Kraut: All the Punk that's Fit to Print

I think hard hardcore probably gets a bad rap sometimes in addition to being used to relegate some bands into a tiny pen and keep 'em there. Kraut the band - not the genre or some derogatory term for Jerries Germans - worked with faster tempos than some of their contemporaries and they were unquestionably included on New York Thrash, which also included an early line up of the Beastie Boys. But I'm gonna say that the inclusion of Steve Jones on some of the band's early work disallows from that categorization. Jones, who is probably one of the most criminally underrated guitarists in rock, trafficked in '60s tropes most of the time, only getting punked up as a result of some dullards that he was in a band with. But after performing with the Professionals and witnessing Kraut open the show, Jones was hooked. I guess the fact that the band's guitarist, though, went on to play with Cro-Mags doesn't help my argument. Dang.

Anyway, in addition to having the distinction of counting a Sex Pistol on a few songs, Kraut was also one of the first punk bands to have a video of theirs aired on the fledgling MTV. I think that all that means, though, is that the network was having troubles filling time. It's not to say that "All Twisted" wasn't a decent distillation of the punk scene in New York at the time, but it doesn't really come anywhere near the classics. Part of the problem, not just on that song, but on all the punk material that the band recorded - the devolved into a metal band at some point later in the '80s - was that vocalist Davey Gunner worked pretty hard to insert a bit of Brit into his screaming. It doesn't detract from the music until you realize what's going on and then it just seems silly.

Historically, regardless of who these folks were pretending to be in front of their mirrors at home, they presaged the revving up of punk. The Germs were more sloppy and faster at times, but "Army Sport" really makes it difficult to figure out where one guitar chord ends and the next begins. It does turn into a huge blur, but the odd guitar solo that gets tossed in on occasion elevates even some of the more lowly moments to an arena of punk that not too many folks reach.

It's pretty easy to surpass the Exploited or some other thrashy band from the time period, but Kraut does it pretty effortlessly. The one difference between those two bands, though, is that when Kraut ratchets up the tempo, they don't throw in a breakdown. And if there's one thing that the Exploited can be thanked for is the entirety of "Sex and Violence," which, if it were a proper song, would be about four times longer. But hey, it's punk. I guess in summation, Kraut isn't the most immediate band to check out if you're delving into the nascent hardcore scene of early '80s in NYC. But neither are Cro-Mags and I very seriously just saw a girl walking down the street with a patch of theirs on her jacket.