various artists - Let Them Eat Jellybeans!

This is the rare instance on this blog where what I'm sharing isn't a first generation copy from my personal archive. In this case, this is a rip of the CD-R that came complimentary with a copy of the 1981 Italian cassette I bought five years ago. A good dude, that anonymous punk who sold me one of the finest punk/HC comps of all time.

Everything about this has a timeless quality. The Fallout Productions cover. The Ed Colver photography. The fold-out poster. The roster of first wave North American punk, hardcore, and outsider music. More so than "Flex Your Head" or "Chunks" or "Charred Remains" or "Meathouse", this is representative of the true width of the scene in 1981. It served as a calling card for the bands contained within as they had reached a point to escape the New World and bring American sounds to Europe and beyond.

This record is 45 years old. It's been out of print nearly 40 years. And yet it's a still a pretty incredible listen, whether you're blasting Flipper, the Subhumans, Half Japanese, or the Offs. The variety present along with the artwork make it a stone cold classic.

Discogs

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Nomeansno - 0 + 2 = 1

It's hard to say why it took me so long to actually check out Nomeansno. There's any number of fingers one could point: capricious youth, lack of access, no shining light. If nothing else, I guess I just lacked the curiosity, a weird thing to say, considering how often in the late 90s I'd heard them compared to Fugazi, who remain the lodestone of my musical taste.

I mean, it's weird, right? A bunch of songs that're longer than 4 minutes long? No mosh parts? Odd beats and off-beat vocals? Tuneless and at times unpleasant? This more Devo than Bad Religion, a statement that in 1996 probably would have bummed me out, but in 2021 perks my ears up. It's progressive punk, for lack of a better description. It's just a bit more off-kilter than the average early 90s touring punk band. Carnival music for smart kids and beat poets, I suppose. Small wonder this came out on Alternative Tentacles, who were deep into their heyday as home for this sort of punk weirdness.

I've turned up a few Nomeansno records and tapes in recent months at a variety of local shops; a welcome development, since most of their physical catalog is out of print and only a sampling of their discography is available on Bandcamp. "0 + 2 = 1" is one of those that's not currently up on Bandcamp, so, here you go. Make your own choices, buds.

Discogs

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T.S.O.L. - Weathered Statues

While the moshers were originally less than enthralled, I've found myself listening to a lot of the post-"Dance With Me" T.S.O.L. Now, I'm no great fan of the more gothic "Change Today?" or the cock rock of "Revenge", but their last two records of the Grisham/Emory/Roche/Barnes lineup are pretty great examples of how hardcore could evolve without completely leaving the nascent form behind. Of the two, I prefer (obviously) the "Weathered Statues" EP, released in 1982; it's just a little bitter rawer, trafficking more in a 60s, psychedelic influence than the sun-baked deathrock of "Beneath The Shadows".

4 songs, 10 minutes, VIRUS 10. That's the extent of my insight on this record.

Discogs

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