I've Heard Enough To Write A Book

When I posted the "Guillotined at The Hangar" compilation last October, I mentioned that the Reducers' 1st LP back in 1984 was the first independent punk album I'd ever bought. What I didn't realize at the time was that it was still available through the Reducers' web site (www.thereducers.com) for a measly seven bucks. So, I snapped one up a couple of months ago, and here it is-- including the self-censored version of "Out of Step" that I sorta made fun of the last time.

Not having listened to this record in years, I'd forgotten how good most of these songs are; seriously, songs like "All About You" and "So Civilized"-- though they might owe as much to Dr. Feelgood and 70's pub rock as they do punk-- are as hooky as anything ever put out by The Clash, The Knack, or the Buzzcocks, believe it or not. For an unknown record that came out of Eastern Connecticut in 1984, that's pretty amazing, I think. No wonder I ate this up back then, and started craving more stuff along the same lines. Not long after I bought this album, I finally moved to a town that had a couple of decent indie record shops, and bought my first Replacements record; a few months after that, I started a fanzine (Feb. '85), and it was pretty much all downhill after that.

I'm leaving off "No Ambitions", since it suffers sound-wise from being the track closest to the label; I might get to it some other time, if I end up posting The Reducers' first single that it appears on as the b-side (though I don't actually have an original of, just the 1987 repress).




The Reducers -

"Out of Step"

"So Civilized"

"Small Talk From a Big Mouth"

"Better Homes and Gardens"

"All About You"

(these files are now listen-only)

We Were Over Here When It Was There

"Guillotined at the Hangar" is kinda sketchy as regional punk comps go; the liner notes are unnecessarily vague about the exact year the songs are from as well as the original releases they can be found on, and some of the bands on here couldn't spell "punk" if you spotted them the "pee" and the "you". A lot of this stuff doesn't seem all that aggressive once you realize that the first wave of American hardcore (Minor Threat, Negative Approach-- you know, stuff like that) had already hit a couple of years before a good number of the songs on this compilation were recorded.

Still, thanks go out to Keith Grave, the guy who put this comp together, as there's some worthwhile stuff here-- especially if you're a fan of Ct. punk. Keith was also in a few Ct. punk/HC bands back in the '80s, such as Sanity Assassins and White Pigs. White Pigs, in particular, were sort of demonized back then for being the first Ct. hardcore band to "go metal", although I think Violent Children may have tied them on that point.

So here's what we got:

The Reducers - The first independently-released punk album I ever bought was the Reducers' debut LP, back in 1984. The town I was living in at the time didn't have a punk record store, but since The Reducers were local and kinda well known, the chain store at the mall carried their LP. I remember that "Out of Step" was edited on the LP, so that "fucking blind" was bleeped out as "veel-flup blind", which was kinda lame. You can still find the original 45 posted on Killed By Death Records or 7-Inch Punk or one of those places, I'm pretty sure.

October Days - I've said before that October Days' "West Coast"/"Don't Give Yourself Away" and the Reducers' "Out of Step"/"No Ambition" are Ct.'s two best early punk 45s (with the Stratford Survivors also in there somewhere), so now's your chance to hear both of them side-by-side. I'm re-upping my rip from the 45 here, instead of using the weaker-sounding copy found on the compilation.

Peer Pressure - "Sound of the '80s" (recorded in 1980) is brilliant; check out Killed By Death, where the full Peer Pressure EP is posted, as well as a link to the amazing story on Break My Face about trying to track down the original members of the band.

Chronic Disorder - From their very first 7", I'm pretty sure; somehow, Jason could be running out of breath and still keep the fake British accent. Chronic Disorder were on the "Make It Work" compilation that I put out, and that's about all I'm gonna say here.

Jack Tragic and The Unfortunates - A band that's way overrated, I think ("I Kill Hippies" is not even one-tenth as good as the Deadbeats "Kill The Hippies", and that's my point), which might be why you can still find a couple of Jack Tragic 7"-ers at Brass City Records for a few fins each. Still, the imagery of lyrics like "The Dead go on about 8 o'clock/Hippies all lined up for twenty blocks" is hilarious enough to make this one worth a few listens.

8th Route Army - The only band I'm posting here that's not from Connecticut, just because the song's pretty damn good and reminds me a lot of early Naked Raygun. Never liked these guys when they were around, though.

The Reducers -

"Out of Step"

October Days -

"West Coast"

Peer Pressure -

"Sound of The '80s"

Chronic Disorder -

"The Final Line"

Jack Tragic and The Unfortunates -

"I Kill Hippies"

8th Route Army -

"Professional Killer"

(these files are now listen-only)