Coming up on the show we will do a new feature called anarchist corner which will take a look at MDC. There will be a vintage segment feature on Scarborough so paying love to the burb in the east. But the overall theme of tonight’s show is new releases from everybody. So everyone has new material…… And a demo feature by ABOMINATRIX. Download the show here.
AGRAVIO - Amigos del Estado (SPHC)New Releases (Chris)
SIBAFÜ - キ (Black Hole/ A-Z)
PHANE - Vacant (Self-released)
ASILE - Brume De Guerre (PILS)
SKITKRIMES - Human Off Switch (Razored Raw)
KOMPLEX VINY - Optickej klam (Phobia)
Anarchism has been a feature in punk rock from the Sex Pistols singing about “Anarchy in the UK” to it being taken more seriously with that wave of bands in the early 80’s that Ian Glasper writes about in his book “The Day the Country Died” with bands often referred to as peace punk bands. We have been talking about doing a feature on the show that would look at various anarchist bands in a feature like segment and I was telling this to Chris LaBonte who plays in the Hard Toms. His band Son of Happy got to play with MDC at the anarchist unconventional in 1986 here in Toronto and thought MDC was a natural for this segment. So having thought about it for a week I think he is right and so i thought I would start this feature off by looking at MDC.
MDC was a punk band from Austin originally known as the STAINS. The band released an early version of John Wayne was a Nazi on their own label R Radical Records in 1980 and then moved to San Francisco forever being known as a band from San Francisco. Here’s that early recording of their classic song.
STAINS - John Wayne was a Nazi (R Radical)
MDC - Dead Cops - America's so Straight (R Radical)
So MDC move to California and their is a band from L.A. known as the STAINS so they had to change their name. The band played a show with BLACK FLAG in Orange County and witnessing the violent attacks by the police at the show they decided to called themselves Millions of Dead Cops. So we heard that coming out of this first set.
The name MDC was a three letter acronym that took on a new name with every release. The band prompted other bands to do the same even causing a local band to make fun of it by calling themselves MSI which stood for More Stupid Initials.
MDC stood for many progressive radical issues at the time. “America’s So Straight” becomes one of the first songs to challenge hetero normative culture. The Millions of Dead Cops album is an incredible album for so many reasons. I remember listening to that album and my views on punk rock opened up like no other record. Lyrically they took on many issues like American foreign policy, the prison industrial complex, fast food chains, the separation of church and state, dysfunctional families. Some of these concepts had been introduced through anarchist bands in the UK but they were a little more drawn out in theoretical methods. A bit more black and white. A bit too simple. MDC presented concepts of progressive ideas in everyday ways. Here are a couple of more tracks from that album…..because it is too great not to leave out a two song medley in the first set. We’re going to start off with the song that has a chant that is used today at defund the police rallies showing the longevity of their ideas and the speaking truth to power that makes it thoughts before their time.
MDC - Born to Die (R Radical)
MDC - I Hate Work (R Radical)
MDC - I Remember (R Radical)
The lightning stop and start parts of their songs really changed the way how hardcore was written. And crossover would soon make in roads with DRI essentially writing the next iteration of stop and start hardcore. Bands like Stark Raving Mad would up the ante.
I think MDC were starting to make their next releases even more substantial. Borrowing on the anarchist style of CRASS records releases their next two releases become single issue focused releases with poster sleeve self covers that fold out into nine panels of information. Picking up on the “Corporate Deathburger” theme the first is those singles is called “Multi Death Corporations” which ties in ideas of the military industrial complex and anti nuke movement seamlessly. So we’re gonna start off with that.
MDC - Multi Death Corporation (R Radical)
MDC - Chicken Squawk (R Radical)
We finished up “Chicken Squawk” which is the best known song from the “Millions of Dead Children” ep. That single and the arguments laid out for vegetarianism is the reason why I am a vegetarian today. My brother photocopied the content of those sleeves and made anti-McDonald’s flyers.
The band started playing “Rock Against Reagan” shows with Big Boys and Bad Brains. HR finds out that Randy Turner from the Bog Boys is gay and this leads to a heated argument between HR and Dave Dictor which results in the song “Pay to Come Along” which gets released on “Rat Music for Rat People volume 2” so we are going to hear that…
MDC - Pay to Come Along (CD Presents)
MDC - Missile Destroyed Civilization (R Radical)
“Missile Destroyed Civilizations” ends the PEACE comp which becomes the bar from which no other comps have been able to meet. An international comp with bringing attention to a single cause like war. 55 bands on the comp from around the world on a double LP rivalling the second MRR comp “Welcome to 1984”. This comp came with a 72 page zine/book.
In more recent times Dave Dictor has continued his compilation work recently releasing a series of comps called “Punk for Ukraine” which was a 6 CD set and a Myanmar Resistance compilation. This is on a new label called Grimace Records.
MDC would go on to release a shit ton of records (9 albums / 3 singles / 10 splits). Lots of amazing releases on all of them. The band stopped and restarted. But this is the stuff that I found most influential from MDC. Had a huge impact on my life. Had a huge impact on the scene. They would run a show space called the Farm, which would become a blueprint for punk run event places that people lived in like squats. Had a huge impact on activism. So that’s my take on MDC.
NewStuff (Rob)
1876 - DGAF
ETERAZ - Blood Drunkard (Iron Lung)
HEADCHEESE - Loss Prevention (Neon Taste)
GENERACION SUICIDA - Fuego (Drunken Sailor)
A.I.D.S - Blood on Blood (La Vida Es Un Mus)
New and Old (André)
FACE DOWN - Cursed In Sickness (Tribunal)
BERTHOLD CITY - Out Of Darkness (War Records)
CINDERBLOCK - Breathe The Fire (War Records)
SCOWL - Idle Roaring Room (Flatspot)
LAW OF POWER - $80 Devil (Flatspot)
Scarborough punk
Scarborough is one of the original six boroughs that make up Toronto. It is the borough to the east. It is the place that gets made fun of the most out of all the boroughs of Toronto. When I was a kid we would see rows and rows of strip malls. But in hindsight I would say that this wasn’t unique to Scarborough. When I was growing up the subway was being extended through Scarborough Town Centre to Kennedy station which was great dystopian futuristic underground to play in. Scarborough was home to many immigrant communities which may have been a reason why Scarborough became the butt of many jokes. I grew up in North York very close to the Scarborough border. Scarborough goes from the lake to Steeles so it is a borough that spans the entire height of the city. The Beaches communities are older more established communities. As you move north you get more high rises and lower income places. The northern areas were victim to post WWII planning. You either need a car to get around or you are victim to hours on public transit so there is a feeling of being under serviced or being on your own. But in some ways that environment helped create some of the best bands in our scene. Being out there on your own. Living in a place that people shat on. Being from Scarbrough embues residents with the underdog fighting spirit. Here are some bands from Scarbrough and surrounding area to make this point.
THE MODS - Step Out Tonight (Bomb)
A.P.B. - Constant Threat (NRK)
SWINDLED - Hymn #84 (Swindled)
CHRONIC SUBMISSION - Kill The Press-Pantyhose-Plastic Punk-Street Car Windows-Baby Killer (NRK)
BLIBBER AND THE RAT CRUSHERS - Nazi Punks Go Bowling (Self-Released)
Current melodic punk (Chris)
SWEET REAPER - Fun Dip (Self-Released / Alien Snatch)
CLUTTERED - Dysphoria City Limits (Self-Released)
1-800 MIKEY - Plushy (ETT / Under the Gun)
NANCY - Captain Lou (Neck Chop / ETT)
PISS KINKS - Why Don’t They Catcall Me (Dirtbag Distro)
CONDITION - Signed in Blood (Iron Lung)
ACID BLOOD - To The Grave (Jan ML / Maja Von Lobeck)
INTERROBANG - The Inclement Weather (On the Fiddle)
DISOLVENTE - Mi Desesperacion (Self-Released)
BUTCHER BABY - Beer, Weed And Three Lines Of Speed (Self-Released)
OTOBOKE BEAVER - George and Janice (Damnably)
RASHOMON - Nin-Gen (Iron Lung)
LEXICON - Bleak Future (Iron Lung)
WOUND MAN - Infection (Iron Lung)
ABOMINATRIX are three submissive slaves from the dank, dark corners of rock n roll. ABOMINATRIX are playing at the Bovine on Saturday November 12th with Anxious Pleasers, Private Lives, and Shiv and the Carvers. You can find this recording on bandcamp.
ABOMINATRIX - She Walks All Over Me (Self-Released)
ABOMINATRIX - Cuckolder But Wiser (Self-Released)
ABOMINATRIX - S(he)&M(e) (Self-Released)
ABOMINATRIX - I Get What I Deserve (Self-Released)