UUTUUS - Everything Is Shit - 7" - 1997

...for a while there in the 00s some punk revisionists were propagating the myth there was no good fast hardcore in the 90s, "until the "Y2K thrash revival" kicked off"... Although it's definitely true hardcore punk veered off in a variety of directions in the 2nd half of the 80s and continued to do so in the following decade, it is a somewhat US-centred version of events...and even then still widely inaccurate at that. Following the coming of age of the internet, and a generation that can't remember a time without it, punk history is quietly being rewritten again, with downloading helping to fill in the blanks and bringing to the fore bands and scenes in parts of the world which some overlooked to their peril previously. 

Though Uutuus were (or seemed to be to me at least) actually relatively well known when they were around, releasing records which were traded and sold across the known punk world they don't yet appear to be all over the radar of the newer generation of punks. Somewhat surprising especially given the fact they play the kind of '82 Finnish hardcore punk which is all the rage right now and who's originators are household names even in the previously notoriously inward looking US punk scene.

Uutuus were one of those bands that helped keep their country's traditional sound alive by bringing it into the new, at times very different, decade. They are now rightly revered by many of my Finnish punk friends as hugely important. I loved hearing Markku Hirvelä from Toinen Vaihtoehto zine talk so enthusiastically about them on a recent MRR radio show. Hopefully it inspired some kids to check them out and pick up their records. If you're one of them; both their eps can be easily found for little money, especially in the US where I regularly come across copies, and though the lp is a little more difficult to locate at a very cheap price, it should still not prove too difficult. All of their stuff rules. I've been playing this specific 7" since first picking it up in the 90s, digging it out of the collection every so many weeks, and it never ever gets tired....not sure my neighbours necessarily agree mind.

UUTUUS