Bands

Private School

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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

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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

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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

Young Lions

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Image

Image from: http://equalizingxdistort.blogspot.ca/2009/11/young-lions-1982-84-from-vaults-lp.html

Probably best known outside of their Toronto hometown for their appearance on the 1984 compilation Something To Believe In, The Young Lions produced a body of work that is ripe for rediscovery.

For a band that only recorded demos during the main part of its existence, the early to mid eighties, the Young Lions retained a remarkably high level of quality.

Diversity was their hallmark.  From sturdy, Oi-ish ’77 style punk (“Royal Killers”) to speedy hardcore (“Young Amerika”) and occasionally dabbling in experimental (and somewhat awkward) post punk (“Pray for Julie”), as well as infusions of reggae and heavy metal, the Young Lions had all the bases covered.

Lyrically, they specialized in socially conscious broadsides that had more in common with the New Left of the 1960s than many of their more anarchic contemporaries.

How serious they were about these lyrics is open for debate; in a 1981 fanzine interview, they claim their main lyrical concern is “girls and cars, man”.  Feigned or not, the radical content of the lyrics adds depth.

In 1986, a disappointing full length lp, entitled Welcome to the Freak Show, appeared. 

This album has its moments, but for my money, their demos – which were comiled on the posthumous From The Vaults lp (2009) – show them at their best.

According to the aforementioned interview (link below; this is one of the only sources for information on this band that I’ve been able to find) the band took their name from the 1958 Marlon Brando film of the same name.  “It was sort of an anti-war film, and we’re… sort of anti-war”, Mike explains.

The band seems to have broken up after the release of their 1986 lp.  The album shows them struggling to break away from the confines of punk rock, a gambit that probably alienated their old fans while failing to gain them any new ones.

In 1981, Chris claimed, “We don’t want to make money…I just wanna make music, that’s it”. 

If that was the band’s goal, then they were a success.

1981 Interview:

http://www.dementlieu.com/users/obik/arc/other/younglions_schrik2.html

Discography:

http://killfromtheheart.com/bands.php?id=162

“Pray for Julie”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzD7sxt9s7g

Vomit and the Zits

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“What the hell, I’m going mental!”, the singer bellows against a barely-together, warp-speed instrumental attack.  The song rushes by breathlessly, ending practically before it begins, in just over a minute.

That’s about as “musical” as Montreal’s Vomit and the Zits ever got.

The ineptitude of the songs “What the Hell and “Suicide” makes them stand out among the more conventional punk and hardcore bands that they share the Primitive Air-Raid lp with.  Released by Psyche Industries in 1984, it’s one of only three vinyl appearances from this ultra-obscure band.

Information on Vomit and the Zits is scarce online.  Even the comprehensive Kill From the Heart database has little information beyond a listing of the band’s compilation appearances.

According to the Canadian Pop Encyclopedia, the band existed from 1981 to 1985, and featured ex-members of Zyklon B and future members of Dead Brain Cells.  I’ve heard neither band, but information about both seems easier to come by.

The Quebec Underground site has a personal account from someone calling himself “Anarchoi.”

“These guys never rehearsed”, Anarchoi writes.  “I don’t even know if they did sound checks.”  This spontaneous aesthetic certainly informs their tracks on Primitive Air Raid.

Anarchoi also recalls a disastrous attempt at a reunion show in 1996.  “Parker tried to smack someone in the audience with his guitar and the guy came on stage and smacked him a good one.”

It’s a fitting end to a band whose music was the sonic embodiment of the chaotic extremes of the ’80s punk scene.  Listening to “What the Hell”, you can practically taste the beer and smell the sweat.

Edit: According to singer Parker, Anarchoi is not known to the band, and his story is false.  Please see comments for details.  If Anarchoi is reading, please identify yourself.

Vomit and the Zits were, according to Quebec Underground:

Dave Javex Vocals
Parker Guitar
Jeff Drums
Stephane Bass’

Vomit and the Zits discography, taken from Kill From the Heart:

Compilations:

PRIMITIVE AIR-RAID LP (Psyche Industry Records, 1984)

MONTREAL/NEW YORK CONNECTION LP (Big City Records, 1985)

PANIC PANIC LP (Psyche Industry Records/Planetarium Records, 1985)

Links:

The Canadian Pop Encyclopedia:

http://jam.canoe.ca/Music/Pop_Encyclopedia/V

Quebec Underground:

http://www.quebecunderground.net/punk_band.php?groupe=Vomit%20and%20the%20Zits

Kill From the Heart:

http://killfromtheheart.com/bands.php?id=4768

“What the Hell?” on Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdfFMu7jycs