the_proletariat__soma_holiday_1983.zip
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New stuff for me: The Proletariat, punx from Southeastern Massachusetts, whose heyday was during the 1980s, when they were active in the early Boston hardcore scene, sharing the bill with many of the best punk and hardcore punk acts of the time, despite their recorded output having a decidedly non-hardcore aesthetic; the Proletariat show more strongly the musical influences of early British post-punk bands such as The Jam, Buzzcocks and Gang Of Four in their fractured guitar sound. Tired of the pompous bands of the 70’s with their elaborate stage shows they gravitated towards sparse presentation, preferring to let the music and lyrics stand on their own. Between November 1981 and March 1982, they recorded material at Boston’s Radiobeat Studios and brought a couple of songs as reels for airplay on local radio stations, the band gained national exposure via the excellent This Is Boston, Not L.A., a compilation of bands from the local scene released by Newbury Comics’ Modern Method Records, a self-released limited seven song tape EP called ‘Distortion’ followed shortly thereafter. Four songs from this demo surfaced on vinyl along with fourteen more songs to comprise the band’s first record ‘Soma Holiday’, Steven Blush, author of American Hardcore: A Tribal History said: “The Proletariat played offbeat post-Punk with Hardcore intensity and a radical twist. Frontman Richard Brown wrote oblique lyrics, part Ginsberg, part Mao.. 1983’s Soma Holiday LP came off light years ahead of its time.” In 1984, the band return to Radiobeat Studios to record another album and an early version of “An Uneasy Peace” brought the band international attention via its inclusion on the P.E.A.C.E. compilation from R Radical Records. Later that year, before their second album was completed, many line-up changes accelerated the end of the Proletariat and shortly after performing a pair of final shows on 1.July 1985 with Italian band Raw Power @ the Living Room rock club in Providence/Rhode Island, the band disbanded.
– Great Thx to Fredrik –
