Three Seconds Of Pleasure: The Code Of Honor / Sick Pleasure Split LP
San Francisco, California was at the absolute forefront of a wide variety of counter cultural and underground movements in the late '70s and 1980s. Scenes such as punk and hardcore, thrash metal, skateboarding, the outlaw biker gangs, the left wing radical activists and more made San Francisco a happening place brimming with iconoclastic warriors.
Of those deeply involved in what was going on in SF, Steve Tupper of Subterranean Records was an integral driver of punk. Formed in 1979, the first release on the label was the "SF Underground" comp 7" with No Alternative, Flipper, The Tools, and VKTMS. Many more would soon follow, including the seminal releases "Nazi Punks Fuck Off!" b/w "Moral Majority" 7" by the Dead Kennedys in 1981 and the "Generic Flipper" LP by Flipper in 1982. In addition to punk, Subterranean was also an early champion of industrial music and helped to popularize the nascent genre.
One of Subterranean's most intriguing releases though is the Code Of Honor / Sick Pleasure split album from 1982. Containing two groups which were basically the same band with a different singer, the LP was instantly popular in the hardcore scene. Tackling a range of socio-political issues as well as some local ones ("Get The Muni Driver"), it was an album that quintessentially represented San Francisco at the time.
Here Steve from Subterranean details the story behind the release...
Code Of Honor promo shot done by Subterranean Records
I met Mike Fox (guitarist/songwriter for both bands) at a New Youth Productions meeting in 1979. He had a mod-punk band called the Tools at the time. Not long after, we decided to start a record label together. Mike did the recording with a 4-track tape deck in his garage (later upgraded to an 8-track), and I did the rest.
After the Tools fell apart, he started Sick Pleasure with vocalist Nicki Sicki, bassist Dave Chavez and drummer Sal Paradise. After Sick Pleasure ended when Nicki suddenly split town, Mike got Johnithin Christ (from Society Dog) to replace Nicki and they renamed the band Code of Honor. I already knew Johnny from hanging out at the Mab in 1978, so Mike knew him through me.
When Nicki disappeared, there were already enough tracks for a full Sick Pleasure album, but the feeling was that Code of Honor should release something immediately, and they had several songs in the can pretty quick. So all the fast Sick Pleasure songs went on a 7", and the slower songs went on a split LP with Code Of Honor, with CoH being the featured A-side band since we really wanted to promote them first.
There was so much going on at the time, and the scene was changing from a very unified one in '77-'79 to a more splintered group of multiple scenes that weren't talking much to each other. I know a lot of people looked up to CoH around here, but they hardly toured aside from driving down to LA once in a while (my memory is a bit hazy, but I think there was one sort of national tour also), and that probably limited their influence.
By that time Subterranean was mostly me and my girlfriend Kathy, and we did promotion by mailing copies of new records by the hundreds to radio stations and fanzines. Sometimes that worked better than others—that record did sell better that most, but I don't recall that it generated anywhere near the amount of general attention that the Dead Kennedys or Flipper got.
It sold through multiple pressings in the 1980s, and I ordered a repress in the early '90s, but the pressing plant closed without saying anything so it never got done. On top of that, there was no money and other distributors were no longer interested in carrying it, so I pretty much had to give up. Try putting out a record by a long-dead band (with the ex-members all fighting with each other) that you can't get into stores and you might see what I mean.
About a decade later Mike wanted to do a reissue, but only of CoH and only on CD, though I told him CDs were dying out. I'm pretty sure he didn't believe me. No distributors would take the CD either, but it eventually sold out anyway since I was able to sell them direct to stores. A few other labels wanted to repress the split LP, but nothing seemed to work out.
So there ya go. One big mess after another......
Subterranean ragers: Code Of Honor/Sick Pleasure split LP (1982), Code Of Honor "Beware The Savage Jaw" LP (1984), and Code Of Honor "What Are We Gonna Do?" EP (1982). All records from the collection of Daniel Nätterdal.
Sick Pleasure side of Code Of Honor split LP and Sick Pleasure s/t 7" (from the collection of Dave in Canada)
Here's one unrelated but interesting tidbit we asked Steve:
There was a UK version of the Flipper album on "Subterranean Records UK." Was this set up and distributed through Rough Trade in the UK or through someone else?
"Southern. I don't know what their distro arrangements were, but they told us they only sold 1000 copies and this was after a full pager in NME. Somebody dropped the ball there..."
Check out the Subterranean Records website.
All record photos by Swedish rager Daniel Nätterdal of the long running Nere På Noll podcast. Huge thanks to Daniel for supplying such great photos!
Sick Pleasure side of Code Of Honor split LP and Sick Pleasure s/t 7" photo from the collection of Dave in Canada of the raging label Sewercide Records.