SUBTRACTIONS - It's Exposed EP 2015

Another uncovered whopper, a massive missing link of first wave West Coast punk. Four incredible songs that never saw a release during their tenure until now, boiling over w/punk brilliance, pulse-pounding and antagonistic anthems that immediately command your attention. From the recently-unearthed 1980 studio recordings, HoZac Records presents Punk pioneers from Fresno/California: The Subtractions.

"When one thinks of Fresno, CA punk bands certainly aren't the first thing to come to mind. This sleepy city located inland and about the halfway point between Los Angeles and San Francisco became a hot spot for 60s rock bands to stop through which carried over into the 1970s, when the wave of hard rock washed over the town, resulting in numerous bootleg LPs from AC/DC, Van Halen and more. Fast forward to the appearances of "punk" across American pop culture (DEVO on SNL, Sex Pistols US tour, Ramones planting seeds everywhere) and you've got bands springing up around every corner, Fresno included. And even on the first Maximum Rocknroll compilation, Not So Quiet On the Western Front, three Fresno bands made their debut appearances, Maniax, Nazi Bitch & the Jews and the Frigidettes, but little was known about the bands that predated those, until now.

The Subtractions were the brightest-sounding pure punk band of the bunch, and although stacked with a lively gig schedule, complete with a sold out support slot for the Dead Kennedys, they sadly never left their recorded mark on the world in their original inception, but luckily they DID have the good notion to make a recording before they went their separate ways, and finally seeing the light of day in October 2015 is the "lost" debut EP called It's Exposed on HoZac Records in edition of 500 copies." (Todd Killings) - Here they have four tracks rescued from the vault, listen!”

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BANDAGE - Republik EP 1978 + Populär 7'' 2015

You take what you have, Bandage thought and sat in a boy's room in the mid seventies and tried to mimic the hard rock bands with the help of acoustic guitars. In April 1977, they thought it was time to buy real gadgets, and in the same vein they heard the Ramones, The Clash and Sex Pistols and decided that it was punk they wanna play. In July the same summer, they did their first gig at a farm party in Tyresö. The set was then Peter (vocals/bass), Jan (guitar) and Stefan (drums). A little later Stefan #2 joined as 2nd guitarist. Then the high school began to approach the end and for a couple herded the lump. When Bandage rented a studio in May 1978 to record this four-song EP, it was already almost clear that the band would be closed down. Although the studio technician had to decide, it had not become a record. He suggested a little tentatively that it might be enough if they used the recording as a demo ... But a record it was, though so terribly punk it didn't sound. "Republik" their attack on the royal house, and closing "Sven Brutal" were pretty tough songs, while "Jesus Lever" could be mistaken for a religious song. However, they assured it was irony. And speaking of irony, they changed the lyrics from "Republik" to "Diktatur" instead of emphasizing the irony. But according to David Halvars, it was marginally more people who understood the irony in the text line “Dictatorship - We should have that! Dictatorship - We want that! Dictatorship - We shall have that in our country ”. Over time, a new bandage emerged. With only Peter and Jan from the original set, they continued for a while before the band went to the grave for good. (Info from the book Ny Våg)

In 2015 Slyngel Rekords dug out two more lost nuggets from the Stockholms and released the single in an edition of 300 copies in purple vinyl. They exchanged a few members, including David Halvars from Bitch Boys in the band, and recorded a demo in 1980 that sounded much rougher than the EP. The demo ended up on the radio program New Vags editorial which meant that the Swedish people got to experience a catchy punkpop song named "Populär". What should I report further? This is excellent stuff whereby I like the new single almost better but that's like everything, a matter of taste and I’m sure you’ll enjoy this fantastic stuff - they only existed about a year and never get outside Stockholm.

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VORWÄRTS - A Trip Down Memory Lane 2002

Swiss punk veterans Vorwärts are from the area of Basel, founded by Udi (vocals), RR & Bibä (guitars), Nutty (bass), Roli (drums), and today the oldest Punk combo from Switzerland still playing live. In 1984, when singer Udi and his friends went into the studio for the first time and the result is the very much sought nameless five track 12'', 300 copies exist. Vorwärts already had several years of service under their belt: the band was formed 1979 and Udi remembers his first contact with the punk movement, which was only slowly making its way from London and New York to the Upper Basel area. "When punk was born in 1976/77 we had no idea," he says. It wasn't until two years later that he heard the first songs by the Ramones, The Damned, Clash and Sex Pistols and had pictures in the "Pop/Rocky”or “Musikexpress”. That "simply blown him and his friends away", as he told the bz: "Punk was so much better, more urgent and more important than anything we had heard before." The founding of his own band was "an outbreak, a departure, an undreamt-of freedom". Forward hit the Zeitgeist and were able to record their first successes: with their song TV Generation the quintet made it onto national radio and with a self-made clip (you can find it on YouTube under the title Boring Generation) even on Swiss television. But in their early years, Vorwärts not only met with approval. It belonged then that they were insulted as “Schwuli Söu”, “Gsindel” and “Soupack” because of their appearance - “bright green and black striped jeans, studded belts and bracelets, sprayed shirts, holes in clothes, a lot of leather and so on” the everyday life of the five young men. In 1988 the dissolution followed due to various individual follow-up projects and 1998 the reunion on the occasion of the wedding of a band member and since then they still active and their last record was released two years ago for their 40th year existence! (source: partly bzbasel)

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VICIOUS VISIONS - Retrodisrespect 1980-1983 [2019]

Vicious Visions was formed in Halmstad by Magnus Svensson alias No (vocals) & Bo Karlsson alias Mr. Boo (instruments) but soon moved to Berlin and honed his craft in occupied houses in the shadow of the iron curtain. They may come from the same city as Roxette but their music has more in common with Suicide, Stooges and the Residents. Where the single "I beat you" got an extra dimension because the band had no drummer at the time of recording and therefore used drum machine, Retrodisrespect can give a slightly broader understanding of how Vicious Visions sounded; here are songs from both full band set to just the duo behind the single. From wild Punk cleaners to Suicide-scented nowave. In collaboration with the band, Busy Bee Productions can finally give the world a full-length album with Vicious Visions. You can read in Peter Jandreus' Swedish Punk Encyclopedia (which features the cover of the 7Inch "I Beat You/No No's" on the cover) that the duo began in 1979 with covers of the Sex Pistols drowned in an ocean of Feedback and howling. Vicious Visions was a trio with Burco Bozztic drummer of Sabotage 81 for some time, the group performed locally in Malmö, Gothenburg, Denmark & Germany... This fantastic anthology published in 2019 by Busy B Production allows you to do an opinion beyond their single single, an approach much closer to the Residents of the 80s with Snakefinger, Chrome and the early Punk wave of the Screamers than the Swedish Punk bands of the time. Vicious Vision's single "I Beat You" is a holy grail within the Punk, not only because of the limited edition of just 109 items, but also because it is a Monster hit. Great Stuff!

- Great Thx to Fredrik -

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REGISTRATORS - Girl Girl Girl EP 1994

The Registrators formed in Japan in the late '80s, influenced by the leading punk rock bands of the time. Lead vocalist Hiroshi, alongside bassist Ren, guitarist Jun, and drummer Deira started by mainly playing covers of bands like the Damned, the Clash, or the Sex Pistols. During the following times, the band managed to record several singles, also appearing on Chloroform, a Japanese punk rock compilation in the mid of the '90s. This little three song pearl is fuckin' awesom, the band played a high-standard garage punk'N'roll and blow your head off, only 1000 copies were pressed usually, maybe 2000. Cool!

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FRÆBBBLARNIR - Viltu Bjór Væna? 1996

Now a fuckin' rare and awesome post and it's really difficult to get records or anything else from Fræbbblarnir, a Scandinavian band which were formed in 1978 and released a number of records until they quit early in 1983. A punk band playing short, melodic songs fast and raw, they were inspired by the Ramones, Sex Pistols, Damned, Alberto Y Lost Trios Paranoias, Stiff Little Fingers and the rest of the early Punk and New Wave scene, as well as 1960s bands like the Kinks and Troggs. They appeared in the documentary Rokk í Reykjavík, and the album “Viltu Nammi Væna?” is regarded as a classic. Its members continued playing on and off under various names until a compilation album was released by Smekkleysa (Bad Taste) in 1996, when the original band was re-formed. The band is still active and their record “Í Hnotskurn”, released in 2015 got excellent reviews, an album of the year for veteran critic Halldor Ingi Andresson and top reviews without exception. This re-release on CD from 1996 came via Smekkleysa (Bad Taste) and offers the album "Villtu Nammi Væna" with the addition of the 7Inches "Bjór" and "False Death", Out-Takes from the recording of VNM and some great live recordings as bonus. A great CD with thirty-eight catchy and dirty Killers!!  

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KÅMEJNIS KALLSONGER - Extas Rock? EP 1981

Kåmejnis Kallsonger (Khomeinis Underwear) was a punk band from Växjö. They played together between 1977 and 1982. Originally calling themselves Zlem (or Slem), but changed its name in 1980 to Kåmejnis Kallsonger. The band was inspired by English punk bands Sex Pistols and 999. In the spring of 1981 they released their one & only EP titled Extas Rock?. The songs were recorded in the Speldosan Studio in Ödetofta and contains four awesome KBD smashers plus a bonus track. Ecstasy Rock was released in 500 copies and has now high value among collectors. In Peter Janderus book The Encyclopedia Of Swedish Punk the EP's value to 5 on a 10-point scale, where 10 represents an extreme rarity with very high value. The group was Växjö's first punk band (Vägra Raggarna Benzin Vol.3 & 4) and in addition to their gigs they were opening act for Ebba Grön, Dag Vag, and Nationalteatern. Members were Johan Wetterberg (John Olive) who sang and played bass, Per-Ola Evaldsson (Per Capita) vocals, organ & guitar, Jonas Nilsson (Jonas Volta) vocals & guitar and drummer Håkan Bohlin (Malte Metronome). They never really officially split up.

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THE LUCHS BROTHERS - Kill Me I'm Rotten 7'' 1978

Debut killer 7Inch by the Luchs Brothers, Kurt (vocals), Marv (guitar), Gary (drums), from Chicago on Retread Records. The Luchs Brothers originally started out as a comedy troupe and they really had only one track that was in the punk vein, but since it was well-known at the time they are lumped into the punk scene. Kurt remembers "Kill Me I'm Rotten was written in ten minutes after my first exposure to the voice of Johnny Rotten, which I thought was one of the funniest things I'd ever heard, and to which I wanted to pay some kind of comedic homage. To this day, I'm amazed at how little press is devoted to the humor of the Sex Pistols and how seriously everybody takes punk. The idea that this man has made a living from singing all these years is, to me, hilarious. Still, I'm a big fan and I've enjoyed pretty much everything he's done. We soldiered on for a while with our comedy shenanigans. Our second record was unfortunately a major abortion, an attempt to combine songs with comedy bits, and it all sounds pretty awful today except for one cut, Luchs Brothers On Parade, which is nice but too long. I wouldn't stand by anything else on the record except for the ingenious homemade packaging, which is based on Chinese propaganda of the period, and includes things like a political playlet, etc." In 1979 a second 7Inch "We Are Farmers & Comedians Too" followed which moves more into comedy. Both songs are pretty cool stuff!

- Great Thx to Fredrik -

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GOLLYWOG - Fredagskväll 7'' 1978

Now a small highlight from the Swedish province of Jönköping county and the historic province of Småland. Gollywog was a punk combo from Tranås and were actice 1977-1980 and consisted Håkan (vocals), Peter & Jois (guitars), Anders (bass), Tomas (drums), and this is their very rare, much sought by collectors, only fuckin' record which they released by themselves in an edition of 300 copies. The five were inspired by the Sex Pistols, Iggy Pop, Ramones and others and most of their own songs (and there were a lot) were mainly written by singer Håkan. In their short livespan they played a handful of gigs in Tranås, Malmö, Motala and Stockholm. In 1980 the band broke up and Håkan became singer in the Nässjö band Rottweiler. The A-Side is a superb catchy number with killer guitars and if they had released an album in this style, it would have been on everyone's lips, one hundred percent. The flip is a solid rockin' track, equally brilliant. TOP record!

- Great Thx to Fredrik -

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RATTUS - WC Räjähtää 1982

In the early hour I welcome the weekend with fast hardcore from Finland and we put on the debut album by Rattus on Poko Records. Formed in the spring of 1978 by Jake and Vellu who started to play mostly English punk bands songs just for fun (Sex Pistols, The Damned, Clash,etc.). A few weeks later they asked Jake's brother Tomppa to join the band and so he did. The name Rattus was taken from the first album of the Stranglers, "Rattus Norvegicus". Rattus is latin meaning a rat,a very big rat. In the early days the band did shows only in their hometown and near of it. Fourteen heart attacks in less than twenty minutes, must I have say more? They made numerous albums, singles & represented on countless compilations and they're still touring, for example 2020 at the Rebellion Festival in Blackpool, UK., definitely worth a trip. - Now quickly to bed, in eight hours I'm back on my bike, good night Europe!

- Great Thx to Fredrik -

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XTRAVERTS - So Much Hate 1997

OK, no rib broken just a bruise but it hurts with every movement. I mentioned it briefly yesterday, a fall with the bike and a wasp sting on the back neck.....yes, yesterday was a nice day. Let's get to the following slab and I'll quote words from Bin Liner: "The most famous punk band of all has to be the Sex Pistols - but if your home was in the High Wycombe area you'll know that there was one other band that were just as good - Xtraverts from Buckinghamshire!! Back in 1977 the entire World was overcome with safety pin wearing, Mohican sporting Punk Rockers. Xtravert by name and oh boy - Xtravert by nature. Eventually splitting in the early 80s after their lead singer went to prison, they left behind them a torrent of local graffiti, a following that were lost without their local heroes and a complete unreleased LP, their finest moment, left to gather dust -disgraceful. That long lost album is now finally here, complete with free souvenir bin liner bag to the first 500 people who bought the vinyl album. On April 4th 1997 the band got together for the first time in almost twenty years - much had changed - the bass player is now female and other band members sport backgrounds such as ABH charges, appearances on stars in their eyes (Billy Idol) and membership of Matt Bianco - the sound however, was still there though and the crowd loved it!" Now on to the announced vinyl rip I wanted to do this week, enjoy the music!

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GERHARD HELMUT & RIPPER - Live @ Rock Corporation/Hollywood USA 1975

Frankfurt 8°, grey skies, rain, spring is still far and I continue March with this crone jewel. A historical tone document in a damn good quality and I can promise you these recordings blow you away. Eleven songs, full with wild raw energy are here celebrated in less than 30 minutes and if the Sex Pistols regarded as the inventor of punk this must be rethought because we know this cliché built the press in those days without really knowing what. Fuck them! The spirit to leave the norm and be yourself is alive in this music and makes clear that we will not be tamed, this is our life, our rules, our freedom. Put your crappy thoughts in your ass and shut up! Ahhh, this LP is revolutionary, haha.. Let me give you some info about the band which I quote from the superb Austro-Rock-Lexikon site: "Gerhard Helmut, Graz-born vocalist (in the 1960's he fronted the Austrian beat band VAMPS) who moved to New York in 1969, but relocated to Hollywood in 1972 was the bass player for Shady Lady, an underground early 70s L.A. lam rock band in the mold of DOLLS/STONES, they recorded an excellent LP, but it was never released, the band broke up in early '73, a few years later when punk rose up he formed this band RIPPER that release one great self produced new wave/punk single of which the a side got onto the Who Put The Bomp? compilation, that also distribute their release now impossible to find with Unter Der Faust in the A side (a german version of Under My Thumb from the Stones) and 'Trapped Like A Rat' on the flipside. Gerhard Helmut lives now in Hawaii." So this record came out 2008 on the Italian label 'Snaps Music' and is strictly limited to 40 pieces. I'm sure you will like this exquisite record, I in any case enjoy every fuckin' minute.

- EXTRA Special Thx to Mr.Reinhard -

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LIXOMANIA - Violência & Sobrevivência EP 1982

Last for today, a fresh EP with classic KBD stuff. Lixomania was a punk rock band from Brazil, formed 1979 in Sao Paulo by Adauto "Ada" (bass), Tikinho (guitar & vox) and Zú on (drums), they started playing in the late 70s, mainly influenced by early UK Punk heroes Sex Pistols, The Clash, Stiff Little Fingers, UK Subs, etc...they become one of the first Brazilian punk-bands and also released one of the first punk records. After some years in practice Lixomania made their first presentation at a meeting of unheard punk bands with only three songs in their repertoire and they played an awesome show, on the same day other pretty punk bands like Inocentes, Colera & Olho Seco showed up. Today all their records are classics. 1982 they released this record (their only one) with 6 brilliant punk smashers and they appear on the O Começo Do Fim Do Mundo compilation LP with a very badly recorded song - it was recorded on a walkman! A lot of gigs followed and Lixomania was the first punk band to play outside of Sao Paulo state and in March 1983 the band split and than later changed their name to 365 and became a new wave band. 365 still exists today. Review: "Lixomania sound a bit like some of the better new English bands, but with an edge and vocal rawness more reminiscent of Finnish groups. There's one thrasher and a bunch of mid-tempo punk songs covering themes like punk not dying, massacres of innocent people, etc. The lyrics are in Portugese, the language of Brazil." - Tim Yohannon (from Maximum Rock'n'Roll #5, March/April 1983)

- Special Thx to Reinhard -

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V/A - Bored Teenagers Vol.9 2016

And exactly what I described earlier applies to the following compilation; emotional authentic music by bands that perfectly reflect the zeitgeist and with their attitude towards life bought a few instruments and founded a band to express their emotions, some made it to a single and that was it. The baby is called Bored Teenagers and this is the Volume 9 in this highly collectable series that has done for Punk what the Pebbles series did for the obscure gems from the 60s. We have unearthed another batch of Punkrock Gems! This time only five bands but they had so many great tracks we couldn’t leave any off.

Info: First off is a band called the Crabs that most people are aware of as they appeared on the decent Farewell To The Roxy compilation back in 1978 with their ultra catchy track Lullabies Lie. Sadly no further recordings were released as the band folded in 1978 and became the backing band for Max Splodge but little did we know, the band did record four studio tracks for the highly collectable Lightning label and were scheduled for a release in March 1978. One thing led to another and the band never signed the contract and the tracks were shelved. Rough cassette copies circulated over the years but Tony the singer still had the master tape. This band should of made it and is criminal they are not up there with the likes of some of the bigger bands!

The second band to feature is FU-2 from Southend-On-Sea. Their roots can be traced back to late ’77. After years and years of trying to track this band down after seeing some Youtube footage, we hit lucky and found the singer. He had moved so many times and to our astonishment, he still had in his possession the original five trackmaster tape. The really interesting thing about these tracks is that all the recordings feature a certain lady who was made famous by appearing in the Sex Pistols film The Great Rock'N'Roll Swindle, Yes…. Helen Of Troy. Her vocals are so unique and some might say out of tune but blend perfectly with the opposing vocals of Terry Piper. All five tracks can be heard here! Be warned!!!! These tracks are catchy and you will be singing them all day! Once again, three out of these five tracks have never been heard before!

Next up is a band from Caterham in Surrey called Nuffin’ who were mates with The Damned & Johnny Moped. Their claim to fame so to speak of is that they had Roger Bullen (aka Dee Generate) as their drummer before being head hunted by Eater. Things were looking good for Nuffin’ as in November 1976 London Weekend Television broadcast a documentary by Janet Street Porter on a new youth cult called punk rock that was sweeping the nation. You can hear one of their tracks being played in that program. Here we have all four of their studio tracks that have never been heard before and are direct off the original reel to reel master tape.

The next band are Norwich’s first Punk band the Toads. These tracks that are featured are the essence of Punk, no messing about, straight in with 1234.. Bang! Short and sweet! After only a year or so theywere gone but the nucleus of the band re-appearing as Silent Noise.The last band are the Coils from out of Morpeth in Northumberland of all places… Once again, no  messing about, 1234 and singing about what was happening around them! Just take a listen to Fascist and Smash The Front! - Once again, a fucking ass kick on vinyl!

Enough for today, I'm tired and drunk, I only chilling now and I'm hungry...

1.Victim - THE CRABS

2.Save My Skin - THE CRABS

3.Lullabies Lie - THE CRABS

4.Blue Unction - THE CRABS

5.PG Tips - FU-2

6.Maybe - FU-2

7.Sorry - FU-2

8.Soho - FU-2

9.Sindy Michelle - FU-2

10.Centre Point Anywhere - NUFFIN'

11.Red Day Blues - NUFFIN'

12.We're Plastic - NUFFIN'

13.Pigs Can't Fly - NUFFIN'

14.All I Wanna Be Is A Star - THE TOADS

15.Suppression/Oppression - THE TOADS

16.I Don't Care About You - THE TOADS

17.In The Subway - THE TOADS

18.Nowhere To Go - THE TOADS

19.Bank Job - THE TOADS

20.Eyes - THE TOADS

21.Mixed Up Kid - THE TOADS

22.Blood On My Wheels - THE TOADS

23.Supermousse - THE COILS

24.Fascist - THE COILS

25.Upper Class Cretin - THE COILS

26.Land Of The Dead - THE COILS

27.Smash The Front - THE COILS

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PROBLEMS? - Katupoikia 1980

Lots of damn good releases came from the far north of Europe and the next goodie is the debut record by Problems? They are a Finnish punk band from Helsinki, built around Tumppi Varonen (vocals), Stefan Piesnack (guitars), Häkä (bass), Droppis (drums) and Rubberduck Jones (additional guitar on the live side) which for many years has played with punk pioneer Pelle Miljoona. The band was founded in the late 70s, inspired by Ramones and Sex Pistols and became popular with their first single "Ei Tää Lama Päähän Käy" (original on Love Records, in 2012 re-released) which is a fuckin' killer song. There's a lot of energy in their music and it's not easy for me to play this record quiet, haha... Particular mention is here the A Side is full of studio recordings while the B side were recorded live at Tavastia Club, Kill City in Summer 1979. I think this is one of the first LP's with this dichotomy, I like this idea because I'm a friend of live stuff. During certain periods, the group performed under the name Tumppi Varonen & Problems? and in 2011 they are more than alive and kicking, because this year they released a live album (Suora Lähetys) with bursting excitement. Let's revive the fresh young years again!

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CITY-X - Elektriske Svin 2004

HanseQrt, Lars Grønning and Gert Oestrich were with City-X one of the early '80s most memorable Danish punk bands. They borrowed fire from bands like the Sex Pistols and The Clash, and carried the torch forward at the Copenhagen stone bridge. The nubile boys pointed mocking fingers at those in power with chants like "Police/Military" and "Mutual Dependence." The rebellious texts were part of the group's activist involvement in future youth - they were always with their audience on the barricades before and after the concerts. This is a collection of City X's provocative and aggressive punk songs were compiled in 2001 in Electrical pigs, and the band has recently played protest concert in connection with the demolition of the Youth Center. With City-X, you can experience the atmosphere of 80's punk and squatter scene and get an idea of why the message is still relevant. 29 great early 80's danish material ran from catchy hook laden punk to fast powerful hardcore.

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PANKRTI - Namesto Tebe EP 1981

Pankrti (The Bastards in Slovene) were a punk rock band from Ljubljana, Slovenia, active in the late 70's and during the 80's. The band started playing in fall of 1977, practicing in the basement of Kodeljevo's music school, and held the first concert at Moste High School. Initially they played covers of established punk bands including the Sex Pistols, The Clash and New York Dolls. Some of their first songs that became popular were "Za Zelezno Zaveso" (Behind The Iron Curtain), "Anarhist" (Anarchist) and "Lublana Je Bulana" (Ljubljana is Sick). They were included in the Novi Punk Val compilation album. They released their first album Dolgcajt (Boredom) in 1980 and gained the status of a cult band all over former Yugoslavia. - This EP is an awesome four track killer (two slow & two fast numbers) with rough & dirty melodies and is made to play fuckin' loud.....you got me?

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FRESHLY RIOTS - Delightfully Fresh EP 1982

OK, a lot of divshare links are alive and I wanna post asap a few from this folder. The first one is this delicate EP by one on my favourite bands from Denmark. Freshly Riots formed in Gedsted on 1 October 1981. First weeks of the groups life offers several replacements till finally ending with a crew called Jørn Iversen (guitar), Mike Hammer (bass), Christian Pedersen (drums), Michael Andersen on the keyboard and Bo Led Andersen on vocals. Mike and Richard had played together in the group Export and they were inspired by the Clash, Sex Pistols, Stranglers and UK Decay and then they found their sound. After two tapes their first vinyl comes out on Bondeskiver and this brilliant EP offers six classic KBD goodies. In 1984 the full length album 'Hope' (which I have somewhere online) with a more wave oriented sound but great and then they changed their band name into Freshly and released their final album 'Air (Quoth She)' in 1986. The band play at the Huset in Århus their last concert and dissolved finally in May 1989 when Mike and Michael are moving to Århus. Let's now enjoy this little piece of sunshine!

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OUTO ELÄMÄ - Oi Maanne Suomi 1998

Here's another killer from Finland, Outo Elämä (Strange Life) was formed in late 1978 by Arto 'Otra' Romppanen (vocals, guitar), Juha 'Jussi' Hakulinen (bass) and Harri 'Jazz' Leppänen (drums). In early 1979 another first geneartion punk from the town of Joensuu (in eastern Finland), Harri 'Hape' Turunen (guitar) joined the group. The most productive year for the band was 1979 when they gigged around Joensuu and recorded a demo (this recording) produced by Reijo Heiskanen, the guitarrist for Hassisen Kone (the most popular New Wave group at that time in Finland). The material was written by Otra and was termed Rebellion Punk. The ignition and inspiration came from the climate of occupying and sqautting a house in Joensuu and standing up against such human grievances as racial segregation in South Africa. The working-class brats also gave the finger to opponents of economic equality. Adopting the left wing drive of the likes of Clash, Sex Pistols, Pelle Miljoona, Che Guevara, Bob Marley and a countless number of other leftie freethinkers, they let fly, occasionally getting burned but never losing the attitude. 19 years later, Alternative Action Records now finally released this awesome stuff and to say it with Orta's words: "I hope this release you're holding offers moments pf pleasure for all of you hardened friends of 70's punk who cared more for genuine attitude than superficial musical assets." I have nothing more to add except start the download right now.

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LES VERMINES - Bad Childhood 1983

Now to a combo that already appeared sporadically in wdthtc on some compilations: Les Vermines from Rouen, active around 1980-1989. Line-up: White Spirit (vocals), Torchon (guitar), Ted (bass), Daniel (drums) and this is their amazing debut on Rive Gauche Records. Bad Childhood is peppered with eleven superb candy canes. Info: To history and purists, punk has only lasted for a season. In 1977, the death knell had already sounded. This did not prevent the Vermines from continuing the adventure in the 80s with two albums in their own juice worthy of the best English productions of the good era. Adopting the language of the Queen of England, the group doesn't seem to care about this detail of the story and rushes headlong into a punk à la Sex Pistols and Ramones from which they also cover the title Blitzkrieg Bop and Warhead by the UK Subs on this album. The Rouen scene can be proud of these boys and you can convince yourself by the excellent songwriting and the amazingly good quality of these four. Recorded & mixed in twenty-two hours during summer 1983. They left two albums, a 7Inch and a tape for posterity, plus some compilation appearances. Brilliant debut in every way!

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