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Tuesday, August 30, 2011

#1 Fan Youth Crew Tuesday: 7 Seconds "Not Just Boys Fun"

Posted by Derek Erdman on Tue, Aug 30, 2011 at 2:49 PM

There was an unsavory term for girls in the macho east coast hardcore scene of the mid-1980s, and that was "coat rack." Somehow the brutal goons didn't hip themselves to this gem off of the first LP released by 7 Seconds called The Crew. "Not Just Boys Fun" is a call to recognize the female contribution to hardcore, and how it's unfortunate that they were not welcome in the, uh, pit.

I'd reckon that 7 Seconds from Reno, Nevada was responsible for a lot of people's introduction to punker music, with their popular cover of "99 Red Balloons" from the 1985 LP Walk Together, Rock Together. Their early output cannot be denied as classics of the genre, from the 1982 Skins, Brains and Guts 7" on Alternative Tentacles up until the New Wind LP from 1986. Many might argue, but after that things got slower and moved into a reggae/metal mixture that wasn't quite up to snuff. I have a vague recollection of seeing them in Cleveland, Ohio in the 1990s. Kevin Seconds had long dreadlocks and the band was aping U2. My, how times had changed.

The Crew is a brilliant LP from 1984, released on the Stern Brothers' BYO label. It's really the only 7 Seconds slab that fetches real money on the collector's market, with the blue vinyl & test pressings worth about $300-$400. But when it comes to posi-crossover, 7 Seconds were the progenitors.

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one time my friend brooke was real drunk at a bar in sacramento and went up to kevin seconds and yelled "MORE LIKE KEVIN SUCK-ENDS!!" and then promptly got thrown out of the bar

Posted by alithea on August 30, 2011 at 3:12 PM