this was the single that did it for me as far as the Stalin goes. i wasnt that much of a fan of theirs until i got this 45 in the mail as a “freebie” throw in on a trade ages ago. i didnt think much of it, but i thought the sleeve picture was great in a kinda humorous way. later that day, i slapped this on the turntable & was completely blown away!!! one of the most energetic, snotty & powerful PUNK blasters out there with a guitar slide/break thats LOUDER THAN GOD!!! one of my most treasured 45’s of the 1000+ i have from Japan, and it made me go back & re-discover their other stuff that i was stupidly ignoring over the years. absolute classic!!!

Everyone should try to check Burst City, a 1982 movie featuring amongs other The Stalin playing during a riot in the street.

shit hot! I have an album I taped off of wmuc in
college park,
years ago of the stalin. must figure out how to rip it to cd.
what equipment do folks here use for such an endeavor?

sorrry but any self respecting punk needs a copy of ’stop jap’ in their collection. it’s as important as the 1st clash lp and that is no exageration

The title track rocks!!

Though I like their more recent, more thrashing stuff better (Their “Go go Stalin” 12″ is my fave), this song is fucking amazing!! An absolute classic for sure.

Stop Jap is BETTER than anything the Clash made.
Oh and interesting aside about the vocalist to The Stalin; he was a Vietnam vet. I’d love to see somebody post some the really rare Japanese punk I haven’t heard (because it sells in the hundreds) LSD’s Destroy flex, The Clay (middle east combat area) and Gasmask

What’s funny about everyone’s comments are: YOU’RE ALL RIGHT!! the STALINS best release was_______________(insert fave here) No doubt about it, the STALIN ruled in all their incarnations. From the ‘77/punk/wave of the flexi and the “trash” lp right on through to the thrashin’ of the “mushi” lp and “go go stalin 12″

Keep requesting the JAPANESE stuff!! I have about 3 or 4 cool things (including the clay 7″) in the bullpen waiting to be posted.

As far as I know, this(along w/my lip cream post) are the first Japanese 7″s on this site.

ford, i am glad to see someone as emphatic about the stalin. they’ve earned a special place in the history books. i’ve been trying to get their stuff for years and it’s all but impossible and expensive. their last album was a vhs video cassette-only release and it’s supposed to be amazing.

people rarely understand it when i tell them that japanese punk is some of the best shit out there. they think that because its unintelligible lyrically that it is less than valid. utter bullshit and if bands like the stalin had american issues they would have smoked the competition. same with gism who are so beyond influential it defies comment.

whatever: someone needs to reissue ALL gism and gauze records. ‘fuckheads’ by gauze will make you want to burn your discharge records

theres a reason i spent the last 1/2 of the 80’s trading all the texas/dc/nyc/L.A./U.K./etc records i rescued from dollar bins & traded them for Japanese punk & HC records. The Stalin just begins to scratch the surface of the INCREDIBLE stuff that came out over there as Punk took root over the globe in the late-1970’s & the quality of stuff that comes from Japan is still top quality,TO THIS DAY!!!

dont worry, in the next few weeks, ill start to digging for some GREAT stuff in my personal collection & treat you all to stuff like…

ABURADAKO flexi
IKKASHINJU “Slow Down” ep
STAR CLUB 1st 3 45’s/eps
KIKEIJI “Plastic Scandal” ep
EXECUTE s/t flexi
SWANKYS(gai) “This Is Lifestyle” ep
ZOUO “Final Agony” ep
OUTO “Many Question Poison Answer”

unless,of course, somebody beats me to the punch…

oh Mr Bryan Swirsky- the Stalin VHS Tape your mentioning was actually released under the band name of VIDEO STALIN (the title escapes me right now) & there is a vinyl LP version of it entitled “Minus 1″ , and it is their SECOND VHS release(the 1st was called “love terrorist”). theyre pretty good, but nothing as special as any 1978~1983 line-up of The Stalin.

ity should also be noted that their are quite a few MICHIRO ENDO solo records from 1983-1990. theyre all kinda new-wavey/synth-pop stuff, but theres a couple of them that are just as good as any Stalin record. they are-

“Vietnam Legend” LP (originally a cassette only thing in 1984 on Takarajima label[same label & elaborate packaging as ‘the punx’ omnibus],Elektra(japan) did a vinyl version in the late 80’s. IT SHREDS!!!)

“Terminal” LP (crown label 1986. one of the HARDEST synth-rock records ever made & includes a couple re-done early Stalin tracks.if your mind is open enough, it will be blown to pieces!!!)

“Lucky Boy” b/w “OH!! Marx!” 45 (crown label) (2 tracks from ‘Terminal’ edited down to 4 minutes each. takes equal parts “batcave”-ish goth & socio-political punk & slams it in your face. AWESOME!!!)

The only real problem I have with the Japanese bands is that they often (GISM especially) plagiarized groups from outside of Japan (G. I. S. M. was still stealing stuff directly from SPK into the late 90’s.) If you don’t believe me I can show you examples. Despite that, G. I. S. M. is my favorite of all the Japanese groups. The Japanese noise/industrial groups however// to put it bluntly are hacks and for a very specific reason

cut me off

The only real problem I have with the Japanese bands is that they often (GISM especially) plagiarized groups from outside of Japan (G. I. S. M. was still stealing stuff directly from SPK into the late 90’s.) If you don’t believe me I can show you examples. Despite that, G. I. S. M. is my favorite of all the Japanese groups. The Japanese noise/industrial groups however// to put it bluntly are hacks and for a very specific reason/in the words of Merzbow (I think) “European and American noise is too intellectual.” Which is why every Merzbow release is boring.
It is wise not to put the Japanese groups on too high of a pedestal; because in reality most of them do in fact copy and plagiarize in abundance; the problem with seeing the plagiarism is the fact that they would steal from different genres that didn’t overlap too often in the US and Europe but were viewed as one homogenous entity by the majority of Japanese punk/wave/industrial/noise bands. This is why G. I. S. M. can base large parts of their very concept on SPK and late Throbbing Gristle/early Psychic TV and still get over on American punk fans who (often times are viewing the Japanese music in retrospective) have only a passing knowledge of the early “true” Industrial bands. Even G.I.S.M.’s “Anarchy and Violence” slogan is a rip-off of SPK’s “Therapy Through Violence” slogan (this can be vouched pretty obviously in the liner notes to the Outsider comp.
A good example of this would be the Japananoise music that in reality is a cold copy of Power Electronics (Whitehouse Con-Dom etc) with elements of Boyd Rice etc thrown in, while never being as intellectual or well conceived as the groups being copied. Despite all of that a lot of good material was still created/ some of it passing over the more overrated European and American groups. At the same time the material has to be taken lightly as with Japanese “extreme” cinema it ain’t all that extreme and when someone says it is they are usually reacting to a bit of subconscious culture shock that makes them believe anything Japanese is weird/exotic and/or extreme.
A good example//comparision would be to compare Psychic TV/Monte Cazazza’s Transmission one “Thee Mad Doctor Operates” to Guinea Pig, Guinea Pig looks hammy and unconvinving/ Thee Mad Doctor is still questionable.

Still that weird solo in Stalin’s light my fire is amazing.

rock and roll always is, was and will be all about plagerism and has been since the blues and jazz days. after all, wasn’t it david bowie who said ‘ it’s not who does it first, it’s who does it better’? sure the japanese bands took a lot of inspiration from the west and molded what they experienced into thier own format. that’s how it works. just think about how utterly horrifying it must have been for the conservative, isolationist, conformist japanese elders of the day to put up with their freakish children screaming into microphones about how fucked up everything is. protest - like inspiration - is where you find it.

And here’s a link to their video for the title track.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Izp8HKXp774

Enjoy!