Playlist: xXx Fanzine 1983-88 Author Mike Gitter’s 25 Quintessential ’80s Hardcore Songs

During hardcore’s rise to prominence in the 1980s, a teeneage Mike Gitter chronicled and self-published the musical and cultural revolution in one of Boston’s most beloved DIY zines, xXx. Now, three decades later, the history of the underground has been assembled into the long awaited, 288-page 11” x 11” book, xXx Fanzine 1983-88: Hardcore & Punk In The Eighties.

To celebrate the book’s release (order it here!) we asked Gitter to assemble a playlist of some of the most important hardcore songs from between 1983 and 1988. The man is a veritable encyclopedia of hardcore and had it completed and back to us in less than half an hour. Check out his selections below, then crank it loud and get rowdy. Here’s Gitter himself with an introduction:

Hardcore was the perfect double-negative. The rebellion against rebellion: the sound of music destroying and rebuilding itself. By the time xXx Fanzine released its first issue in 1983, the notion of making music rude and crude was nearly punk’s passe and a new, tougher and generally more fucked up model was taking its place. That’s why the best of the 25 songs here cross-pollinate and reach beyond their narrow confines like nobody’s business. From the weirdness of Japan’s G.I.S.M. to the intensity of Siege to the proto-emo railing of D.C.’s Rites of Spring to the steely precision of Die Kreuzen, the then-brave new sounds of hardcore were anything but predictable. With xXx Fanzine, I was lucky enough to capture a new generation of kids having their say, making their own rules and hardly giving a fuck. Beautifully.

Minor Threat – “Look Back and Laugh” (1983)
G.I.S.M. – “Endless Blockade For The Pussyfooter” (1983)
Jerry’s Kids – “I Don’t Belong” (1983)
Negative Approach – “Evacuate” (1983)
Husker Du – “Real World” (1983)
Void – “My Rules” (live) (1983)
Black Flag – “My War” (1984)
Siege – “Drop Dead” (1984)
Battalion of Saints – “My Mind’s Diseased” (1984)
Last Rights – “Out Of Our Minds” (1984)
Raw Power – “Fuck Authority” (1984)
Articles of Faith – “Give Thanks” (1984)
Die Kreuzen – “Rumors” (1984)
Rites of Spring – “Spring” (1985)
Corrosion of Conformity – “Kiss of Death” (1985)
Cro-Mags – “Signs of the Times fr. Before The Quarrel” (demo LP) (1985)
Youth of Today – “Stabbed In The Back” (1986)
Bad Brains – “House of Suffering” (1986)
Hirax – “Bombs of Death” (1985)
Dag Nasty – “Values Here” (1986)
Agnostic Front – “The Eliminator” (1986)
Uniform Choice – “Use Your Head” (1986)
Descendents – “Clean Sheets” (1987)
Suicidal Tendencies – “War Inside My Head” (1987)
Final Conflict – “Apocalypse Now!” (1987)

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAXcMq3laHljnfq_DyASOHno577ga5QXi&disable_polymer=true