Poll results for favorite Touch and Go release

Two records you should own

Aside from Kiss, the whole early 80’s Detroit Hardcore scene was the first music to really capture my imagination as a kid. My older brother was bringing all those seven inches and issues of Touch and Go home as they were coming out, and the combination of the two totally blew my 10 year old brain. I can still recall sitting there for hours staring at the photos on the Negative Approach lyric sheet. Those pictures looked like a riot in a subway car or something. This packed room of bald heads with the occasional body floating above the melee. Although the images seemed so foreign and frightening to me, I still had this feeling in my gut that I wanted to be there. My frustration in not being there to witness it first hand has resulted in me drying many a pen in writing about that era. Swindle magazine published something a year or so back and I am currently working on a book about that scene that will eventually be published by Revelation sometime before the next time Dom Deluise is ready for swimsuit season.

So when I saw Tim and Gordo put up a poll on favorite early Touch & Go releases, you knew I had to butt my nose in and write up a little sumpin sumpin about the results. To no surprise, the mighty Negative Approach took the crown as the Detroit Hardcore faves of the first round of Touch and Go releases, and rightfully so. Both their seven inch and the ‘Tied Down’ 12” to me -and many others obviously- are the very epitome of Hardcore. All of NA’s tuneage is the purest vitriol known to man and if you ain’t hip to it yet or disagree with me, go suck it like a newborn. Comprende?


Die Kreuzen photo courtesy of: Touch and Go

I was pleasantly surprised to see the Die Kruezen lp take up the second place slot. It seems in the past few years this record has started to garner the respect it deserves and I couldn’t be happier. Dan Kubinski’s screech combined with guitarist Brian Egenes’s metallic heave has always been something that’s made my life worth living. I saw these fuckers jump on a bill last minute (they called the promoter Randy Now at 8 am the day of the show to see if they could play!) opening for the Meatmen in 1984 and it was downright frightening. I remember talking to them after they played and they were the sweetest guys on earth. Real confusing.

All the other records that took up the bottom rungs of the poll was all choice stuff as well. The beyond brutal ‘Jan’s Room’ seven inch by The Fix should make anyone with half a brain and an operating heart feel like a king. The tasteless funny punk thud of both Meatmen singles will always have a place in my dirty little heart and no matter what you little newbies go spouting on the internets, ALL NECROS JAMS ARE THE TITS AND SHOULD BE TREATED WITH RESPECT!!! If I hear the term ‘overrated’ used one more time about this band from someone who bought their first AFI 7” at Hot Topic, I’m cracking skulls. The whole early 80’s Midwest is where the whole thing started to boil and where the aesthetic of Hardcore came to fruition. The shit influenced everything from Youth of Today to Sonic Youth and I’m glad to see the Double Cross crew give it some exposure. - Tony Rettman


John Brannon of Negative Approach

Negative Approach - Tied Down: 159
Negative Approach - EP: 154
Die Kreuzen - Die Kreuzen: 36
The Meatmen - Crippled Children Suck: 13
Necros - Conquest For Death LP: 12
The Fix - Jan's Room: 9
The Fix - Vengeance/In This Town: 7
Necros - Necros: 6
Necros - EP: 5
Process of Elimination comp: 4
The Meatmen - Blud Sausage: 2
Necros - Conquest For Death EP: 1


A Negative Approach set list courtesy of: Bill Danforth