Various Artists - "Bullshit Detector Volume 1,2,& 3." (Crass Records) 1980,'82,& '83
Fuck Me! Anarcho punk, (groan!); where do you start in explaining how
such a depressing bunch of middle class hippies got turned into a
uniformed movement that still exists in large numbers today!?
It all sprang into existence through the misinterpretation of a single
word in a hit single from 1976. The word in question was used mainly for
its tabloid aping shock value. Frequently the cynical and illiterate
hack journalists of the tabloid press, would use this word to portray
'Chaos' to spread 'the Fear'. Its a soundbite that conjures an image of
Rioting, looting and rape in the conditioned minds of Daily Mail and Sun
readers. This was the true meaning behind its use in The Sex Pistols
"Anarchy in the UK"! It was absolutely not advocating the utopian theory
of Anarchy as a viable future of all black clad white rasta's, before
they inherited their fathers estate.
Never before or since has a movement been based on such a dumb
misconception as this, except maybe Soviet communism's misinterpretation
of Marxism, and The Nazi's distorting of Nietzche's Uber mensch, maybe.
Those two examples were rather fond of uniforms, symbols/insignia and
mass hysteria like our Anarcho-punk chums! This is no coincidence
methinks.
The instigators of this 'movement' were none other than 'Banned from the
Roxy' leg ends, Crass. Fine purveyors of truly awful punky music, and
boasted the official Worst drummer ever. He was so bad that he made
Palmolive look like Billy Cobham.
Normally this is a Good thing of course, but coupled with their soap
boxy piety, and self-righteous bleating, is a recipe for producing a
gallon of projectile vomit.
They did ,however, have a rather fine tune called "Do they owe us a
Living"(included on Bullshit 1),as their first single; which if they
split up after that was released, would have put them in the higher
echelons of Punk Mythology. Unfortunately ,they carried on for another 6
years, giving us such DNA dissolving atrocities as "Reality Asylum",
where we are treated to a patronising monologue on atheism, spouted by
some posh bird who was obviously sent to some Catholic boarding school
against her will, and is getting her own back on her MP daddy. Excuse
the irony here......JEEEEEESSSSUSSSSS!
The thing is that, I agree that 'They' do owe us a living, I also
despise all religion, and there almost certainly isn't a god; but it
all sounds so bleeding obvious, and worst of all I don't believe them. I
suspect a bad case of alternative envy politics, ie they envy working
class people. Steve ignorant was probably their token worker, but you
never know with this lot!
Yes Anarcho Punk looked awful(washed out black was never a good
look),sounded awful, had depressing politics,but I have a cringing
liking for these compilations of demo's from Crass fans and bands. Its a
guilty pleasure of mine, along with Wings, Queens first album, and a
Flock of Seagulls!?
The recording quality of some of these demo's are abysmal, as in good
abysmal! Some of these bands must have used tin cans with string for
microphones! The guitar amps must have all had the cheapest transistors
ever made, ones that would have been rejected by British Leyland in the
70's, and Renault in the noughties....yes that bad.......but a beautiful
sound they do make for us.
Even despicable Anarchy bores Chumbawumba's track is
,yes,Brilliant!!!???.....like a lost nugget from DIY land.
(Chumbawumba anecdote: the Drummer in Year Zero records own Scouts of Uzbekistan, was in a crap group supporting them in the 80's, when these
"Anarchists" told them to fuck off when they asked if they could use
their sate of the art PA system! Yeah, the reality of anarchy is to
abuse your power when you have it ,it seems.Wankers)
The three Bullshit Detectors are crammed full of nasty fizzy no-fi punk
rock, with the odd misanthropic poem thrown in! There's very little
musical innovation on display here,and quite a lots of unabashed
copying; lots of crass-a-likes and check out "Random relations" by
Suspects on vol.2, which is a blatant impression of John Cooper-Clarke
and the Invisible Girls!?
Love these compilations(the best one is vol 2 in my opinion), but hate
Crass and their clones; and you should too.
Track Listing:
Bullshit Detector Vol 1 (1980)
- Andy T - "Jazz on a Summers Day"
- Counter Attack - "Don't Wanna Fight For You"
- The Alternative - "Change It"
- Clockwork Criminals - "We Are You"
- Reputations In Jeopardy - "Girls Love Popstars"
- Crass - "Do They Owe Us a Living? (Drums and vocals only)"
- Amebix - "University Challenged"
- The Pranx - "Two Years Too Late"
- The Sinyx - "Mark Of The Beast"
- Frenzy Battalion - "Thalidomide"
- Icon - "Cancer"
- The Speakers - "Why?"
- A.P.F. Brigade - "Anarchist Attack"
- Fuck The C.I.A. - "Right or Wrong"
- Caine Mutiny And The Kallisti Apples Of Nonsense - "Morning Star"
- The Sucks - "Three"
- Porno Squad - "Khaki Doesn't Go With My Eyes"
- S.P.G. Murders - "Soldiers"
- Eratics - "National Service"
- Red Alert - "Who Needs Society?"
- The Snipers - "War Song"
- Armchair Power - "Power"
- Disrupters - "Napalm"
- Andy T - "Nagasaki Mon Amour"
- Action Frogs - "Drumming Up Hope"
Bullshit Detector Vol 2 (1982)
Waiting For Bardot - "Voice of U.K."
Omega Tribe - "Nature Wonder"
The Suspects - "Random Relations"
Your Funeral - "Think About It"
Kronstadt Uprising - "Receiver Deceiver"
Deformed - "Freedom"
No Label - "Let's Get It Right"
The Rejected - "Same Old Songs"
Boffo - "Garageland"
XS - "Fuck the System"
Polemic Attack - "Manipulated Youth"
A. Gardener - "A Gardener's Song"
Toxic - "Tradition of Slaughter"
1984 - "Break Up"
"Insert"
Toxik Ephex - "Police Brutality"
SIC - "Low"
Molitov Cocktail - "Ain't Got a Clue"
Naked - "Mid 1930's (Pre-War Germany)"
Disc two
Capital Punishment - "We've Realised the Truth Now"
Anthrax - "All the Wars"
Endangered Species - "Slaughter of the Innocent (Curiosity Kills)"
Pseudo Sadists - "War Games"
Total Chaos - "Psycho Analysis"
Dougie - "War Without Winners"
St. Vitus Dancers - "The Survivor"
Stegz - "Christus Erection"
Metro Youth - "Brutalised"
Normality Complex - "Black Market Shadow"
Youth In Asia - "Power & the Glory"
Riot Squad - "Security System"
Destructors - "Agent Orange"
The Pits - "U.K. in Dreamland"
The Bored - "Riot Style"
Toby Kettle - "Theatre Comment"
Chumbawamba - "Three Years Later"
Passion Killers - "Start Again"
Amerikan Arsenal - "Get Off Yr Ass"
Bullshit Detector Vol 3 (1984)
Avert Aversion - "Oh What a Nice Day"
Awake Mankind - "Once Upon a Time"
A Nul Noise - "Hibakusha"
Animus - "Nuclear Piss"
Peroxide - "Ministry of Death (M.O.D.)"
Untitled - "We Are Taught How to Kill"
Xtract - "Genocide"
Verbal Assault - "Not Yet Ron"
Fifth Column - "Counterfeit Culture"
Potential Victims - "People"
7th Plague - "Rubber Bullets"
Rebel - "Genesis to Genocide"
Alienated - "Living in Fear"
Barbed Wire - "Weapons of War"
Rob Williams - "Lies"
Reality Control - "The War is Over"
Youthanasia PX - "Power"
Sammy Rubette + Safety Match - "The Ballot of Maggie the Maggot"
Politicide - "51st State"
Markus Abused - "The Killing Machine"
Disc two
One Man's Meat - "Your Country Misleads You"
Direct Action - "Death Without a Thought"
Crag - "Voice Your Protest"
Attrition - "In Your Hand"
Napalm Death - "The Crucifixion of Possessions"
The Impalers - "Sun, Sun, Sun"
Health Hazard - "Picture Show"
Phil Hedgehog - "Radio Times"
Malice - "Faceless"
Michael Kingzett Taylor - "Paranoia"
Brainwashed Pupils - "The Demonstration"
No Defences - "Work to Consume"
A.N.E.E.B. - "Berlin Wall"
Carnage - "Carnage"
Warning - "Beasts of Fiction"
State Of Shock - "Excess Youth"
Neale Harmer - "Hard Nut"
Dead To The World - "Action Man"
Dandruff - "Life In a Whiskey Bottle"
Richard III - "Will You Care?"
Funky Rayguns - "The Hare and the Tortoise"
DOWNLOAD some bullshit vol 1 HERE!
DOWNLOAD some more bullshit 2 HERE!
DOWNLOAD even more bullshit 3 HERE!
12 comments:
Haha! I enjoyed your write up for these comps. I'm in the same boat; I secretly dig some of the artier, weirder anarcho bands; and when I was a teenager the Subhumans and Rudimentary Peni were gods to me (I still love both bands). Naturally that led me into checking out Crass (actually like them better now that I smoke pot) and some other groups along those lines. After a while I realized that I didn't really care for the majority of them: too predictable, too preachy and too generic. But some of it is still great, and we just need to sift through the crap to get there. These comps have a bit of both! Thanks for posting.
Rudimentary Peni are/is almost avant garde, and brilliant. Maybe i should listen to Crass under the influence of Pot?....maybe not. I'm nearly straight edge me, its just the evil drink for me.
Have you heard "12 crass songs" by jeffery Lewis, this makes crass sound good. No Steve ignorant, and no awful,awful drumming. Just the lyrics, which are 'good', and 'melody'. No white rastas in faded dyed balck combats either.
You're a cunt but thanks for all the music. If you knew anything about Crass you'd know they hated the Sex Pistols for being sellouts and for using Anarchy in precisely the way you described. They tried to use their music to make the world a better place. They are a political movement, not a musical one, this is made clear by their tracks all sounding similar except for the lyrics. It was a way to spread ideas, and it worked and still does work. -t a non white rasta non combat boot wearing anarchist who listens to everything besides pop music.
Well Bully for you.
If you think Crass isn't 'Pop' then you're as elitist as head posh boy Rimbaud.
The Pistols/Maclaren use of Anarchy had nothing at all to do with Crass/rimbaud's over reliance on the word.The fact that they slagged the pistols for their misuse of the word shows that they completely misunderstood them....apart from that if the Pistols never did Anarchy in the UK Crass would never have existed, and loads off rich kids would have gone straight into banking rather than buying combats and a bottle of black dye.
I love Crass, and thanks for the music.
That being said, I think your taking the piss out of them was HILARIOUS, and those who don't like, or take themselves and Crass too seriously need to develop a sense of humor, move out of their parent's place, and get a life!
I had loads more to say, but when I tried to post, I said too much, so I'm keeping this short and too the point.
Again, thanks for the music, and the piss take is funny as all get out!
Thanks for sharing the second album. I was mainly interested in the "Capital Punishment" song since Ben Stiller (yes, the actor/comedian) was part of it.
@Phaota ...i have grave doubts that this is the same Capital Punishment as the american/ben stiller band. These will be all be uk/european anarcho punk groups. I doubt stiller would have even heard of Crass.
My god, I always have a blast reading this one.
I have been following the blog in the shadows for a long while, since 2016 now, allowed me to discover a lot of great artists and to have vast enjoyment from the personal and incredibly enjoyable writing that came with most posts. I personally adore Crass, consider it to be among my favorite punk bands and really hold most of their work in high regard.
That being said, I absolutely respect and comprehend this position, and consider that those who get mad, or outright aggresive, with these opinions (which are certainly not uncommon on this blog), really lack a sense of humor and should consider removing their head up their ass. Really grateful that even if you have expressed your distaste towards bands you have shared over the years, you have shared releases you considered interesting or at least worth a try. Really a shame to hear you needing to take a break from music and from the cunts that have sadly plagued the comments over the years with their entitled stupidity.
You are a beautiful human being, thank you for so much.
@idiotwholikesprog......you get the comment of the week award,nice one.I like prog too as you may have noticed.
Its stuff like this that makes wanna do a comeback.
I'm even starting to like everything Crass because i've played it,and related noises, so much while doing this blog.
I really must upgrade the rips of these compilations.
Volume 2 download is dead. Any chance you could reupload that?
Hi Nick...the download is dead? Punk is dead!? Whatever next!?i will re-up vol 2 today...in improved quality.
Hello, all re-upped in sparkling 320k quality as of now.
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