THE SEARS "If Only..." MLP, 1984

Twenty years ago, Ian Glasper - UK punk's official archaeologist - wrote about The Sears as "one of anarcho-punk's best-kept secrets" and, rather extraordinarily, it still stands true today even though we have access to even the most obscure bands, some that released the one demo in 1983, did just 3 gigs, one of which took place in a shed with bins for drums, and played for about 6 months in total. Alright, The Sears did use bins as a drum kit at some point but they were around for four years and did release a wonderful album on Bluurg Records, a well-respected label run by Dick Lucas from Subhumans, so not exactly your local garage band. And yet, The Sears remain vastly overlooked as the absence of bootleg shirts on Etsy tends to indicate (it's pretty much the unit of measurement to gauge a band's popularity these days), this is all the more incomprehensible that they have a brilliant recognizable logo depicting a bat (or is it a ghost?) that would fit on the fanciest jackets of any postpunk revivalist. Indifference to The Sears is one of history's mysteries, like UFOs or my dad firmly thinking he would have made a decent addition to the French Résistance in 1940 even though he is afraid of spiders, heights and gluten. I can picture the Nazis shitting themselves.

I remember in the 00's seeing quite a few cd's (homemade-looking cdr's sometimes) from Bluurg Records and stupidly sleeping on them but I don't think The Sears ever got that treatment although there is a trace of a cdr on Discogs (I have no idea when it was done and by whom) but thankfully not atrocious vinyl bootleg. Will If Only... enjoy a proper official reissue one day? Pretty likely I reckon what with Mad Butcher Records releasing old materials from the likes of A-Heads or Potential Threat (and any old UK bands really, it's like the label has gone into a frenzy) and with Sealed Records' recent work on Karma Sutra or Alternative there is ground for hope because in terms of quality, The Sears' album was certainly up there. I have no idea why the record is classified as a mini-album as it is 26 minutes in length, a perfectly acceptable format for the genre (I wouldn't have been against a couple of extra songs though if I'm honest) especially by today's rather ungenerous standards - to give you an example modern classics like Vampire's What Seems Forever Can Be Broken or Subdued's Abattoir are shorter than this.

I would have first heard The Sears, who were from the Midlands, thanks to the inclusion of the grandiose track "Not prepared" - that opens If Only... - on Overground Record's wonderful cd compilation Anti-Society from 2006, the third volume ouf of four released between 2005 and 2007 that introduced so many of us to brilliant obscure anarchopunk bands. "Not prepared" was one of the highlights of the cd and illustrated the band's undeniable energy, tunes and intensity, a balance not many bands managed to pull as well as they did. 2006 was also the year The Day the Country Died was published so that it can be said to be a pivotal year for me because, as much of an already massive fan of British anarchopunk as I was (notably through the Mortarhate and Rugger Bugger cd reissues), these Overground cd's and this book further opened my eyes to a world that was much wider than I thought. It was not just The Mob, Omega Tribe, Icons of Filth or DIRT, it was The Sears, it was Anarka & Poppy, it was Famous Imposters, Reality Control and Anathema and it was incredible and it cemented my love for the peculiar and unique scene. Besides the booklets included biographical notices about the bands and therefore provided me with precious intel for the punk trivia nights I quickly started to rule over, ruthless like a vegan at a free tofu festival.

Strangely the members of The Sears are very negative about the album, basically claiming it sounds like shit, that it should have been much better and they cannot bear to listen to it. I understand being a little exigent with what you do but such comments are insulting to those of us who play in genuinely shit bands and can only dream of producing something half as good as If Only.... Apart from the short and sweet UK82 number "System psycho" the songs all demonstrate the writing flair of the band and how they could tell great punk-rock stories in 3 or 4 minutes. The songs have plots with often softer, darker melodic intros, bursts of punk energy in the middle, sometimes epic direct conclusions too and overall, this moodiness and versatility that always sound tuneful, catchy and powerful, and just punk as fuck really, make the work stand out. At times the music reminds me of Lost Cherrees on the eerier poppier softer moments, of A-Heads when the bouncing punk flow kicks in, of The System when there is a need for a catchy chorus, of Conflict when it gets proper angry and confrontational and in your face. The powerful, emotional, haunting female vocals are certainly the band's main assets (some of the best in the genre arguably) but one should not disregard the care put into the songwriting and, as mentioned, "Not prepared" epitomizes how a grand old-school punk hit should sound like. Lyrically the band was on point too with "Body hold" about imperialism or "Statistical rape" being well ahead of its time (it was written by a third person) with its critique of rape culture and how the pigs dismiss claims when it suits them. Apparently the whole packaging wasn't meant to look like this and the band had prepared a different artwork and lots of visuals that ended up not being used at all so one can only imagine if The Sears had gone for a proper booklet and different aesthetics.

Nevertheless If Only... exemplifies the concept of "obscure classic". It has all the elements that make a record great and worthy of adoption into the canon and yet it remains vastly unknown. But if you ask me, it only requires a well-produced reissue for the punters to rediscover this anarchopunk jewel. I bet the prats are not prepared.

Prepared?          

OUTCRY "S/t" tape Ep, 2017

Damn, I can't believe it has already been more than a month since I last enlightened heathenish punks with my wisdom and my impeccably tasteful, splendiferous record collection. But you know, I'm a busy man, what with me constantly traveling to give patronising conferences all around the world or to take part in the numerous photoshoots I do for prestigious magazines. And that's without taking into account all the fan mails I have to reply to, a very time-consuming process indeed. I suppose that's what comes with fame as the reliable and fussy keeper of the precious crust tenets, a bit like Charon but with a "pay no more than" tag.

Anyway, here I am, back again with a tape from a sadly short-lived Halifax band: Outcry. I must have first heard of Outcry through their demo in 2016 that was released on Runstate Tapes, a Montreal based tape label that was quite prolific (with some cracking releases from the likes of Apärä, Mock Execution or Ultrarat) but hasn't put anything out since 2023, but then we all need a break sometimes. Since the late 00's, Halifax has had a strong tradition of quality punk and their local bands almost always hit the mark - not unlike an instance of sustainable agriculture although the farmers probably use pesticides like hard cider or cheap speed - and as a result I am always confident when dealing with them. 

To get back to the band's demo, and their overall modest production, I feel it can be said to be largely of its time, anchored. In that respect Outcry certainly captured the mood of the revivalist time in terms of influences and vibe. Musically the band's sound is rooted in the rich in punk points old-school UK82 and anarchopunk sound of the 80's that, from a synchronic perspective, was also adopted by contemporary bands such as Lux, Rubble or indeed Vivid Sekt (although this lot had been around for some years by the time Outcry so that, if I see them in a similar stylistic light, they might have been an influence, if not literally at least conceptually). The music can be said to be retro with a strong UK vibe something that Rosie and Adam already worked on in the aforementioned Abject Pax but not as straightforwardly. I suppose one might argue that this subgenre, this "anarcho UK82", filled a gap and answered the need for snotty catchy spiky punk-rock done by learned DIY punks.

The first recording was fine in its own right and paved the way for the much superior - not to mention available - second effort, a tape Ep (right?) released the next year. The recipe is similar but the production displays more of that raw and snotty energy, managing to confer a genuinely old-school vibe like few did. In fact, were it not as purposefully executed - as intentionally perfectly referential and close to perfection if you wish - you could have someone believe that Outcry were actually a band from Wigan that recorded an Ep for Bluurg Records that never came out because the drummer got pissed and lost the tapes until they were found 25 years later in his mum's garage. I am a sucker for vintage worship so needless to say that I relate to the music here as the band navigates fluidly between established UK82 bands like Vice Squad, The Expelled and their modern Barcelona based interpretation, anarchopunk bands like DIRT, Toxic Waste (especially with the bass lines) or even a primitive version of Crass and I'd throw in some of the 90's anarcho sound of Media Children, A//Political or Mankind?. We're definitely not far from Avaricious as well but I would be at a loss to claim that Outcry had heard about them. 

What I particularly enjoy on this tape stands in the bounciness of the songwriting, the catchiness of the riffs and the high-pitched vocals, the simplicity of the beat, they all work well with one another. Outcry do not reinvent the wheel here but if you need some petrol for your female-fronted UK punk engine then they gloriously do the trick. Just good punk-rock that rules my own safe sandbox. I am not sure when the band stopped playing but Rosie kept playing anarchopunk music when she moved to Montreal through her involvement with The Conscripts a band that had members of Primer Regimen, Malokio and PMS 84 that vanished at some point and whose Lp remains somewhat enigmatic. 

I think my version of this Outcry tape is the self-released one by the band (I don't remember how I got it because I am well into my forties now and I just forget things) but two other European versions can be found, one on the Kiev based No Name Distro and the other on Oscuridad en mi Vida, a tape only sublabel of the always reliable Symphony of Destruction from Brittany. 

Tragically singer Rosie passed away in 2020. I have never met her - or anyone from Halifax now that I think of it - but I enjoy and love many bands she was a part of like Zygome (whom I previously covered) or the underrated Abject Pax among others so that it always saddens me when someone from our punk microcosm dies. La Vida Es Un Mus released a 12" Ep from Rosie's solo project Cry Out (the name seems to indicate that it was very much a continuation of Outcry). It was already meant to be but by the time of her passing the recording was not quite finished so that the result may not sound just like she envisioned it. The result is still very fine, probably more akin to the eerier, more progressive side of UK anarchopunk like Toxic Shock or Annie Anxiety, possibly Faction too, but still keeping that direct snot-punk vibe. An interesting work for sure that is still available and the perfect tribute to a very creative person.

Outcry

1981 "The Only Governement is Your Self" tape, 2011

It's always a little tricky to name your band after a year. It can get cryptic fast unless you go for 1984 like about 36 other bands according to Discogs (among which a very fine Polish postpunk band from the 80's). Orwell's novel is, undeniably, a clever work that resonates deeply with many and whose influence - direct or indirect - permeates a lot of popular sci-fi creations and political literature, and obviously a lot of punk bands. You could make a whole compilation series with punk songs that have "1984" in their title. The cynic in me would point out that most may not have actually read the novel and if they have it's probably because it is one of the few novels that the Punk Elders officially allow you to. Pretending to have read Kafka, Dostoevsky, Camus or Butler can also come handy if you want to look smart. Thanks fuck we have Wikipedia these days to spare ourselves the pain. 

But today's band did not pick the highly symbolical 1984 - although they legitimately could have, given the lyrics - but the year 1981 and I am absolutely clueless as to why. Being from Turku, Finland, it must refer to some sort of historical event like a local political movement or a strike. But for all I know it could also refer to Kaaos' early split Ep or the bass player's birth year.

I don't quite remember exactly when I first heard of the band but that would have been around 2011. They played in Paris in 2012 so that was definitely before that. To be perfectly honest, I was a little suspicious of the band for reasons that quickly proved to be wrong. At that point in time I had noticed that some styles I loved dearly but that few people cared about locally, started to get more popular or at least garner some interest. Namely old-school UK anarchopunk or UK82. Don't get me wrong, some old-timers were of course really into it and definitely influenced me and made me discover priceless - and often pricy - bands but, Paris being Paris, most people, beside big names like Crass, Conflict or Subhumans, didn't really give a shit about Zounds, The Mob or Chumba, bands that didn't sound or look as punk and were a bit more challenging. These are bands your mum could probably bear to listen to which makes them unacceptable for the majority of punks. 

But anyway, the fact that MRR, through Lance Hahn's work, documented that scene, that Glasper published The Day the Country Died, that Overground Records released their wonderful Anti- compilation series and that a lot of those old bands started to reform and reissue their material, well, it was unavoidable that people who couldn't care less about Bluurg or Spiderleg started to pay attention. Which should have been a source of joy but also made me a little wary. It was very childish and these days everyone can know everything with a couple of clicks so that's not really an issue anymore. So yeah, stupid me.

1981 was one of the first bands to bring back the traditional anarchopunk sound at that time as the 00's  (beside some exceptions like Life's a Riot! (who were coincidentally also from Finland), Surrender (with whom they'd share an Ep), Counter Attack or Active Slaughter) had been deprived of classic anarcho influences on a musical level and the exceptions by no means relied on the more morose and poppier side of the genre - goth-punk was right on the corner for that. 1981 were an oddity in the musical landscape of the time and to an extent they still are 15 years on. Them being first introduced to me as an "anarcho-pop" band of sorts certainly didn't help alleviate my suspicion so that when I was first exposed to The Only Government is Your Self I was ready to scoff, loathe, dismiss, despise and hate the thing, which of course I didn't and, on the contrary, I found it incredible. Seldom have my prejudices and biases been proven so wrong.  

It sounded fresh, the perfect balance of referentiality and originality, a recording that could appeal to genuine learned fans of anarchopunk and also to people looking for good tunes and smart politics. Granted your basic grindcore freaks were possibly unimpressed but I for one was immediately converted. The singer (who had been active in bands like The Phoenix Foundation among others) told me that 1981 was made up of people from your usual DIY hardcore punk scene as well as from the indie-rock scene, which I thankfully know virtually nothing about. On paper this association would have me call the Punk Police immediately but in that context it works perfectly as the poppier aspect blends seamlessly with the punk sound. It's basically an update on bands that were already influenced with progressive, trippier, poppier elements anyway, like the aforementioned Zounds, The Mob or Chumbawamba (if 1981 really had to be paired with one it'd be with them). The first song "Nightmare/Reality" announces what's to come. It opens with an Alternative riff and ends with an homage to Omega Tribe's softer side. Fan service but done with originality if you know what I mean. The rest cannot be said to be as referential - although the connoisseur will be able to identify the nods - and 1981 have their own way of creating melodies, with their clear guitar sound, the upfront bass lines and sung male and female vocals (my one minor negative comment about the tape is that the female vocalist is not present enough but she would be in the later records). 

This last element could be what really set them apart from the other anarcho-influenced or goth punk bands that were about to pop up. Whereas most bands used a lot of reverbs, delay or echo on their vocals, 1981 did not. They sang with their real voice which gives the songs a sense of genuineness and immediacy, but also vulnerability and imperfection which I think goes very well with the genre. Sure, the singers are not always in tune but then who was in the 80's? Mark Mob was not. 1981 would have fit right in with the All the Madmen crew and bands like Thatcher on Acid, Null and Void or A Bitter Lesson. For good measure they covered Political Asylum  as singer Ilmari was a massive fan and even reissued on cd the Scots' early materials on his label Passing Bells. Now that's love. The Only Government is Your Self was 1981's first recording and the eight songs are memorable. I hadn't played them in a while and once the start button was hit they all came back to me in a heartbeat. As the saying goes, if you can whistle a tune in the shower, then it's a keeper. 

Surprisingly this was never reissued on vinyl (it would make for a rather glorious Lp) even though it does feel like a proper album more than a demo. There is lovely booklet coming with the tape with all the lyrics and cut'n'paste artwork and it's overall clearly a labour of love and passion which is more than one can say about a lot of bands these days (alright, I'm being grumpy). There are two versions of the tape, mine being the 2011 repress on Cut the Cord... records. The band went on to be quite prolific but stuck to Ep's (9 of them!) and you should be able to find some for a relatively good price (Acts of Aggression or In the Dead of Night, that have rerecorded versions of some songs, come especially recommended). Svart Records did release a vinyl compilation with the early singles but this no longer comes cheap unfortunately. I am not sure whether 1981 are still active but they released their last Ep in 2023 so they could be. The world being where it's at these days they should probably release something new.  

1981

An adventure in split Ep's! I have no gun but I can split: AGAINST EMPIRE / HOLOKAUST "Threat to Existence / S/t" split Ep, 2004

This Ep is so quintessentially from the noughties that playing it again after some time was a bit like time traveling to a different era altogether when the internet was not completely taken for granted yet and still felt new. At the time being on Myspace was an issue in the scene which shows how far we've gone. This Ep made me realize how much I am, too, from the 00's and how I grew, as a punk and a vaguely promising young man, throughout this decade. In 2000, streetpunk seemed to me like the ultimate way of life, a happy land where you could be happy just by drinking beer "with the boyz", walking a lot on the streets, wearing too many studs and giving the fingers to "the system" and by 2009 I had formed a semiological critique of neocrust and its use of Nature as a personification of purity and of a paradise soon-to-be-lost to man-made industrialism, very much like 19th century romantics used to do (yes I was already a sad bastard) and I was patronizing enough to look down on people who had no knowledge of Philippine punk too. An exhilarating bildungsroman and a potentially ace biopic indeed. I should talk to my mate Thimotée Chalamet about it, he'd make a smashing me.

I was certainly not late to the party as far as Against Empire and Holokaust were concerned. What I especially liked about those two bands was that, not only were they both relatively new by the time I heard about them, but they were also the members' first bands as far as I knew (let's be kind and not count the Rage Against the Machine cover bands that they probably did in high school). New, fresh and clearly for my generation. I was enthusiastic and had no idea that 20 years later I would be sitting in front of a computer screen reflecting upon the subjective and objective significance of the record. Actually, at the time I had no idea that there would even be a "20 years later" with me in it. I see both AE and Holokaust as being particularly representative of Bush-era anarcho and crust punk, although the latter kept going in the 2010's and are still more or less active as I have seen recent gig poster promoting them. It's true that the rule of Bush Jr covered almost all the decade so that it is tempting to associate 00's bands as Bush-era bands but whenever I hear a 00's political punk bands from the States, the very production reminds me of the president. 

How many bands had radical and highly detailed anti Bush lyrics at that time? It seemed like all the bands had a song directly against the Bush administration, the Patriot Act or the war in Iraq. That thick as shit man was seen as a danger for humanity and to be honest a lot of what is still tragically going in the Middle East are consequences of the man's work. He was the Reagan to our 00's, he outreaganed Reagan, even as a Frenchman I felt like it was my duty to hate the idiot and wish for his beheading, and no one thought that the US would ever get a worse a president. Time proved that punks were not exactly the most clairvoyant bunch, sadly. Paradoxically I cannot really think of an anti-Trump punk song, I am sure there are some but he is clearly not as inspiring in spite of being even more hatable. Let's not depair, I am sure he is going to start new cool American wars by 2025 that will give us the opportunity to write antiwar anthems again. But then, to be quite honest, maybe it's not such a bad thing that there are not too many anti-Trump songs. The bastard is already everywhere (even outside the US of A) so I can understand why US bands would choose to keep his name out of our music. 

I liked AE a lot at the time. I loved the name, I loved the imagery, I loved the lyrics and I kinda wished I had a band like that if you know what I mean. I first heard them through their The One Who Strikes the Blow Forgets... The One Who Bears the Scar Remembers album from 2005 but I  got hold of this split Ep shortly afterwards. I definitely played the Lp a lot when it came out so that I still know all the songs. They have not all aged well and some parts do sound quite dated (or typical of the era if you want to put it nicely) but I don't really mind since, after all, to sound dated is to sound like your time, like you were part of your time and some dated things are very enjoyable. I loved their brand of passionate anarcho metal-crust, they did not belong to the stenchcore revival but still appealed to that crowd and their more melodic, melancholy riffing made them listenable to the then booming neocrust population. I remember people saying that the Lp was overproduced (a criticism usually coming from people used to 90's production or people who collect Japanese records) but compared to a lot of contemporary bands, it is actually a rather direct record and this Ep, the band's first vinyl appearance, is even rawer but just as angry. 

It is a pretty straight-forward affair illustrating what AE were good at: a balanced mix of US-styled anarchopunk and crustcore. At first, the opening song "Empire against environment" sounds like it would be very much at ease with 90's anarchopunk bands like Aus-Rotten and Deprived with its fast-paced angry vocal flow and a blatant Antisect-loving riff but then the band uses a full-on neocrust emotional riff on the chorus which I had completely forgotten (although there were some indeed on the album). I don't think it works that well and I would have wished for a simpler hardcore riff but then such endeavours were common in 2004. The second number is a traditional US crustcore monster with super gruff cavemen vocals (a little too forced maybe?) that owed a lot to bands like Disrupt (of course) or React and also Swedish classics like 3-Way Cum or Warcollapse. A Very good cavecrust effort with a brilliant scandicrust riff. The following AE record would be the aforementioned Lp blending metallic gruff crust with 90's US anarchopunk and some "epicrust" (or something?). A split Lp with Iskra in 2007 followed that saw the band with a different lineup include black-metal influences which did not really impress me (the whole record did not to be honest) and the year after the rather good Destructive Systems Collapse came out with a more dynamic and direct production and a solid 00's crustcore style (the band must have listened to Consume a lot). At that point I started to loose interest in AE for some reason and did not grab the split Ep with Auktion (I did get to see them on their European tour in late 2009 and they were quite good). By the time the second Lp Thieves and Leeches was out in 2011 I was surprised they were still going and I don't think I listened the Lp in its entirety.

Holokaust, from Moreno Valley close to Riverside, is a three-piece orchestra that I listen to more regularly than AE and some of their records I still rate quite highly. I am going to use the present tense as I think the band is more or less active and does play the odd benefit gig and festival. In retrospect the choice of their moniker feels a little odd. If anything, Holokaust is the modern band that epitomizes what Discharge-influenced peacepunk was all about. As a Southern Californian band, they are the direct heirs of this specific 80's tradition and sound popularized by brilliant bands like Diatribe, Body Count and obviously The Iconoclast. I cannot think of many bands that kept that sound alive (intentionally or not, this is not the point) after the 80's beside the mighty Resist and Exist (especially their late 90's period) and the cruelly underrated Armistice, a band I love that I will be writing about in a more or less distant future, both of which were actually already around when the OC crust scene was kicking in. As a recent incarnation of peacepunk, which is pretty specific, you would have thought that Holokaust would have heard of Holocaust, a band from Los Angeles that was around between 1989 and 1992 (we already talked about them here because of their inclusion on the SI One compilation Ep), was highly influenced by Crucifix or Final Conflict and very much part of the late 80's/early 90's peacepunk and peacecrust wave. Holocaust were by no means a high profile act so it was clearly coincidental but it is strange that they were not told by an elder that "it's already taken boys". But then, maybe they were told indeed and just though "fuck it, we'll just replace the "c" with a "k"".

Like AE, I got into Holokaust since the band's inception with their self-titled Ep from 2002, a record that I instantly got into and still love. It is the perfect blend of UK-styled Discharge-loving hardcore punk like '83 Antisect, Anti-System and early Hellkrusher and of traditional Californian peacepunk like The Iconoclast or Diatribe. Great stuff with a very pure old-school production that sounds very natural and not self-aware. Just good old-school pre d-beat Discharge-loving hardcore. The Ep was released on After The Bomb Records the label run by Adam from Masskontroll and Deathcharge (which makes sense). A split with Dissystema followed in 2003 (with a brilliant cover of Anti-System's "Dying in agony") which was poorly distributed in Europe and that I never grabbed and then our present 2004 split record. The basis are similar here with "Holy wars" starting with a metallic Final Conflict-like introduction before offering a classic Anti-System-style (they do love that band a lot and the vocals are quite alike) and "Genocide factor" and "Famine" being stellar early Discharge-loving hardcore like Varukers, The Iconoclast, Antisect, before d-beat was a structured thing. You know what I mean. The production is raw and powerful and I love how impactful the very pure d-beat drumming is in the mix as it confers a proper old-school feel. Holokaust's style sounds very spontaneous as they go for a classic sound in a way that few can achieve. The band went on to record a full Lp, that was unfortunately not as good, and three split Ep's with Wörhorse (not sure when this one came out actually, it could have been before AE's), Rattus and Armistice (that was an obvious one). A fairly quiet but delicious peacepunk band.

This was released on Threat To Existence which I think was a label run by an Against Empire member.  

Against Holokaust 

Still Believing in ANOK: Firing Squad "S/t" Ep, 1993

When I came up with the selection for the present series Still Believing in ANOK I did not realize how little-known a lot of the records I picked were. Not in the sense that they are hard to find - though some of them are - but because people forgot about them or never really cared for them in the first place. Locality matters of course and some seemingly unknown bands were actually famous in their home country (like Stracony and others we'll tackle later on) but on the whole, from a global eagle-like perspective, well, they are a bit obscure but not in a good way and it can be difficult to grab people's precious volatile attention with old unloved records that have set camp in the £1 discount boxes since 2006, proof that, not only were they never deemed "all-time classics" but that they also never deserved to be crowned retroactively. I see some of the records included in this series as "minor anarchopunk classics" - a euphemism meaning I think they are brilliant but did not sell well - and others as relevant interesting artifacts of a sound and aesthetics that were no longer popular at that time. Of course, because life, like my dad's diatribes, is made of contradictions, today's record, Firing Squad's 1993 Ep cannot reasonably be said to belong to either category thus rendering this first paragraph kinda useless. 

Firing Squad are proper obscure, even to anarchopunk platinum users. In fact, they are a bit of an enigma, and, were it not for this record having been released on Mass Media Records, I suppose they would have been totally engulfed into oblivion and most elite nerds like myself wouldn't have had the pleasure the patronize a teenage punk with sentences such as "Firing Squad were pretty big in my days, at least three people knew of them back then" or "did you know there was already a 80's hardcore band from the state of Washington called Firing Squad? Oh you don't, well that's not on Tok Tube now, is it?". I wonder why there aren't more kids at punk shows... Anyway, I don't remember when I got the Ep, definitely a long time ago, but it was the connection with Mass Media that prompted the transaction. The rather cryptic cover did not help: it depicts a lion biting a medieval representation of the sun under the watchful eyes of four shades-wearing clowns (Pierrots probably), the whole thing over a tridimensional psychedelic checkered background. Why is the sun bleeding over a globe (is it supposed to be the Earth?)? Why so much symbolism? It looks like a tarot card. The backcover is as confusing: more of the same crazy background and a two-headed dragon with the sun on the left and the moon on the right. How the hell are you supposed to know it is a punk record? Thank fuck the Mass Media logo has a circled A and some doves because otherwise I would have been far too narrow-minded to even consider looking at it. 

The visual side of the Ep aside (be careful when you unfold the cover, if you do not enjoy visual illusions, have a sick bag handy), there is no indication as to where Firing Squad came from. On the insert of the No Lip Service compilation Ep, where they appeared, also released on Mass Media, their address is located in Newbury Park, Ventura County, California. In spite of a very dynamic peacepunk and crust scene at that time in Southern California - well-documented on Terminal Sound Nuisance - with bands like Resist and Exist, Autonomy or Media Children offering a sound very much influenced by old-school anarchopunk, it would make sense to endeavour that Firing Squad belonged to that part of the punk scene but they did not really, although they crossed paths. This makes them even more mysterious, especially since you could argue that they also played old-school anarchopunk, although their take was significantly different.

Firing Squad's music is original. The Ep is not a note-perfect masterclass but it has an undeniable charm that makes it quite compelling. The first song is an emotional (it was the 90's after all) and tuneful mid-paced number with an underlying moodiness and snotty angry vocals that go surprisingly well with the music. Just imagine a depressive jam between Chumbawamba and Conflict with a bit of an emocore vibe, or let's just say that Nabate would have been well into this. The other side is even more challenging as "Declare civil war" is basically a reggae song. Yes, a reggae song. Now, when I was getting into serious music - also known as my "how many patches can I fit on this black denim jacket?" phase - listening to reggae was akin to ordering tap water on a date for me: have some self-respect and run for your life and quick. But then, I grew a bit softer, stopped trying and got really into the British anarcho dub punk bands like PAIN or AOS3 and that's exactly the vibe I am getting from this song, only with a bit of flanger oddness. After a couple of minutes, it turns into a straight-up raucous punk anthem with great singalongs that would not have sounded out of place on the Resist/Deprived split Ep. 

No idea what that is

The song they contributed to the aforementioned Not Lip Service Ep was equally fresh, angry yet catchy, maybe a bit angrier too, and it goes to show that this inventive band had a great potential and possibly a genuinely classic album in them. The band used some clever sound effects on their sound and with the production being quite raw and direct, it confers a very organic spontaneous vibe to the songs which makes me go back to the Ep's atmosphere quite often. It is, as much as I hate the term, a "grower". Instead of looking at the 80's sound, it might be more relevant to see Firing Squad as a definite 90's one. A moodier weirder version of One By One, AOS3 or Civil Disobedience? A depressed prelude to A//Political? 

Just listen to the record I guess.      

That's a definite no

Firing Squad

Still believing in ANOK: Life's a Riot! "S/t" Ep, 2001

Our flat is small. Housing is a very relative concept depending on where you live. A small flat on the outskirts of Paris is not the same as a small flat in Berlin, Dublin or Acapulco (I can only assume, I have never set foot there). When I started Terminal Sound Nuisance in 2012 I lived in a 9m2 room - the word "flat" sounds a bit like a hyperbole in that case - with a shared "bathroom" - a bathless room, in the broad sense of the term - in the corridor. Once, I found actual shit on the bog's wall, not the most pleasant discovery on a Monday morning especially since I was pretty certain it was not mine. I have always suspected it was the girl's next door, she looked very tidy and wore far too much perfume but I could sense she despised me a great deal, probably because there were times when I blasted Atrocious Madness a bit late at night. But like the size of flats, late Atrocious Madness is relative. Then I miraculously got a full-time job which allowed me to move to a palace-size flat of 11m2. I still did not have my own bathroom and there was clearly fart maniacs using the thing too but I never found any shit on the walls. I did uncover a filthy pair of knickers though. And a proper bum sleeping in the shower. The poor bastard was cold and I just did not have the heart to kick him out. To be fair, while he was at it, he could have actually used the shower because his feet stank like a dead hamster. 

A few years later, finally, my partner and I moved to a staggering 22m2 flat with our own bathroom (to this day I still like a bourgeois for just being able to take a dump without having a knobhead waiting and sighing loudly in front of the cubicle while playing Candy Crush on his phone, pure evil that). But I am not here to talk about my dull housing adventures. I am just running out of space for new records. I am well aware that it is basically a first-world problem but still, it means that I have to get rid of records I don't need (but how do you even define this notion?) or just don't listen to (again, does listening to a single-sided once four years ago counts as "not listen to"?). And I have to admit that Life's a Riot!'s Ep usually ends up in the "records-I-will-probably-store-in-our-tiny-and-already-packed-basement-but-still-might-play-once-before-just-to-make-sure" and each time I play it again, I realize how good it is and blame myself for even considering banishing it to that dreadful spider-infested place. I still have to make room and it breaks my heart so that I end up buying new records just to feel better about the loss. First-world problem, I told you. Did I mention I also own an offshore record collection?

The story behind the acquisition is both sad and heroic in that it makes me look like a saviour of unloved punk. Ages ago, a friend of mine was getting rid of some Ep's he no longer wanted (records he had himself been given if I remember correctly) and being a kind-hearted charitable fellow, I agreed to take the records under my wing. I think we can safely say that I am Paris punk's answer to Gandhi, the main difference being that I still have (some) hair. The internet is rather quiet about them but here is what I have been able to gather. Life's a Riot! (a reference to Billy Bragg I presume?) were a Finnish band active in the early 00's and I think it might have been some sort of side project from the people from Diaspora (Joakim, Mari and Jossu also played in that band). In any case it was made up of people involved in many local bands ranging from Alakulttuurin Kusipäät, Pax Americana, Scumbrigade (Joakim was from Sweden) and even Tampere SS and Kuolleet Kukat (for the drummer Juha who sadly passed away in 2004) which accounts for the band clearly knowing what they are doing.

But what exactly were they doing then? Helsinki's Life's a Riot played energetic anarchopunk with male and female vocals blending the classic UK sound of bands like Alternative, Hagar the Womb or The Sears, the more modern approach of Harum-Scarum, Mankind? or Jobbykrust and I can also hear a touch of Californian peacepunk like early Resist and Exist or Media Children. The opening number is a case in point with its Zounds-like introduction followed by overlapping vocals (anarcho spoken words over angrily shouted slogan) and then a fast and pissed phase. I love how the vocal polyphony and variety of flows and textures work within the songs, it never sounds forced (even the accents sound pretty British) and it confers a delicious catchiness that really makes the Ep stand out. It is, objectively, a strong record so that it feels very odd to see the ridiculously low price of the Ep on discogs. I realize the belief that discogs reflects the quality of a record is about as delusional as believing you could become a Tik Tok influencer while you're already 43. If anything, discogs reflects the popularity of a record at a given time which does not equate the substantial quality (although it can) and in this light it is needless to point out that Life's a Riot! can be said to have been almost completely forgotten and that their tuneful, dynamic brand of old-school anarchopunk did not really fit with the punk's trends of the early 00's. Rejoice, you can get the thing for the price of a bag of crisps (and not even the fancy organic middle-class brand, just the regular one you can eat remorselessly at 1am after the gig). 

Had Life's a Riot! been around later they would have probably been a popular band - maybe playing K-Town and being offered records on fashionable labels - as there was a renewed interest in the old-school anarchopunk sound (which must be seen in parallel with the UK82 revival I reckon) from the late 00's on, possibly caused and encouraged by Ian Glasper's work, the Overground anarcho compilations and the works of labels like Demo Tapes. 00's bands like Surrender or OK? and 2010's ones like Vivid Sekt, Dogma or fellow Finns 1981, in their early days, are not dissimilar to what Life's a Riot! were doing (the same could be said about Stracony, which we tackled last time). 

The Ep's cover displays the old picture of a dog wearing a gas mask (it was quite the thing during WWI) but I have always thought it looked like a chameleon or some kind of weird lizards. The record has a foldout cover and the lyrics are about the grey zone, Big Brother and Buenaventura Durrutti. It was released on Witchhunt Records - the band's own label that put out records from Diaspora, Mushroom Attack or Unkind - and Les Nains Aussi, a label from Grenoble, that cryptically translates as "dwarves too", that must be saluted for still being very much active.

Don't be a poser and grab the Ep, yeah?

Life's a Riot!    

Still believing in ANOK: Enola Gay "Censored Bodies - Human Fission" Ep, 1990

Fuck me, it has been a while. Just sitting on my arse thinking about Terminal Sound Nuisance right now makes me feel like I have just come back from long holidays and I have to go back to work, except work in this case is actually pleasant and something I like to think I am pretty decent at. I know I have been threatening to be more concise in the past without ever actually shutting up but things have changed. Just to be serious for a second, I have a new job (gasp) that I have to adjust to - and not just by groveling with servility whenever I meet my boss - so that a lack of time is not completely unimaginable. Ideally, I should try to be more straight-forward or, as my mum used to tell me when I was a teenager, just cut the crap. Either this or I won't do the blog as often as I used to which sounds just sad. Tough shit. Does it mean that I am not looking for anything serious right now? Does it fuck. If anything, writing shorter writeups - or "grandiose articles" as my numerous fans like to call them - means that they will be packed with action and almost devoid of transitions with little to no time to reflect on anything, not unlike a Marvel movie with Deviated Instinct replacing Captain America and shoegaze replacing whoever the new vilain is. 

So... Still believing in ANOK is a series that I have designed, with my proverbial craft, to take a breather from the endless crust series I previously embarked upon. Don't get me wrong, I love crust to death but right now I'd rather run away to Colorado to become a Tantric nail artist or open a vape shop in Slough than write about how great Nightfeeder (and they are great indeed). So I'm definitely pulling a sickie on crust music for a couple of months. What will Still believing in ANOK be about beside sounding like a poor attempt at reconciling The Exploited and Crass in one unspectacular pun? Well, I picked about a dozen works recorded and/or released between 1987 and 2001 - a period that could be broadly described as "pre-internet" because the digital revolution was yet to come and had not yet had the formidable impact it would soon have on punk as a whole. And the recordings I chose all built on the so-called traditional anarcho sound of the original wave. Of course, the 90's were replete with politically-motivated anarchopunk bands all around the world, but in this series I will be focusing on the bands that did not go full on hardcore or crust or thrashcore or whatevercore but kept that distinctive old-school edge and flew with it. Basically, form (genre in this case) will prevail over content and concept (the politics and the DIY spirit). So yeah, expect a lot of Conflict worship.

Exhaustivity, like perfect shaped abs, is a chimera. Still, the focus will be international and, as much as possible, the bands tackled will aptly and meaningfully reflect the whole range of the foundational anarcho sound, or rather sounds indeed as there was a lot of variety originally. Even though we have come to identify a specific, if rather wide-spread at the time, take (let's say Flux meets The System and The Mob for example) as "the classic anarchopunk sound" and even though there was such a thing as generic, average anarchopunk bands in 1983, there was still variety enough, from Poison Girls to Antisect, Zounds to Stalag 17. One of my goals will be to highlight that this variety in speed, songwriting, influences, tones and so on did survive, even though, of course, there was such a thing as "the classic 90's anarcho sound" that was different and very common and epitomised by bands like Aus-Rotten for example. Bloody cycles. There will be some obvious choices and hopefully some bands you will have never heard of. There will be tunes, there will be anger, there will be passion, there will be some inept pieces of songwriting, strange solos, anarchoer-than-thou lyrics, Crasser-than-thou artwork and fake English accents.  

Let's start with a band from Germany. We don't often do classic punk from Germany on Terminal Sound Nuisance, not just because the country perversely birthed the notion that it is fine to have a mullet, a mustache and listen to heavy metal, but because I have never been a massive fan of deutschpunk. Yes Chaos Z, Vorkriegsphase or L'Attentat were great but I was always under the impression that 80's German punk-rock sounded a bit distasteful, not as much as French punk-rock - few countries can boast bands as embarrassing as ours - but still not generating enough enthusiasm. A bit like second-hand sweatpants. Just not that exciting. Enola Gay were clearly not your typical 1-2-1-2 drunken mowing that young punks like to pogo to. Information about Enola Gay are scarce to say the least. In fact, amazingly, only three songs of their 1986 Lp White Control Means Bloody Murder are on youtube, a failing that is the modern equivalent of barely getting a fiver after busking on a rainy wednesday afternoon. 

The band was from Hannover and openly borrowed from the anarchopunk and peacepunk aesthetics, the Lp focusing a lot on the anti-Apartheid struggle, but google is unusually quiet about this lot. Sonically, although it would not be entirely true to qualify the album as a typical anarcho recording - there are hints of European hardcore punk - the spoken words, some of the moodier bits and songs are certainly reminiscent of Anti-System, Civilised Society or Conflict. This heavily UK-oriented sound could also be found in another 80's German band called Anti Heroes from Oberhausen (they were more of a mid-paced affair though) who had a song on a compilation called The ALF is watching and there's no place to hide... where you could also find Naturecore, Oi Polloi or Chumba. But, where Anti Heroes were just enjoyable, Enola Gay were arguably a very good band, a great one even when you consider their Ep Censored Bodies - Human Fission.

Recorded in 1987 only one year after the release of the album, but released in 1990 when Enola Gay were no more, the Ep would totally fit in the "classic records that no one knows" category, which I'm aware is something of an oxymoron since a record becomes a classic through the acclaim of a significant portion, and not just three nerds who are still constantly connected to soulseek in 2023. Maybe the band shot itself in the foot by taking a name that I suppose would have already been taken by the Danish Enola Gay, a band that is undeniably much better-known now than their German counterparts, although it is difficult to assess their popularity "back in the days" outside of Denmark. Our Enola Gay did appear on a tape released as early as 1984 that included live recordings of bands that played the Ajz venue in Bielefeld (you also have established bands like Neurotic Arseholes, Upright Citizens and even Wretched) so timing may not have been of the essence. There have been quite a few Enola Gays afterwards too so that homonymy may also have impaired the band's status, even more so with France's best 90's crust band having the same name. As a result, these German peace punks have remained a footnote, a cruel fate when one considers that many would be into their sound.

In any case, you can thank me whole-heartedly because if you are a fan of 80's anarchopunk then Hannover's Enola Gay are for you. With such a piece of knowledge, I guarantee you will be able to quizz and surpass rivals in order to ascertain your total domination over the local punk scene. Sure, the band was a little late to the 80's anarcho party but close your eyes, play the record, listen to the songwriting, the lyrics and you will have the impression, no the absolute certainty, that you have just unearthed an unreleased Mortarhate record from 1985. On this recording session, Enola Gay also have a female singer thus further reinforcing that classic UK anarcho touch. The first number, a feminist song, is reminiscent of The Sears and Civilised Society? while the next songs lovingly point in the direction of early Anti-System and Conflict for the first one and Icons of Filth and, well, Conflict again for the second (unsurprisingly the infamous Londoners were a major influence at the time). The last one, my favourite, is a deliciously fast and anthemic punk number with dual vocals not unlike Iconoclast and Potential Threat covering Toxic Waste's songs. Energetic punk at its very best. If this had been released in 1984 on Spiderleg or Mortarhate, we'd all be wearing Enola Gay shirts today, and by "all" I mean the same three nerds that are constantly connected on soulseek. 

I am absolutely clueless about what the members became afterwards and to be honest, I don't really remember how I initially came across Enola Gay (through a blog I assume but I have not been able to track it). Censore Bodies - Human Fission was released on Enola Records (the band's own entity) and Double A Records (a label that was also responsible for Stengte Dorer, Sons of Sadism or the Attack is Now Suicide Lp). This Ep does not go for obscene prices on discogs so if you bump into it, you know what to do. 

Enola Gay