Dead Friends

What went wrong in Portland, Oregon? I mean, before being crusties' paradise, it used to unleash some of the fiercest USHC bands back in 80s'. Of course I'm pretty confident that you're all familiar with Poison Idea. But there were also Final Warning & Portland's most hated band, Lockjaw. The last one self-released two awesome eps between 1982-83 that contained a good dose of perfectly executed yet sometimes sloppy thrash/hc/punk. Unfortunately with a provocative attitude & songs titled "she's a slut", "Go Back" and my favourite "No Ⓐ", they didn't make many friends. I guess that dumb punks were not ready back then (and still aren't) to being provoked themselves. So of course everyone ended up hating them. I've indeed heard stories of a couple of stores that destroyed all their copies of Lockjaw's records they had in stock!

Straight forward to 30 years later and Lockjaw has reached a cult status, even if haters are still hating, and the originals, printed in mere quantities, have of course become expansive collectors items. In the repressing frenzy we've been all witnessing in these last 10+ years, it took a spanish label, Antitodo Records, to have the guts to reprint Lockjaw second effort, "dead friends" 7". A perfect reproduction of the original. 300 on clear, 200 on grey wax. Since there are around also test presses for their debut ep "shock value", I'm quite confident that it won't take that much until even the repress of their debut will see the light.