Wretched Ones - S/T LP; Live EP; Tributes Suck EP and Live on a Five Single 

Label: Headache Records; Year: 1993; Format: Vinyl LP

I had planned to do this Wretched Ones entry quite a while back as May 23 of this year marked the 25 year anniversary of seeing them in Hamburg, Germany supporting the Angelic Upstarts. Anyway better late than never so here we go with a longer entry dedicated to this quartet from Midland Park in New Jersey. Not too long ago I posted about one of the Headwound EPs on Headache Records and had a bit of a look on their FB page since they seem to be still going strong. There I stumbled upon a German podcast dedicated to Headache Records, which was run by Pit, the singer in the Wretched Ones. Quite frankly not much is to be found on the worldwide intranet about the New Jersey '90s Oi scene, or the Wretched Ones in particular, but in a way I really like that even though the band deserves much more recognition for their output. In said podcast the guys talked about quite a few bands that appeared on Headache Records, but I was really mostly interested to hear what they had to say about the Wretched Ones. It was no surprise that they too thought the band brought a fresh wind to the Oi genre. I have never been much of a fan of Oi per se but during the '90s the Wretched Ones from the East Coast and Bonecrusher from the West Coast were two of my favorite bands, both capable of fusing elements of '80s hardcore punk with mean and raw Street Rock'N'Roll. In that sense the American Oi bands set themselves apart from the more traditional '80s UK Oi sound, which in my opinion was more often than not quite lame in contrast. The Wretched Ones have a history in hardcore punk as two of their members, Pit on vocals and B.T. on guitar, were members of The Burnt who released an LP on Mutha Records back in 1985, followed by a few EPs on Headache Records. The band transitioned into the Wretched Ones as early as 1988, but it wasn't until 1993 when the first LP was released, and what a cracker of an LP it is. I am nearly ashamed to say that at one point I had almost the entire catalogue of the Wretched Ones in my collection but when I needed money the records exchanged hands and wandered to a friend of mine in the UK, at least they are in good hands. Luckily some years ago I was able to find a copy of this LP for cheap and I will continue buying back whatever I don't have anymore. The 16 songs on the LP can be described as American Oi classics, and I do mean each one of them. Stand out tracks are "Going down the Bar", "Working Man" or "Time marches on" but again they're all brilliantly simple yet ass-kicking songs. The Wretched Ones had a habit of writing as many songs as possible about drinking beer and working bonebreaking jobs without ever getting boring, and I mean that as a compliment. In all fairness Schaefer Beer should have paid the guys large sums for their free advertisement and the Toxic Avenger should have hailed these guys when saving New Jersey from the next chemical disaster. Fill your fridge with beer and give this one a spin, you won't regret it.  

Label: Knock Out Records; Year: 1999; Format: Picture 7" EP

God knows how many days I have lived now in my nearly fifty three years of existence on this screwed up planet, but in all fairness how many of those days do I or any of us remember? I think it's fair to say not many. But, there are those days which we'll never forget, and for me May 23 of 1998 is certainly one of them. On said beautiful Spring Saturday I boarded a train heading from Zurich, Switzerland to Basel early in the morning and from there I got on a Deutsche Bundesbahn express train that got me to Hamburg by around 4pm. I recall heading straight to the Hafenstrasse by Hamburg's vast port and there was already a large contingent of Punks and Skins drinking cans of beer and generally having a good time. A friend of mine from Switzerland was meant to come along on the trip but had to cancel last minute. I had no problem going up to Hamburg on my own as up to that point I had never seen the Upstarts and the Wretched Ones alone would have made that trip worthwhile for me hence it was a no brainer. On top of that the gig took place at Grosse Freiheit 36, a renowned venue that hosted early Beatles gigs and is up to this day one of the most famous locations for live music in Hamburg. The atmosphere leading up to the gig in front of the venue was absolutely electrifying as people from around Europe had made the trip to Hamburg to witness an unforgettable evening. It so happened that at some point I was approached by a group of Skins who had made the trip from the Eastern parts of Germany (former GDR) asking me where I came from. Somehow they were fascinated by the fact that I had come up from Switzerland and bought me several rounds of beers throughout the night which I definitely didn't mind. What can be said about the gig, and in particular the Wretched Ones? I thought all bands put in a great shift, including Oxymoron who jumped in last minute to replace the Dropkick Murphys. By 1998 the Wretched Ones were not as unknown in Germany as one would think as Mosh of Knock Out Records has licensed the first two LPs by the band and as a result of that the guys from New Jersey had a dedicated fan base in Europe, mainly in Germany. The fact that the band was flown in just for the one show in Hamburg baffles me to this day, but I am glad they were. The Wretched Ones sure as hell didn't disappoint and the crowd of more than 1'000 thanked them loudly. The four songs on this Live EP are proof for the remainder of this civilization that New Jersey produced some fine music, and the Wretched Ones are never to be forgotten for that. After the gig I joined some of the people of Klasse Kriminalle from Italy, members of Red London and B.T. from the Wretched Ones on a trip to a bar on the famed Reeperbahn and I'll never forget how B.T always ordered two beers at the same time, one to down really fast and the other one to last a bit longer. After a long night of great live music and drinking I walked down to Hamburg's train station and took a train to Cologne to catch Motorhead the next day, a Sunday night. It wasn't until Monday morning that I finally returned to Switzerland, tired and with my ears ringing, but full of memories I will never forget. Cheers! 

Back of the Live EP as well as the ticket to the gig and to my surprise I even kept the train ticket in the record, great memories!

Label: Headache Records; Year: 1998; Format: 7" EP

In 1998 the Wretched Ones and Headache Records had enough of waiting on some labels to release Tribute records and decided to put their contributions on an EP appropriately called "Tributes Suck". The four songs enshrined on this EP are all classics in their own right, and I'll be a lazy bastard and just type up what the back of the EP says: 

1. Pirate Love - Originally recorded for Sky Krebs Records (who?) over four years ago. This guy was gonna put out the best tribute ever, blah...blah...Last we heard the master tape was stolen out of his car (yeah right). 

2. Just To Get Away - We agreed to get this in right away, the release date, after all is already next month. Half a year later we get word it's out. We are lied to a few more times that copies are in the mail. We figure we'll never see it. (Note: we got 'em now as this goes to print, thanks)

3. No More Heroes - Recorded for Elevator Records, this guy has bullshited us along for two years now that this thing would be out in another "month or two" Our feeling is he's about an hours drive away from a punch in the head. 

4. America The Beautiful - Dictators! OK now we're cooking. What song do you want us to do? What's that? America? That's note a Dictators song. Huh? It was on a Japanese 45 or in a movie? Can we do something else? Oh well OK we'll do this if it's that important. Well it's been way over a year ago, we've heard nothing about a release date, and our contact has since quit the label. Serves us right I guess. 

Well, hopefully in the end the band got copies for all those wonderful Tribute records, but even if not, this EP rules as the Wretched Ones obviously paid tribute to those songs the right way. 

Label: Headache Records; Year: 1996; Format: 5" Single

Well, time to grab a beer, some food and finish this off with the last record for this extended Wretched Ones blog entry. And guess what, it's a 5" record, and the only one in my collection. Two live songs are to be found on this tiny piece of vinyl with "We're not stopping now" recorded live in Wanaque, NJ by Harry Baggs one one side, and correct me if I am mistaken but I think that's the place I looked up when reviewing the Headwound EP hence the show was probably with them. And by the way the town seems almost as small as the 5" record. On the other side you get "I hated school" recorded live in Newark, NJ by an unknown audience member. Who knows and maybe this blog entry will solve the mystery and we'll finally find the unknown audience member. Please contact the HQ of HFTP as soon as you can! Cheers!