JERK WARD- Too young to thrash 12″EP (Supreme Echo, Canada, 2009)
Canada’s JERK WARD were one of these almost legendary local bands of the early 80s who never released vinyl, but had a reputation among tape traders. Jason Flower (formerly of DEMENTIA and MEXICAN POWER AUTHORITY) once again unearths one of these treasures. Before trying to hard to find my own words, let me just copypaste the promo text from Jason’s own hand:
«Jerk Ward officially formed September 1982 as a young teen trio consisting of Randy Long – bass/vocals, Stephen McBean – guitar/vocals, and John London – drums. Making noise together since late 1980, their earliest anthems included “Kill the Pongos”, “Nana Mouskouri Sings Punk Rock”, and their cult-hit “UFO”. The boys soon befriended local hardcore group the Neos, propelling them to play faster, shorter, and better as they progressed.
Spring ‘83 the group recorded unique rehearsal tapes for people who’d mailed them tapes, followed by a summer session for the BYO Victoria compilation tape, and by September they played their first show alongside Dischord recording artists Scream. At the show they met Julian, the only person they knew who had one of their mailorder rehearsal tapes. With Randy taking on lead vocals, Julian joined on bass and they played their first gig as a quartet November ‘83. Their first official demo, “Inside My Head” was recorded by Neos guitarist Steve Bailey and circulated in very small numbers, with one copy even receiving a positive review by Tim Yohannon in Maximum Rock n Roll Magazine.
Returning to the Bailey basement in April ‘84, they recorded the now legendary “Flesh & Bones” demo. Kev Smith and Steve Bailey (ex-Neos) had spent most of the previous winter making basement recordings and subsequently had guest appearances on the “Flesh & Bones” session. At the end of May, John and Kev formed the band Sludge Confrontations, debuting with Jerk Ward on June of ‘84, which would also be Randy’s final show with the group.
Having two solid years of growth behind them, Jerk Ward folded in summer of ‘84 after a gig as a trio in Vancouver and a final show in Steve Bailey’s basement. Bed-tracks to a final recording session were done during the day of their final show, however vocals were never recorded. Some of the songs later resurfaced with overdubbed parts by Steve and Kev on the basement studio project Harvest of Seaweed.
Randy was tragically shot dead by a policeman during a domestic dispute in 1990. Likewise, bass player Julian sadly commited suicide in the mid-90’s. John most recently played drums for local punk’n'roll group Budokan…Kev plays in Mexican Power Authority…and Stephen presently resides in Vancouver playing with Black Mountain, Pink Mountaintops, and Older Skull.»
Great hi-energy thrash, much in the vein of NEOS and guaranteed to make you jump around all day long! Make sure you get yourself a copy of this limited edition 12er. It’s 25$ p.p. (worldwide). ust click the Paypal-button below of get in touch with Jason (link above).
U.F.O.mp3
Flesh & Bones.mp3
Major Threat Pt. II
F.U. Quincy.mp3
Kill the Pongos.mp3
Note from 13. February 2010: Jason asked me to take down the complete blog post due to the nastiness in the comments section. I’ve taken down the mp3 files, but at this point, I’m not going to remove the whole entry. I made it a policy to let through practically everything, except for blatant racism, death threats and such. I do not feel this post has gone too far until now to justify such a radical action. Anyway, if you attack somebody personally, please at least have the courage not to hide into anonymity.
Lars Wounders wrote:
Kill the pongos is great. Will buy this!!!
Actually I hoped for another post of Swiss Punk though
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Posted on 07-Feb-10 at 3:21 pm | Permalink
Xcon wrote:
Sounds good, but $25 for an LP? does it come with a $10 bill pasted to the cover?
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Posted on 07-Feb-10 at 3:54 pm | Permalink
Admin wrote:
25$ for a 300 press run and incl. worldwide airmail ain’t too much, I think.
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Posted on 07-Feb-10 at 4:20 pm | Permalink
spike wrote:
25$ for a 12″ is a rip off. Music is good but I’m not supporting this capitalist attitude.
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Posted on 07-Feb-10 at 6:09 pm | Permalink
Steve wrote:
spike wrote:
25$ for a 12″ is a rip off. Music is good but I’m not supporting this capitalist attitude.
Some people don’t get the concept of inflationary economics. ; )
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Posted on 07-Feb-10 at 10:44 pm | Permalink
Steve wrote:
Also MUCHO thanks Erich for posting this as I’m looking forward to hearing it. Always thought the Neos were cool.
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Posted on 07-Feb-10 at 10:46 pm | Permalink
stinky82 wrote:
I don´t think that Jason has a capitalist intents, rather that high costs because of small pressing. I have a couple of records he did and they are great, done with love. I´ve heard a lot about upcomming NEOS LP, with unreleased ´83 session, but everything I´ve got is poorly looking bootleg LP (a bootleg of CD I guess) with both old EPs and “Fight with Donald” EP. But I doubt it is a Jason´s work.
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Posted on 08-Feb-10 at 12:16 am | Permalink
Jay Thurston wrote:
The songs are too slow and way too long. I hate it.
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Posted on 08-Feb-10 at 3:21 am | Permalink
RAYMOND S. wrote:
For any of you interested in the scene that spawned this monster, check out the very swanky 2cd+book comp, ALL YOUR EARS CAN HEAR. http://www.myspace.com/allyourearscanhear
Includes tracks by Red Tide, Dayglo Abortions, Dishrags, Neos and more. Some of the recordings are a “little rough”, though excusable in my opinion. There are few documents of 1st and 2nd generation Canadian punk and hardcore of this magnitude; this ain’t no Last-Pogo!
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Posted on 08-Feb-10 at 6:23 pm | Permalink
chano wrote:
HAHAHA!!! This is HORRIBLE. Jay’s right…
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Posted on 08-Feb-10 at 8:00 pm | Permalink
Admin wrote:
I’m sure Jay was being ironic, Chano.
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Posted on 08-Feb-10 at 8:08 pm | Permalink
Simon wrote:
Re: Spike.
Dude, no one gives a fuck what you do or do not support. People who matter are busy out there doing it, leaving it to dumb punker mediocrities to whine in the dark.
At least half the cost of this LP from Canada would be postage, and the rest is basically cost for a 12″ pressed in an edition of 300, meaning that Jason’s doing this purely out of desire to spread music and local history.
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Posted on 08-Feb-10 at 8:12 pm | Permalink
chano wrote:
Me too, Erich. This is really fucking good. In the vein of NEOS or early italian hc.
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Posted on 08-Feb-10 at 8:16 pm | Permalink
Small is beatiful wrote:
I really like Kill The Pongos. The rest just don´t do it for me. Hmm have to give it a couple of spins again.
By the way me too recommend the All your ears… excellent book and CDs! Buy or die! Support capitalism now.
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Posted on 08-Feb-10 at 9:08 pm | Permalink
chano wrote:
Fuck politically correct jerks!!! Let’s destroy the enviroment and support capitalism. And listen RUDIMENTARY PENI 24h everyday…
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Posted on 08-Feb-10 at 10:27 pm | Permalink
Jason Flower wrote:
fools, it costs $17 for me to send the LP worldwide. I pay my artists and do in depth biographies; I press at good plants with proper remastering, and don’t have a rich daddy paying for my lifestyle.
it’s $19ppd in North America, and $25 world. Hardcore fans have the ability to seriously be some of the cheapest, most hypocritical bunch of shit-talking fools I have experienced in any social scene.
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Posted on 10-Feb-10 at 9:17 pm | Permalink
Jason Flower wrote:
“I´ve got is poorly looking bootleg LP (a bootleg of CD I guess) with both old EPs and “Fight with Donald” EP. But I doubt it is a Jason´s work.”
a bootleg from my CD, made by some German rich kids. they must gave made about 5000EU profit on it. thats capitalism. I lived in Europe for ten years and everyone knows i retain the publishing representation for it. nobody contacted me, they didn;t even send copies of their boot. assholes.
“For any of you interested in the scene that spawned this monster, check out the very swanky 2cd+book comp, ALL YOUR EARS CAN HEAR. There are few documents of 1st and 2nd generation Canadian punk and hardcore of this magnitude; this ain’t no Last-Pogo!”
yeh, and we sell it hand to hand for $20 (or more ppd); a REAL book with two cd’s. gave free copies to every member and hosted reunion concerts. other Canadian punk books (without any cd’s) cost $40. …when I did the Jerk ward LP I put on two reunions for them and have still not broken even from LP sales.
thanks to those who support my work which generates no profit at all…and hey I wish it did, because I certainly deserve it.
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Posted on 10-Feb-10 at 9:26 pm | Permalink
xxxHARDCORExxx wrote:
why release hc records when you hate hc people so much? you suck jason and so does goodbadmusic (= anti-hc blog!).
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Posted on 10-Feb-10 at 9:54 pm | Permalink
Jason Flower wrote:
i don’t hate anybody, that’s a complete waste of energy & totally counter productive. if people make inaccurate, naive, incorrect comments filled with fire, I have a right to express the facts as well my impressions of their ignorance. vinyl is an oil bi-product and very expensive to manufacture, I pay courier services, royalties, etc and make nothing. if you want it for free, download it somewhere stop complaining.
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Posted on 10-Feb-10 at 10:23 pm | Permalink
roswell47 wrote:
chill out, jason, everyone with even the slightest knowledge of hardcore punk history knows how important your dedicated efforts have always been and still are. no need to explain or excuse anything at all to some clueless lowlives that want everything shoved up their pretentious assholes for free without giving anything back whatsoever. little consumerist pussies hiding behind a screen, no life, no sex, no friends. who cares?
on topic: brilliant LP, a true labour of love! i bought it right upon release and it’s worth every fucking $$$.
yes, you pussies, postage is not the same as on those flyers from 1983 that you jerk off daily to. punk records however still ARE the same more or less, which is a complete self-exploitation, by the way.
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Posted on 11-Feb-10 at 12:24 am | Permalink
What's the Truth? wrote:
Haha so Erich posts not one or two, but five whole songs from this release for free and now this an “anti-hc blog.”
Cool sound, it does remind me of Neos a bit.
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Posted on 11-Feb-10 at 2:57 am | Permalink
Jason Flower wrote:
it’s all good guys…just after 26 years of doing this stuff, the rather ungrateful sense of privilege ’some’ of these rare few smart asses have can occasionally get to me.
these archives take so much time. v/a Victim of Safety Pin LP and Retsepti CD were academic in their overview of those scenes. I have 11 more archives I’m working on, plus 2 new books. by the time they’re all done another decade may pass.
thanks Roswell, and yes I am definitely chillin’ !
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Posted on 12-Feb-10 at 1:05 am | Permalink
Allan Jones wrote:
This is really bad generic hardcore done by rich surburban teenagers. That compilation “All your ears can hear” is incredibly bad too. The Viletones and the Ugly were the real deal. Period.
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Posted on 13-Feb-10 at 4:47 am | Permalink
victoria falling wrote:
problem with jason is: he’s acting as if he was in the 80s scene when in fact he wasn’t. 26 years? give me a break. you’re in your 30s kiddo. no problem with that but “why be something that youre not”?
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Posted on 13-Feb-10 at 11:26 am | Permalink
Admin wrote:
Easy folks. Would you guys tell him the same eye to eye?
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Posted on 13-Feb-10 at 11:35 am | Permalink
Jason Flower wrote:
I started my first band when I was 11, a fanzine at 13 (1986), and so on. I’m 37 years old and done with this topic.
http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=101061656&blogId=496770826
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Posted on 13-Feb-10 at 3:51 pm | Permalink
chris wrote:
I was in my high school’s big band in 1977 = I was a punk from day one on. hahaha
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Posted on 13-Feb-10 at 4:35 pm | Permalink
chris wrote:
ps : man taking down the files because of this is laaaaamme
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Posted on 13-Feb-10 at 6:07 pm | Permalink
jimmie wrote:
“This is really bad generic hardcore done by rich surburban teenagers”
Most hardcore (then and now) was/is done by rich suburban teenagers. Think Minor Threat were poor white trash? Think again!
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Posted on 18-Feb-10 at 1:59 am | Permalink
whiskers delux wrote:
Cheers to Jason for putting all these records out ! I for one appreciate linear notes , photos , and quality vinyl .
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Posted on 18-Feb-10 at 9:01 pm | Permalink