Thursday, April 02, 2015

No Survivors

Growing up as a metalhead in the early 80's, listening to Maiden and Priest, and then gravitating to harder and faster stuff like Metallica and Slayer...I suppose it was inevitable that I was going to discover punk and hardcore. Attracted by band names like Dirty Rotten Imbeciles, Suicidal Tendencies and Dead Kennedys, it seemed like a natural fit with the shock tactics and aggression of thrash.

Given that I've been listening to a ton of metal lately, I guess that it is a natural progression to find myself starting to listen to more and more of those punk bands that I started blasting from the stereo when I was 15 and 16.

Growing up, the big question was always "Who's better...Iron Maiden or Judas Priest"...and then as time went on, the two big names that I'd pit against each other were G.B.H. and The Exploited. It was always a tough call as to which one I liked better. Here we are, 30 years later, and I think I can finally crown G.B.H. as the winner.

I've been listening to those early G.B.H. songs a lot lately. Every day, I'm listening to City Baby Attacked By Rats, City Babys Revenge, or the first Leather Bristles album, and I'm amazed at how well these songs have held up over the years.

So what do I do when I start obsessing about bands? I start checking eBay, of course.

Just like the Raven records I bought at the start of the year, I found myself drawn to the 7 inch records when I was looking at the options to buy. Right off, I found a near mint copy of the Catch 22/Hellhole 7 inch...and it was in the States as well. Sold.

Once I had one G.B.H. 7 inch, I couldn't stop there. I needed more, and a UK seller quickly gave me the fix that I needed with the No Survivors record. It was beat up a little, but it still plays fine, and the one two punch of No Survivors and Self Destruct kicks my ass every time.

While I was buying the G.B.H. record from the UK seller, I noticed that they also had a few other punk classics available for auction, so I went after them as well.

While I still don't find them as strong as G.B.H., the early Exploited stuff is no slouch. It had been a long time since I'd heard these songs, and now that I've listened to this Dead Cities 7 inch, I've had to add The Exploited to my list of current obsessions. This shit is catchy as hell...let the eBay searches continue!

The final 7 inch that I'd won from the UK seller was the Holiday In Cambodia record from Dead Kennedys. My introduction to this band was their Give Me Convenience Or Give Me Death CD. At the time I just thought the title was Jello's dig at society, and I had no idea that it was because it was a compilation of their 7 inch and b-side songs. I've always been content with owning just that CD...until now. Seeing this 7 inch lit a fire under me, and in addition to my obsession with the three different covers that are available for the Holiday In Cambodia release, it has got me thinking of putting in some serious work into building up my DK record collection.

5 comments:

massivewaste said...

"Attack" is my favorite Exploited song. But wait ... I remember back then that they were discussed controversial with an alleged connection to the far right? But a lot of bands were critized (Agnostic Front, Iron Cross, 4 Skins, ...) that way, so ...

Mike said...

Yeah, I'd heard some vague criticism of The Exploited for some right wing association, but I never really noticed it in the lyrics...but maybe that is because I can hardly understand them through Wattie's accent. Ha!

J@screamingforrecords said...

Loving the holiday in Cambodia single. I bought one of the different cover versions a while ago. I'm sure I thought there were only two covers, I'll have to check what the third is. Be interested to see you build a DK collection.

J@screamingforrecords said...

On a complete side note one of my earliest memory's is going round my aunt and uncles place late 80's - they were in a punk band and were on tour with the exploited - to find wattie and the gang sprawled out all over the living room floor, there were sleeping punks everywhere! Hah

Mike said...

ha ha...that is awesome. Were they sleeping or passed out? ;)