Philly punk band from the late 80’s that recorded two demos. Demo 1 has Nancy Danon singing and demo 2 hasRick Dobrowolski (Stalin’s Daughter, booked lots of shows at Firenze, Upstairs at Nick’s and as co-owner of Tritone.) singing. Other than that, the members are the same: Guitar – Rich Birtwell (Crib Death, Blunder Boys) Bass – Dave Birtwell (Crib Death, Blunder Boys, Love Gutter, Blue Train) Drums – Bob Labar, some backing vocals in “Late Great Me”
Blue Train was a late 80’s band in Philadelphia with Dave Birtwell (Crib Death, Blunder Boys, The New Byles, Love Gutter) , Paul Decolator (RIP) (Pleased Youth, New Jersey’s Finest, Loose), Rob Giglio (Mothra, Rockula, Stinkbomben, Beretta 76, now in Creem Circus), and Michael Noone. Thanks to Dave for sending me their 4 song demo tape (1987)and their show tape from their last show at Bachanal (I’ll try to figure out more song titles later).
This post was originally on Noise Addiction blog – I have re-posted it (with a few changes) – Check out more Noise Addiction posts at Noise Addiction 2
In the annals of Hardcore Punk history Philadelphia usually gets the short end of the stick but this was my scene and I can tell you it was one of the best in the country at that time. Being located between New York City and Washington DC made it easy for most touring bands to stop there and most of them did. It was a fun and friendly scene. Problem is most of the Philly bands never toured or released anything more than a 7″ though most of them did record an album. All these bands were fun to see live. Autistic Behavior recorded 10 songs in a studio. Six were supposed to be released on an ep, 2 were supposed to be on the never released comp LP being put together by Bad Brains but only two songs ended up being released on the Philly Hardcore comp. Get Off My Back. Crib Death were one of the Philly bands (along with F.O.D.) that opened the legendary Minor Threat show at Buff Hall in Camden NJ. Because there were other bands named Crib Death they changed their name to Blunder Boys – name taken from a Three Stooges film. They split when their singer started a family and their drummer became the bass player for F.O.D. Decontrol started in 1980 but didn’t release their first record until 1985 possibly due to a continuously revolving line up. In those 5 years they developed and created their own style which some liked and others hated. I loves it! Homo Picnic formed out of the ashes of Kremlin Korps and Sudden Impact. In the middle of 1985 their singer left and they kept the line up to a three piece and changed to a more Metal influenced sound. In 1986 they released an LP that had a few songs from the original line up but mostly new songs. Informed Sources were one of the earlier bands that started in 1981. In mid 1982 they changed singers. They recorded some demos with the original singer and a full album with the second singer but only two songs were ever released on the Get Off My Back comp. LP. info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philadelphia_hardcore Informed Sources info here: https://www.facebook.com/InformedSources2012/ Autistic Behavior: https://www.facebook.com/AutisticBehavior/?fref=ts Blunder Boys: https://myspace.com/blunderboys Decontrol: https://www.facebook.com/DecontrolUSA/?fref=ts Homo Picnic: https://www.facebook.com/Homo-Picnic-190149284363440/?fref=ts
Autistic Behavior – unreleased album – has been released by SRA Records – Get it here
Get Off My Back is a record that I always thought about buying when I was at Record Exchange or Third Street. But I always found something new to buy instead, until one day it wasn’t around anymore. Luckily it was up on the Last Days of Man on Earth blog (Tons of good stuff check it out) so I finally at least could download the songs. So here is the post from that blog.
Get Off My Back – Philly Hardcore Comp (82) So last Saturday they had their “Legends of Hardcore” show in Philly and it looked like a blast. The lineup was pretty killer and included a couple of my favorite old school Philly HC bands; McRad and YDI. If Ruin was on the bill it woulda been perfect. First thing you’re gonna notice is that YDI played an extra set with special guest vocalist Sab Grey. So yeah…it woulda been an excellent show and I am bummed that Philly was not close enough to drive to (ala Louisville). If I were still living up in Boston…Shit, I woulda been there! Unlike Boston (or DC or NYC), The Philly scene never got the props it deserved. It had a slew of great bands, a strong scene and was close enough to other big east coast cities to be connected. So why do we not refer to Philly with the same hushed reverence we refer to these other towns?
The answer is maybe that Philly did not have as much of an identifiable sound and look as these other towns. It also had no singular independent label to rally around like a Dischord or a Modern Method. It basically just had a slew of great bands, many of whom were featured on this great 1982 compilation. The quality of the vinyl is a little crackly but hey, whatcanyado? YDI – Enemy For Life, I Killed My Family: YDI were a cool band. They definitely had that mean, gnarly East Coast sound. I Killed My Family is a bit silly but Enemy for Life fuckin’ rips. FLAG OF DEMOCRACY – Murder Castle, Suburban Cowboy: No doubt the best FOD tunes I have ever heard. These tunes blaze! Murder Castle has got a great breakdown. Way better than the FOD track on the flipside comp thats for sure! BLUNDER BOYS – Conspiracy, I’m Afraid of the Night, Middle Class Morals: Average at best hardcore with a rather annoying singer. Originally went by the name “Crib Death”. One of the lesser bands on this comp. LITTLE GENTLEMEN – No Justice – No Law, No Crime – No Flaw: Another mediocre tune. The Little Gentleman were pretty prolific and went on to release a seven inch and two full length LPs. Another one that doesn’t do that much for me. AUTISTIC BEHAVIOR – TV Messiah, Power Head: Brilliant manic hardcore with a slight Cali edge to it. Power Head reminds me a bit of a real intense Saccharine Trust track. Good shit! Did these guys ever do anything else? RUIN – Proof, Love Dog: Quality-wise Ruin were head and shoulders above most other bands. I wrote them up earlier so I wont go to into it. These are some of the earliest recorded Ruin tracks and they had yet to develop their fully realized style. Even in their embryonic form, Ruin were a great band though and these two tracks kick off side two with a great jolt of dharma-tinged HC. INFORMED SOURCES –Right & Wrong, Dense Pack: OK stuff. Kinda west-coastish. The vocals are a little flat but the playing is very tight. SEEDS OF TERROR – Brain Down, Straightedge: When it first kicked in I thought it sounded like The Urinals! Basically, it has the same production value as the first Urinals 7 inch. Quality-wise the tracks are nowhere near the quality of The Urinals. OK stuff….. McRAD – Inflation Dub, Ejected: Super early McRad tracks preceeding the Dominant Force EP. Inflation Dub is a great reggae-tinged hardcore track. Ejected is just a classic old school HC track. McRad is still going strong today! THE HEATHENS – Oohleigh at Great Adventure, My Twin From Hell: Amazing shit. Tight as hell spazz-core. Kinda like a trainwreck between Stark Raving Mad and Deep Wound and the Minutemen. Fuck! Who were these guys? All in all, this is a super-tight set of US Hardcore made at the height of the moment in 1982. Quality wise, I think it is as good as the Master Tape, Flex Your Head or This Is Boston Not LA. I wonder why it does not have the same reputation as those comps? Thanks to George for hooking me up with this comp too. I’m hoping that we have some Electric Love Muffin coming soon!
This post is the first of three Philly compilations posts I’m going to try to get up today.That Was Then This Is Now 7″This 7″ from Plus Records came out…
To the best of my knowledge all of the music links are for recordings that are out of print but if you enjoy what you hear, buy other records and support the artist(s) and/or labels: if you don't approve of having your material displayed and would like to have it down...
Email Me @
Websites store cookies to enhance functionality and personalise your experience. You can manage your preferences, but blocking some cookies may impact site performance and services.
Essential cookies enable basic functions and are necessary for the proper function of the website.
Name
Description
Duration
Cookie Preferences
This cookie is used to store the user's cookie consent preferences.
30 days
Statistics cookies collect information anonymously. This information helps us understand how visitors use our website.
Google Analytics is a powerful tool that tracks and analyzes website traffic for informed marketing decisions.
Contains information related to marketing campaigns of the user. These are shared with Google AdWords / Google Ads when the Google Ads and Google Analytics accounts are linked together.
90 days
__utma
ID used to identify users and sessions
2 years after last activity
__utmt
Used to monitor number of Google Analytics server requests
10 minutes
__utmb
Used to distinguish new sessions and visits. This cookie is set when the GA.js javascript library is loaded and there is no existing __utmb cookie. The cookie is updated every time data is sent to the Google Analytics server.
30 minutes after last activity
__utmc
Used only with old Urchin versions of Google Analytics and not with GA.js. Was used to distinguish between new sessions and visits at the end of a session.
End of session (browser)
__utmz
Contains information about the traffic source or campaign that directed user to the website. The cookie is set when the GA.js javascript is loaded and updated when data is sent to the Google Anaytics server
6 months after last activity
__utmv
Contains custom information set by the web developer via the _setCustomVar method in Google Analytics. This cookie is updated every time new data is sent to the Google Analytics server.
2 years after last activity
__utmx
Used to determine whether a user is included in an A / B or Multivariate test.
18 months
_ga
ID used to identify users
2 years
_gali
Used by Google Analytics to determine which links on a page are being clicked
30 seconds
_ga_
ID used to identify users
2 years
_gid
ID used to identify users for 24 hours after last activity
24 hours
_gat
Used to monitor number of Google Analytics server requests when using Google Tag Manager
