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What’s up Sorry Staters?
Wow, Screaming Mad George, Dolly and Tim Curry? I guess Screaming Mad George died earlier this year, but it wasn’t announced to the public. But still. I was joking earlier this is like that South Park episode where celebrities always die in groups of 3. Yall know the episode I’m talking about? Whatever. Sad news. Meanwhile, I’m still reeling from celebrating my birth haha. Over the weekend, I did not get to see Death Side at Skull Fest, but I had a very nice birthday celebration with the homies in Richmond. Also, thanks to everyone who messaged me :)
For my staff pick this week, I wanted to give some attention to these Third World Chaos reissues on Merciless Records. This same label also reissued those Dead Ends records a couple years back, and I really enjoyed spending some time getting familiar with those. I hate to say it, but I’m not the most knowledgeable about Filipino or Pinoy punk. But this band, who released one single as Chaos, and then later an LP under the name Third World Chaos, seem to be another classic band from the early-to-mid-80s punk scene in the Philippines. Merciless has reissued both of these records in their original format.
Crazy to me, the Chaos 7” single was released on a major label! Released on RCA Victor in 1983, I’m not sure how many of these are out in the wild, but it seems to have become quite the collectors’ item. The 2 songs on the single “Quitter” and “We Are The One” also both appear on the Third World Chaos LP, but the single is quite noticeably a different recording session. For 1983, Chaos’s songwriting is clearly informed by first wave punk rather than hardcore. Maybe it took a while for some of those UK punk records to make their way to the Philippines. The songs are pretty cool, up-tempo, high-energy punk. Quite tuneful, but also have a gritty, hard edge to them. Kinda snotty lyrics, which kinda remind of The Zeros maybe a little bit? Like the B-side track goes something like: “We are the ones who wanna rock’n’roll!”
To my ears, it sounds like the band plays the songs on the single a little bit faster. But even though it was released independently by the band, I actually think the LP has better sounding production. Sonically, it’s a pretty killer recording. Even for 1984, unlike Dead Ends, Third World Chaos are still mining ’77 era punk on their full-length. Almost to the point where I can point out a specific song by different punk bands that maybe were used as inspiration for the Third World Chaos song. One song kinda sounds like “Submission” by the Sex Pistols. Then, another song clearly sounds like Stiff Little Fingers. And what’s funny, is all the lyrics are sang in English. Like for example, the song “You Won’t Anymore” is seriously ripping “Not Anymore” by the Dead Boys so hard, but… with a much less coherent lyrical thread? And I’m not sure if part of it is the language barrier or if the lyrics were written with the intent to come across as having urgency and “punk attitude,” but I did find myself rolling my eyes a couple times. They’re a bit juvenile and maybe lack depth. But hey, that’s okay!
I mean, listen, the first few songs on the LP are bangers, like the opening track “Sophisticated Brat.” This song should be a KBD-style classic. Killer chorus, it goes: “So stick sophistication up your ass!” It’s fucking great. The 2nd track talking about shit like: “Rebel Rocker on the way! On their way to put you down!” The insert uses this chorus as a tag line, but the poster reads, “Rebel Rockers on the LOOSE” instead, which would honestly be much cooler. But whatever. There’s a song called “Insult The Useless People?” Yeah dude. It’s funny. And admittedly quite enjoyable. Some songs on the LP kinda lose my attention a little bit, but overall I think the songs have cool riffs, and some great hooks. Most importantly, I think this a cool document of obscure punk from a place in the world you might not expect or hear about often. Maybe now the records will reach more people than they did originally in the mid-80s, and I think that’s totally rad.
Sorry State still has a good amount of copies of both the LP and the 7” single. The LP comes with a lot of cool bonus packaging, like a poster and some reproduction flyers. Very cool. So, if my little write-up caught your attention, I think you should check out Third World Chaos.
Welp, that’s all I’ve got. As always, thanks for reading.
‘Til next week,
-Jeff