Fun Stuff: Zero Boys - Indianapolis' Own Hard Core

Ok, enough of the dismal economy of 2009 and return to the days of yesteryear. Specifically back to 1981 (or was it 82) and a club called Crazy Al's. Joan Jett was touring on her Bad Reputation album. The girlfriend and I had gone to see her. We were sitting at the bar watching the singer from the opening band get handcuffed to the bar while getting consoled by his girlfriend. At least that is what I remember the girlfriend telling me. I was busy watching Jett tear into Star, Star. Later on I got the opening band's album. Liked it but more because it was local product than thinking they were going to replace The Ramones. And now they are back with the album I remember and another one.

And they have a website. Now, I wonder if I can convince the wife to go see them... her tastes are a bit different than the one who sat in Crazy Al's that night.

Zero Boys - Indianapolis Hard Core: "It came out of nowhere in 1982, this punk rock/hardcore fireball with the bright yellow sleeve. In one sense, The Zero Boys' Vicious Circle was yet another example of how U.S. punk seemed to peak coast to coast that year. But unlike most coastal punk, the Zero Boys were pointing the way to a scene that could accommodate heaping helpings of melody, intelligence, and rock 'n' roll sus, not just turbo-charged ferocity.

From 1979 into '83, the Indianapolis based ZBs were the finest hardcore blitz in the Midwest if not all the lower 48 states. Proof is Vicious Circle and the two decades since of copyists, bootleggers, practitioners and reunion concert pogoers."