Review #9: Discharge - 1977 Demo

Year: 1977
Genre: Punk
Label: ?
Tracks: 9
My Rating: 5/8

When i first was getting into music, i used to buy the most famous album by whatever the band was, but later on i realised that with most bands, the first album seemed to be the "best" and now when i'm getting into a band, i tend to start listening to them from the very first thing they ever recorded. So this is the first release by Discharge, often being said to be the first hardcore punk rock band, or one of the very first ones. I've heard from a person who went to a Discharge show in the 80s that the opening band Fang was so good that when they ended their set and Discharge hit the stage, they got booed off stage! hahaha that must have been hilarious...
But as far as i know about them, Discharge were also more about the image and looks, than the other punk bands, that came before them. Spikes on their leather jackets, boots, tune your hair for 2 hours. That kinda stuff. This style became so popular, that most "punks" tend to look like Discharge or The Exploited did. Not being a Punk to make a statement. SOME punks like this are just total idiots and smash stuff for no reason and think that was what its all about... I thought for a long time, that all the punks who spike their hair and have lots of stuff in their jackets are nothing but weak posers, turns out i wasn't quite right about it. I watched recently a movie called The Decline Of Western Civilization 3 which was made in 1996-97. The original first movie of the series was made in 79-80. anyway this one films alot of young kids from about the age of 15 to 20 or so. living on the streets. These kids had mohawks and nose rings and leather jackets full of stuff in it. They were strugling on the streets trying to get money (to buy beer yes). It was real interesting and informative, many of them proboably died pretty soon after the film was made, cause they were very poor and lived in abandonned houses, but anyways lets get to the point and review this recording:

the singer of this tape seems to be unknown, but he tends to sound alot like Johnny Rotten of the Osmonds. The recording is really crappy, which means low quality and it literally sounds like shit. well anyways the songs:

1. I Don't Care
Wow what a song title. It's only been used be atleast 10 other punk bands, the Ramones, Black Flag... Still a decent song, i wish the recording would sound alot better, but what i hear the guitar sounds pretty cool. The singer's Rotten imitations are really annoying. You can barely hear the bass and the drums sound like stomping...


2. Sweet Suburban Dreams
Starts with really shitty sounding bass, then gets kinda fast, hardcorish. So if this demo was done in 1977 (according to Cal the later singer of Discharge, the 77 line up did not record anything), so if they did, this must be one of the first hardcore punk rock songs ever written... the songs is about living in a suburb, having a troubled life, taking pills 'cause you're bored as fuck...

3. Living In The City
Starts with a "creepy" guitar riff then gets all hardcore punky again... what the hell if this guy is not Lydon's brother, i'm a.. whatever i know he wasn't his brother. Song about boredom, living in the city. This has real good formula and this is the longest song on this demo tape (4:09 mins).

4. Acne
Kinda slow song. Has some cool guitar squeaking and soloing and screaming. The lyrics sound like something John Rotten might have written "See a doctor, You got acne, what a disgrace"

5. Dead Babies
Starts with few hits of the drum crash cymbal, then the guitar riff kicks in, then bass and then vocals. This kinda start is usually really cool. Works in Ramones songs like in Teenage Lobotomy where there drums first hit, then bass and then guitar and eventually vocals and you feel like wanting to go berserk listening to it. this song is really nothing special though.

6. Pigs
Pig as a reference to a cop. Ever wondered why punk rock shows have such a bad reputation? it's not 'cause the gigs are all about starting a fight. It's not. Just sometimes like for example skinheads would come to the shows and just for some weird reason they would wanna fight with the punks and so thats how it started. Not as if skinheads are always the reason why the fight starts. Henry Rollins tells in Get In The Van - On the road with Black Flag, that in many Flag shows, some idiot started a fight and then the club owner had to call the cops there and the cops would beat the fuck out of all the kids in the gig. Real pigs if you ask me.

anyway the song starts with kinda "creepy" guitar strums. I like that. Then it gets all simple punk again. Song has pretty basic statement "Hate the police". Has a point though.

7. Under My Feet
Starts kinda weird again with the guitar. But pretty cool still. Has some quiteter, angrier parts then gets loud on the chorus. Or atleast it would have gotten if the recording wasn't so shitty. Still i like shitty sounding recordings it gives the music something too. I don't know if you like it or get the same "vibes" as i do but i like it. It gives some more noise and rawness to it.

8. No Time For Romance
Sound is way too low here. I like the fucked guitar sound after the chorus. Then it gets a bit heavy right after it and back to chorus. Romance doesn't seem to get any time in my life either. This is my favorite song on the tape.

9. No Future
Well they obviously stole that line from "God Save The Queen", but i don't mind. The meaning of it is still current and with many kids. Some people i know really don't have any future, or if they do it's gonna be really boring. Just basic working life. I really don't want that. I could never ever stand to work in a regular day job. No way. The song isn't anything special.