We are so pleased to bring you a Punknews exclusive premiere of Floridian punks Protagonist, they released a Violent Society cover for "Totally Fucked" and it is apart of their Fallout From The Chronicle. This compilation of 9 tracks will contain the three previously released tracks from last year, 4 covers and 2 acoustic versions of songs. The album will be out on April 10th, 2020 through Paper and Plastick. See below to check out the track and a blurb from the band.
On November 30, 1996 at the West Chester, PA YWCA I went to my 2nd show. This show is a demarcation line of sorts because there were multiple people in that room who I didn’t know at the time, but would become principal players in the story of Protagonist in the decades to come. My brother Peter and I moved to Florida the next morning. 2 of my new favorite bands were on the bill: The Boils and of course; Violent Society.
1996 was the year that I discovered punk rock and hardcore also existed in towns and regions mere miles from my house in Downingtown, PA. I loved the bands I had had discovered through my own investigation or were were generously shown to me by the other bands of kids discovering punk rock music in the Philadelphia suburbs during the East Coast Punk Rock explosion of the 1990s like Operation Ivy, Minor Threat, Fugazi, The Sex Pistols, Subhumans, and Bad Religion. But when you discover something exists where you live and breath, you feel a sense of pride and ownership. The bands that I came to know from my area: Violent Society, The Boils, Plow United, and Super Hi-Five amongst many others.
When Violent Society took the stage, I was filled with a mix of excitement, fear, rage, and happiness. In my memory, I can still see the YWCA explode; bodies flying towards Violent Society’s singer, Pat Leck; people fighting for the microphone. I was standing off to the side of what would have been Pat’s left. I imagine it is the same feeling that I have read in the many accounts of the 1st and 2nd waves of punk rock in the 1970s and 1980s around the world. It was the feeling of belonging. It was the feeling that something might happen. It was the feeling of ownership. It was the feeling of love.
Originally released in 1997 on Creep Records and then later by Blackout! Records,“Totally Fucked,” is one my favorite Violent Society songs; hardcore punk rock on a mission. I have said many times, there is no Protagonist without Violent Society, the other bands, and the other kids who started these bands at this particular point in the time. Violent Society was and is one of my favorite bands and arguably the greatest band to emerge from the Philly punk rock scene in the 1990s.
Philly Shreds.
-John Marullo