The Proletariat - Soma Holiday (Non-U/Radiobeat RB001)

New Bedford's Proletariat unveil their forty-five minute, eighteen song opus, SOMA HOLIDAY.  This record may not be considered "hardcore" by some scene followers, but it is hard:  The band is hard, especially Frank Michael's guitar work; the vocals are hard, delivered in Richard Brown's tight-lipped, clipped style; & the politics are hard, featuring Brown's superb sloganeering.

In "Decorations" he writes "Cloth on  pole/Medals on the shirt/Bullets thru the chest/Flowers on your grave."  Brown can say more in a title - "SPLENDID WARS (MYTH)", "HOLLOW VICTORY" - than most people can say in an entire set.  I love the simplicity of "EVENTS/REPEAT", it's three verses repeated like a chant: Events repeat/Red scare remake/Cold war reborn."

This is the definitive PROLETARIAT album:   everything that the band stands for comes across in each aspect of the LP.  It will be difficult to improve on this effort next time around.  Kudos to the band, producers Jimmy Dufour & Lour Giordano, for Radiobeat Record's first release.   But don't buy this record for its good production, or because it's from a local artist; buy this record for its anthems, like "PURGE", "DECIDE ON CHANGE", and the others mentioned, and because THE PROLETARIAT give us something else to believe in.   

-Unknown, The Noise, circa 1983

-Photo by T.MAX

You'll probably bump into the word proletariat when reading about European history, most notably the periods surrounding the French and Russian Revolutions. The proletariat are the workers, the lowest social order upon which the state is built. Since the aristocracy would maintain that the state is built upon their tiny ruling class, enevitable clash resulted. So, the word proletariat is associated with revolution - better yet, it's all about change.
Change is what the members of Proletariat are seeking. The band has not chosen it's name lightly, hoping that the injustices they point out in their music may eventually change if enough people are made aware of them. On last year's THIS IS BOSTON, NOT L.A. album, Proletariat was one of 7 bands spotlit on the hardcore compilation. The group's three contributions were expose's of religious narcosis, blind faith to the American flag, and the fight to escape a no-income, no-win situation. In the two former songs, "Religion is the Opium of the Masses" and "Allegiance", the band pointed out how people live in myopic servitude to the great institutions of church and state. What makes the band's viewpoint so poignant is that the institutions are not being attacked so much as people who refuse to accept or even look at other institutions and ideas.
Now Proletariat has released its very own forum in the shape of a new album of 18 songs. The band put out a cassette-only release in 1982 called DISTORTION, four of its songs appear on the new Lp (although they are all remixed and one of them: "Torn Curtain" is totally re-recorded). The rest of the material is new and features rock & roll's classical lineup of drums-bass-guitar-vocals. It's soon obvious that Proletariat's treatment of this traditional approach lands them a distinctive punchy sound. On top of Peter Bevilacgua's bass and Tom McKnight's drum kit is the dense distortion of Frank Michaels' guitar which cuts through each song like a snarling chainsaw. Unlike the crop of hardcore singers whom lead vocalist Richard Brown is most compared to, his singing is authoritative and easily understood. In a musical genre where lyrical content is so important, his style is far more effective.
THE NOISE was eager to contact Proletariat on the occasion of the record release and since the members all live in a wide area miles south from Boston they consented to be interviewed by telephone. Frank Michaels and Peter Bevilacqua were intelligent, down to earth, and eager to talk during the calls. Proletariat never seem to do anything without good reason, so what about the Lp title, SOMA HOLIDAY?
"Soma is a drug," Frank explained, "in the book BRAVE NEW WORLD by Huxley the state gives its citizens this pleasure drug to distract them. Their goal is merely to be happy and they spend the entire weekend stoned out - a Soma Holiday. In many ways, it resembles the current media brainwash of America."
Media includes pop music and its accompanying charts, sales figures, and promotions. Proletariat must consider the fact that any degree of success will place them more or less in this musical arena. The band is not concerned, however, with how many copies of SOMA HOLIDAY are sold, the sale of many records would no doubt please the band, but their equation for success is in sticking fast to original ideals. "We're happy with where we are, we ere surprised just to be able to play in a club when we started. I thought Mission of Burma was a success - the best band to come out of Boston. You see there's lots of levels", Frank explains, "Black Flag sold 60,000 copies and they've stayed true to their original ideas. We've consciously backed away from a pap thing - I wouldn't look forward to it. I don't view success for this band like X's success - we wouldn't want to be on the road for eight months."
"As far as pop goes", adds Peter, "the music is getting boring. The music is being run by the big corporations. It isn't music for the people of the people."
SOMA HOLIDAY is an Lp three years in the making with songs dating back to 1981. The entire project was recorded over the course of the past year through steady sessions at Boston's Radiobeat Studios. The 8-Track facility, run by Jimmy Dufour and Lou Giordano, was a perfect haven fro the band which learned as it went along. "We're naïve to the record business", explains Frank. "It's hard to keep your ideas and goals straight in the business and we dealt with it by doing everything ourselves."
Radiobeat is also a record label and utilizing its business workings eliminated the need for outside assistance and/or interference. Realizing a complete album package inside on year is phenomenol on a local level and Radiobeat is now confidently planning the release of a Deep Wounds 7", a Gerard Cosloy compilation Lp of local hardcore, and a Frank Michaels produced album by the band Sorry.
Proletariat is nearly always associated with hardcore music even though their style owes more to the drive and "clean sound" of the early Clash and Sex Pistols. "When we started", mentions Frank, "We didn't know what hardcore was - we were playing in our cellar in Southeastern Massachusetts totally isolated. The Clash and the Pistols inspired us when we started. When we played Boston, we finally saw what was happening." Peter adds, "I saw the scene rise - Boy's Life was the punk band back in 80 and the city was alive! Now the strongest bands are surviving and the main type of music is that synthesizer funk thing. I like funk, especially Grandmaster Flash, but I think we are now overdosing."
In Proletariat, music and lyrics contribute equally to the overall sound, perhaps the latter is even more important. Richard Brown writes most of the words but each member is involved in the final lyrical realization of every song. Tunes with titles like "Famine", "Another Banner Raised", "Purge", "Avoidance", and "Blind" are all individual glimpses of life that most people choose to ignore or avoid. Proletariat do not necessarily have the answers, what is being said is NOTICE THIS". With all of this flag waving, certain problems and pressures are bound to emerge. Frank agrees: "Well, we leave ourselves open, but we are determined to print our lyrics and not skirt issues or cop out. You see, we don't care what people think because no matter what you do, someone will hate it - so just move ahead! People have wanted us to carry their flag, once a Communist Party of America member wanted us to support his cause but we don't want to get partisan."
SOMA HOLIDAY is a step, fully realized and the group has already begun the next one with ten songs recorded for an upcoming project. Frank mentions, "We put a lot of work into it with no lack of effort. I can't complain. I don't like to listen to the record though, I say lets move on." Frank and Peter were very concerned, however, with the inner sleeve collage of various pictures showing graffiti throughout the Boston area. The idea was to show that you have the right to think and express your own viewpoint. Peter points out emphatically that, "We included one picture of a sidewalk spray painted with the words FUCK AMERICA - that was wrong. People misinterpret that and think that we believe those words. We don't because in the context it's stupid - there are better ways to express yourself. Our idea was and is, to go out and make your own statement. You have the freedom."

-Carter Alan, The Noise, Issue #20, circa 1983