Punk from Arizona

Punk groups always seem to get categorised by their geographical location. Right from the very beginning people talked of New York Punk, the London scene and Manchester etc. and this seemed to be even more so with American hardcore groups.

I guess maybe because this music was so underground that groups would tend to evolve with very little support or  influence outside of their local scenes and the limited numbers involved meant that there were a lot of close connections in a particular area. Of course this is all in the days before internet etc.

However it came about , who am I to go against it? So, like my earlier post about Oregon groups, here are a couple of groups from Arizona.

First up is Conflict, obviously not the better known UK anarcho-band, but the female-fronted US group.

Last Hour

01. Fester
02. Listen To The News
03. Bad Idea
04. Nails From The Sky
05. It’s Easy
06. Not Guilty
07. Last Hour
08. Crawl Away
09. I Don’t Kill
10. Itai
11. Human Cargo
12. Living Off Mum
13. American Woman
14. You Choose

Next we have a 1984 live album from the better-known skate-punk group Jody Foster’s Army.

Live 1984 Tour

01. Charlie Brown
02. Preppy
03. Lowrider
04. Pipe Truck
05. Flyboys
06. I Want
07. Johnny D
08. ABA
09. Great Equalizer
10. Mad Garden
11. Baja
12. Walk Don’t Run
13. Beach Blanket
14. Tent Peg
15. I Love Broads
16. Kick You
17. Standin On The Verge
18. The Day Walt Disney Died
19. Do The Hannigan
20. Zimbobway

Finally we have the classic Arizona compilation This Is Phoenix Not The Circle Jerks featuring tracks by the previous two bands among others.

This Is Phoenix Not The Circle Jerks

01. Constrictions – Mighty Sphincter
02. Temple Dogs – Mighty Sphincter
03. Beast Of Belsen – Mighty Sphincter
04. Who Will – Conflict
05. See What I’ve Done – Conflict
06. Feedback Symposium – Conflict
07. Pledge – Soylent Greene
08. Frank Discussion – Soylent Greene
09. Taxed – Soylent Greene
10. Zany Theme – Zany Guys
11. No Way Dude – Zany Guys
12. Toast – Zany Guys
13. On The Sign – Sun City Girls
14. Hit Man Boy-Rappin Head – Sun City Girls
15. Standin’ On The Verge – JFA
16. Do The Hannigan – JFA

There are other classic Arizona bands including The Consumers, Meat Puppets and The Feederz, but it seems that their stuff is still currently available.

N.O.T.A. 1982-1986

N.O.T.A. (None Of The Above) from Tulsa, Oklahoma were a hardcore punk band from the early-eighties.

There were later releases by N.O.T.A. (with a different line-up) but this post compiles the Moscow EP from 1982, Toy Soldiers EP from 1983 and self-titled album from 1985 done with their classic line-up.

N.O.T.A. 1982-1986

01. This Country Was Once Free
02. The Enemy
03. Taking Away Your Rights
04. Moscow
05. Toy Soldiers
06. Justice In America
07. Fucked Up
08. Cattle Call
09. Riot Kids
10. Ultra Violent
11. Den Of Thieves
12. I Should Kill You
13. Reckless
14. Taking Away Your Rights
15. On The Pavement
16. Keeping You Out
17. Sick Society
18. Frustration
19. Self Destruct
20. Police Front
21. War On Wankers
22. Nightstick Justice
23. Propaganda Control
24. Redneck Mentality
25. Identity Crisis
26. Drugs & Sex
27. Cut The Shit
28. Summer Of 82

History Of Portland Punk

As a follow up to my last post here is a compilation of punk groups from Portland, Oregon including The Wipers and some more Sado Nation stuff.

History Of Portland Punk

01. Better Off Dead – Wipers
02. Up In Flames – Wipers
03. Does It Hurt – Wipers
04. Romeo – Wipers
05. No Solution – Wipers
06. Never Comes Down – Neoboys
07. Give Me The Message – Neoboys
08. Rich Man’s Dream – Neoboys
09. Afraid Of The Russians – Stiphnoyds
10. Mom’s A Fake – Stiphnoyds
11. Radiation – Stiphnoyds
12. I’m Trouble – Sado Nation
13. Gimme You – Sado Nation
14. On Whom They Beat – Sado Nation
15. Mom & Pop Democracy – Sado Nation
16. Rock & Roll Hell – Napalm Beach
17. Johnny Paranoid – Sado Nation
18. Running Dog – LoTek
19. World Gone Mad – LoTek
20. Running In The Shadows – Neoboys
21. WW2 – Neoboys
22. Mutant Baby – Smegma
23. Outro – Smegma
24. Same Old Thing – Wipers
25. Meat Is Rotten – Stiphnoyds
26. 1988 – Rubber
27. Riot Squad – Rubber
28. Bug – The Cleavers
29. Bop Street – Bop Zombies

Punk from Oregon

Sado-Nation

Sado-Nation were from Portland, Oregon, this is their ‘We’re Not Equal’ album from 1982.

We’re Not Equal

01. Messed Up, Mixed Up
02. Armageddon
03. We’re Not Equal
04. Don’t Bother Me
05. Nuke Up Now
06. On The Wall
07. Fight Back
08. Industrial Revolution
09. Politics & Passion
10. Cut Off The Cord
11. No Use
12. Johnny Paranoid

The Detonators

I believe The Detonators originated in California but later moved to Eugene, Oregon. They were around more in the later 80s and to my mind were one of the best groups about at that time but I guess by missing the classic early 80s Hardcore era they don’t seem to be as well known as I think they should be.

Here are their first and third albums from 1983 and 1988. I don’t have the second album – Just Another Reason from 1985 – but would love to get a copy if anyone can help me out.

Emergency Broadcast Systems

01. Condemned To Freedom
02. Crime And Punishment
03. Angry Young Men
04. Cloak And Dagger
05. Life Is Hell
06. Mindless Control
07. We’re Waiting
08. Black And White
09. Push Us In
10. Open Your Eyes
11. Not Valid
12. Guitars Or Guns
13. Do You Understand

Balls To You

01. Outta Line
02. Down The Drain
03. Johnny Law
04. Rat Racer
05. A Tribute To JCF
06. Iron Youth
07. Saints
08. When My Wheels Just Spin
09. Dead End
10. I Don’t Wanna
11. Too Much To Lose
12. Two Faces Of You
13. Calls Of Desperation
14. In Reality
15. Balls In A Botttle
16. When You Stand For Nothing, You’ll Fall For Anything

Happy Halloween

Well its Halloween time again so in predictable fashion here are a couple of punk groups with a sort of horror image/theme going on.

First up is The Undead – Ex-Misfit Bobby Steele’s group.

Undead

01. Evening Of Desire
02. Life Of Our Own
03. Never Say Die
04. Gimme Your autograph
05. I Don’t Want To Go
06. In Eighty Four
07. The Way We Behave
08. Put Your Clothes Back On
09. R.A.T.T.F.I.N.K.
10. I Want You Dead
11. We Don’t Want The Poor
12. When The Evening Comes
13. Verbal Abuse
14. My Kinda Town
15. Hollywood Boulevard
16. Undead

Next up we have the Flower Leperds with Tony Montana from the Adolescents.

Dirges In The Dark

01. Sidewinder
02. Has Hate Been Kind Enough
03. Night Of The Ripper
04. Muscle Of Love
05. Only Twelve Years Old
06. Necrology
07. The Hunt
08. Preachers Confessions
09. Riding The Blade
10. Inferno
11. Death Of Two Lovers
12. Life’s In Vein

Patricia Morrison

Back in 1987 I remember watching this music show on Saturday morning TV – in fact the same one I saw The Ramones on –  when a video came on for the new single, This Corrosion, by The Sisters Of Mercy.

Now they weren’t that well known at this time – although this single was to be a bit of a breakthrough for them – but I’d heard of them because at school I sat next to a guy in some classes who was really into them.

Watching it I thought it was great, I really liked that post-apocalyptic look and the song was cool, but what really stuck in my mind was the beautiful Goth girl who was the bass player for the band – Patricia Morrison of course.

Over the years as I got more and more into punk I was surprised to find her cropping up in numerous early punk groups – i.e. The Bags, Legal Weapon and Gun Club and then more recently playing with The Damned.

I’d have to say that that’s a pretty amazing ‘resume’ by any standards, working with such characters as Alice Bag, Jeffrey Lee Pierce, Kid Congo Powers and Andrew Eldritch among others.

To this day I have a soft spot for that Goth girl look and it’s probably all down to Patricia Morrison.

 

The Bags – Discography

01. Survive 02. Babylonian Gorgon 03. We Don’t Need The English 04. We Will Bury You 05. TV Dinner 06. Violent Girl 07. Animal Call 08. Chainsaw 09. 7 and 7 Is 10. 1,2,3 11. Gluttony 12. In Love With Romance 13. Survive 14. Car Hell 15. Real Emotions 16. Bag Bondage 17. Disco’s Dead 18. Prowlers In The Night 19. We Will Bury You 20. Nothing’s Going On In Here

Legal Weapon – No Sorrow EP

01. No One Listens 02. Live My Way 03. No Sorrow 04. Pow Pow 05. Hostility

Gun Club/Fur Bible

Gun Club – from Las Vegas Story

01. Eternally Is Here 02. Stranger In Our Town 03. My Dreams 04. Give Up The Sun

Fur Bible

01. Plunder The Sun/Headbolt

Sisterhood – Gift

01. Jihad 02. Colours 03. Giving Ground 04. Finland Red, Egypt White 05. Rain From Heaven

Sisters Of Mercy

This Corrosion video

Patricia Morrison/The Damned

Patricia Morrison

01. The Living End 02. Love Never Dies 03. Untitled

The Damned – from Grave Disorder

01. Democracy 02. Song.com 03. She 04. Would You Be So Hot 05. Amen 06. Neverland

Cowpunk and weird stuff from Texas

In my last post I mentioned that quite a few of the groups from Texas seemed to be quite different sounding to the typical hardcore punk sound – such as groups like The Dicks, Big Boys, Butthole Surfers etc.

Well here are a couple more groups that had their own unique – even ‘weird’ – style.

First up The Hickoids are straight-ahead cowpunk, very raucous and done in a very tongue-in-cheek way.

We’re in it for the corn

01. Rodeo Peligroso
02. Williamanza
03. Hickoid Heaven
04. The Longest Mile
05. Burnin’ Love
06. I Pity The Man
07. Whoa Nelly!
08. It’s A Beautiful Thang
09. Hee Haw
10. Animal Husbandry
11. U Kin Lead A Hoss To Water, But He Still Drinks On His Own
12. Desire
13. O.A.F. Anthem
14. Corntaminated
15. Say So Long

Now I’m not 100% sure about this but I think one or two of the Hickoids might also have been in the earlier Austin punk group – Bang Gang. Again, done with tongue-in-cheek humour. Here’s their single anyway.

She ran, but we ran faster

01. Dickhead
02. Stupid People
03. 4 x The Fun
04. Charlie Lives In Our Hearts

Next up is Stickmen With Rayguns. These were infamous for their provocative live shows and in a way were more of a performance group. Musically they can be quite noisy and dirgey at times with in-your-face offensive lyrics – sometimes they get compared to the Butthole Surfers.

Some People Deserve To Suffer

01. Christian Rat Attack
02. Grave City
03. What Am I
04. Have I Got A God For You Pt.1
05. Satan Baby
06. Scavenger Of Death
07. Kill The Innocent
08. I’ll Kill Mother
09. I Am The One
10. Buttfuckers (Try To Run My Life)
11. 1000 Lives (To Die)
12. Enemy Enemy
13. Have I Got A God For You Pt.2
14. Nazi Cowboys (On Welfare)
15. Hate In The ’80s (Learn To)
16. Swastikas For Christ
17. I’d Rather Throw Up Than Grow Up
18. Pee Pee In The Disco Mommy (I Gotta)
19. Hymn For The Fallen Angel
20. Twin Toed Double Down Son Of The Devil
21. Have I Got A God For You (Reprise)
22. Grave City
23. Baby Now

Lead singer Bobby Soxx also released this classic single.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bobby Soxx

01. Learn To Hate In The ’80s
02. Scavenger Of Death

The Offenders

The Offenders were an 80s hardcore punk group from Austin, Texas. They had a more straightforward hardcore sound unlike many of the other better-known Texas groups.

Bass player Mikey Donaldson went on to play in Sister Double Happiness with Dicks singer Gary Floyd.

This is a 1989 re-issue of their We Must Rebel LP with some extra tracks.

An anthology of Offenders stuff is supposedly due for release fairly soon including early singles and second album Endless Struggle.

We Must Rebel

01. Fight Back
02. No Chance
03. Like Father/Like Son
04. Just For Fun
05. We Must Rebel
06. Face Down In The Dirt
07. Never Cared
08. Direct Defiance
09. Wanted By Authority
10. New Militia
11. Youth Riot
12. I Hate Myself
13. Fed Up
14. Inside The Middle
15. Fight Back (live)

Fearless Iranians From Hell

Okay, to go along with my last post here’s a more ‘tongue-in-cheek’ approach to how Iran is viewed.

Fearless Iranians From Hell were actually from Texas but had an Iranian-American lead singer. They also supposedly had one or more members who were also in the Butthole Surfers.

They were around from the mid to late eighties and played up on that stereotyped image of Iranians that many people in the USA and the West had and still have.

This is their first EP and has that classic hardcore sound of short, fast punk songs accompanied by a very metal guitar sound.

A CD compilation of their three albums – Foolish Americans, Holy War and Die For Allah – is currently available.

Fearless Iranians From Hell

01. Theme

02. Land Of The Free

03. Blow Up The Embassy

04. Iranian Klan

Back from Iran

Well it’s been quite a while since I posted anything but that’s because I’ve just spent the best part of September on holiday in Iran, which believe me took a lot of organising.

I’m not going to go on about my holiday stories but I have to say that I found Iran to be an absolutely amazing place with some of the nicest and friendliest people I’ve ever met.

I certainly got the impression from the people that I talked to that they are desperate to show that their government doesn’t represent them and that they want to have much more contact and better relations with the outside world.

So once again it’s the same old story – nice people, shame about the government – I just really hope that some day soon they can gain the political and personal freedom that they clearly want and deserve.

Admittedly I went for the historical sights but it was really interesting to see the modern side of everyday life too, with shopping malls, pizza restaurants, coffee shops, contemporary art galleries and also just how fashionable so many of the younger people are, such as the women with their headscarves pushed right back showing off some really extravagant hair-dos, and I also saw people wearing Metallica, My Chemical Romance and Rancid t-shirts.

Anyway onto the music, here is a selection of some Iranian indie groups but think about this – just playing this music in public can get them put in prison and in some cases has.