Livin' In The 80s: 80s Hardcore On Bandcamp

Even Worse We Suck! The Lost 1982 Album Radiation Deluxe/ Originally Grand Theft Audio 2002 Even Worse were an early pre-NYHC band, contemporary with Heart Attack, Kraut, etc. and still carried with them some of the punk snot from the 70s, so more of a bridge style for what NYHC scene was to become stylistically. They were a bit sloppy, with nary a trace of metal, but they had a sense of fun and excitement that carried the early scene as it discovered itself.   This was released originally by Grand Theft Audio as a CD, but gets the Radiation vinyl treatment containing the same tracks, the ‘Lost’ album and a set at Max’s. A pretty decent slice of NY punk history. Link: https://evenworsenyc.bandcamp.com/album/we-suck-the-lost-album-aka-youve-ruined-everything

Verbal Assault Trial,  On/ Exit,  RIX-Core ’84-’86 Atomic Action 2013, 2018, 2021 Verbal Assault was Rhode Island hardcore to be sure. Well liked, well travelled and showing growth with each release, Atomic Action gives us three of their great releases, ‘Trial’ (melodic hardcore pointing towards Dagnasty and emo) and ‘On’ and ‘Exit’ now combined as ‘On/Exit”, a post-hardcore masterpiece that we might unfairly compare to early Dag Nasty or late-period Government Issue as a comparison. They also have a digital only release compilation of three RI bands from the day, which features eight live VA tracks. Not sure if they are taken from demos or another source, but still nice to have. Link: https://atomicactionrecords.bandcamp.com/album/trial

Aftermath Tapes Great little Croatian label featuring obscure vintage releases from some lesser known international acts, and one from the more widely known The Bristles! You get Unnatural Silence from Canada, Ženevski Dekret, ARHIVSKA ZABAVA, Crist, Generali, Quod Massacre and GIUSEPPE CARABINO from Yugoslavia, Jetset from Holland, Final Blast from France, Brutal and Pohjasakka from Finland, Rea Respirator and The Bristles (!) from Sweden, and Rhetoric from the UK.   Great hard to find stuff from the international scene. The label seems to have stalled out on releases, but hopefully they’ll continue in the future. Link: https://aftermathtapes1.bandcamp.com/music

Gay Cowboys in Bondage Owen Marshmallow Strikes Again/ Complete Discography TPOS Original 7” 1984/ Discog 2022 TPOS is a cassette/ CD-r release label that digs up hard to find stuff, and in this case brings together GCIB’s discography, including their only vinyl. They were a fun garage punk/core band from Florida somewhere. Their’s also a live release on the label. Link: https://gaycowboysinbondage.bandcamp.com/album/complete-silliness

Dehumanizers/ P.I.G. Records End Of TIme/ Kill Lou Guzzo P.I.G. Records 1987, 1986 Seattle’s infamous The Dehumanizers gets the digital treatment through P.I.G. records, a label that focuses somewhat on regional acts, some old some new. Their two most known releases are up for offer as well as later releases. They were famous for a getting into a legal tussle with KIRO television over the title track. ‘End of Time’ sees the band getting into concept album territory, melding metal, punk and satire effectively. The label has a couple of releases by State of Confusion, the famous ‘Senseless Death’ comp and a bunch of cool metal comps that captured the 80s metal scene in and around Seattle before grunge took over. An early performance by The Accused is also on offer, as well as some splits with MDC, D.O.A. and others. Link: https://pig-records.bandcamp.com/music

Sudden Impact Freaked Out Supreme Echo 2020 Toronto based hardcore band, this release was a digital remaster of their first demo. Ripping skate punk. They went predictably in a more metal vein on their next release. Link: https://supremeecho.bandcamp.com/album/sudden-impact

Kalashnikov S/T Self released (Originally released 1984) Obscure Danish band who came out with this excellent 7”, the track “Schlüters Kabinet” being featured on the excellent P.E.A.C.E. comp from R Radical Records.  Their other release was the 12” ‘Sub Version’ which unfortunately fell into more of a pop sound.   Link: https://kalashnikov1984.bandcamp.com/album/s-t

No Fraud Self-released Venice Florida band active from 1984 through the 90s and recently reformed for a full length. Pretty decent stuff, they put up everything they’ve done, and it’s priced nice, so support the band. Link: https://nofraud.bandcamp.com/music

Sluggo Cincinnati Ohio’s own Sluggo has offerings at two locations. The band self re-released their Eighty-Four 7” and 4Q-HQ released a 12” that contains the same, plus their first e.p. ‘Contradiction’ The latter is more straightforward in it’s hardcore blaze, occasionally threatening to spin out of control, while the former mixes in some bigger rock guitar definition and chordal growth. Link: https://sluggo.bandcamp.com/album/eighty-four Link: https://4q-hq.bandcamp.com/album/sluggo

Artcore Fanzine Arizona Artcore fanzine is a DIY label running a print mag since 1986. They occasionally release vinyl to go with their issues and have recently digitized their releases, including some from the 80s.   Titles include: Stukas Over Bedrock - Life Like Yogi reissue N.O.T.A. - Moscow (they need to reissue this bands discography!) Toxic Reasons - No Pity (Live and radio sessions from 86) Upright Citizens - Facts and Views Various - The Iron Curtain Curtain Isn’t Soundproof   (contains various 80s tracks from Polish bands) Various - America’s Unknown Comp (features tracks from nine vintage bands) Beef People - Pavlov’s Dog House of Commons - Guilty As Hell Human Therapy - American Dream Pretty good selections at a great price. Link: https://artcorefanzine.bandcamp.com/music

Autistic Cattle Shattered Cattle SRA Records A stylistically varied release that mixes early 80s hardcore, punk, post-punk, etc. These tracks were meant to come out in 1982, but was only recently released. This is a great document of the bands brief tenure, and it would have been interesting to see where they went with future releases. I have the digital, but a CD and vinyl were pressed as well. Another winner from SRA. Link: https://srarecords.bandcamp.com/album/shattered-cattle

Satan’s Cheerleaders Hell Is For Hippies Unsound Music Spastic noisy hardcore form this Long Island group. The CD version of this contains a couple of other demos as well. Unsound Music put out this great two disc set as well as recordings by Insanity Defense (discography and more of a serious sound than SC) (containing members from Satan’s Cheerleaders) and Fatal Vision’s (another local band) demo ‘Zeitgeist’. Link: https://insanitydefense.bandcamp.com/artists

Stalag 13 In Control Self-released Oxnards classic skate band, Stalag 13 recently rereleased this classic melodic skatecore 12” along with some newer material and released it on their own Bandcamp page. Great to see them still at it. Link: https://stalag13.bandcamp.com/album/in-control

Vicious Circle Price of Progress/ Reflections Search For Solutions & More Rhyme With Reason/ Into The Void Power It Up This great Aussie band has their 80’s records up now, from Power It Up, a German label that distributes both old and new punk/hc/grind/etc records. I don’t care for the rerelease cover art, even though it’s based on the original art, but each double vinyl set comes with a 12-page booklet, which is cool. And you get to hear all of their 80s output again, so grab it mate. G’day, or whatever they say down there. The label also has the excellent Perdition discography. You may recognize them as the band that was on the other side of the split album with Vicious Circle on Flipside Records. Punkish Oi! type sound. Also recommended. And you might want to check out ‘Plead Insanity’ by Neuroot, a release from ’87 that sees the band ripping forth in a metal punk style that’s part Discharge, part Neurosis, part crossover, and sounds ahead of it’s time. Link: https://poweritupv

Radio Raheem Great little reissue label out of Boston and New York. They don’t have all of their releases on Bandcamp, but have quite enough to keep you busy. The majority of acts are from NYC, but they have some L.A. stuff, and of course the obscure Boston band, Vile, and D.C.s weirdos, United Mutations. Check it out: Link: https://radioraheemrecords.bandcamp.com/music Here’s what I have from them: Antidote - Thou Shall Not Kill - great early sounding NYHC. This release adds demo tracks. Kriegkopf - War On Terrorism - Decent NYHC culled from their two demos. The Psychos - One Voice - This one I actually got the vinyl for, found randomly while on vacation in Seattle. Basically their discog, and a nice color booklet. Reign Of Terror - Don’t Blame Me - An oddity from L.A., the band played in a melodic punk metal style. Guess they only recorded three tracks. Vile - Vile Says Fuck Off! - Angry core from Boston, release page has good info Hellbent - 1983-1984 Demos - Fast metal punk merging

Alona’s Dream Alona’s Dream is a label based in Chicago and has been re-releasing some great vintage goodness as physical copies and digital. Here’s a quick list of what they have on offer: Articles Of Faith - What We Want is Free Articles Of Faith - Wait (both of these classics are rereleased jointly with Alternative Tentacles) Assault & Battery - Complete Session 1981 Bored Youth - Are You Alive 1982 Evil Knievel Rice - Mr. Grover’s Room EP Necros - Ambionic Sound (their first recordings) Negative Element - Shouts of Rebeliion 1982-1983 (first demo and 7”) Trial By Fire - 1982 There’s plenty more to be found on this label, and it’s worth checking out! Link:  https://alonasdreamrecords.bandcamp.com/music

Useless Pieces of Shit Self Released I’ve not listened to everything by this Tuscon Arizona outfit yet, but they’ve self released all their old stuff, and I think it’s worth checking out. Sort of like a wacky humor core band meets performance art ala Zappa or something like that. They had these packages they would sell on tour that had comics, tapes and stickers, etc. They even did a punk rock opera. Fun stuff.   Link: https://uselesspiecesofshit.bandcamp.com/music

TMA What’s For Dinner/ Beach Party 2000 Left For Dead Records 2020 Sporting the same tightness and energy as the first Zero Boys record, this Jersey outfit rips out of the gate with straight up snotty buzzsaw hardcore with the requisite flourishes of Jersey humor on their first full length release, ‘What’s For Dinner’. ‘Beach Party 2000’ kicks in on track 22, and shows the band cleaning up the production a bit, adding a bit of metal and melody and mid paced power that still sounds great to me, showing some songwriting maturity and riffage. There are a few extra tracks on here, and the set ends with their unreleased 7” that came out around the same time as ‘What’s for Dinner’ and has that hardcore sound. A band that should have perhaps been bigger, but we at least have this great discog to dig into. Link: https://tmamusic1.bandcamp.com/album/whats-for-dinner-beach-party-2000-super-deluxe-reissue-with-bonus-just-desserts-ep

Miracle Legion The Backyard, A Simple Thing Incas 1983, 1984 OK, not technically hardcore, but they were a pretty big deal on the alt/ indie scene, and were essentially Connecticut’s R.E.M., though I’m sure they bristle at that description. And perhaps more importantly for this blog, their first two releases were on Incas Records, which released some of the most important Connecticut punk records of the 80s. Not core, but these songs are catchy as heck. Link: https://miraclelegion.bandcamp.com/

Life’s Blood Hardcore A.D. 1988 Prank Records 2017 Compiling their amazing 7” plus demo, comp and live tracks, this is a great document of this powerful late NYHC band. They were definitely standouts in the scene, with a great mix of old school, groove and crew sounds in the mix, but not over polished.  Highly recommend this one. Link: https://prank.bandcamp.com/album/lifes-blood-hardcore-a-d-1988

Iowa Basement Tapes As mentioned in the SDT/ Suburban Death Trip post, Iowa Basement Tapes is a project started by Kristian Day to catalogue the Iowa music scene using out of print releases from the period. There’s a lot to find here from the 80s scene, so instead of doing separate review for each release I got from the label, I decided to do one big entry with all of the 80s HC/punk I found here. The SDT post is separate because I really like the band, and also they’re are four releases from the band on this label. I’ll include a link to the label itself, and let you have some fun digging through it. A pretty good mix of styles can be found and range a few decades. Link: https://iowabasementtapes.bandcamp.com/music Stiff Legged Sheep - S/T 7”, 1985: Very interesting structures and time changes make this a surprisingly interesting and enjoyable release that suffers a bit in the vocal department, as the singer seems to want to be a jazz singer in a punk band. Would still recommend. Pen

Sealed Records Sealed Records is a great little UK label that specializes in mostly 80s anarcho punk stuff. Personally, I’ve picked up: Zounds - Can’t Cheat Karma: Atypical punk with spark, uniqueness, and a great mixing job give this clarity and punch. This deluxe version also contains all five of their 80’s 7”s Iconoclast - Domination or Destruction: Peace HC from California, including that great P.E.A.C.E. comp track Asylum - Is This The Price: Early UK noisecore Rudimentary Peni - S/T and Death Church : This band is amazing. They pushed the envelope for the genre for sure. Might be an acquired taste for punks who like it down the middle. See my separate review. Link: https://sealedrecords2.bandcamp.com/music