You wanna know how to immediately recognize a poseur? Just ask him which the best ANGRY SAMOANS record is and if he responds “Back from Samoa”, you got him! Of course, the SAMOANS ironical view on Hardcore (as on “Samoa”) is a great record, but the early and the late ANGRY SAMOANS is where it’s really at. “Inside my Brain” is flawless and “STP not LSD” is one of the the most exciting albums I can think of.
This 12″ EP here was privately released in 1986, promoting an LP that never came out. Instead, the band decided to re-release this officially in 1987 under the title “Yesterday started tomorrow”. If you have this pressing, please compare the two versions. I think I heard that this had a different mix, but I’m not sure.
This EP sounds like the missing link between the first EP and “STP”. You can hear that they were still in search for (new old) sound. The plus of this one: It’s way more desperate sounding than “STP”. There’s a stronger 60s Garage / Psycho influence hereon, making this not quite as accessible.
I didn’t like it when it came out and gave it a bad review in Megawimp, but like so often, I was sooooo wrong.
Different World.mp3
Electrocution.mp3
It’s raining today.mp3
Unhinged.mp3
Psyched-out 129.mp3
Somebody to love.mp3
26 Comments
Ha, ha, I am cyber stalking you Erich. Didn’t like these guys way back when, kind of the dime a dozen garage punk thing. Gotta say though that this is some rockin stuff in that Green Day kind of way, minus the mass media capitalist bourgeois appeal. It takes a man to admit he was sooooo wrong. Seriously though Psyched-out 129 was the highlight for me, but the Jefferson Airplane (The Great Society) cover while nice in that they made it their own song, was probably the weakest on the record.
[Reply]
Their best record is Back from Samoa!
[Reply]
Hmm Back to Samoa
[Reply]
STP, STP, I’d rather have you than .. you know.
[Reply]
hmmm…iama poseur and i don’t care!
back from samoa.
hands down!
[Reply]
are we having hardcore-issues lately, erich?
I like “back from samoa” the best but yeah stp not lsd if awesome too, in a different way. never saw this ep before and after a first check I think it has a different sound than the normal version. another great post!!! and please erich: come back to the hardcore family. 
[Reply]
Le Hardcore, c’est moi. Haha – no, I’m not at all on a anti-HC trip. If you knew what the next post will be, already in the queue ….. TOTAL hc!!!!
[Reply]
I agree with Erich that Inside My Brain is the best, but it’s all good up through this record! OK, not Yesterday Started Tomorrow.
[Reply]
Nice to see you give some attention to a less obvious record. It’s Raining Today is a big fave of mine! On the other hand I also happen think Back From Samao is the best, a true classic. Can you also spot poseurs on which Black Flag record they think is the best?
[Reply]
Inside My Brain had troubles in the Studio. Spot was the engineer and fucked it up. It took a ton of salvaging to get the record to sound good. For that reason, Back From Somoa is the king. I think that was Pat Burnette as engineer who also did Germs (G.I.), Gun Club Fire of Love, Fleasheaters Minute to Pray, Misfits Walk Among Us, etc. But don’t forget the minute and a half Queer Pills record. Quite a shock when I first found out it was Somaons (pre-Back From Somoa).
[Reply]
Although I admit I haven’t listened to this, Back From Samoa will clearly be remembered as their lasting contribution to the history of hardcore. Plus it is their only record with cool artwork.
Black Flag is much tougher decision. I like everything thru Damaged but Jealous Again was one of my first h/c records and is a fave of mine.
[Reply]
It has been a while since I listened to the STP-era Samoans so I will give it another listen to be fair. But, goddammit, “Back From Samoa” is one of my favorite LP’s of all time and was one of the very first punk/HC records I bought in the 80′s (aka way back when my posing began- har har Erich). In terms of Black Flag, Dez was their best singer hands down and my favorite song of theirs is “Damaged II” but ONLY the version with Dez singing that appeared on Everything Went Black. But the whole Black Flag query is a WHOLE ‘nother thread in itself that will crowd up the comments for this Angry Samoans posting.
[Reply]
Back From Samoa kills this!
[Reply]
Okay, okay, before I lose the last bit of respect, I admit: I share the same amount of love for both “Stp” and “Samoa”. The quality of love is dfifferent though: “Stp” will forever be connected to the love of my life, while “Samoa” was one of the first records I bought that had a sound like hardly anything I had heard before.
Is that better now?
[Reply]
I thought STP was a shitty record, guess i’ll have to check it out.
[Reply]
…the love of your life? hmm, now that is somewthing to think about.
[Reply]
Oh no, please
[Reply]
‘samoa’ gets big props for artwork, great tunes & irreverance, but ‘inside my brain’ is scuzzier & snottier & more garage – both fantastic tho…when i heard this 12″ i was really disappointed (ie. it wasnt HARDCORE), but then really got to love it – the songs are great esp. ‘somebody to love’…the one thread that shines thru all this is that the samoans just write great simple hooky songs, regardless of style. STP just never did it for me tho…seemed to tap too much into that jokey college mid80′s…annoying.
[Reply]
…btw the Flag question is easy…anything up to & including ‘damaged’…then forget it. Even Mr Rollins has confessed this too…
[Reply]
I love all Samoans…especially, “Poshboy’s Cock”…the lyrics to that song crack me up every time I hear it. It never gets old. It wasn’t bad enough to put Rodney down…they had to take it one step further and fuck with Robby too. Hilarious.
[Reply]
I’m going the extra poseur mile in revealing that Back From Samoa is the only Angry Samoans record I’ve ever even heard all the way through. I took what the record store and my friends gave me and, in a way, I guess I was as lame as those who depended on the radio to provide them with their soundtrack for life. Now I depend on Joe, Erich, and Peter. I’ve gotten even lamer!
[Reply]
Um, I’m not so sure Back From Samoa is “ironical”, even though there appears to be irony at work. The true quality of high irony is that it’s indistinguishable from sincerity!
Back From Samoa is THE CLASSIC of the Samoas corpus, even if Metal Mike nowadays thinks Brain is the best. (Note that of course I’m transparently a poseur, since my ancestry is not red-blooded Samoan.)
As for the other albums, I didn’t care that much for Inside My Brain when it came out: “Hot Cars” was great, but they fucked up the songs from the original repertoire on all the other tracks. Naturally I liked the re-release better (i.e., I’m playing on the new Side Two).
YST is great except for the lame rendition of “Somebody to Love” and the fact that Mike got me pissed off: I first heard “Unhinged” on the radio! Mike hadn’t even bothered to tell me about the new release, much less send me a copy! Sheeeit!
STP is pretty good, and has some great tracks (e.g., “Garbage Pit”, “Death of Beewak”), but listening to it recently I found I didn’t like the guitar sound that much. Too synthetic, too fuzz-boxy.
“Live at Rhino Records” would have been great if the re-mastering of the tape had not somehow sucked all the guitars out of the mix. Someday, this will be remedied.
As for “The 90′s Suck and So Do You”, I never liked it. It took me a re-listening to realize that 1) the songs are good 2) the production sucks.
In closing, I will modestly submit that all Samoans liner notes not authored by “Wayne Davis” are unmitigated bullshit.
[Reply]
Thanks for the info, Bonze. You of course ain’t no poseur, haha.
[Reply]
I have another version of this 12″. It has printed labels and a pic from lee harvey oswald on the b-side. cat # BToo1 on bad trip, 1986. what’s that for a press?
[Reply]
I is poseur… but I am at least an educated poseur! I own everything except the I’m in love with your mom CD that wasn’t released..
[Reply]
I am a total poseur, but my credentials as such are somewhat comprimised (apparently) by the fact that my Samoans fave is the “Queer Pills” EP, rather than “Back From Samoa”.
It’s all killer, no filler.
[Reply]
Post a Comment