No Return Address
Ten tracks from the Killed By Death era — Cleveland, Indiana, Florida, Portland, Houston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New Orleans. Small labels, tiny pressings, no distribution, no commercial traction. The songs are better than almost everything that got played on the radio. That’s why they disappeared.
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01
The Pagans — “What’s This Shit Called Love”
The Pagans were Cleveland’s secret weapon for a few years — Mike Hudson screaming like he was personally offended by the concept of romantic feeling. “What’s This Shit Called Love” is the sound of a man who has genuinely had enough. Three chords, two minutes, zero patience. KBD compiler’s dream, buried on a Drome 45 that nobody outside Ohio knew existed until the comps found it.
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02
Dow Jones & the Industrials — “Can’t Stand the Midwest”
From the title alone you’d think it was going to be some kind of concept piece. It’s ninety seconds. They say their piece and get out. Indiana punk that sounds exactly as claustrophobic as living in Indiana apparently is — primitive, fast, the desperate energy of people who needed to do something with their Friday nights in a place with not much else going on. The title is the thesis. The song is the proof.
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03
The Eat — “Communist Radio”
Florida punk was always a little weirder than it had any right to be. The Eat were from Gainesville, which in 1980 might as well have been the moon. “Communist Radio” is twitchy, slightly paranoid, and over in under two minutes. One of the best KBD tracks ever pressed, and barely anyone outside collector circles has heard it. The first time you play it you will immediately play it again.
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04
Sado-Nation — “We’re Not Equal”
Portland had a hardcore scene earlier than most people give it credit for. Sado-Nation were right in the middle of it — raw, fast, and genuinely pissed. “We’re Not Equal” does everything it needs to do and then disappears. The singer sounds like she’s delivering a verdict rather than performing a song. Which is the whole point. Trap Records pressed this and you had to know the right people to find a copy.
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05
Really Red — “Teaching You the Fear”
CIA stood for Counter-Intelligence Agency, which tells you everything about Houston punk in ’79. Really Red were one of the best bands to come out of the Texas scene and “Teaching You the Fear” is their mission statement — post-punk nerves dressed in a leather jacket. They made two full-lengths and then fractured. Most people haven’t heard either one, which is genuinely wrong.
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06
The Lewd — “Kill Yourself”
The title is a provocation and the song delivers completely on it. San Francisco punk in ’79 was louder and more volatile than the mythology suggests — most of the attention goes to the Avengers and the Nuns, but the Lewd were right there with them. “Kill Yourself” sounds like it was written in an hour and recorded in thirty minutes. Here that’s high praise. The SF punk scene gets reduced to three bands in most histories. The Lewd should be in the conversation.
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07
The Urinals — “Black Hole”
The Urinals recorded songs in under two minutes because they weren’t interested in anything that took longer. “Black Hole” clocks in at 1:19 and somehow feels complete. Happy Squid Records was the label they built because no one else would have them. Thirty copies, basically. The KBD comps found it years later and that’s the only reason anyone outside UCLA knows it exists. They later changed their name to 100 Flowers, which is a different band worth finding.
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08
The Authorities — “I Hate Tourists”
Another LA band who understood the brevity principle. A minute and ten seconds to say what needs saying, not one second more. “I Hate Tourists” has a great riff and a thesis statement for a title. Disaster Records, 1981 — the kind of label name that explains its own distribution situation. Nobody bought it, nobody knew about it, and here it is on a playlist decades later, which is exactly right.
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09
The Normals — “Almost Ready”
The least punk-looking city in America had a scene, and the Normals were the best thing in it. “Almost Ready” is minimal in a way that doesn’t feel minimal — there’s something slightly unhinged about it, like the song is barely holding itself together and knows it. Waveland Records pressed this in 1978 and it went nowhere outside New Orleans. If you know it, you know. If you don’t, this is why you’re here.
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10
The Dils — “Class War”
The oldest track on this list and the most explicitly political. Chip and Tony Kinman were making music about class warfare while the rest of American punk was still figuring out its wardrobe. Dangerhouse pressed “Class War” in ’77 and it was the first thing you heard from the Dils that made sense of everything that came after. They split in the early ’80s; the Kinmans went country-punk and then largely disappeared. This is where it started, and it was more confrontational than almost anything coming out of New York or LA at the time.
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