Thursday, February 26, 2009

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

17 comments:

BOOG said...

I haven't even read it this yet, I'm saving it for tomorrow... but I saw "Set list provided by Bill Danforth" As in the Alva skateboard pro Bill "Nomad" Danforth?

DOUBLE CROSS said...

Yeah... as in the guy who skated for Alva, you got it right. Tony Rettman scored it from him. Pretty freakin' cool.

BOOG said...

That's awesome!

Dave B said...

Danforth reads DXC? Hell yes!

D. Sine said...

Poll results that I can fully get behind.

Bill Danforth was one of my favorite skaters.

Anonymous said...

First Die Kreuzen LP is one of best records ever. Their later stuff is also so great, even if it's not hardcore. They were so fuckin underrated .

BOOG said...

Back in the day, we used to talk about what band/Mosh parts was/were harder than the next, almost in a Warriors movie way. It usually went like this..."Cro-Mags or Judge, who's harder"? And we went on for days arguing the points of each. Welp, one day I did this game with another friend, and he said "You know nothing" and left the room and came back with his copy of 'Tied Down' and said "THIS is hard, no band is or will ever be harder" He wasn't lying.

DOUBLE CROSS said...

EVACUATE... probably the hardest and heaviest song I've ever heard in my life. -Tim

Anonymous said...

2 things DCXX guys:

No wonder NA won in a landslide. NA is like the band that occurred at the center of the earth, where matter and hardcore are broken down to their purest forms. While the Bad Brains may have been the best hardcore band ever, NA was the most perfect.

The content in the last 2 weeks or so has been incredible. Eclectic and always interesting and seemingly non-stop. As always, outstanding job.

Anonymous said...

How about The Laughing Hyenas? Life of Crime takes heaviness to another level as well. I always though that band was one of the best progressions a HC singer ever made.

mrs.missalaineus said...

i love to see people give my beloved 313 much love and props.

i was fortunate enough to have the laughing hyenas play at my house once upon a lifetime ago. i missed being able to see N/A play by about a year. i was in the crowd of kids that came after the hungry brain and greystone, saw most of my stuff at blondies, in the basement of the shelter and then at the grounds on the u of d campus.

i am putting you on my blogroll, what you have to say is still important to me.

all hail the 313

miss alaineus

Anonymous said...

Necros. Best Hardcore band ever. The end.

Ben Edge said...

If anyone is wondering where to steal the cover art for your next hardcore record from, here's a hint: the first 15 LPs that Warner Bros. Records released way back in the late 50s didn't sell at all. So no one will know.

http://www.stylefeeder.com/i/7n5x0yg1/Music-For-People-With-3-98-Lp-Record

Anonymous said...

Holy shit Rettman, you're a fan of Last Resort AND Kiss??? I don't know a thing about you but I already love you.

Anonymous said...

negative approach is better than you!!!

Brushback said...

That someone was arguing over Judge and the Cro-Mags before even having heard Negative Approach before blows my mind.

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