KRAUT – Unemployed 7″

Second single from NYC’s Kraut, and one of the earliest NYHC records (from 1981.) The B-side track “Matinee” is probably their first truly “hardcore” song and was comped on the first ever volume of Killed By Death, quite an achievement imo. Very few bands pulled off the perfect the mix of UK punk and US hardcore that Kraut did so well, I hold them right up there with DOA and Toxic Reasons as the best of that genre. Everyone knows Doug Holland from the Cro-Mags but I think some of his best guitar playing is on the early Kraut records. I saw these guys do a reunion show at CB’s once and they closed out their set with a great cover of “Bodies” (best Sex Pistols tune) and Mike Dijan from Breakdown did a front flip into the crowd and took out about 20 people at once.

I think there are a pretty healthy amount of these pressed (2000? 5000?) but they’re tough to find in nice shape so this is a nice keeper copy with a low starting bid. The seller is also a good friend of mine so do him a solid and check out his other listings.