No Alternative

One of the least known of the hardcore punk outfits tearing up the late-70s San Francisco music scene, No Alternative garnered a rabidly loyal local following during the band's too-brief history. Sadly, the band's lofty reputation among Bay area punks never extended far beyond the borders of California. No Alternative's relative obscurity wasn't due to any lack of chops; if anything, the band's fast-and-furious aural assault and socially conscious lyrics showed deeper artistic influences and more intelligence than many of No Alternative's contemporaries. 

 

The music that earned No Alternative its reputation is a high-octane and highly flammable mix of British (think U.K. Subs or The Damned) and American punk (Johnny Thunders school) with a dash of roots rock thrown in for good measure. Fueled by the incendiary six-string work of singer/guitarist Johnny Genocide (Hugh Thomas Patterson) and a strong rhythm section in bassist Jeff Rees and drummer Greg Langston, No Alternative came across more like a Bay area version of X than another Sex Pistols-influenced hardcore act. 

 

No Alternative imbued its material with more intellect and less rhetoric than many punk bands of the time. The band introduced young punks to Dalton Trumbo with the popular anti-war anthem "Johnny Got His Gun". No Alternative covered Johnny Cash almost a decade before Social Distortion, revisiting "Folsom Prison Blues" with a piss-and-vinegar reading that captures the songs original intent if not its sound. 

 

No Alternative were an important part of a San Francisco punk rock scene, contemporaries of better-known artists like the Dead Kennedys and the Avengers and an obvious influence on bands like Rancid that would follow in their wake. [SOURCE: SOUNDCLICK]