36 years ago, the world was a different place. I was a 15 year old teenager that looked at the world through the lens of Peace Punk, and I knew I had to move to the Bay Area. We were living under the threat of Nuclear War and Apartheid was in full effect in South Africa. As Punk youths that had our eyes opened by bands like Crass, Subhumans, Flux of Pink Indians and many more, slam dancing was not enough anymore – we wanted action! I remember one L.A. band that was brave enough to be themselves was ICONOCLAST – they sang about what was real to them, and by 1983/1984 I could really feel where they were coming from. The fact that they weren’t from the Bay Area meant their contribution to the Peace Punk movement has been overlooked until now.
London’s Sealed Records have gotten all of Iconoclast’s music together for this insanely awesome retrospective called Domination Or Destruction that comes out today. Today the world is actually even more fucked up then when I was a youth, which is why remembering music like this is so important. This post is even more personal to me because while living in the Bay Area, I formed a band with my schoolmate Gary called D&E (Diverse & Effective). We only played one show at The New Method Warehouse and the lineup featured ICONOCLAST along with Body Count, A State of Mind, and Brain Rust. This band was making music that mattered back then, and it still does now! Thank you to Francisco and Sean for doing the label Sealed Records and releasing music that the world needs to hear. Without the Peace Punk movement of the 80’s, there would be NO CVLT Nation!
