***Matinee: All Ages On The Bowery was created during the early 1980s when New York City was embroiled in debt and crime, and as the middle class continued to evaporate, the city confronted one of the most trying periods in its history. Paradoxically, its underground music scene was teeming with vitality like never before. Still staggering from the violent outset and eventual deterioration of punk rock, hundreds of disenfranchised kids living in the city and outlying boroughs began forming their own groups to rail against the everyday trials and prejudices of urban existence. As a result, New York City became a hub for a flourishing hardcore scene; a cultural phenomena that used punk rock as a platform for a politically charged, inherently regional catharsis. Between 1983 and 1985, local photographer DREWCAROLA began photographing the patrons of the now infamous hardcore matinees that were going on at the seminal underground music club, CBGB. During the week, Carolan was working as an assistant to legendary portrait photographer Richard Avedon, and on weekends he set up a makeshift studio across the street from CBGB and intercepted kids on their way to the all-ages afternoon shows. The result is a collection of photographs capturing the beauty, vulnerability, and the unbridled energy of youth during the height of the Reagan years. The Bowery at that time was a true melting pot of downtrodden adults, underage hardcore punk kids, and people living on the fringes of society. Now, more that thirty years later, all of that...
BK $24.95
12/15/2017
***Hailing from Redondo Beach, California, SOREX released just a single 7” EP—three tracks of no-fi, snotty-yet-abrasive beach hardcore—in a 200-copy micro pressing in 1985, and played a scant dozen or so shows up and down the California coast before fading into hardcore record collector obscurity. Radio Raheem’s crack team of hardcore archaeologists have since managed to rescue Sorex’s elusive EP from the collector ghetto and tack on an 17 additional tracks, culled from the band’s 1984 demo tape and sessions for a never-released 1985 LP, all accompanied by a 16-page, full-color booklet full of rare photos, flyers and ephemera. Limited to 500 copies.
LP $11.60
04/07/2017
***In our humble opinion, San Antonio, Texas’ the SMART DADS are the embodiment of lo-fi cassette punk at its finest. This LP contains the only recorded output by this short-lived group of military school misfits, who self-released a 7-track cassette in 1982 with an obnoxious 7”-sized insert, inconveniently housed in an oversized zip-lock bag with a badge clipped to the front. The title track—or any of the other 6 tracks, for that matter—would have found the perfect home on Bloodstains Across Texas or any of the Killed By Death volumes, had it made it to vinyl during the band’s original tenure. This record is a testament to what we at Radio Raheem HQ love—100% junk, full-on punk, completely sincere, and scarcely heard. One time pressing of 300 copies complete with 12-page, full-color booklet and silk screened vinyl B-side.
LP $17.75
03/31/2017
***Formed in Swansea, Wales in 1979 from the ashes of local punk band THE NOISE, VENOM are an unheralded UK classic. Initially taking influence from the first wave of '77 British punk like the Sex Pistols and Clash, it wasn't until after an enforced hiatus resulting from a spot of "football violence" that the band really came into it's own. Lumped in with the expanding Oi! scene, they recorded three self-funded sessions—which produced the songs on this record—but their only proper releases were contributions to two compilations: one track on the now impossible to find Swansea punk sampler Sex, Violence, & The Eternal Truth 7”, and one on Secret Records’ Back On The Streets 7”, the latter a result of Garry Bushell, the "Godfather of Oi”, being a fan. They never quite formed a following outside of their hometown, which is a shame, as the songs they left behind are as chaotic, catchy, and well-written as anything to come out of the the early '80s UK punk scene. As with most UK bands in the early '80s, violence became commonplace at their gigs causing the band to call it quits in the summer of 1982. Fortunately, with our friends at Punkhouse Records, we present the complete Venom output, packaged in only such a way as Radio Raheem does—with a custom LP jacket including a tipped-in booklet choked full of photos, flyers, and the usual bits and bobs. (STREET DATE - 11/27/2015)
LP $20.95
11/27/2015
***Finally seeing the light of day again for the first time in 33 years, NO TAG's Oi, Oi, Oi 12" gets it's first official reissue. The band hailed from Auckland, New Zealand, and consisted of guitarist ANDREW BOAK, singer PAUL VAN WETERING, drummer CARL VAN WETERING, and bassist MARK SULLIVAN. Originally released in 1982 on the legendary Propellor Records which was ground zero of the Kiwi punk scene, "Oi, Oi, Oi” reached #15 on the New Zealand singles chart when it was released. No small feat, for punk in New Zealand hadn't quite reached the higher echelons of mainstream acceptance of that in the UK and US. They followed this release with a live album entitled Can We Get Away With It? and supported the Dead Kennedys during their New Zealand tour. Sadly as is the case with many bands of this era, their live shows often attracted a violent element, leading to the band calling it quits in 1986. Radio Raheem is proud to re-release this one back into the wild, taken from the original reels and complete with printed lyrics which were missing from the original.
12" $15.50
11/17/2015