BBS PARANOICOS / E.M.S.
Split Lp
LP,
Bloodshed666
This split-album comes from the same label that released the
Radikalkur / Jason-split LP only it has been released over 2 years ago. Well, good things
don’t grow old, or so they say, and in real (!) punkrock time has a
completely different meaning anyway. For instance, it took BBS Paranoicos
from Chile ten years to be able to release an album in Europe – this one
here – and that is thanks to the good people from Bloodshed666. It is a
strong guess, they like to couple a band from far away with one local band
on their releases, and it is a good idea. Within the distro-structures of
DIY-punk – concerts, exchanging records and small mailorders – this
gives both bands more attention than two separate releases. Anyway, if you
want to read more of my thoughts on Bloodshed666 and the state of punkrock,
please refer to the review of the aforementioned
Radikalkur / Jason-split,
because it is all there. Thank you.
BBS Paranoicos are deeply into that late Eighties, high-energy, melodic
punkrock of the Descendents, early Bad Religion, and the more
straightforward parts of NoFX. But the Spanish vocals give it away, as does
a certain atmosphere of no compromise-punkdom. BBS Paranoicos steer clear
easily from the hellhole of melodic Top40-punkrock. A lot of bands (Green
Day and Blink 182 being the most prominent) have the problem now, that they
started of small and with lots of fun, and by means of chance or evil
cunning made it to topsellers. And now they want to prove themselves as real
musicians, which they ain’t, as grown up artists, which they ain’t
either, and as serious people, which they might have become in the meantime
but which makes them completely uninteresting for the Top40-audience. And
they have become completely uninteresting for the audience that liked them
in the early days, because they have “sold out”. It is a vicious circle.
Only a few bands are able to keep the fun alive, to stay small and healthy
and to live a beautiful life.
And maybe even be able to spread a message. BBS Paranoicos are clearly an
anarchist band. They cite clever passages from Tolstoy and graffitis like
“are they using their band to sell revolution or are they using revolution
to sell their band”. It is for you to decide. Maybe a little of both.
Anyway, most tracks by BBS Paranoicos are about freedom in one way or
another, and for a band from Chile that has a whole different meaning than
for us overfed, satisfied mid-Europeans. Please do remember, that it is only
a few years past that Auguste Pinochet finally retired. The man who had
killed 30.000 people during his usurpation and nobody knows how many more.
Chile is a country where people simply disappeared, where the police carries
machine guns at all times and where murder is common everywhere. A good
place for serious punkrock to bloom, maybe, but be true to yourself, would
you like to live there? Would you live your nice suburban home, where your
parents care for you to lead a daily struggle with death just to play in a
band that stands for a kind of political idea that can get you kidnapped and
killed without anybody asking questions? I don’t think so.
The second side of this album is reserved for E.M.S., which obviously
translates to “ego means survival”, which is not a really good name in
my opinion. Especially if a band wants to spread an idea of community and
sharing and working together, to point to egoism as a positive thing, is
somewhat questionable. Or maybe I am getting things wrong, because nowadays
survival has become the best thing to happen to you and back then it was not
about surviving but making this world a better place. Well, EMS didn’t
survive. One bandmember left the band, so they split up. Of course, some
bandmembers are still active in the scene and various bands (e.g.
Radikalkur). It’s always this way, innit? The band came from lower Austria
and I remember them to be quite active in and around Vienna and making it
through various parts of Europe as well. It is a pity they don’t exist
anymore.
