No For An Answer

In the middle of the late-'80s hair rock jungle of Orange County, No for an Answer was making intelligent, confrontational, straight-from-the-heart hardcore punk that couldn't have been more at odds with most of the music coming out of the area at the time. Utilizing a kind of furious speed-rap hardcore style that recalls some early Bad Brains, singer Dan O'Mahoney (later of 411 and Speak 714) ranted, sometimes brilliantly, about social pressure, desperation, and isolation. The featured track, "Don't Look Away," is a fierce straight-edge manifesto, containing the band's most central message: "Acquiring a taste spells addiction to me/It's safest, it's smartest to live poison free."