Monday, February 15, 2010

ELECTRO HIPPIES - THE ONLY GOOD PUNK... IS A DEAD ONE (1987)


Although short-lived and relatively obscure (on this side of the pond, at least), Electro Hippies were an important stepping stone between the British crust/vegan/anarchopunk scene of the mid 80's and the major-label/Earache/death metal scene that emerged there in the mid 90's. Sporting a definite "crust" aesthetic, the Hippies played fast, short, fuzzed-out punk songs that are best described as "proto-grind". Yes, their subject matter (social issues, vegetarianism, war), general sloppiness, and Peni-esque guitar tone definitely land them on the "punk" side of the fence, but they also had a certain speed, vitriol, and anger that bordered on "metal".
And another thing re: "metal cred" - Electro Hippies contained among their ranks one Jeff Walker, who you guys probably remember from that one band Carcass. Did anyone else see Carcass on their reunion tour last year? Were you confused by that spoken-word Crass thing that they opened their set with? Is this all starting to make sense?

A vague interpretation of where the Electro Hippies are coming from can be derived from the following equation:
("CARCASS") - ("A + C") = ("CRASS"). OK.

Download HERE


7 comments:

Camellia sinensis said...

Sweet. thx for this. my tapeof EH is old and crappy. this will soften the blow of my morning commute today. cheers.

Anonymous said...

YEAH!YEAH!YEAH!

shargraves said...

I haven't heard this in years. I'll have to tell Jeff when I see him again.

When carcass got mentioned on the tv show Friends he tried to take the piss out of my wife when we were having a beer in town by making out he went out with Phoebe. But my wife ain't that gullible and said - "Whats her real name then."

10 minutes later he managed Lisa Kudrow - but he knew he'd been PWNED.

Nice chap really - that was potentially a good bluff - could be a bit more sarcastic though.

Shelby Cobras said...

One of the stranger moments in network telly history. Akin to the time that kid showed up on Married...With Children wearing a Neurosis shirt or that other episode when Anthrax was jamming in their living room. Are you familiar with that show in the UK?

Cory said...

oh they know The Bundys in the UK.

shargraves said...

We know married with children over here.

Funnily enough though Anthrax also turned up unexpectedly in a UK film called Calendar Girls - about a bunch of church going old women who do a nude calendar to raise money for one of their husbands who gets cancer.

Its a true story.

He died of course. But they did get quite a lot of publicity.

They hid their parts behind cakes they'd baked and suchlike, thank fuck. So it wasn't granny porn.

Anonymous said...

i love CARCASS