INCLUSIONS “UNAMERICAN ACTIVITY / RUSSIAN YOUTH” 7″ (MINNEAPOLIS, MN- NO LABEL, 1981)
Here is a band about which I know absolutely nothing, other than the fact that they were from Minneapolis (damn, what a great scene they had in the late 70’s and early 80’s!)… and they made only one record, this nice angular DIY-ish 7″ which apparently was issued without a picture sleeve. So if you’ve come lookin’ for a raw and snotty posting then you will probably want to skip this one.
The U.K. was like the DIY headquarters in the late 70’s and early 80’s but there were a number of great like-minded records from the U.S. during that same time period (more postings of them will follow in the future). With this track from The Inclusions, you get a great stripped-down, minimally-produced sound that includes- gasp!– an acoustic guitar. How unpunk is that?! I usually despise acoustic guitars, but here it totally works for some reason. Maybe it’s the subtlety of it. The singer also has a unique, sing-songy “up and down” style that I dig but which will probably annoy others. I also like the guitar noise (of the electric type) that kicks in towards the end, nice way to end it.
The great Collector Scum.com site dated this 7″ from 1980, but I say 1981 since it has all these Ronald Reagan references and he did not become President and start destroying the U.S. until January 20, 1981. Unless of course The Inclusions were closely following the 1980 presidential race and recorded it in late 1980 sometime after the November election. Which is kind of unlikely since nearly all (all?) Reagan references do not start appearing in punk records until 1981 (now THERE’s an idea for a future posting!). Very early in the year too, I may add, which shows how much he pissed people off from the get go. But that’s another issue in itself…
If you know anything about The Inclusions (or have a spare copy or two you want to donate to me) please post some comments. Um, since my other postings are short novels I feel kind of obligated to write more but I guess I will cut it short. Oh yeah- the B-side, “Russian Youth”, is not quite up to par as the A-side so I didn’t post it [11.20.2008 POSTSCRIPT: due to a request, I have stopped being stingy and have now posted the other side]. Thanks to S.B. (via J.R.) for burning this for me a number of years back.
/files/98398-90993/02_Inclusions_Russian_Youth.MP3″>Russian Youth.mp3