Really Red

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Really Red
General information
origin Houston (United States)
Genre (s) Punk , hardcore
founding 1978
resolution 1985
Founding members
singing
 Ronald "U-Ron" Bond
guitar
 Kelly Younger
bass
 John Paul "Yuma" Williams
Drums
 Robert Weber
Last occupation
singing
 Ronald Bond
guitar
 Kelly Younger
bass
 John Paul Williams
Drums
 Robert Weber

Really Red was a punk / hardcore band from Houston , Texas , which existed from 1978 to 1985 and is considered to be the pioneer of the Texan punk scene.

history

Singer Ronald "U-Ron" Bond, Kelly Younger (guitar) and John Paul "Yuma" Williams (bass) have played music together under changing names since around 1971, usually covering pieces from other bands. By 1978 punk had become an artistically significant genre in New York and Southern California and inspired the three musicians. They renamed themselves Really Red, added drummer Robert Weber to the line-up and, together with the Legionaire's Disease Band (also from Houston) and the Big Boys from Austin, spearheaded the first generation of punk bands in Texas . The members remember the origin of the band name in different ways. The band's music was written by guitarist Younger and bassist Williams, with singer Bond providing the lyrics. Really Red set itself apart from other bands through strict discipline during rehearsals. In 1979 the band headlined the first Rock Against Racism Festival in Houston. In the same year she released her first single, following the do-it-yourself idea of ​​the hardcore scene, on her own label CIA Records, with which she also produced releases for befriended bands such as Culturcide and the first Texas woman punk band Mydolls . At a concert in Houston Really Red was surprisingly supported vocally by Tom Robinson .

In 1981 the band was featured on one of the first hardcore samplers , Let Them Eat Jellybeans! which was produced by Jello Biafra's label Alternative Tentacles . Career obstacles for the band were the peculiarity of not publishing band photos (so that the media could not illustrate any articles), as well as the rejection of the offer to accompany The Clash on their tour for the album Combat Rock in 1982 . In January 1983 Really Red organized a benefit concert for the Austrian filmmaker Kurt Kren , who was living homeless in the United States at the time and accompanied the concert with his short films. In 1984 the band recorded their second album Rest in Pain at the Houston SugarHill Studios . At this point the band members were already falling out; after the album was released in 1985, Really Red broke up.

1996 Really Red was with a song on a retrospective Split - EP with The Hate represented and Legionaire's Disease band in 1997 with two titles on the Texas punk sampler Deep In The Throat Of Texas . In 2006, a song by the band was used on the soundtrack of the documentary American Hardcore . In 2015 the band's back catalog was reissued by Alternative Tentacles. The label also released the compilation album Teaching You The Fear: The Complete Collection 1979-1985 , which contains the official records of the band as well as some live and demo recordings; As part of the release ceremony, the Houston punk bands Talk Sick Brats and Texas Biscuit Bombs played songs by Really Red. A reunion of the band on the occasion of the release of the back catalog was ruled out; Guitarist Younger said in 2015 that he would be surprised if “all four (members) could stand it in one room”.

During his time at Really Red, singer Ronald Bond was a radio presenter for radio station KPFT and ran a record store called "Real Records" in Houston. After his time at Really Red, drummer Robert Weber played in the experimental Houston punk band Anarchitex until 1987; the other band members turned their backs on the music immediately after the end of Really Red. Weber was employed full-time as an engineer at the chemical company Ethyl Corporation from the 1970s to 2014 .

Style and reception

Really Red went through a development during the existence of the band: While the first album Teaching You The Fear was shaped by punk, the band picked up speed over time and presented classic hardcore with their second album Rest in Pain . The Houston Press found the youthful, energetic music of Really Red to be like a journey back in time to "the earliest and probably best days" of the Houston punk scene. The music journalist and director Steven Blush assessed that Really Red had established hardcore in Houston and fought against its conservative environment with pointed titles. He drew comparisons to the Dead Kennedys . The online magazine PunkNews saw "almost danceable post-punk " with politically clearly positioned, confrontational texts that were more aggressive than punk and came along with strident guitars. The magazine drew comparisons to the Big Boys, the Dicks and MDC , all of them also from Texas.

Singer Ronald Bond named The 13th Floor Elevators as an early influence on the band members and the Legionaire's Disease Band, which had live concerts shortly before Really Red, as a concrete influence on Really Red's music.

Discography

  • 1980: Despise Moral Majority ( EP , CIA Records)
  • 1981: Teaching You The Fear (CIA Records)
  • 1982: New Strings for Old Puppets (EP, CIA Records)
  • 1985: Rest in Pain (CIA Records)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b HoustonPress.com: Really Red Recalls the Early Days of Houston Punk. Retrieved October 27, 2019 .
  2. ↑ a b BreakMyFace.com: Really Red. Retrieved November 14, 2019 .
  3. ↑ HoustonArtHistory.com: A Houston Timeline 1972-1985. Retrieved October 24, 2019 .
  4. ↑ "WildDogZine.com: Punk Politics, British New Wave, And Really Red At The Island (1979). Retrieved November 14, 2019 .
  5. ↑ a b MaximumRocknRoll.com: Blast From The Past: Really Red Part Two! U-Ron Speaks. Retrieved November 14, 2019 .
  6. ↑ a b PunkNews.org: Really Red. Retrieved November 14, 2019 .
  7. ↑ Nicky Hamlyn, Simon Payne, Al Rees: Kurt Kren: Structural Films . Intellect Books, Bristol 2016, ISBN 978-1-78320-553-0 , pp. 17 .
  8. ↑ a b c HoustonPress.com: Digging Into the Recordings That Really Red Never Knew Existed. Retrieved November 14, 2019 .
  9. ↑ HoustonChronicle.com: The punk rocker at Ethyl Corp. Retrieved November 14, 2019 .
  10. ↑ Steven Blush: American Hardcore. A tribal history . 2nd Edition. Feral House, Port Townsend 2010, ISBN 978-0-922915-71-2 , pp. 273 .