If you ever doubted the massive appeal of punk rock in the late 1970s/early 1980s, just remember that it was broad enough to inspire a politically-minded, sneering upstart punk band in Louisiana. And you thought wearing spikes and having piercings was revolutionary in New York at the time, imagine the balls it took to pull off that look south of the Mason-Dixon line.
Sundazed Music is re-releasing Condition Red, the brilliant 1981 debut LP from Red Rockers, a New Orleans-based punk band that was just as good as anything the Dead Boys or The Dictators were putting out during that era. Though the band would eventually morph into a more palatable New Wave sound with their 1983 effort Good As Gold, boasting their one big hit “China,” Condition Red is an underrated debut filled with machine gun drumming, big distorted guitars, and snotty, yet fun vocals courtesy of John Thomas Griffith (who would go on to found the long-running alt-rock/Jam band Cowboy Mouth).
The band boasts strong Clash influences in part thanks to the political nature of songs like “White Law,” “Guns of Revolution” (an earlier version appeared on their 1979 EP), and “Live or Die.” The band is brilliantly sloppy – as a first-generation punk band should be – and even when it sounds like they were trying to ape their influences on a song like “Noting to Lose,” their energy and passion is infectious. You can almost start to hear the genesis of their eventual New Wave pivot in a song like “Red Star,” which sounds like a punked-up version of Elvis Costello. Red Rockers even does a fantastic cover of Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues,” long before Mike Ness decided to reinvent himself as a tatted-up punk rock version of Cash.
The rerelease, offered on CD, vinyl, and streaming, includes five bonus tracks, taken from B-sides and compilations as well as two tracks never released before, all of which fit perfectly onto the original 11-track album. The Red Rockers eventually put out two more LPs and a few singles and EPs before calling it quits in 1985, but this reissue is a great reminder that punk rock was so much more than just New York and London, but a musical revolution strong enough to break through all of the world.
