Been really busy lately.....posting will resume soon (ish).

I've been away too long..........

(Joe Cool and) the Killers - Killer (1978)

DO NOT be put off by the silly name...this is a classic punk album.

Formed in May 1977 in Brighton Joe Cool & the Killers released 1 7'' and this album and both are fucking great; the 7'' went for a small fortune a few years back, probably rightly so tbh. If you like the old UK 77 punk, or high energy punk, then is a must for you. It's truely great.

They were picked up by the same guy who spotted, and took to fame, Leo Sayer. That fact alone would be enough to put anyone off, and once you throw in the name most people would put their trainers on and start running for the hills. What a mistake that would be.

They lasted until late '78 and split up. I have no idea what happened to any of the band with the exception of Tony Mayberry who joined The Depressions.

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Uploaded as a request from Raul....hope you enjoy it.

Emma Peel - Avenging Punk Rock Godfathers 7'' (1993)

Now here's a band that I wish had continued to produce more as this is such a great 7''.

I have no clue as to how they formed, but I'm thankful they did and left this gem behind in their wake. A band who comprised the following personnel: -

John (Stabb) Schroeder - Vocals
Rob Frankel - Guitar
Steve Hansgen - Bass
Danny Ingram - Drums

This long out of print 7'' was released on Tragic Life records in 1993.

The sound isn't too dissimilar to latter day Government Issue, so you know it has to be good. I've rambled on about the members of this band at various times before and they should be pretty well known to most fans of hardcore. A, possibly, little known fact is that Steve Hansgen joined Boyd Farrell and Mike Dolfi. both ex Black Market Baby, in Rustbuckit a while ago.... a band who's record is soooooooooo song overdue that I've almost worn out my demo copy!!!!

I have a live set of Emmapeel somewhere....I'll upload it one day.

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Honey Bane

No download...just pointing out that this is a good album released last year. A cool mix of punk, dub and alternative. Listen to the album at the bottom...or buy it... only 7 bucks!

Violence (grows) Grew off the album.

Dot Dash - Winter Garden Light (2012)

What a lovely way to start a miserable wet and rainy Saturday morning. I check my various e-mail accounts and in the one for this blog I find a link to a band called Dot Dash who grab my attention with the header of "dc band". I click a link and I'm immediately hit by the power of the drumming, the opening track is instantly impressive and hooks me straight in.

Reading further through the e-mail Dot Dash have a real heritage and consist of: -

Terry Banks - Vocals/Guitar (Glo-Worm, The Saturday People, Tree Fort Angst, Julie Ocean)
Bill Crandall - Guitar (Modest Proposal, Adam West)
Hunter Bennett - Bass (Weatherhead, Julie Ocean)
Danny Ingram - Drums (Youth Brigade (dc), Social Suicide, Madhouse, Emmapeel, Strange Boutique, Swervedriver and a few more that I can't think of)

So Danny explains the powerful drumming and with Terry, Hunter and Bill it explains the hook laden songs.

Dot Dash are a very accomplished powerpop/punk pop band, and this album speeds past you at a million miles an hour, not due to it's velocity, but due to the seamless sequence of flawless songs that take you on the musical equivalent of the perfect speed date.

The album starts with Faraway, full of atmosphere, Byrds like guitars and Buzzcocks trade mark "ooohs and ahhhs" and slips into track two, Countdown, equally hook laden and captivating. Before you realise it they've spun your head though a plethora of perfect pop songs and the album is finishing with The Devil's Road. All the intervening songs flow effortlessly into each other and are beautifully constructed with a clear/sharp production. This is a refreshingly uplifting album that I know will sit with me for years to come.

Thanks to the Bandcamp website you can hear the album here. You can also buy the album, for as little as, $7, which is a pittence for such a stunning piece of work.

Their Facebook page can be found here

Condemned to Death - 7'' (1984)

Back to these guys and their self titled 7'' from '84'  Two words...simply, fucking, brilliant.

If you want to know more look here.

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Thumbs up!!!

The Proletariat - Marketplace 7'' (1985)

I bought this on one of my regular trips to London to buy records from Rough Trade, Plastic Passion etc. I picked this up new from Tower records.

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Sheep Farming

I've had a Crass logo on this site/blog for ages , but I've never posted anything by them...time to change that.

I remember this time so clearly as I'd popped into town and into Volume records (home of the Toy Dolls) to see what new releases they'd had in. I spoke to the regular shop assistants and one of them alerted me to a flexi-disc they'd received. The flexi had been used to pack records that were shipped to the shop. Some were in perfect condition, others were ruined and bent. He said he thought it might be Crass; I asked him to throw one on the turntable and, sure enough, it was clearly Crass.

I asked for one, and he passed me a hand full of them. I loved this flexi, as I did early Crass. However they always presented me wtih an real dichotomy; on the one hand I adored their early work and they helped open my mind, yet on the other hand I kinda blamed them for the rapid downfall of UK punk, unfairly. 83/84 were strange times in the UK as many people were moving over to the peace/anarchist ethic espoused by Crass and were ditching leather jackets and DM's for canvas.

Even more strangely at the time of this flexi release I recall one person in particular wearing a Fuck Argentina t-shirt as they'd invaded the falklands....6 months later he was a peace loving anarchist who, when you spoke to him, would recite Crass rhetoric almost verbatim, conveniently he forgot about the T-shirt. This kind of assimilation into a Crassite mindset would narrow punk so badly that invention died and with it punk......for a few years.

The first two Crass albums and all of their 7'', except merry Crassmas, were borderline genius in my book; feeding the 5000 is such a great record. This 7'' is one of my favorite Crass 7'', only being beaten by Big A Little A and Bloody Revolutions which is simply astounding...still!!!!

Crass were far more than the overly political group they're portrayed to be these days...I recall a time when they were a hugely important, and influential, punk band.

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You talk about your revolution, well, that's fine
But what are you going to be doing come the time?
Are you going to be the big man with the tommy-gun?
Will you talk of freedom when the blood begins to run?
Well, freedom has no value if violence is the price
Don't want your revolution, I want anarchy and peace

You talk of overthrowing power with violence as your tool
You speak of liberation and when the people rule
Well ain't it people rule right now, what difference would there be?
Just another set of bigots with their rifle-sights on me

But what about those people who don't want your new restrictions?
Those that disagree with you and have their own convictions?
You say they've got it wrong because they don't agree with you
So when the revolution comes you'll have to run them through
You say that revolution will bring freedom for us all
Well freedom just ain't freedom when your back's against the wall

You talk of overthrowing power with violence as your tool
You speak of liberation and when the people rule
Well ain't it people rule right now, what difference would there be?
Just another set of bigots with their rifle-sights on me

Will you indoctrinate the masses to serve your new regime?
And simply do away with those whose views are too extreme?
Transportation details could be left to British rail
Where Zyklon B succeeded, North Sea Gas will fail
It's just the same old story of man destroying man
We've got to look for other answers to the problems of this land

You talk of overthrowing power with violence as your tool
You speak of liberation and when the people rule
Well ain't it people rule right now, what difference would there be?
Just another set of bigots with their rifle-sights on me

Vive la revolution, people of the world unite
Stand up men of courage, it's your job to fight

It all seems very easy, this revolution game
But when you start to really play things won't be quite the same
Your intellectual theories on how it's going to be
Don't seem to take into account the true reality
Cos the truth of what you're saying, as you sit there sipping beer
Is pain and death and suffering, but of course you wouldn't care

You're far too much of a man for that, if Mao did it so can you
What's the freedom of us all against the suffering of the few?
That's the kind of self-deception that killed ten million jews
Just the same false logic that all power-mongers use
So don't think you can fool me with your political tricks
Political right, political left, you can keep your politics
Government is government and all government is force
Left or right, right or left, it takes the same old course
Oppression and restriction, regulation, rule and law
The seizure of that power is all your revolution's for
You romanticise your heroes, quote from Marx and Mao
Well their ideas of freedom are just oppression now

Nothing changed for all the death, that their ideas created
It's just the same fascistic games, but the rules aren't clearly stated
Nothing's really different cos all government's the same
They can call it freedom, but slavery is the game

Nothing changed for all the death, that their ideas created
It's just the same fascistic games, but the rules aren't clearly stated
Nothing's really different cos all government's the same
They can call it freedom, but slavery is the game
There's nothing that you offer but a dream of last years hero
The truth of revolution, brother................... is year zero.