passion b/w America’s Youth single in 1980, they might have had a better shot. (BONUS POINTS for 2 songs about Youth). Eventually they released an lp on Fountain Of Youth in 1983 that’s a bit long, and has bad cover art, but still pretty well liked. I once passed on a test press for like $50 — WHY? There was a second lp recorded in 1986, but the band had gone through several sets of members by then, and their little bit of popularity had waned. Without a label they broke up, and eventually released the lp posthumous on Bitzcore from Germany.

Side A is Potential Suicide. The guitar slinging in th the opening riff is really nice, kind of like something the Huskers might have done midway through their career, but with a rougher kind of incidental Oi vibe. Maybe that comes from the tough marching floor tom that drives the song along and contrasts with the shimmering chords on the guitar.

Side B is Youth Crimes which has a good rockin pogo beat. It sounds like they were really taking a lot from British stuff of the time, but there’s something looser and distinctly American about it. The vocal delivery is energetic and snotty via Boyd Farrell and it has that kinda throaty, post-Lemmy delivery you’d hear on some Riot City record. There’s some good off-key harmonizing with a back-up singer in the chorus too that really holds the whole thing together.

I think this, along with the Unreleased 1980 single, and their tracks on the Connected compilation are the backbone of any argument in favor of Black Market Baby’s greatness. If you’ve never enjoyed their tunes, the blog world ought to be able to help you out.

There’s a repressing of this single on White Vinyl on Yesterday and Today records that also has a different cover. The original version is on Limp and has a yellow sleeve.

Here’s another pick for Michigan:

The Dogs - “Slash Your Face” . Strictly speaking, this is not a hardcore record, and I think if you want to totally split hairs they may have already been transplanted to California by this time, but I think you could fairly apply the term Detroit-proto-hardcore to the title track by this beloved early American DIY outfit. Greg Ginn talked about The Dogs as being one of his influences for the Black Flag DIY aesthetic and for that they deserve a pat on the back, but for the song Slash Your Face, they deserve a place in a museum. Slash Your Face the 7″ was recorded live at a gig and edited to sound basically like a studio release. The band released it on their own label and by the 90’s it was a sought after collectible by the KBD set. Honestly, (and I am speaking from the heart when I say this), this is the best song to ever be associated with the Killed By Death tag. It has all the ferocity of the faster Stooges tracks like Search and Destroy, I Got A Right, and 1970, and all the heaviness of Chiswick era Motorhead wrapped in one.

Slash Your Face the song opens with the same type of snare roll a hundred other hardcore bands used later on to start songs. It drops into a power riff that sounds like a fight that’s about to start. It’s just thuggish and mean. Uninviting even. When things pick up to full speed for the main verse it’s even less inviting. I just sort of automatically picture a violent slam pit full of 70’s rockers in leather and denim beating the hell out of each other to this song. Beer bottles and chains and boots all in a mess of sweat. I doubt it was as good as what I’m seeing in my minds eye, but who knows (”scientists don’t even know”). Maybe it’s the straight forward violence in the lyrics where the singer repeatedly threatens to slash the listeners face, “I gotta/I’m gonna, slash your face, slash your face”, t0 say nothing of the unleashed howls during a couple of quick drum breaks. The song runs at a clip a little faster than Nervous Breakdown, but not quite where the Circle Jerks would be in 1980, which I guess makes this single fit right into 1978. The middle portion gives way to some guitar and bass soloing thta betrays their roots in Fast Eddie Clarke/Lemmy, but it also never loses the speed aspect or sinks under its own weight.

The other 2 songs, while still great, don’t quite match the mindfuck of Slash Your Face. Fed Up is a great rockin’ stomper and Are You a Boy or Are You a Girl is a cover of the well known track by The Barbarians. All of ‘em are good to pogo around your bed room to, but when rock ‘n roll is really dead and gone and only history buffs are still listening to records with guitars, they’ll still be studying Slash Your Face.

Michigan… what the hell would you possibly want to go there for? Maybe to find some “tasty HC rippers”. The racket that started as the Stooges and MC5 in the late 60’s begot plenty of interesting hardcore and punk by the late 70s.

The Fix - “Jan’s Room”. It’s not as legendary as the Vengeance 7″, and really not as good either but Jan’s Room is still a stone cold killer. This one has the cool spray painted insert too. While originally they kind of had a vibe like 3-chord rock ‘n roll  gone over the edge on speed, this one is more brutal and less tuneful. Starting with “Cos The Elite” they kick into high gear like an Americanized factory-town Discharge. The drums lead the song off sounding percise and muscular, betraying their rock ‘n roll roots but when the guitar comes in it’s ugly as hell. They’re a thick overdriven wash that sits on top of everything else and just drills into your ears. The bass is nice and muddy (no twang) and the vocals bark a harsh monotone like an improved version of S.O.A. era Rollins. Truth Right Now continues along the same lines, but side B opens with Signal, a total pace change. First of all they’ve tuned down to C for this track, I guess in order to sound heavier as they play through a couple minutes of slow chugging dirge, building tension with an ominous circular pattern on the toms. The end of the song provides the tension release that’s more in line with the rest of the record’s icy and angry smash and bash sound, that continues into the closer Off To War (the most obvious Discharge style jam).

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.