So…its been a while since I posted a skate comp. How about this one from 1983, released only on cassette by the folks in The Faction outta San Jose? Here we got a great set of early 1980’s hardcore. Most of the bands on Growing Pains really didn’t go very far other than some other comps and most are pretty friggin awesome. The tracks by the lesser-known bands towards the end are where it’s at on this one.
Of course we also have some stuff on here by Los Olvidados and The Faction who both went on to bigger and better things. The Faction tracks I believe are not available on the two collections released a few years back. With that said, they are live tracks and are probably for completists only (like me - ha).
The set starts off with the Bruces who I know absolutely nothing about. My favorite song by them is the first one on the cassette Getting Closer By The Hour. Some of the songs by The Bruces sound like early 7 Seconds….My Organ’s Frustration for instance. The recordings are OK but are kinda generic.
Next up we got the might Executioner with a set of extremely lo-fi tunes…which is a shame cuz Executioner were a pretty intense band. They were one of the earliest crossover bands ever. Thier vocalist, a dude by the name of Dave Burks, absolutely kills. They got a myspace here if ya wanna read up on them. More importantly, they recorded an LP in 83 that was never released. Apparently, slackertone records is planning to unleash it soon. News on that is here. Check out Nagasaki from it and witness the fuckin’ power of Executioner!
Next up is the Faction, doing a set of tunes that are all on the Collections volume 1 and 2 in better format. Still its always cool to hear Faction tunes. More info on this seminal skate-core band here and myspace here. This one’s for the SJPD!
Next up we got Grim Reality with another set of poorly recorded HC tracks. Ha ha…I used to confuse Grim Reality with The Grim. They both were skate bands with “Grim” in the title. To my uneducated mind they were both from California…although I now realize there is a huge distance and difference between San Jose and SoCal. Then I heard Grim Reality’s faux UK style on the San Jose comp FROM THE VALLEY WITHIN back in the day and I never made that mistake again. It’s hard to tell if they sound different on Growing Pains cuz the recordings are so raw. Anybody got a copy of FROM THE VALLEY WITHIN they wanna share?
Los Olvidados is next with only two tracks both of which are available on the Alternative Tentacles comp I believe. They sound a bit different but I’m pretty sure this is due to tape speed and stuff. If they are different recordings, they are very similar.
Next up we get Ribzy (pictured to the left - check out the Saxon shirt!). This is where Growing Pains really picks up. First of all, the recording quality seems to improve. These are studio recordings, not live recordings. Second of all, Ribzy was a pretty killer act. Thier only vinyl appearances were on Not So Quiet on the Western Front and FROM THE VALLEY WITHIN. With the exception of All Cut Up which is on FROM THE VALLEY WITHIN, these tracks are all new to my ear and are great in a very Rudimentary Peni meets skatecore sorta way. Ribzy have a myspace here.
Next up is The Unaware who also deliver a great set of well produced (for demo tape standards) HC. The Unaware were also on the Not So Quiet on the Western Front comp with Race War. They released two demo tapes as well and that was it. The guitar sound on some of this is reminiscent of Bitchin’ Summer-era Agent Orange. I wish the vocals were better mixed in but whatcanyado? Can’t find anything on The Unaware online.
The tape ends with two tracks by Whipping Boy, a great Bay Area band. I believe both of these tracks are on thier first LP The Sound of No Hands Clapping. The Sound of No Hands Clapping was produced by DK’s Bassist, Klaus Fluoride. After that Whipping Boy apparently released a psychedelic album MuruMuru in 1983. This abrupt change in style was not welcomed by Whipping Boy’s fanbase, and after several personnel changes and the release of another record, The Third Secret of Fatima, the band broke up in 1986. Incendiary front man Eugene Robinson is now in the avant-garde noise-rock band OXBOW.
Anybody got any of this Whipping Boy stuff? I’ve never heard any of it. The early stuff sounds like Crucifix to me, which isn’t a suprise considering they were both from the Bay Area.
All in all a pretty killer tape. Thanks to Mat Gard for hooking me up with this! Enjoy!
The Bruces
Getting Closer By The Hour
Smiling Mercenary
My Organ’s Frustration
Kill The Control
Mom and Dad
Executioner
1984
Love At First Sight
Fix Me
marked To Die
The Bum
The Only Way
Faction
Boredom Awaits
Fast Food Diet
Running Amok
me
Skate Harrassment
Grim Reality
Lost and Distraught
Anarchy and Peace
No Way Out
Game Of War
Los Olvidados
Assassin of Youth
Personal Genocide
Ribzy
Invasion
Sit
Fuck Me
Ed
All Cut Up
Untitled Evil
The Unaware
Born To Hate
Unwritten Rules
The Theme To Faith
The Ladder
Whipping Boy
Wow! I have been searching for these Grim Reality tracks for quite a few years. I was the original bass player and these four tracks are the only things I recorded with the band. Grim Reality’s singer Jason Honea turned me on to this sight. Very cool to read about all of the other bands and hear stuff that I only heard on cassette over 20 years ago. Thanks
hey Bobby, glad you got to hear these again…I just wish the recordings were better quality!
I got the Ribzy confusion resolved.
Track 25: F*** Me!/Ed
Track 26: All Cut Up
Track 27: Untitled Evil
Track 28: Cyanide Pill
whipping boy has a a cd with 39 songs on it (including these songs on this comp) called “subcreature” 1981-1983 on GTA records. i think it’s still in print. killer stuff! great post!
Wow, thanks for taking all the time to post this!! Very nice! It’s nice to hear some more Executioner tracks- the only other one I’ve heard so far has been the amazing “Hellbound” which I’ve been listening to since GTA put it on an aweseome comp CD of theirs in ‘95 called “All For One, One For All”. Nice that the unreleased LP is going to finally be released!
I grew up in San Jose & saw most of these bands. I remember when Executioner turned metal in a very short period of time, and I think they got a lot of shit for it. They opened some show at the San Jose Civic with 45 Grave & Ribzy, and everyone sat on the floor. The singer was telling everyone to stand up & clap, or they wouldn’t play their “hit” “Hellbound”. Nobody did, and they didn’t play it. Ribzy had the twin brothers on vocals at that time as well. I was part of the 2nd & 3rd wave of bands from that area in the mid-late ’80s & remember a lot of the bands who are now even more unknown than these guys… The Drab, The Stiffs, Eat The Rich, etc. I heard a lot of these tracks way back then on an old punk radio show called “Vinyl Rites” on KFJC. But I never got a copy of this comp. Any chance I could get a CD or downloadable link? Thanks.
Hey Chris —
You can download each track by right clicking on them and selecting “save file as”. If you have a mac just hit ctrl and click on them and do the same thing. then when they are all downloaded to your computer you can import them into iTunes and burn a CD.
I can turn the whole thing into a .rar file as well for downloads but I am pretty backlogged with posts so it could take a few weeks….
You can email me directly if you have any other technical questions at joe@lastdaysofmanonearth.com.
Funny to think that Executioner was too metal for San Jose. The one similarity between the photos I posted are the metal t-shirts on the band members (Ribzy/Saxon and Executioner/Motorhead) so I though crossover was pretty accepted up there.
//joe
Great post Joe! Thanks a bunch for this. Had never heard of it before. And a nice cover.
Joe,
Track 26, the Ribzy song you list as “Ed” is on the GTA “All for One” comp as “All Cut Up,” which you have listed as the instrumental Track 27. Is something messed up on the track names?
I think I partially figured it out. Track 26 *is* “All Cut Up.” Track 27 is “Untitled Evil,” which I learned on the Ribzy Myspace page is an instrumental on this comp. That leaves Track 28 as “Ed” or some other unknown title (with “Ed” being connected with Track 25). I saw another listing for this comp that shows the same song order. Time to get the Ribzy CD put out by Vinehell!
Glad I could help man!
How perfect is that photo of Ribzy w/ plaster cast - fallout from a pool-skating accident, no doubt!
Do you have any idea where I can get a copy of this cassette? I lost mine years ago and everynow and then I have “Getting Closer by the Hour” running through my brain and I can’t listen to it. If you know of anyone who could make me a copy please let me know, Tanx, Milo
Dude…the links to all the songs are in the post. Just right click and “download as” to a folder on your computer. Then burn a CD.
?!?!?
You can get the EXECUTIONER “Fix Me/Hellbound” 45 single from Patac records at http://www.patacrecords.com
Hey, just for the record, Faction Productions was a music promotion company I started in 1983 that produced local punk shows, merchandized for bands, and managed acts (…and The Faction got their name from us!)
We produced Growing Pains as a tribute to the south bay punk scene. It was only produced on cassette and the rights to songs remained with the collaborators (the bands). I am cool with you allowing free downloads as long as the artists themselves are OK. Keep it going! Craig
man this brings back some awesome memories, used to have this tape, seen all these bands evry time they played, the 80’s ruled, fortunate to be part of it, thanks for posting this and all the work that went into it
Is the RAR file available yet? This is an awesome comp!
Executioner “San Jose Hardcore” t-shirts available at http://www.patacrecords.com
its on here!
No Craig… the Faction got their name when G.O. and I (and probably Corey) were watching the news. There was story on about an IRA faction blowing something up (or something) and he thought “the Faction” would be a cool name for the band.
Whatever happened to Burnie Nyuren?
Man, these Executioner guys are a self-promoting bunch, eh?
Thanks for posting all of these MP3s. I haven’t heard a lot of this stuff since it came out, but the songs are burned into my head to this day. I realize now that Ribzy was way ahead of the curve, Los Olvidados was a wrecking machine, and Gavin O’Brien was the poet laureate of the concrete and urethane set.
It’s amazing that a bunch of 16 year old kids decided to write the soundtrack to their own lives.
How cool is that?