pretazzo

Alright, it may not be on the level of II, but there's Immigrant Song, which is a masterpiece (dry as a bone, without a solo: a rare feat in hard rock), there's Since I've Been Loving You, which feels like slicing your forearms over and over, the sweet Tangerine, and especially the light and shadows of Friends, a hidden gem... the review is so-so, but I’ll give you an extra point for that pleasant pastoral image evoked at the end :-)

I'm sorry GEB, but I really don't agree with your opinion... in my view, if there’s a genre that is truly "dated," that is inextricably tied to a specific historical-social context, it is definitely PUNK77 (the name itself evokes the year 1977)... the English punk of the late 70s, in its most typical incarnations (Sham69), represented London youth grappling with the problems arising from the nascent post-industrial era (first and foremost, unemployment)... American hardcore, on the other hand, despite the precise political stances of some groups (like the MDC you mention), had the characteristic (and the merit) of transcending the historical-social dimension and reaching the existential one... to put it simply, in Leopardi's terms: punk77 was historical pessimism, hc was cosmic pessimism... and anyway, it's not true that there were few musically valid bands! Fear, Minutemen, Descendents, Bad Brains had remarkable techniques... Black Flag invented half a dozen contemporary alt-rock genres... Misfits had an original and evocative melodic vein... Germs, then, in their only LP, made pieces that were nothing short of heartbreaking... Adolescents, Zero Boys were incredibly tight... Agent Orange were very talented... Flipper were genius... Meat Puppets were one of the 3 or 4 fundamental bands of ALL 80s rock... guys, during those years, within the old-school style, the seeds of future underground subgenres were already present, from noise to indie, from sludge to crossover, etc...

Karyn Crisis was one of my teenage idols, with that little face hidden by dreadlocks and that TERRIFYING voice! Then I lost track of her...

Hey guys! Thanks for the visit! @ people: from what the reports say, I don't think it was Lee Ving, but rather Derf Scratch (R.I.P.), the bassist of Fear, who ended up in the hospital after a beating by a gang of surfers! Can you believe that Fear had to organize a benefit concert to raise the money needed for Derf's medical care! :-D He was a great musician, just like all the other members of the band, one of the very best in the HC scene... about the Rhythm Pigs' debts to Mission Of Burma, just know that I'm referring to the feelings evoked by that distorted guitar more than the "sound" itself (because from that point of view, the MOB were unmatchable!)

the principles of the Indy scene...the 60s beat turned up to 10,000 volts...very compact, they really sounded good and were also melodic...I personally love their Trying Harder!

Correction: in the previous post, replace Dopesmoker with ILTRATTORERAGNO :-)

@ Kaczinsky: well, it's clear that Italian hc groups were inspired by their American counterparts (rather: they revered them)... you say that when the Italian hc scene arose, "everything was already over"... Hold on! It was perhaps all over in the USA, but certainly not in continental Europe! The USA (and partly the UK) has always set the trends in popular culture from the post-war period to today... what originated in a certain era in the USA arrived in Italy and other peripheries of the West a few years later... and HC was no different... regarding "believing in it": I read the story of Kina and I was almost moved... they came from Aosta, where there was no hc group, they integrated into the Torino scene and then toured Europe... with limited resources, but a lot of passion, they spread the Italian hc gospel in the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark... and they showed solidarity with other hc groups in those countries (which, similarly, had an indigenous hc scene clearly inspired by American models)... in short, all this to say that (and here I connect back to the previous discussion, consistent with Dopesmoker's opinion) what was "over" (and therefore futile, meaningless) for a context like the USA of the mid-80s was in fact alive and meaningful in other contexts...

The review is written with heart, but come on... I don't believe that the style of this album emerges out of nowhere... there's the entire experimental scene of Dischord (late 80s) and that of San Diego behind it (remember Drive Like Jehu?)... that said, it’s undeniable that emo-core as we knew it (before the decline of the last decade) is precisely that of Diary (and also the early Texas Is The Reason)... in this record, stunning Seven, a true spring ritual...

For me, Kina and Negazione are at the top of our 80s HC scene... and anyway, Piemonte is the nerve center of it all... Regarding Blush's ideas (someone who knows what he’s talking about, mind you, since he lived that experience firsthand) and the contextualization of American HC, I think that argument applies to all genres a bit... If it makes sense today to play garage, punk '77, psych-rock, folk, blues, etc., then it makes sense to play HC too... it's a universal language, adaptable to all contexts where it's necessary to express anger, frustration, outrage, etc... not just Reagan's USA, but also the bleak Italy of the Craxi era and beyond... HC is just a means... the fact is that this means has been metabolized, even unconsciously, by a good part of the alt-rock styles that followed: grunge, indie, emo, even the early post-rock (the one from Kentucky) and the result is people today playing fast and violently without even knowing who the Black Flag or Negazione are...

So many memories in this album! One of my absolute favorites. There was a time when I played it in the car every night. It's hard to rank the beauty of the songs, but I have to crown Can't Stop The Show and Walkin' Home Alone as the absolute peaks of bitterness and melancholy. As for Wall Of Voodoo, I can't help but have a lump in my throat from Lost Weekend and They Don't Want Me. Ege, please come back!