Offbeats: An Intermediate Clevo Punk

As weird as the music history is in a general sense, the odd ordeals that Clevo based punkers endured through the ‘70s and ‘80s pretty much trumps everything else. No, there wasn’t a tour bus accident leaving a drummer one armed or anything so horrific, but there just seemed to be an endless amount of line up shifts, disappearances and missed opportunities. The Dead Boys moved away to attain stardom, didn’t achieve it and petered out after a second full length. And Pere Ubu – punk in only the most liberal terms – still records, but the only folks that really care about those new albums are dudes that speak French, so that doesn’t matter at all, now does it?

But in the wake of the first (and second, I suppose) waves of Clevo punk were a slew of bands that were around, picking up pointers and playing in lesser known groups than the aforementioned scene stalwarts. The Akron thing, was a wholly different animal.

That being said, Cleveland is, was and will be known for some hardcore stuffs dating back to the early ‘80s (and yes, I realize there was ‘90s and ‘00s stuff as well, but disconnected from what we’s ‘bout to delve into). At the time that one would guess that hardcore began to coalesce as a recognizable genre, East and West coast bands had already determined a specific style – occasionally metal inflected. And while that same idea would eventually be incorporated into the Clevo scene, its early ‘80s HC was just revved up punk - nary a criticism to be levied upon it either.

Determining a group’s popularity would be simple conjecture at this point, but the Offbeats, having members in common with the Generics, AK-47's and Broncs, have retained some semblance of relevance even having a retrospective released via Smog Veil Records.

And while that compilation might be easily hunted down considering the link up there, Offbeats’ first single, entitled Why Do You Hang Out?, deals out some weird admixture of ‘70s punk and a nascent hardcore. The single – it holds seven songs and clocks in at over ten minutes, so maybe it’s a mini-LP, but whatever – is almost able to distill the Clevo punk tradition.

I’s opening track is plain trash, but adept at its maneuvers. Picking out what chords are flying by would be pointless. And Tom Miller’s vocals are all but indecipherable apart from the chorus of “We’re always in a rush.” That’s the track’s charm, though.

What follows, though, could probably fool the uninitiated into thinking that it was some lost Pagan’s demo. Perhaps the tempo’s a bit cranked up, but everything from the snotty ass vocals to the pop-inflected guitar noise works to the group’s advantage.

Offbeats offer no missteps – four chords, though aren’t too difficult to get over with. A brush with fame and a record deal would soon send the line up into shambles. But the group wrangled a tour with a fresh faced Lemonheads and opened for the Dead Kennedys a few times. So, what else is there?