The Outcasts were around at just about the same time as the Undertones and actually released a single prior to the better known group – each band was releasing music via the Good Vibrations imprint during the latter part of the seventies the Outcasts’ Frustration single being issued as GOT3 while Teenage Kicks getting tagged GOT4. Either way, no one’s going to be able to sing “Frustration” from memory in the same way “Teenage Kicks” has made the rounds. But the fact that anyone outside of Belfast heard these guys is in part thanks to John Peel. But we might thank him for a huge portion of UK punk.
Whatever the case, the Outcasts turned in a few extraordinarily strong tracks even if its first album, Self Conscious Over You, is uneven at best.
The group’s long player included the tracks issued on its single, but tossed in a bunch of other work. Of course, “You’re a Disease,” counted in the track listing of that single is probably the Outcasts’ best recorded effort.
Sporting pretty much everything good about punk, the song basically distills the distaste one feels for anyone whose been around too long. Getting bored with a companion is part of human nature, but the Outcasts were able to whittle it down into three minutes of bouncy punk. This isn’t poppy in the manner the Undertones were even if these folks are obviously engaged with Ramones styled melodies. It’s just the Irish lilt to it all that makes hearing about STDs an enjoyable thing.
Its second single – Just Another Teenage Rebel – wasn’t included on the band’s proper album, but subsequent reissues have tacked it onto the end. The songs might be on par with the rest of the disc, but nothing again reaches “You’re a Disease.”
Most of what’s here deals with being messed with – by cops and otherwise – and some more love songs. In contrast with much of the other first wave UK stuff, the Outcasts turn in more than a solitary highlight. Unfortunately, everyone involved with the group had pretty crappy luck – car crashes and the like. Regardless of the Outcasts disbanding due to a traffic related death, getting an earful of “The Cops are Coming” should make you want to smash a window.