Review #16 - State Of Alert - No Policy 7" EP (1981)

Okay, State Of Alert or S.O.A. was an early, but short lived hardcore punk rock group formed in Washington D.C. S.O.A. was active from 1980 to 1981. The band consisted of guitarrist Michael Hampton, bassist Wendel Blow, drummer Simon Jacobsen (Ivor Hanson being their second and last drummer), and a guy named Henry Garfield (later known as Henry Rollins) on vocals. Henry would join Black Flag after this band's demise and become one of the reconizable and distinctive persons in the whole hardcore scene. State Of Alert released just this one EP through D.C. based Dischord Records, but appearad on the hardcore punk compilation album "Flex your head", with 3 songs which were not on this EP. The album lenght is just 8 minutes and 20 seconds!! and it takes me about 2 hours to review it. There are 10 tracks on the EP. The songs are really short, about 40 seconds long each. Really fast and quite generic with the whole hardcore punk rock sound. Henry's hoarse voice is pretty unique in my opinion. He sings to attack, not for a nice performance.

1. Lost In Space
The classic one two three four!! starts the 40 second bedlam. Really simple as you would excpet from a 3 chord punk rock band. I guess this could aswell be played by just 1 chord or 1 finger. It doesn't matter. The song seems to be about having to deal with people who are proud of taking pills and thinking how cool they are but are just a joke. Ian Mackaye from Minor Threat, a friend of Rollins, said in the rockumentary *chough cough* American Hardcore that everybody was just singing about getting high and people were now looking for someone not singing about getting high and this song is clearly an anti-Jefferson Airplane song. "Who's gonna wind up dead - you!".

2. Draw Blank
Henry sings so fast i didn't think i was reading the right lyrics while listening to the song, but no the lyrics were the real ones.. The little less than 10 second noisy wtf "solo" is awesome and back to chorus and finito. I think the song deals with subjects like feeling alienated and other people wondering why the fuck are you so weird eh?. Well,

You'll never know
I'll never show
I'm not a book
You can't read me

Just one complain i have is that i wish it could be louder.

3. Girl Problems
"You have gotta lie through your teeth to make her think you are cool". That could be thought as an attack to mainstream which shows all the over-developed, over steroided or the pretty guys with their little trendy clothes and baseball caps or just simply: THE FAKES getting all the girls. And i've noticed some people believing this and acting totally different around a girl than with his usual group of guy friends and putting the guys down and trying to grow his mental penis. Like my dad, first seeming really charming but finding out that his just a narcissist and a jerk.
"I don't need no girl problems, I've got troubles as it is".


4. Blackout
Proboably my favorite song in the EP. Has real mean riff. Song deals with depression, alienation, feeling of being lost. The lyrics speak for themselves.


5. Gate Crashers
Starts way slower than the songs before. Slow, mean riff, but it ends quick and the insane drum playing kick in. The guitar isn't trying to catch up with the fast playing of the drums, but keeps it quite slow and this makes this sound neat.
This deals with one of the main things that gave birth to punk rock and that is when music got too friendly, too over-produced, too posey... your sick of the songs you hear on the radio all day and sick how long the guitar solos are, sick of the long hair trend, sick of the non creativity of all music and want to yell fuck off at their face. Theres still shitty popular music around. I don't think it'll go anywhere except worser and worser. Have to say bands like Deep Purple, Emerson lake and palmer, Fleetwood Mack etc were atleast playing real instruments. Today it's so much worse with.. ugh i don't even wanna type their names. I'm sure you've all heard of them anyway...

6. Warzone
They seem to use the same guitar sound in every single song. It doesn't sound bad, but with 10 songs on the album that sound pretty much the same can get pretty boring. Oh well fuck me i couldn't even play like them.
Someone yells BANZAI!!! at the beginning and then heeere we go. Henry sings which could be about any punk rock band. The band is a real attack, a real threat. They came to tear the place to the ground. They came to terrorize the popular culture and burn it and leave. It's funny considering the part, "They wear chains and they wear leather, They wear boots in any weather, Never dress up for a show, Look this way when they're at home". It's not like this anymore. Some morons thought punk is about looking like this and wearing that. NO they wore that shit daily. Now it's just another fashion trend. All the bands who are now like "yeaaah were so punk!" are so lame and cheesy it makes me wanna shoot them.

7. Riot
In the beginning you hear a guy laughing and Henry says "are you crazy, Wendel?" talking to their drummer. Wendel replys "What?".
The song is about rioting (wow really?!?!?!??!?!?!!!!!!!!!!). When they yell RIOT! during the chorus, i first heard it was OI! which had been a bit cheesy and i really doubt this wasn't what they really yell.

8. Gang Fight
Title states what the songs about. How pointless it is. The other side is to blame, it's never your own fault. Your friends get killed, well though titters. Shooting eachother is fucking stupid!!!!!! Why not attack together on something which could be meaningful like why is prozac legal but marijuana isn't?, PMRC... theres alot of things to do. Alot of things to get mad about. Some people rather shoot eachother.

9. Public Defender
The song is about our dear friends the pigs aka cops. I like the drum part during the chorus. All the cops i've have to meet have always been the same. Yeah it is a good thing to poke some freaks who do harm for innocent people, but not poke around the innocent people!!!! Like if they had nothing else to do. Give tickets just for fun, arrest people just for fun, beat the crap out of people for fun... fucked up.

10. Gonna Have to Fight
The main point in the song is: fight back, don't give up. You got rights.

My rating: 7/8

Review #15 - Dinosaur Jr. - Bug

Year: 1988
Genre: Experimental rock
Label: SST Records
My Rating: 8/8

Dinosaur Jr. was formed in 1984 by 2 former members of hardcore punk band Deep Wound after they broke up, J Mascis and Lou Barlow. And Murph as their drummer. Every member of the band is incredibly talented musically, J as a (underrated) guitarist can play really original solos and melodies and writes really good lyrics aswell. Lou played bass in Dinosaur Jr and wrote songs to them aswell, but was kicked out of the band little time after the released this album, because he and J weren't in good terms or as Lou put it "i was just the most annoying little kid". Lou would form Sebadoh along with quite a few side projects and continued making really neat music. Murph is one of my favorite drummers. He hits hard, does alot of cool fills and just has a perfect timing.

1. Freak Scene
The first ever Dinosaur song i heard and it's still one of my favorite songs. It has kinda love song feel to it, but it's not that lame as that might sound. I think it's about when you've met someone who you think doesn't fit with the rest of the crowd or "the freak scene". And none of them accepts you. "Freak scene just can't believe us, can't it just be cool and free us?" The melody is really catchy and after the second verse, J throws an insane solo. Well it's not that insane anymore to me, i enjoy it as much as i ever did, but first time i heard it was really something i hadn't ever heard before. then they sing the last lines of the song, "Sometimes I don't thrill you , Sometimes I think I'll kill you , Just don't let me fuck up will you, 'cause when I need a friend it's still you, What a mess" and J performs another guitar solo, this time it's a bit longer and they play it till the end of the song. During their live performances like in the early 90s when they had made somewhat big name of themselves, no mainstreamwise though, after the the last line J would sing really quiet and you could hear the crowd sing the last line of the song and then the solo hits and everyone just goes insane. Fucking sucks Dinosaur will come to Finland again and i can't go to their show!!!!!!!!!!

2. No Bones This is alot slower song. It sounds kinda sad. The lyrics are sad too. When the solo hits, i thought blah this is it? But suddenly J creates such a weird, distorted sound. He changes the sound while he plays. The solo has like 3-4 parts all in all. It's fantastic. During the last verse, the distorted guitar sound can be heard on the background. Sounds like if the guitar was so raped, it barely works anymore, but they still play it.

3. They Always Come Starts with few loud drum beats then all the other instrument kick in. This is way faster song than the previous. Little before the solo theres a little "break", where J plays just a simple high tuned, clean sound guitar riff, then the beautiful solo dicks in. J sings the last line while still soloing. He changes his singing a bit for the last lines. The song gets kinda dreamy feel into it.

4. Yeah We Know
This song has kinda funky beat and rhythm feel. But again it's not that lame as that might sound, cause Murph is drumming the shit out of the drums here. The solo is real neat again, but short. They start jamming that funky sound after it for a little while. Every song in this album so far, J has sung differently. Can't explain it, you'd just have to listen to them yourself. Every song has it's own feel. Really underrated dinosaur jr song.

5. Let It Ride This sounds like a "pre-grunge" song. It's quite fast, has some really cool, odd sounds threwn in after few lines of the song, some clean parts, and the grungy sounding part. Murph also kills here aswell. Before the solo, theres a little part where J plays really down tuned riff then the INSANE solo hits. This solo really describes how Thurston Moore said about J's guitar playing, "it was like Motörhead times 10". J keeps singing through the soloing though. The song ends kinda suddenly.

6. Pond Song J plays few REALLY fast, short, distorted guitar riffs, in a few parts during the chorus. This has the kinda sound, i was more familiar with Dinosaur Jr. But as i listened them more and more, i learned their music can be really diverse. They play some hardcore punk influenced stuff, some really experimental noisy songs, but also "wimpy" pop songs. This is one of the pop ones. Theres kinda sonic youthy jammin' parts here and there.

7. Budge
This is kinda hardcore themed. Fast beating drums, fast guitar riff. But the song deforms to more poppy, but soon gets back to that punk stuff. One complain in this song: Theres no solo!!! Well i guess J didn't want every song to sound the same.

8. The Post
Real slow song, with cool feedback sound in the background. The bass sounds little bit like Flipper. Has some really loud parts thrown in aswell. The guitar sound during the chorus sounds really good. If you know that feeling when some song just sounds so fucking good, this gave me that feeling. J plays really loud solo, but it ends kinda suddenly and the song gets slow again.

9. Don't
This song is quite interesting. Really really experimental and not like any song on this album before. In the book about the hardcore punk scene from 1981 to 1991, they say that Lou Barlow screamed so hard during this song that he started to cough blood afterwards. Wow. The total lyrics are "Whyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!!!?, Why don't you like me?". J masturbates the geetar in the background. If you want to go berserk and jump on your bed or something and yell randomly, listen to this and do that.


In my opinion the best songs from this album are The Post, Don't and Let It Ride. I picked up these songs, because i haven't heard them that often and they showed really many sides with the band. Otherwise i had picked up Freak Scene as the ultimate song, but that song is more poppy and not so diverse than the ones i desided to pick.

Review #14 - Melvins - Love Canal/Someday (Single)

Year: ?
Genre: -
Label: Slap A Ham Records
Tracks: 2
My rating: 7/8

The Melvins, another band who you can't just put in one musical categorie. They can play really heavy, noisy stuff or as they started as a hardcore punk rock band. Anyway these two songs on the single are both by San Francisco based gods, Flipper. I don't know which year was this released. Some sources wrote this was released in 1990, some others state 1992, so i'm not sure about that. Mainstream audience proboably knows Flipper better written on Kurdt Kobain's sweater than because of their music. I think Buzz Osborne of the Melvins was the one who introduced Flipper to Nirvana. Flipper was a huge influence to both of those bands. Buzz with Krist and Dave from Nirvana would form a band called Melvana, who i think only played for one night and they only played Flipper covers. The Melvins did cover quite a few of their songs aswell and heres 2 of them:

1. Love Canal (Side A)
Love that noisy sound of the Flipper songs and the way Melvins can "recreate" that sound is totally awesome. This one is just bit slower and dronier. Dale Crover is proboably the heaviest drummer there is. What ever that means. Just really slow beat, but he hits them hard and with perfect timing. The chorus "Love canaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaal" is sung with an "echo voice" if you know what i mean. Some parts of the chous on Flipper's version had that too. Not as angry as the original, but pretty much as satisfying. Nothing like hearing a song as fucked up as your mind is when you feel like everything is just fake bullshit.

2. Someday (Side B)
I actually heard this version by the Melvins before i heard the original one. The chorus is sung a bit differently than how Flipper singer Bruce Loose sings it. Also the last verse has different lyrics than in the original one. The song fits with the Melvins really well. Have to say comparing this to the original one, the vocals are more angryer than here and even though Buzz does great job, he just has that little something missing here, but it's just that it's not his song.