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(Re)Collection: WHRB Hardcore Orgy Radio Show Tape (1983)

Writer's picture: Michael LenziMichael Lenzi

The Holy Grail Punk Rock Tape

WHRB 24 Hour Hardcore Orgy Radio Show Tape From 1983


Playlist:

The Germs: Media Blitz

SS Decontrol: No Reply (Buzzcocks cover)

Bad Brains: Pay to Cum

Discharge: (don't know the title of this song)

The Subhumans (Canada): Dead At Birth

Bad Religion: Politics

The Insane: Politics

The Misfits: Horror Business

Government Issue: Teenager in a Box

Suicidal Tendencies: Institutionalized

SOA: Public Defender

The Ramones: Teenage Lobotomy

Vox Pop: Cab Driver

The Manic Depressives: Going Out with the In-Crowd

Discharge: State Violence State Control

The Germs: Forming (Live at the Whiskey with intro from Belinda Carlisle of the Go-Gos)

X: Los Angeles

Blitz: Someone's Gonna Die

Husker Du: In A Free Land

The Meatmen: Tooling for Anus

The Offbeats: Maybe

The Middle Class: Out of Vogue

Black Flag: Nervous Breakdown

DOA: The Prisoner (1978)

DOA: The Prisoner( 1980)

The Stimulators: Loud Fast Rules

The Blood Clots: Louie Louie

The Avengers: American in Me

Kraut: Unemployed

The Prevaricators: Ode to Mr. Ed

The Dickies: Give It Back

The Necros: IQ32

The Nasal Boys: Hot Love

Toxic Reasons: Ghost Town

Circle Jerks: World Up My Ass

Angry Somoans: Gimme Sopor

100 Flowers: Salmonella

Minor Threat: Stand Up

Dead Kennedys: Insight

The Minutemen: Joe McCarthy's Ghost


Well, I unearthed this gem from the oblivion of my tape collection which is now stored in very large Tupperware tubs in a basement closet. I thought I lost it years ago. I mean like 30 years ago!


I first listened to it in 1983. And what a revelation it was. My good friend Dave Nolan moved up to Boston our senior year in high school. Prior to that, he went to Gonzaga with me in DC. He was my first musical mentor. He had all the sounds at his house. I had none. His cluttered bedroom was our record store.


Dave would continue to send tapes to me and my best friend Ben. This sonic missive was one of them. It is a recording of 90 minutes of the annual 24 hour Hardcore Orgy radio show on WHRB, the Harvard radio station. Both Ben and I received a copy of it. It was so significant to us at the time that we talked often about the dream of one day owning all of the records on this tape. That seemed impossible.


Why was it so important to us? I can't speak for Ben, but it connected a lot of dots for me. It gave this growing interest of mine some much needed context. Black Flag's Nervous Breakdown (the first hardcore song I heard) makes a little more sense when it is in the proximity of the Circle Jerks, the Angry Somoans, X, the Germs, the Minutemen and the Dickies. It also introduced me to the Misfits. The song Horror Business is such an amazing encapsulation of the things I would learn to love about them: the brutish, lo-fi noise, the barely intelligible words, the trashy guitars and the Jim Morrison-by-way-of-Elvis voice of Glenn Danzig.


And I learned a few facts in this punk rock correspondence class taught by WHRB. Belinda Carlisle was once in the Germs. No Reply was originally a Buzzcocks song. There were two Subhumans: one Canadian and one British. DOA recorded the song The Prisoner twice in 3 years. The Circle Jerks World Up My Ass and the Angry Samoans Gimme Sopor are basically the same song. The guitarist left the Angry Somoans and took the song with him to the Circle Jerks. Henry Rollins was in SOA before leaving to join Black Flag. Bad Brains are hands down the greatest hardcore band ever. Is that a fact? Haha.


Finally, I am reminded again that I was once 17 years old. I didn't know much. I had a narrow perspective on music. This piece of plastic, gears and tape opened me up just a little. And I still really like the songs on this tape. Except for that stupid Meatmen song which is downright offensive and moronic. But that has always been an element of punk rock, hasn't it?


This tape is the grail. I am so happy I found it again.



























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