BAD RELIGION - Suffer 1988

Back With A Bang! You can say this without hesitation. After a five-year break and their foray Into The Unknown 'ProgRock' business, which was more a bummer, they returned to a somewhat mellower Rock&Roll version of their original sound with the Back To The Known EP (1985), but disbanded temporarily soon after. It was time to think and Bad Religion remembered what they can do best; writing short meaningful melodic energy Punk anthems and Suffer is the essence of it all and came out at the end of the Eighties, a time when HC/Punk was beginning to sprout and no wonder many critics praised the album as a Hardcore Milestone. Thirty-six versions of this slab confirm its popularity and my copy is the second press, I think. My review is short and sweet: I love this record, the only manko is the short playing time, but half an hour of Pogo makes you feel alive and on course again, and Greg's haunting voice pierces your body and bounces from the wall back at you. My absolute favorite is Do What You Want with its fast, dynamic, no-frills riffs and awesome lyrics, a fucking lightning strike of finest California Punkrock. Shit, why am I writing so much anyway? Buy this little fucker because you need this listening pleasure for REAL, and not those shitty uninspired digital files.

here

PITFALL - Separation EP 1981

Four piece from the Holland with their only record on Re-Records, we're talking about Pitfall from Wijk Bij Duurstede, a tranquil little town south of Utrecht, and they consisted of Haiko (vocals/bass), André (guitars), Corina (bass/vocals), Frans (drums) and in 1980 they released a C60 Tape via Finger In The Dyke, together with Six Minute War and this fucker contains thirty-one blasts which were recorded live by two concerts each band. I guess only a few know about the existence of this bloody cassette and so almost nobody reached this little work of art, including me. Seperation isn't a wavebreaker but a nice record with five goodies with female/male vocals and I like that. Compilations featuring the band: Cumstains Over My Record Collection & Utreg Punx 1978-1982. Here we go...

here

ŠVINDL - Falešný Zprávy EP 2018

Another exotic discovery is the following combo: Švindl. A young combo from Litomerice, Czech Republic and the boys play refreshing mid-tempo punk and this is their second EP with five cocktails which are available for free on their bandcamp site. The reason I'm posting them here? Well, good new Punkrock is rare these days and this young band deserves attention in my opinion. On the one hand they do their job excellently, on the other hand, who ever looks at the Czech Republic? I honestly don't. Their musical outpourings are only available digitally, no vinyl. Apparently it's difficult to find a label, which may be due to the Czech lyrics, but that's exactly what I find very charming, I don't understand anything, but I concentrate more on their sound and that kicks ass, really recommended. Check them out, it's worth!

here

ETON CROP - Timmy Barker Is A Coward 7'' 1980

A band that's completely new to me is Eton Crop, and since they don't tend to indulge in the dirty sound, that's probably fine too. A bit of info from the web: Inspired by British bands such as the Fall and the Undertones the band were formed 1979 in Nieuwkoop by Erwin (vocals/guitar), Ron (guitars), Corné (bass), Peter (organ) and Ed (drums) and they started to release a split cassette (with Pistache BV) full of punk pop with an experimental slant. They released a total of twelve singles and four albums over the next fifteen years. Frequent visitors to the UK, they toured with many of the "pre-C86" groups like The Membranes and The Three Johns, the latter with whom they shared a not too dissimilar musical approach. While many groups from that era downed tools towards the end of the decade, Eton Crop battled on into the mid-nineties, their last full length album, Get Real!, appearing in 1992, eventually bowing out in 1994 with the four track EP Everybody. The band later changed their name to the E.C. Groove Society and started producing techno music until 2003. Recently the band reformed under Eton Crop and performed in Stockton, County Durham at the Peel Regenerated Festival in 2014. Well, two small pieces on this, why not?

- Great Thx to Fredrik -

here

INGE VAL - Anti Parlamentarisk Rebellrock EP 1979

We're staying in Sweden and today I'm not going swimming because I'm going back to Frankfurt soon. This four piece, probably from Stockholm, released a small five track EP on Sista Bussen in the late seventies and the line-up was Ante (vocals & bass), Annika & Christian (guitars), Lennart (drums & vocals) and this is a nice KBD record and more infos are not available. But you can get more about Inge Val; a few liner notes waiting on the back but your swedish must be good for this. Otherwise there is quite a bit of compilation material from the four and I guess the band broke up in the early Eighties and merged into other relevant combos. Maybe at this point a subtle hint to the Wanted-List.... someone must have this fucking stuff, sharing is the motto. Now write a couple of Emails and play a little Backgammon, the last four days haven't been pleasant for me. El Skalmo Mi So Gonzlos!

here

BRACKMANGLARNA - Popnissar EP 2015

Before I go back to the swimming lake today, another highlight from Slyngel Rekords, and number 010 is dedicated to a three piece from Linköping named Brackmanglarna and this bloody sucker was pressed 300 times. All three smashers were recorded in 1980 and the band consisted to my knowledge of Magnus (vocals/guitars), Johan (bass), Jan (drums) nd they made it to a record, so the detectives contact the band and they found this little three numbers at least. Excellent KBD Punk and again once more a band from the fundus of lost swedish delicacies. It's already twenty-four degrees, I'll go right away and swim a bit and I hope you also have the opportunity to jump into cool water and tonight there is trout with delicious butter potatoes, I love this dish. 🎵🐟 🌞 Life Is Great!

here

NEON - s/t 7'' 2016

Hui, it was a beautiful hot summer day at the lake today and now freshly showered I fill wdthtc with an all-girl band from Switzerland who unfortunately didn't put anything on vinyl when they were active, but some recordings survived the Gau and the essential Berlin label Static Age put out this classic 7Inch (some in pink vinyl) with two goodies back in 2016. A little insight about them from the insert: "We, Astrid (vocals), Dagmar (guitars), Loredana (bass), Gitta (drums) met in May 1978 in Zurich and formed Neon. None of us had ever played an instrument before! But, we were all animated by the spontaneous, creative, and rebellious spirit of Punk. Then ,we practiced for four months and got four songs together. We were surprised that we also managed to build a small fan base with our small numbers of tracks. Our first show was on 1. November 1978 at the Hey Club in Zurich, followed by the gig with Hertz on 17. November at the Spex in Bern. To fill the respective evening's programme we simply played or entire repertoire several times over.

In the beginning, we planned to shoot a Super-8 movie about holidays in a subway station: Neon sun and Neon fun. It shoud then have been shown at our concerts, while we played live. In addition, neon art objects strewn across the stage. Yet, everything went so fast that, eventually, we only could make a light installation with regular neon tubes.

Then in December, a performance on Swiss television took place for a programm about "Woman In Show Business." The TV appearance did not make us happy at all. The recordings of our songs were done in a music studio and we had to fight hard for them. Then, this stage direction voice gave commands from out of nowhere and did not suit us at all. After this wretched story we decided on playing no further gigs for a while. During this time-out, we also rehearsed with other musicians, leading to a temporary replacement on bass. Then, in 1979 two gigs at POCH (Progressive Organisations Of Switzerland, a leftwing political party) events in Zurich; on 17. March at the Limmathaus and on 14. July at Helvetiaplatz, together with TNT. The latter was an Open Air Festival and, at the same time, our farewell show since Neon disbanded thererafter."

There's still a bit more infos, but I don't want to write more, read the rest on the insert while you hear the two classics from this short-lived band. I now have to equalize my Backgammon losses from this afternoon.

here

Impressions XVIII

- - - - - - -

V/A - Kulturschock Attacke #2 1987

An excellent follow-up to Volume 1 is Kulturschock Attacke numero two on Broken Rollbrett Records and belongs for me to the most important D-Punk compilations like those by Weird System and AGR. Twenty-two true nuggets are on here from bands that were either newly formed at the time and released their first recordings here, some only made it to a demo, others released some brilliant records (find them in this theater). Some songs are really exceptionally good, for example Result Of Boredom, Pestlilence, Silent Rate, F.O.H. or Catholic Sperms, whose songs are almost the highlights for me and which I would have believed had the potential for a great future in the Eighties. But the other musical outpourings are also worth listening to and I give these two volumes full marks; GREAT GERMAN NOISE ATTACK! Now I'm snipping four kilos of strawberries I've picked myself and in the afternoon there's the delicious SGE Burger. Is life great sometimes? Yes, it is!

1.Our Last Fun - PESTILENCE

2.Im Namen Des Volkes - CIRCLE OF SIG-TIU

3.Deutschland Ist Tot - THE CROWDS

4.Night In The City - RESULT OF BOREDOM

5.Fuck Off Pessimism - RESULT OF BOREDOM

6.Wir Waren Helden Für Einen Tag - INZEST

7.Just A Lie - MOLOTOW SODA

8.Politiker (Dein Leben) - FLAG OF HATE

9.Mallorca Dreams - ÄNI(X)VÄX

10.American Choices - MEMENTO MORI

11.Strychninie - SUBNARCOTICS

12.Nikotin - BLANKER HOHN

13.Give Me Some Life - SILENT RITE

14.Von Gott Gesandt - DIE GOTTGESANDTEN

15.Hohle Wangen - DIE GOTTGESANDTEN

16.Alcoholic Tendencies - TALKIN' TO THE TOILET

17.Sisters Are Worse - CATHOLIC SPERMS

18.Tribute To An Unknown - CATHOLIC SPERMS

19.Jingle Hells - DIE PERVERSEN WEIHNACHTSMÄNNER

20.Fortschritt - ALPTRAUM GMBH

21.Viele Tausend - ALPTRAUM GMBH

22.Die Hand Satans - LIANED

here

ACTIVES - Kick It Down 1983

Puhhhh, the long fucking work weed is over and now four days off, Yeah! Now the Actives, hailing from the north of the British Isle and this is their great debut on Quiet Records and they were actice from 1981-1987. - I'm extreme exhausted and therefore now a little info which I found in the web from musicmetason: "this quartet had links with Alternative, sharing their instruments and gigging together. Dougie McHale joined Alternative in 1983 (he was replaced with Smed) and Eric 'Rice' Beveridge from Alternative joined the Actives in 1984, after the release of their third and final release, the Wait & See 12"! The band's manager Sconey took over vocals at this point. Although the Kick It Down album won a rave review in MRR, they are still pretty obscure. Mole (of Skeptix and Shattered Family) was also a member at some point. Here's how the liner notes to Reactivated tells the story: The Actives were actually born of frustrated roadies and followers of "The Alternative" in Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland in December '81. The Alternative shared their practice pad, instruments and social life with the Actives, indeed the original Actives guitarist, Dougie, joined the Alternative in mid '82. A number of support gigs with the Alternative followed but it soon became apparent both bands were playing to different sections of the punk audience. Difference of opinions, especially over lyrical content, saw the Actives being asked to leave the shared practice pad in late '82. A high degree of musical mediocrity fused with an uncontrolled desire to play very loud and very fast led to a publishing contract deal in 1982 with ex Menace member Charlie Casey. A record deal followed in early '83. Two months later the single 'Riot' EP was released. The only cloud on the horizon was the recording of the album Kick It Down which was mixed by an uninterested old shit of a hippy - giving the album the unique sound of shouting a lot whilst your mum is vacuuming directly behind you. The much more musically satisfying (and last) single Wait '& See!' was released late '83. In early 1984 the singer, Lewis, left the band and the ex "Alternative" member, Rice, joined on lead vocals. A number of demo tapes followed but no further records were released. Local gigs followed, especially memorable was a support slot with the Toy Dolls. Rice left the band in '85. The ex-manager, Sconey, then took on the mantle of singer. Further demo tapes were made but the band eventually called it a day in late 1987. Where are they now? Lewis (vocals) - last seen Dunfermline bumming free beer at Budgie's house Budgie (bass) - last seen Dunfermline talking about how well his tomatoes were doing this year Kirky (drums) - last sighted Japan Rice (vocals) - often seen in America and at Punk gigs especially around females." - Fantastic record in every way and I'm sure you like it.

here