T.S.O.L.

Thwarted by circumstance, TSOL's earliest and most important recordings didn't see the light of day until the band had already changed directions artistically and ideologically. Formed in 1978, the True Sounds of Liberty's first EP contained some of the earliest examples of hardcore anarcho-punk on either side of the Atlantic. Songs like "Property is Theft" and "Abolish Government/Silent Majority" employed a vernacular critique of capitalism accessible even to the teenage skate punks who frequented their shows. By the time their first full-length Dance With Me hit the shelves, the band had picked up on the vapid horror-movie theatrics of L.A.'s Punk scene; swapping political fervor for Goth Metal camp, the band squandered whatever potential they had to sit in the empyrean of Punk's greats. Well into the '90s, their spiral from preeminence to irrelevance continued, much to their fans' dismay.