Review of TSOL first EP from 1981

Jack Grisham, singer/frontman for seminal Southern California Punk/Goth/Hardcore band TSOL (True Sounds Of Liberty), has been known to make statements such as “Thomas Jefferson was punk: He said there should be a revolution every hundred years to insure liberty” … It makes TSOL seem like a perfect libertarian punk band, but there have been TSOL songs (“Property is Theft”, which served as partial inspiration for the proposed replacement “Taxation is Theft” by The YDB) and Grisham campaigns for political office (lost to Arnold Schwarzenhowdyaspellit) that may lead us to a different conclusion. On their self-titled 1981 first release, TSOL is 4 for 5 (or 5 for 6, depending on how you’re counting).
Superficial Love – Property is Theft –No Way Out - Abolish Government / Silent Majority – World War 3
“Superficial Love” is a great opener, which parallels forced conscription and perhaps taxation in the name of “freedom” to a personal relationship or even one-night-stand where one’s only interest in another is sex … labeled as “love”. It’s a powerful metaphor, and the song ends with “President Reagan can shove it!”… We can get into discussions of “The Real Reagan” and “Reagan-bashing as a punk pastime” in a later issue. “Property is Theft” is the oddball socialist song on an anarchist album. While the way in which property comes to be recognized as such can be an issue for debate, the property principle is probably the central building block in anarchist thought. The desperate “No Way Out” is the least interesting song on the album, but it is fast enough a hardcore song to be worth the listen. “Abolish Government / Silent Majority” is two songs pushed together, and it is the crowning achievement of TSOL’s first release. Many great riffs (with a little bit of groove, a little bit of thrash, and little bit of widdly-diddly lead work) and three major movements make up this song, the middle being an upbeat anti-military march speed-rap. A little rough around the edges, but Grisham makes a halfway-decent case for why everyday people (the “silent majority”) should oppose government and the conformist mentalities that allow it to remain standing. “World War 3” says that in the third world war, “we’re the victims”. One to use excessive make-up like an undead new romantic dandy or even wear dresses on stage, Grisham’s trademark faux british accent would turn to more of a theatrical “Edgar Allen Poe” style to express the expected dark poetic messages on later releases. This album was TSOL in their most purely hardcore/punk form. Desperate warnings from alienated youths who might know a thing or two about something. Today’s bands need to learn a thing or two. They did it better in 1981.
The members of TSOL are parting ways (probably for the last time) this winter, but their recent song, “Politics” expresses hatred for politics, rules and regulations”. It seems they may have gotten it right in the end.