Roctober Reviews: V A The New Hope (reissue)

(Smog Veil) GUEST REVIEW BY CHRIS BUTLER My mother was from a Cleveland suburb, so there were many trips to see the Grandparents. I remember sunny days in the summer, and lots of Lake Erie snow-belt produced snow in the winter. And I think being really mad about being able to air in WMMS, the proto-classic-rock (because it wasn't quite 'classic' yet, it was current) FM radio station.

But I too remember sometimes we would see this guy on the East Side who rented his upstairs apartment to my parents before they had kids. Their old station was in a nondescript residential neighborhood, not like super-urban downtown Cleveland or anything, but it seemed to me that whenever we went there, it was always drizzling, dim and depressing. This is pretty much the historic and emotional context I put this compilation into. Like the bands on this book were all comprised of kids from the gloomy neighborhoods, somewhere between the inner-city and the suburbs, of Cleveland, OH. And it's peculiar that WMMS, a place that was so instrumental in promoting glam and arena rock bands from England and early parts of the US, was so blatantly scornful of local music. They occasionally played a token Cleveland band (Michael Stanley Band), but during this same time period (late 70Ss/early 80s) they were overlooking bands like Rocket From The Tombs (who would splinter into Pere Ubu and the Dead Boys), the Pagans, Electric Eels, X-X, etc, who were busy creating the Cleveland legacy most of us know today. And while none of the aforementioned bands are on this reissued 1983 comp, I remember some of their work shows up. 'The New Desire' could be considered a representation of the Silver Age, or second generation, of Cleveland punk. Anyway, since one of the participants on this comp (Tom Miller from Agitated and the Offbeats) mentioned in the press release that when they made 'The New Hope' they were emulating (perhaps a little too hard) comps like the DC area collection 'Flex Your Head', I feel compelled to name some comparisons between these records. First off, the impulsive power behind 'The New Hope', the Ian MacKaye if you will, was one Tom Eakin (aka Tommy Dark) and his band (the Dark) was on the comp (ala Minor Threat). Furthermore, Tommy's brother's band The Guns were included, as with Ian's brother Alec's band The Untouchables. Both comps feature a pompously named, politically over earnest band that too had a call of that name (Artificial Peace from DC and Positive Violence from OH). Positive Violence's theme song didn't look on the original release, but it's included in the expanded material on this reissue. There's also a cerebral, sarcastic, scene critical, slightly poppy band on each comp; Government Take on 'Flex Your Head' and The Offbeats from 'The New Hope'. And so there are the remainder of the bands on each record, many of whom were just kind of going through the hardcore motions. But this reissue is all worth it for the gems that are on it, and for the bonus content, all of which adds to a clearer image of early 80s US hardcore punk than the coastal gatekeepers have been presenting.