Peace Thru Vandalism

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''Peace Thru Vandalism''
Peace Thru Vandalism cover
EP by The Vandals
Released 1982
Recorded 1982
Genre Punk Rock
Length ~15:26
Label Epitaph Records
Producer(s) Thom Wilson
The Vandals chronology
Peace Thru Vandalism
(1982)		 When in Rome Do as the Vandals
(1984)


Alternate cover
Slightly altered cover of the 1989 CD re-release
Slightly altered cover of the 1989 CD re-release

Peace Thru Vandalism is the debut EP by the southern California punk rock band The Vandals, released in 1982 by Epitaph Records. It was one of the first releases to be put out by the Epitaph label, founded in 1981 by Brett Gurewitz of Bad Religion. The EP was re-released by Time Bomb Recordings in 1989 as a CD that also included the band's first LP, When in Rome Do as the Vandals. The CD release is titled Peace Thru Vandalism/When in Rome Do as the Vandals.

The EP introduced the band's style of fast punk rock with humorous, tongue-in-cheek lyrics and subject matter. This style would continue throughout the band's career, as they have always shown a preference for lighthearted humor over serious or controversial subjects such as political amd social issues. At the time of the EP's release this was a somewhat novel concept, as most punk bands in the Los Angeles and Orange County areas focused on politics, social and personal issues in their music.

Contents

[edit] Subject matter

Several of the songs on the EP deal with events from the band members' own lives, but presented in a humorous and lighthearted manner. "Urban Struggle" depicts the constant fighting that would occur in the early 1980s Los Angeles/Orange County music scene between the punk rock fans who congregated at a Huntintgton Beach club called the Cuckoo's Nest and the country music fans who gathered at nearby Zooby's. The song received radio airplay on KROQ's Rodney on the ROQ program and was the band's first minor "hit" in the punk community. "The Legend of Pat Brown" is about a friend of the band who was a notorious drunk known for causing mayhem, while "Pirate's Life" tells of riding the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland while taking the drug LSD. "H.B. Hotel" is a cover of the Elvis Presley song "Heartbreak Hotel" with parodied lyrics. Perhaps the most well-known song from the EP is "Anarchy Burger (Hold the Government)," which became something of an anthem for the band and was played at their shows well into the late 1990s. The song gained renewed interest when it was mentioned in the 2002 Vin Diesel movie XXX.

[edit] Track listing

All songs written by The Vandals except where indicated.

  1. "Wanna Be Manor"
  2. "Urban Struggle"
  3. "The Legend of Pat Brown"
  4. "Pirate's Life"
  5. "H.B. Hotel" (intro: Elvis Presley/Thomas Durden/Mae Boren Axton; originally performed by Elvis Presley)
  6. "Anarchy Burger (Hold the Government)"

[edit] Performers

[edit] Album information

[edit] Song information

All information listed here is derived from song lyrics, album liner notes, and band member interviews and commentary (particularly those in the video Sweatin' to the Oldies: The Vandals Live).

  • "Wanna Be Manor" (The Vandals)

This song describes the squat houses frequently inhabited by many punks in the Los Angeles and Orange County areas in the early 1980s and the conditions found there.

  • "Urban Struggle" (The Vandals)

This song depicts the fighting that occurred in the early 1980s Los Angeles and Orange County music scene between the punk rock fans who congregated at a Huntington Beach club called the Cuckoo's Nest and the country music fans who gathered at nearby Zooby's.

  • "The Legend of Pat Brown" (The Vandals)

The song describes a friend of the band who was a notorious drunk known for causing mayhem, and who once intentionally ran over some undercover police officers in a parking lot outside a punk show. Other exploits of Pat's mentioned in the song include robbing a massage parlor after the masseuses there refused to perform sexual acts on him, and various other robberies.

  • "Pirate's Life" (The Vandals)

This song describes the experience of riding the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland while taking the drug LSD. The band members, especially Escalante, frequented Disneyland as youths, and over the years several more songs would appear on the band's albums dealing with Disney characters and attractions. Several vignetes from the ride are mentioned in the song.

  • "H.B. Hotel" (Presley, Durden, Axton)

A parody of the Elvis Presley song "Heartbreak Hotel," with altered lyrics. While the original song pined for the protagonist's lost love, in the Vandals version his pain turns to anger at his former girlfriend for, among other things, giving him an STD, and he describes ways in which he imagines harming her physically.

  • "Anarchy Burger (Hold the Government)" (The Vandals)

"Anarchy Burger" uses a hamburger as a metaphor for the tenets of anarchism and describes several humorous ways by which one can express one's belief in anarchy. The song gained renewed interest when it was mentioned and some of its lyrics quoted in the 2002 Vin Diesel action movie XXX.

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