•
Rating:
"My thoughts seethed with anger towards society - strange, because we were just suburban kids with happy childhoods. For some reason, however, the anger always grew within me. It was the adults that I truly hated, authoritarian figures who maintained themselves by subjugating young people. [...] What I can say is that most of them knew little of what I truly thought and felt, and their teachings meant nothing to me. I wanted to be alone in my head."
In the wake of a fiery performance by the Ramones, the saga of one of the most seminal and, at the same time, forgotten bands of the Eighties was born: The Fix. Completely unable to play, they became a Hardcore band not by choice, one of the first in the Midwest. Bringing the Hardcore message to one of the areas, known for the green landscapes of Michigan, least accustomed to punk rock sounds, was no easy task. At first, their spartan live performances earned them only the few dollars that club owners gave them to convince them not to play a second time in their dingy venues. Their breakthrough came first when they began opening for Black Flag (who were good roommates) and then when they met Ken Lester from DOA, who connected them with the Dead Kennedys and convinced them to tour across America ("there was no need for a record label, just a van").
They were also among the first bands (the very first were the Necros) to sign with Touch And Go Records (which, in 2006, released all their material in the compilation "At the Speed of Twisted Thought"), which, at the time, was no more than "a little magazine where you could read about Middle Class, Birthday Party, and Germs." Their first 7'', released in 200 copies, featuring "Vengeance" on side A and "In This Town" on side B, is what cemented their place in history. In those areas so far from California, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, they became the role model. Their music was Hardcore in the truest sense of the term: the chords of the Ramones and the Dead Boys, of whom they also covered songs in their earliest period, played at lightning speed in the rawest and fiercest way possible and a bare and alcoholic voice that, rather than singing, barked. They played around the States again with the Flipper, of whom "a memorable 20-minute 'Love Canal' was performed during the soundcheck, where Mike Falconi seemed to drag the notes out of his Fender with shards of glass." They disbanded early, in '82, unable to replace the original drummer. Who knows if Steve Miller, now a writer and journalist, Mike Achtenberg, who, after founding the Blight with the same Miller and Tesco Vee from the Meatmen, disappeared from the scene, Jeff Wellman, now a real estate agent, and Craig Calvert, now a blues musician, remember when, in '81, they blew up the Midwest.
"He walks in all fire red
Just to see his lover's dead
He can’t cry so he must fight
He walks with rage into the night
Dressed in blue, gun in hand
Squad car chase the wanted man
Daily papers they can’t lie
Gas chamber, how's he die
Murder gives no quarter, no
No one thinks he'll go above
The law to make his vengeance real
A brother's life he's forced to steal
Dressed in blue, gun in hand
Squad car chase the wanted man
Daily papers they can’t lie
Gas chamber, how's he die
Now see what he's gone and done
Now he'll face his justice, son
He never knew he had a chance
He never took the time to dance
Dressed in blue, gun in hand
Squad car chase the wanted man
Daily papers they can’t lie
Gas chamber, how's he die"
Loading comments slowly
