FUNERAL ORATION - Demo 7/31/1982

A little chitter chatter about Funeral Oration tonight got me sharing this with some friends.  I don't recall how I came into possession of these tracks, but they are supposedly a demo from 1982.  That pre-dates all Funeral Oration recordings I know of, including their "There's Nothing Left To Laugh About" cassette which came in 1983(?).  These tracks are raw as hell, like a demo should be and surely are my personal favorite stuff from Funeral Oration.  Aside from sounding like a demo, all of the 8 songs therein appear on Nothing Left To Laugh so it looks pretty plausible that this is a demo from around '82.
For the uninitiated, if you love raw punk and also have a soft spot for melody these boys from Holland will take your cake and smash it too.  Not credited enough in my opinion.  Innovative for sure.  Like a blitzkrieg that doesn't change full speed ahead pace for ANY obstacle, the songs are bare bones, fast chord progressions on a 1/1 beat relentlessly... which is fine and dandy in itself.  The shocker comes with vocals.  If there is any melody in a Funeral Oration song it will be solely in the vocals, and it is flaunted.  Don't fret, he can't "sing" for shit.  It's still raw and gross and punk! yet lovely in a way.  The screams completely cover of a narrow pitch range and break into amazing syncopation, flying in a place above the music, almost a song all their own.  "Unique" is the optimal adjective.  As I said earlier tonight "Ugh it's so good!".

FUNERAL ORATION - Demo 7/31/1982

SLIME - Slime I LP

The Red Army Faction (RAF) activity reached it's apex of terrorism in 1977 with the 'German Autumn'.  The RAF was making the second attempt in a decade to upturn the Federal Republic of Germany AKA West Germany.  Not entirely unlike the student movement in 1968 the RAF believed West Germany was a fledgling fascist state.  Unlike the student movement hippie protest of '68 they had an affection for bombs.  Chosing in 1977 a few assassinations while their cohorts, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine hijacked a commercial airliner to leverage for the release of 
incarcerated members.  The outcome wasn't what they had hoped.  During all this insanity punk rock was exploding all over the globe, Germany included.  It isn't much a surprise that when Slime released their first LP "Slime I" in 1981 it was somewhat banned.  With a country trying to forget it's fascist past and an extreme left running about killing people and the commies a few feet away you had some options.  The wane of RAF and wax of punk probably had the state scrambling to what head they need to pull out of which ass.  An association between RAF and punks may have been perceived as little more ambiguous than it truly was.  Punks didn't want any political form, they wanted Anarchy.  Shit on fascism, shit on RAF and it's sympathizers. Embrace a little chaos for a change.  That wasn't going to be clear until punks got their act together and stopped adorning themselves with swastikas or RAF patches just because.  No wonder the punks drew heat so quickly.  Slime's star album cover might be a nod to the  RAF, right?  
Slime drew even more attention as the most popular punk band in West Germany.  How big Slime was I can't say.  I imagine what Slime was to West Germany is not far from what Anti-Flag is to the current United States.  I haven't found their name along side Hans A Plast, Kriminalitatsforderungsclub, Stuka Pilots, Male, Mittagpause, The Buttocks, West Germany's first punk band Charley's Girls, any of the numerous industrial and experimental groups that shared gigs with punk bands or any other contemporary underground bands of the late 70's and early 80's.  I use that as my gauge, not seeing them on smaller bills.  Regardless, Slime was high profile for underground rock and roll.  This would prove to be more and more problematic as time passed from their inception in Hamburg in '79.  Against war, militarism, politicians, police, Slime had some great anthemic songs and a message they broadcast loudly and clearly.  They were heard too.  Their harsh defamation of the police would be the step across boundries.  The record was banned and copies were confiscated.  A censored version bleeping out lyrics was made available.  Slime were also not to perform three songs from the album live lest criminal charges would be served.  Slime was now under a watchful eye.  At a Dead Kennedy's and Millions of Dead Cops show in Hamburg when Slime opened in 1983 there were 100 officers present at the show.  The police were there in hopes to arrest Slime when they played any one of the banned songs.  They never played any of those songs and I've heard a quarter of the officers present that night found the ordeal of being at a punk show so unnerving they quit the force.  As Slime continued to catch more of the limelight the fans began to fling accusations of them selling out.  By 1984 Slime felt that screaming a call for an absence of leaders in songs can not be done when the bands popularity is in and of itself making the group an institution.  Some years down the road Slime would reunite.  The punk scene was being increasingly pressed by police and Slime decided to pick up the torch again aiming to add strength to the scene.  This reformation happened in 1990 and I do wonder if there is a direct correlation of the instability in the Eastern Bloc bringing down the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the impending failure of the Iron Curtain to the increased stern policy of the police.

Slime operates through patchwork of sounds on "Slime I".  Flirting with Reggae, some smoother riffs with a little melody that have a great KBD feel.  A few full bore three chords strung together and a couple of good punk anthems.  The three songs that were banned from this album are Deutschland, Bullenschweine and A.C.A.B..  The A.C.A.B. (All Cops Are Bastards) sentiment is prevalent in punk overall.  Over the past few years it appears like it is a trend.  It constantly pops up in my face.  All Cops Are Bastards origins go back long before punk as does the acronym A.C.A.B..  It became popularized in punk by 4 Skins with the song A.C.A.B. on their album "The Good, The Bad And The 4 Skins" released in 1982.  Slime predates that by a year and I wonder if Slime is the first instance of A.C.A.B. in punk.  If you know otherwise, please share.  One last thing, this rip isn't from a censored record.


SLIME <3 Polizei
ELF 30 years later


I feel there is a lot more that could be said, and said more accurately about Slime and West German punk in it's infancy.  Actually I know there is.  Please do some ball busting.  I am lazy and give up here.

UPSTAB - Stabbing The Church e.p.

"That record blows" is the official review of Stabbing The Church from Upstab vocalist/provocateur Chris Erba.  I am willing to bet 95% of everything in the world "blows" to Upstab.  The only hope for the band is landing on a quasi nihilistic philosophy.  They care just enough to antagonize, break shit and be a general thorn in the side of whoever they can.  In Cleveland punk this is keeping up with the Joneses.  If you aren't familiar with the pedigree of jerks this band is a part of, their shenanigans would likely be shocking and send you off like an angry mother whose child just had the crap kicked out of them by the older kid down the street.  Or it would send you home crying and fearful like the kid that got the crap kicked out of him.  Knives, bottles and cleavers turned on the crowd isn't unheard of.  What showmanship!  What is this pedigree of loving souls?  The same old incestuous retard punks in Cleveland.  The men behind the curtain of Windpipe, h100s, No Peace, Ruiners, Gordon Solie Motherfuckers, Wetbrain, I think Puncture Wound and 9 Shocks are in the mix too. Everybody has their chocolate in somebodies peanut butter.
    Stabbing The Church is Upstab's first release and it's a bootleg.  Rumors abound about it's origin.  One part of the story that holds true is these songs were taken from Upstab's demo they had been sending out to clubs.  Some say Upstab bootlegged their own record.  Great way to get people blabbing about your band.  The second story I have heard is that somebody came to an Upstab show and set a box full of Stabbing The Church e.p.s on the stage, proclaimed they 'know nothing about this' then walked off.  A third story is a box of 100 copies were mailed to drummer, Marcus, work.  How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Tootsie Pop?

 

Kick Your Tits Off!

First generation dub from a cassette.  For being listened to a million times and being 20 years old, this cleaned up really well.  These are .wav files to boot. 
The only other mention of this tape's existence I can find is this cdr that I assume is the same recordings but with two more songs.

GET THEIR 1991 DEMO RIGHT HERE

All at once several of my files were reported for violating copyrights.  My account has not been frozen yet so a lot of what's up here is still available.  Either this is just some mistake or somebody is purposely fucking with this blog.  If any links you want are dead they may be dead or banned.  If it's dead I will refresh it upon request.  Sorry.