Private School

image: http://content.lib.sfu.ca/cdm/singleitem/collection/vanpunk_1/id/62/rec/37

The list of proto-hardcore punk pioneers is well-established; any knowledgeable music fan can tell you about Middle Class, Bad Brains, Black Flag and the rest.

Canada lays claim to one of the most oft-cited influences on the development of hardcore: the seminal DOA, whose 1981 lp “Hardcore ’81” is credited with giving the faster/harder/louder subgenre of punk its name.

But dyed-in-the-wool punk buffs know that there is no neat, comprehensive list of bands whose influence ignited the hardcore scene.

Instead, hardcore punk was a spontaneous souping-up of the original punk formula that many bands introduced independently of each other.

Vancouver’s Private School, contemporaries of DOA, are not usually presented as a pre-hardcore outfit.  Most of the music on their 1978 four-song 7″ ep, Lost in Action, is typical of its time:  midtempo, slightly new-wavish, catchy and snotty, and distinguished by more savage than usual guitars.

The excellent “Bloodied but Unbowed” website includes an article on the band that characterizes them as more of a new-wave band – the sax-and-synth wailing on “Sci Fi” seems to bear this out.

More telling is the article’s claim that Private School “bridged the gap between the art-school scene and the hardcore-punk scene”, although the latter didn’t quite exist yet.

Give a listen to “Fuck You”  (link below) from the same ep.  The speed, ferocity, abbreviated song length and general belligerence is at leat two or three years ahead of its time.

Private School only existed from 1978 to 1979.  Members went on to a number of other Vancouver post-punk bands, including the decent Magic Dragon, whose ’81 Emotional Landscape is in equal measure gothy and pscychedelic, but sounds like any number of post-punk bands of the time.

For those of us who cherish the loud, fast, and unsubtle, Private School’s contribution to the scene is essential.

More on Private School:

http://thepunkmovie.com/articles/private-school

“Fuck You” on Youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_IXEtT_5nw

“Money, Guns and Power” on Youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YE-uhZ6uq5I

“Memories” by Magic Dragon:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmofH821hco

Beyond Possession

image taken from http://doug-wewillburyyou.blogspot.ca/2009/07/beyond-possession-tell-tale-heart-7.html

In the mid 1980s, the underground music scene – while divided into factions nearly as much as it is today – appeared as a vast unified counterculture to outsiders.

Punks, thrash metal fans and skateboarders may have had disagreements between themselves, but there were some bands that had enough common ground with all of the above to make them put there differences aside.

Calgary’s Beyond Possession released a classic 7″ ep, Tell Tale Heart, in 1985, and followed it up a year later with a truly epic metal/punk crossover lp, …Is Beyond Possession. 

This album rivals similar works by the likes of DRI, Suicidal Tendencies, Agnostic Front and other heavy hitters of the era as the quintessential metal-influenced punk album (or is that punk-influenced metal?)

Known in the US as a “skater” band due to their inclusion on Thrasher magazine’s widely distributed Skate Rock Volume 3, Beyond Possession was realtively popular and well liked in both the punk and metal scenes.

While little is known of the band’s history, they did leave a musical legacy that is worth exploring.

The title track of Tell Tale Heart may well be their finest achievement – Edgar Allen Poe’s tale is introduced to a buzzing speedmetal environment that is also surprisingly melodic. 

The subsequent album is even more musically proficient; some may say even too much so for an ostensibly punk album: speedy guitar solos and dizzying, stop-on-a-dime drumming compete for attention with shouted vocals and relatively simple punk rock song structures.

The lyrics are a combination of horror movie themes, teen angst, and rudimentary social protest – in other words, perfect fodder for any disaffected teen of the time.

It’s bands like Beyond Possession that gave the 1980s underground a rallying point; it’s as difficult to imagine a member of the counterculture of the day disliking the band as it is to imagine a mainstream music fan enjoying them.

“Attitude Problem”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgGMCKfe9o0&feature=relmfu

“The Telltale Heart”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBy_Vq0z2Xo

A hilariously useless entry on the band from the Museum of Canadian Music (who wrote this?):

http://www.mocm.ca/Music/Artist.aspx?ArtistId=91462&RoomId=57

A testimonial from a Calagary fan:

http://doug-wewillburyyou.blogspot.ca/2009/07/beyond-possession-tell-tale-heart-7.html

 

Problem Children

Image from http://problemchildrenmusic.tumblr.com/

In 1986, relatively pure, 1977-inspired punk rock was nearly extinct.

If bands weren’t incorporating thrash metal and string-shredding guitar solos, they were toning down their sound to try to appeal to college students and hipsters.

That year, Hamilton’s Problem Children’s put out their first full length, The Future of the World is Up to Us.

It must have been a breath of fresh air to the die-hards.

With very few exceptions, the songs – whether short, snotty blasts like “Red Dyed Hair”, or anthemic, poppy singalongs like “We Are the Children” – sound like they couldn’t have been recorded any later than ’78.

Formed in 1982 as the Tits, the band had to change its name in order to get gigs.

 In 1985, a demo entitled “Fuck Yuz All” appeared on the scene, followed by the lp and a five-song ep entitled  “On The Air,” both of which contained songs that dated back to 1982.

Both the demo and the subsequent ep were more raw and hardcore than the lp; in all, however, the band maintained a sound that owed more to the Sex Pistols and Generation X then to Black Flag or Minor Threat.

A couple of later tracks, included on the career overview album Long Weekend (1989), show the band moving into more mainstream territory – for which vocalist Jamie now apologizes.

After an aborted second lp, More Noize, which didn’t see the light of day until years later, the band continued to sputter on until 2000.

“I was a 35 year old alcoholic who had spent more than half of his life in a band that was spinning it’s wheels”, Jamie writes.

At its best, Problem Children’s music sounds as refreshing today as it must have in 1986. 

Jamie writes that, while some of his lyrics “seem trite and naive now, the real meaning behind those songs was empowerment.  The power to do what you want, say what you want, and most of all, think what you want.”

Problem Children’s music will, hopefully, continue to inspire those who are lucky enough to be exposed to it.

Vocalist Jamie’s blog, including band history:

http://problemchildrenmusic.tumblr.com/

“We Are the Children” on Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIao0R9MR3Q

“Red Dyed Hair” on Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MN1-MNg6iJI