Protest and Survive

"DISCHARE and BLITZ nothwithstanding, England is hardly the first place one thinks of when talking killer early hardcore."

Unfortunately this statement from the liner notes of the first Killed By Hardcore comp is pretty true. With a few exceptions, most early UK hardcore bands are lumped in with street punk and written off by hardcore punk folks, which is a shame since the UK produced some seminal hardcore. Despite their diminished reputation, early British hardcore acts were a primary influence on Scandinavian punk, and later, on the Japanese sound.

Hailing from the same part of England that spawned GBH and Dead Wretched, the Varukers were easily one of the strongest political hardcore acts in the UK or anywhere else. They also were one of the first bands to take the Discharge formula for fast agressive punk and run with it full speed. The earliest two EPs, on the Inferno label, are catchy hardcore with a hint of melody. Afterwards, they signed to Bristol's Riot City where they put out a couple more EPs and the "Bloodsuckers" LP before honing in on a new, ultra thrash sound with the devastating "Another Religion, Another War" 12." They continued the attack on the next few records, which are also great, but "Another Religion..." is undoubtedly the most blistering record of their career.

Here's a clip from the classic documentary, UK/DK, featuring some of the biggest acts of the era including the Exploited, Blitz, Disorder, and Chaos UK:

Cottage Cheese from the Lips of Death!

A hell of a name for one hell of a compilation. Unfortunately the image here is too small to do justice to the amazingness of the cover art which features cartoon dismemberments, flesh eating frogs and vegetables in/around vaginas. Even if the music wasn't good, I would recommend this on the cover art alone.

All the classic Texas bands are represented here from Really Red (check out a cool interview with RR's U-Ron here) to DRI and the Offenders. The Big Boys offer up an exclusive track "Big Picture," which is slow and brooding and great. Suprise standouts include Stick Men With Rayguns, Marching Plague, Bang Gang and Prenatal Lust, none of which I know anything about but they all deliver great tracks. "I Hate My Job" by the Butthole Surfers is another highlight, especially the intro: "Hey! This is for fuckin Mark fucking B. and John fucking O'Rourke. And I can't say their full god damn names cause their fuckin corporate shit are gonna sue my ass! I'm tired, I'm frustrated, I'm full of shit, and I hate my fuckin' job!" Sadly the last two tracks from the Dicks and Watchtower are disappointing and out of place with the rest of the bands. All in all, though, Cottage Cheese... is an essential compilation. And the cover art!

Freaks ... Out!

Hubble Bubble was an awesome 70’s punk band from Brussels, Belgium who still retain a cult status, in large part I think, because information on them is scarce and their records haven’t gotten the reissue treatment of many of their contemporaries like The Kids. Luckily, Japan’s Nat Records recently re-issued their two excellent records, with extensive liner notes by producer, Alfie Falckenbach. The first, self-titled record from 1978 is simple and catchy with goofy instrumentation, gruff vocals and a completely psycho, over the top wierdo vibe. My buddy Tony at Celebrated Summer Records (who deserves the credit for bringing these CDs back from his recent trip to Japan) describes the drums on the first track as sounding like a gorilla banging on trashcans. Take a look at the LP cover above and its hard to imagine that being far from the truth.

Here’s where the Hubble Bubble story gets weird. In the midst of widespread success throughout Belgium, bassist Dee Massart suddenly died in car accident, leaving the remaining two members wondering where to go next. Around that same time, drummer Roger "Junior" Jouret scored a huge international hit, "Ca Plane Pour Moi" (you'll recognize the song once you hear it) as Plastic Bertrand. See video below for that one - its intense. (Interestingly, this tune is essentially a rip-off of a song called "Jet Boys/Jet Girls" by Elton Motello, whose rhythm section played on Plastic Bertrand's version). This left only guitarist Alain Von Bur who decided to continue the band with his new songwriting partner, Danny Joan, and take the band in a newer, more glam direction. The new incarnation spawned HB’s second LP, "Faking," which is probably best described as a cross between the weirdo punk of the first LP and theatrical glam rock of Ziggy Stardust-era David Bowie. While its definitely not for punk purists, it totally works and there's still some ragers that could easily have been at home on the first LP.

A Spy in the House of Love

I'm still pretty new to a lot of rock/pop, having spent most of my post-teenage years shunning it in favor of punk. Since embracing it a few years ago, I've stumbled upon a handful of excellent bands that I now consider some of my all-time favorites. Visiting Rebel Rebel - a great record store in NYC's West Village - I recently found another gem to add to the list, the House of Love. Though largely forgotten about these days, the HOL gained a lot of attention and a few top 40 singles during their heyday in the late 80's - early 90's. Fronted by the poetic and somewhat odd-looking Guy Chadwick, this band rose from a few influential singles in the mid 80's to a powerful self-titled LP on Creation, before signing onto major label, Fontana for a second self-titled LP that is equally as good. After that, the band, as Chadwick puts it "lost the plot really badly," releasing two less-than-stellar records before calling it quits in 1993 or so. The early stuff, however, is first-class - somewhere in between Johnny Marr's beautiful guitar rock and the more atmospheric/dreamy shoegaze sound that followed. Both are available from the UK re-issue label Renascent, and while pretty pricey for US fans paying import prices, I think they're totally worth it.