Chaotic Dischord are a
punk rock band from
Bristol
Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...
,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
, allegedly formed by members of
Vice Squad
A vice is a practice, behaviour, or habit generally considered immoral, sinful, criminal, rude, taboo, depraved, degrading, deviant or perverted in the associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refer to a fault, a negative character tr ...
and their road crew in 1981, although this still remains unconfirmed by members of the band.
The band also recorded a one-off
EP under the name Sex Aids.
History
Chaotic Dischord's line-up consisted of Ampex Oxobox (bass), Evo Stix (drums), Ransid (vocals), and Pox (guitars). There are many myths and legends about how they formed and who was actually a member of the band, but the most enduring story suggests that the band originally formed to parody the hopeless
second-wave punk bands that had been signed to
Riot City Records
Riot City was a British record label based in Bristol, active between 1980 and 1988, and run by Heartbeat Records boss Simon Edwards along with Dave Bateman and Shane Baldwin from the band Vice Squad. Vice Squad's ''Last Rockers EP'' was Riot C ...
– but ironically they went on to become one of the label's best-selling acts.
After an argument with Riot City boss Simon Edwards, in which Dave Bateman and Shane Baldwin from Vice Squad claimed they could knock out something on the same lines as some of these bands "in ten minutes", the band later went away and recorded 'Glue Accident'.
They submitted the track under the name Chaotik Discord, via a friend to Edwards who was looking for bands for his forthcoming ''Riotous Assembly'' compilation LP. To avoid Edwards learning their true identity they claimed that Vice Squad were friends of theirs and that they would only deal with them.
Edwards included the track on the album, misspelling their name as Chaotic Dischord, which would stick as the spelling from then on.
After some time Edwards discovered the true identity of the band, but by then they were selling records in sufficient numbers to carry on.
Chaotic Dischord's brand of punk was aimed at shocking and insulting whoever they could,
with one reviewer claiming that the band's aim was to use the word 'fuck' more often than any other band before or after.
The band had several hits on the
UK Indie Chart
The UK Independent Singles Chart and UK Independent Albums Chart are charts of the best-selling independent singles and albums, respectively, in the United Kingdom. Originally published in January 1980, and widely known as the indie chart, the rele ...
, and were received positively by many critics.
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
hardcore punk fanzine ''
Maximum Rock 'n' Roll
''Maximumrocknroll'', often written as ''Maximum Rocknroll'' and usually abbreviated as ''MRR'', is a not-for-profit monthly zine of punk subculture. Based in San Francisco, ''MRR'' focuses on punk rock and hardcore music, and primarily featu ...
'', unaware of the band's backstory, gave the band several positive reviews despite a dislike for Vice Squad.
Attila The Stockbroker
John Baine (born 21 October 1957), better known by his stage name Attila the Stockbroker,Strong, Martin C. (2003) ''The Great Indie Discography'', Canongate, , p. 208 is an English punk poet, multi instrumentalist musician and songwriter. He pe ...
, writing for ''
Sounds
In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave, through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid.
In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by the ...
'' under the pseudonym John Opposition gave their ''Fuck Religion...'' album 5 stars.
The band recorded a one-off
EP, ''Back On The Piss Again'', under the name Sex Aids, with Ampex on vocals.
When
Beki Bondage
Beki Bondage (born Rebecca Louise Bond) is an English singer, songwriter and guitarist, best known as the frontwoman of the punk band Vice Squad.
She appeared on the front cover of a number of influential music papers such as ''Melody Maker'' ...
left Vice Squad and moved to London, Ampex also departed, and despite his desire to stay with Chaotic Dischord, was sacked from the band. Bondage and Oxobox retaliated by releasing an album along with Mik Heslin (guitar) and Steve Roberts (drums) credited to the slightly differently spelled Chaotic Discord titled ''Fuck Off You Cunt!… What a Load of Bollocks!!!''. The album was recorded over three nights with the musicians improvising the backing tracks on the first night, while Beki added vocals the second night without having heard the music previously. The
mixing was done by engineer
Paul Gadd with the rest of CD finished on the third night. The album was released on Syndicate records and sold well, although the band made nothing from it.
The band released the ''Live In New York'' album in 1984 despite never actually having played a gig. The crowd noise on the album is from The Beatles show at Shea Stadium.
When the Riot City label closed down, the band moved to Not Very Nice, continuing to release records, including three more albums. They eventually split up in 1988 when Bambi's tool hire business took off.
Reunion
After continued offers from punk festivals around the globe, Chaotic Dischord reformed to play
Rebellion Festival
The Rebellion Festival, formerly Holidays in the Sun and the Wasted Festival is a British punk rock festival first held in 1996. The festival has attracted mainstream press coverage from such sources as The Guardian, The Independent, The Daily ...
2020. When that obviously couldn't happen they were confirmed to play in 2021, to the same result. Fortunately Rebellion still wanted them and they played both the 2022 and the 2023 festivals.
The band played its first ever gig a
Exchangein Bristol in February 2022, and have since gone on to play shows all over the planet, taking in shows in Vancouver, Madrid, Berlin, Australia and Ramsgate. They also occasionally play secret gigs under their aforementioned nom de plume Sex Aids.
They continue to tour, and in August 2023, launched their first physical release in 35 years when they brought out thei
S''ongs To Fuck Your Mental Health To''limited edition maxi-single on pukey coloured 10-inch vinyl in on their own Irresponsible Punk Songs label. This collected songs from their two previously download only releases.
Discography
Chart placings shown are from the UK Indie Chart.
Singles/EPs
*''Fuck The World'' 7-inch EP (1982) Riot City (#14)
*''Never Trust a Friend'' 7-inch (1983) Riot City (#30)
*''Back On The Piss Again'' 7-inch (1983) Riot City (#24) (as Sex Aids)
*''Don't Throw It All Away'' 12-inch (1984) Riot City (#14)
*''Songs To Fuck Your Mum To'' (2022) Download Only
*''Our Mental Health Is Fucking Mental'' (2023) Download Only
Albums
*''Fuck Religion, Fuck Politics, Fuck The Lot of You!'' (1983) Riot City
*''Don't Throw It All Away'' (1984) Riot City
*''Live In New York'' (1984) Riot City
*''Fuck Off You Cunt!… What A Load Of Bollocks!!!'' (1984) Syndicate (as Chaotic Discord)
*''Now! That's What I Call A Fucking Racket Vol. 1'' (1985) Not Very Nice
*''Goat Fuckin' Virgin Killerz From Hell'' (1986) Not Very Nice
*''Very Fuckin' Bad'' (1988) Not Very Nice
*''Songs To Fuck Your Mental Health To'' (2023) Irresponsible Punk Songs
Compilations, Re-issues, Bootlegs…
*''Riotous Assembly'' LP (1982) Riot City (as Chaotik Dischord - track entitled ''(Glue) Accident'')
*''You've Got To Be Obscene To Be Heard'' LP (1988) Link (re-titled reissue of ''Fuck Off You Cunt!'')
*''Their Greatest Fuckin' Hits'' CD (1994) Anagram
*''You've Got To Be Obscene To Be Heard'' CD (1995) Step-1 (cd re-issue of ''Fuck Off You Cunt!'')
*''Fuck Religion.../Don't Throw It All Away'' LP/CD (1996) Visionary Vinyl/Anagram
*''Very Fuckin' Bad/Goat Fuckin' Virgin Killerz From Hell!'' CD (1996) Anagram
*''Now! That's What I Call A Fuckin' Racket'' CD (2001) Punkcore (includes ''Live In New York'')
References
External links
Chaotic Dischordo
Instagram Chaotic Dischord tribute siteReview of ''Fuck Religion,...'' from PunkNews.org
{{Authority control
English punk rock groups
Musical groups from Bristol