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The Middle Class
Alternative Press - Editorial Intern on 3/26/09 @ 12:46 PM - altpress.comYEARS OF EXISTENCE: 1977-1982
RECORD TO START WITH: Out Of Vogue - The Early Material (2008, Frontier)
GO DOWNLOAD: "Out Of Vogue," "You Belong," "Love Is Just A Tool," "Home Is Where," "A Blueprint For Joy," "Restless Young Men"
THE MUSIC, THE MESSAGE: Before American Hardcore laid out the evidence, the story of the Middle Class was as dubious as the Irish monk who discovered America 800 years before Christopher Columbus. But this is one revisionist theory that turns out to be fact: Four kids from the O.C. put out the first hardcore record, Out Of Vogue, in 1978. Anyone who knows the official timeline will tell you that's three years ahead of schedule: The first artifact of hardcore was supposed to have come from Minor Threat, Bad Brains or Rollins-era Black Flag around 1981. So Out Of Vogue was not only the first but also one of the most unshakeable EPs ever pressed to vinyl. Brothers Jeff, Mike and Bruce Atta, along with their friend Mike Patton (not that Mike Patton), battered out a blinding rant about being uncool and proud on the title track that perfected a genre before it even existed. That was enough to get the Middle Class a permanent exhibit in the museum of historical oddities, but it's not their only claim to fame. By the time Black Flag's Damaged came out, the Middle Class had already moved on, becoming the first (and maybe the best) American interpreters of British post-punk, channeling Wire and Joy Division into their suburban misfit anthems. Then in '82, as a generation that had never heard of the Middle Class turned their sound and ethos into a movement, the band broke up and never looked back.
PUNK-ROCK RELEVANCE: In case you weren't paying attention: The Middle Class released the first hardcore record. The influence is so elemental that it's practically hidden in plain sight. You can hear it in Minor Threat-in Lyle Preslar's bone-dry riffs and the blunt vocals of Ian MacKaye-and judging by the way Black Flag sped up between '78 and '81, the fanatical Huntington Beach, California, crew took a cue from their younger O.C. brethren. That's not to mention all of the U.S. bands with a dark streak of U.K. post-punk, including T.S.O.L. and the Rapture; the Middle Class did it first on their spooky '82 LP, Homeland.
CURRENT WHEREABOUTS: Three decades later, singer Jeff Atta and guitarist Mike Atta own and run a pair of artsy retro shops in leafy downtown Fullerton, California, one of which is called Out Of Vogue; drummer Bruce Atta is a professor of philosophy and bassist Mike Patton is a producer. Copies of the original Out Of Vogue EP sell on eBay for about the same price as a month's worth of food, but practical-minded hardcore fans can buy the new vinyl reissue for $5 from long-running SoCal indie Frontier Records. The label has also released a 15-track anthology, Out Of Vogue - The Early Material, that includes some jolting 1977 demos. Sounds like the Middle Class were even further ahead of their time than we thought. -Andrew Marcus
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