Punk Rock Retrospective: Angry Samoans' Yesterday Started Tomorrow EP (1986)

What would any punk rock catalog be without at least one entry from the notorious Angry Samoans? I don't know exactly, but I can tell you this: it wouldn't be very punk rock!

As one of the most hardcore, and most entertaining, punk rock bands in all of punk rock's long and bloody history, the Angry Samoans mark the beginning of their transitional stage from thrash to a [more] mellow atmosphere with Yesterday Started Tomorrow.

The album begins with (arguably) one of the Angry Samoans best tracks from this stage in their career, "Different World." No, this song is not about the situational comedy; it's about the universal displacement that plays a role throughout the punk rock saga. 'No one knows where I'm hanging 'round/ I wear the stamp of the lost and found/ No no no no!' With sick, twisting little riffs and an upbeat tempo, this song is definitely a great kick start for a seriously danceable album.

From there, Yesterday Started Tomorrow goes into "Electrocution," a song that alternates between thrashing guitar riffs and downscaled vocal interludes. Although the song can be somewhat whiny at times, the rocking never stops; it's definitely very hard to keep your head from nodding along to this tune!

Yesterday Started Tomorrow's third track, "It's Raining Today" features some more of that mellow atmosphere in comparison to the harder songs on the album. In fact, it's one of the more down-to-earth songs in the entire Angry Samoans catalog.

Yet it was this breaking away from the façade of punk that completed the Angry Samoans experience. Yesterday Started Tomorrow, in a sort of ironic twist, gave the Angry Samoans an edge on how the punk rock game should be run; by striving to reinvent themselves artistically, the group found the courage to make a subversive move towards what's really punk.

And that's why it's so fitting that the Angry Samoans would cover "Somebody to Love." By offering a compelling, new take on something old that was considered groundbreaking, the Angry Samoans knew that it was the artistic edge that would push them to the front of punk rock history.

Check it out yourself: Yesterday Started Tomorrow.