Zero Boys
(Secretly Canadian)
The cusp of the 1980s was not a good time to be a punk in Indiana, but when was? Both coasts were raging - with the Minutemen, Black Flag and T.S.O.L. on the left, Minor Threat and Bad Religion on the right - but Indiana was still pretty much the land of crap metal and power ballads. Even if Vicious Circle the 1982 debut full-length from Indianapolis' Zero Boys, were not very good, it would be a brave effort. The fact that it is good, very good, is nothing short of miraculous.
There was no punk scene to speak of in Indianapolis, but Paul Mahern and childhood friends Mark Cutsinger and Terry Hollywood created their own, traveling long distances by bus to buy U.K. singles and slashing out angry, aggressive songs in their basements. They recorded an EP, Livin' in the 1980s, less than a year after picking up their instruments. The song "Livin' in the 1980s", included on Vicious Circle, seethes with frustration about a musical scene still obsessed with the Beatles and the Stones two decades past their peak.
For Vicious Circle, the core group of Paul Mahern, Mark Cutsinger and Terry Hollywood had added a new guy, bass player "Tufty" Clough. Clough proved transformative, playing harder, faster and more melodically than seems physically possible. The title cut opens with a challenge from guitarist Hollywood, a retort, a couple of octaves lower, from Clough. From there it's 41 seconds of controlled chaos, careening, churning, dog-woofing mayhem - we are so not in the heartland anymore. "Down the Drain" is, like the title track, pure adrenaline, but there are darker, more complicated cuts as well. "Civilization's Dying" links three early 1980s assassination attempts - the Pope, President Reagan and John Lennon - in a mouth-foaming indictment of violence. "Forced Entry" is all about the have/have not divide, where "all the kids on the rich side/want to live on the poor side" and vice versa.
Zero Boys always fit best with the West Coast punk scene, on their single West Coast tour meeting up with T.S.O.L. and Dead Kennedys. It was Jello Biafra, in fact, who advised the band to leave two tracks off their debut album. "She Said Goodbye" and "Slam and Worm" were deemed "too pop" for the original release. They are both on the reissue, sounding sharp and jagged and undeniably melodic - closer to Exploding Hearts-esque garage than hard core punk. It's an inkling of what might have happened, but the direction was never taken. Although Zero Boys never formally broke up, Clough left the band to form Toxic Reasons soon after Vicious Circle. Mahern, Cutsinger and Hollywood recorded songs for another album, but didn't release it. They reformed in the early 1990s and again, for a CBGB's reunion show in 2006, but never produced another record like Vicious Circle. But really, one great punk record out of Indiana is unlikely and glorious enough. Who could expect a follow-up?
Also available: Reissue of History Of, a 1984 compilation originally a limited-to-100-copies cassette, now expanded on CD to include the 5-song "Livin' in the ‘80s" EP.
Standout Tracks: "Vicious Circle" "Civilization's Dying" "Forced Entry" JENNIFER KELLY
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