Reviews

Radiation

Agnostic Front First Warning LP

The earliest A.F. tracks don’t even sound like music to my ears. Everything—the riffs, the ultra-primitive drumming, the fuzzed-out string bend in the intro to “Final War”—is far enough removed from traditional rock’n’roll that I almost wonder whether these guys listened to anything besides the sounds of breaking garbage trucks and subway trains before they hit the studio. I mean, if Realities of War is a truncheon to the face, United Blood is like someone ripped the streetlight at 7th and A out of the f’n sidewalk and dropped it on your skull. If that’s your idea of a good time, consider this compilation, subtitled “The United Blood’ Era Recordings, New York City, 1983.” All material was previously released on Grand Theft Audio’s Raw Unleashed CD a while back, and this LP shares many tracks with the superior No One Rules collection on Radio Raheem, technically getting away with the “several songs on vinyl for the very first time” sales point by including an alternate mix of the EP tracks. Anyway, it looks cool and features five different versions of “United Blood” on a single disc.

Beatnik Termites Beatnik Termites 12″ reissue

I remember this band from the Punk USA compilation on Lookout! back in the ’90s. This reissue of their first 12″ is a perfect distillation of their thing: sugary, poppy pop songs that gesture towards the RAMONES but don’t have any of the aggression of that act (not a knock). Lotsa vocal harmonies and hooks aplenty.

Icons of Filth Not on Her Majesty’s Service LP reissue

In my late teen years, I had a friend who was obsessed with ICONS OF FILTH. I was relatively new to anarcho-punk at the time, so I was given digital files, mixtapes, and even loaned a 7″ for about a week. Needless to say, Not on Her Majesty’s Service became a sort of beacon, guiding my tastes to more sonic extremes. Originally a cassette release, it’s now reissued (for the second time) on vinyl with a previously unpublished photo of the band. ICONS OF FILTH were comrades of CRASS and CONFLICT, but their sound is strongly in the UK82 spectrum with noise-level guitar distortion, heavy drumming, and an unwavering hardcore ethos. Don’t expect artsy anarcho/peace punk, but rather something more like CHAOS UK or GBH.

Mood of Defiance Now LP reissue

A 2020 reissue of a South Bay band with San Pedro connections to the MINUTEMEN and SACCHARINE TRUST. While similar to those two bands in their lack of hardcore orthodoxy, MOOD OF DEFIANCE also lacks either those bands’ experimental musicality or oddball X-factor, mostly creating a plodding, mid-tempo hippie punk sound that nods at deathrock and nudges at psychedelia but doesn’t really go far out in either direction.

Code of Honor / Sick Pleasure Fight Or Die / Dolls Under Control LP reissue

After being out of print for 30 years, one of the best—if not the best—records to come out of the early ’80s Northern California hardcore milieu has finally been reissued. I imagine many readers may also know these songs by heart, but for anyone needing a quick summary: SICK PLEASURE was the earlier band of the two, with a fun, dumb antisocial vibe, and whose singer Niki Siki later joined VERBAL ABUSE and took some of his lyrics here with him. CODE OF HONOR came shortly after, had the same backing band but with vocalist Johnithin Christ, were more accomplished musically, and whose personally and politically earnest sentiment served as a contrast to Siki’s irreverence. While SICK PLEASURE was singing “Destroy / Destroy / Destroy the human race” and writing songs about killing the Muni driver, CODE OF HONOR was saying (literally saying, in this example) “Kill all the politicians and no one else will die,” and urging listeners to question who and what they were living for. Radiation Records deserves a good deal of credit for putting together what is mostly a faithful reproduction, so that band-approved inspiration and/or stupid fun can be had to these songs on the proper analog medium for $20 instead of $100. However, there is a slight but very noticeable difference in the font used for the band names on each band’s side of the split. I imagine this was done for logistical reasons, but it’s still a bit disappointing. All of that said, it’s great to have these songs back on vinyl, and not a moment too soon.

Social Distortion Poshboy’s Little Monsters 12″

This six-song EP collects all the material from the 1981 session that yielded SOCIAL DISTORTION’s first record, the Mainliner single. (Interestingly, that debut was originally planned as a 12″ and made it to the test pressing stage before being downsized due to disagreements over the artwork.) You’ll find formative takes of tracks that were rerecorded for other releases (“Justice for All” renamed “It’s the Law” for 1988’s Prison Bound). In fact, all these early versions have appeared elsewhere themselves, so there’s nothing unreleased here. But it’s nonetheless cool to revisit this stuff — “Playpen” and “Moral Threat” are two of the band’s best early tracks. Worth checking out if you don’t have the Mainliner (Wreckage from the Past) LP already.

The Freeze Land Of The Lost LP reissue

When talk of early Boston stuff comes up, it usually omits the FREEZE, which is a shame—these cats, along with the PROLETARIAT, kick the most ass on the Boston Not L.A. comp, to say nothing of “I Hate Tourists” coming out in 1978, a full three years before SSD started playing Gallery East. This is all to say that this reissue of the FREEZE’s first LP is worth a listen, though with a prescribed grain of salt: satiric, melodic, and snotty throughout, with more melody and tunefulness than other bands in their cohort. Their lyrics land like a more blunt, less political DEAD KENNEDYS.

The Wasps Punkryonics: Singles & Rare Tracks 1977–1979 LP

The WASPS were an East London act who got together in 1976. They played a mix of ’77 punk, histrionic glam, and new age power pop (imagine a fairly organic mashup of EATER, the QUICK, and the POINTED STICKS). They put out one pretty great single (“Teenage Treats” / “She Made Magic”) on an independent label in 1977 that garnered modest acclaim. Then they spent the next couple of years tweaking their lineup and sound trying to court a major label, which they managed when they put out their less-great single “Rubber Cars” on RCA in 1979. It wasn’t particularly well received, despite the band claiming it was RCA’s fastest selling single the week that it was released (…OK) and was destined to be a number one hit had the label backed it (impossible to prove, but seems doubtful). In any case, the band imploded shortly after the record came out. This release is a vinyl reissue of an odd-and-sods collection that came out on CD back in 2003, now expanded with a couple of bonus live tracks. It features all of their studio recordings, some live tracks, and maybe some rough demos—seventeen songs in total. The studio cuts are pretty fantastic and are definitely worth your time if you’ve never heard the band. The rest is probably nice if you’re a fan of the act, but won’t be much of a selling point to anyone else.