Crass?

[Brandon's Impotent Rage]

So recently I've been getting into the band Crass. They're considered to be the godfathers of the whole 'anarcho-punk' scene and are also considered art punks due to their heavy use of graphics, spoken word and tape effects in their music and performances.

I've heard a few songs on youtube, and I've liked what I've heard so far. What do you guys think is their best album to start out with?

[Os Cangaceiros]

"Penis Envy" is probably their most accessible, or so I've heard...when I was into punk a lot, I wasn't really that interested in Crass or "peace punk" in general.

I was more of a American Hardcore type.

[adipocere]

I was always partial to Penis Evny.

[Brandon's Impotent Rage]

Penis Envy is the album with all female vocals, right?

[adipocere]

Yes, but it's stylistically different as well. It might as well be a different band.

[Flying Purple People Eater]

Alright music but most of their songs are fairly repetitive and their politics are complete trash.

[Creative Destruction]

Penis Envy is one of my top 10 favorite albums, but it is completely different from the rest of the catalog. Christ - The Album is really good. i had that on vinyl for a while.

but Crass is really notable, to me, for the bands they inspired. that whole crust scene is fucking awesome. i love me some Nausea.

[The Garbage Disposal Unit]

Yeah, Penis Envy is pretty brilliant. A lot of their singles are pretty stand-out too - they're all collected on the compilation "Best Before 1984", which I recommend highly.

If (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EEmmD0yExk) you're (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAnvmxeClG4) interested (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GXtkAJOZ1s) in (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0E93Lmf2bs) / enthusiastic (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaRWuQHvBAs) about (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7kLsDK19WM) peace (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOukq5BLOM4) punk (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAK0SMAPzdM), I (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzmWA5Qzv8k) have (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GNlmsh33-M) lots (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzfTyUzTKIE) of (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQJAcFD7-yA) suggestions (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3dcLR8WB_I).

[Blake's Baby]

I liked 'Feeding of the 5000' back when I was an angsty teenager dressing in black.

[Futility Personified]

Big A Little A makes me a very happy bunny.

[Admiral Swagmeister G-Funk]

i like a few of their tunes. was big into them when i was into punk in general. 'banned from the roxy' has a wicked chorus - 'whose life, whose fucking life? who the fuck are they talking to?'

[Sasha]

Love the music but they are such utter assholes I just can't listen to them anymore. The way they burned the rondo's after the AFA smashed the nazis away from their gig is just dispicable.

[Brandon's Impotent Rage]

Yeah, I'm familiar with songs like "Bloody Revolution" where they are VERY critical of revolutionary violence.

And yet, I still find their music very intelligent and compelling.

[Sasha]

i respect them being pacifists but burning other bands, calling them fascists for taking care of your nazi problem who are terrorizing and assaulting your fans is just a bullshit thing to do...

[RedBen]

way better anarchist/punk bands out there, like lots.

[RedBen]

i respect them being pacifists but burning other bands, calling them fascists for taking care of your nazi problem who are terrorizing and assaulting your fans is just a bullshit thing to do...
that's like the fence walkers in the skinhead scene calling antifa/sharps/rash just as bad as nazis... garbage.

[Sasha]

that's like the fence walkers in the skinhead scene calling antifa/sharps/rash just as bad as nazis... garbage.

Yeah, that's a bit what I took away from that and other stuff that people who knew them (mostly people from classwar etc) told me. At first I had massive respect for them because I took their pacisfism as a principled position (radical pacifism has a huge legacy in dutch anarchism and while myself anything but a pacifist I have massive respect for the dutch anarcho pacifist movement pre WW2), but later I started to suspect they where just to cowardly and indeed like many fencesitters it was mostly a front to hide behind.

[Tolstoy]

Feeding of the 5000 is an incredible album. I would also reccomend Choking Victim, Oi Polloi and Conflict

[brigadista]

hippies in punk clothes...

[human strike]

Conflict > Crass

[motion denied]

punk is dead is decent.

don't like them though

[The Garbage Disposal Unit]

Conflict > Crass

Ew. CRASS are weird hippies, but CONFLICT are anti-choice and anti-immigration. Fuck that.

[theghostofnestor]

Ew. CRASS are weird hippies, but CONFLICT are anti-choice and anti-immigration. Fuck that.

Anti immigration??? What makes you say that? I still like 'feeding of the 5000' but crass lost me as a fan when they threatened a certain site with legal action due to them seeding their stuff. Never heard conflict being anti immigration. There was a allegation of assault in one country but my memory is hazy on the issue and a search revealed nothing

[Brandon's Impotent Rage]

Ew. CRASS are weird hippies, but CONFLICT are anti-choice and anti-immigration. Fuck that.

I know about the anti-abortion thing, but anti-immigration? That one I had not heard.

[The Garbage Disposal Unit]

W/r/t Conflict:

Dig the song "Option". Not OK.
Also, kicking around the internet somewhere is an email exchange between "Love and Rage" (Australia) and Colin, in which Colin basically says, "Whatever - free speech!"

Oh, here it is (http://forums.punkas.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=16048&start=15&sid=62997181d6723dde3e583275a713fab4&view=print).

[Yuppie Grinder]

I like Crass. The greatest of the 80s British anarchopunk/d-beat scene besides them would be Discharge, Amebix, Conflict, Extreme Noise Terror, Rudimentary Peni, and my personal favorite Flux of Pink Indians. Flux of Pink Indians is a little more on the free-form noisy side of things, like Crass.

[Yuppie Grinder]

Speaking of English punk, does anyone here listen to Oi type stuff?

[The Garbage Disposal Unit]

Speaking of English punk, does anyone here listen to Oi type stuff?

That whole style anarcho stuff doesn't do it for me (Oi Polloi, Aus Rotten - sort of heavy boring long punk-with-some-hardcore-riffing songs) most of the time . . . BUT! I totally listened to ...And Now Back to Our Programming on 45 instead of 33 the other day, and it kinda ruled.

But, w/r/t your previous post, yeah, Flux of Pink Indians fucking rule.

[Os Cangaceiros]

What about Zounds? Zounds actually had a sound that was more "listenable" than most of their contemporaries, I think.

Other UK lesser-knowns (although not necessarily "anarcho-punk) like Lurkers and GBH were also better than Crass, IMO. And Anti-Nowhere League.

[Os Cangaceiros]

Speaking of English punk, does anyone here listen to Oi type stuff?

Yeah, like Blitz!

uauJaamtoew

Song just makes you want to go stab someone after a football match, doesn't it!

[Os Cangaceiros]

I'll just mention two more "political bands" of note from that whole scene, The Threats from Scotland and the Subhumans:

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OK. I'm done.

[bcbm]

i really like crass, all included, even knowing that they are wiener pacifists and their politics suck in the long run. some good songs and good ideas there, just gotta (like just about everything else) disregard the crap surrounding them

[L.A.P.]

Speaking of English punk, does anyone here listen to Oi type stuff?

I'm listening to Suburban Rebels by The Business right now and it's neat

[newdayrising]

Crass - culturally important, seemed to be great people, but the politics were actually kind of shit. Pacifist, moralist lifestylism. Not for me.

[RedBen]

I'm listening to Suburban Rebels by The Business right now and it's neat

mickey fitz is a nazi sympathizer if not a closet nazi. i knew some people he got into it with back in the late 80's. they still want a piece of him.

[Leftsolidarity]

Just to echo other folks, the feeding of the 5000 is rad and you should definitely check out Rudimentary Peni, Flux of Pink Indians, APPLE, and some other bands that I've forgotten about cuz I don't listen to much of that stuff anymore. It's all good but I got kinda sick of the pacifist stuff. I want music that will make me want to punch a cop not yell at someone for punching one.

[RedBen]

I want music that will make me want to punch a cop not yell at someone for punching one.

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