The Scabs – So Called Friends // Frozen Faces (Refused Records) 1981. I first became aware of The Scabs on the great Bloodstains Across Belgium comp that came out back in the 1990s. The A-Side of this single is on there. I have a pretty major infatuation with Belge Punk and New Wave in general. Along with Yugoslavia, I think Belgium had one of the most amazing punk scenes of the original 76-82 explosion. I wonder why the more out of the way places oftentimes produce the best punk rock? It was oftentimes true in America as well (and probably still is). Anyway, these two tracks do not follow the standard Plastic Bertrand path that a lot of Belge Punk followed. They are a little more post-punk and abstract. At the same time, both tracks are very catchy and minimal which seems to be a recurring trait for these bands. The winner here is the A-Side which is an excellent minimalist punk song with a great cowbell. The B-Side Frozen Faces while not as instantly catchy, is the more post-punk of the two. At times it reminds me of The Au Pairs. Definitely a band that was on the line between being punk and post-punk. Not to be confused with The Scabs from the UK who released the excellent (and very British) Armoury Buildings 7inch EP. A future post I assume.
Hardcore Podcasts
September of 2010 I put together eight Hardcore Podcasts. You can check them out here if you are interested. For more insight into how I came up with the years 78-90 for the First Wave you can read about The Hardcore Superiorty Myth.
Nice one Joe, Love this.
i got that comp and have alwasy wanted to hear more, thanks a bunch. can you post a scan of teh back please, can you post a bigger scan of the front, i wanna print it and put in on my wall. thanks
After that the Scabs moved on to what we here in Belgium refer to as Bel-pop: Crappy rock in general. They became rather well known in this tiny land during the 80′s.
Were they still called the Scabs?
Great you like ‘our’ punkbands. Later on, indeed, they became total crap.
Can I leave a request here? You publised DDT en Tales of Terror in 160kbp. Any chance you’d updrage these post to 192? Please, pretty please?
Like your blog! Not many people share the love for fun/hardcore with hiphop, f.e. – I DO
The Scabs were only in their very early stages a ‘punk’ band, they moved on to a more ‘rock’ sound very quickly. You should check out their most famous song (in Belgium) here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jo1RCl4kAxE&feature=related
it’s on the singer’s own youtubechannel (imo a very nice guy)