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I’ve been immersing myself in the world of 80s North Carolina hardcore for the last few weeks, so it’s time to bust out a post I’ve been thinking about for a long time. As is my duty as a North Carolinian, I am a huge fan of Corrosion of Conformity. I’ll assume you are already familiar with CoC’s legendary first two albums, Eye for an Eye and Animosity… if you aren’t, then you should remedy that ASAP. Today, though, I’m going to write about the CoC tracks that didn’t appear on those albums. CoC, for all their ambition, seemed to have a chaotic way of working, and as a result their studio albums often didn’t contain the definitive versions of their songs. I always heard from old heads that the band was at the height of their powers around 1986, after they had recorded Animosity, but before they brought in Simon Bob Sinister as vocalist for Technocracy. It’s likely they played the definitive versions of many of these songs onstage at the Brewery in Raleigh or in Los Angeles or Oklahoma City or god knows where… CoC toured a lot during that period. Sadly, I wasn’t around to experience that, but I can give you a quick rundown of a couple of CoC’s “lost” studio sessions.
While I want to focus your attention on the non-album tracks recorded by the Animosity lineup of Mike Dean, Reed Mullin, and Woody Weatherman, any discussion of CoC’s non-album tracks would be remiss not to include their earliest recordings, which went to the North Carolina compilations No Core (cassette-only, 1982) and Why Are We Here? (7”, 1983). These recordings capture the band before they landed on their trademark sound and are straightforward hardcore punk with little of the metal influence you hear on Eye for an Eye and Animosity. They’re killer for what they are and every fan of CoC’s hardcore era should be familiar with these tracks. However, only someone who loves 80s US hardcore to the exclusion of all other styles of music would insist these tracks are CoC’s best work.
The next tracks I want to point your attention toward also appeared on compilations, a running theme in this piece. In 1988, a year after Technocracy came out, Caroline released a 12” EP called Six Songs with Mike Singing: 1985. Six Songs compiled CoC’s contributions to 1985’s Thrasher magazine compilation LP, Skate Rock Volume 3: Wild Riders of Boards and the Fartblossom Records compilation Empty Skulls Vol 2: The Wound Deepens, released in 1986. While the information on the back cover of Six Songs with Mike Singing is minimal, it appears CoC recorded all six tracks at the same session, which found the Animosity lineup running through a short set of songs from much earlier in the band’s run. For me, the version of “Eye for an Eye” here tops the album version, the chorus more anthemic despite Mike’s wild vocal style, and “Center of the World” and “Citizen” are far more precise than the embryonic versions that appeared on the No Core tape. “What(?)” and “Negative Outlook” from Eye for an Eye also get the Animosity lineup treatment (one right after the other, just like how they appeared on the original album), but the real surprise is “Not for Me.” “Not for Me” isn’t a CoC song… it was originally performed by the Raleigh hardcore band No Labels, which Reed and Woody played in before the band broke up in 1983. There’s no sign on Six Songs that “Not for Me” isn’t a CoC song, even though No Labels guitarist Ricky Hicks says he wrote both the music and lyrics. Proper accreditation aside, the song is scorching, and fits well with the other stripped-down hardcore songs CoC recorded at this session.
In 1987, CoC released the Technocracy EP, their first and last recording with former Ugly Americans singer Simon Bob Sinister on vocals. After the highs of Eye for an Eye and Animosity, I think the band disappointed some fans with Technocracy, which found Simon Bob struggling to find his way into CoC’s manic and intricate new songs. If people who bought Technocracy when it came out suspected that Simon Bob wasn’t a great fit for these songs, that was confirmed in 1992, when Relativity released an expanded CD version of Technocracy with additional tracks from a studio session in which the Animosity lineup ran through all three of the new songs on Technocracy. (The actual Technocracy EP featured a new version of “Hungry Child” from Animosity, whereas they re-recorded “Intervention” during the session with Mike on vocals.)
For my money, these Technocracy bonus tracks are CoC’s single best studio recording. The band sounds so ridiculously locked in here, abandoning the rigid timing of conventional hardcore in favor of an elastic sound where beats get stretched way out or condensed a la later Black Flag or Bl’ast, the band lunging forward and rearing back like a heaving, unified organism. The songs take on a proggy complexity, frequently shifting tempo and rhythm, but you hardly notice how intricate they are because the band plays them with such grace and power. The instrumental performances on Technocracy are similar, but don’t have the same spark. But while the instrumental performances are comparable, the vocal performances on this earlier session are a stark contrast. It’s clear Mike Dean was meant to sing these songs.
I’m no Simon Bob hater, though. While he seems to have struggled on Technocracy, a “lost” studio session from 1988 shows how the band adapted to his more conventional and melodic style. Mike Dean left CoC in 1987, replaced by Phil Swisher on bass, and this lineup of Reed Mullin / Woody Weatherman / Phil Swisher / Simon Bob recorded at least four songs, only one of which came out officially. “Bound” appeared on the compilation Rat Music for Rat People Vol III, but three others—“Fingers with Teeth,” “The Line of Fire,” and “Teacher”—seem to be available only via unofficial versions on the tape trading circuit. While these tracks still find CoC with a locked-in playing style full of ornate but perfectly executed rhythmic shifts, they’re less metal than the music they had been writing for the past several years. Simon Bob had also found his voice as CoC’s singer, imbuing these songs (particularly “Teacher” and “The Line of Fire”) with big, anthemic choruses. These songs remind me of 80s skate rock, pop songs played with the drive and intensity to fuel an intense skateboarding session. From what I’ve read, CoC had an entire set of similar material, but the four tracks I mentioned above are the only ones I’ve heard recordings of.
After Simon Bob quit the band in 1988, CoC brought in vocalist Karl Agell and rhythm guitarist Pepper Keenan, and this lineup released Blind in 1991. While early demos from the Blind period have moments that remind people of the band’s earlier eras, CoC had more or less completely switched gears. Mike Dean had been the principal songwriter during his time in the band, and the new lineup’s southern rock-influenced metal had little to do with the earlier iterations of the band. I know some people follow CoC into the Blind era and beyond, but I just can’t do it. It sounds like redneck music to me.
If you want to hear the non-album tracks I wrote about here, you have a few options. Six Songs with Mike Singing appears as bonus tracks on CD and digital versions of Eye for an Eye, and the CD and digital versions of Technocracy also feature the sessions with Mike Dean on vocals. If you want these tracks on vinyl, Caroline’s original 1988 12” EP of Six Songs with Mike Singing is your only option for those tracks. While that record has never been repressed, a patient person should be able to find a copy without spending too much money. As for the Technocracy songs with Mike singing, they are on Metal Blade’s latest white vinyl pressing of Technocracy, which is distinguishable from the original version by the cover’s updated color scheme. The original version of Technocracy featured the same music on both sides (why don’t more one-sided records do that?), so the reissue replaces the redundant side with the Mike Dean versions. As for the 1988 demo tracks, those remain unreleased, but you can look them up on YouTube if you want to check them out.