Agony Shorthand
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Wednesday, April 02, 2003
THE RETURN OF SOLGER!….If you’ve never heard the 1980 7”EP from Seattle’s SOLGER – well, what you’re actually missing is likely entirely up to you. This bizarre hardcore punk record, known by many as Seattle’s first HC punk record, is one tough nut to crack. I wrote about it in my own magazine a few years ago, and if you don’t mind me quoting myself (what a dork!), it’ll save me from having to think up new things to say:
“….What is special about the Solger single still remains somewhat elusive -- on first listen, it’s poorly-recorded, generic hardcore, and its subject matter (detailed in an enclosed lyric fold-out) is moronic early 80’s teenage nihilism (war, hate, fascist Amerika, ect). Yet many consider the record to be a true classic, and I have to say, I love listening to it. Low fidelity often brings out the warmth and an artist’s true expression in a way that conventional recording can’t – Solger took this maxim several steps further and buried their mics underneath Puget Sound while recording, spilled a case of Schmidt on the masters, pasted swabs of cotton to the final tapes and pressed up 500 copies. The songs charge forward and then spin out on control in a manner quite foreign to hardcore structure, making this the most “arty” generic hardcore record of its day…..”
The band has their own retrospective web site now, which you can find here. Also a "complete works" CD of Solger should be out by May or June of 2003 called “SOLGER CODEX 1980” -- "digitally restored and magically touched by Jack Endino", they say. In 1980 that would have likely been filed in the “when pigs fly” department. How about a tour? Hey, why not?
“….What is special about the Solger single still remains somewhat elusive -- on first listen, it’s poorly-recorded, generic hardcore, and its subject matter (detailed in an enclosed lyric fold-out) is moronic early 80’s teenage nihilism (war, hate, fascist Amerika, ect). Yet many consider the record to be a true classic, and I have to say, I love listening to it. Low fidelity often brings out the warmth and an artist’s true expression in a way that conventional recording can’t – Solger took this maxim several steps further and buried their mics underneath Puget Sound while recording, spilled a case of Schmidt on the masters, pasted swabs of cotton to the final tapes and pressed up 500 copies. The songs charge forward and then spin out on control in a manner quite foreign to hardcore structure, making this the most “arty” generic hardcore record of its day…..”
The band has their own retrospective web site now, which you can find here. Also a "complete works" CD of Solger should be out by May or June of 2003 called “SOLGER CODEX 1980” -- "digitally restored and magically touched by Jack Endino", they say. In 1980 that would have likely been filed in the “when pigs fly” department. How about a tour? Hey, why not?
