The Landlords: Hey! It's a Teenage House Party 12"

The Landlords: Hey! It's a Teenage House Party 12"


Tags: · 80s · hardcore · recommended · reissues · spo-default · spo-disabled · USHC · virginia
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The 1984 debut LP from The Landlords has long remained a cult favorite amongst punk+hardcore collectors and those local to the band's hometown of Charlottesville, Virginia. Formed in the Fall of 1983 through a chance encounter at WTJU, the University of Virginia's college radio station, The Landlords soon began practicing in the upper floor duplex apartment of bassist Eddie Jetlag, pissing off the landlord who lived downstairs, and thus earning their name. The Landlords' first show came only a couple of months later at the Plum's Lounge talent show, where the power was cut in the middle of their third song. Soon after, The Landlords became acquainted with the local punk scene in Charlottesville, playing frequently with Lackey Die and Beef People, and regional acts like Death Piggy and Scream. In March 1984, The Landlords headed up to Inner Ear Studios to record their debut LP with Don Zientara. Hey! It's A Teenage House Party! was released later that year on the band's own Catch Trout imprint. While the 21 song LP bears the same vibrant production as early DC hardcore releases, The Landlords' style and approach remains unique to this day. While a firmly-rooted hardcore punk record of the 1980's, tracks like "Nuns In Black Leather" (featuring guest vocals from Dave Smalley of D.Y.S. !), "Termination", and "Sinners in the Hands of An Angry God" hint at the dirgier, noise rock influenced direction the band would later move towards. Singer John Beers and guitarist Charlie Kramer would later go on to found the epic experimental duo, Happy Flowers. 

Our take: Reissue of this 1984 hardcore LP. On the surface this LP wouldn’t seem like an obvious candidate for a reissue since the band is rather obscure, but Feel It has done an amazing job of putting together a package that presents the music in the best light and adds some much-needed context that helps you appreciate these tracks even more than if you stumbled across an original copy. The Landlords were from the sleepy little university town of Charlottesville, Virginia, and while Charlottesville is more or less off the punk rock map (this despite Feel It's has reissues of several cool records from that city), its proximity to DC and Richmond meant that bands like the Landlords could take advantage of those scenes’ fringe benefits, like being able to play with national touring bands and being able to record in Don Zientera’s legendary Inner Ear Studio. Indeed, Hey! It’s a Teenage House Party is a great sounding record, with the same bright and punchy sound of the early Dischord releases that Zientera also recorded (and thanks to quality remastering from the original tapes this reissue likely sounds even better than the original). Musically, on this LP the Landlords are very much a hardcore band and could fit right in on regional hardcore compilations like Flex Your Head or Why Are We Here?, but there are also hints of the more musically complex sound that the Landlords would develop on their later recordings (collected on the Fitzgerald’s Paris LP, also on Feel It). It’s like Articles of Faith’s early material in a way… the Landlords are trying very hard to be a hardcore band on this LP, but there are innumerable hints they’re so much more than just a hardcore band. As I mentioned before, the sound on this reissue is top-notch, and it also comes with a full-size zine jam-packed with liner notes and never-before-seen photos. If you’re in to the Radio Raheem school of hardcore archeology you’ll find a ton to love here, but any lover of early 80s US hardcore will get plenty of spins out of this one.