Track Listing: 1. I Hate the Rich 2.You're Not Blank
Oooo...What pretty blue vinyl...
Ultra early US punk...Not the formative New York stuff, but the UK-influenced California stuff...I think I briefly discussed these guys before in the Dangerhouse Records post... These guys barely existed, lasting only a couple years and a couple of singles., but everything they did was top-notch...Wiry, political punk that was always catchy...
This is a reissue of their very first single...Two tracks in about three minutes..."I Hate the Rich" is notable in that the first verse is dedicated to hating the rich (for the usual reasons) , but the second verse is dedicated to hating the poor for always groveling and wanting to be rich...
The big draw here though is the B-Side "You're Not Blank" which is one of the catchiest of the early 80's punk single, with a glorious blink-and-you-missed-it chorus...The recording is really interesting too...The drums are very sparsely performed (contrast this with the usual constant drum assault you get in most punk) leaving the snarling guitars and vocals to take center stage...Just amazing, exciting stuff...Super super classic...
Let's check it out...Here's "You're Not Blank" by the Dils...Enjoy...
Track Listing: 1. Randoms:Let's Get Rid Of NY 2. The Weirdos: Solitary Confinement 3. Black Randy and the Metrosquad: Trouble at the Cup 4. Deadbeats: Let's Shoot Maria 5. Eyes: Disneyland 6. The Dils: Class War 7. The Avengers: We Are the One 8. Rhino 39: Prolixin Stomp 9. The Bags: Survive 10. The Alley Cats: Nothing Means Nothing Anymore 11. Howard Werth: Obsolete 12. X: Los Angeles
Good God, I loved this tape growing up...This was another one of the cassettes I picked up from the dollar tape bin at Camelot Music growing up (I think I went over this recently in the post for "Anything" by the Damned.)...I used to also have volume two (which I probably listened to even more than volume one), but I don't have either cassette anymore...However, I did eventually score a copy of Volume one on clear vinyl at Zia records...
Dangerhouse Records was a legendary, although short-lived (1977-1980), independent label that manged to capture the origins of California punk...They only put out a little over a dozen singles, one full-length album, but just about every single track put out by the label is a ding-dong classic...
Picking high-points is pretty difficult, but of course, X and their earlier, grittier version of Los Angeles is arguably the definitive LA punk song...
I'm also in love with "Obsolete" by Howard Werth...It's noticeably a lot more straight-up rock than a lot of the material present, but it's so exciting that you'll hardly notice...It's not too hard to imagine this track blasting on a classic rock station, actually...
You also get The Dils at their political-punk best on "Class War."I've always thought of the Dils as the American version of the early Clash... Righteously wired punk-rock roar...I wish they would have stuck around a bit longer, though...Their discography consists of a couple of singles and some compilation tracks as far as I can tell...Quality over quantity, I guess...
"Solitary Confinement" by the Weirdos is another straight-up punk classic...That thick wall of guitars just blows me away...I should probably mention how great most of the Dangerhouse stuff sounded...For a low budget indie punk label, they sure had some professional sounding stuff...Often rivaling the sound quality in all those 70's major-label English punk releases...And "Solitary Confinement" is one of the label's best recordings...Check it out...
Man, so much classic stuff...The Avenger, the Bags, and the seemingly forgotten blur of Rhino 39...It's amazing how diverse and varied the early punk scene was...One second there's the avant-garde synth-punk of Black Randy, the next song you have the comic-theatricality of the Deadbeats, and then before you know it you're hearing X's incorporating rockabilly into their attack...Compare this to the current state of punk, where if you're not whining in a nasally voice over blocks of faceless guitar-blocks then you're not a real punk band...We'll probably never have it this good ever again, but at least we have the handful of Dangerhouse singles to soften the blow...
BAM!! As the arbiter of what's punk and what isn't, my harsh judgement hath been passed! Fear the thunderclap of my awe-inspiring gavel and respect its rich, mahogany finish!
Here's "We Are the One" by the Avengers (featuring The Incredible Hulk on guitar and Doctor Druid on bass, hardy har har...(secretly cry bitter comic-dorkus tears))...Enjoy
