Lost Records

For those of you out there in the know, you'll be aware of where this blog takes its name - the early 80s prog masterpiece by Bad Religion. For those of you who are BR virgins, the band started out as a third-tier Los Angeles punk group (behind the likes of the Circle Jerks, Germs, Black Flag, Minutemen, Alleycats, Flesheaters, X etc, etc) before following the 'anything goes' maxim of punk (or what they saw as punk) and falling back on their prog rock roots (Greg Graffin's early years in Wisconsin) for their sophomore effort Into the Unknown. Well, it seems that the LA punkers at the time were just not ready for such a leap and were hostile to the release (two of the band even left during recording so as not to spoil their name). As a result, the group disowned it, refused to repress or reissue it in any form and after a brief hiatus came back with the Into the Known EP (a return to their punk sound) and from there released Suffer, the album which almost single-handedly kick started the SoCal punk revolution that would grip the world (for better or for worse) for the next decade.

However, what of this record - overall I have to say that it isn't bad, clearly there are some wince inducing sounds which are far too 80s for my liking and an air of pomposity but then that was the point of prog was it not? It took me a long time to get a listen to this album (if you fancy it head over to Strange Reaction and hunt around - I'm sure it's on there somewhere) and if I have to pick a favourite it would have to be Time & Disregard, which is probably the most overblown song on the record. Still, for something a little different this is more than worth a shot - I just wish that Brett Gurewitz at Epitaph would consider reissuing it on CD some day.

On the subject, are there any albums any of you out there would want to see reissued - my wants would have to be Mystery Spot by Angst (my shout for the most underrated SST band, although I'm sure everyone has their own opinion on that one), Gone Fishin' by Flipper and Too Many Humans by No Trend. There are probably loads more but I can't think of any other standouts right at this minute so that can wait for another day.