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We took last week off from the newsletter so I could spend a few days driving around the east coast of the United States seeing bands, visiting record stores, eating vegan deli sandwiches, and trying to squeeze in the odd hour of work on my laptop whenever I could. The journey started at the Life / Destruct gig in Richmond, proceeded to Norfolk, Virginia to see Illiterates, then up to New York and then Philly to catch two of Yleiset Syyt’s four US tour dates. The shows were a blast… the bands ripped, and it was great to see so many friends, particularly my Finnish buddies Ville and Tumppi. And while I only mentioned the touring / headlining bands above, all these gigs were stacked with killer locals too, including bands I knew like Richmond’s Ultimate Disaster and Philly’s Early Grave and bands that were totally new to me like Norfolk’s Living Dead and Richmond’s Massacre System. If you didn’t already know it, punk is alive and well.
I also visited a ton of record stores on my trip. I got to catch up with Tony at Celebrated Summer, Colin at Sit & Spin, Max at Nexus, Dave at Vinyl Addiction, and check out a bunch of other shops too. Of course, I came home with a ton of records. It’s a weakness of mine. I’m interested in so much music that it’s nearly impossible for me to leave a record store empty-handed. Even in a crummy store, I can usually find a record or two that I’m curious about. At stores like any of the Academy locations in New York, where the stock is always fresh and the prices are attractive, I’m dragging armloads of vinyl to the counter. If I’m lucky, I find a few things I’ve been actively looking for (Academy, for instance, had several punk compilations that were on my want list, one of which I’m sure I’ll write about for the newsletter soon), but usually what I find are records I’ve heard about but don’t really know, or things that just look intriguing. And then sometimes you decide that today is the day you finally pull the trigger on a record you should have bought a long time ago… such is the case with my pick for this week:
The Authorities: Puppy Love 12” (Buckwheat Headlock Productions, 1995)
Like many people, I’m sure, my first exposure to the Authorities was via Screeching Weasel’s cover of the song “Achtung,” which appeared on Kill the Musicians, their first collection of non-album tracks that came out (on CD only!) on Lookout! in 1995. I must have bought Kill the Musicians right around the time it came out, and I wore that fucker out. Aside from the Minor Threat discography CD, it was one of my first exposures a compilation of non-album tracks by a punk band. I would soon learn that these were usually where the gold was, since punk bands often put their best songs on EPs and singles. That’s certainly the case with Kill the Musicians, which contained many of Screeching Weasel’s best songs. Even among those, though, “Achtung” stood out with its hooky vocals (the verses are even catchier than the chorus!) and those precise, lunging stops that occur throughout the song. Brilliant track.
While I’m sure Ben Weasel’s rambling liner notes for Kill the Musicians mention that “Achtung” is a cover, it was many years before I heard the Authorities again. I’m guessing my next exposure was “I Hate Cops,” which memorably kicked off Mystic Records’ We Got Power (Party Or Go Home) compilation (which I often refer to as my favorite compilation of all time). “I Hate Cops” is right up there with “Achtung” as far as brilliant hardcore punk tunes go, but there was still more to hear! It was probably somewhere in the late 90s when I heard the first Killed by Death compilation, which features both “I Hate Cops” and the Authorities’ third stone-cold classic tune, “Radiation Masturbation.”
All three tracks (along with “Shot in the Head,” which ain’t no slouch either) appeared on the Authorities sole 80s release, 1982’s Soundtrack for Trouble EP. Sadly, I’ve never been able to land an original pressing, but in 1995 Buckwheat Headlock Productions combined Soundtrack for Trouble with a previously unreleased 1983 studio session and released it as the Puppy Love LP. While the 10 extra tracks you get on Puppy Love might not have the cache of the original Soundtrack for Trouble songs, you’d be hard-pressed to discern any dip in quality. The band still plays with fire, hard and fast but brimming with classic punk hooks and a touch of 60s psychedelic texture. If you’re a fan of Angry Samoans, you’ll love it… though I’d argue the Authorities do it even better. It’s nice, too, that Puppy Love is succinct, taking an all-killer-no-filler approach rather than digging up sub-par material like live and rehearsal tapes. It’s so short that it spins at 45rpm.
The Authorities were from the small city of Stockton in northern California. Music heads will remember Stockton has another notable musical export: indie rock legends Pavement. The bands aren’t unconnected, either; Pavement’s original drummer Gary Young helped engineer and mix the 1983 session on Puppy Love and also played drums in a band called The Fall of Christianity with Authorities guitarist Brian Thalken. I’m a fan of Pavement and the Authorities, and it’s cool that Pavement has always name-checked the Authorities. The Authorities definitely got a mention in the recent film Pavements, and Pavement even got the Authorities to reunite when they curated the All Tomorrow’s Parties festival in 2010, which led to more touring and some releases by the reformed band (which, honestly, I haven’t heard).
While the version of Puppy Love I picked up at Academy is the original 1995 pressing on Buckwheat Headlock Productions, Get Hip Records has kept the Authorities flame alive by keeping both Puppy Love and Soundtrack for Trouble in print. We should do a better job keeping them in stock at Sorry State, but they’re out there and available if you need to get some material by this brilliant band in your collection.