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:
Germ Attack 