Violent Reaction Interview for Marching On

Violent Reaction Interview

With Tom Pimlott (vocals)

Marching On

Revelation Records.

By hutch

LINE UP:  Razor, guitars; Charlie, Guitars; Nick, Drums; Colin, Bass; Tom, Vocals

When Tom Pimlott lists his current line-up for Violent Reaction, he appends their resumes as they all have been in “a million bands”. He quietly states that he also drums for The Flex (an amazing band) and all these members additionally rotate to form Arms Race. Those are only the current bands. As I talk to Pimlott in the New York hotel, the band sits behind him for help and jest. The jets on the plane that transported them from the UK to the US are still cooling as Violent Reaction crash our shores. They have a show each day on this tour, where they will double bill with Arms Race as well. Eleven days is the time in which Violent Reaction is given to decimate stages. They also added DC’s Damaged City Fest last minute, because, well, idle hands, I guess. Straight Edge protagonists, their work ethic flies a banner for the movement.

Pimlott lists the cities of the tour, like an ad hoc grocery list. “DC, RVA, Philly, Boston. That’s two shows; a day show at The Elks with No Tolerance and Chain Rank, the night show is at the Boiler Room with Stand Off and Leather Daddy. That’s gonna be sick.” I remind him of Pittsburgh on the 9^th, as he tries to order his brain. “Yep. NYC tonight. Then Damaged City tomorrow. We have played the last two years. They’re our friends. Chicago, Detroit, Indianapolis, and…”. “Rochester,” someone offers from the background.

Short, fast, loud, and angry are adjectives to describe the furious hardcore Violent Reaction play. Influences like Negative Reaction, Minor Threat, SSD, Agnostic Front tied in with 4 Skins and Blitz are obvious and appreciated.  Recent bands like Set to Explode, 86 Mentality, Wasted Time, Sectarian Violence can be counted as peers.  Marching on is the most focused Violent Reaction has been since it began as Pimlott’s one man project. The 2012 seven inch was Pimlott only. But by, 2013, for their impressive City Streets full length, he had a full band. Marching On marks a time with everyone writing music and contributing. “It came together faster, painless. And it still sounds like us.”

After two releases on Boston indie label, Painkiller, Revelation releasing this new album has to be a major step. Pimlott, however, reacts casually when I ask about a rigorous process. “They just asked us. We were just minding our business. We weren’t shopping around,” Tom states plainly. However, that tepid response in no way diminishes his pride. “We have all listened to this label since we first got into hardcore.” Tom also notes, “we are the first non-American band to be on Revelation.”

James Atkinson, of UK hardcore icons, Voorhees, produced the album. Atkinson knows how to get that dirty, yet crisp, hardcore fidelity as buzzsaw guitars parallel roiling drums. “It was relaxed.” Pimlott elaborates, “(Atkinson) was cracking jokes. He is our usual guy. He did our last album.” Like the songs they write, the process of recording was short and fast. “We did most of it in one day. He just presses record. Other producers, they stick their nose in. He knows what he is doing. He lets us do our thing.”

The album expresses that urgency. It sounds as if it was recorded live. The functionality of a band that plays so vigorously together, in multiple bands, comes across with a distinguished ferocity. Pimlott concurs, “We like the way we sound live. So we did it live.” The background corrects slightly again. “Oh right, we did one guitar track and the bass and drums live. Then we added leads and then vocals.” Despite the concrete line-up now, Violent Reaction lost their bassist right before recording. “Charlie was a champ. He did the bass and the leads. It was a busy day,” Pimlott laughs as he describes what will be a classic hardcore album decades from now being completed in a day and a half.

The venomous, disdainful lyrics espousing rebellion are of the “usual punk rock lyrics,” Pimlott dismisses. He states in their live sets that they do Boston and UK and DC hardcore band covers; as I had noted their style is akin. “DC is our second home. So is Boston. We have just as many friends in those cities. Actually, Philly is like that for us too. Los Angeles has many friends for us. Oh, and all of Texas.” These additions of secondary and tertiary homes relay that Violent Reaction are playing true hardcore with sincerity and humility. The honest and vicious execution of punk rock cultivates their friendships, fans and any scene they play. 

Special Duties 77 One More Time Review

Special Duties

77 One More Time Volume I

Jailhouse Records

Review by hutch

I spend time around a lot of younger kids. No, not “lurking in playgrounds” style around kids. And when I say “kids”, I mean early twenties. One place is work. Plus, the scene and pubs. Another is my hobby of film making, littered with embellished kids dreaming of being famous (not good at acting and respected for their craft; but being famous). These young people sensationalize and idealize the 19080’s, saying how ‘awesome’ it must have been. I am often reminded the line in Dazed and Confused, “The seventies obviously sucked so the eighties are gonna rule!”. Well, I hated the friggin 80’s. Despite all the great music produced, much of my favorite sub-cultures suffer from piss poor production and over aiming for a big sound of the arena bands. Both styles acted as detriments to bands recording in the eighties.

Special Duties kicked onto the scene in 1980, with the distilled spirit of punk. Two years later, they personified this ethos in their album title, 77 in 82. They had had a few 45’s, in 1980, 1981. But their first full length was released and spat with a simplistic rage. Fast and harsh was Special Duties’ formula and it worked well. These founding songs are being remastered with the grit and low end punch which they deserve in 77 One More Time (Volume I).

These songs capture the urgency of the UK scene in 1982. There is no catchiness here, no pop hooks; just anger and riffs.  Even the “ohhh’s” in “Delayed Reaction” are undercut with the blistering tempo and chainsaw guitars. The remastering filters out the null space of ‘80s sound and fill in the gaps with charge and spite.

While more raucous and chaotic, Special Duties’ riffs certainly have some songs that sound like The Business. Judge and Jury sound like Suburban Rebels on steroids. Which is fine with me. Funny enough, even with the Business reference, the thing that Mickey and the boys bug me is when they get too slow. Special Duties rarely invoke the reduced tempo. “Britain in ‘81” slows it down for the first time at track eight. But the mastering, as would have been common at the time, does not overdo the drums to render the song mired in obnoxious production. It is slow, but still snarls like Anti Nowhere League would even at a slower pace. And well, that is the only slower song of the seventeen included here.

Notorious alchemists of hubris and rigid liberalism, Maximum Rock and Roll wanted to love this album for its encompassing “everything: ripping guitars, amphetamine speed, sandpaper vocals, catchy choruses”. Alas, they could only recommend it if the “imbecility quotient wasn't so high”; pointing to Special Duties’ “asserting with jingoistic passion that they don't want to die for a weak England!” *(Maximum Rocknroll #3, November/December 1982 – killfromtheheart.com) You certainly may heed that word. But, maybe 1982 British politics do not necessarily impact your current life that frequently.

The lyrics, however chagrinned by Max RnR, still resonate with me in a general application of working class struggles. As the drudgery of my soulless job bothers me, and its disconnected owners, I certainly can blast “They Don’t Care About Me”:

“And still they don't care about me/ Yet I'm not earning no free money

And I don't get no press sympathy/ But I won't take no charity

I go to bed late every night/ I have to get up early it just ain't right

I've gotta be at work by 8am/ For another eight hours of us and them”

Certainly these are lyrics that anyone can relate who would be listening to punk, regardless of era.

And to contrast the negativity of MRNR, KFTH.com also lists this review: “Ah yeah, I think this is probably one of the best records to come out of Britain in a long time. Special Duties put their hearts into their music.” (from Paranoia #6, Spring 1983) Hearts are certainly there. And when you put that much honesty out for others to hear – you are going to piss someone off. Especially when they troll records looking to be offended.

Song titles like “Government Policies”, “Violent Youth”, “Rise and Fight”, “Depression” and “Violent Society” “Police State” should indicate what you are getting into if you are unfamiliar. Special Duties’ boots kick in doors of the system with a disgusted perspective of the working class as they look up to the aristocracy trapping them. The palpable hate and the rebellion are wrenched into each spewed cynical syllable.

77 One More Time has been remastered to capture the fury. This release strengthens the lost bits without compromising the integrity or the heart of Special Duties. Every drop of enraged sweat and spewed disdain is left intact. This should whet your tongue for 77 One More Time Volume II and an LP of new material in 2015.

BUY IT

RIYL: Red Alert, Discharge, Partisans, Abrassive Wheels, Blitz, The Ejected, Cockney Rejects