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What’s up Sorry Staters?
So funny story, my buddy Alex and I went to go see Jackass: Forever the other night. On the way there, Alex was just playing tunes off of his phone in the car. This one song came on that just RIPPED, and I asked Alex, I sez to him: “My dude, what is this badass ripping hardcore with lyrics I don’t understand?” He went on to tell me that it was a track from the Rapsodie En France compilation. Funny coincidence, this 1985 compilation cassette literally just got reissued on LP courtesy of World Gone Mad Records in conjunction with the original label Jungle Hop. And now Sorry State has copies. My lucky day!
I’ll admit, I’m not super well-versed on French hardcore. I’d heard a Heimat Los 7” at some point years ago and really dug that. I’d also heard Rapt before, always associating their gnarly, noisy, speedy hardcore with bands like Lärm from the Netherlands. Then Rapt also has that split 7” with Final Blast, which Chris and Michael Hardy from Velted Regnub introduced me to. Honestly, Final Blast might be my favorite band on this comp. The catchy tuneful riffs kinda remind me of Zmiv or something like that. Maybe there’s a correlation between French and Dutch hardcore that catches my ear? Who knows? Heimat Los even has a song called “Amsterdam” haha. But this compilation is chock full of killer bands that I’d never really heard before. The first band, Les Vandales, has 3 songs that just fuckin’ kill, and I’m pretty sure this is the band that Alex played for me in his car. The fidelity of the recordings from band to band really varies. The songs by Les Bloody Fuckers sound really blown out, but are totally killer. Anyway, I could talk about every band, but I won’t get into all that. To me, the fact that this compilation was previously never properly released on vinyl is almost criminal. This is a snapshot of a (maybe?) relatively under-the-radar, but killer 80s hardcore scene. Every band looks cool and sounds cool. The reissue LP comes with a thick booklet with photos, interviews, and loads more, which looks totally rad. A lot of it is in French, so degenerates like me don’t know how to read it, but the photos are fun to look at.
If you’re unfamiliar with 80s French punk and need a good jumpstart on finding out what it’s all about, then I highly recommend you check out Rapsodie En France.
Oh and also, that Tower 7 gig in Richmond this Saturday is gonna be insane. Hope to see all of you freaxxx there!
That’s all I’ve got for ya filthy animals. As always, thanks for reading.
‘Til next week,
-Jeff