''Weathered Statues'' is an EP by the American

hardcore punk Hardcore punk (also known as simply hardcore) is a punk rock music genre and subculture that originated in the late 1970s. It is generally faster, harder, and more aggressive than other forms of punk rock. Its roots can be traced to earlier p ...

band T.S.O.L. (True Sounds of Liberty), released in 1982 through

Alternative Tentacles Alternative Tentacles is an independent record label established in 1979 in San Francisco, California. It was used by Dead Kennedys for the self-produced single " California Über Alles". After realizing the potential for an independent label, ...

. In comparison to the band's previous material, its experimental nature and melodic leanings confused some of their fans and presaged the creative direction they would take on their second studio album, 1983's ''

Beneath the Shadows ''Beneath the Shadows'' is the second studio album by the American hardcore punk band T.S.O.L. (True Sounds of Liberty), released in 1983 through Alternative Tentacles. With the addition of keyboardist Greg Kuehn to the lineup, the band moved awa ...

''. The material from ''Weathered Statues'' was later re-released on the compilation albums '' Thoughts of Yesterday: 1981–1982'' (1987) and ''T.S.O.L. / Weathered Statues'' (1997).

Background

Following the release of their 1981 full-length album '' Dance with Me'' through

Frontier Records Frontier Records is an independent record label, started in 1980 in Sun Valley, Los Angeles by Lisa Fancher, a former employee of Bomp! Records and writer of the liner notes for the first album by The Runaways. History Frontier Records first ...

, T.S.O.L. moved to

, the label run by

Jello Biafra Eric Reed Boucher (born June 17, 1958), known professionally as Jello Biafra, is an American singer, spoken word artist and politician. He is the former lead singer and songwriter for the San Francisco punk rock band Dead Kennedys. Initially ac ...

and

East Bay Ray Raymond John Pepperell (born November 17, 1958), better known by his stage name East Bay Ray, is an American musician best known as the guitarist for the San Francisco Bay area-based punk band Dead Kennedys. His guitar work was heavily influence ...

of fellow California hardcore band the

Dead Kennedys Dead Kennedys are an American punk rock band that formed in San Francisco, California, in 1978. The band was one of the defining punk bands during its initial eight-year run. Dead Kennedys' lyrics were usually political in nature, satirizing p ...

. ''Weathered Statues'' was recorded with producer

Thom Wilson Thom Wilson (died February 8, 2015) was an American punk rock record producer and engineer. Career Wilson began his musical career in the mid-1970s, engineering recordings by soft rock artists Burton Cummings and Seals & Crofts. He began working ...

and released in 1982 as catalog number VIRUS 10.Blush, p. 326. Singer

Jack Grisham Jack Grisham (born July 22, 1961) is an American rock vocalist, musician, raconteur and political activist from Southern California. He is the vocalist for the punk rock band T.S.O.L. (True Sounds of Liberty), which emerged from the late 1970s ...

credited himself as Jack Ladoga on the sleeve, following a tradition of using a different

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...

on each release both to confuse audiences and to hide his true identity from the police.Blush, p. 94. Drummer Todd Barnes credited himself as Todd Scrivener, deriving the pseudonym from the name of the street he lived on. In comparison to T.S.O.L.'s prior releases, ''Weathered Statues'' had melodic leanings that presaged the direction the band would pursue on their 1983 album ''

''.

Steven Blush Steven Blush is an American author, journalist, record collector and film maker who is best known for his book ''American Hardcore'' and the movie of the same name. Blush has written five books, is the founder of ''Seconds'' magazine and has w ...

, author of '' American Hardcore: A Tribal History'', writes that "the experimental nature of ''Weathered Statues'' bewildered some fans". Greg Prato of

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

described the song "Thoughts of Yesterday" as one of the band's best from their early material, calling it "a surprisingly low-key and melodic number, which sticks out like a sore thumb amidst heirother furious thrashers." "Word Is" stands out as a

reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, " Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use ...

-influenced track.

Re-releases

T.S.O.L. had released their eponymously titled debut EP through

Posh Boy Records Posh Boy Records is a Hollywood, California-based record label owned by the American-born, British-educated Robbie "Posh Boy" Fields, a sometime high school substitute teacher and former copy boy at the ''Los Angeles Times'' who took an intere ...

in 1981, then moved to

for their full-length album ''Dance with Me'' (1981). This caused a dispute with Posh Boy, who claimed the band had not honored their commitment to record a second EP for the label. Several years later, Posh Boy and the four original members of T.S.O.L. (Grisham and Barnes had left the band in late 1983) worked out a settlement in which the members received back payments of royalties from the label, and Posh Boy purchased the

master recording Mastering, a form of audio post production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device (the master), the source from which all copies will be produced (via meth ...

s and publishing rights to ''Weathered Statues''. Posh Boy combined ''Weathered Statues'' with the debut EP to make the 1987 compilation album '' Thoughts of Yesterday: 1981–1982'' (later re-released through

Rhino Records A rhinoceros (; ; ), commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. (It can also refer to a member of any of the extinct species ...

). Nitro Records purchased the master tapes from Posh Boy in 1997, remastered them, and re-released the two EPs as the compilation ''T.S.O.L. / Weathered Statues''. Of the Nitro release, Allmusic's Steve Huey remarked that it "showcases the group's pulverizing early sound". Distant laughter heard during the break on the track “Thoughts of Yesterday” was edited out of all re-released versions, remaining only on the vinyl EP.

Track listing

Personnel

;Band *

–

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...

(credited as Jack Ladoga) *

Ron Emory Ron Emory (born May 20, 1962, Lynwood, California, United States) is an American rock musician and guitarist for the punk rock band T.S.O.L. (True Sounds of Liberty). An original member of the band, founded in Southern California in 1979, Emo ...

–

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...

s *Mike Roche –

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

*Todd Barnes – drums (credited as Todd Scrivener) ;Production *

–

record producer A record producer is a recording project's creative and technical leader, commanding studio time and coaching artists, and in popular genres typically creates the song's very sound and structure. Virgil Moorefield"Introduction" ''The Producer as ...

*D. Zincavage – design *Paul Grant – typesetting

References

{{Authority control T.S.O.L. EPs 1982 EPs