“Let’s have a war! It can start in New Jersey!”
Last week Fear bassist Derf Scratch died and it’s been a little while since we rapped at cha bout the FSS’s undying love of the band so here is a quasi rant/review of “The Record” and “More Beer” courtesy of P ‘n’ T (we’re dynomite). T feels strongly about “The Record”. While P feels the same about “More Beer”. And you know what? They’re both right.
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T’s Take: I’m writing this on a train home from NY to NJ which really is the perfect place to start talking bout Fear. Right now “The Record” is blasting in my phones. Some old codger is busting serious old man ass in the seat next to me and a woman has just given me shit for my bike taking up two seats. I fucking hate these people. I hate New York, trains, farts that aren’t my own, and lugging around a bike and then getting lip service from a stranger who shoulda got to the train on time to get a seat. Fear hates all these things too. And look.. I try to be positive most days. When I’m not rockin’ the Bad Brains PMA though, Fear is my soundtrack. Cause sometimes you just have to give up and hate on shit. And listen, a lot of bands hate a lot of things. War. Fascism. Racism. Poverty. The police state. Actual things. Ya know? Fear takes it a step past all that. They straight hate humanity. They hate the idea of family. They hate New York. They hate saxophones. They laugh at old men dying on the streets. Ironically, they don’t hate war. In fact they encourage it, cause well…there’s too many of us mother fuckers. I understand this. I can get behind this. Right now… on this train. As punk records go it’s not called “The Record” for nothing. It is THE record. The only one you need. I’m serious. It’s angry. Immediate. Raw. Loud. Crass. Obnoxious. Arty music snobs need not apply. Pitchfork suck my balls. Fear is for the kids in the stree-aht (and the men on the trains). Oh yeah they sing about beef bologna too. So rest in peace Derf. I’m sure even you’d agree one less person isn’t all bad at the end of the day.
P’s Take: I was thinking yesterday, only briefly, and it occurred to me that Fear sounded like a butterfly knife. You remember butterfly knives? Those badly-made blades you used to be able to get in Chinese stores back in the day for like five bucks? You could flip them around, they folded up into their handles. Don’t act like you don’t know… yeah them. They were cheap and nasty. Fear sounded like that. I mean that as a compliment.
Fear “The Album” is exceptional. A fucking awesome piece of work, I listen to it probably once every two weeks. But “More Beer”…I dunno. It’s is so much more Fear-ish.
Lemme explain. From what I can piece together Fear was basically just a vehicle for Lee Vings asshattery. The guy essentially made a living out of being a dick. Again I mean this as a compliment. “The Album” is a cohesive bit of early ‘80’s hardcore punk rock, although played with suspiciously better chops than 99 percent of the rest of bands of that time, or since for that matter. “More Beer” is a well-produced, shiny train wreck. It sounds like a caricature of a punk band. If an episode of C.H.I.P.S. had featured a punk show, and I think they may have (ed. They did.), Fear would have been on playing a cut from “More Beer”. Probably The Mouth Don’t Stop. And in between filming Lee would have spit at Erik Estrada… Cuz fuck that guy.
The whole album is a fucking farce, the first song advises women to shut the fuck up once in a while, the third expresses Fear’s desire for more beverages, and track eight is of the opinion that the Cold War could have been brought to an instant conclusion by vaporizing most of Eastern Europe. Fucking, fucking awesome.
That’s really it. “More Beer” is everything stupid about the 80’s, everything cheap and nasty and awesome given an 8/8 beat and overproduced. Like cheap butterfly knives. Like Married With Children on amphetamine. I mean that as a compliment.
And, as a post script, the CD re-issue has demos of Living In The City and my personal favorite Fear song Now Your Dead. This review is for the late Derf Scratch, who died recently after a long illness. What illness? I dunnno but as Lee sang:
Must’a been bad
Now you’re dead
(As a side note, today a Jet Blue employee called a plane full of people mother fuckers, grabbed a beer, and escaped out of an emergency hatch. Fear would approve of this. In fact, whether the employee knew it or not, Fear was his soundtrack)
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