Adrenalin O.D. (from left, Paul Richard, Jim Foster, Dave Scott and Jack Steeples) in a vintage publicity photo.
Never was a band more perfectly named than Adrenalin O.D., a hardcore punk group that helped add a dose of humor to the genre in the mid-’80s, while keeping the songs as fast and loud and bratty as anyone else. Their hometowns were East Paterson (now Elmwood Park), Union, Madison and Clifton, and mocked suburban life, among a great many other things. Their 85-second anthem “Suburbia,” for instance, lashed out at the Livingston Mall (“Nothing to buy, too many stores”) and other easy targets.
“Suburbia” came out on Adrenalin O.D.’s 1983 EP Let’s Barbeque, and then on their debut 1984 full-length, The Wacky Hijinks of Adrenalin O.D. You can listen to it below and, since the words go by in a bit of a blur, here they are:
Houses are spread out too far
Too many trees and too many cars
Everyone works or everyone hides
Too many birds in suburban skies
Too many burnouts, too many jocks
Middle class scumbags, think they’re smart
They go to school and comb their hair
And always have the right clothes to wear
Suburbia! Suburbia!
Go hangout at the Livingston Mall
Nothing to buy, too many stores
Too many joggers on the streets
Gonna run ’em over in my beat up car
Go for a walk through the center of town
Or hop in the car and cruise around
Mow the lawn, take out the trash
Go in mom’s pocketbook and take her cash
Suburbia! Suburbia!
Adrenalin O.D. broke up in 1990, but has reunited occasionally since then. They’ve got a New Jersey show coming up this Fall, performing at The Stanhope House in Stanhope on Oct. 25.
New Jersey celebrated its 350th birthday in 2014. And in the 350 Jersey Songs series, we marked the occasion by posting 350 songs — one a day, from September 2014 to September 2015 — that have something to do with the state, its musical history, or both. To see the entire list, click here.
CONTRIBUTE TO NJARTS.NET
Since launching in September 2014, NJArts.net, a 501(c)(3) organization, has become one of the most important media outlets for the Garden State arts scene. And it has always offered its content without a subscription fee, or a paywall. Its continued existence depends on support from members of that scene, and the state’s arts lovers. Please consider making a contribution of any amount to NJArts.net via PayPal, or by sending a check made out to NJArts.net to 11 Skytop Terrace, Montclair, NJ 07043.
