There is shite punk rock from before CRASS's first record. They didn't invent it and didn't really invite it so they can hardly be blamed.

Not Crap

Lovely band. I'll never forget the first time I heard them - I was browsing at Wax Trax and this came on the speakers:

Don't want to bury my head in the crutch of society,
Perverted parent that takes my energy,
Sucking me dry with your morals, your threats,
Christ, your queen, your politics.
Fucking hypersensitive, super realist humanity,
I'm one of your super hybred community.
Commutes the arsehole of economy.
Watch out, watch out, it's all about,
Reversion's setting in, and I can see you,
Staring at me with your seizured brain,
Trying to put me down the drain again.
Well you're too smart, right from the start,
I learned it well that the truth will tell,
And you're done for, it's what the son's for,
It's what the gun's for, it's what I've come for,
You better run bore, you better run bore
You better run bore, you better run bore
You better run bore, you better run bore
You better run bore, you better run bore

Any idea where I should start with CRASS records bands? I think KUKL is alright and I'm tempted by the Pink Indians anthology disc.

Pink Indians is a good place to start. So is DIRT.

I'll second the both of those. Flux and Dirt are great bands.

Boombats is completely on-the-money here.

Crass very much Not Crap.

I like "Do They Owe Us A Living?" as much as I like Ten Notes On A Summer's Day.. and everything in between.

Plus John Loder was an unofficial member of Crass too by the way. Everyone in the band called him the ninth member.

I've listened to some of their stuff and I haven't really gotten into it. Steve Ignorant is a great punk singer, however. The bassist was pretty good too.

Way to go, playing the same fucking drum pattern in every song Mr. Rimbaud. The lyrics are pretty great ("Hurry Up Garry"...good lord, this should be taught in schools as a textbook example of brilliant lyrical character assassination) and the grating noise guitars are pretty cool (though I wish they'd play a coherent tune every once in a while).

I don't know why I haven't really gotten into them. I think that it's that, in the end, they're monotonous. And trebly.

also, Eve Libertine's voice can get on my nerves, even though I dig her lyrics.

I hated them when they were active. I bought some stuff based on their brilliant use of graphics in 1982 and sold it all back to the same store the next day.

They had packaging down pat, but couldn't play their instruments. They were better off for those that bought into their politics.

Chumbawumba were far more insidious than Crass.

They did put out a Captain Sensible single, though. A true anarchist, him.