WikiPunk: Totalitär

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Totalitär

Totalitär are one of the most influential d-beat punk bands of all time. Originating in the "silver age" of Swedish hardcore from the mid to late Eighties, Totalitär created a pounding take on d-beat hardcore that many bands all over the world today still pay homage to.

Formed in Hudiksvall, a small town in Northern Sweden, in 1985, the original members were Poffen (vocals), Lanchy (guitar), Andreas (bass) and Lennart (drums), with Jallo Lehto (Disfear, No Security, Dischange and Meanwhile amongst many others) later replacing second drummer Jesper on drums. The band shared members with the infamous Brainbombs and Jesper and additional guitarist Jörgen later formed The Kristet Utseendet.

Always lyrically astute, often referencing capitalism and mutlinational corporations, Totalitär had a prolific period of releasing classic records from the late 80's to mid 90's. Although the band has a vast discography of four lp's as well as a literal heap of seven inch singles and splits with amongst others, legendary bands like Dropdead, Discolse and Tragedy, they seldomly played live.

The band went on their first hiatus in 1994, but soon returned with Finn Records releasing their first full Sin Egen Motståndare, which today ranks as an absolute cornerstone of the genre. A slew of recordings continued, as well as a fanzine titled Antisystem, until they disbanded again in 2000. Totalitär returned again in 2006 and released the Vi Är Eliten lp on Prank Records from San Fransisco before once again becoming dormant.

Members of Totalitär today play in bands such as Instiution, Disssekerad, Makabert Fynd and Kvoteringen. There are rumours now and then of another coming together but as of yet the band is still inactive.

Totalitär Discography

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About WikiPunk

I've been a big fan of Wikipedia since it's launch in 2001. I've spent many hours scrolling through it's pages, hopping from link to link, surfing as they say, starting at one random point and oftentimes ending up somewhere completely different.

The bulk of the time I've burrowed through Wikipedia's pages I've been looking at either music related material, or historical events. Of course, as with everything else on the internet you have to take what you read with a pinch, further research is compulsory if wanting to get a more rounded truth on the matter, Wikipedia is actually banned as source material at my college. But still, it's always been a good place to start for quick, easy information, if not always one hundred percent acurate.

Wikipedia's most charming charactertic for me was just that however, the fact that it was for everyone, by everyone, just like my beloved punk rock. Anyone could add to the ever growing online encyclopedia, I myself wrote biographies for some of my old bands and published them there. But alas, that seems to have changed...

A while back I thought it would be fun to publish a page for one of my current bands but to my horror, was basically told that we weren't commerical/succesful/big/co-ol enough. I get that maybe the site is now so big that they're trying to stay away from users blatantly using it as a place to plug products, but still, the criteria for publishing a page about a band was nothing short of shocking. You had to be on a major label or have at least two records released on one of the "respected indie labels", whatever the fuck they are?! And that was just the tip of it. A list of other demands I can't be arsed listing all of a sudden stood in my way.

So with that, I thought I would create a new little pocket of the world wide web dedicated to gathering information about bands and artists from the underground. The main driving force behind the idea is the unashamed trainspotter/geek in me, and if it's only ever myself that uses it then it will still afford me hours of amusement, much akin to the rather huge spreadsheet-formatted catalogue of my record collection that I built over the space of a couple of years.

The idea is simple; to create my own version of Wikipedia dedicated to underground music. WikiPunk. Punk being that most of the information I will be adding will be the very genre of music I've been involved in personally for the last twenty years, but all artists, labels, zines that are "doing it themselves" are welcome to add a page. "Respected indie labels" indeed? What fucking use is that to me or anyone else who cares? If there's a band in Amsterdam, or Syracuse, or Wellington that has just released their first tape and played only a handful of shows, I'd still like the chance to stumble across them and find out their story. Of course, a lot of artists use bandcamp and other social media sites to spread their word but that's all very individual, my idea here is to create and inclusive encyclopedia.

In the shards of spare time I have I will copy and paste biographies of artists from where I find them, using oficial information if it exists. On top of that I'll add a couple of images if available, as well as a discography/members section. I welcome absolutely anyone to contribute by simply sending me their story, simply mail me via the contact form below and I'll get back to you, and if nobody does then I'll just build it up slowly over time, purely for my own amusement.