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What’s up Sorry Staters?
Not a whole lot to report on the personal front this week. I’m feeling the tingles of being busy with band activities just around the corner. I was reminded that Public Acid’s 2 shows in New York are only a month away! And then from there, we fly out of New York to go tour the West Coast with KOS on the way down to Lie Detector fest in LA (dizzy guy emoji). All of which I’m thoroughly looking forward to, but always have a little anxiety about. It’ll be rad though.
Last week, I jumped the gun and talked about Record Store Day a couple weeks early. Now I’m back to talking about punk. The new reissues we just stocked from General Speech are killer! Legion of Parasites and Puncture were long overdue for a proper, nicely executed reissue. Along with these new General Speech titles, while GS was not directly involved, Tom was also nice enough to include these new reissues from Dead Ends. Dead Ends were a band based out of the Philippines during the mid-to-late 80s. The 3 LP’s Sorry State just stocked were originally released on cassette during the time the band was active. Thanks to this label Merciless Records, the Dead Ends recordings are finally given a long overdue and well-deserved vinyl treatment.
Weirdly, I was actually made aware of Dead Ends many years ago. My old buddy Ace, who has played in many bands I’m sure all you Sorry State readers are familiar with, first introduced me to Dead Ends back when he still lived in North Carolina. Come to think of it, I don’t even know how Ace found out about them way back when. For me, Dead Ends were relatively obscure, especially 10 years ago and considering they only released their albums on cassette. But I do recall Ace told me that he wanted to take a deep dive and learn about 80s Filipino hardcore. I remember him even rocking a Dead Ends snapback baseball hat at one point? You can check my sources on that detail. Back then, Ace probably played me a song or two. I remember thinking it was cool at the time, but after that, I surely didn’t know where to hunt down recordings online or anything. And I certainly had no idea that Dead Ends had 3 full-lengths worth of recorded material.
I can’t remember exactly what my initial impression of Dead Ends was when I first listened to them like over 10 years ago. I wanna say I remember it not being super aggressive or heavy. Maybe I was expecting them to sound more metallic, as one might think in the mid-to-late 80s, like Death Side or Final Conflict or something. But now, listening to these records with fresh ears, these feel like long-lost gems of an overseas hardcore scene. I’m sure Dead Ends made a huge impact in the Philippines where they’re from. Which also makes me wonder how much the band was aware of what going on in hardcore punk in the 80s. So, the band was a 3-piece. And one sort of legendary piece of the narrative I heard is that the 2 brothers in the band, Al and Jay Dimalanta, visited in New York in the early 80s, absorbed everything that was going in punk while they were there, and then returned home to the Philippines and started a scene from scratch. That could be totally untrue. But if it is true, it makes for an interesting development of the band’s story.
Listening to these records now, it seems very clear that Dead Ends took influence from punk and hardcore in the US (and also maybe a bit from the UK). I guess you could say that Dead Ends’ sound is fairly westernized. All the lyrics are sung in English as well. What’s funny though, is that to me it seems like each LP is sonically about 4 or 5 years behind what was happening in the US. And I don’t mean that disparagingly at all! Dead Ends’ first record Complaints came out in 1985, and really sounds a lot like California punk circa 1980 or ’81. And then with each record, the band gets slightly faster and more aggressive. Al’s vocals really are a huge aspect of the band’s sound. He’s super quirky and charismatic with his delivery. I’ve heard many people compare his inflection to Jello Biafra, which I totally hear, and would imagine Jello was a big influence. But I hear a bit of John Lydon in there too. I think the influence of UK punk shouldn’t be underestimated. Complaints will get you raging with faster-paced rippers, but then there are occasional uber-melodic, sort of anthemic tunes that sound like The Clash. I mean, dude, there’s even a few ill-fated reggae sections in some songs, which gives me a little smirk. Of course, a punk band incorporating a reggae groove in their song was par for the course if they were in the UK in 1978. If only someone was there to warn Dead Ends that not only would this not age well for bands in the late 70s, but it was DEFINITELY not a cool move in 1985 haha.
The next record, Second Coming, has its moments as well, but I found myself gravitating most strongly to the 3rd record, Damned Nation, probably the most instantly raging and urgent record out of all of them. When you listen to the riffs and fast, in-the-pocket groove of the drums, you could draw comparisons to like Battalion of Saints or even Poison Idea. That said, I think this record is where Dead Ends really comes into their own. And even with all of what I’ve said previously, I don’t think Dead Ends sound purely derivative on any of their records. I think the band shows strong songwriting and intense conviction on every single one of these records. Damned Nation in particular, though, has some super intricate musicianship, shredding guitar leads, clever song construction with some neck-breaking punches and tempo changes, and big sing-along hooks. The speed of the drums almost gets into blast beat territory on a few songs, but not in a metallic/power violence way. This still feels like classic, tuneful, albeit RAGING hardcore. But then along the way, in the middle of the record, you get songs like “Lights Are Out,” which breaks into an unexpected, super melodic refrain of “Teenage lust!” Or a song like “Johnny Loves Hardcore” is almost like Dead Ends’ answer to “Richard Hung Himself.” Big chanted chorus. It rules. So killer.
Another thing I want to point out is that Merciless Records did a really great job with these reissues. The packaging looks great. Most importantly, these records sound great! I’ve heard rough sounding rips of the Dead Ends cassettes on Youtube. And not unlike many other hardcore reissues I’ve heard, I half expected these LPs to have hiss or audible EQ dropouts. I’m not sure what the label’s sound source was for this new pressing, but I was thoroughly pleased how clear and punchy they sound. These sound like classic records, certainly deserving of having a proper release back in the 80s. Kind of a shame they didn’t from one point of view. From another, I’m stoked I get to listen to them on vinyl now in the year 2024. Dead Ends broke up in 1996 after the death of Jay Dimalanta. RIP. His brother Al, who was the chief songwriter in Dead Ends, has continued to play in bands even as recently as the mid-to-late 2010s. On each of the LPs, Al provides some history and insight in the liner notes. Pretty cool to read.
We only got a handful of copies, so I really hope Sorry State isn’t sold out of these Dead Ends by the time the newsletter comes out. If we are, I think there might a handful of distros still carrying them. Hopefully, Merciless will do a repress if these records become totally unavailable. Show some love for Dead Ends.
That’s all I’ve got. As always, thanks for reading.
‘Til next week,
-Jeff