This is amazing. Simply amazing. They simply invented hardcore out of thin air. The most cutting edge sound of 1977. And it boils down this: they were just trying to play faster than The Ramones. "You're Autistic" sounds like the stuff the Dead Kennedys started putting out three or four years later! Atta was the father of hardcore.
I don't know if I'd call it out of thin air. I love the middle class ..alot. but there's alot of hard stuff around this time, x-pulsions castration sounds like la hardcore circa 1980. Obviously the middle class are crazy but there is alot of other less known bands who were pretty fast and had. Screamin fist by the viletones is an influence on hardcore I think doesn't get acknowledged alot...even bad brains covered it live alot
God these guys were so ahead of the curve. They invent hardcore in '77 before it was even called hardcore, then abandon hardcore just as it was starting to take off in favor of a more experimental post-punk style, long before THAT was "acceptable". Then they record and release a near-perfect post-punk LP, but it gets swept under the carpet because it came from Orange County, California instead of the UK. People really missed out on this band.
@Hypno Bunny I wouldn't say they were "hip" necessarily, unless you mean hip to what's next, because they were definitely paving the way for hardcore, whether that was their intention or not. They were actually a pretty down to Earth and unpretentious bunch of guys, and not really part of the Hollywood in-crowd. They were basically outsiders at the time. Didn't fit in with the Hollywood punk elite, and didn't dig being associated with the ultra-violent Orange County leather jacket crowd either. They stood out.
Yes in 77’ the most aggressive you got was the damned first album and.........this. This smoked the damned and the clash and the pistols and the ramones, and panic, otherwise known as black flag
I lived in West Hollywood in the summer of ' 79 after getting out of the service in San Diego. I got to see a few bands (even while in the Navy) that summer, but I never got to see The Middle Class.
There’s some tetchy Black Flag fans out there. Regardless of lineage, this is miles better than anything BF ever produced with the possible exception of Nervous Breakdown. If the Middle Class had produced an album around this time, they’re be considered as influential in history as Minor Threat and Bad Brains.
Seriously, Wire was my first thought! I'm sure there were other influences, but the similarities to Wire are undeniable. But it's the Out of Vogue EP that really takes it to another place.
@@RyanGriswold-og7ey Black Flag's early material (that which they did with Keith Morris) was more in the vein of classic punk. It was mostly mid-tempo stuff. It wasn't until Dez took over that they started playing faster (and even those songs weren't as fast as this).
Eh, The Stooges did I Got A Right (and to a certain extent, Gimme Some Skin) back in 1970/1971. Belgian band Blast did d-beat speed metal in 1972 with melodic vocals and even some proto blast beats,. Detroit's The Punks were doing fast heavy psych/proto punk in 1974. The Testors were doing fast, raucous punk rock by 1976/1977, which presaged the New York Hardcore scene. Also, in a live recording of their song Detention from around the same time, lead vocalist Sonny Vincent refers to the crowd as the "hardcore late night Max's crowd", which is probably the first instance of hardcore being used to describe punk music or the punk scene. By 1976, Wire had recorded their first demo with original guitarist, George Gill, which included two songs, Prove Myself and Bitch, which were quite fast for the time with snotty shouted/screamed vocals, the latter having probably the loudest screams in rock music at the time. You could argue a lot of the stuff on The Damned's 1976/1977 first album was at least instrumental in furthering hardcore punk. Especially their version of 1970 (titled I Feel Alright). You could also argue that This Heat was incredibly influential in the post-hardcore genre. Whether it's the proto math rock of Health And Efficiency (1980) or the confrontationally heavy noise rock of Horizontal Hold (1976/1977), they definitely inspired bands like Big Black. In 1977, 999 recorded No Pity, which is just British Bad Brains but back when they probably were still called Mind Power. You even have the rapid fire rabid vocals. Phoenix, Arizona's The Consumers were doing fast noisy hardcore punk back in 1977, even doing one live set at The Zoo on the 25th of October, which you can actually check out on here, TH-cam. The Dils, by 1977, had a lot of songs that were either highly influential to, or were hardcore. Look no further than I Hate The Rich. Discharge had recorded their first demos in 1977 and, though they weren't exactly the d-beat anarchist noise they would become, songs like Do Or Die or No Time For Romance were hardcore for the time. You also have Warsaw/Joy Division's 1977 demo, which is incredibly heavy in some songs. The Kill, Gutz and You're No Good For Me was British hardcore with incredibly heavy basslines to boot. Switzerland's Nasal Boys recorded a single back in 1977, which wasn't released until 1978, which had two rapid songs with heavy and noisy riffing to boot, the a-side, Hot Love, having some of the fastest drumming of the time. Don Campau and The Desmonds, from San Francisco, back in late 1977, recorded an 8 song demo, which they gave to Dirk Dirksen for a possible show at the Mab. In this demo, there are many songs that are quite fast, but one particular, Crime Is The Punishment, is extremely fast with even gang vocals. I could continue, but this reply is too long already. Middle Class were among the first, but they didn't invent it. They were ahead of their time, but it was inevitable someone else was going to do it eventually.
Well that does it for me ......after hearing out of Vogue and now this!! This IS the first hardcore band in existence period. NO they weren’t 4 black dudes with dreads, no they never had a definitive symbol on T-shirt’s and telephone poles that identified them , yes they looked like weezer before weezer, regardless this is it. Been listening to hardcore for 35 years btw. Not a newbie.
4 black dudes with dreads? I assume you’re referring to Bad Brains. I don’t think Bad Brains referred to themselves as the first HC band that was some punk critic, also they don’t have dreads till later on. Bad Brains at CBGS in 78 or 79 is the first thing I can find live recording and it’s Bad Ass rock’nroll. Supposedly they were inspired by Pure Hell that played CBGB’s earlier, probably just for being all black and getting onstage and killing it!
Totally different style from Black Flag though. BF were more about walls of distortion and raw power, while Middle Class were more about breaking the land speed record. Both bands were equally important to laying down the foundations for hardcore. However Middle Class abandoned hardcore right around the turn of the decade, just as it was beginning to take off.
Yeah I'm not finding any actual documentation on that either, but I do know that Middle Class existed in '77. They didn't play their first gig until '78, but there have been plenty of bands that made demos before they started playing out, so it is possible that these recordings are from '77. I remember an interview with Mike Patton (bass) where he said that they used to rehearse literally every day in one of the band members' home when they were starting out, and got tight pretty quickly.
@@willieluncheonette5843 Also, "I Got a Right" by the Stooges. Wasn't released until the late 70's, but was recorded in '72. I had a conversation with Rikk Agnew about that many years ago. He was adamant that "I Got a Right" was the very first hardcore song. I've also heard some people argue that "Bad Girl" by the Zakary Thaks (1967) was the first hardcore song, but I tend to disagree on that one. It's fast and aggressive for it's time, but not exactly what I'd call 'hardcore'. More like amped up 60's garage punk.
Pure hell dates these guys. Formed in 1974, and bands like black flag admit pure hell influenced them. Not only some of the hardest music at the time, but they were all black.
@@Brewzerr you do have a point, because they went through a Glam phase and would crossdress, but watching a documentary about them there was a point in their history where they got rid of idea and went for a harder look. I personally believe that pure hell is one of the most underrated punk bands of all time.
![Rudimentary Peni | Farce EP [full]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/nq4lhXX6iTU/mqdefault.jpg)
![Rudimentary Peni | Farce EP [full]](/img/tr.png)
This is amazing. Simply amazing. They simply invented hardcore out of thin air. The most cutting edge sound of 1977. And it boils down this: they were just trying to play faster than The Ramones. "You're Autistic" sounds like the stuff the Dead Kennedys started putting out three or four years later! Atta was the father of hardcore.
I don't know if I'd call it out of thin air. I love the middle class ..alot. but there's alot of hard stuff around this time, x-pulsions castration sounds like la hardcore circa 1980. Obviously the middle class are crazy but there is alot of other less known bands who were pretty fast and had. Screamin fist by the viletones is an influence on hardcore I think doesn't get acknowledged alot...even bad brains covered it live alot
th-cam.com/video/l-HCh7JMQ3g/w-d-xo.html check this out from 1972.
Ever heard of this australian band? th-cam.com/video/FuMUmjjYiwY/w-d-xo.html
I cant find anyone playing hardcore punk any earlier.... thats fo sho with a fro and bags of snacks
@@RyanGriswold-og7eyBlack Flag
God these guys were so ahead of the curve. They invent hardcore in '77 before it was even called hardcore, then abandon hardcore just as it was starting to take off in favor of a more experimental post-punk style, long before THAT was "acceptable". Then they record and release a near-perfect post-punk LP, but it gets swept under the carpet because it came from Orange County, California instead of the UK. People really missed out on this band.
@Hypno Bunny I wouldn't say they were "hip" necessarily, unless you mean hip to what's next, because they were definitely paving the way for hardcore, whether that was their intention or not. They were actually a pretty down to Earth and unpretentious bunch of guys, and not really part of the Hollywood in-crowd. They were basically outsiders at the time. Didn't fit in with the Hollywood punk elite, and didn't dig being associated with the ultra-violent Orange County leather jacket crowd either. They stood out.
Yes in 77’ the most aggressive you got was the damned first album and.........this. This smoked the damned and the clash and the pistols and the ramones, and panic, otherwise known as black flag
You could not have possibly covered it or said it any better!
Warsaw did the same thing in 1977.
Black Flag were playing st the same time.
The birth of hardcore!!!
Hell yeah SoCal punk, Best music ever!
I lived in West Hollywood in the summer of ' 79 after getting out of the service in San Diego.
I got to see a few bands (even while in the Navy) that summer, but I never got to see The Middle Class.
There’s some tetchy Black Flag fans out there. Regardless of lineage, this is miles better than anything BF ever produced with the possible exception of Nervous Breakdown. If the Middle Class had produced an album around this time, they’re be considered as influential in history as Minor Threat and Bad Brains.
Seriously, Wire was my first thought! I'm sure there were other influences, but the similarities to Wire are undeniable. But it's the Out of Vogue EP that really takes it to another place.
Formados 1976 california PUNK HARDCORE , el primer hardcore existente , luego derivarian a post punk
1- 0:00 Autistic
2- 1:29 You Belong
3- 2:56 No Applause
4- 4:39 What We Do
No Applause is my fav, reminds of today’s underground songs.only song I haven’t heard too, I think
Black Flag didn't invent hardcore. This band did.
Black flag was playing then too tho
@@RyanGriswold-og7ey Black Flag's early material (that which they did with Keith Morris) was more in the vein of classic punk. It was mostly mid-tempo stuff. It wasn't until Dez took over that they started playing faster (and even those songs weren't as fast as this).
@@RawPower867To say Black Flag wasn’t playing Hardcore with Keith and Ron is just not accurate.
Eh, The Stooges did I Got A Right (and to a certain extent, Gimme Some Skin) back in 1970/1971.
Belgian band Blast did d-beat speed metal in 1972 with melodic vocals and even some proto blast beats,.
Detroit's The Punks were doing fast heavy psych/proto punk in 1974.
The Testors were doing fast, raucous punk rock by 1976/1977, which presaged the New York Hardcore scene. Also, in a live recording of their song Detention from around the same time, lead vocalist Sonny Vincent refers to the crowd as the "hardcore late night Max's crowd", which is probably the first instance of hardcore being used to describe punk music or the punk scene.
By 1976, Wire had recorded their first demo with original guitarist, George Gill, which included two songs, Prove Myself and Bitch, which were quite fast for the time with snotty shouted/screamed vocals, the latter having probably the loudest screams in rock music at the time.
You could argue a lot of the stuff on The Damned's 1976/1977 first album was at least instrumental in furthering hardcore punk. Especially their version of 1970 (titled I Feel Alright).
You could also argue that This Heat was incredibly influential in the post-hardcore genre. Whether it's the proto math rock of Health And Efficiency (1980) or the confrontationally heavy noise rock of Horizontal Hold (1976/1977), they definitely inspired bands like Big Black.
In 1977, 999 recorded No Pity, which is just British Bad Brains but back when they probably were still called Mind Power. You even have the rapid fire rabid vocals.
Phoenix, Arizona's The Consumers were doing fast noisy hardcore punk back in 1977, even doing one live set at The Zoo on the 25th of October, which you can actually check out on here, TH-cam.
The Dils, by 1977, had a lot of songs that were either highly influential to, or were hardcore. Look no further than I Hate The Rich.
Discharge had recorded their first demos in 1977 and, though they weren't exactly the d-beat anarchist noise they would become, songs like Do Or Die or No Time For Romance were hardcore for the time.
You also have Warsaw/Joy Division's 1977 demo, which is incredibly heavy in some songs. The Kill, Gutz and You're No Good For Me was British hardcore with incredibly heavy basslines to boot.
Switzerland's Nasal Boys recorded a single back in 1977, which wasn't released until 1978, which had two rapid songs with heavy and noisy riffing to boot, the a-side, Hot Love, having some of the fastest drumming of the time.
Don Campau and The Desmonds, from San Francisco, back in late 1977, recorded an 8 song demo, which they gave to Dirk Dirksen for a possible show at the Mab. In this demo, there are many songs that are quite fast, but one particular, Crime Is The Punishment, is extremely fast with even gang vocals.
I could continue, but this reply is too long already. Middle Class were among the first, but they didn't invent it. They were ahead of their time, but it was inevitable someone else was going to do it eventually.
@@revelrem4409 The Trashmen Surfin Bird 1963, The sonics the witch 1965
WOW!
Yes yes indeed I am autistic 🖤
The Fullerton band that birthed so many great Orange County bands like TSOL, Adolescences, Social Distortion, Agent Orange,....
Excellent !!
What about the hackney bros tho? They were doing harscore esque punk early too
Well that does it for me ......after hearing out of Vogue and now this!! This IS the first hardcore band in existence period. NO they weren’t 4 black dudes with dreads, no they never had a definitive symbol on T-shirt’s and telephone poles that identified them , yes they looked like weezer before weezer, regardless this is it. Been listening to hardcore for 35 years btw. Not a newbie.
4 black dudes with dreads? I assume you’re referring to Bad Brains. I don’t think Bad Brains referred to themselves as the first HC band that was some punk critic, also they don’t have dreads till later on. Bad Brains at CBGS in 78 or 79 is the first thing I can find live recording and it’s Bad Ass rock’nroll. Supposedly they were inspired by Pure Hell that played CBGB’s earlier, probably just for being all black and getting onstage and killing it!
Of course they never released there best shit
This predates black flag/panic. Sorry fanboys
You ruined it all with the second sentence
Totally different style from Black Flag though. BF were more about walls of distortion and raw power, while Middle Class were more about breaking the land speed record. Both bands were equally important to laying down the foundations for hardcore. However Middle Class abandoned hardcore right around the turn of the decade, just as it was beginning to take off.
@@Brewzerr c
@@barrylevinsky1152 h
@@Brewzerr "Ackchually... ~adjusts glasses~"
When your band tries to sound like the first Wire LP but you've drunk too many Cokes and you end up inventing hardcore.
were you there? i mean it is a legit argument between wire and middle class, but where is your data.
Balzout fucking hardcore, the first to do it, period.
could someone give me some documentation as to the exact date these were recorded. Is this really from 77? I can't find any
Yeah I'm not finding any actual documentation on that either, but I do know that Middle Class existed in '77. They didn't play their first gig until '78, but there have been plenty of bands that made demos before they started playing out, so it is possible that these recordings are from '77. I remember an interview with Mike Patton (bass) where he said that they used to rehearse literally every day in one of the band members' home when they were starting out, and got tight pretty quickly.
@@Brewzerr then of course you've got this slab from 1974 i think th-cam.com/video/Vd3zFk8BUBs/w-d-xo.html
@@willieluncheonette5843 Also, "I Got a Right" by the Stooges. Wasn't released until the late 70's, but was recorded in '72. I had a conversation with Rikk Agnew about that many years ago. He was adamant that "I Got a Right" was the very first hardcore song. I've also heard some people argue that "Bad Girl" by the Zakary Thaks (1967) was the first hardcore song, but I tend to disagree on that one. It's fast and aggressive for it's time, but not exactly what I'd call 'hardcore'. More like amped up 60's garage punk.
@@Brewzerr thanks mate
Any proof to support the claim that it was effectively recorded in 1977?
Yes
You can tell The Teen Idols were heavily influenced by these guys
It's curious, You Belong sound like a Fourth Reich Fighting Men of Romper Stomper movie
Pure hell dates these guys. Formed in 1974, and bands like black flag admit pure hell influenced them. Not only some of the hardest music at the time, but they were all black.
I wouldn't consider Pure Hell hardcore at all. Punk, definitely... but not hardcore.
@@Brewzerr you do have a point, because they went through a Glam phase and would crossdress, but watching a documentary about them there was a point in their history where they got rid of idea and went for a harder look. I personally believe that pure hell is one of the most underrated punk bands of all time.
@@Brewzerr the song noise addiction could pass off as hardcore punk sounding, but not all of their songs sound like that
@@Brewzerr exactly
Pure Hell wasn't bad but I wouldn't exactly say they were that ahead of their time.