Radical Rock Reactionaries

Way back in the mid-80's there was a great local alternative band called Animation
that borrowed from Echo and The Bunnymen, Lou reed and whatever was hip at the time. The town benefited from having a pretty decent local record shop called the Music Staff. Life was good. Animation's release Loud Day had everything; a great intro song with a stomping bass part promised you that the rest would be great and it was with suburban themes and a cover of The Velvet Underground. It didn't get any cooler. Ok maybe, I'm lying. Westfield High School in the 80's was not a normal place when I think about it. One of the school clubs was called the Young Leftist and another one The Radical Rock Reactionaries (RRR) that was found by the Margulis Brother's Oren (88) and Gil(86). They put on shows and is where I got my taste of original live music not just attendee but as a musician. i was part of the scene and where i got to know the Don, Jerry and Bob from the Whirling Dervishes (pictured) - i probably saw them play more times than I can count. The good thing it was great every time. One of the bands RRR got to play early on was Animation who originated black T-shirt as far as I was concerned. Other bands that made appearances for RRR were Hoboken's Tiny Lights, Das Damen (SST), the Whirling Dervishes of course, Spiral Jetty, The Unemployed (haha a one off band of mine) and Psychic Fair (WHS 86-88). There were probably others and maybe I'll remember them later but in the meantime here are some selects by said "local" bands that enriched my life and introduced me to whole other world of alternative music. Another band that was in a parallel music universe to Westfield was Skunk from Maplewood, NJ. Enjoy. More later.

MP3s:
Animation - What goes on (Velvet Underground cover)
Animation - Hide & Go Seek off of Loud Day(Vital Records)
Das Damen - Gray Isn't Black from Jupiter Eye(SST)
Tiny Light - Sweet Solutions from LP Prayer for the halcyon fear
Spiral Jetty - The Hour from Dogstar LP (Absolute a go go/Rough Trade)
Skunk - (There'll Be Other Girls) Hoss from Last American Virgin LP (Twin/Tone)
Skunk - Chezone and Trevor
Whirling Dervishes - Cop from the CD Strange & Wonderful
Whirling Dervishes - Your Little Finger from the CD Strange & Wonderful

DUH New Jersey punk rock band

New Jersey yielded some great hardcore, Thrash and punk bands in the 80's. One of them was a band called DUH with ties to Westfield, NJ which featured drummer Ben Forgash and guys from Rutgers( think one was named was just "J"?) I can't remember exactly. Anyway, I'm not even sure that this 11 song record was called Trout (I made that shit up but it seems appropriate). Whatever the case here are 11 tracks I made from a cassette I had of their full length demo lp. I saw them play a few times in high-school and I always thought they were sort of goofy and sometimes akin to the philly band that did bitch' camero. These guys wrote songs and goofed very sarcastically about fishing, Apex tech and Quick Chek (making fun of jersey maulers chicks with lots of hair spray). Your normal white suburban textbook theme i guess looking back at the songs now.

01 Fish House Road
02 Poison Ivy
03 Put the mask on
04 oeieoeo
05 Swamp Thing
06 Chopping up your friends
07 New by Ronko
08 Anaconda
09 Quick Chek Baby [ Download mp3 ] This is a WRSU classic
10 Apex Tech [ Download mp3 ]
11 Trout

Get the whole Trout ZIP here [ You are Welcome ]

I've also discovered a great list of older thrash/Hardcore by Dirge and Ripping Corpse, etc up on FB the other day. You'll find old demos and out of print 7 inches and lps and some hilarious photos. Check out NJHC Jerseyshore reunion group. later.