What our staff has to say: “Sluggo was that band, and The Contradiction E.P. that gave me pride of being from the midwest. Amazing reissue with the first EP and unreleased tracks from 84 on the bside. SLUGGO FOREVER.” – Dan

Sluggo were Cincinnati’s reigning hardcore band at a time where the region was alight with bands like Malignant Growth, the Zero Boys, the Repellents, and Squirrel Bait, all waiting to dazzle the next band to come rolling through. Revisiting these recordings I remembered every riff and almost every word from the “Contradiction” EP, and felt the Xeroxed sleeve in my fingertips’ memory, gloriously. – David Grubbs

I learned in my teens that Cincinnati had a punk history. The OGs told me about “The Jockey Club” in Newport, KY, having seen all the bands that I bought LPs of. Negative Approach played there? I saw the flyer at a friend’s place. It was a xerox of a xerox of a xerox. $3 cover charge. There was a local opener too: SLUGGO. I hit up all my headiest friends to find a copy of their record and someone came through with the Agitate 96 repress from 2001 that had recently come out. I wouldn’t have considered a group of teenagers playing total MINOR THREAT / ZERO BOYS-styled hardcore to have come from my hometown. They were from Northern KY and stood ten steps ahead of all the other early-80s local records I had heard. The more I dug, I found flyers for gigs they played with Discharge, Necros, JFA & Dead Kennedys. Sluggo’s record still rips today, a standout of the lesser-known, early-80s hardcore EPs.

The B-side of this compilation is “Eighty Four”, a never-before-released EP of the band’s second incarnation. Peter Aaron, who later went on to Chrome Cranks, plays on this one, and the dual guitars of Karl and Chris take this EP in a different direction. The original name for the release was “What Happens Next?,” which ILL REPUTE subsequently beat them to the punch on… “Eighty Four” was baked & transferred at Steve Albini’s Electrical Audio in Chicago in 2020 and mastered by Michael Hagler in 2021. Finally, after 37 years… The record is ready to be heard.

These two releases made by teenagers nearly 40 years ago get better and better with age. I can’t speak enough to how proud I am to say we are making these available to the world. Having the opportunity to re-release this EP along with the never-before-released “Eighty-Four” EP has been a dream of Dan’s & mine since we started working together. – Alex York



Our take: 4Q Records brings us this top-shelf reissue from 80 Cincinnati, Ohio hardcore band Sluggo. I was familiar with Sluggo’s 1983 EP, Contradiction, thanks to the reissue it received in 2001 (though we’ve had a few original copies come through our store as well). Even as a fanatic for the type of 80s US hardcore that Sluggo played, Contradiction never got its hooks in me. However, this retrospective album on 4Q changes all that. After hearing this version of these tracks, I realize the problem with Contradiction is a weak mix. Thankfully guitarist Karl Meyer kept the original multi-track masters, which made this new mix possible. Contradiction now crackles with brightness, rivaling Don Zientara’s early Dischord recordings in their balance of clarity and power. No doubt Sluggo was indebted to those Dischord records, and they’re all the better for it. Like Minor Threat, Sluggo wasn’t the fastest, meanest, craziest, noisiest, or heaviest, but they wrote great songs with the catchy choruses of ’77 UK punk and they delivered them with power and conviction. While Sluggo wasn’t Minor Threat, this fresh coat of paint puts them in the league of the best bands who followed that template. Speaking of following Minor Threat’s template, this album features a second Sluggo recording from 1984 that finds the band, Out of Step-style, expanding to a 5-piece lineup and attempting to add a little more complexity and variety to their songs without losing their trademark intensity. I think they nail it, and while (as with Minor Threat), I slightly prefer the more aggro early material, I’m happy to live in a reality where I can experience both. Besides the brilliant new sound (which was all done at Steve Albini’s Electrical Audio in Chicago), this album also features a thick booklet with the requisite photos, flyers, and liner notes. It’s beautifully executed, and deepens my understanding and appreciation of the music, as good packaging design should. If, like me, you’re a sucker for ornately packaged 80s hardcore punk reissues, you’ll love this.