This is the best Connecticut punk 7"-er of it's time, in my opinion, although the Reducers "Out Of Step"/"No Ambition" 45 and maybe the Stratford Survivors record are the only other legitimate contenders.
I guess October Days get compared to the Wipers a lot, but it would take having listened to the Wipers more than once or twice for me to figure that one out. What I like the most about October Days in general, and this record in particular (besides the awesome sleeve, of course, which is one of my all-time favorites), is that they wrote really ambitious songs that have a bunch of different things going on in them, but they don't have a lot of show-offy bullshit. October Days understood the value of punk's aggression, and in keeping things catchy and memorable. Plus, the chorus to "West Coast" goes, "Champagne new-rich new wave punk bitch," which isn't what he really says but it sure sounds like it, at least.
I've chosen ignore the reggae aspects of "Don't Give Yourself Away", preferring instead to think of it as a close relation to the Circle Jerks' "Back Against The Wall" while marveling at that cool pre-Dr.Dre organ riff bubbling along in the background.
October Days -
"West Coast"
"Don't Give Yourself Away"
(these files are now listen-only)
3 comments:
This is really good and I definitely hear the Wipers influence. Never heard of this before man. Thanks for sharing!
Just doin' my part for the peoples!
.. except the mp3 files on this post are now listen-only (non-downloadable) files. For those of you who came to the party late, I will do my best to respond to any e-mailed requests for the original files.
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