The Embarrassment- Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough (Live)

Here’s the loose theme: bands neglected by Steven Blush’s flawed nonpareil, American Hardcore. Here’s the first band: the Embarrassment, a gaggle of heartland boys devoted to crafting an alternate radio station of the mind. Nervy and nerdy, with a twitchy instrumental sensibility indebted to Britain’s post-punkers, but with a deadpan lyrical approach squarely owing to being a kid in Kansas circa 1983. Blush likely passed over these guys, I’m guessing, because of stuff like this track: a decidedly non-enraged, impossibly funky live cover of Michael Jackson’s “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough”. A modern equivalent would be covering “Caught Up” with a straight face and three extra pairs of hips.

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Red Scare- Then There Were None

Yet another group of LA also-rans. Fronted by the late Bobbi Brat, influenced by the glam and metal that had full quarter over the Strip at this point. This track is one of the least “punk” items in their catalogue (I sense a pattern here), with its three-note whining guitar figure, the slow chords etc., that Ozzy-lite solo that fingertaps its way out as soon as it came. It’s a great little slice of existential punk rock with contrasting passages and a powerhouse vocal from Ms. Brat. Jeez. When are people going to start listening to the Subhumans UK again?

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Clit 45- Caught in a Crack

Well… these guys are two decades too late to merit intentional exclusion from Blush, but you all know who the Minutemen are, so I’ll go with this. Clit 45’s Self-Hate Crimes is shaping up to be my favorite record this year (along with Kreator and whatever Ghostface releases). The intro verse is like a lost Lifter Puller gem (”So you wanna suck glass cock?/Livin’ on a Hawthorne rock?/It’s a life that you can’t cop/Another ten that I just dropped”). The whole album’s the way LA punk ought to sound: dissatisfied, debauched, and above all, aware. I leave it to you, if you like this track, to seek out their new LP and start mining.

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