VARIOUS – Groucho Marxist Record Co:Operative – LP – Vinyl [OCT 4]

LP – Limited Edition Black Vinyl.Comes accompanied by a massive 40 page 11×11 inch booklet of archival material.

London. New York. Paris. Paisley? Paisley, a well-aimed gobs distance from Glasgow, was teeming with creativity, agitprop and rage in the late 70s and early 80s. Everything you ever loved about punk, in expression in its purest form, in DIY fuck off Ill do what I want attitude, was slammed down onto four 7s on the Groucho Marxist label between 1979 and 1981. Unheralded, unknown, uncaring and unbelievable. This LP compiles the four 7s released by the label which was small but perfectly formed. The label, run by printer Tommy Kayes a member of a Clydeside Anarchist group, openly nailed its politics to each release with ties to Rock Against Racism and a strong anti-police sentiment. Musically the Groucho Marxists were all over the place, trying to figure out what punk was about. XS DISCHARGE give us six tracks across the compilation which range from the PUBLIC IMAGE LIMITED-esque Frustration to the uptempo 1977 foot to the floor punk rock classics Hassles and Lifted. DEFIANT POSE are the other mainstays with three tracks including the CLASH inspired After the Bang which sounds urgent and uplifting whilst Fight is a glorious raw UNDERTONES style nugget. Also included are the abstract art noise of the pre-COIL/STRAWBERRY SWITCHBLADE group THE POEMS and the URBAN ENEMIES who cut Who do you Hate would have made a perfect Good Vibrations 7. Please dont forget the other tracks from MOD CONS, SNEEX, THE MENTOL ERRORS and THE FEGS – all deserve your attention and are perfect examples of amateur DIY punk. That such a fertile, colourful scene of freaks and geeks could be bubbling away out of the glare of popularity is a lesson to us all: Lifes too short, do what you want. Or as XS DISCHARGE would have it: Lifes A Wank. The LP comes accompanied by a massive 40 page 11×11 inch booklet of archival material. No stone was left unturned in the quest to document this incredible micro scene. Nearly 45 years after the fact we can shed some light onto a truly cult local scene.

Tracklist:

1. Mod Cons Buildings Of The 70s
2. XS Discharge Machete Shuffle
3. Sneex Radiomania
4. The Poems Posters On The Wall
5. The Mentol Errors Irrelevance
6. The Fegs Mill Street Law And Order
7. XS Discharge Lifted
8. Defiant Pose Fight
9. Urban Enemies Who Do You Hate
10. XS Discharge Across The Border
11. XS Discharge Confessions
12. XS Discharge Frustration
13. XS Discharge Hassles
14. Defiant Pose Someone Elses War
15. Defiant Pose After The Bang