The Proletariat-Indifference LP (1985)

Boston's Proletariat were, to quoth the Bard, men out of time: if they had been British, everything would have made sense. If they were recording in 1979 instead of Reagan's America, it would have made sense. Conversely, if they were part of the recent crop of post-punk revivalists (Radio 4, Interpol, et. al.), they would have been quite successful. Instead, they were a Boston punk band trafficking in intelligent, bass-driven fury at a time when everyone else was simply furious.

The Proletariat made a career out of tracing the contours of an American take on Gang of Four, Delta 5, and so on: sinuous basslines, muted, squalling guitar, and howled vocals above the din of misery. This sound was accompanied with brutally intelligent lyrics confronting the typical bugaboos of Americans too smart for a society based around rampant individualism, greed, proud anti-intellectualism, and violence: the genocide of Native Americans ("Trail of Tears"), mindless consumerism ("Marketplace"), American gun culture ("The Guns are Winning"), and the pathetic stupidity of American nationalism ("Homeland").

All of this was, of course, straight to the point in Reagan's America. And all the moreso today, since we live in the world that Reagan and Thatcher made in their image. 1985's Indifference is hard to listen to at times: like The Clash's "This is England" or Gang of 4's "We Live as We Dream, Alone", it's the product of a band whose existence was based on the idea that change is possible if we struggle, colliding into the brute reality that the Reagan Revolution was here to stay. That the stupidity, patriotism, and unthinking pursuit of money was the only thing on the horizon. There's no hope to this LP, beyond the simple fact that it exists. We're in a similar situation right now: I think everyone's finally realized that Obama is even worse than Bush II was, and that under his all-seeing gaze, the United States has become the spymaster and murderer par excellance, at home and abroad.

What else is there to do, though, but sing, dance, and soldier on through the darkness? On that cheerful note, let me present you with one of the forgotten classics of the U.S. underground.

Get it HERE.

Silkies-"Walk at Midnight" (2013)

Silkies is a fun band, a good band. Partly 'cause I dig their music, partly 'cause they keep dropping single songs instead of albums. That spares your humble narrator from sitting through two sides' worth of music, giving him more time to leer at Florence's fashionistas while out for a tipple. Commendable, truly commendable.

"Walk at Midnight" finds Silkies straddling the line between garage and post-punk that Grass Widow successfully bridged. Silkies' singer sorta resembles GW's vocal section, too: she has the stoic holler of a ghost passing through yr favorite bar. Dirt-simple instrumentation, insistent and repetitive vocals: where can ya go wrong? Silkies ain't reinventing the wheel, but if you dig the Supremes as much as snide, gritty garage rock, this is up yr alley.

Silkies is playin' the NYC Popfest this Saturday, June 1st. Find a significant other, take him/her to the movies and for ice cream, then take 'em to Silkies and get yr makeout on to their tunes.

Check out their tunes here. They also do a mean pisstake on Andrea Carrol!

Hedge Fund-demo 11.11 (2011)

Hardcore punk has reached an interesting point in the last few years. As the grunge/shoegaze revival gathers steam, there's a temptation for bands to jump ship to the sunnier climes of MBV-/Nirvana-worship. Despite musical disparities, I see the whole "mysterious guycore" thing as riding the wave of '90s fetishism percolating of late: "oh cool! these guys were in bands in the (late/mid-)90s! They must be cool!"

Hedge Fund, a new band from Boston, straddles the line between HC and sloppy, gazey mucky muck. This four-track cassette demo is essentially hardcore punk played with a grunge attitude (or grunge played with a punk attitude). The opener, "Locutus" (sick Star Trek ref., no?) mines the vein Thulsa Doom quarried ages ago-piledriver drumming and overloaded guitar chugging.
But the next three tracks go in for the sort of fuzzy, squalling, meandering guitar I associate more with new bands like Psychic Blood as much as traditional HC name checks like Siege. It makes for some interesting listening: straightforward, shrieking intensity mixed with more complicated, grinding sludge.

Y'know ya love it. You can buy the radness here.

The Proletariat-Marketplace 7" (1985)

Most people first heard Massachusetts' The Proletariat on the This is Boston, Not L.A. comp, where they stood out from the largely hardcore roster with their jagged, staccato guitar and prominent basslines-Gang of Four, not  DYS.

This is probably my favorite Proletariat record. The two songs are typical fare from the band: the guitar's mixed a bit more prominently than on the Soma Holiday LP, but the bass and drums still lead the band while the vocalist intones about the usual Reagan-era enemies. The production's a bit better than on previous efforts, but glossy it ain't.

The Proletariat all too often gets dismissed as simply a Marxist curiosity amid a sea of crypto-fascist straight edge Boston HC, but they really go beyond that-they were one of the only worthwhile American bands emulating British post-punk, and they've aged much better than most of their hardcore brethren.

They made you a moron.... Taaang released a complete retrospective awhile ago, Voodoo Economics, which is well worth owning.