Civil Defense VIDEO & PHOTOS– St Paul Punk Rock 1982-1984

Civil Defense bio courtesy of Mike Reiter. It is also included in Civil Defense CD “Propaganda vs. Civil Defense” (buy it here).

In the early 80’s, Prince was beginning to make a dent nationally, but if you were a punk rocker in the Midwest, you had no reason to think of a “career” in music. So you played like you had nothing to lose. And at places such as The Longhorn, The Seventh Street Entry, and Goofy’s Upper Deck, plenty of young bands did. Those bands included: Husker Du, The Replacements, Loud Fast Rules (later Soul Asylum), Rifle Sport, and a young band from the East Side of Saint Paul, Civil Defense.

  Civil Defense began in 1982 as a three-piece featuring Dale Schuster on guitar and vocals, Vinnie Karshnia on bass and vocals, and Mike Reiter on drums. After honing their sound for a few months in Mike’s basement, they played mostly parties and rented halls. They first appeared under the name “Propaganda.” Soon, they played the  legendary “Upper Deck,” appearing with many of the local and touring punk bands of the time. Three songs from one of those performances (billed as Propaganda) appeared on the cassette-only release “Kitten Compilation.” It would later be re-issued on CD in 1999 by Reflex Records.

Later that year they would add Scott Grubich on guitar and vocals, and make their debut at The Seventh Street Entry as “Civil Defense.” The band’s sound was compared to The Buzzcocks and Radio Birdman. However, songwriter Dale’s prime influences were The Kinks and The Beatles.

In March of ‘83 they headed into Blackberry Way Studio in Minneapolis, the site of The Replacements early recordings, to produce what would become the “Gun Control EP.”

  Due to the usual circumstances, the band would dissolve in ‘84. Dale and Vince would work together for a number of years. Dale still records under “The Throwbacks.” Scott would move to L.A. and join a band with skateboard legend Tony Alva, and then move to Australia for a time.

Mike would join The Dig with Ed Ackerson. He would go on to play in The Mighty Mofos, The 27 Various, and many others, including an appearance with Velvet Underground drummer Moe Tucker. Mike is still performing and recording, and is currently appearing with The Mood Swings on Susstones Records.

 

Thanx to my homeiz for allowing me to post this. Civil Defense were not only a favorite of mine, but they changed my life.

two videos- Willful Neglect live at The Upper Deck- Minneapolis, and Castle Greens- North St Paul, 1982

St Paul’s finest. Two minutes total for each clip! This is how they rolled back then.

.

.

Thanks to Roger DeBace for getting these videos together, they give me goosebumps.
.

Bio:

Willful Neglect were a band from the East Side of St. Paul, Minnesota. The band was formed in late 1981. In less than a year Willful Neglect had 12 original songs and in the summer of ’82 decided to record at Blackberry Way Studios with Steve Fjelstad, who also recorded many Twin Tone Records acts. The result was the Willful Neglect 12″ EP, released November of 1982 on the band’s Neglected Records. Maximum Rock’n'Roll fanzine called “Abort the Mission” from the EP “one of the best songs of 1982″ on the cover of MRR issue #4.

They were featured on local CBS affiliate WCCO-TV on a “Local Punk” news report, where a show at Castle Greens in North St. Paul was filmed for broadcast. The band also played clubs in St Paul & Minneapolis such as The 7th Street Entry, McCafferty’s, and Goofy’s Upper Deck with bands such as Hüsker Dü, Minor Threat, The Circle Jerks, Loud Fast Rules (who became Soul Asylum), The Effigies, Rifle Sport, Man-Sized Action, Final Conflict, Ground Zero, The Reds, and Civil Defense. They then started to play other Midwestern cities such as Chicago and Milwaukee while becoming friends with The Effigies, Die Kreuzen, Naked Raygun, Articles of Faith, Sacred Order, Rights of the Accused, The Clitboys, and Negative Element.

Willful Neglect recorded their second 12″ EP Justice For No One in early 1983, once again employing Steve Fjelstad at Blackberry Way. The Replacements recorded their EP Stink the very same month in the same studio. Justice For No One was released in the summer of 1983 on Neglected Records. The band then toured the West Coast in August, playing Reno, San Jose, San Francisco, San Fernando Valley, East LA, and Albuquerque. They shared the stage with bands like DRI, SS Decontrol, Government Issue, Agression, Ill Repute, The Fuckups, Los Olvidados, Plain Wrap, and Personality Crisis, and stayed at the BYO house in Hollywood while in southern California.

A third record was recorded but not released “Big Enough to Get It” Six of the tracks from Big Enough… have ended up on 1982-1984, a CD released Fall of 2003 on Neglected Records. This CD contains all 23 tracks from both of the first two EPs with the six bonus tracks.

SS Decontrol – Government Issue – Willful Neglect – Stalag 13- Patriots — 29 YEARS AGO TODAY

In California, a night I will never forget. Thanks for sharing, Roger.

cool poster I found #99:

Early 1980s, St Paul, this looks like it was entertainingly futuristic for the time.

awesome ‘HYPNOTIC TORNADO’ compilation cassette from 1985

Everyone knows about most of the great Minnesota compilation records. There’s ‘Big Hits of Mid-America Vol. I-IV’, ‘Barefoot & Pregnant’, ‘Kitten’, ‘No Slow All Go’. Some of you may have even heard of ‘Burger Corpse’ or ‘Lung Cookies’. ‘Hypnotic Tornado’ is thee best Minnesota compilation you’ve never heard of. It is St Paul-centric, which means a lot to us at GJG.

Thanks to Paul Dickinson for releasing this great cassette. Paul was in Manifest Destiny, Pax Americana, Poetry Grenade, and you can still see him perform with FRANCES GUMM. Paul wrote one of Minnesota’s greatest anthems “I Will Not be Destroyed”. Sonic Boom Records would go onto release the first Tiltawhirl 7″ single “Pint of Blood” b/w “Define My Life” a couple years later. Tiltawhirl then became Arcwelder.

Link to mediafire

 

list of Sixties bands from St Paul as compiled by Zip Caplan of THE LITTER

Zip Caplan, lead guitarist and leader of legendary garage psychedelic monsters The Litter, is an affable guy who shows up at just about every Minnesota Record Show. He grew up in St Paul like me, so I recently posed a question to him that I’ve always wanted answered: there are lots of great sixties bands from Minnesota, but which of them were from St Paul specifically? For the price of a lunchtime hot dog, Zip wrote down a list of bands in pen for me, off the top of his head. Thanx Zip for satisfying my curiosity. (ed. note: One of the guys in The Deacons added Sir Lawrence and The Crescents to the list.)

The Uniques
The Escapades
The Continentals
The Rhythm Kings
Tim & The Galaxies
The Blackhawks
The Deacons
Keith Zeller and The Starliners
Alison Briston
Augie Garcia
The Tabs
The Corvettes

Sir Lawrence and The Crescents