Best Peacepunk Band

Best Peacepunk Band

  • Zounds

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Flux of Pink Indians

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • The Subhumans

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Alternative (from Scotland)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Anthrax (no, not the hair metal one)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Omega Tribe

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • D.I.R.T.

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Icons of Filth

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Antisect

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Crucifix (repping hard for the U.S.!)

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    7

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
yeah I know it all defaults to Crass - but - "best" doesn't have to equal "most influential". keep in mind too that the peacepunk scene was way more diverse than just teenagers yelling about the ALF & cruise missiles. The Mob & Zounds both came from that (decidedly woolier, 70s holdover) free festival scene, Hawkwind & all that, as well as punk. the Poison Girls had a middle-aged mum as their lead singer & her kids were in the band. Plus all the random weirdos like Hagar the Womb, Rubella Ballet, etc. & the entirely unique universe of Nick Blinko & Rudi P.

names I left out; Lost Cherrees, Kronstadt Uprising, Hagar the Womb, Rubella Ballet, Flowers In the Dustbin, Poison Girls, Chumbawumba (yeah, that's deliberate), Youth In Asia, Anti-System, Icon AD, Lack of Knowledge, Honeybane, Toxic Waste

Antischism could've been in but they came around a fair bit later.
 
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padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
Rudimentary Peni, Flux of Pink Indians, Amebix.

yeah I accidentally posted it before I finished w/the choices.

Amebix weren't really a peacepunk band (tho they did have a track, as the Band w/No Name, on one of the Bullshit Detector LPs). but I mean really were from that later scene - Disorder & Doom & all that, mid-late 80s. Antisect is right on the cusp to tbf but I guess in my mind they're like link btwn peacepunk & crust where Amebix are like the crust originators, also they started off w/that whole Killing Joke sound.
 

STN

sou'wester
Did RUdimentary Peni do any boring shit can't be arsed free jazz? If not, they're having my vote.
 

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
Did RUdimentary Peni do any boring shit can't be arsed free jazz? If not, they're having my vote.

nah. tho they did make a supremely bizarre LP based around Nick Blinko's delusion that he was Pope Adrian the 37th.
 

bassbeyondreason

Chtonic Fatigue Syndrome
yeah I accidentally posted it before I finished w/the choices.

Amebix weren't really a peacepunk band (tho they did have a track, as the Band w/No Name, on one of the Bullshit Detector LPs). but I mean really were from that later scene - Disorder & Doom & all that, mid-late 80s. Antisect is right on the cusp to tbf but I guess in my mind they're like link btwn peacepunk & crust where Amebix are like the crust originators, also they started off w/that whole Killing Joke sound.

Yeah, I consider the early, KJ-influenced singles part of that scene though. Same goes for the Napalm Death demos too, I guess.
 

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
Yeah, I consider the early, KJ-influenced singles part of that scene though. Same goes for the Napalm Death demos too, I guess.

you could say, but I mean they were never singing about the same stuff. "Battery Humans" & "Largactyl" don't have much to do w/peace & equality & so on. it's much, much darker (again, Antisect's the big link), the artwork is different - from doves & circle As to all this like stark gothic stuff. plus everything after the the KJ-stuff sounds way more like Motorhead than Crass - I mean, they have biker songs & stuff!

OTOH, of course, consider them whatever the hell you feel like.
 

martin

----
Well, if we're talking anarcho, definitely Conflict...they weren't really 'peace' punk though. Hilarious nobody's voted for Crass, fucks that other guy's theory...

The Subhumans are the most shit, wank band ever. Their singer makes me want to join the TSG. Ben Elton on glue.

I would go for DIRT - though, from subsequent stories that've erupted, half of them were slightly to the right of Skullhead.

I've liked the Apostles on and off for ages, though some times I can't stand them. Still, their fold-out covers were genuinely interesting (at times) and at least they didn't behave like social workers. And 'Mob Violence', 'The Creature', 'This Is My Country' and 'Alien Asian' rock. 'Kings X' is pretty eerie and melancholic, the instrumental 'Stumped' (or is it 'Pakistan by 10 Wickets?' can't remember right now) makes me inexplicably happy and sounds great on a sunny day. And 'Swimming in the Sea of Life' is a good break-up / death of a close mate song.

I loved 'Carnage' by Amebix, but everything else sounded like heavy metal crap - but hey, that's just a personal opinion!

I had a mate who went to North London Poly and his tutor was the singer from Zounds, apparently he looked like Mel Smith. He was asking all his students if they'd heard of Lush, cos they'd contacted him around '95, asking if they could cover a Zounds tune.

So my vote's for London Branch.

Why isn't Zhao contributing to this thread?
 
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john eden

male pale and stale
I think the best thing about Crass was G Vaucher's artwork personally. And I guess their influence (which is a mixed blessing with all that moralism). Some of the music is great but a lot of it isn't.

Flux I have a lot of time for - Tube Disaster is genius and als some stuff on the first album (they lie we die etc) and I have fond memories of the Uncarved Block LP with Adrian Sherwood.

The Apostles have some amazing songs but were let down by the production often. I hope the compilations which are coming out will help some reappraisal there.

I think Martin is right and it is Conflict really - they seem to capture what you want out of listening to this stuff - a band which actually makes you want go and smash the system just by listening to them. Though that reggae track on The Ungovernable Force LP is one of the worst things ever.

Zounds , The Mob, DIRT and the rest just don't cut it for me. I prefer the slightly skewed stuff like Hit Parade and The Cravats...
 

STN

sou'wester
cravats aren't really peacepunk though are they? Just postpunk (God I'm even boring myself here!)

It's easy to take the piss out of Crass (hippies! art students! lots of quite crap music!) but I still rate them.
 

john eden

male pale and stale
cravats aren't really peacepunk though are they? Just postpunk (God I'm even boring myself here!)

It's easy to take the piss out of Crass (hippies! art students! lots of quite crap music!) but I still rate them.

The Cravats released a tune on Crass Records which is great - what I meant was I'd take wider associated stuff like them, than all the 2nd rate stuff like DIRT.

I had the misfortune of seeing DIRT supporting Conflict in some abandoned NALGO office up York Way in Kings Cross circa 1994.

I should probably give Crass another go - they meant a lot to me in my late teens. Have you read the book about them STN? I can lend it to you if you like...
 

martin

----
Re G Vaucher - yeah, I liked Crass as a whole package - the covers, labels, as well as the music. They contributed really heavily to the overall feel. I occasionally listen to them...but they're one of these bands that only ever evokes nostalgia for being a kid (personally) - it's not like there's anything new to learn or take from the lyrics... it was interesting going to libraries to look up things like My Lai and Southall for the first time, though. And I have to say the first 4 minutes of Stations, played loud, are still one of my favourite starts to any record. The grimy artwork reminds me of how squalid some LU stations really used to be.

I can't explain why I like DIRT - I've only heard the first 7" and that live 12" they put out on Crass - where the band are trying to talk about politics and philosophy between tracks, and sound as if they've got a collective mental age of eight. I know they were copycats, but there was something about that brittle / treble buzzsaw guitar that I really like. I also like Potential Threat, because anybody who seriously records songs called "Westminster Fascism" and "What's So Great Britain" get my vote. Plus their pro-ALF stuff's absolutely fanatical. But you probably won't wanna bother if you like melody, witty turns of phrase and reasoned, rational debate. If you thought this forum was bad for calling people 'NAZI'...

Good call Andy on Poison Girls - well, 'Hex' at any rate. Wasn't Honey Bane the singer's daughter? "Girl on the Run"'s a great EP.

Lack of Knowledge were pretty cool, even if it sounds like they'd never heard any records except 'Unknown Pleasures'.

Has anyone heard Exit-Stance? Moody gothic ALF snarling from Milton Keynes? If you'd ever been to MK, even for a day, in the early 90s, you'd understand why.
 
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john eden

male pale and stale
Which tune was on Crass records?


cravats
 

john eden

male pale and stale
I used to think Gee Vaucher was a man.

There was a showing of all the artwork in the mid 90s and I went along and they were playing the "yes sir I will video" and I was talking to this woman about how I loved all the sleeve artwork.

The video ended and I was all "oh thank fuck for that it was giving me a headache" and she looked a bit quizzical and I said "yeah the album always did that too" and she wandered off.

Later on I was told that I'd been speaking to Gee.... :eek:
 

martin

----
I used to think Gee Vaucher was a man.

There was a showing of all the artwork in the mid 90s and I went along and they were playing the "yes sir I will video" and I was talking to this woman about how I loved all the sleeve artwork.

The video ended and I was all "oh thank fuck for that it was giving me a headache" and she looked a bit quizzical and I said "yeah the album always did that too" and she wandered off.

Later on I was told that I'd been speaking to Gee.... :eek:

Can't take you anywhere - not even back to apologise.

I used to think Penny Rimbaud was a woman.
 
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