CAPITOL PUNISHMENT "IN THE BEGINNING " CD

CAPITOL PUNISHMENT has always been one of My Favorite 80's Punk bands ,mainly because like the flyer pictured, they played some of the first hardcore and punk shows I went to ( as well as ILL REPUTE, STALAG 13, etc and many other bands that would stop and play at the Basement of the San Luis Obispo Vets hall, later the site of a Police riot at a DEAD KENNEDYS show the year after I moved back to Alabama). Their "When Putsch Comes To Shove" is one of the great underrated hardcore records of the 1980's, a total Stormer of great songs, huge production and on the original pressing, monsterous mastering by George Horn, who also has done most of Prank's releases.



Anyway I was excited to see Dale from CAPITOL PUNISHMENT has just self-released a new CD of Live and rehearsal tracks and interviews that precede their vinyl releases on their Stagedive label they've had since the 80's. These feature their original vocalist that predated any of their vinyl releases, and while maybe date from a little less of a PC era of punk and are less blistering thrash of their later stuff, they also are brimful of Fun energy and rawness often missing from bands that followed later..and are a stripped down version of the cool songwriting of Later CP.. While maybe not the best place to start with CAPITOL PUNISHMENT, it's a good treat for fans...At the end their are interviews with various Fresno bands ( including the admittedly contraversal " NBJ" who are on MRR"s " Not so quiet on the Western Front" ) but mixed with miscellaneous and ambient noise, police and party noises, makes for a fun listen. " we want to roll in the mud and say "that is art!"

Dale had also re-released the awesome Fresno 1984 Cassette compilation on CD awhile back which has lots of great tracks by Central California 80's bands and is well worth the $10.

You can order both these CD's here ASSUALT,MERE MORTALS and other bands played a lot of the Vets Hall shows I saw, and the bassist of MERE MORTALS was a pal from High school...but the CD has a great quality of different bands just guessing, making up and defining their approach to punk and having fun with it, so there's a good and interesting variety of sounds.