It’s the sunniest day of the year so far in San Francisco, and I’m sitting in the plush Maximum Rocknroll offices listening to icy French cold wave… It’s not a winning combination, but to PASSION ARMÉE’s credit, they’re helping me forget that it’s actually a nice sunny summer’s day and reminding me that life is in fact a relentless existential struggle and in the end we all die alone. The French seem have a knack for this style, from the original cold wave sounds of the ’70s through to recent bands like FRUSTRATION. The six songs here fit nicely in that tradition. Repetitive minor-chord bass lines, cut-glass guitar and occasional keyboard stabs set the scene for detached vocals that remind me a lot of the singer from THE EX. I understand that the band has broken up since recording this disc — that’s a shame. Great stuff.

— Allan McNaughton

No particular reason why I chose this 1988 single from the UK’s Mega City Four for this weeks’ From The Vaults post, aside from the fact that it’s a great melodic punk record — and while not necessarily obscure, the band might be unknown to some readers of MRR. In fact, I’m not all that familiar with the Mega City Four myself. I do know this is their first proper release, and there were a lot more to follow; from what I’ve heard of their later stuff, it’s even more in a pop direction.

Anyway, Miles Apart/Running in Darkness is a very cool little single, and any fan of late-’80s melodic punk bands from the UK should give it a listen. To my ears, it’s got more of a Stiff Little Fingers feel than, say, Leatherface, who were heavily influenced by Hüsker Dü. But what do I know? Check it out for yourself:

1. Miles Apart
2. Running in Darkness

Sadly, frontman Darren “Wiz” Brown passed away in 2006. Here’s a link to an unofficial (but very comprehensive) Mega City Four webpage: www.megacityfour.co.uk

The music and artwork here look and sound “authentic” as all shit, and I seriously thought NECRO HIPPIES were some lost early ’80s band until I looked at the recording date. This is music for another Saturday night spent drunk and alone in the basement of your shitty brownstone as it pours buckets outside: semi-snotty, thin-sounding vocals remind me of a more inept Otto from REGULATIONS, screaming and slurring over mostly mid-paced thick and dreary riffs, and stompy drums. This is also one of those bands that are able to come up with the simplest of riffs that still make you clench your fists. Put this record’s opener on your next mix tape.

Sounds, pictures, and more at the Necro Hippies MySpace page, where you can also the dates they’re looking to fill on their upcoming West Coast/Southwest tour, May 10th-21st, 210. Check it out and get in touch with them if you’re down to set something up!

It’s hard for me to believe that it’s been 25 years since this LP was originally released. Yet here I am at 40, still super excited about a record which blew me away at age 15. 1984 was a sinister and prophetic year for a generation that grew up in the shadow of the Cold War and was weaned on the dystopian visions of George Orwell and Aldous Huxley. Jeff Bale’s original liner notes point out the role of the elite in manipulating public opinion, and suppressing dissent is often manifested in the ideological and psychological sphere, rather than by brute force. Fast forward 25 years and we can see that Orwell’s vision of a futuristic Stalinist police state was crude, but his warning about the manipulation of thought and twisting of the truth was remarkably prescient.

The original punk movement of the late ’70s was shocking, loud, obnoxious and a break from the conformist malaise of that decade. As the bleak economic realities of the ’80s dawned, the radical right and corporate interests launched the Thatcher/Reagan “Capitalist Revolution” that was to result in great economic and social dislocation. As society swung to the right and embraced more conservative views, the slightly absurd and theatrical elements of ’70s punk were jettisoned for music of pure protest, energy and outrage: Hardcore! Maximum Rock n Roll was the international voice of this new movement, one that embraced radical social change and fast, powerful blasts of raw thrashing punk that made the bands of the ’70s seem tame and restrained.

It’s long been my opinion the Welcome to 1984 is the best compilation LP of all time. While it lacks the regional focus of runners up such as Flex Your Head or This Is Boston, Not LA, it documents not a local scene, but a worldwide movement. This movement was spreading, a virus of resistance to the conformity of the era that has continued to spread to the corners of the globe. The bands and songs selected by the MRR staff gave an impressive overview of this new and radical movement. 23 bands from 17 countries, this diverse assemblage all shared a power and urgency that truly captured the spirit of the times and the energy of the movement. When I bought this record at age 15 I was barely aware of punk outside my hometown and the UK. Reading MRR and blasting this record over and over opened up my eyes to the international hardcore movement and exposed me to many bands that have become life long favorites. There are some truly epic moments on this record, the bass intro to BGK’s “Computer Control,” the sing-along chorus of Kidnap’s “No SS,” and most importantly, the raw screams of Raw Power’s anthem “Fuck Authority.” When I first heard this record I knew I had found what I was looking for.

As the Cold War ended and the War on Terror began, the elite found a rationale to extend their manipulation of public opinion and ideological control. While the hardcore subculture has endured, and spread, many complain that it has lost much of the energy and urgency of the early days. A spin of this record is a shot of this energy, pure and unadulterated.

—Felix Von Havoc, December 2009

Ydinaseeton Pohjola– Euro-Ohjukset 7” (Nightstick Justice Records)
Bleak, raw Finnish punk. The singer has no idea how to scream, so you can picture every time they play he spends the night afterwards coughing up blood while he chokes down some greasy bootleg vodka; and the guitar tone sounds like a horrible cheap digital pedal that tremors like a dirty CD in a couple of song pauses. All of these little disconcerting moments add to the impact of the music, and fortunately the song writing is inventive, though not experimental/weird enough that the entire thing sounds like a school project in rewriting the Havoc records reissue catalog. This sounds pretty unique and interesting, another great 7” from the modern Finnish scene which has given me plenty of justification to never want to visit that country and experience the kinds of miseries that go into making this music.

Dear Reader, you are so lucky this reissue is seeing the light of day. Pre-AMDI PETERSEN’S ARMÉ, YOUNG WASTENERS, and NO HOPE FOR THE KIDS, etc… and this is the crème de la crème. Den Danske Ungdom is an impeccable record—it’s on my top-ten of post-Y2K records, and it’s a desert island pick for sure. This record is a beast—from the first drop of the needle your hit with a wave of fervid urgency and power, that first guitar lick forever etched into one’s brain. The vocals are so pure and honest with such youthful vigor and abhorrence with every squeak and prepubescent crack being utter hardcore perfection. The songs so original/memorable you’ll want to flip this record over and over again until you’ve retained all its beauty; how often is the first record or output by a group of kids this accomplished? I’m writing all this now without having listened to it in over a week. It’s just one of those records that is an instant classic, a true rarity in today’s saturated heap of terrible to mediocre records. What I’m saying is this is a scorched earth policy. I’m putting it on now and am set to explode. Pick Your King of a new generation? You bet. (Hjernespind Records)