When you’re following the timeline of any city/scene from the advent of 70’s punk, to the second wave of punk (ie the first wave of “posers”) to the nascent beginnings of “hardcore” and its iterations, somewhere along the line you’re going to find individuals and bands and even labels that were the first ones to stick their nose out of it all and try something…different. Clearly what was or wasn’t “punk” was an intensely debated topic almost everywhere once the initial wave of the Sex Pistols-worshipping teenagers burst out of their basements and dictated what was and wasn’t cool based solely on their own interpretation of what was essentially a big joke to begin with (Yes, I know this is up for debate. Start your own blog, ya big ape -Ed.). In retrospect, it’s often these outsiders among outsiders who, after all the smoke had cleared, ended up making things interesting. This isn’t to say that punk or hardcore can’t be as sophisticated as any other form of music but let’s face it: there are plenty of “legendary” bands from the 70’s and 80’s who contributed much more to the history of interesting haircuts than actual music.
Luckily, we’re not so far removed from those times that we don’t have plenty of first-hand accounts of what it was like to be known for being a “punk” or “hardcore” musician and then trying something new. Knowing what we know now, I think we can all close our eyes and imagine what led Black Flag to go from “Nervous Breakdown” all the way to releasing a one half instrumental/one half spoken word record. Bad Religion still doesn’t seem to have a sense of humor about the artistic roll of the dice that was their second album, “Into the Unknown.” Not all bands or musicians that decided to stylistically move on (forward?) from their roots did so as drastically, but many who did often found themselves still right in the middle of the punk scene, with the same audience who they could only hope would have an open mind.
Having said all this, I’m only assuming (based on two articles) 80’s Washington, DC band Crippled Pilgrims had to deal with angry punk rockers and hardcore Dischord Records acolytes unhappy with their sound and appearance. Depending on who you ask from that time, bands that moved away from the chest-beating hardcore sound were often mocked and sometimes practically banned from playing shows. Or in the case of the “cool kids” (ie your Ian MacKayes and Guy Picciottos) you were celebrated for being a visionary. (How else can you explain the NYHC scene’s embrace of bands like Into Another, Shelter and Quicksand?) I can only imagine the first time a group of DC skinheads sat through a Half-Japanese or Velvet Monkey’s set waiting for Void to play there was a lot of head scratching and confusion. Luckily for the Monkeys and Fair brothers, they were perhaps a little weird enough to not completely draw the ire of sensitive bullies. The Crippled Pilgrims on the other hand played with the sensibility and clear understanding of how to write a great rock song that might have come off as a little intimidating to those expecting something a little more dumbed down. I’ve seen the Pilgrims compared to R.E.M. but they always seem to be the go-to comparison for any 80’s “college rock” band with guitar arpeggios. To me they have much more in common with bands like Green On Read (think “Gravity Talks”) or even NZ’s Verlaines. One of the reasons I wonder how they were received is because they’re not that far removed from the scene that apparently “couldn’t stomach” them. The Pilgrims’ principle songwriter was vocalist/guitarist Jay Moglia, but over their lifespan the band included members of Government Issue, 9353 and Black Market Baby. Their entire catalog, one compilation track, a 12″EP and a full length LP, were all released by DC label Fountain of Youth. In a 2004 article on the band written to promote a CD discography of the band (released by Ric Menck from Velvet Crush), guitarist Scott Wingo says the band, “played with Scream, No Trend, Bloody Mannequin Orchestra, and the Velvet Monkeys. We didn’t play with the Dischord bands, but we were right there in the scene.” He and Moglia describe the Pilgrims more as perplexing audiences rather than angering them. While there’s a noticeable progression in the band’s emotion (for lack of a better term) from the EP to the LP, vocally the band only ever sounds as animated as Television’s Tom Verlaine at his loudest. By the band’s own account, their following grew mostly via college radio plays and by the time of the LP release in 1985, Moglia had moved to NYC expecting the rest of the band to follow, and when they didn’t the band dissolved. I can only guess their reputation (or lack thereof) as a groundbreaking DC band is what it is today both because they weren’t as weird as the 1/2 Jap/Monkey’s/Limp Records crowd, and they just never fit in with the Dischord boys, whether that meant Minor Threat or Scream. Even their track on the “Bouncing Babies” comp LP sounds a little out of place. Lucky for those of us who collect records because they actually like the music on them, both the 12″ and LP remain incredibly affordable and easy to find. They’re not only interesting artifacts from an important time and place, but they’re really great records. The Crippled Pilgrims shouldn’t be remembered as an 80’s underground band from DC that wasn’t a hardcore band, they should be remembered as a band that despite their surroundings followed their hearts musically and put out two excellent rock records that still sound current today. I sure as hell can’t say the same for a lot of bands from the same time and place whose records command top dollar from a lot of people with deep pockets and suspicious “taste”.
