Tuesday 27 May 2008

WAR BETWEEN THE STATES: SOUTH tape compilation download...


Here's a cassette compilation from 1985 released on TPOS Records. It covers many obscure US hardcore bands from the New South (and a few from the Midwest), bands from a particularly conservative region who have been forgotten or overshadowed by their more popular contemporaries (it does have a few bigger names on; Born Without A Face, Subculture, Rhythm Pigs, Anti-Seen...).

Download here: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=5RS0ZHD4

I really like comps like this, which capture what was going on at a certain time and place, and contains bands you probably wouldn't otherwise hear. While it's not all gold, what I find with a lot of these old US compilations is that there is an abundance of youthful enthusiasm and a willingness to experiment with strange guitar riffs and effects, which makes it all the more interesting.

Here's a band by band overview:

POWER OF THE SPOKEN WORD - One of the few notable bands from Nebraska. Fast manic hardcore with metal linfluences and slow strange parts. It's a bit like Cancerous Growth, and has fairly strong Void influences too. Sadly the singer passed away a few years after they broke up.

LANDLORDS - Good hardcore from Virginia. The 3rd song sounds different from the other 2 and has a harsher sound.

MAGGOT SANDWICH - A good mixture of KBD-style punk and fast hardcore from Florida.

DEATH PUPPY- Raw garagey hardcore from Oklahoma. Not bad.

YOUR WORST NIGHTMARE - Standard hardcore.

CRASH N BURN - Improvised-sound with minimal vocals, like Captain Beefheart being played by drunken punks (if you couldn't have guessed, it's great).

JAWS OF LIFE - Garage punk with an organ player. Interesting.

SEX MUTANTS - As you can probably tell from their name, this is raw rough snotty KBD-style from South Carolina, pretty good.

ANTISEEN - If you don't know Antiseen already, they play scummy and raw Southern punk rock, and were GG Allin's backing band for awhile: get the idea? Some early tracks here.

ACTIVE INGREDIENTS- The same band that were on We Got Power #3. Good hardcore with odd effects and great vocals. Don't believe it's the same band as the one from California (?).

BORN WITHOUT A FACE - Dirgy nihilistic hardcore from Michigan.

BLEEDING NUN - Only one song, but it's great simple hardcore.

SUBCULTURE - Youthful and energetic hardcore. The singer is now in Double Negative.

RHYTHM PIGS - Pretty good upbeat hardcore, not too different from Capitol Punishment.

NOISE FOR THE NEEDY - Annoying mid-paced crap.

LIKE A HORSE - What a band name. They also appear on We Got Power #3. High energy manic hardcore with good vocals and breakdowns, great riffs and guitar sound. One of the highlights of the comp. I have no other info about them (does anyone else?).

BEEF PEOPLE - Good straight forward hardcore from Georgia (I think). Strong and rough vocals. The 3rd song is a fairly shit joke song though.

MNP - Another high energy effort, youthful hardcore (they broke up after graduating!) from Virginia, with plenty of stop-starts and interesting riffs.

MOE - One very raw, primitive dirgy track, about Reagan pushing the button. Good.

INC. YOU BAIT - Terrible name, and HILARIOUS vocals on the 1st track. Like the Cookie Monster but singing underwater. The 2nd song is better; strange punk with female vocals.

ASSAULT - Gruff basic hardcore, singer reminds me of Springa a little bit. Good!

If you know anything about this comp or any of the bands on it, leave a comment!


Photo: Power Of The Spoken Word


Edit: Here is an advert for the comp from Maximum Rock'N'Roll #29; looks like there was a North counterpart, which I'll have to try and hear...

10 comments:

Slobodan Burgher said...

Hi there, thanks for the support! It makes me very happy indeed to see someone make use of the content of the zines posted at Punks Is Hippies. This is exactly what i had in mind when I started the project/blog/website/archive. Thanks so much, you give me hope to continue doing this damn thankless shit.

:)

naturally you're very much welcome to send any scans and uploaded zines to us/me for posting on website. just drop a comment or something with yoru email and i'll get in touch.

cheers

Slobodan (a.k.a. Tony)

RobT said...

You're more than welcome mate. Punkishippies is one of the best (and most used by me) hardcore punk resources around, alongside KFTH, Hardcoreshowflyers, Al Barkley's site, Flex etc... Keep it up!

Anonymous said...

Excellent comp Rob. been listening to it all morning and already discovered a load of good stuff i've never heard before.

Mob Rules said...

I've got a copy of the Worship 7" by Born Without A Face and really dig it. Not an undervalued classic, by any stretch, but a pretty ripping listen; metallic, dark, hint of d-beat. Pretty odd cover of Heartbreak Hotel to boot.

They had a s/t 7" that predated it but I ain't never heard it.

They're also pre-Big Cheif which is no recommendation.

RobT said...

Iw that Campbell, Paul, Conor or Ben?

Here's a link to the Born Without A Face - Freakshow demo tape: http://www.mediafire.com/?bc8ghn2v16q

MOB RULES feature coming soon.

Erich said...

That's a nice tape comp. I haven't pulled out of my boxes in AGES, so thanks for reminding me. But your band descriptions / comparisons are rather funny, I must say.

Anonymous said...

thank you big time!!
been looking for any and all POWER OF THE SPOKEN WORD especially the lp the language of a dying breed,anybody know where i can find this.thank you again.

drummerpop said...

Thanks for the review! Beef People were from Charlottesville, VA. More info and downloadable mp3s @ http://www.stinkfight.com/?s=beef+people.
Recent unearthed music/band feature now avail through Artcore Fanzine #25 (thanks to Welly). Cheers, Jack. jackmassey@comcast.net

drummerpop said...

Beef People broke up after graduating from high school in VA. Perhaps band review reversed with MNP??

Thatguywiththeface said...

I've got the north tape on my blog. It's really great.

http://urinatingfest.blogspot.com/