Bullshit Detector

Infobox Album
Name = Bullshit Detector
Type = compilation
Artist = Various artists


Released = 1980 – 1984
Recorded =
Genre = Anarcho-punk
Length =
Label = Crass
Producer =
Reviews =
Last album =
This album =
Next album =

"Bullshit Detector" was the name of a series of compilation LPs put together by the Anarcho-punk band Crass and released on their Crass Records label. Three editions were released between 1980 and 1984, consisting of demo tapes, rough recordings and artwork that had been sent to the band. The sound quality of the "Bullshit Detector" series was mixed, and was often very basic or poor as Crass would master the tapes directly to record without any additional production or enhancement. For Crass, the expectation of a polished performance was missing the point of the DIY punk ethic:

:"Don't expect music when the melody is anger, when the message sings defiance, three chords are frustration when the words are from the heart"

- Sleeve notes from "Bullshit Detector Volume 3"

The title "Bullshit Detector" was derived as a reference to the Clash song "Garageland" from their first LP "The Clash", a song covered by Chumbawamba guitarist Boffo on the second volume.

The series is notable for marking the first record appearance of Napalm Death (on the third volume).

A fourth "Bullshit Detector", this time an international compilation, was released by the Swiss independent anarcho-punk record label Resistance Productions in 1994.

Track listings

Bullshit Detector Vol 1 (1980)

# - Andy T - "Jazz on a Summerday"
# - Counter Attack - "Don't Wanna Fight For You"
# - The Alternative - "Change It"
# - Clockwork Criminals - "We Are You"
# - Reputation in Jeopardy - "Girls Love Popstars"
# - Crass - "Do They Owe Us a Living"
# - Amebix - "University Challenged"
# - Sceptics - "Local Chaos"
# - The Sinyx - "Mark Of The Beast"
# - Frenzy Battalion - "Thalidomide"
# - Icon - "Cancer"
# - The Speakers - "Why"
# - APF Brigade - "Anarchist Attack"
# - Fuck the C.I.A. - "Right or Wrong"
# - Caine Mutiny and the Kallisti Apples of Nonsense - "Morning star"
# - The Sucks - "Three"
# - Porno Squad - "Khaki Doesn't Go With My Eyes"
# - S.P.G. Murders - "Soldiers"
# - Eratics - "National Service"
# - Red Alert - "Who Needs Society"
# - The Snipers - "War Song"
# - Armchair Power - "Power"
# - The Disrupters - "Napalm"
# - Andy T - "Nagasaki Mon Amour"
# - Action Frogs - "Drumming Up Hope"

Bullshit Detector Vol 2 (1982)

Disc One

# WAITING FOR BARDOT "Voice of U.K."
# OMEGA TRIBE "Nature Wonder"
# SUSPECTS "Random Relations"
# YOUR FUNERAL "Think About It"
# Kronstadt Uprising "Receiver Deceiver"
# DEFORMED "Freedom"
# NO LABEL "Let's Get It Right"
# THE REJECTED "Same Old Songs"
# BOFFO "Garageland"
# XS "Fuck the System"
# POLEMIC ATTACK "Manipulated Youth"
# A.GARDENER "A Gardener's Song"
# TOXIC "Tradition of Slaughter"
# 1984 "Breakup"
# "Insert"
# TOXIK EPHEX "Police Brutality"
# SIC "Low"
# MOLITOV COCKTAIL "Ain't Got a Clue"
# NAKED "Mid 1930's (Pre-war Germany)"

Disc Two

# CAPITAL PUNISHMENT "We've Realised the Truth Now"
# ANTHRAX "All the Wars"
# "Slaughter of the Innocent (Curiosity Kills)"
# PSEUDO SADISTS "War Games"
# TOTAL CHAOS "Psycho Analysis"
# DOUGIE "War Without Winners"
# ST. VITUS DANCERS "The Survivor"
# STEGZ "Christus Erection"
# METRO YOUTH "Brutalised"
# NORMALITY COMPLEX "Black Market Shadow"
# YOUTH IN ASIA "Power & the Glory"
# RIOT SQUAD "Security System"
# DESTRUCTORS "Agent Orange"
# THE PITS "U.K. in Dreamland"
# THE BORED "Riot Style"
# TOBY KETTLE "Theatre Comment"
# CHUMBAWAMBA "Three Years Later"
# PASSION KILLERS "Start Again"
# AMERIKAN ARSENAL "Get Off Yr Ass"

Bullshit Detector Vol 3 (1984)

Disc One

# AVERT AVERSION "Oh What a Nice Day"
# AWAKE MANKIND "Once Upon a Time"
# A NUL NOISE "Hibashuka"
# ANIMUS "Nuclear PISS"
# PEROXIDE "Ministry of Death (M.O.D.)"
# UNTITLED "We Are Taught to Kill"
# XTRACT "Fight For Peace"
# VERBAL ASSAULT "Not Yet Ron"
# FIFTH A COLUMN "Counterfeit Culture"
# POTENTIAL VICTIMS "People"
# 7TH PLAGUE "Rubber Bullets"
# REBEL A "Genesis Genocide"
# ALIENATED "Living in Fear"
# BARBED WIRE "Weapons of War"
# ROB WILLIAMS "Lies"
# REALITY CONTROL "The War is Over"
# YOUTHANASIA "Power"
# SAMMY RUBBETTE + SAFETY MARCH "The Ballot of Maggie the Maggot"
# POLITICIDE "51st State"
# MARKUS ABUSED "The Killing Machine"

Disc Two

# ONE MAN'S MEAT "Your Country Misleads You"
# DIRECT ACTION "Death WIthout a Thought"
# CRAG "Voice Your Protest"
# ATTRITION "In Your Hand"
# NAPALM DEATH "The Crucifixion of Possessions"
# THE IMPALERS "Sun, Sun, Sun"
# HEALTH HAZARD "Picture"
# PHIL HEDGEHOG "Radio Times"
# MALICE "Faceless"
# MICHAEL KINGZETT TAYLOR "Paranoia"
# 7TH PLAGUE "Rubber Bullets"
# BRAINWASHED PUPILS "The Demonstration"
# NO DEFENSES "Work to Consume"
# A.N.E.E.B "Berlin Wall"
# CARNAGE "Carnage"
# WARNING "Beasts of Fiction/Tin Drum"
# STATE OF SHOCK "Excess Youth"
# NEALE HARMER "Hard Nut"
# DEAD TO THE WORLD "Action Man"
# DANDRUFF "Life In a Whiskey Bottle"
# RICHARD III "Will You Care?"
# FUNKY RAYGUNS "The Hare and a Tortoise"

Use of Term Outside of Albums

Jello Biafra, on his spoken word tours, often encourages parents or would-be parents to train their children to be "bullshit detectors", forcing them to look at all sides of an issue and drawing their own conclusions, and not the ones that Biafra feels are presented to them by the corporate media.

See also: Cassette culture