This is the first post thus far on Terminal Escape that does not come from a cassette that I held in my hand, I almost opted out in favor of keeping the blog "pure," but I had to start my descent somewhere, and cheers to Ross for getting the ball rolling...
In the early 1990s, the 20 miles between Norman, Oklahoma and Oklahoma City could just as easily have been a fortified national border. There were bands in Norman, some played fast and most drank (excessively), and those of us who toured used roughly the same network as the bands from OKC (then again, in 1992 there weren't exactly a lot of networks to choose from). But while those of us in College Town, USA (version: Oklahoma) skipped class and played our keg parties and got gigs opening for whatever flavor of the month national touring act happened to be passing through like ROCKET FROM THE CRYPT, SUPERCHUNK, or maybe FLIPPER...those kids in Oklahoma City were The Punx. I mean Punx like huffing gas and spanging and getting into fights with whoever, or themselves if that's all that was available, and we barely even knew that their bands fucking existed...probably because most of them were too fucked up for their bands to move from the bedroom/hangout/ rehearsal space to actually playing shows. The shows they did play were legendary though...lots of summertime park gazebo gigs that featured every band that had at least thought about having a practice someday and the shows lasted far longer than anyone's patience did (these events were likely called "Punk Picnics"), house parties that evolved into drunken brawls that went from entertaining to unnerving to terrifying in the space of one drunken outburst (the aforementioned FLIPPER played one of these in OKC the day after my band played with them in a stale college strip rock club in Norman, and I remember hearing that GWAR played out of costume as well, and while that seems quite unlikely, several trustworthy friends claim to have been there), and every so often there would be a gig at a dance club (there was a seemingly endless supply of dance clubs around Oklahoma City at the time, mostly goth, and they would have shows...well, they would have a show, and then that would be it until the club changed owners).
I was trading emails with my friend Ross about Oklahoma punk (old and new) and he mentioned that he still had this demo, I realized that I had never heard them recorded and asked him to send me a copy. Imagine my surprise when it fucking ruled!! HATE FARM were a hicktown version of BLATZ, but they were far from a carbon copy. Three vocalists fronting a seven person atonal assault on the senses...an absolute mess. These are pretty much the same descriptors when discussing the live shows, except that on the demo it works brilliantly. Chaos fucking punk from Oklahoma. It's worth noting that HATE FARM featured ex-members of HATE PARTY, also from Oklahoma City, and I would really like a copy of that demo as well. ...Anyone?
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