The Batlord

Wait, are you saying that you could get into God Hates Us All? To be honest, I think the songwriting was actually better than Divine Intervention but the style of the music was just so, so dull. Boring riffs, boring vocals, and just an overall feel of mall/aggrocore mediocrity that just screamed "Slipknot fans welcome!"

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The Batlord

The Punk that LA Forgot: Part III

When one thinks of LA punk one thinks of Black Flag or the Adolescents or Fear, but there was a punk scene before them. Where the hardcore bands were angry kids from the suburbs, the first wave, like the Dils, The Weirdos, and X, were the art school weirdos commonly associated with early punk. From what little I understand this scene collapsed, as punk scenes tend to do, after a year or two due to lack of interest paving the way for the new hardcore scene. Well, I occasionally have a bout of obscurist pretentiousness, and I feel like looking at a bunch of bands that seem to have been forgotten. And X.

The Weirdos: Destroy All Music

The easy thing to do would be to start with X, but when I'm doing something called "The Punk that LA Forgot" it would seem rather odd to start with one of the most well known punk bands on Earth, so instead I'm starting with The Weirdos. I seem to remember hearing that the Weirdos were a bunch of arty farty types with an arty farty band. I don't know why I have such an interest in finding arty punk. I mean, it's not like I have arty taste in music in general, and yet, here we are.




Arty? It must have been in the live show or something. Sounds like straight up punk to me. The biggest influence I'm hearing here is The Damned. I remember reading that the Damned went to LA and ended up not having enough money to get back to England, the end result being that they wound up crashing with a member of The Weirdos. So it's not surprising that The Weirdos and others of these LA punk bands would sound like the Damned.

This isn't hitting me particularly hard in the waist/crotch/upper thigh region, but there's nothing wrong with this other than being just good-but-not-great.

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Screen13

I remember playing the crap out of the We've Got the Neutron Bomb cassette in my Teen Punk years (and beyond). It was the second "Weird World" collection, and those liking the early stuff should also get into the Dangerhouse era. Great stuff!

Unknown Soldier

I don't rate Divine Intervention as a great album anyway but God Hates Us All is one of my favourite Slayer albums.

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

The Batlord

The Punk that LA Forgot: Part II

The Avengers: We Are the One

Now we come to The Avengers. A band from San Francisco. But I keep hearing them in connection with LA, so fuck it.




If EPs and singles aren't the most perfect format for a punk band then I'll eat my socks. Which wouldn't necessarily be so bad since they're about half gone with holes anyway. Regardless it's much harder for an album to become samey when there are only three songs on it like this album. This shit is just about perfect. "We Are the One" and "Car Crash" are two of the greatest straight up punk songs I've ever heard and are so full of energy that my neighbor's fuse box just exploded. "I Believe In Me" only a touch less. So, three brilliant songs right off the bat. Sweet. This is no frills punk that has the same Damned influence that The Weirdos do. Except that these guys/and gal rule. Now I feel like skateboarding through the halls of Congress with a kazoo.

P.S. And how could I not mention how Penelope Houston is a fantastic vocalist. Anybody who says that female singers aren't as good as men can eat my socks, since I'm not feeling hungry.

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The Batlord

But...how? It's terrible. The riffs, forgettable. The songs, all the same mid-paced dullness all the way through. The vocals, Tom just can't do it anymore like he could. I haven't been able to listen to it the whole way through for years.

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The Batlord

The Punk that LA Forgot: Part III

The Avengers: The Avengers EP

Their last release as a functioning unit.




Sounds like more of the same. High quality, high energy punk rock. If I had to, I'd say that the debut edges this one out, but only just. Hmm. Hum dee dum dee dum. Well, I don't really know what to say after that. I mean, the songwriting seems to have progressed somewhat, or at least they weren't going strictly at full speed the entire time. I don't know anything about song craft, so I couldn't really say. Other than that...yeah, I'm done.

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The Batlord

The Punk that LA Forgot: Part IV

The Dils: I Hate the Rich b/w You're Not Blank/198 Seconds of The Dils

According to my research (I'm pretty sure I just made an obscure cartoon reference) The Dils seemed to have been an odd man out in LA punk. A lot of those bands seem to have not taken the whole thing particularly seriously, whereas The Dils were sort of like The Clash in their philosophy: boo capitalism, enact change both musically and politically, and fun is a no no. And you know how much I love political punk.

P.S. I'm doing their first two singles back to back because it seems silly to do only four songs separately.



Is it just me or is "I Hate the Rich" an even more speed up version of "Blitzkrieg Bop". Meh. Still pretty sweet. This seems to be another one of those bands that is perfectly serviceable, but with the bajillion punk bands that have existed in the last few decades they're nothing particularly special. The same three chords, the same one to two minute songs. Not bad certainly, but I probably won't be going back to them any time soon.

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The Batlord

The Punk that LA Forgot: Part V

The Zeros: Don't Push Me Around

Still on this bitch. This time The Zeros. I see them described as the Mexican Ramones. Sounds good. I can't seem to figure out if this is their debut album that wasn't released until years later or just a compilation of old material. Whatevs. I'm done beating my head against the internet.


Moderator cut: image removed


Yeah, definitely like The Ramones. They seem to be taking an interesting (I'm using that term loosely) approach though. Whereas your average Ramones ripoffs take that band and speeds it up even further, these dudes seem to have put the brakes on a bit and end up sounding pretty heavy. It doesn't hurt that this release has definitely been remixed. No way they had the money for this good of a production. Notions of production purity aside, this is some borderline fantastic stuff.

Yeah, I've listened to the whole thing a couple of times now and it definitely rules to the max. If these guys weren't so close to The Ramones then I imagine that they would be much more known. Still, much love.

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The Batlord

The Punk that LA Forgot: Part VI

Crime: Hot Wire My Heart b/w Baby You're So Repulsive/Frustration b/w Murder By Guitar

Alright, so another San Fransisco band, and these guys are apparently more of a proto-punk band that predated the LA and SF scenes by a year or so, but I hear good things so screw it.




Alright, that's some bass heavy guitar. I am already happy. I can definitely hear a more glam rock vibe to the guitar playing than most punk bands would be comfortable with, but it's offset by a feeling of sheer chaos that makes the band sound like they're about to go off the rails at any point. The terrible production that makes it feel like you're hearing the band in some shitty, piss smelling club really brings this home as well.

If I had to say who they sound like, it would be an even more chaotic version of the New York Dolls. The vocalist is definitely doing his best David Johansen impression too. Especially on "Baby You're So Repulsive". Sweet.

The second single is sounding even stronger than the first. That's actually some Dolls quality shit right there.

You know, I'm actually sort of reminded of Hellhammer too. Just as chaotic, and the drumming is about as driving and intense as early, early black metal. Weird.

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