You may have heard the incredible track One For All on the American Youth Report. I was totally floored when I spun it for the first time. But their records where nowhere to be found in Sweden at the time. I heard them on Hell Comes To Your House and the Life Is Boring So Why Not Steal This Record compilations. Here’s their second and last record. It’s almost as good as One For All. Hardcore delivered with originality and passion. While No Passion makes Erich do ugly things Suburban Death Row want’s me to fuck you all. And of course they got great lyrics to boot: I see them leading decent, well ordered lives. With their lovely, stupid children and their K-Mart wives. If the rumors is true that they have an LP full of unreleased stuff I hope it’s from the same session as One For All.
So what happened with MW after this EP? I really need to know.
You know Erich posted this one and their first too which I command you to download as well. Yeah, I know I sold my copy of the first EP just cause I was so disappointed it wasn’t as good as One For All.
Country: USA
Year: 1981
Label: Bemisbrain
Format: 7″
Songs:
Nothing’s Left For Me.mp3
No Passion.mp3
Suburban Death Row.mp3
Modern Warfare – Nothing’s Left For Me E.P. 7″.I know what I don’t hate.
Great band, great lyrics. Need I say anymore??
an absolute classic!!!
Glad you changed your mind. I remember when you said you didn’t like MW – until I had posted the above EP. BTW – there seem to be 2 sleeves around, as I see.
Then your mind fails you. I always liked MW but not the first 7″. This one has always been dear to me.
Yeah the axe sleeve is supposed to be rarer but I like this one better. Always been fond of big typography.
No Passion! What a fine song! If I didn’t know it, I would never guess they were from O.C. Brilliant!
I thought you heard this on my blog for the first time – but nevertheless, it’s a friggin classic and it’s a major rock’n'roll injustice this is still so little known.
My 2nd favorite band after the Germs, they almost never played. I only saw one listing for them playing anywhere, and I missed it! Bemis must have been shy! 1st 45 is Geza X produced, just like Dangerhouse. There are two versions of Hell Comes to Your House Vol.1, the red cover and the grey cover. They grey one has a different Modern Warfare track than the two cuts on the red one, I am dying to hear that song. I begged Dionysus to track Bemis down and release MW, glad to hear there’s a rumor of a full LP!!!!! Nothing Left was a radio hit on Rodney on the ROQ!!
That track on “American Youth Report” is one of the best starts to a hardcore record ever! Perfect? Maybe! Short, fast & to the point, like all hardcore should be. I’d LOVE to hear the unreleased stuff if it’s in this vein. Great, great, great!!!
Great HC with a weird edge . Unusually brutal and raw for an early So.Cal. hc band . Don’t ya think ?
I looked at your link to the other two MW posts and I found I wrote the same damn thing to one of those posts. Guess I need to drink less when I be surfin’ the innernets. The 1st 45 is great though, but not, I guess, if you consider this a baldy hardcore band. They clearly intend to be halfway between the Germs and the Flesheaters, no DC BS involved!
I fucking hate the Flesheaters! That is my two cents worth.
Sounds more like a blend of the DEAD KENNEDYS and early midwest hc .
…and REBEL TRUTH too .
I think Modern Warfare sounds like Modern Warfare.
The drummer for MODERN WARFARE, Randy Scott, got his start in the Long Beach punk band THE ABSENTEES. Artifix Records have asked a couple of the members to get a complete works LP out, but no luck yet.
The only similarities between Rebel Truth and MW is, both bands have guitars, drums and someone using a microphone…
How come no one ever boots or posts the amazing Endless Banana 45? Johnny Nation (ex-Bags) sang for this great Stooges style band, they used to play a lot with the Joneses, Mau Maus and Rik L Rik. Their 45 is so Killed By Death worthy, I need to dig it out of a box, mp3 it, scan it, and scan the old newspaper clippings of them I still have!!
Hi , Jay . Ever heard the second REBEL TRUTH demo ? Sounds a bit like MODERN WARFARE .
…In fact , both bands were influenced by THE URINALS .
Never heard the second Rebel Truth demo…would love to hear it though.
I love the Flesheaters…
I don’t….
I too heard the band still hesitates to release a retrospective album, but with those compilation songs
(the one on vol.1 comp.HELL COMES TO YOUR HOUSE album ,named “Street Fighting Man” … is amazing !) and both singles, it would make a great album!!! Somemone said its “the closest thing to THE FALL from USA”.Hey Mr.Ron Goudie:change your mind and let the folks do a legal album! And in fact:
at the time people were tracking down ABSENTEES like hell (after KBD vol.7)apparently no one asked Modern Warfare (from Long Beach,too) about that ABSENTEES,otherwise the case would have been cracked much earlier (as Greg ARTIFIX said the drummer Randy S. drummed on one ABSENTEES song on the 7″ and on both MW 7″ ,aswell…)
masterpiece. i wrote about these guys in “rag in chains”. when my mom read the lyrics on the single sleeve she said, “oh—suburban death row—that’s good!” :)
Thanks for the nice info behjan!
And Shredder do you happen to have any copies left of Rag In Chains?
I remember Rag in Chains!!! That was a cool fanzine…thanks Shredder!
That was fun !!!
Now kids, control yourselves. Really is a hoot of joy to hear that someone gets this music. We worked very hard to be good when we made it but at the time I didn’t feel anyone really got it. I haven’t heard it in many years and am so pleased and quite surprised that it has heal up this well. I the world was perfect someone would have copies of the other songs, HCTYH, AYR, and the other 7″ produced by Gexa-x. What is punk? Someone from that era STILL making music as I am (in Amsterdam). There was more but I don’t remember at this moment. I have a studio here and still doing it. As my dear friend Lee Ving said, “Fuck You Lets Rodeo” The masters are long gone and the rights are controlled by my ex-partner in Bemis Brain and bass player in MW, Steve Sinclair. He is also the guy singing Nothings Left For ME. Jimmy Bemis, the main writer and singer, was always a but troubled and I heard that he living on the street in Long Beach. Tish baby, the occasional Keyboard player but never recorded with us, is still in the loop in Long Beach, as Randy is, Steve is in New York and wont talk to anyone but his lovely wife covers for him. If anyone wanted to put a comp together u have my blessing. Please do! Sincerely, RG
Some of us got it, Ron. We got it and it was/is great. That is fucked up to hear about Jimmy. I have heard of several old “punks” living on the streets of LB. It sucks.
I sweated my balls off and bashed a few knuckles on the drum rims to not only squirt some blood on my drum heads but to keep a hard driving beat. This was what I liked about playing drums for Modern Warfare. We had a very good chemistry; Steve Sinclair playing a driven precision bass line, Ron G. placing a very unusual creative guitar lick and lead, and Jim Bemis would have made Johnny Ramone and Lou Reed very proud with his up and down grinding rhythms. His wango tango high speed rhythm was really the style master, and with the other very competent players mixing in, the results were very unique for its time. These three guys on stage looked very tall, Ron was as tall as Rick Ocasek which I thought looked strange in a cool way. Jim Beamis was a hell of a good writer too. The songs were so fast that many times his lyrics were indecipherable. I liked Ron and Steve’s work in the studio too. These guys knew how to mix even though I got screwed by Geza X by his watering my drums down to non-fat milk. Suburban Death Row and Street Fighting Man get it done. Hello Ron! I just had to leave a post after seeing your comments. I hope all is well. I’m still trying to get through to Jim. I was talking to him fairly frequently but he turned into the invisible man. Randy “What the Bloody Fuck?”
Ron and Randy, thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts. How come Geza screwed you Randy? I think most of his work sounds top.
Long live Modern Warfare!
Brilliant, brilliant band. Though nothing here tops “Out of my head” from the Hell Comes to Your House comp – truly poignant, powerful and catchy as hell…
…By the way, anyone know why the tracks on the vinyl version of the comp changed when it came out on CD? Seem to remember a Social Distortion cut called “Asphalt Dynasty” which disappeared altogether.
I don’t recall that Chris….
There were two different versions of “Hell comes to your House” – the one with the red sleeve and a green one for Europe. They had different tracks. I’ve never had the green version though.
I have never heard the “green” version either…it must suck really bad, if Erich or I have never heard it…hahaha
On the other hand, the green version seems o be featuring the best MW track …. Maybe Jay and I suck really bad.
As a matter of a fact, there were many different issues of “Hell comes to your House”. Mine is grey, but I once saw a blue one (besides the red and green). Unfortunately, mine had no lyrics inside.
Does anyone out there have them? I am looking for the lyrics to “Asphalt dynasty”.
I too had the grey vinyl version when I was 12 but I don’t remember a lyric insert. Hope you find one – perhaps get in touch with some Social D heads. The “red” CD version of Hell, for sale at around $5 on amazon.com, has “Out of my head” by MW and is well worth buying – not least because it has an incendiary version of “Puss N Boots” by Redd Kross (then Red Cross) which will bounce you off the walls…
Hi Randy, Hi Ron. gail from Sluglord. wanted to set the record straight about Bemis. we talked yesterday. he’s still in Long Beach. has a job and an apartment. had a short period of hard times after his mom passed, but has had an apartment for years. took him to get some things out of storage, maybe a year ago. he was looking hard for the masters of Modern Warfare. don’t think he could find them, did find some masters. not sure which. little time and a car, grabbed what we could.
i have the red LP & lyrics, don’t see “Asphalt Dynasty”. lots of good local bands.
Hi Gail, it’s good to hear from you and to know that Jimmy is in contact with you. Beamis deserves to release his work, by the way, he wrote “Asphalt Dynasty” Chris, unless there was another version written by Social Distortion, which I highly doubt. We used to play “Asphalt Dynasty.” I really like “Lude Boy” on the Hell Comes to Your House compilation. As far as my comment about Geza’s recording of my drums, the snare drum, kick drum, and lower end was just too watered down for my taste. Geza X’s artistic interpretation focused on weaving the guitars, which does sound interesting. I wanted more drive, but hey, after twenty-five years, I’ll stop whining. I always wondered what “Out of My Head” would of sounded like by Joe Strummer and The Clash.
Hey Randy…I think “Out of my head” by Joe Srummer, probably would have sounded like Joe Strummer doing “Out of my head”. Just kidding. We will never know.
If anyone does know where Jimmy is please do get him in contact with us. Rongoudie@yahoo.com LOve, peace, and debauchery, R
Hey all, I have loved this band for years and years now. I am still looking for an mp3 of Asphalt Dynasty if someone could please help me out it would be great.
THX!
Romulo
Romulo: that would be no problem, as I have ripped it off of the LP. Just a matter of figuring our where I’d ship it to. Lemme know.
Would love hearing that too.
Hi, Randy & Ron.
I’m looking for Jimmy, too; I last spoke with him about a year ago. I miss playing with you guys, even though you didn’t mention that I was in the band for for the HCTYH & AYR recordings. I’d like to hear from you; my e-mail is rdmaynard@att.net. Out of all the stuff I’ve ever recorded, I think Jim’s songs were the best material I’ve ever performed. I’m glad to see that there are other people who recognize his talent.