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!

Lightnin' Hopkins - Flash Lightnin' Volume One LP 

Label: Diving Duck Records; Year: 1985; Format: Vinyl LP

This was the first LP I had bought of Lightnin' Hopkins some years back at Flashback Records in London, UK where I spent quite a few Saturday afternoons. I knew of Mr. Hopkins and have at that time liked 'the blues' for some time hence it was time I started a little collection of his. In the meantime I have bought quite a few more of his recordings but looking at his extensive catalogue I will never hear all of his recorded material, that much is guaranteed. Anyway this is a perfect record to spin with your coffee on a weekend morning as it kindly smoothes you into the day with thirteen tracks recorded in 1954. According to the sleeve notes on this record said year marked the end of Hopkins' most creative period and a lot of the recorded material was never released on record until these two volumes on Dutch label Diving Duck. Sam 'Lighnin' Hopkins was born in Texas in 1912 and died in Houston, TX in 1982. At a very early age he fell in love with the music of Blind Lemon Jefferson and in the '20s and '30s Sam used to accompany Texas Alexander by playing on the streets or buses. The tracks on this record all fall between two and three minutes and many of them deal with Sam's longing for a lost woman, something not unusual for blues artists of that time. Most of the songs are mid-tempo blues numbers with Hopkins' typical deep and cracky voice while two or three numbers are upbeat and faster introducing early rock'n'roll tendencies. All in all this is a highly enjoyable record and many more Lightnin' reviews will be coming your way in the not so distant future, stay tuned!

The Misfits - Static Age LP

Label: Caroline Records; Year: 1997; Format: Vinyl LP

Back in 1997 when this lost LP by the Misfits was released I was very much in the known about its release and the hype surrounding it but for some reason - and this has happened in more than one instance - I chose not to buy a copy only to come to regret it as the record would turn from scarce to very rare. Luckily just a few weeks back now in the year 2022 and unbelievably already a quarter of a century after its release I was lucky to find a first pressing for a very reasonable price at a local dealer. Turns out that patience pays off even for people lacking hair and at times a brain. "Static Age" was recorded in the early days of 1978 and was financed by Mercury Records in a 30 hours free recording session. Mercury was planning to release the recorded material but eventually after months of not getting back to the band decided to drop the project as sale numbers for the release of Pere Ubu's "Modern Dance" were low and the label decided against any further punk rock related releases. It sure as hell is a shame the LP didn't come out in 1978 as I am not the only one to think that had that happened it would be included in every list of the greatest and most essential punk rock LPs of the early days. In 'This Music leaves Stains - The Complete Story of the Misfits" author James Greene Jr. states that "the record might have been counted as one of the last great gasps of Punk Rock's founding East Coast wave alongside the Ramones 'Road To Ruin', the Talking Heads' 'More Songs about Building and Food' and the Dead Boys' 'Young Loud and Snotty'. In the same book Mike Stax notes that on "Static Age" the Misfits had not quite fallen into the formula yet and that the records that came later, like "Walk Among Us" weren't as pure. In 1993 Jerry Only theorized that had the record come out back then everything would have moved up five years and the Misfits would have been the forerunners of the new scene. Well, that might have very well been the case but as history often shows us not everything goes according to plan hence better late than never the LP came out in 1997 and has been rather successful me thinks. I think those words by Stax and Greene sum it up perfectly. Listening to the LP today having heard most of the songs over and over in one form or another throughout the decades I still couldn't help to feel in awe as the record is like a "Best Of" would be for many bands, that's just how great it is. The songwriting is simply put incredible and shows how well rehearsed the band was already at that point. All seventeen songs are a perfect mix of early punk rock paired with a healthy dose of pop infusion on top of Glenn's voice and outlandish lyrics resulting in nothing else than seventeen hits. We are 138!!! 

Stigmathe - Suoni Puri Dalla Liberta and Lo Squardo Dei Morti EPs

Label: No Plan Records; Year: 2013; Format: 45RPM EP

Little to nothing is known to me about the history of Stigmathe, a band that hailed from the Northern City of Modena in Italy. Rest assured though that the two EPs reviewed herein though are a little different from what one would expect when it comes to '80s hardcore punk releases from Italy as neither is full-on Italian Hardcore the way we all love it. The first EP was originally self-released by the band in 1983 and the copy I own is a 2013 No Plan reissue, a label known for releasing great but mostly unknown gems. The band's first output is first and foremost very much influenced by what had musically happened in the UK underground scene from '79 to '82. The two tracks on Side A are solid UK82 influenced smashers and if they were not sung in Italian they could just as well have been recorded by the likes of GBH, Discharge or Dead Wretched. 'Italia Bruccia' on the B-Side is a little different in the sense that it is very melodic, mid-tempo and takes cues from 2nd Generation Brit bands like Angelic Upstarts, the Ruts et al. while a big Clash influence cannot be overheard either. Overall this is a great little platter. Mille grazie! 

Label: Meccano Records; Year: 1985; Format: 33RPM EP

Two years after having self-released their 1st EP Stigmathe released a 2nd EP, this time on Meccano Records from Torino. Worth mentioning is that the person behind Meccano Records, Giulio Tedeschi, was born in 1952 and could hence be considered "too old" to give a band like Stigmathe a chance but Giulio was always a man in pursuit of giving bands with a true DIY spirit a chance hence Stigmathe's 2nd EP landed with said label. Compared to the first one the 2nd EP is somewhat different yet again as the two songs on the first side are no longer just UK82 influenced but draw equally from post-punk and gothic as well creating an interesting mix with echoey vocals over dark and fast sounds while Side B is a great upbeat punky reggae track. In my opinion the 1st EP is the winner but both are equally strong outputs and  worth tracking down if said above is up your alley.