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What’s up Sorry Staters?
I’m kinda in a weird mood today. But I won’t use this vehicle to shout my thoughts into the void. Not much to report on the personal front this week. I’ll dive right in:
Honestly, sometimes I feel guilty when I do these write-ups for the newsletter and don’t take the time to write more about new releases by current bands. It’s not that I’m disinterested… or am I? I can’t tell anymore. For some reason my brain capacity feels dedicated to digging deeper into classic punk at the moment. Maybe it’s because hearing these records elicits a feeling of time capsule-esque nostalgia I’m craving that I won’t be able to obtain from current punk? No idea.
This week, I’m talking about yet another reissue from the batch of stuff we got from Radiation a couple weeks ago. I don’t know what it is about The Outcasts that has deterred me over the years. Maybe it’s because whenever I would see the black and white band photos on the cover of their records, there’s the one skinhead looking dude and I assumed that The Outcasts sounded like Last Resort or something. The band doesn’t even look like skinheads in every photo. And don’t get me wrong, I can tolerate some Oi!, but I’m extremely picky. First of all, learning that they were from Belfast in Northern Ireland was a surprise to me. I don’t know why. There’s no reason I should be expecting a proud display of the Union Jack anywhere near this band’s artwork. At some point in my early 20s, I heard “Self-Conscious Over You” for the first time and I was totally baffled by it. I was like, “WHAT? This is what The Outcasts sound like??”
While I liked that 7” single just fine, I didn’t dig much deeper into the band’s catalog for a while. Funny enough though, I was watching yet another episode of Analog Attack’s What Are You Listening To? podcast a couple weeks ago. I’ll be honest, currently I can’t remember which episode it was or who the guests were ha. But there was a discussion about the early Belfast punk and power pop scene. And specifically, someone was talking about Good Vibrations Records. Of course, I have familiarity with this label—The Undertones and Protex have always been big favorites of mine. Now, I wish I were smarter. I never think to run down the list of releases on a label’s catalog. Good Vibrations’ handful of 15 or so singles from 1978 to 1979 is just an amazing run of tunes. To some of you reading this, you’re probably like, “Duh, Jeff.” Haha. But here I am in my 30s hearing Xdreamysts for the first time being like “Fuuuuck this rules.”
Anyway, back to The Outcasts: I think I had a total misconception about this band. Not only is a song like “Self-Conscious Over You” poppy, but some of the choruses almost sort of have the feel of a 60s doo-wop hit. Funny enough I’d never heard the band’s single on IT with “Fuh-fuh-fuh-fuh-frustration”, along with the first several tracks on this Radiation comp. They kinda sound like a rougher, more rockin’ 999 to me. But then the band’s other Good Vibrations single “Justa Nother Teenage Rebel” is so great. The production and songwriting on this single feels immediately “sweeter” to me. Proclaimed the “bad boys of Ulster” on Radiation’s hype sticker, it’s kinda funny and interesting to think about this incredibly hooky and earnest teenage anthem being the backdrop for a genuinely rough and gnarly street scene. Aside from the “street anthems”, I think I was just surprised by the sort of shameless love song aesthetic of the band. Still with sort of a “tough guy” approach to love songs though, like “Love Is For Sops” and “Love You For Never”. For NEVER, ha. They have a sentiment in common with the Dead Boys in one of those songs. Come to think of it, I do need lunch pretty soon… But then digging into some of the songs I was less familiar with, one of the more aggressive tracks “Gangland Warfare” has this ending refrain that got me raging, pumping my fist and singing along: “Gang fights! Saturday Night! Whoa-oh!” It rules.
When you flip to the B-side of this singles collection, you get into the band’s singles from the early-to-mid 80s. This side of the record definitely feels like a distinct era from the band’s earlier material. More minor key, more anthemic UK82 style songs. I remember getting to the track “Mania” and I was like, “oh fuck, I know this song.” Wouldn’t haven’t even guessed it was the same band. I start to lose interest slightly, at least compared to the bangers from the early singles. But there are some cool tracks on side B for sure. “Angel Face” is a little rough for me… but hey, to each their own. When I looked up the cover art for “Angel Face”, with its super new wave looking color scheme, and homeboy with his Teen Beat looking photo sporting charged hair and flexing his gun, I was like, “ah, I see.” A little extra cheese sprinkled on top compared to the earlier material.
This record was a super fun listen, and cool for someone rather uninitiated like me to dig into. The LP comes with a big foldout poster. On the back cover, there’s fine print that provides some info about the release dates of each single. My only complaint about this collection is that I would have loved an insert with all the cover art from each single and maybe a little more information. But hey, why complain? I’ll leave it there. Thanks for reading.
‘Til next week,
-Jeff