Putrid Fever: “The rhythms of paranoia” since ’80s
A story about Putrid Fever, historic hardcore band of the 1980s
It’s 200x. I’m in high school. At that time, I was waiting for a stable internet home access, that would disclose in front of me an abyss of free pornography, and led me to the 21st century. I thought life was hard, and I couldn’t be more wrong. Life is much, much worse than I expected. Even if I’m almost lost on a ship in between an hormone class 5 storm, I’m not only looking after the deadly masturbation sessions that will soon after be my daily routine. I really can’t wait to deep dive into the musical sewer that only an internet access in 200x could afford. Mailing lists seem like a mirage, and there’s more. There’s Facebook’s dad, Myspace.
Long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, the scumbag artsy and lame army of assholes that we all know nowadays was just a simple and young army of assholes. No mustaches, no bikes, no craft beers, no lame tattoos. They were just young and stupid, and all they care about was unsafe sex and ketamine, usually together. Times were more simple, maybe just because people got more laid, and more often than today, or maybe because anal sex was actually better than tiktok. Myspace was a cyber sewer where people did exactly what they do today on the internet: complaining and looking for instant gratification, pretending everyone is special. It was just a ranting competition. I’m an expert, it’s exactly what I do too though. Anyway.
For the bands Myspace was quite great though, just like social medias are. They’re just a tool to get in touch with people, and if someone is able to use them in the right way they work just fine. There were the player, where you could listen and even download (yeah, you could do it, crazy uh!?) some of the band’s best songs, and above all, there were the bios.
The band introduced itself to an audience that didn’t knew it at all, so they concentrated lots of info in few lines, adding even some other references like “f.f.o.” and stuff like that. It was a fucking goldmine. If a band was good, even the other bands that inspired them had to be good, right? It made perfect sense to me.
There was a band that totally blew me away, then as now. They were called ED, from Bologna, and one of their best records had just come out: “Nailed to the Board”. I got obsessed with that record, literally, so I started to search for more information about the band, anything. I stumble on their “influences” list on Myspace and I got struck by a lightning. I found out the bands that later would have become the soundtrack of the best times of my life: R.K.L., Bl’ast!, The Faction, Corrosion of Conformity, Putrid Fever. This name sucks, I thought. I write down a list, waiting for the weekend to go crate searching in local record stores.
Crash records was an independent record store in the center of Padua, near the supermarket where we used to buy beers and other sorts of alcohol, so it was always a crucial step in my Saturdays. At that time, nobody wanted to buy vinyl. CD was king, so the record stores were all trying to get rid of all the wax as fast as possible. I don’t really remember exactly what year it was, or even the month, but I recall that one day I stumbled into this little yellow bad boy, and it came home with me.
Ok, maybe the part when I just talk about myself it’s over. Maybe.
Let’s focus on the record, right? This ep came out in 1985 for Belfagor Records. Otherwise than other Italian bands of the 80’s, Putrid Fever already got through the Discharge-UK82 sound, and they started looking at the opposite side of the Atlantic. Bad Brains, Verbal Abuse, Black Flag, Circle Jerks. Ten minutes of noise, always on the edge of the razor, high speed and midtempos perfectly balanced. Anxiety, paranoia. Nobody played like them in Italy at the time, with maybe the only exception of CCM. Maybe one day I’ll try to talk of them too, but not this time sorry, I got even too many beers tonight so I’m a little duhmahbah. Anyway.
Vipera was the drummer of CCM. With him we got Fefo and Daniela, three friends that decided to get in a garage and star a band. Rehearsals, sweat, stink. All experiences that everyone should do, at least once in their lives, in my opinion. It’s 1984, and they got a demo tape, they start to get in touch with people, zines, venues, squats and whatshitoever. Fast songs, lyrics in English – not so common for 80’s Italian bands – and a sound that nobody really got properly shaped at that time.
Yes, we all know Negazione, but Putrid Fever always got something that made me curious. They didn’t sound as an Italian band. Drums were solid but not grindish or blasting, guitars and riffs were aggressive but with a strong rock’n’roll base. Someone really listened to Mr. Greg Ginn’s lessons. Maybe if they were from the land of “you can buy ammo at the grocery store but if you got no job you can’t afford to be healed” they would end up on Mystic Records or on a Thrasher Magazine comp. But too bad, we are in Italy. Pizza, mafia, spaghetti and shut the fuck up. The band plays a lot, they’re from Tuscany and there’s a lot of kids there, even a great squat, Victor Charlie. They got some songs on the “Senza tregua” compilation, with Sid of CCM on vocals. They keep on practicing, songs got faster and better. In 1985 they finally met Marco, the singer of this Ep. For years I really knew nothing about it, just the songs by heart, and now I’m writing a sort-of review. Internet is weird.
Even today, this is one of my favorite records of that era. Handmade cover, poorly recorded but with a charme and a sound that you won’t be able to reach even with all the modern technologies. . “Life is pain, pain is learn and soon you all will learn”. A sloppy English but who cares, just after five seconds your brain is sizzling. You really don’t know what’s going on, you only know that you want more. Everything is just perfect, from the fast paced start ‘til the greasy and heavy ending of “Rhythms of Paranoia”. Painted in these grooves, there is a world in electric colors, with the same monsters of the cover. It’s like opening the windows at dawn, at 5 a.m., before the chaos erupts in the city.
I copied the band’s bio from the booklet of the CD/LP reissue that came out in 2006 for Spittle Records and Gonna Puke retro. Those editions contain all the recorded tracks of the band, the self titled 7 inch, the compilation tracks and even the very first demo. Listening to the all recordings you can easily listen to the evolution of their sound.
«In the eighties, when getting tattooed was a permanent scar and the only squats were the Virus in Milan and the Victor Charlie in Pisa, four guys got together to start a band. With I Refuse It and Juggernaut, the band would have been later a column of the G.D.H.C. – Grand Ducato Hard Core – Fefo Forconi, Daniela “nunmetoccà” Petrova and Andrea “Vipera” Salani (drummer of C.C.M.) gave birth to Putrid Fever. For the first year they didn’t even had a real singer, until Marco Cellini appeared in the basement where they used to rehearse. Last two things before listening to the record are: Sid of C.C.M. sings in two of these songs, and after Putrid Fever broke up, Fefo would have a new and more successful band called Toxic Reasons».
But there’s more. According to Discogs – because yes, you can also read infos and interesting stuff, not only buy overpriced crappy records – Fefo played even with artists like Jello Biafra, Ziggy Marley and the Birdmen of Alcatraz, before coming back to Florence, found the band Malfunk and join Almamegretta. Nice stuff, uh? Yes, I know the story: “but c’mon, you wrote a review without even talking about the record, you asshole”. You’re right, but it’s been over fifteen years that I’ve been reading zines, and way too often I found myself thinking “oh shit, the record is better be awesome, because this review is boring as hell and I’m gonna kill myself if I read another line of this shit”. So basically I’m just trying to do something a little different. Getting you maybe a little more curious about things that are important to me, usually small pieces of black wax. I could say to you that “Can’t hope in dead” is still a song that blows my head away every fuckin time that I hear it. Riffs, drumming, the two voices dialoguing, everything is just perfect. These are obviously just my opinions, and they’re not supposed to be anything more than this. There is no scheme for my reviews, I’m the author and I do everything I want. If you want we can meet, hang out and talk about it. You all can easily do better than me, just do it and don’t bother me. I just write these words down because I just have the opportunity and the time – right now – but I’m not a pro, and I surely never be.
Anyway, thanks to a bunch of assholes, the original 7inch is not so cheap, but the 2006 reissues are just great, and you can easily find them in distros or even independent record stores. In 1994 a first discography reissue got out from Flowers of Grain with a different cover, called “Do you Remember”.
Twelve years after, Spittle and Gonna Puke retro records got the shit right and reissued all their stuff. If someone wants to print the tshirts of the original yellow artwork, write me a line ‘cause I fuckin dig it. As usual, here’s pictures of my copies, so you can read the lyrics and enjoy the real stuff.
Written, not read and not redacted by yours truly, meanwhile I pretend to work hard for the money.
Rash.
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