Really Red
Teaching You The Fear: The Complete Collection 1979-1985

You say “Texas punk” and you end up dealing with a plethora of small bands, all children of the Moving Sidewalks and their immortal «99th Floor», all those gathered in the endless series of «Texas Flashbacks».

And yet Texas is also home to some great punk bands, in the 77s sense of the term: from AK-47 to Vomit Pigs, all groups more or less faithful to the classic stylistic elements of the genre, one-two-three-four, rock'n'raw and all that follows.

The Nervebreakers are the prototypical ready-made model; if you like the Nervebreakers, then you must like 90 percent of Texas punk.

Then there are those who do it a bit differently: Dot Vaeth Group, Huns, Plastic Idols, and a few others.

The Really Red are their standard bearers.

Really Red was a great band, today they would be called “eclectic” but also “heretical” of the genre, and it’s not at all surprising that it was that madcap Jello Biafra who brought their entire discography to light, made up of two albums and three singles, all collected in «Teaching You the Fear: The Complete Collection 1979-1985».

Do you like straightforward, direct punk without any frills? Perfect, Really Red serves you that «Modern Needs» which for some is even listed among the small, great classics of punk rock altogether, and that «Crowd Control» to which the same applies: two pieces, just over 4 minutes of your time to realize that it's time to throw half of your collection from 1986 to 2021 into the recycling bin under your house and make space for the bands that really matter.

Do you like crooked, brainy punk with solos too? No problem, «Too Political», «Bored With Apathy», and «The Fee» have been screaming at you for 40 years that punk never existed and if it existed it died in infancy.

So, if you're already sighing, I'll cut it short and keep it simple: trust me, Really Red is a punk band.

Then if you don't find yourself with a double CD brimming with Sex Pistols plagiarism and you're not capable of going beyond Johnny Rotten, it's not my fault; those few who mention Really Red always label them as “punk” and nothing more, take it up with them.

It's not my fault either if that double CD swerves wildly between Wire-style art punk and Dischord-style proto-hardcore.

I like it terribly, I hope you do too.