Thursday, January 3, 2008

Venice, y que?

Some time back, the great blog, True Punk & Metal (http://truepunkmetal.blogspot.com/) posted the No Mercy album. The author writes of being at a show in L.A. and being throughly freaked out by the level of violence surrounding the Venice scene and the bands of that time. And he's right, these dudes were fucking scarier then a hundred pasty, priveliged, Scandinavian black metal teens in panda make-up. The strange marriage between punk music and Southern California Latino gang culture was thoroughly frightening. More so than skinheads, jocks or rednecks. It was almost like a cult, a cult that had no qualms about stabbing you in the pit. Fuuuuck!!! I'm sure by now everyone's heard of Suicidal Tendencies but what of the other cyco cholos who filled out the ranks? So here I present the "Welcome to Venice" compilation LP from 1985, a great glimpse into the unnerving world of Venice hardcore. You get one previously unreleased song by Suicidal Tendencies, some great Motorhead worship from Beowulf, and some ripping crossover thrash from Los Cycos, Excel, and No Mercy. The Venice bands seemed to have a reverence for metal as evidenced by the presence of speed picking on nearly every track. Say what you will about the violence and the sheer stupidity of these bands and their homies, this comp is killer, esse.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=7ECZ82BT
at

6 comments:

  1. AnonymousJanuary 3, 2008 at 10:57 AM

    also got the no mercy album from him . let´s see how the others sound like - timo

    ReplyDelete
  2. AesopJanuary 3, 2008 at 4:19 PM

    Beowulf pretty much owns this comp. IMO

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousJanuary 7, 2008 at 2:15 PM

    i personally have the great honor of being "show-jacked" by Beowulf. they decided they werent gonna go on until 11:00 so there was AN HOUR AND A HALF LULL BETWEEN BANDS AT THE GODAMN TEASZER. i didn't mind though. i had two things goin for me, 1) i was friends with luichi and amery of suicidal and 2) i was/am latin which is like holding a golden ticket...i got to stand around and watch Alfredo (the tyrant-club-manager-with-a-heart-of-gold) go nuts and also flirt with cute boys from venice.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hammerin Hanke, space-simianJanuary 21, 2009 at 5:39 PM

    Excellent album!(excellent site, too Aesop!).. The very best that Venice had to offer at the time. Beowulf's 1st album is really good too. Also, a pretty good precursor to what was to come as far as Punk/Metal Crossover Thrash, which took over like Hell! Somewhat related, is Wasted Youth 'Black Daze' their final and only 'metal' album, produced by Muir and cover art by Ric Clayton, who did almost ALL cover art for every Venice band at the time.

    Oh! And the Brood/Uncle Slam were really good too, also at various times having Louchi Mayorga, Amory Smith, and Bob Heathcoate(all members of S.T. at varying times).

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousMarch 6, 2009 at 7:22 PM

    I fucking LOVE Beowulf...The 1st LP is killer!
    Drink Fight Fuck - Consume Sock Suck! Motorhead inspired of course with a certain(obvious) East L.A. Punk influence. I even dug the later poppier stuff like "2 cents". I really like the comparison with the Norwegians. This was REAL American Voi-lence, like IN YER FACE shit..Nothing creepy & church burnin', only "stabbing in public, Im in a gang" type shit....
    -Mike IX
    EyeHateGod
    Outlaw Order 00%
    Arson Anthem
    myspace.com/nolanine

    ReplyDelete
  6. solidturdAugust 24, 2011 at 5:07 AM

    the second Beowolf track skip a lot .
    WAAAAA MY FREE MUSIC IS MESSED UP

    ReplyDelete