You Say You Want a Revolution Pt. 4 Quiz

Answer: X

X were a difficult band to categorize. Art punk may be the most apt description, for they had the heart of a punk band but their soul... their soul was something else. They arrived on the LA scene, amidst a series of hardcore bands that did little else but rant their gospel of rage at a willing audience, and produced lyrics that were both poetic and vague. Built around a core that included the husband and wife team of John Doe and Exene Cervenka and the rockabilly guitar work of the highly gifted Johnny Zoom, they took aim at the glitter and sleaze of high society and the wannabe Hollywood stars that paraded along the West Coast.

"Los Angeles", their debut album, drew high praise from critics, led by Rolling Stone magazine who declared "No album has succeeded better as a snapshot of a city and its punk subculture". The opening track, "Your Phone's Off the Hook but You're Not", bursts through with the power of a runaway express train and concludes with the "ashes upon lipstick" love song, "The World's a Mess; It's in My Kiss", with Exene wailing "Go to hell, see if you like it, then come home with me". In between we are blessed with an attack on date rape, "Johnny Hit and Run Paulene" and the anthemic title track and its bitter attack on the city itself.

Answer: Dead Kennedys

The Dead Kennedys arrived on the scene in San Francisco, late in 1978, with a timing that appeared fortuitous. In a 2011 review for the BBC, rock critic Alex Deller wrote that they were "born of a time when much of UK punk's first wave had grown flabby". Drawing upon such influences as rockabilly, garage rock and the surf sounds of the Beach Boys, the Dead Kennedys produced a brand of hyperventilated punk rock that pushed its boundaries toward hardcore. The band released four albums before their break-up in 1986 and, whilst their later albums would introduce elements of jazz into the mix, their debut, "Fresh Fruit...", remains their signature disc.

Their main songwriter, Jello Biafra, was nowhere near subtle in his approach. With his tongue firmly planted in his cheek he took aim with biting sarcasm at such targets as capitalistic greed, violence, domineering authority figures and even conservatism failed to escape his wrath. "California Über Alles" is the standout track on this album but not far behind are numbers such as "Holiday in Cambodia", "Chemical Warfare" and "Kill the Poor". Being one of the first bands to move towards hardcore, their unflinching outlook and musicianship, helped formulate the foundations for the genre.

Answer: Crass

Crass were formed in 1978 and their agenda was to fight for the oppressed. The Sex Pistols may have preached "Anarchy in the UK" but Crass lived the ideal. They were more than talk and were at the fore-front of public protests, including the 1983 "Stop the City" demonstrations which, effectively, bought London to a standstill. Their albums reflected their actions but the standout was this, their third studio album.

The entire disc was devoted to the oppression of women, broaching subjects as diverse as rape, gender stereotyping and the corporate word of selling romance. The album also steps back from the hardcore aspects of the band's previous two offerings and ventures into more complex rhythms, however, the master stroke was leaving the lead vocals in the hands of the band's two women, Eve Libertine and Joy De Vries. Humorously, Steve Ignorant, lead vocalist on the previous recordings is listed on the sleeve as "not on this recording".

Answer: The Replacements

The Replacements came out of Minneapolis which, at the start of the 1980s, was a hotbed of activity in respect to punk rock. The band's early years can best be summed up in one word, chaos. There was a sloppiness about them and a healthy dose of recklessness but, in the midst of all this there was a band that wore it heart on its sleeve and produced moments of imprecise brilliance. Fueled by booze, Paul Westerberg, the band's main songwriter, was a poet in waiting who possessed a great sense of humour. This is evidenced by such lines as "I hate music, it's got too many notes".

The Replacements would eventually evolve to become the darlings of the alternative music scene as Westerberg's songwriting became sharper and the band began to delve into more pop friendly material and songs of personal introspection, however, for one brief moment, with "Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash", they were punk to a core. As to which core, it was difficult to define. In many respects, they'd created their own category, regaling tales of suburban boredom rather than preaching the gospel of defiance, songs dampened with beer-soaked empathy rather than parables of rage and a playing style that, despite being loud and fast, was undisciplined and ragged as they stumbled from chord to chord.

Answer: Black Flag

Black Flag had been around for five years before they released their first full length album. In the period prior to the release of "Damaged", they'd had three lead vocalists who did a serviceable job for the band. However, it was their fourth, Henry Rollins, that gave them the impetus (or grunt) that they needed. What were good songs before became great under the barking howl with which Rollins delivered them.

Their debut, which would prove to be their best, was delivered with such ferocity that it made studio bosses nervous. At one point they threatened not to release the disc as they feared it was anti-parents. What they didn't realize was that the band was dead set against everything (not just parents)... authority figures, television, beer... it didn't matter. Numerous bands would cite the album as an influence, including Alice in Chains frontman, William DuVall, who advised Metal Hammer magazine in 2016 that, for him, it changed music forever. The album is now seen as one of the cornerstones of the hardcore movement.

Answer: Bad Brains

In the late 1970s the Clash showed that reggae and punk were a beautiful partnership with such tracks as "White Man in Hammersmith Palais" (1977) and "Rudi Can't Fail" (1979). In 1982 Bad Brains took this pairing to a new level. Blessed with streetwise and mature musicians, they produced riffs of astounding speed and precision that, rather than bash their listeners senses, they were able to adapt to positive and concise rhythms that showed both a deep knowledge and a love for rock and roll riffs.

The band was made up of four young black men who had converted to the Rastafarian faith and embedded their songs with PMA, their own brand of Positive Mental Attitude. As bassist Darryl Jenifer explained in 2020 "We started kicking PMA in our music, and the message was different to the regular punk rock. You know, a punk rocker can write a song about hate ? I hate my mom or something. Some kids who wanted to see some regular stuff saw us, and every kid's heart and mind was opened".

(Footnote) This represents the band's debut album. It was self-titled and "The Yellow Tape" is its alternate title, named as a result of its packaging.

Answer: The Misfits

The Misfits (named after Marilyn Monroe's last movie) formed in New Jersey in 1977 and released a series of singles and EPs before their full length album, "Walk Among Us", was released in 1982. They are seen as the progenitors of the horror-punk movement. They score a mention here because they chose to break from the standard punk/hardcore mold. They eschewed the political confrontation and attacks on social ills that those that had gone before them had feasted upon and decided to throw heavy doses of irony amongst a set of 1950s style melodies that that sounded like they'd been dragged across a barb wire fence.

There are thirteen tracks on this album that barely spans 25 minutes and each threatens to be a twisted classic, telling tales of ghouls, vampires and zombies and they wind up with the totally bizarre closing track "Braineaters", with the band members groaning in the background that they're sick and tired of a diet full of cerebellum; "Brains at every single meal, why can't we have some guts, hey hey".

Answer: The Descendents

Though the Descendants had formed in 1977, it took nearly five years before they would release their first full-length album. With their initial stirrings being a diet of surf-pop, they managed to differentiate themselves in the punk movement by combining their melodious pop hooks with generous helpings of punk and hardcore thrash. The consequence of this bold step forward was "Milo Goes to College" and it saw many critics pointing to them as the vital cog in the creation of the pop-punk genre, a universe that would later spawn the likes of the Offspring and Green Day.

Dave Grohl, of Nirvana and Foo Fighters fame was so entranced by this recording that he declared (in a 2013 documentary on the band) "If the Descendents had made "Milo Goes to College" in 1999, they'd be living in (expletive) mansions. That's a (expletive) amazing record." The album boasts fifteen songs that barely last 22 minutes... that's right, blink and you're likely to miss a track, and the members manage to puree their views on life, love and girls into a blitzkrieg of snarling denouncements and power sing-a-longs. The stand out tracks are "I'm Not a Punk", which reveals a wisdom amongst the band members, well beyond their years and the growling protest of "Suburban Home" with its uncomfortable call that "I want to be stereotyped, I want to be classified, I want to be a clone".

Answer: Husker Du

In 2004 a band called Green Day released the concept album "American Idiot" and the reviews that followed incorporated words like "rock opera" and "ground breaking". For those that made a living out of writing about rock music it seemed curious (or sad) that they'd forgotten about Husker Du's "ground breaking rock opera", "Zen Arcade", that had been released some twenty years earlier.

What was significant about the Husker's second studio album is that it broke all the rules of hardcore punk in creating an album that many critics have dubbed (please pardon the cliché) one of the greatest of all time. The band's chief songwriters, Bob Mould and Grant Hart, didn't (totally) abandon their hard and fast attacks but they took hardcore punk out of its comfort zone and trailed it into a variety of other genres. They introduce sounds of pop, experimented with tape machines, psychedelia, piano solos and acoustic numbers.

Mould still channels his angst into the lyrics but Hart provides the perfect counterpoint with whimsical looks on the dark side of life. This is a sprawling epic that documents a teenage runaway who is fed up with what he has to contend with at home only to find that the world outside his parent's door is far worse. Spread out over two albums this opus culminates in the 14 minute lysergic jam called "Reoccurring Dreams".

Answer: Minutemen

In 1984 Husker Du released the double album "Zen Arcade". In an interview with Classic Rock magazine in 2016 Mike Watt, of the Minutemen, proclaimed that they saw this as a challenge and decided they had to do a double album as well. "Double Nickels on the Dime" crams 45 songs into 77 minutes of playing time but, unlike the Huskers, who had a concept for their disc, the Minutemen were all over the place. The result was not chaos but it certainly is hectic.

Built on a foundation of punk rock the band explores elements of jazz, blues, funk and moments that are so left of centre that it feels like the band is channelling Captain Beefheart. Somehow, this eclecticism manages to work and it provides the perfect baptism to the new infant that would soon become known as alternative rock. In the process they would provide inspiration for a wide range of bands such as R.E.M, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Maximo Park and Pavement.

Personally, I have a soft spot for this album. What ties it together are the wit and irony from the songwriters and a sense of warmth and honesty that surfaces every now and then. This is never more evident than, when D. Boon sings about his long-time friendship with Mike Watt, on "History Lesson Part 2". Sadly, a year later, D. Boon would be killed in a motor vehicle accident and the Minutemen were no more.