The Proletariat
Voodoo Economics and Other American Tragedies (Taang!)
by Jon Sarre
These ranters got tagged with the “hardcore” (or as they say in their hometown of Boston, “Hahdcoh”) label cuz of the company they kept (they appeared on Modern Method Records’ seminal This Is Boston, Not L.A. and Unsafe At Any Speed compilations alongside scene monsters GangGreen, the Freeze, the F.U.’s, and Jerry’s Kids), but politicos The Proletariat had more in common with early Fall and pre-attempted sellout Wire than with Chris Doherty’s breakneck breathless histrionics (or, on the flip, with Taang!-era Lemonheads – meaning the band, not Evan Dando and three interchangable pretty boys). So, don’t sweat it if you’ve never heard of ’em.
As for me, I usedta listen to their final release, Indifference (Homestead, 1985, and included, along with everything the Proles did, on this two CD set), all the time. I stumbled onto it whilst skipping a high school pep rally at Lowell High and thought the social critiques re: Prez Reagan, shitty employment choices, and man exploitin’ man set off with buzzy high end guitar swells sounded real neat, especially when everybody else I knew thought the same of “Livin’ On a Prayer.”
The Indifference record, by the way, was the most accessibly “rock-oriented” of the band’s output, that’s to say less “arty”, okeh? Hell, Laurel Bowman’s guest vox on “Homeland” with the ‘Til Tuesday-esque “singing anthems in the rain” chorus is downright, you guessed it, poppy (making the song, I think, a minor Boston-area hit, or at least I think I mighta heard it on that Sunday night show Oedipus usedta do on pre-mersh WBCN). Still, why Chuck Eddy tagged Indifference as the 451st “Best Heavy Metal Record in the Universe” in his Stairway to Hell book (something to do with “pomp,” I gather) is anyone’s guess.
Listening to the Proletariat these days, I find myself more impressed by the minimalistic earlier material (yeah, the arty shit). Tracks like “Abstain” (previously unreleased) or “Voodoo Economics” (from Unsafe At Any Speed) and most of the Soma Holiday LP with the discordant guitar screeches and ridiculously tinny percussion work are great examples of that post no-wave art punk that never really caught on (especially after Gang Of Four whitewashed their material with blackface-funk and Mark E. Smith let his girlfriend join the Fall). The Boston Not L.A. stuff that didn’t really impress me as a kid (the Freeze stole that record anyhow) is equally cool, like they were attempting to construct “artcore” (or “ahtcoh” as one might say dismissively at a hahdcoh show at the Ratskellah [R.I.P.]). It never did make the kids with the Xs on their hands like ’em. Here’s a second chance.
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