Here’s some more mandatory HC for y’all: The legendary PROCESS OF ELIMINATION compilation from 1981. Three pressings exist. The main diferences between them (apart from diff. label adresses and inserts): First two have silver labels with big holes (first with red print, second with black; 500 made of each) and a third pressing had a small spindle hole and yellow labels.
As you can hear, this babe is very raw and primitive and very, very charming! Every song on this pearl sounds like it couldn’t be held back for only more second. All bands bursting out with power and passion! Meatmen and Violent Apathy never did much for me (except for the killer “La Bamba” cover of the latter on the band’s one and only 7″). McDonalds seemed to be more of a joke band, but I love the short “Miniature Golf” hymn so much. Same goes for Youth Patrol of whom we know little. Toxic Reasons deliver an early version of “Riot Squad” and if you’ve never been been in a full scale riot with that song in your head, you definitely missed something! The remaining big three are the Necros, Negative Approach and The Fix. The Fix blow everything through the roof with their brutal power! I didn’t include the latter two, because I think you should buy the two official re-releases from Touch & Go Records: The essential Negative Approach and the must-have The Fix anthologies! Buy them at once if you don’t have them!
NECROS: Bad Dream.mp3
MEATMEN: Meatmen Stomp.mp3
NEGATIVE APPROACH: Lost Cause.mp3
YOUTH PATROL: America’s Power.mp3
TOXIC REASONS: Riot Squad.mp3
VIOLENT APATHY: I can’t take it.mp3
McDONALDS: Miniature Golf.mp3
THE FIX: No Idols.mp3
NY’s ISM destroying the Partridge Family’s 1970s hit. And it doesn’t get any better than this! This is best bad music.
Although this 7″ was fairly succesful, getting lots of airplay, it was banned from many record distributers and shops throughout the USA and rumor has it, many copies never made it through to good ol’Europe neither. The reason is, you guessed it, the great sarcastic picture sleeve.
Check the blog for more on ISM (”A Diet for the Worms” LP). And now sit back and relax and start downloading ….
I think I love you.mp3
A7.mp3
A lot of people seem to have a strange fascination with this record. When UNDERDOG released their first 7″ on New Beginning (famous for the incredibly funny Crippled Youth 7″ which I one day shall post for the lyrics alone), everybody seemed to either love or hate this. I will confess that I belonged to the latter group. But as it’s so often with records that seem to polarize much, in the long run, you’ll find something about them.
I have little to say about this band other than one of my friends offically released an LP by UNDERDOG in the late 80s (he killed himself not too long after the release of said LP). He loved the 7″ so much, kept playing it up and down and I, like I said, never really got it and sold my copy twenty years ago. Recently I was able to pick up the UNDERDOG ep for less than ten dollars – I didn’t hesitate and brought it home, thinking “there’s has got to be something about this!”. Since then, I gave it some spins whenever it felt right and yeah - I like it! It’s not one of my personal cornerstones, but I can honor the band’s original blend of different styles. What sets UNDERDOG apart from the “youth crew” thing are the band’s lyrics and general attitude, taking an outsider’s point of view on the “scene” and not following a particular set of rules (a fact that also made me like HALF OFF, a west coast band of ca. the same era). Sure, the whole”friendship” issues always seemed suspect to me, but they’re not stretching the concept to the extremes of boyscout groups of the later 80s, whose lyrics about male friendship were directly proportional to the homophobia of the majority of the protagonists.
Even though this one of the few postings here in which I present a record that I don’t love to the uttermost pathetic extent, I still run it, because I have some personal connection to it and I think this is an important ep for many. Also, this demonstrates how the HC concept had begun to completely fall apart in the second half of the 80s, creating a very ugly and very, very unnessecary wave of jock music that eventually made it in the middle of the entertainment business and still sticks there with the countless dreadful “HC” bands of today, we all love to hate. What a sad story …
Not like you.mp3
True Blue.mp3
Say it to my Face.mp3
Looking out for you.mp3
One of my favourite southern Californian HC bands were DECRY. This first 7″ has 4 songs, but boy, they leave you breathless. Aggressive, tight and very dark and negative tracks that cut deep into your flesh. The singer Farrel has got to be one of the best HC singers I ever heard and the blistering guitar by Andrew manages to blend typical west coach lead harmonies with “heavy without being metal” riffing - masterful! The band’s followup, the LP “Falling” was even slightly better than this. After that one, DECRY released “Japanese” which I remember having bought & sold practically at the same time, haha. Could be that it isn’t that bad after all - taste changes over the years, you know.
Rumor has it, there were only 300 of this 7″ made.
Thanks to all who donated and made it possible, to make this going one more year!
Symptoms of Hate / Fight to survive.mp3
Resurrection.mp3
Strapped in.mp3
Sorority Girls.mp3
I never understood the Mussolini reference of YDI (”why die”). The record title quotes a famous sentence of Italy’s fascist dictator Benisso Mussolini, he coined when Italy’s army attacked Aethiopia in 1935 in order to turn it into a colony. That event was satyrically portrayed by german artist and communist John Heartfield in one of his political photomontages. Heartfield was one of the first artists to make use of the photomontage technique and employed it heavily as part of the fight against nationalsocialism. His motto was: Use photography as weapon. It’s a shame, I think, the YDI cover doesn’t name the artist anywhere. They just say “Thanks especially to Mussolini for the title” in the thankslist. How come?
But anyway, this is one helluva brutal record. It’s actually one of the hardest hitting earlier HC records I can think of. They basically have one riff they’re shredding - but it sure does monstrous! YDI came from Philadelphia. After this EP, they released one LP called “Black Dust” which was famous for its incredibly cheesy pictures of band members and very, I mean VERY bad bad bad metal music. You know, I have more than just a soft spot for Meddl, but seriously, that LP is one disgrace.
Yesterday, a copy of this sold for 305$ on Ebay. I think it has to do with the groups short live clip in “American Hardcore”.
25 $ of donations for the annual costs (hosting and registration) are still receivable. I supply the music, knowledge and time and you the basic costs. In return, you’ll allow yourself and thousands more to make use of this collection of great and hard to find music. Even though this blog is being read globally (that’s why I’m mangling english), the vast majority of donations come from one country, by the way. Thank y’all for the support! And, since I’m feeling a bit hippiesque at this very moment (must be YDI) - getting comments with additional info or just some insight in how others react to the music you love is probably the reason why people put so much work into blogs, especially people of age who would rather start drinking a glass of their own piss every morning than going on shows or discussing music with post-pubertarian little fuckers with baseball hats and chains around their necks. Oops, what had started out in a hippie tone ended on a punk note. Grrreat.
Not Shit.mp3
1983.mp3
Friends.mp3
Mad at the World.mp3
Out for Blood.mp3
Categorized.mp3
Another Day.mp3
Get up & fight / Zombie Youth.mp3
Why die?.mp3
Both tracks are well known and have been released before, but still, this YOUTH BRIGADE (Cali) 7″ is a winner. I remember people didn’t like the bands 7″ (from which the b-side song is taken), but I always loved it. The cover of this is superb too, as always with japanese releases. So, here’s another one for your wantlists and one of my most beloved vinyl oddities. And “Sink with California”, after all these years, still makes me sing long in a jolly good mood.
Here’s the gospel again: Please consider a donation before downloading. I do the work and supply the jewels, you do the housing costs. 30$ remain to be collected and you’re saved for another year!
Sink with California.mp3
Who can you believe in.mp3
This 2nd 7″ by SUBHUMANS is, together with the legendary 2nd LP “No Wishes No Prayers”, the bands highlight. The band had “matured” musically - the raw Punkness of the first 7″, the selftitled 12″ and the masterly “Incorrect Thoughts” had gone (the last two, by the way, are worth having alone for their cover artwork). The music was a bit calmer, the melancholic parts were more accentuated. The results are timeless: “No Productivity” or the insanly sad sounding “Firing Squad” – who could say which is better?
As you can see, the 7″ came in a cover and a printed innersleeve. You see it often being sold in either one of them, but rarely complete.
Before downloading, consider making a donation (see left sidebar for donations button). 80$ out of the 120$ have been collected (thank you all!). 40$ more and another year of good bad music is upon you!
Firing Squad.mp3
No Productivity.mp3
30 years ago, my mom sat in front of the radio with tears in her eyes: “Elvis is dead!”. And now, you can’t open one newspaper or watch 10 minutes telly without reading or hearing silly stories about “the king”.
Well - Germany’s NAPALM (who later morphed into Napalm Death) released a great mockery of Teds in the year of 1980 - “Tolle” (”hair flip”). They had another 7″ one or two years later which was very much UK influenced HC, but this one is where it’s at. I don’t understnd what he’s singing in “Tolle”, but it makes me burst out in laughter whenever I put it on. Great piss take. “Skinhead” is great too - the vocals gt so damn annoying with all the reverb. Totally punk.
Once again - before downloading, please consider making a financial contribution (use the “donations” button on the left sidebar). As soon as the money necessary for one more year of good bad music is collected, the button will disappear. In the last couple of days, 20$ were donated. Thanks much!
Tolle!.mp3
Skinhead.mp3
Happy Sunday.mp3
Actually, I wanted to post MAD SOCIETY’s 7″ (L.A. band) who were famous for their 13 years old singer. But after I ripped it, I thought, no way – that record just sucks and if I’m in the mood for some youthful joy, I’d better stick to this.
VANALLES & NOGWATT’s one and only vinyl appearance ever caused some confusion back in the days. Some people (including the guy typin’) thought this was a split EP of two bands, one being NOGWATT who became quite popular in the mid 80s due to their fantastic 7″ (and maybe due to the fact it was an all-girl band). But in fact, these 5 chumps had picked a rather uncommon band name. Speaking of uncommon and picking up things from the start of this write-up: The funny thing about this slab is that the lads stated their age on the lyric sheet, haha.
They must have gotten shit for their youthful age and when you’re 14 years of age and somebody older pisses you off, what can you do? Exactly - you can form a band and record a great piece of vinyl that in fact doesn’t sound so young at all. All songs on this 7″ are great, and the litttle guitar-stops at the end of “There are Boys” actually are quite a clever thing, if you ask me.
Before downloading, please consider making a donation for the blog. Annual fees are due soon (110$ for hosting and 10$ for registration). You’ll find the donation button on the left side in the first column.
Discobinken.mp3
Doe’t in de lucht.mp3
Rijken.mp3
No Future.mp3
There are Boys.mp3
Gloomy female HC of the metal-free sort - TOZIBABE were one Yugoslavia’s best bands in my books. Their songs on the essential “Hardcore Ljubljana” comp LP (released in 1985; recently re-released from what I heard) were amazing and admitedly better than the four songs on this last sign of life by them. Still, it’s a smasher of a platter and a scarce find. Let’s hope they did get through the bloody civil wars and without turning onto nationalism (like so many of their contemporaries did).
The cheesy synthie-bells intro is so great, and overall, the vocals fit in very well (which isn’t always the case with female vocals in HC). Listen for yourselves.
Dezuje.mp3
Trash.mp3
Ti.mp3
Lutke.mp3
Here’s some more mandatory HC for y’all: The legendary PROCESS OF ELIMINATION compilation from 1981. Three pressings exist. The main diferences between them (apart from diff. label adresses and inserts): First two have silver labels with big holes (first with red print, second with black; 500 made of each) and a third pressing had a small spindle hole and yellow labels.
