Rozz Rezabek 1979 Pop Session LP
Previously misattributed as a late recording from San Francisco first-wavers NEGATIVE TREND when released as the unauthorized The Pop Sessions CD by White Noise Records in 1998, these nine tracks are actually solo efforts from the band’s former singer, the now-legendary ROZZ REZABEK, recorded in 1979 after he had parted ways with the group. This official LP release from HoZac is setting the record straight. The set captures the brief, yet potent moment in time when punk had just begun mutating into the hardcore styles that would dominate its presence in the years that would follow, and the sound of these tunes fits squarely between that of the earliest incarnations of BLACK FLAG and the first CIRCLE JERKS LP. The agitated rocking of the genre’s early days was approaching its boiling point, and few documents capture the era as definitively as this. ROZZ’s raging vocals are authentically steeped in sarcasm and spite, and songs like “Never Say Die” and “Dead Wrong” would be iconic standards had they not been buried in obscurity and misinformed bootlegs until now. It’s a must-hear for all true obsessives and would-be punk historians.