Each month, American hardcore punk historian Tony Rettman will tell you about some new old shit to you need to buy. Like talking to your friend at the bar, but your friend has much better and more interesting taste than you. Check out last month's column here!
As much as it is a delight to finally have Mad Punx & English Dogs, the first twelve-inch EP by the English Dogs, back on vinyl, I gotta say this thing looks like shit. Couldn’t they have found a copy of the jacket without ringwear to scan for the cover? And don’t they have the ability to make the cover photo look like it wasn’t fished out from the bottom of a peep show garbage can? Seriously, if making this thing was a labor of love, it should have been aborted on the drawing board. But if you take the cover and heave it out the window, you’re left with one of the most under-celebrated and brutal records to come out of the UK82 phenomenon. It is just as potent as anything by GBH or the Exploited; the English Dogs EP is a classic blur of spiky-haired aggro that, all these years later, manages to get the blood boiling. If only a label would reissue the bands’ catalog with a little bit of care, I might gain some hope for the human race. But then again, probably not…
