Fuckshitupism deluxe.
UNDERDOG- s/t 7″EP (New Beginning Records, USA, 1986)
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
jj.n wrote:
I recommend the first Iron Maiden selftitled album that are more punkrock than they ever did after that and their best album
Killers is the second best but cant compare with the first one 
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Posted on 28-Aug-07 at 8:00 am | Permalink
University Update - West 8 - UNDERDOG- s/t 7?EP (New Beginning Records, USA, 1986) wrote:
[...] the Webmaster UNDERDOG- s/t 7?EP (New Beginning Records, USA, 1986) » This Summary is from an article posted at Good bad Music for bad, bad Times! on Tuesday, August [...]
Posted on 28-Aug-07 at 8:09 am | Permalink
Admin wrote:
Well, if I would wanna hear Punkrock, I wouldn’t put up Maiden, you know. Actually, Killers is easily the band’s best and “punkiest” and yes, I know the first one, I bought it in 1980, shortly before I saw the band live opening for Kiss ….
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Posted on 28-Aug-07 at 8:13 am | Permalink
D-Raven wrote:
Hey, I like the “jock music”!
A dreadful thing to admit, i know, but its true.
And Ray Cappo was a very, very sexy man. It’s the healthy lifestyle and the machismo….
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Posted on 28-Aug-07 at 1:12 pm | Permalink
Squarefart wrote:
These guys came to play in my town back in the day(Philly)… Rockin’ band.. That year(1986) pretty much was the end of hardcore unfortunately.
But I could easily understand why. People were getting tired of hardcore by then. By then most bands where following a very standardized way of playing. Underdog however, had nice breaks in their tunes. -Made’um stand out a bit.
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Posted on 28-Aug-07 at 4:36 pm | Permalink
Eddie wrote:
I agree that hardcore music died in ’86 and it didn’t make sense that hc bands were playing like speed metal bands who copied their style. After ’86, a lot of those Revelation bands popped up like Underdog and they were okay but it wasn’t the same and then in the 90s Power Violence became the thing and I think PV is fucking awesome but it still wasn’t the ’83 hardcore I listened to.
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Posted on 29-Aug-07 at 9:07 am | Permalink
Admin wrote:
Oh yes, PV. totally forgot about it. When we released the first INFEST record on our label in 88, I was very much into it and I’d say that even in the 90s you’d occasionally hear a good band. But HC as a movement definitely ceased to exist in the mid-80s. And, speaking of Revoltation: I still love that first CHAIN OF STRENGTH 7″.
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Posted on 29-Aug-07 at 9:23 am | Permalink
Tony wrote:
Nice insightful posting! My favorite track off of this EP has always been “Not Like You” especially with its monstrous drum bashing during the, ahem, “mosh part” of the song. Punk was in a pretty dreadful state when I got into it in 1987 and this posting brings back some memories of all of those “Youth Crew of Youth” bands that popped up around that time. Something I’ve theorized after all these years is how punk follows the familiar model of how history is a set of actions and reactions. Here goes– initially ’77 punk was a reaction against the dreadful 70′s disco and bloated rock bands. We all know that of course. Then within punk itself there were different actions and reactions. In 1981 straight edge was a reaction to the drugged out and/or drunken ’77 punks of the scene. When people grew tired of straight edge “rules”, one reaction was the “let’s party” HC and crossover HC of the mid 80′s where people gave up short hair and grew their hair long, sang about drinking, partying, etc. (of course I’m not implying all punk followed this pattern though). The late 80′s “Youth Crew of Youth” bands then reacted against the mid 80′s party bands by cutting their hair short, becoming clean cut, dressing conservatively, working out and whatever else. The high water mark of that scene was probably 1988. Then by the late 80′s and early 90′s, some bands reacated to the Youth of Todays by playing more “melodic” HC or emo-ish-type stuff (see that “State of the Union” comp LP from ’89 for many examples). Then in the early-to-mid 90′s, people reacted against wimpy emo-ish HC and the “garage revival” and return of 77-ish/KBD-type punk flourished (and still does today a lot). Whayda think? Do you think this is complete horseshit from some “old guy” in his mid-30′s? Let me know…
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Posted on 29-Aug-07 at 10:42 am | Permalink
Admin wrote:
Thanks Tony for the dedicated comment – that’s what blogs like this need!
I like your concept of “Youth Crew of Youth”. The ups and downs or dialectic (maybe “Action / reaction”, as you say) interpretation is what comes to mind first, looking back. I guess one thing you have left out is the popularization / commercialisation of “underground music” in general, connecting it directly and closely to what was going around the “scene” globally.
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Posted on 29-Aug-07 at 11:16 am | Permalink
Richard Ridden wrote:
I love this ep. The LP was classic. I followed everything Richie did after Underdog, and was a huge fan of Into Another. The Underdog LP had Chuck the guitar player from McRad and a great skater. Please post the LP sometime. Also keep up the great work as usual. I love this blog.
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Posted on 03-Sep-07 at 10:01 am | Permalink
Joe Stumble wrote:
I saw these guys in St Louis around this time. Laffinstock opened.
Laffinstock were better!
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Posted on 06-Sep-07 at 10:48 am | Permalink
Smitty wrote:
Never thought I’d find this here of all places but glad I did. For the record, in NYC UD weren’t considered a “youth crew” band and though Richie did play with YOT their relationships with those bands were tenuous at best. I mean the bassist was previously in Murphy’s Law, you know “Why don’t you drinking fucking beer?/ What’s a matter are you Queer?”, and “Not Like You” was a pretty direct slam against their “elitist crew.” If anything there were like a surrogate Bad Brains, the band everyone liked; skins, sXe’ers, tough guys, skaters, etc. And though you can definitely hear the future of metal-referent New York “hawdkaw” in this 7″s grooves it’s way more punk than some of the shit that came after them and those dudes were definitely very aware of the real shit and had a lot of love for it. Random-geek correction, Chuck Treece didn’t play on the LP, Richie did, but did tour with them around the time of it’s release.
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Posted on 18-Nov-08 at 11:30 am | Permalink
Chris wrote:
Underdog are playing an All Ages show at Santos Party House in NYC on June 12, 2010 with Hub City Stompers, Inhuman, Billy Club Sandwich and Staring Problem.
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Posted on 25-Apr-10 at 10:18 pm | Permalink