Saturday, July 28, 2012

Social Unrest-Making Room for Youth 7" (1979)



Raging it too hard last night=vicious hangover today, so nothin' new, just an '80s classic....

Social Unrest was one of the early East Bay (i.e. the cities just across the San Francisco Bay from SF, for non-American readers) punk bands. Their "Their Mistakes" was featured on the infamous MRR comp "Not So Quiet on the Western Front," and this is one of the best products of first-wave American hardcore.

 Social Unrest's work was incredibly economical: no pointless intros, wasted chords or unnecessary flash. "Rush Hour" is a moronically simple guitar pattern and stutter-step drumming, with Creetin K-OS (dontcha love those first-wave punk names?) hollering about....rush hour. The bridge features a sweet, lazy riff that veers into surf territory.

"Making Room for Youth" is a lot faster, closer to the Middle Class' first 7" than contemporary East Bay punk.  Danny Radio Shack and Doug Logic's guitar playing winds up and speeds through a typically naive punk call to arms for American youth: "The future of the world is up to us/but the older generation will only fuck it up..." Creetin chants, screeches, and lectures his way through the song. "Join the People that Join the Army" doesn't count as a song, really, more an afterthought-clocking in at 22 seconds, it flies by in a rush of stupidity and inspired succinctness.

MAKING ROOM FOR YOUTH. Social Unrest released a slew of albums throughout the '80s; read an interesting interview with a later member, not featured on this 7", here.

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