Poison Idea / Ray & Glover - Single At Christmas 

Label: Tim/Kerr Records; Year: 1993; Format: Picture Disc 7" Single

Last night I listened to an entertaining episode of the "Vinyl Guide" podcast with Jerry A of Poison Idea fame as a guest. The interview prompted me to go through one of my 7" boxes to see which Poison Idea EPs I have and at the very end of the box I stumbled across this nice Christmas split between Portland's finest and the Blues/Folk duo Ray & Glover. So tonight I sat down to not just listen to the two songs but to type up the last entry for this year as every blogger needs a break too, and I am certainly craving one from my job and from my hobby. Poison Idea crank out a great version of the classic "Santa Claus is back in town" while digging deep into the blues while on the other side Ray & Glover deliver a nice and slow bluesy number with "I'm mad at the fat man". 

A nice and fitting end to my blog entries for this year me thinks and with having said that I would like to extend my thanks to everybody that has read my blog these past few months since I have been active again, it is much appreciated. 2023 will bring you more of the same so be ready for a wild ride and until then enjoy the holiday festivities and a happy and healthy New Year to you all!

Alice Bag - Violence Girl (East L.A. Rage to Hollywood Stage, A Chicana Punk Story) 

Publisher: Feral House; Year: 2011; Format: Softcover Book

If you are struggling with an idea what to gift your loved one or a good friend then let me tell you a book always works, just ask my wife. In all fairness though I should be ashamed of myself for reviewing Alice Bag's book now approaching 2023 whereas it was published in 2011, right around the time I started this blog. I must be one of the world's best procrastinators but better late than never I suppose. Alice Bag (nee Alicia Armendariz) was born in the late 1950's and reached probably the perfect age by the time the punk rock explosion hit the City of Angels. Let me be clear though that while this book definitely deals a lot with the early LA punk scene seen through the lenses of Alice it is by no means a book just about that. And that is one of the main reasons why I would say it belongs in the Top 10 of the many punk rock autobiographies having been written in the last decade and some. Alice is a truly gifted writer and this book is just rich of stories from her interesting life having been brought up in East Los Angeles to Mexican-born parents who migrated to the United States. In that sense Alice was not just an outsider in the greater society when punk rock hit, but also an outsider within the caucasian dominated subculture itself. She is the survivor of domestic violence against her mother with a father whom Alice referred to as a "monster", but she is also proud of her heritage and explains in details what it was like to grow up as a Chicana in East LA. Music played a role in Alice's life before punk rock and Elton John, David Bowie and the English Disco were a big deal not just for Alice but many others that would soon find out about a music style much rawer and much more open to people with less talent. Don't worry as the book does eventually take you on a wild ride through the early days of punk rock in Los Angeles and of course The Bags play a vital role in all those stories told. I have read this book years ago and just reread the chapter when The Bags played a show with Rhino 39 in San Diego and how some of the people along with Black Randy took a trip across the border to Mexico the following day turning into a wild adventure. This book is probably one of those that at some point in the future I will read again cover to cover as it is just so well-written and packed with not just fascinating anecdotes but real inspiration from page 1. Last but not least Alice became a teacher and even spent some time in Nicaragua helping out children in that part of the world. She's also somebody that has managed to stay interesting and true to herself up to this day while still performing music and as far as I know now living in Mexico maintaining a blog about the many interesting and fascinating aspects of living there. One of my all time favorite books, period. 

V/A - Let's Get Pissed - It's Christmas Volume Two LP

Label: Cult; Year: 1986(?); Format: Vinyl LP

Tis' the season they say hence I opted to pull the second Volume of the "Let's Get Pissed" Compilations off my shelves to put you dear readers in a festive mood. Let's just say that in case you have this at home or you listen to it through some streaming device, or even better on a cassette made by your friend then your drink of choice should never be too far. As for myself I haven't listened to this one in a long time but wasn't expecting any surprises as the bands on this Compilation are pretty much all well known to me. The one thing about Rot Records, or in this case Cult (a sublabel of Rot), is that their releases are really cheap and often without any information about the bands. Such is the case with this LP as there is no insert nor anything pertaining to actually anybody involved with this record, and that includes the label itself, and that's just bang out of order and I think Santa would agree with me. But, enough of my moaning here and let's get down to the music on this piece of vinyl as the nine bands from around the globe delivering you for the most part unhinged hardcore punk attacks should help you to warm up to the Christmas spirit. I must confess that I was pleasantly surprised hearing the three tracks by Yugoslavian band U.B.R, a band I remembered just being a bit too noisy even for my liking, but the songs on here are just great noisy hardcore without any hint of grindcore. Also outstanding are the two tracks by Brazilian legends Colera and Finnish Hardcore Punk gods Rattus. Killroy from Southern California and Germany's Normahl and Maniacs deliver solid and more melodic hardcore punk whereas Sweden's Fear Of War crank out tracks in Anti Cimex fashion but just really not as good. The two Italian acts Rappresaglia and Pedago Party round off this international affair that should have you slam around your Christmas tree while knocking back some tall ones. Burn down the tree! 

PS. The track by Italian band Pedago Party is not to be found on the back side of the sleeve.

T.S.T - S/T LP

Label: River Records; Year: 1982; Format: Vinyl LP

T.S.T (The Shock Treatment) formed in the spring of 1977 in Vasteras, Sweden, about an hour west of Stockholm. As you can tell by their band name they must have been Ramones fans but by the time their first titled first LP came out in 1982 their influences have shifted drastically towards the underground sounds from the UK. As a matter of fact listening to the record tonight I would say the members of the band must have bought and loved records by the following bands from the British Isles: Discharge, GBH, The Business, Violators, Red Alert and Anti Nowhere League. Before this first LP the band released two EPs and after having split up for a while they reformed with the idea to take the band in a more electronic direction having been influenced by acts like Fad Gadget or Human League according to the info in "The Encyclopedia of Swedish Punk 1977-1987" book. The UK82 sound must have changed their minds as this LP is a truly good mixture of either Punk/Oi influenced tracks or songs more in the Discharge/GBH vein. River Records was apparently a record store in Vasteras and released some of the band's catalogue which is unfortunately hard to obtain on reissues hence my hope is that I will get to hear the rest of the band's output on some reissue in the near future. According to the book mentioned above Nalle (Bass/Vocals) was quite a character and at one point wrestled a cop into a fountain and on another occasion at a Peace Festival pissed on the stage ensuing in a fight with the sound engineer. Got to love the Swedish Drunk Punks. Many years after T.S.T's demise Guitarist and Vocalist Jarmo Makkeli became a member in Swedish Punk'N'Roll outfit Psychopunch, a band my friend and I actually organized a gig for in Switzerland some good twenty years ago. Shame I didn't know about his T.S.T past that night and I would have talked his ears off....

Targets - "Schneller, Lauter, Haerter" and "Menschenjagd" EPs

Label: Aggressive Rock Produktionen; Year: 1984; Format: 45RPM EP

Out of the ashes of legendary Hamburg Punk Rock act Slime came Targets and just a few months after Slime played at the time their last gig Targets released their first EP "Schneller, lauter, haerter" on the well known Berlin based label Aggressive Rock Produktionen. Even though I grew up in Switzerland and was exposed to Punk Rock from Germany at a young age I could often not identify with Deutschpunk. As for Targets though I discovered them through a Mix-Tape a friend made me back in the '80s and loved them dearly ever since. Both of their sought after EPs I was able to get on the cheap in London of all places from a private collection and I shall never part with them. Both of the band's EPs came out in 1984 and they were definitely a continuation of where Slime have left off, lyrically and sonically speaking. The four songs on this EP are all straight forward, well executed hardcore punk tracks in the German language with great lyrics on top of the excellent songs. Terrorism and multi-national corporate greed for instance play an important role in the songs "Geld regiert die Welt" and "Massenhysterie", topics that would gain much more importance decades after the release of this EP but were equally important to the time this EP was released. Sehr gut!

Label: Aggressive Rock Produktionen; Year: 1984: Format: 45RPM EP

While there is no real difference in the quality of the songs between the first and this second EP, the main difference is that this one was recorded and mixed by Harris Johns at Berlin's Musiclab-Studio and one can tell the difference immediately. The sound levels are higher and everything is just much crisper and clearer. On top of that "Menschenjagd" is without doubt one of the best songs Targets have ever written, a song dealing with people feeling paranoid while on the run from the government. "Nie wieder Krieg" is equally great and the cover version of Germany's Schlager King Udo Juergens "Der Teufel hat den Schnaps gemacht" rounds up the second and equally great EP by Targets. While getting the originals is by no means cheap I just checked whether these two EPs have been compiled onto an LP and yes that is very much the case in the form of a compilation released in 2017 on Coltureshock. If you are relatively new to the world of Punk from Deutschland get your hands on said LP as you won't regret it. 

Deranged - Place Of Torment 12"

Label: Supreme Echo; Year: 2021; Format: 45RPM 12" Vinyl

Lately I've again opened my eyes and ears to Thrash Metal or Extreme Metal from the '80s after having ignored those genres for decades. Back in 85/86 like many bored teenagers stuck in suburban boredom I adored bands like Exodus, Possessed, Venom et al. but once my interest turned towards hardcore punk I lost interest in Metal all together and never looked back again. The other day I paid a visit to my favorite local underground record store and the nice proprietor behind the counter played Canada's Deranged while I was flipping through the racks filled with punk and hardcore records. Initially I wasn't too impressed but on my next visit to the store I asked for a copy as the songs kind of got stuck in my brain whether I liked it or not. Deranged hailed from Victoria, BC on Canada's West Coast and released two Demos in '88 and '89 respectively. "Place of Torment" was the second demo and now sees the light again in the form of this 12". The four songs have been remixed and mastered to the highest standard possible from the original demo and they sound absolutely bombastic as I for one would not have guessed that they were taken from a demo tape, which speaks for the band and their ambitions back in the day. As to be expected with releases from Supreme Echo much love has been poured into this release and a nice thick booklet containing an interview with the band members and old photos is included with this killer release. The songs themselves are quality Thrash/Death metal numbers reminiscent of acts like Kreator, Death or Sadus to name a few. I am no expert when it comes to '80s extreme metal but still have a good recollection of bands when I was into this sort of stuff all those decades back and highly recommend this release if no frills metal is your thing. 

Naked Raygun - Basement Screams LP

Label: Haunted Town Records; Year: 2007; Format: Vinyl LP

It's not only time that the Thanksgiving break is a thing of the past and this blog comes alive again but it's also time for me to start reviewing bands from my collection that I own several records of. Chicago's Naked Raygun is one of those bands and it'd be only fitting to start off where they started off. Basement Screams was originally released back in 1983 as a 45RPM 12" on Ruthless Records, a label started by members of another well known Chicago band, the Effigies. The 2007 reissue from my collection also includes the 1982-83 demos on Side B and while those songs are not as strong as the original 12" on Side A I for one think they were worth to be included and are still a great listen. Naked Raygun started off in 1980 and by the time Basement Screams was released the line-up has changed already quite a bit. While a lot of bands from the early '80s Hardcore Punk movement played their instruments at a neck-breaking speed Naked Raygun had a much artsier and different approach to their song-writing, especially on Basement Screams. Take the pop elements of a band like the Buzzcocks and mix it with the weirdness and heaviness of bands like the Wire and Killing Joke and you get a good idea how Basement Screams sounds. The tribal and loud drumming is omnipresent on all songs and drives the melodic songs forward while Jeff's vocals are somewhat reminiscent of Glenn Danzig. John Haggerty who would later join Naked Raygun on a permanent basis ads backing vocals and saxophone duties on two songs providing something some punk rock acts have successfully done before them. I am not entirely sure as to why Trouser Press would consider the Basement Screams songs to be a "hodgepodge of underproduced and under-conceived songs" as in my opinion the result is quite the contrary. As mentioned above the quality of the songs and recordings on the Demo Side are a notch lower than Side A but to give the band credit where credit is due the songs are just proof that the band was already reaching a high level and ready to take on any challenge headed their way. Be sure that Naked Raygun will feature again on this blog, and if you don't have Basement Screams do yourself a favor and get this highly influential Midwest masterpiece one way or another. 

V/A - Nightmare Vol, 1 EP

Label: Unknown (Unofficial Release); Year: 1997; Format: 33 RPM EP

In August of 1997 I visited Tokyo for two weeks and judging by the little flyer for Peace Punk distribution I am certain I had gotten this little introduction to Punk and Hardcore from the Philippines in Japan. Since not too long ago I reviewed the Chinese Punk Compilation EP I felt like I give this little platter a spin as it's been a while since I heard this the last time and I was in the mood to explore my horizon further when it comes to the history of hardcore punk from Asia. The Philippines should be considered as a highly intriguing and interesting place when it comes to hardcore punk due to the fact that a scene started to flourish there as early as 1981, that is according to two online sources with one of them being "A Short History of the Hardcore Punk Underground in the Philippines" on bandcamp which I can recommend if you just want to get your teeth into the subject matter. Provided this boot was released back in '97 before the internet exploded I would think that the EP really helped to spread the sound of hardcore punk from the Philippines to the point that over the years since the interest in bands from the small island must have spiked judging by some of the official reissues of bands contained on this EP. On Side A we get to hear two songs by Betrayed, initially started by four high school friends in Queens, NY in 1980, off of their originally in 1986 issued cassette on Twisted Red Cross, run by Tommy Tanchanco of Third World Chaos fame. Betrayed were equally influenced by US Hardcore and more traditional UK Punk as the two songs on this EP prove, including a great cover version of The Damned's "Love Song". On to R.D.A. with three fast and furious songs off of their 1987 cassette on Twisted Red Cross. Think of Stark Raving Mad or Impulse Manslaughter as an influence for R.D.A. while  I couldn't find any further info relating to them. On Side B we first get three songs by I.O.V. (Intoxication of Violence) which as the rest of Side B are definitely more in the UK82 vein in my opinion. Next up are Philippine Violators with just one song from their '87 cassette "At Large". Next to Third World Chaos they might very well be the best known band outside the Philippines, at least I seem to remember hearing about them over the years and the song is killer. Last but not least are Urban Bandits with one song from the originally in 1985 released "Independence Day" cassette, and in my opinion "Hoy" is the best track on this EP, just a brutally executed hardcore punk smasher that could have just as well come out of the UK, Brazil or Finland. If you find all of this interesting and would like to find out about all these bands and the diverse '80s hardcore punk scenes from the Philippines then the good news is that there are now more official reissues available with the bad news being that they are not exactly easily available outside the Philippines. I will need to dig deeper as this EP is for the most part really great and got me hungry for more. 

Rare Peel - Discs 1-4 

Label: Fan Club (Unofficial Release); Year: 2010; Format: 4 x 45RPM EP

In true bootlegger fashion this release does not come without hick ups as for instance Disc 1 and Disc 2 contain a sticker mix-up between the Crabs and the Cortinas and the four EPs also don't run on 33RPM but on 45RPM. That put aside I really have no clue why the person behind this bootleg decided to put this out in a cheap 7" box containing four EPs instead of just slapping it onto one LP and maybe put more love into the booklet which seems to have been assembled from various other official releases or stuff found online. Either way I remember buying this when I was still living in London and apparently it's limited to 416 copies but who knows whether that is true. In all fairness something like this deserves a proper official release but that's a discussion for another rainy day. So what you get on these four separate EPs are Peel Sessions from four different bands from the years '77 and '78. While the Drones, Cortinas and Models are probably known to everybody into early UK punk the Crabs might be an exception even to some true aficionado of '77 punk. The band formed in Great Yarmouth in East Anglia as early as 1974 under the names Cosmic Love and Teezer and is known to have supported many well known acts such as Sham 69, X-Ray Spex or the Jam to name a few. The four songs recorded for John Peel in 1978 are a mixed bag in my opinion although none of the tracks are poor per se. "Victim" and "Don't want your love" are the two stand out tracks for me though as they are strong upbeat '77 punk smashers the way we love them while the other two tracks are more mid-tempo and in a way lost in no-man's land between punk rock and R&B. 

The Cortinas from Bristol are probably best known for their two excellent singles on Step Forward Records and the four John Peel Sessions songs are from the same time period with "Defiant Pose" and "Television Families" also appearing on those releases. Since I don't have any of the band's early output (shame on me) I can't really compare the versions but the Cortinas EP from this set is my favorite one as all four tracks are simply superb and hard-hitting tracks in the way that they are aggressive yet still melodic, something I think a lot of the later punk rock bands took away from bands like the Cortinas. The other two tracks from the Cortinas session are "Having It (Have it with you)" and my absolute favorite "Further Education". If my research is correct than seek out the MK1 LP which collects the Peel Session songs and other early material by the band as well. The Drones from Manchester are probably best known for their hit "Bone Idol" or my all time favorite "Lookalikes" but according to Mick Middles in the excellent "no more heroes" book by Alex Ogg the band was not popular at all in their home city. Still "Movement" and "The Change" are solid tracks from their Peel Session and highlight their strong musicianship and roots in R&B. 

Last but not least we get four tracks from The Models who were Marco Pirroni's short lived band best known for their excellent single on Step Forward which shall be reviewed here at some point in the future. While those two songs will be known to many of you and were also part of the Peel Sessions I don't think that "Censorship" and "Brainwash" are of equal quality to round off their disc but they are definitely not bad tracks and still above average. All in all don't be paying some outrageous amount if you find this for sale as again a release like this one deserves much more love and dedication. 

SPS - Jsme V Hajzlu LP

Label: Globus International; Year: 1992; Format: Vinyl LP

SPS stands for Snizena Pracovni Schopnost which in English would translate into Diminished Work Ability and the band started out in 1988 in Prague, at the time the capital of Czechoslovakia. The band consisting of three members recorded their first demo in 1989 but it wasn't until 1992 and the years after the fall of communism in former Czechoslovakia for the band to be able to release their first LP on Globus International, one of the very early independent record labels started in Prague. In the early '90s SPS also briefly featured in the British Channel 4 documentary "Punks In Prague" highlighting the increased shift of young people who were punks under communism and drifted to the right after the fall of communism. The documentary can be found on youtube and is an interesting watch if you are curious to learn about international punk scenes you might not be knowledgeable about. But on to the music on "Jsme V Hajzlu" which would translate to "We're deep in shit". One of the main reasons I do this blog is to sit down and actually listen to my records and to top it off I try to find information pertaining to the band and other musically historical facts. SPS are still going strong to this day with guitarist/singer Zdenek the only remaining original member left, and as a matter of fact they are currently playing shows in the Czech Republic in celebration of the 30th anniversary of this album, which in my opinion is one hell of a great record. If you like your punk being played straight forward with lots of drive, a heavy bass and a good production then you really need to seek out this album. There is not a single weak song to be found on this platter and while I sat in the recliner enjoying this record I tried to pin down the influences the band used to come up with the sound and the songs for this LP and I couldn't help thinking of One Way System from the UK, good German 80s punk like Canalterror or Bluttat or French bands from the Chaos En France era. What you get is really outstanding old school punk that will have you raise your fist and sing along no matter whether you speak Czech or not. According to the SPS website the album sold over thirty thousand copies when it came out highlighting how popular punk rock was for young people in the early post-communism years. Punk on! 

Early photo of Zdenek, founding member and only remaining original member left in the current line-up. Source: Official SPS Facebook page.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show - Soundtrack LP

Label: Ode Records; Year: 1975; Format: Vinyl LP

Even though Halloween was yesterday it is still the season and when I was sitting down last night to write the review after having listened to the LP I was plain tired hence a twenty-four hour delay it is. I don't exactly remember how old I was when I saw The Rocky Horror Picture Show for the first time, but I was very young. Over the years I have seen the movie several times again and always loved it for its celebration of trash culture and B-Movies. It has been years since I saw it last hence it's time I catch it again some time soon. Since I am not a movie buff and definitely don't consider myself knowledgeable when it comes to the world of cinema I read up about the impact of the Rocky Horror Picture Show on the intranet and have come away with some interesting angles. First and foremost since this blog of mine concentrates so heavily on punk rock it is interesting to see how the costume designer Sue Blane has directly or indirectly influenced early punk rock fashion, especially when it comes to the torn fishnet stockings and colorfully-dyed hair. Let's also not forget that the movie spawned the musical career of Meatloaf as two years after the release of Rocky Horror Meatloaf released his most popular album ever, Bat Out of Hell. At the same time the movie launched careers of actors like Susan Sarandon or Tim Curry amongst others. But how about the music on this record and so crucially important to the movie itself? Everybody will have heard "The Time Warp" at some point in their lives, there is no doubt about it. It is definitely the hit song on the record and of the movie, but let's not fool ourselves to think that the rest of the music is not interesting. All the music was written by Richard O'Brien aka Riff Raff in the movie and I shall just conclude that his dialogues for the movie and the accompanying music make this movie and soundtrack so much fun that it should not come as a surprise that almost fifty years after its original release the movie is a cult classic and has a worldwide following. I'll put on "Time Warp" again now and raise a glass to everything outside the norm. Please do yourself a favor and watch the movie and let's do the time warp again!! 

Trashcan Darlings - Gore Gore Boys & Splatter Pussies 10"

Label: Eastside Records; Year: 2000; Format: 10" Vinyl EP

Since it is Halloween Season I thought it would be an ideal time to pull out this beauty of a 10" record by the Norwegian band Trashcan Darlings. Back in the late '90s/early '00s my friend Alain and I were organizing gigs in Zurich/Switzerland and somehow the people behind the Eastside Records label from Germany contacted us if we were interested to book these Oslo guys in Zurich, and so we did. At the end of March in 2001 (see flyer) we booked them at Hohlstrasse which at the time was a semi-squatted/semi-legally occupied house with a really cool basement where shows were happening once in a while. The basement was full of great metal work with sharp objects sticking out all over the place and a capacity of maybe one hundred people. To this day I remember the Trashcan Darling show very vividly as the Oslo bunch put on a fantastic show in front of a sweaty and crazy crowd and yes, they looked just like in the pictures with make-up and all glamed up. The 10" released on Eastside Records is nothing short of a classic glam punk record backed by a really decent production job. As quite often is the case with musicians from Northern European Countries they are excellent at their instruments, and that is definitely the case with the Trashcan Darlings. Five outstanding originals and one funtastic live cover version of Funtime are to be found on this red splatter ten inch and no song is to disappoint you. Whether you like your glamed up punk'n'roll slower such as in "She's A Fuck around" or the incredibly catchy "Angel Lost" or at a faster pace like in "Electro Shock Rock" I think these guys just perfectly mixed glam rock and 77 punk by putting it through an Oslo based blender with a nice touch of good ole Norwegian Punk'N'Roll. The band existed from 1995 through 2008 and released quite a few records during their career. Definitely worth checking out if this is your cup of tea! 

 

V/A - 10000 Years Punk - A Beijing Punk Compilation

Label: Xiandai Gongren Changpian (TAM Records); Year: 1998; Format: 33RPM 7" EP

If you have been interested in worldwide punk rock then I am absolutely positive that you have come across the name Luk Haas. Luk travelled to approximately one hundred and twenty countries and started Tian An Men 89 Records in 1993 in order to document and to release punk rock from countries around the globe where many of us wouldn't even think punk rock existed. Luk got turned on to punk in the early '80s and travelled to Poland for the first time in 1983 where he made connections with local punks and bands. Later on he would travel to the former Czechoslovakia (where I was born) and the former GDR and make connections there as well. He also introduced punk rock from the former Eastern Bloc to a worldwide readership via his scene reports in MaximumRockNRoll. I tried to find out more about the story as to how this EP with four Beijing based bands came about but couldn't find anything online. I would imagine that Luk had visited Beijing in the '90s and met the bands leading up to this release, unfortunately the only release I have on TAM. I must admit that musically this isn't a record I am in awe of but let's put things into context and come to the realization that back in the '90s the bands presented on this EP were most likely the earliest when it comes to punk rock from mainland China. The two songs on side A by Wuzhengfu Zhuyi Nanhai, also known as the Anarchy Boys, are actually decent Oi Punk tracks whereas the three tracks by Nao Zhuo aka Brain Failure on the other side offer similar quality and style. The other two bands, one of which is Reflector are more in the '90s pop punk vein and not interesting, at least not for me. Reflector were apparently the first chinese band to play on US soil in 2001 and Brain Failure have releases several records in Germany since this EP. More than anything records like this one demonstrate that punk rock is and always has been a truly global phenomenon and that the quality of songs is not always what matters the most. 

Tony Rettman - Straight x Edge - A Clear-Headed Hardcore Punk History

Publisher: Bazillion Points; Year: 2017; Format: Book

It's time for another book review as I haven't done one in a while and trust me there are many to get through and as it happens to be with a lot of books I have read in the past the one being reviewed tonight I have finished some time ago, well back in 2020 to be exact. Straight Edge in general is not a lifestyle that ever really appealed to me but there were times in my life when I didn't drink booze at all or when for a relatively short time I was a vegetarian, but to be really honest with you I could not give up drinking alcohol nor eating meat for ever. I look at it from a point of view that always do what's best for you and what you enjoy the most while not forgetting to have some fun. In general I am not against Straight Edge per se but have my limitations as to understand why a subcultural scene as the punk and hardcore scene ended up being split into even more fractions and sub-fractions based on whether one drinks or smokes, or not. I fully understand that that's not exactly what Minor Threat set out to achieve and I enjoyed reading the first two to three chapters of the book. I must admit though that it is at a very early stage of Rettman's Straight Edge bible when I started to struggle more and more and with each page turning as most of the quotes of the people being interviewed just become repetitive and boring. In my view books written in the oral history format are just not that good in general, something I have noticed over the years reading many books on punk history written in different formats. So in that sense even for a non Straight Edge guy like myself the experience could have been much different had this book been written and researched in a different way. Tonight I sat down and briefly reread the chapter about Straight Edge in Europe and the UK. While I was able to relate to a lot of it as I lived there in the past, I also realized that for someone else who didn't grow up in Europe and maybe has little knowledge about the scenes there probably a lot reads like gibberish as there is little to no context to the quotes provided. Reading the European chapter again it made me think about those times around '87 when I was living in Zurich, Switzerland. While we had a few Straight Edge people at shows I personally recall very little in terms of friction between the drinking crowd, which was the vast majority, and the Straight Edge crowd. Personally I thought it was a shame that towards the end of the '80s the Straight Edge kids started to splinter off and create their own scene, a scene I never had any interest in as it was exclusive and had a specific agenda, something I could not embrace. Of course it's just human nature to be wanting to be involved with like minded people, and I am not here to judge but in hindsight I think it turned many people off and away from hardcore, including myself. But, back to the book and the early days of Straight Edge where I thought that the chapter on Boston serves as somewhat of an appetizer of what is to come when some people just take their own convictions a bit too far but obviously nowhere near as to what would follow in the '90s with bands like Earth Crisis and militant outliers within the Straight Edge scenes. After some mostly interesting chapters concentrating on scenes in Southern California, Nevada or New York City the book becomes a fest of repetition and umpteenth renditions of Youth Of Today clowns spread around the globe and that's really about it. To wrap this up I recall that about twenty years ago I interviewed Slapshot after a show in Germany and made a joke about it being no surprise that Choke turned Straight Edge with the prospect of having to drink crappy beer like Budweiser. Let me tell you that if looks could kill I certainly wouldn't be typing this here tonight. Time for a beer now. 

Poison Idea - War All The Time LP

Label: Alchemy Records; Year: 1987; Format: Vinyl LP

To all the losers out there in the gaping world of the intranet I would like to send out a heartfelt apology for not introducing Poison Idea earlier to this little blog of mine. Your cries have been heard and "War All The Time" was after all my introduction to one of my all time faves back when this LP was released in 1987. Somehow - and I am not sure I am in the minority with my feelings here - it seems that this LP positioned between the two classics "Kings Of Punk" from '86 and "Feel The Darkness" from '90 is not getting the much deserved recognition and admiration in my honest opinion. Call it a great hardcore punk record, or one of the best crossover records ever made, both would be fitting descriptions as this LP hits the nail from the second the needle is dropped. With the introduction of Eric "The Vegetable" Olson of Portland Speed Metal band Mayhem on second guitar and Steve Hanford aka Thee Slayer Hippy on drums   naturally the band's sound moved in a more metallic direction but it has to be said that Poison Idea mastered the fusion of mean old school hardcore punk and Heavy Metal to perfection. Name me one band that would record a cover of the Hawkwind and Motorhead classic "Motorhead" and actually turn it into a version superior to the original. The rest of this rather short but on every level intense LP includes masterpieces when it comes to nihilistic song writing with the title of the LP being informed by Charles Bukowski's '80s collection of poems by the same name. I'll keep it short and encourage all of you out there to grab your copy and crank it up loud and should you not own one yet remember it's never too late. War All The Time!

Suzi Quatro - Your Mama Won't Like Me LP 

Label: Arista Records; Year: 1975; Format: Vinyl LP

A few months back I listened to an interesting podcast with Suzi Quatro. Now in her early seventies and based in the United Kingdom she seems to still be full of energy and I must say I have nothing but respect for her. Just like countless other Detroit born musicians of any genre she's a self-made woman and has prevailed in the music industry throughout the decades, something that's not easy at all. In that podcast I learned of Suzi's first band she was part of, the Pleasure Seekers, a '60s garage rock band she joined with her older sister Patti and about the years since, of which there has been many by now. I picked up "Your Mama Won't Like Me" not too long ago for a few bucks as it's just an old Quatro record, hence why not. This was Quatro's third LP and somewhat of a departure from the first two records which I don't own but am familiar with to a degree. The productions on this one is top notch and the songs on this full length are largely in the funk rock vein departing from the glam rock and '50s rock'n'roll informed first two LPs. Still, it's an interesting album that doesn't get boring and unsurprisingly has some real hits in my opinion. On Side A "Paralysed" and "Your Mama.." stand out whereas on Side B "New Day Woman" and especially "Michael" are the true winners. I believe back in the time this record came out some critics wrote it off as disappointing but at the same time it was the beginning of a new era for Suzi Quatro and is definitely worth getting for a few bob. I'll be looking for the Pleasure Seekers and Suzi's earlier material so stay tuned!

The Discocks - Voice of Youth EP

Label: New Age Records; Year: 1994: Format: 7" 33RPM EP 

Back in the mid '90s I lived for a couple of years in the great city of Toronto, Canada and it must have been in early '97 that my friend Simon of Ugly Pop and I spontaneously decided to take a Greyhound bus to New York City to see the Discocks support the Casualties at Coney Island High in the East Village. Mind you we really didn't care all that much for the spiked band from NYC but were eager to see a Japanese band on North American soil. The fact that the Discocks weren't even the main act tells you a lot about the ignorance in the punk scene as a band flying in from thousands of miles away should really be the main attraction of any night, but that's just my opinion. We certainly had a good night and stayed over at Neil's of Tribal War to catch the Discocks again the next day in New Haven, CT, this time if memory serves me right with The Unseen. What I do remember vividly to this day though is that on the way up to New Haven we stopped at a gas station somewhere in the Queens/Brooklyn area and the Japanese punks and skins stuck out even for a city like New York as they definitely attracted a lot of looks. Funny enough the same year as the above mentioned gig I travelled to Tokyo, Japan and ran into Peter, singer of the Discocks, at the Antiknock Club in Shinjuku when One Way System were playing five shows in the Tokyo area. We had a brief chat after the show and he handed me the flyer that's been stuck in my copy of the band's first release up to this day. Ladies and gentleman, now after boring you to death with my travel stories let me remind myself that there is actually a record to be reviewed here and while preparing for this post tonight I also found out that the Discocks actually have a Wikipedia entry, now that's quite fancy me thinks. The "Voice of Youth" EP having come out in 1994 on the band's own New Age Records (also licensed to UK's Helen Of Oi) is in my opinion their best release by a mile. Their later stuff on Knock Out is okay, but doesn't come even close to this as this record is nothing short of a great effort of youthful UK82 influenced Oi Punk in the great tradition of Blitz, the Partisans or the Ejected to think of a few. My two favorite songs on this EP are "Street of '92" and "Punk and Proud" with a loud bass guitar and great choruses leaving you with no option as to sing along like a maniac. I sometimes wish I could go back in time and relive those days, great memories. 

Fatal Erection - Castrated by Love 7" Single

Label: Fatal Erection Records; Year: 1994; Format: 45RPM Single

Sometimes you just have to be thankful for the intranet. The other day I was on Discogs kind of aimlessly looking at stuff and I came across this band by the name of Fatal Erection. Now mind you some people would just keep strolling whereas this loser here of course had to do some investigative work about this band only to come to find out that the band was basically Poison Idea minus Jerry A with Thee Slayer Hippie, Mondo and Pig Champion being the rhythm section and John Lyons on vocals and guitars. This little platter came out in '94 and is unfortunately the only release by Fatal Erection and I say unfortunately for a reason as the two songs on this single are both incredibly well executed Punk'N'Roll smashers obviously not too far away from the Poison Idea sound of that era. While the traditional song "Lorena Lorena" will get you in the mood it is "Castrated Love" on the flip side that will want you smash things up in your living room. As if the record wasn't enough you'll also get a neat little comic book with a wild story about castration in 18th century Russia illustrated by pretty well known poster artist Wayne Shellabarger. I wish they had recorded a full length! 

Rattus - Hilipili Records 7"s Reissues on Hoehnie Records

Label: Hoehnie Records; Year: 2008; Format: 45RPM Single

When I discovered Rattus from the small town of Vilpulla in Finland it was through their brutal hardcore punk assault on the Ratcage LP back around 1987 as a friend of mine had a copy of said record and we were just in awe of the sheer brutality of that LP. But more about the Ratcage record when I get to it in the future. Before Rattus ever produced a slew of classic records throughout the first period of the '80s they started out as a somewhat classic '77 punk outfit and in 1980 self-released on Hilipili Records the first single with Khomeini-Rock and Muotipunk being equally strong late '70s influenced punk rock numbers. Think of really early Angelic Upstarts or Buzzcocks before they released records on majors and you get a good idea how this one sounds sung in Finnish. Come to think of it probably the first time I heard these really early recordings was on the GTA Taalta Tullan Kuolema CD which had come out in 1996. If you don't want to shell out hundreds of dollars for an original grab one of the few copies around of this Hoehnie Reissue!

Label: Hoehnie Records; Year: 2008; Format: 33RPM EP

Unlike their first output the second Hilipili 7" came in form of the Fucking Disco EP in 1981 with five tracks representing the band in somewhat of a transitional period. No longer are the tracks just straight forward late '70s punk but other styles are distinctively to be heard. The opener "Sietamaton" and my favorite song on this platter "Taalta Tullan Kuolema" are definitely songs in the '70s punk vein but the band does not shy away from Reggae and Post-Punk influences on the other two main tracks with the last "Stop Start" just being a thirty-seven second joke song. Quite a number of years ago I interviewed Rattus for a German fanzine and I recall that the band was at a difficult cross-point after having released this 2nd record. With the '70s punk sound having died out the band was close to throwing in the towel until they heard Minor Threat from across the pond and the rest is history as one would say. I leave you with an existential question from the back cover of this EP then... 

Spermbirds - Something To Prove LP

Label: Boner Records; Year: 1988; Format: Vinyl LP

For the past year or so every Tuesday I listen to a German podcast called "Und Dann Kam Punk" and on last week's show the two hosts interviewed the Spermbirds drummer Matthias Goette. As always it was a fun, entertaining but also informative talk hence I thought it was about time I played my copy of "Something to Prove" again as it's been ages since the last time. With most of my records I remember where I bought my copy and the year, or at least thereabouts. With my "Something To Prove" copy I really can't place it as it's the US version on Boner Records and when this LP came out I was living in Switzerland and would have surely picked up the We Bite pressing. My guess is that I found this one in Toronto when I briefly lived there in the early '90s, but that's just a wild guess and doesn't matter at all. Many of you out there interested in European Hardcore Punk will surely know that the Spermbirds singer Lee Hollis is an American based in Germany and was at the time of when the band was started stationed with the US Army in Kaiserslautern, Germany. According to the interview with Matthias Lee came from a difficult home and used the Army as an escape route to get as far away as possible from his parents, or his dad in particular. Since he has already been introduced to early US punk and hardcore Lee brought a fresh wind to the very provincial small town scene of Kaiserslautern. As a matter of fact before there even was the Spermbirds the band the other members were more keen on getting ahead with is Walter 11, a band vaguely speaking more steeped in traditional UK punk with its members being also big fans of their hometown football club FC. Kaiserslautern. So, when Spermbirds were started the band wasn't even aware that their brand of hardcore punk with a heavy influence of bands such as Angry Samoans was very popular in the underground scene of Southern Germany hence their first record, a Split 7" between Walter 11 and Spermbirds, was released on X-Mist, an influential label to this day. A year after that We Bite Records picked up the Spermbirds and "Something To Prove" was released in 1986. It should come as no surprise that it was licensed to the UK and the US as it's an excellent record that stands the test of the time. When I listened to it today it sounds just as fresh as it always has and the songs haven't aged at all if you ask me. What you get are fourteen original songs and a great cover version of Agent Orange's 'Bloodstains'. The production on the LP is great considering the band recorded and mixed everything within a few days and the LP is a mixed bag of either fast and furious songs or more mid-paced melodic tracks with great hooks. Considering where the band members came from musically the sound on this record makes perfectly sense with Lee's love for early Southern Californian bands and the rest of the band having more of a traditional early UK punk background the two main influences are perfectly blended into a unique sound. For some unfortunate reason I have actually never seen Spermbirds live, and I sure as hell don't know why. A classic record indeed!