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!