Reviews

Alona's Dream

Articles of Faith Wait EP reissue

One of the best and at the time most inventive USHC 7″s gets the reissue it deserves, had Alternative Tentacles not already compiled all of AOF’s material onto Complete Volumes 1 & 2 in 2002. Is this a necessary move? I’m leaning towards yes. The ferocity of “I’ve Got Mine” and “Buy This War” can’t be understated and probably warrant the reissue in order to teach new-age bootleg shirt kids, egg punks, and chopped and screwed enthusiasts what hardcore is supposed to sound like. The album art comes across simple, almost completely inept until you open the meticulously made insert containing the lyrics to “Wait.” Bondi may have said some of the worst no-no words in the American Hardcore doc but he’s got some of the most brilliant lyrics of the era on show here.

Articles of Faith What We Want Is Free EP reissue

The explosion of hardcore in the USA in 1981 occurred at just the right time in a socio-cultural context to recruit to its ranks a legion of incredibly talented and creative people. When we review the canon of the first few years of hardcore in America, we are astonished at how much truly great, empowering, and influential music was created in a short period of time. Like the original explosion of punk in the UK, it was just the right place and right time. Here were a lot of very talented and energetic young people who were just waiting for some creative window to open that they could jump through. ARTICLES OF FAITH were one of many of those first wave of hardcore bands. Their first two 7″s captured them at a perfect point where the raw energy of hardcore was bursting forth, and before their creative talents lead them to more complex compositions and explorations. Their later material draws in a lot of influence from GANG OF FOUR and other post-punk types, but on What We Want is Free, we have that raw enthusiasm of a band’s first release, charging hard out of the gate with no such pretensions. The recording is lo-fi, the layout is cut-and-paste, but the energy and zeal radiate from the record like blazing bonfire. Musically, this is straight-ahead ’82 hardcore, but played with some chop and panache that reveals a greater underlying musicianship, not unlike their then labelmates DIE KREUZEN, or perhaps New Strings For Old Puppets-era REALLY RED. Vic Bondi wrote some great lyrics; he had a way of capturing complex social or economic issues and condensing them into a “less is more” lyrical delivery. That is to say, you can read a lot into what he is trying to say with very few words. “What we Want is Free,” “Bad Attitude,” and “My Father’s Dreams” focus on the yearning to be free from the constraints of a preordained conformist career in the capitalist system. “Everyday” is the same message of the bleak dehumanized reality that awaits those who do conform and get stuck in society’s rat race. The second 7″ Wait was also reissued; that one is a real masterpiece musically and lyrically. Taken together they are a testament to the enduring power of the genre.

Artificial Peace Live at the Wilson Center: June 25, 1982 LP

Hell yeah. Here is an archival live record from one of my favourite hardcore bands, ARTIFICIAL PEACE. This 1982 set at the Wilson Center in Washington, DC was recorded and mixed by GOVERNMENT ISSUE’s Tom Lyle and, while the audio fidelity is quite far from pristine, it does the exact job it was meant to do—capture the atmosphere and experience of that particular magical night. This fourteen-song set hits you right across the face with HC fury and does not let up. All the classic ARTIFICIAL PEACE tunes get played here: “Outside Looking In,” “Suburban Wasteland,” “Against the Grain,” etc. This mighty performance is a must-listen for any fans of this criminally underrated band.

Assault & Battery The Complete Session, May 1981 LP

One of the earliest documents of the legendary D.C. hardcore scene, The Complete Session, May 1981 is the first ever legit release of ASSAULT & BATTERY’s only studio recording. Featuring members that would go on to play in bands like GOVERNMENT ISSUE, ARTIFICIAL PEACE, and MARGINAL MAN, these guys helped to sculpt the style that would come to define that era. The songs are short and savage, showcasing some primeval examples of the ripping and stomping D.C. sound, and it’s pretty great. This record includes songs that were previously only available via bootleg along with some outtakes and instrumentals that have never been released until now, all transferred from the original 4-track master. It’s “missing link” hardcore from a crucial time, if you’re into that sort of thing.

Blatant Dissent 1985–1986 LP

As a teenager growing up in the Midwest during the first half of the 1990s, it’s perhaps unsurprising that I enjoyed the rock band TAR. TAR was a kind of emblematic middle-of-America noise rock band—they constructed their guitars from aluminum and they put out records on labels like Touch and Go and Amphetamine Reptile. But unlike, say, COWS or LAUGHING HYENAS, TAR was actually kind of a straight-ahead band, playing a sort of glum, deceptively hook-filled mid-tempo rock music. They even pulled a neat trick by having their final album, 1995’s Over and Out, be their finest work. But before TAR, most of the members learned their trade in the post-hardcore group BLATANT DISSENT. This collection LP pulls together two different recording sessions that resulted in a couple 7”s and the Hold the Fat album, and includes unreleased versions of some tracks. The first side was recorded with famed engineer Iain Burgess, who recorded many classic T&G sides, while the ’86 side is the early work of one Steve Albini, who also remastered this material from the original tapes. What’s interesting is that a lot of the 1985 material isn’t that different from the sonic trademarks of Washington, DC’s concurrent Revolution Summer scene. Even the lyrical concerns, often addressing their fellow punks, echo these sentiments. Hell, “Undermine” is practically a straightedge anthem. “Is There a Fear?” channels NAKED RAYGUN like they were born to it, while “My Hands Are Tied” opens with a PINK FLOYD-like acoustic bit before erupting into a tuneful swift kick that isn’t far removed from a late ’90s “melodic hardcore” band. “Eleven Days” shows how the band is able to give shape to the bleak, colorless days that dot the Midwestern calendar year. “How Can I Lose?” and “Status Quo” are highlights, all nervous energy and killer hooks. For obvious reasons, the 1986 sessions reveal a far tighter and more powerful band. By this point, BLATANT DISSENT had locked down its sound and it was only a matter of time until they would craft their aluminum guitars and solidify the sound of TAR.

End Result The Seven Year Locust Returns LP reissue

I first heard about END RESULT maybe about ten years ago when that documentary about Chicago punk of the early ’80s came out. They were easily the most exciting band in the movie, a multi-racial falling apart teenage fuck you to regimental rules-based hardcore with shades of FLIPPER and NO TREND, but made with their own ingredients. In case you want to read someone else’s contextualization of the group, here’s Albini: “END RESULT was truly a band apart… Alan tuned his guitar like a cello… END RESULT had no drummer to keep the beat, because (in Alan’s immortal words) we think our audience can count.’” I immediately took it upon myself to find some recordings, and picked up their LP, Ward, which was not quite reflective of the footage from the movie that was so intoxicating to me. Chicago people kept talking about these mythical tapes from that earlier era that were going to come out, but despite my mania and constant badgering, reader—it never happened! Until now! Here they are! The 1982 tapes I have been hunkering for since 2008! A no wave band at a hardcore show isn’t shocking in 2020, but imagining a legion of Reagan Youth gazing and trying to understand the strange wonders of this mutant sound in between one-two-fuck-you bands is a quiet pleasure! I might be misremembering this, but END RESULT considered themselves a HC band, not a no wave band. What is hardcore, or no wave? And how can we change it so it makes sense at the end of the world? END RESULT has the answers and the questions; this record is a destructive/constructive demonstration of what is possible when you have an idea and are baffled by genre exercises…

Evil I Official Bootleg LP

As far as archival punk labels are concerned, Chicago-based Alona’s Dream is near the top of the pile. Whether repackaging criminally-neglected albums or digging up shoulda-been classics, Alona’s Dream excels at presentation as well as content. This time, they rescue a 1983 cassette demo by a hardcore band that hailed from the Chicago suburb of Lombard. While distributed locally and garnering a few favorable reviews in national zines, EVIL I finally gets their due with this raging slab of wax. Holy hell, this fucker smokes! As the band tears apart everything in sight, the singer unloads her frustrations like she’s unleashing a hail of arrows from the top of the tower. EVIL I engages in whiplash time changes while never sacrificing the brutality or extending the songs with gratuitous parts. “So What?” (“if I die”) crams a catchy chorus into a little over a minute, but it’s “Trend” that is the out-and-out classic cut here. I can’t thing of a single early ’80s hardcore compilation that wouldn’t be improved by this total burner that spotlights a killer wah-wah solo amidst its breathtaking pace. The guitar playing matches the singer for pure vicious spite and the rhythm section is dextrous and punishing. Is “Bored of Education” a perfect hardcore punk song? Fuck yes it is. And of course it features more of that deliciously nasty wah-wah. Truth be told, the second half of this demo is an absolutely classic 7″ that was never realized…until now.

Life Sentence Demos EP

This EP consists of the first studio recording from Chicago’s LIFE SENTENCE, plus a four-track demo track that the band did prior to their LP that came out the following year. The studio tracks include their original vocalist Ray Morris, who is on half of the LP release since he departed while the LP was being recorded. Compared to the LP, the guitars here are a straight-up blown-out “chainsaw guitar” fuzz sound akin to MALEFICE or SHITLICKERS, or even what Kawakami from DISCLOSE thrived on. Blisteringly fast ’80s USHC speedcore. With an up-to-date mastering job, we get to listen to this beefed-up version of the original tracks.

Protagonists 1983-1985 LP

This is the kind of punk artifact crate digger dreams are made of—a beautifully packaged reissue of previously unheard and nigh unfindable material from this Naperville-based group of adolescent power poppers with an edge. At the height of Chicago hardcore, these kids were making smartass melodic tunes that hit more like NAKED RAYGUN produced by the FEELIES. The songwriting is confident, with advanced structures and tight playing that a lot of veteran acts never fully achieve. There’s also some naïve charm, largely thanks to the keyboard that often hangs clumsily in the mix but still adds something special. On the standout “Another Monday,” PROTAGONISTS sounds like they could have had a home amongst K Records’ roster of discomforting emotional acts—an accidental precursor to ’90s bedroom pop-rock. So many releases like this get lost to time, but thankfully now a wider audience can listen to the quiet triumph of four teens who made the time to put what they had to say on tape. After all, it’s not always about how many people are listening, but the quality of what they listen to.

The Only Ones Live in Chicago 1979 LP

OK, I’m a big fan of this era of the ONLY ONES. I probably would’ve loved this LP if it was just half an hour of Peter Perrett tuning his guitar, but in all honesty, this is a great live record. The recording quality is clear, and the mix just raw enough that you know it’s live. The band sounds great, hitting all notes and breaks with the cool, poetic irreverence that makes them so special. Released on the brink of the pandemic, the timing of this record couldn’t be better. If live recordings are the closest we can get to the show-going experience, albums like this one are a worthy substitute for the real deal.

V/A Punks in Peoria LP

Taking a long view of the various punk and alternative bands to emerge from Peoria, Illinois throughout the ’80s and ’90s, this comp provides some cool snapshots of a small-town scene’s evolution. Starting off with goofy, KBD-worthy tunes from bands with names like CONSTANT VOMIT and BLOODY MESS & HATE, the tone of the collection progresses into some weird, later ’80s new wave/post-punk (peep the lo-fi sci-fi of DAED KCIS’s “Ghost Story Lane”) before eventually landing into a showcase of various popular ’90s styles. There’s archetypal indie pop in tracks from DOLLFACE and DISMISS, as well as what sounds like misguided NIRVANA-worship from FAST FOOD REVOLUTION, and many degrees in between. This will be a cool nostalgia trip for those who were there, and it’s likely to remind folks in various locales of bands they went to high school with.