Know Your '90s Punk: Apocalypse Babys

Continuing my series on the bands I championed in my early years as a music reviewer, we turn to a group that has been keeping the faith for 30 years now. It always struck me as odd back in the '90s that all of my favorite old punk bands were from the U.K., yet I wasn't really listening to any new bands from the U.K. That all changed the first time I mail-ordered an Apocalypse Babys 7" from Underground Medicine (the American distro that shaped the musical taste of an entire generation of punk/garage freaks). It was amazing to hear a current U.K. band that sounded very much like all of the classic English and Irish punk groups whose records I was playing on a daily basis. I soon began ordering new releases from Apocalypse Babys every time they turned up in an Underground Medicine catalog (Remember when we still ordered records from catalogs?). When Jim from Underground Medicine started his own label Rapid Pulse Records, Apocalypse Babys were his very first release! What I liked about this Derbyshire-based outfit was that in addition to its music being powerful and often political, it was also very melodic. It was a throwback to a time when punk groups weren't ashamed to write a song with a hook. Singer Dave "Asterix The Brat" Moran formed this band in 1990, and it's still going strong to this day (the group has released albums in each of the last three years!). The Apocalypse Babys to me are one of the most under-appreciated punk bands of our time. I'm particularly partial to later '90s singles like "Nuclear Rain", "I Don't Wanna Be A Nazi", Apocalypse Now, and Local Heroes. Most likely because it wasn't super easy for people to get a hold of its records on this side of the pond, this band has always been largely unknown in the U.S. Its newer stuff may be even more obscure since I don't believe it's available on any streaming platforms. So if you're going to get into Apocalypse Babys, you'll have to do it the old-fashioned way and track down the records. It'll be well worth the effort if you're into the classic Brit-punk sound!



-L.R.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Musician-Band/Apocalypse-Babys-152578491466819/
https://www.discogs.com/artist/1706247-Apocalypse-Babys

Know Your '90s Punk: The Beltones

Any list I'd ever make of the greatest punk bands of the '90s would have The Beltones in the thick of the conversation. Formed in Fort Lauderdale, Florida in 1994, the original incarnation of The Beltones featured Bill McFadden on guitar and vocals, Rob Sessions on guitar, Chris Arocha on bass, and Kevin Krook on drums. Very quickly the band released 7-inch records on Far Out and Just Add Water Records - two of the coolest punk labels of the day. Record reviews without fail compared The Beltones to Stiff Little Fingers. But while those comparisons were hardly off base, they probably did the band a disservice (and yes, I can guarantee you I was one of the guilty parties!).

Listening now to The Beltones' '90s body of work, I hear a remarkable punk group. Of course the gruff vocals combined with a melodic approach bring to mind a certain band from Belfast. But The Beltones had their own thing going on - a sound and style forged in great part from the influence of American roots and rock & roll. The sound was raw and gritty as hell, but at heart McFadden was a very traditional songwriter and storyteller. While other punk bands of the day were going on about girls or politics, The Beltones tackled heavy themes like loss, despair, alcoholism, and family dysfunction. Now this was an artist who kept it real! In 1998, The Beltones signed with TKO Records and released the mini-album On Deaf Ears. I consider On Deaf Ears to be an essential release in the annals of '90s punk. It's comprised mostly of re-recorded versions of earlier songs but also features the absolutely devastating "Let The Bombs Fall". If you can read the lyrics to that song and not conclude that Bill McFadden is an extraordinary songwriter, I don't know if we're speaking the same language.

The Beltones would go on to release a proper full-length album for TKO in 2001 called Cheap Trinkets. A year later, they independently released a single called "Come Back". And while the band has not put out any new recordings since, it has continued to play live for two decades with numerous changes in personnel and geographic base. The band's 7" on Just Add Water, "My Old Man", was without doubt one of the greatest punk singles of the '90s. It was most recently reissued in 2018 and can probably be acquired at a reasonable price. The rest of the catalog may be harder to come by, but it's all great stuff and very worthy of a comprehensive digital reissue. Somebody make that happen!

-L.R.

https://www.facebook.com/TheBeltones/
https://www.discogs.com/artist/452740-The-Beltones-2 

Know Your '90s Punk: The Stitches

For a long time I've toyed with the idea of doing a book on all of the punk bands I loved in the 1990s. While there was all kinds of great punk music being made in the '90s, I personally gravitated to the more '77-inspired bands of that period. I began touting those bands, and here we all are 25 years later! While I may never actually write my book, a cooler project would be to feature a lot of those bands here - where I can embed some of the actual music. For my "F & L Hall of Fame" series, I've already written about a lot of those groups such as the Dimestore Haloes, Moral Crux, and Dead End Cruisers. So now that I have a little extra time on my hands, I would like to go further with this project. And when it comes to bands of the '90s that sounded like '70s punk, you can't talk too long without bringing up The Stitches. They may have been the best out of that whole lot!

It's kind of weird to be referring to The Stitches in the past tense since they are still an active band. But my focus here is on the band's incredible run of releases from 1994 through 1997. The group's debut 7" "Sixteen" came out in '94 and in my book is one of the greatest punk singles ever released. It was as if the Sex Pistols, Pagans, Dead Boys, and countless Killed By Death favorites had coalesced into one wild and explosive band. The energy, power, and guts just bled out of your turntable speakers! In a single moment, Michael Lohrman and Johnny Witmer emerged as a vocal/guitar tandem of legendary proportion. "Sixteen" arrived at a time when nothing that sounded quite like it had been heard in years, and it inspired the growth of "snotty punk rock" as a genre onto itself in the later '90s and beyond. Six more singles and EPs followed over the next several years, and many of us can recall a time when the arrival of a new Stitches record was always an event (remember how they dominated those Maximumrocknroll top ten lists?!).

While The Stitches never released a proper album until 2002 (at a point when their sound had evolved considerably), their 8 x 12 EP from 1995 is a bona fide classic and still well worth seeking out. I have assembled a YouTube playlist that compiles most of the band's early output. It's basically a '90s Stitches singles collection plus all of 8 x 12. Listening to all of these song comped together definitely brings back memories of a time when my musical education in punk rock was really just beginning. At the same time, I can say that these recordings still hold up after a quarter of a century. If I ever compile my ultimate compilation of '90s punk rock, "Sixteen" will be track one for sure. Listen and love!




-L.R.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqH36mfe77ObVUaX8GLUaXdd-oRtbRvZB
https://www.facebook.com/thestitches/
https://www.discogs.com/artist/759397-The-Stitches