Record of the Week: White Cross: Fascist 7"

White Cross: Fascist 7” (Beach Impediment Records) Beach Impediment brings us the first-ever reissue of one of the shining lights of United States hardcore punk: White Cross’s 1982 7” EP, officially self-titled, but often referred to as Fascist, after the record’s first song. I know every Tom, Dick, and Harry’s 80s hardcore band is getting a deluxe reissue these days, but White Cross’s EP really is one of the best USHC records ever. Hailing from Richmond, Virginia, White Cross was just over an hour away from the mythical Washington, DC scene, and this EP sounds a lot like the early Dischord hardcore releases. Without a doubt, if you love those, you’ll love this, but White Cross has their own voice… a little looser, a little punkier, a little more unhinged and dangerous. They’re also uncommonly talented songwriters for a band pounding out tunes almost exclusively in sub-one-minute bursts. Of this EP’s 8 songs (9 if you count the fragment “Outro”), three of them—“Fascist,” “Jump Up My Ass” (memorably covered by Socialcide back in my heyday), and “Having Fun”—qualify as all-time punk classics. It’s one thing to play fast and wild, but quite another to get the kids to sing along while you’re doing it. Of course Beach Impediment’s reissue is class all the way. While the packaging mostly recreates the original issue in striking detail, a few subtle upgrades increase the coolness factor without losing the feeling that you’ve come across a perfectly preserved time capsule from 1982. A totally essential blast of 1980s hardcore punk.