UPRIGHT CITIZENS from Germany were one of the first & major Euro Hardcore bands with an “american” sound. The bands first two releases, the incredible “Bombs of Peace” MiniLP and the great “Make the Future mine and yours” LP set new standards for Hardcore in Germany (and beyond): A clean, crisp sound, a tight rhythm section, english lyrics and a “metallic” guitar. To this day, UPRIGHT CITIZENS have not lost a bit of their grandezza and if their sound makes you think of bands such as SOCIAL DISTORTION or later TOXIC REASONS, I can only agree with that.
“Facts and Views” was released in Sweden. I have no information about this label and what else they did release. On this final EP however (at least it was the final UPRIGHT CITIZENS release that I know of), they got even better! The opener, “Dead Blood” is shockingly hooky and “Future Dreams” turns out to be a really beautiful, balladesque song which shows the band’s potential. Flip the record over and you have two re-doings: The anthemic “Bombs of Peace” from the same titled MiniLP and “Swatika Rats” which was on the 1983 LP and the legendary “Peace War” double album compilation (and on the “Beating the Meat” comp). “Right Way” is yet another hit – so catchy and clever. Why is that such bands often go nearly unnoticed of?!
This is Premium Hardcore – Gold Standard! I’m currently not aware of any legitimate reissues – please fill us all in. And make sure everybody you buy the first two 12inchers!
Dead Blood.mp3
Future Dreams.mp3
Bombs of Peace.mp3
Swastika Rats.mp3
Right Way.mp3
25 Comments
thank you erich this is what i had in mind. and thanks to me being up all night looking for good punk i got what i’m looking for. erich keller thank you for all the good music you’ve given me for the past year or so.
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Skvaller records info
http://www.swedishpunk.com/labels.php?id=97
Skvaller fanzine
http://www.swedishpunk.com/fanzines.php?id=22 (info)
http://punksishippies.blogspot.com/search?q=skvaller (actual zine to read)
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schick!
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thanks for sharing, it’s pretty good!
Olivier
ps: i hear the saints on the second song.
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thanks for this, i loved the track on the peace comp.
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Not the 2nd Jaguar 7″ you tease and I won’t be expecting that one ever, but what a perfect follow up, like changing stations on the radio. Equally good but highlighting a different trend.
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I promise you’ll get to hear that second JAGUAR 7″ really soon. Fingers crossed, hahaha. No, really.
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I can’t believe I never heard of this band before. This is among the BEST I heard on your blog!!!!! You fucking genius!!!!!!!!!!
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i can hear a lot of social distortion on this. how do you discover so many good bands? i mekn if it weren’t for you peter and justen i wouldn’t have discovered a lot of the bands i like.
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Fantastic record. Thanks.
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Upright Citizens are one of the only german punk bands that i like, or that ive heard anyway. i think my teeny punk band used to cover Stand Up.. their cover of Holocaust also opened up another band for me by the name of Crisis. I think that BYO did reissues of some of the LPs, though im not sure when or which ones
good show, cheers!
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Much better than I expected. Not bad at all as a matter of fact, which makes me regret that I’ve never bothered to pick it up. Thankfully it shows up quite often here in Sweden, so the next time I’ll see it I’m gonna make it mine. I think the list of releases on Skvaller records is a bit incomplete as I think I’ve seen some other German (or maybe Finnish) bands records on that label as well. Can’t remember them though.
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I was introduced to UC by their BYO release ‘Brains To Think And A Mouth To Speak’ (1985?)… which I loved. It was one of the first LPs I ripped when I caught on to the whole vinyl to mp3 thang. Have since picked up most of their recorded output in the blogosphere. Stands the test of time because there is actually a bit of musicianship and songwriting going on here. Your rips are, as usual, of the highest quality so I will be upgrading my ‘Facts and Views’ files. Thanks.
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this is great! thanks
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hmm, not super great but still good. Sounds like a band that, if they had been from Sweden, would have ended up on somthing that Baba would have put on the Hardcore for the masses LP.
Now we need more Jaguar.
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I love your dedication and the energy you put into this blog. it must be a real honor for any band to get exposure on goodbadmusic. your writing is always very inspiring and is more like a manual to the sound than anything I ever read. that’s what’s so great about your blog, apart from the incredible quality of your rips. I think it’s not only the 320 b/s encoding, is it?
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Great stuff! I usually go for atypical german hardcore like Vorkriegsphase or Chaos Z but I was actually surprised to like a foreign band that sounds like American hc. Keep the great blog going Erich!
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Wow. They had the most memorable songs on the Welcome to 1984 and PEACE comps. When I hear “Stand Up” it really transports me back to my youth and I get a bit choked up, hahaha. I gotta track down the rest of their output. Thanks for the kick start.
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Vhot?
Zis iz nhot Kraftverk?!
Cuz uv zis yoo vill ahll be TERMINATED!!!!
Ya
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Swastika Rats is great, forever a classic, the rest is ok/good but not too earth shattering for me. Always liked the sleeve with that Dutch Master color book from the toystore feel…
On the topic of German bands, does anybody know if there’s ANY Fortschreitende Angstzustande tracks apart for the What Doesn’t Hurt us tracks??
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Wow. I am so glad. I have been looking for stuff by these guys for hella! Their stuff just ain’t available anymore. Thanks for fixin that.
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Thank you so much for this! In ex-Yugoslavia it was mostly taped records and this 7″ was on one of my frist 5 punk tapes that I ever had. Nostalgia overdrive here. Thanks.
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Cool. This is the only U.C. record I don’t have. Seems to me that all tracks except Right Way are on the 12 inches–going from memory. First 4 tracks are like a U.C. greatest hits, in my opinion. Great stuff.
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Only “Bombs of Peace” seems really weak if you compare it to the 12″ version….
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so, i felt like downloading somehting from the site and decided it would be a nice tribute to take that upright citizens (that i own but haven’t listened to in VERY long time). u.c. were a real class act, i remember having been pen pals with their singer for a short bit in 82. or to be more precise: he was the first guy in the scene that iwrote a letter to and simply couldn’t believe it that not only did he answer but was nice enough to write a whole page to some little punk in munich. wow. i had bought the first 12″ as a recommendation from vinyl boogie who were way into these guys – my first order from a mail order. the other record i ordered back then was the “leather, bristles, studs and acne” 12″ by charged gbh (and a third one, i just don’t remember what it was – maybe some discharge 7″). so that pretty much was the jackpot. i think upright citizens were pretty much the first german hc-band that toured the states. and i’m pretty sure the drummer stayed in the states and joined some hairmetal bands in l.a.
ps: what blew me away the most was the look of the guitar player – he looked like a bank clerk or some guy from the german military. great memories!
pps: live they were absolutely incredible. first time i saw them was after their us tour, and they were just so insanely powerful.
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