Roadrunner "You Got It/Older...(Budweiser)" - Gang Green

By the time Budweiser-obsesserd Beantown B-listers Gang Green had inked with RR, you can’t say they were at top form. Purists (like me) will cite the seven some odd second trackers from the “This Is Boston: Not LA” as the ‘Green you wanna seek out. A three-piece blur of guitars and drums that could only come out of this three-man gaggle. No surprise that drummer Bill Manly up and joined the Marines immediately afterwards! “I got rabies! Stay away from me!” might just be their pre-high school grad legacy – but holy hardcore, but Gang Green ’81 against the likes of DC’s Void and The Necros, these South Shore Mass (home of Killswitch’s Mike D’Antonio) teens held their own. The two RR records – released in 1987 and 1988 at the dawn of the Double R – slowed down the ferocity of the “Golden Days” – and even a pretty awesomr comeback mainman Chris Doherty staged a few years before with a resultant blistering booze anthem, “Alcohol”. That one’s still being covered by any and every metal and hardcore band with a Bud, a Coors or a Golden Brown in hard!
The bitch of the matter is that on their own terms, “You Got It” and “Older…Budweiser” would be a couple thrash albums the likes of Municipal Waste would canonize in the modern day thrash revival. History screws these two pretty hard. Any trace of the hardco’ that Gang Green built their name and rep on has been pretty much sucked out of ‘em. It’s old school rock n’ thrash. (which makes these two a good download bet) with requisite dated Tom Soares production and actually some pretty boss lead guitar noodling from then-guitarist Fritz Ericson.
In fact, drummer Brian Betzger (he of the very awesome Jerry’s Kids) comes off pretty clean. The beat is as on-point. Not as ferocious as Marine (and well-monikered) Manley but as less inebriated to the point where it held together Doherty & Co’s guitar slooge.
While these two records ain't exactly Gang Green in top form, check Amazon for "Can't LIVE Without It" which shows off this lineup -- including bassist Joe Gittleman who went off to form The Mighty Mighty Bosstones -- in top form.
'Alcohol", "Rabies" and "Voices Scary" - a bashing of Beantown sacred cows, Til Tuesday are all there. Whilst "You Got It/Older..Budweiser" may not be The Green at their brewsy zenith, That's not to say on this live set or a various stops along the way they weren't capable of wreaking quite a bit of brewtality.