Band Focus: Vatican Commandos

Vatican Commandos was the other band on the Dead Kennedys bill, which, as noted previously, was my first ever show. 1985 was a bit late in the first wave Hardcore game, and in fact the Vats broke up later that year. They left behind a fantastic legacy of CTHC spanning two 7”s, a 12”, and numerous compilation appearances.

If you’re looking to pick up any of their vintage stuff, best to have deep pockets. I had the first two 7”s and sold them like an asshole. But luckily, an Italian label, Radiation Reissues just put out an authorized repressing of …’Frisbee’ and ‘Hit Squad…’ and ‘Point Me To The End’ 12”. Additionally, Radiation also released a “Complete Discography” release this year.

Of course, they are noteworthy for having Moby in the band, who played on the ‘Hit Squad for God’ 7”, and for Rob Zombie drawing (poorly) the ‘Just A Frisbee’ 7” cover, but musically, they stood on their own merits, breaking generic HC conventions and making a nice collection of memorable tunes.

Check this wiki entry for further details: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vatican_Commandos

Here is a brief rundown of their releases as I know them:

1) ‘Just A Frisbee’ (1983): The 7” leads off with “We’re) Tipping Cows, the inspiration for this blog name. Also, a Connecticut thing, apparently, though not by me. The recording for their first release was much improved, as was the song composition. Also Chuck’s voice has started to sound a little more grown up at this point, so his delivery has become much more unique. Like Lost Gen, there’s almost a ‘Connecticut’ sound happening on this record. Rhythm and rock guitar sounds sort of meld with punkish hardcore, but not spastically fast, if that makes sense.

2) ’Hit Squad For God’ (1983): Maybe it’s because I’m listening to a blog rip of this, but it sounds a lot mote lo-fi than the ‘Frisbee’ disc, which came earlier. It definitely seems to edge more towards the hardcore sound on this one, but still has the melodic quality and interesting song structures of the debut. Favorite track is one of their goofiest - ‘Wonder Bread’

3) Point Me To The End 12” (1984): Their final official release shows them honing their unique punk sound even more, with a bit more chunk and slower rhythm work, and was a great send off, not including the poem by Earl. I would love to hear the story of that track (poem reading). It’s completely insane.

4) Full Discography 1983-2015 (2023) - This one came out of left field and I was pretty stoked to pick it up. It’s not technically a full discography, as there are tons of missing material, but it was a welcome addition, compiling the official 7” and 12” plus a bunch of never heard stuff, including three unreleased sessions. Of note is the Bill Knapp session, featuring Moby. 

Bill was well known in the scene as a drummer and producer for local acts. He drummed for notable acts like C.I.A., 76% Uncertain, Reflex From Pain and Shelter. I got to see him play for 76% and also with Onion, at the UConn Student Union Ballroom. Sadly, he passed away last year.

The discography is pretty nicely packaged, though suffers from some low volume issues, possible due to the disc length.

Multiple compilation appearances:

1) ‘First Strike Compilation’ (1983): Their first release that I can find is 5 tracks on the BCT (Borderless Country Tapes from San Diego) Cassette compilation ‘First Strike’ from 1983. Not sure if this was just a demo session for the band, but it’s pretty raw, and features one track (‘Right Thing’) that never showed up on any of their own releases. The other four tracks would be released in more polished and tighter form on later releases. It was great to find this recently re-released by BCT on Bandcamp, so you can get these 5 tracks for cheap right now.

2) Connecticut Fun - 2 great tracks on this excellent SoConn comp.

3) Big City Comps - one track on each of two installations of the Big City series of comps, from New Yawk.

4) Make It Work - two tracks on this ultra rare and insanely expensive 7”

5)  La Nouvelle Frontière... Pas De Frontière (1987) - I found this entry on Discogs and immediately bought a copy. This was a late session for the Vats, and possibly their last. VC had five tracks on the comp, including a third version of ‘Housewives on Valium’, with a slightly more metal sound and female chorus vocals. 

6) A few other comps that I have little info on, though I’d gather they are culled from existing sessions.

Anyway, that’s my brief run down of one of my top 5 CTHC bands. They were one of a kind! Find them if you can.

#connecticutharcore #vaticancommandos