[Vinyl Vednesday is a weekly feature about three favorite vinyl finds. It’s not meant to be a dick-measuring contest, but it usually turns out that way. E-mail pelonej1@gmail.com with your own big finds!]
Records: Black Flag’s Damaged (1981) on black, The Go-Go’s’ Beauty and The Beat (1981) on black, and Propagandhi’s How to Clean Everything (1993) on black.
Place of Purchase: Damaged and Clean were purchased at Siren Records (I really only shop at like two places…). Beauty and The Beat was inherited from my parents.
Thoughts: There are a handful of ’80s hardcore bands I stand by. Minor Threat, Husker Du and early Replacements have been running through my ears a lot in the last few years, and while a lot of ’80s stuff doesn’t hold up as I get older (sorry Adrenaline O.D., most of the bands on Dischord 20), I still come back to Black Flag over and over. Damaged is primal, at times deceptively simpl. Fourteen of the 15 tracks focus on hate, directed both internally and externally. The other song, “TV Party,” is a joke track about getting shitfaced and watching That’s Incredible! and The Jeffersons. Guitarist Greg Ginn got such a gritty sound of his instrument; mix him with Tony Iommi and you get grunge.
It’s weird to think that I.R.S. released amazing albums from acts like R.E.M., Concrete Blonde, and The English Beat, and also The Go-Go’s, but it happened. Then again, the gals from that group came from a punk background – lead singer Belinda Carlisle was even in The Germs. Each side of the record opens with the band’s biggest hits, “Our Lips are Sealed” and “We Got the Beat,” although there are some other pretty good pop rock numbers like “This Town” and “Can’t Stop the World.” Yeah, some its embarrassing (“Skidmarks on My Heart.” Yeah…), but overall it’s a way better album overall than most ’80s pop releases.
My girlfriend is primarily a fan of sensitive lyricists and ’90s rockers. Tori Amos, PJ Harvey, Postal Service, and Smashing Pumpkins were her favorite bands when I met her. Then I found out she had a punk side when she put on Propagandhi’s How to Clean Everything. I’d heard of the band before, but I’d never heard their songs until that fateful car ride. It blended goofy, abrasive humor (“Ska Sucks,” “Stick the Fucking Flag Up Your Goddamn Ass, You Son of a Bitch”) with NOFX-style riffs and political insight (“Head? Chest? Or Foot?”). Bassist/back-up vocalist/future Weakerthan frontman John K. Samson seems a little out of place – his poetic lyrical and musical style does not mesh with frontman Chris Hannah’s more abrasive spit takes at all – but their duet on “Showdown (g.e./p.)” is still pretty awesome. Propagandhi and Weakerthans both went on to release better albums, but I still come back to How to Clean Everything all the time.
Depending on my mood, my top three Propagandhi albums shift position but remain the same: How to Clean Everything, Less Talk, More Rock, Supporting Caste. These albums feature the group’s best writing, in terms of political missives, rock music and humor. Given that Caste came out just last year, I’m still riding on a ’gandhi high. With this week’s release of The Recovered EP online, I was primed for another fix. Culling tracks nixed from the band’s first two albums (i.e. – my other two favorite records), it seemed like the surest of punk rock bets.
This shit sucks.
In hindsight, it seems obvious why Recovered would be a letdown. These songs were forgotten about 15 years ago in favor of tunes like “Anchorless,” “Anti-Manifesto” and the still-relevant “Ska Sucks.” The better songs won. And let’s be honest, frontman Chris Hannah didn’t really come into his own as a lyricist until the new millennium. Sure, there’s a beauty in the directness of “Stick the Fucking Flag Up Your Goddam Ass, You Sonofabitch,” but it’s not exactly the most eloquent, mature form of political discourse. “What Price Will You Pay?” is a bit of a groaner – “How many lives will be taken and crushed out” go the opening lines – on par with Anti-Flag’s weaker lyrical moments. Smashing the state is important, but ya gotta have a good anthem to unite the revolution.
Former member John K. Samson’s contribution, “Leg-Hold Trap,” is a little better. In retrospect, it’s kind of hard to believe the Weakerthans frontman was ever in a hardcore band, but here he is getting verbose and nasally. The music sounds like Clean-era ’gandhi (as in, it sounds like NOFX), and arguably could have been on the album if Samson’s style hadn’t been so completely different from Hannah’s songwriting. Parts of this sound more like indie rock, which probably wouldn’t have gelled with the album. But then again, Samson’s half of “Showdown” was jarring too, so whatever.
“Gamble” is a midtempo number about a lady trying to put the moves on Hannah, and he ain’t having none. It’s catchy, but like the other two songs, doesn’t quite top what the band was turning out in the ’90s. While it and “Leg-Hold Trap” are solid enough, they’re not lost treasures, although super fans might get stoked on these new old songs. Everyone else is better off picking up my top three.
The Beatles, The Ramones, Minor Threat. These are bands I will never see live. They all broke up a long time ago, and some of their key members are even deceased. Until this past weekend, there was another band on my woulda-coulda-but-won’t-see wish list that was actually still together, Propagandhi. Propagandhi spent the last 150 years (well, it’s actually like eight….) shunning the United States, but with a new record (the OK comeback Supporting Caste), I suppose those crazy Canadians decided to conquer the States one more time. The result: A tight hardcore bill at the Trocadero featuring Philly locals Witch Hunt and Paint It Black that pretty much rocked my face from start to finish on March 14.
2009 has been a somewhat unexciting year for music so far; I haven’t been this apathetic about punk rock since high school. Up-and-comers Witch Hunt completely changed my mind, though. This co-ed quartet ripped through a tasty 30-minute set of blistering punk/hardcore in the vein of Choking Victim, Black Flag, and The Melvins. Oscillating from black thrash to street punk, Witch Hunt won me over with their eclectic chaos and passion. All three bands talked about scene unity that night, but Witch Hunt frontwoman Janine was the only one to take it a little further. She introduced the song “Slow Decay” with an entreaty for more open discussion about depression and addiction. Listing the pros to both therapy and simply talking to your friends, her anti-suicide/anti-abuse speech scored a round of applause from the crowd. As for the songs, they ripped and rocked. With a new record on the horizon, Witch Hunt is a crust punk band to watch in ’09.
Witch Hunt was my pleasant surprise of the night; Paint It Black was my old reliable friend. I’ve never seen them put on a bad show, and they came through yet again, although sound issues early in the set left the band sounding a little hollow. Paint It Black deals in short, fast hardcore hits, and the boon of writing 90-second songs meant that the band drew from all three of their albums well. New Lexicon shone through, with highlights including “The Ledge,” “Missionary Position,” and “Shell Game Redux.” Bassist Andy Nelson was quick with the quips while gangly yet muscled frontman Dr. Dan Yemin awkwardly tore about, frequently leaving the stage to share his mic with the crowd. It didn’t always work – The Troc was too big for the mic-less gang vox renditions of set enders “Atticus Finch” and “Memorial Day” to be heard passed the first few rows of bodies, making the band’s finale somewhat anti-climactic. But for the most part, Paint It Black kicked rump. They even debuted a new song from the band’s upcoming seven-inch. It still sounds like Paint It Black (Sorry, Kid Dynamite fans), although it’s much slower and more controlled. You feel it every time drummer Jared Shavelson hits his kit. Think of the second half of Black Flag’s My War.
Then came Propagandhi.
Anticipation was heavy; there was a huge forward surge of bodies as soon as the lights cut out. One brave kid jumped from the Troc’s balcony to the stage. The band plugged in and kicked off a string of Supporting Caste cuts and… proceeded to suck. Now, I’ve seen opening acts outperform headliners, but March 14 marks the first time I ever felt like the sound guy was deliberately favoring the opener over the main attraction. Witch Hunt’s sound was flawless, Paint It Black took a few seconds to congeal, but Propagandhi’s first few songs were all bass-n-drums, burying all of those nifty guitar tricks from the band’s pseudo-recent metal direction. Whoever was manning the boards eventually got his and/or her shit together, but for those first few minutes were scary. Despite this little stumble – which didn’t seem to bother those in the pit anyway – Propagandhi took off. Supporting Caste sounded pretty good live, especially cuts like “The Banger’s Embrace” and “Dear Coach’s Corner.” Drummer Jord Samolesky introduced the latter with a discussion about hockey, discussing how he put a curse on New York Rangers fans at the band’s previous show for being dicks. Lo and behold, my town’s very own Philadelphia Flyers trumped the Rangers 4-2 earlier that day. That in turn segued into a conversation about how, back in 2008, Republican Vice Presidential failure Sarah Palin visited a Flyers game on the campaign trail. The crowd was obviously booing, though close camera shots and some audio edits attempted to convince viewers at home otherwise.
Clearly, the guys had a lot to talk about since their last Philly visit.
The set list attempted to blend in aspects of each of the band’s albums – “A Speculative Fiction” from Potemkin City Limits, “Hallie Sallasse, Up Your Ass” and “Anti-Manifesto” from How to Clean Everything, and “…And We Thought Nation States Were a Bad Idea” and “Apparently I'm A P.C. Facist” from Less Talk, More Rock all went over well. Today’s Empires, Tomorrow Ashes seemed to get the biggest reaction, with the crowd lapping up “Fuck the Border,” featuring Dan Yemin, and “Back to the Motor League.” Bassist Todd Kowalski teased the audience with references to “Come to the Sabbat,” the ridiculously awesome hidden track from Supporting Caste. While the band didn’t play nearly enough of the songs I wanted to hear – how could they? – I still felt generally stoked to have witnessed this rare show, regardless of the sound issues and thoroughly stinky fans. After a quick encore, the band asked concertgoers to check out some of the political literature they brought along, as well PETA’s booth (Man, those folks really hate Kentucky Fried Cruelty, eh?). With G7 gone, I hope Propagandhi can dig deep and hit up Pennsylvania a few more times. Don’t take this the wrong way, but I really, really want to meet Hannah in a VFW hall and have him scream, “My brown power ass in your white power face,” you know, in my face.
ATTN P.C. Fascists: Propagandhi finally went full-on Metallica with its new record Supporting Caste. The signs were there pretty much after bassist John K. Samson, the band’s weary brain to guitarist/lead vocalist Chris Hannah’s raging heart, split to form The Weakerthans. Samson moved on to more mature songwriting (r.e. – less tunes about anal penetration), and Hannah has followed that path too, in a more metal way. With each subsequent release, Propagandhi has seemingly stripped itself of the NOFX-style hyper man-child humor that balanced the band’s pointed social criticisms. Goodbye “My brown power ass in your white power face!”, hello “History exalts only the pornography of force, that of murderers and psychopaths.” This more thrash-based style brings some pros (Hannah doesn’t rely on profanity as much, the riffs are way better) and cons (it’s not funny or skate-punk-y anymore, there are way too many guitar interludes). Perhaps the biggest con of all, though, is that while it’s great to have Propagandhi back, both in the studio and on the road no less, there’s that unshakeable feeling that, even by the band’s new metal standards, they’re still treading on old ground. 2005’s Potemkin City Limits was a solid skull-cracker, but its follow-up Supporting Caste rehashes the same tone with less intensity.
At the same time, though, there’s that nagging thought, “But it’s Propagandhi! They’re back!” And that feeling is somewhat validated. Supporting Caste is a pretty rockin’ disc with loads of introspection. “Without Love” examines death, aging, and senility. Hannah wonders if the human consciousness is just a by-product of our mechanical bodies with lines like “Is breathing just the ticking of an unwinding clock?” “Dear Coach’s Corner” actually takes sports commentators to task for forcing political messages (supporting the Iraq War) where they don’t belong (a hockey game). And the band even shows a flash of that old oddball humor with a straight-faced cover of Black Widow’s “Come to the Sabbat” at the album’s end. The punks in Propagandhi have been slowly going metal this decade; a ’70s prog cover (with synths!) is sensible yet silly, and that’s the sort of description that used to fit the band all the time. Side note: “Come to the Sabbat” is totally the best track on the album (best line: “Satan’s there!,” with “ASTAROTH!!” a close second).
Supporting Caste doesn’t ruin the band’s punk rock legacy so much as blur it a little bit. Nothing here is as anthemic or satirical as “Ska Sucks” or “Nailing Descartes To The Wall/(Liquid) Meat Is Still Murder,” but it’s still better than most of the harder rocking albums coming out lately. And a quick glance at the lyrics sheet shows that the guys are still smarter than the mooks in the pit. What fans get with Supporting Caste is a solid comeback disc in the vein of Dillinger Four’s C I V I L W A R or even The Weakerthans’ Reunion Tour: Each of those albums makes you remember why you loved those bands without embarrassing anyone involved, even if, ultimately, you’d rather be spinning How to Clean Everything or Versus God orLeft and Leaving.
Thoughts: There are a handful of ’80s hardcore bands I stand by. Minor Threat, Husker Du and early Replacements have been running through my ears a lot in the last few years, and while a lot of ’80s stuff doesn’t hold up as I get older (sorry Adrenaline O.D., most of the bands on Dischord 20), I still come back to Black Flag over and over. Damaged is primal, at times deceptively simpl. Fourteen of the 15 tracks focus on hate, directed both internally and externally. The other song, “TV Party,” is a joke track about getting shitfaced and watching That’s Incredible! and The 
It’s weird to think that I.R.S. released amazing albums from acts like R.E.M., Concrete Blonde, and The English Beat, and also The Go-Go’s, but it happened. Then again, the gals from that group came from a punk background – lead singer Belinda Carlisle was even in The Germs. Each side of the record opens with the band’s biggest hits, “Our Lips are Sealed” and “We Got the Beat,” although there are some other pretty good pop rock numbers like “This Town” and “Can’t Stop the World.” Yeah, some its embarrassing (“Skidmarks on My Heart.” Yeah…), but overall it’s a way better album overall than most ’80s pop releases.
My girlfriend is primarily a fan of sensitive lyricists and ’90s rockers. Tori Amos, PJ Harvey, Postal Service, and Smashing Pumpkins were her favorite bands when I met her. Then I found out she had a punk side when she put on Propagandhi’s How to Clean Everything. I’d heard of the band before, but I’d never heard their songs until that fateful car ride. It blended goofy, abrasive humor (“Ska Sucks,” “Stick the Fucking Flag Up Your Goddamn Ass, You Son of a Bitch”) with NOFX-style riffs and political insight (“Head? Chest? Or Foot?”). Bassist/back-up vocalist/future Weakerthan frontman John K. Samson seems a little out of place – his poetic lyrical and musical style does not mesh with frontman Chris Hannah’s more abrasive spit takes at all – but their duet on “Showdown (g.e./p.)” is still pretty awesome. Propagandhi and Weakerthans both went on to release better albums, but I still come back to How to Clean Everything all the time.
