You Breed Like Rats

LIMITED READERSHIP issue #2 out now - MILK MUSIC, CONDOMINIUM, SPIKE IN VAIN, POLLUTION

2011-12-15T01:01:00.004Z

Visit here

BUY THE NASA SPACE UNIVERSE LP

2011-07-20T14:54:00.003+01:00

http://shogunrecordings.pagesperso-orange.fr/

That is all.

Reality 86'd - Black Flag documentary

2011-05-11T22:15:00.003+01:00

Rare post just to share this. Been wanting to see this for years.

EDIT: Video is gone, real gone.

REALITY 86'D LINK

MOB RULES - THE DONOR LP out now

2010-11-07T21:08:00.013Z

MOB RULES - THE DONOR LP is out now.

Best British hardcore record in years.

Download 'White Bar' here, or listen to 2 more songs here.

Order now from Zandor Records: teamxzandor at yahoo dot co dot uk

Single copies postpaid £10 UK / £12 Europe / £15 World

Ltd red vinyl and regular black vinyl available.

BLACK FLAG UNRELEASED INSTRUMENTAL SONG ON VIDEO

2010-05-26T22:45:00.003+01:00

This emerged on Youtube recently:

Incredible stuff. Who knew Emil was still playing drums at this point (June 82). Dukowski was unstoppable. I believe there's a video of this whole set, does anyone have it to upload? Would love to see it.

Greetings

2009-12-10T21:51:00.023Z

I might start posting more often with new content, let's see how things go. It's been a busy year, writing on here just fell to the wayside...

Anyway, here's some thoughts on 2009, the year in which we all got a bit older and a bit fatter.

RECORDS

2009 wasn't too bad. I'm not sure if this all came out this year, but I've really enjoyed:

SEX VID - Communal Living 12".
VEE DEE - Public Mental Health System 2xLP (probably my favourite album of '09).
HOMOSTUPIDS - The Load LP.
FLYIN' TRICHECOS 7" and the Cuts And Cigarette Burns 7" comp they're on.
CRUDE - Just Go Go Ahead 7".
PAINTBOX - Trip, Trance and Travelling 2xLP.
DRY ROT taster 7" for LP, which I can't wait for.
OBLITERATION 2nd 7".
SLICES 7"s.
DESTINO FINAL LP.
NASA SPACE UNIVERSE 7".
DINOSAUR JR - Farm 2xLP.
EXTORTION - Terminal Cancer 7".
LOW THREAT PROFILE 7" (finally!)
FY FAN latest 7".

As for records not from '09, since I know everyone loves dull inpenetrable lists here's what I've spent the last half a year listening to a lot of:

LAUGHING HYENAS - You Can't Pray A Lie LP, loads of CRUNKY KIDS, BGK - Nothing Can Go Wrogn LP, POISON IDEA's entire discography, SONIC YOUTH - Evol LP, BATTALION OF SAINTS - Second Coming LP, INMATES - s/t 7". WOLFDOWNERS - Wolf It Down LP, SACCHARINE TRUST discography, SWA - XCIII LP, MINUTEMEN - Punch Line LP, What Makes A Man Start Fires? LP, Buzz Or Howl Under The Influence of Heat 12", & the Paranoid Time 7", WASTE MANAGEMENT: Get Your Mind Right 7", BUZZCOCKS - Singles Going Steady LP, REBEL TRUTH s/t 7", BREATHING FIRE - Years of Lead LP, INSANE YOUTH 7"s, GROUNDHOGS - Split LP, CAPTAIN BEYOND s/t LP, DARVOCETS discography, loads of BLACK FLAG naturally, MAU MAUS - Society's Rejects 7", early BLITZ 7"s, loads of SAINT VITUS, STOOGES - Funhouse 2xLP version with great outtakes, PERE UBU - Modern Dance LP, NO PEACE? 7", loads of DISCHARGE, loads of MAN IS THE BASTARD & NEANDERTHAL, CROW - Bloody Tear LP, loads of DINOSAUR JR, loads of NICO, CALE and REED solo stuff, FUNKADELIC various LPs, RUDIMENTARY PENI - Death Church LP and Archaic 10" especially, FIT FOR ABUSE - Mindless Violence 7", MOSS ICON - Lyburnum LP, WIRE - Chairs Missing LP, HUNCHES: Yes. No. Shut It LP, THE FIX discography, MEAT PUPPETS - In A Car 7", THE SAINTS: Eternally Yours LP, MOTORHEAD - various LPs including the underrated Just Another Day LP, ENGLISH DOGS - To The Ends of The Earth 12", THE SCAM - It All Ends in Rot 7", MIND ERASER - Glacial Reign LP, MOUNTAIN - Nantucket Sleighride LP, 13TH FLOOR ELEVATORS both LPs, THE DICTATORS - Go Girl Crazy LP, STIFF LITTLE FINGERS - Inflammable Material LP, RUINERS - Blank Your Life 7", THE BYRDS early singles and Notorious Byrd Brothers LP, BLASTING CONCEPT II comp LP, THRASH TIL DEATH comp LP, early to mid period HAWKWIND, DRY ROT 7"s, FRANK ZAPPA - Hot Rats LP, LIFE'S BLOOD - Defiance 7" atleast once a week...etc etc etc.

It's also been a year for giving much of the mid-to-late period SST discography a listen with fresh ears, discovering some real gems while still recognising that some music is best left behind (Zoogz Rift!)

SHOWS

I saw ANNIHILATION TIME on their last European tour. I missed them the last couple of times, for various economic and distance related reasons, so was glad to finally get the chance to see all the classics from the 'II' LP played live (their best record undoubtedly). Plus they covered TED NUGENT (was it Stranglehold or Stormtroopin'? I forget! It takes some balls to cover any song of that record and cover it well. AT succeeded though.)

I saw a band I thought I'd never get the chance to see twice this year - DINOSAUR JR. They were everything I'd hoped they would be, pretty amazing. They also did 'Chunks'.

I broke my MOTORHEAD hymen too, having seen them last month with THE DAMNED (who were also great) and GIRLSCHOOL (who were embarrassing, despite the early singles being great). MOTORHEAD predictably dominated and my ears hurt for days. The audience was an incredible mix too, a cesspool of the lowest rungs of humanity, MOTORHEAD lifers.

I saw SEX VID a few weeks ago. See a great flyer below for the show (by Stroid). They were the best hardcore band I've seen live this year, and probably the best current USHC band full stop.

I'm seeing LEATHERFACE in a week or so - I saw them years ago and they were good then, I'm sure they''ll be good now.

THAT'S ALL FOR NOW. STILL NEED THAT DXA DEMO MATERIAL, STILL NEED A COPY OF PICK YOUR KING.

Not a real new post...

2009-05-30T12:32:00.003+01:00

Just a note to tell everyone to check out the new BRAIN KILLER 7" on Deranged and the new DESTINO FINAL (previously INVASIÓN) LP on La Vida Es Un Mus Discos.

AMERICAN CHEESEBURGER interview...

2009-02-25T01:39:00.010Z

Here is an interview I did a few months ago with the US band AMERICAN CHEESEBURGER. They sent their answers in the post, hand-written and all, and it's taken my a good while to get round to typing them up. I apologise. If you haven't heard AC, check out their 'Modern Advice' 7", great stuff. The 9 Shocks comparison gives you some idea of what to expect. Meat and potatoes energetic hardcore punk.

Answering the questions are James (singer), Jason (drums) and Steve (guitar). Photos stolen from their myspace.

As a sidenote, the interview was originally sent just to Jason the drummer, hence the last question solely being about drumming.

1. When did American Cheeseburger form? Are you all from the Georgia area? What was the scene like at the time you started playing?

James: We started in 2006. Only Jason is from Georgia. When we started playing, there weren't many fast bands. And there still aren't.

Steve: We started in 2006, we're from all over the place. Athens is a twee-pop orientated town, so it's not like there were any other bands doing the same thing as us in town. Every now and again another hardcore band would pop us, play, and then dissolve.

Jason: 2006. We have been playing about 2 years. No we are from all over, Georgia, Connecticut, Ohio and North Carolina.

2. When you started out what bands were key influences? Was there any band you were emulating or wanted to sound like, or did you just play and it came out how it sounded?

Jason: We have a million influences not all punk or hardcore, we just knew we wanted to play fast!

Jason and I started jamming out on pretty much anything. Classic rock tunes, Negative FX etc. My influences have been Japanese hardcore, some of the old Huntington Beach bands, old fast shit. We really just wanted to start a fun, fast band and not worry about what we were going to sound like.

James: I don't think we had any key influences except wanting to play fast. As we wrote songs, we noticed elements of Japanese hardcore and older Cleveland hardcore. We have never emulated any band.

3. Does being from the South alienate you perhaps from more 'active' scenes, on the coasts? (I am being presumptive there, since I have no idea what it's like in Georgia!)

Steve: It's never been an issue.

Jason: No, we tour constantly, so we are with it, we bring lots of awesome bands to Georgia. It rules, I hate overcrowded "scenes".

James: We aren't alienated because we tour so much. We don't play in town often, and when we do, it's usually with a band from somewhere else.

4. Do you think the internet has aided the growth of good hardcore bands or impeded it? With the downloadability of old bands, and the knowledge easily accessible at the touch of a button, do you think the imagination has gone? A band can just choose a band and say "yes let's play like this"... Ofcourse there's a reverse side to that, which is that more people get into good bands who may have been forgotten.

Steve: Exchange of information is how we learn.

Jason: I think the internet is weird but helpful. Yes, you don't have to work for it like in the old days but it makes things like touring a lot easier.

James: You seem to have answered the question for yourself. In my opinion the internet has helped hardcore bands tour successfuly AND i have seen a lot of worthless bands emerge from everywhere and attempt to gain publicity through myspace etc...

5. Where did the name AMERICAN CHEESEBURGER come from?

Jason: I thought up "cheeseburger" and James added "American" because we heard of another cheesburger. I was sick of every name like "Death System", "Bush Sucks" etc.

James: Jason was sick of all of the long-sinded band names emerging at the time. "As my sun Sets Dying" and shit like that. He said the next band he was in would be called Cheeseburger. Simplicity. We found out that there was some shitty band from New York called Cheeseburger, so I told Jason we should be audacious and call it American Cheeseburger. The epitome of stupidity.

6. When did you first get into hardcore? Can you remember the first band you EVER heard described as 'hardcore', and what was your first show?

Steve: I first got into hardcore around 15. I guess the Bad Brains were the first band I'd ever heard of refered to as hardcore. My first show was seeing the Ramones, and then a month later I saw Bikini Kill at a club in Connecticut called Studio 158.

Jason: When I was 12. 1986, I ordered Warzone, Final Conflict and Crucifucks from sk8 mags. My first show was in '88, I saw C.O.C., Wwwax, and Final Offering. It was great.

James: I saw the Ramones when I was 15. They are still the loudest band I've ever seen, I got bruises on my ribcage. Fought skinheads. That was hardcore.

8. What did your family/parents think? Also, was it via the metal route or punk route?

Steve: My parents hated punk to begin with, but one I started dying my hair and shit they REALLY didn't like it. I started out listening to death metal, and this girl on my street let me borrow the "apathy? never" compilation and "never mind the bollocks". I got into it.

Jason: My mom didn't like it but my dad was supportive, he took me to shows, the punk route for sure.

James: My parent's didn't like it. I was a metalhead before I was a punk.

9. List everything AC has released so far, and what's coming up...

Jason: We have a demo 7" on Tsunami, Modern Advice 7" on Rockbottom, split 7" with Canadian Rifle on Rockbottom and upcoming split LP with Religious As Fuck.

10. You recently toured, correct? How far did you go? How did the scene vary from city to city (or town to town)?

Jason: We went as far as Toronto. The whole thing was great in my opinion, one bad show ain't bad.

11. What was the worst thing to happen on tour (van breakdown, prostitute death, band fights etc?)

Steve: A few tours ago we wree on our way to play in Memphis and our van broke down in Mississippi. It was doing some scary shit. We ended up staying in this motel advertising "love tubs". The motel was attached to a dance club and all these eh "white boys" were hanging out outside of our room being creeps. We had to miss the show and cancel the Nashville date and drive all the way home in a vehicle that was falling apart.

Jason: Wost thing in 6 or 7 tours is missing 2 shows due to the van. Not bad.

12. Are you at all influenced by old Georgia bands, like NEON CHRIST or DDT? Are there any older folks around who saw any of those bands or were around in the earlier scene?

Jason: Yes, I love Neon Christ. I am older and saw their hybrid band with C.O.C. members called Final Offering. I saw the Neon Christ reunion. I was bummed.

13. Are you into classic Italian hardcore? Early NEGAZIONE, DECLINO, CHEETAH CHROME MOTHERFUCKERS etc? If so, what do you love about it? (personally I feel those bands are among the best. High in energy, manic vocally and completely twisted riffing)...

Steve: Me and Jason love the Indigesti, Wretched is really cool too. I like Cheetah Chrome Motherfuckers and Eu's Arse also, they're pretty off the wall, energy wise.

Jason: Of course, Negazione, Indigesti, Raw Power, it's all essential!

James: You have answered your question again. All of those bands rule.

14. What are some of your favourite current hardcore bands going right now? Do you have a 'brother band' of sorts, who you play with a lot?

Steve: I dig: Godfodder, We Need To Talk, Double Negative, Iron Lung, Brutal Knights. Van Halen is our brother band.

Jason: Double Negative, Brutal Knights, Religious As Fuck, Iron Lung, Sex Vid, Conversions, Straightjacket Nation, Chronic Seizure, there are a lot of good ones.

15. You've often been compared to 9 SHOCKS TERROR - are you into those Clevo bands? PUNCTURE WOUND!

Steve: I love the H-100s, Cider, Darvocets etc and Jason Griffin is an honorary Clevelander, having played drums for 9 Shocks.

Jason: Yes my old badn Goat Shanty played with Puncture Wound. We love playing CLeveland. I actually played drums for a month long tour in 2001 with 9 Shocks. Wedge was getting married so I drove up and learned the set and filled in. Tour was great and so are those guys.

James: Yes.

16. Name your favourite Japanese hardcore bands ever, and explain why.

Steve: 1. GISM - Randy Uchida is godlike. 2. Systematic Death - You can't stop that shit. 3. Asbestos - the vocals are silly, like GISM, but they rule.

Jason: Lip Cream, Gauze.

James: Systematic Death, Jellyroll Rockheads.

17. Can we expect more saxaphone on the next records?

Steve: The Oboe is barely breathing.

Jason: No, I wish I liked it.

James: Yes. Steve just bought a sax.

18. Do you think bands have a responsibility to their 'fans' to stay reasonably consistent in sound? For example, a band can progress successfully (ala Flag, United Mutation etc) or unsuccessfully (Bad Religion: Into The Unknown)... Do you think you'd change your name before you start heavily using keyboards and having Avril Lavigne as a guest on your album?

Steve: I think bands should expand their options and get creative. I know we're not the most experimental band in the realm of hardcore, but if bands want to expand their horizons and create something challenging, they should. There's always going to be some people out there who won't get it.

Jason: No, I don't but I think when they change dramatically, they should expect that most times, fans will be mad.

19. Where did the photos on the back and insert to the Modern Advice EP come from?

Steve: We had this idea of a room full of people dressed like weirdos, so we had a party and crammed our friends into the bathroom of Jason's house and got some photos from up on top of the sink. It's kinda based off of this dream James had, and me and him kinda riffed on it.

20. How important do you think a DIY network is to hardcore punk, and how have you seen it change since you first got into it? Do you think there are more up-and-coming people who expect to start a band and become popular in a matter of weeks, not considering DIY etc...OR does it even matter?

Steve: I'm glad pogo punk is dead.

James: Bands will form and disperse, blossom and decay, play and quit. DIY means as many different things to people as punk meant to people 20 years ago. At this point, DIY and punk are empty labels. For every 20 worthless bands that surface, there are 3 bands you MIGHT hear that are genuine and the people in those bands are sincere, and if you see them that affects you as strongly as that first hardcore shwo you saw. It is an adventure to find good hardcore bands these days, and when you find them, it is extremely rewarding. I credit those rewards to an everlasting underground DIY scene.

Jason: Very important, that's what punk started and for real punks still is, doing things yourself: records, zines, shows. Everything grows but if you aren't involved on a personal level, it shows.

21. What's your dream 5 band line up for a show, bands from any time and place?

Steve: Black Flag w/ Keith, Scott Walker, The Stains, Mark Mallman, The Electric Eels

Jason: Geez that's tough. Black Flag, Minutemen, Stravinsky's Rite Of Spring premiere that caused all the riots, The Smiths and the Dead Kennedys. How about that.

22. Since you play drums, what drummers have influenced your playing style (if any)? Favourite hardcore drumming? (DEEP WOUND 7" is up there!)

Jason: Yes, the drumming by J. on the Deep Wound 7" is amazing. I would have to say Neil Peart from Rush, Lucky from Circle Jerks, George Hurley from Minutemen.

Steve: Lucky Lehrer and Jason Griffin fight it out with bowie knives!

Their myspace.

DEATH SENTENCE: Death And Pure Distruction EP (1982) upload...

2009-02-19T02:14:00.008Z

Here's the first post for awhile, and a salute to much neglected early British hardcore.

The original MRR review of this 7" said:

An interracial punk band that currently sounds too much like the EXPLOITED for its own good. DEATH SENTENCE are fast, loud, and a little rough around the edges, so they could come on strong if they develop more of an individual style - Jeff Bale.

While this does sound quite like the good Exploited singles, there's a heavy dose of Discharge to this. Overall it's an archetype UK82 record, leaning more towards the speed and aesthetics (WAAAAR) of the Clay Records bands than the Oi! influenced sound of contemporaries. It's primitive and simple, which is part of its appeal. Just look at that front cover - you can judge right then if you'll like this record or not.

The mid-paced song 'Victims Of War' reminds me of the Disorder classic 'Victimized', or Discharge's 'Aint No Feeble Bastard'. I'm a big fan of these early 80s UK dirgey and repetitive anthems, 'State Violence State Control' being the ultimate example. They obviously had a huge influence on the emerging Boston bands, who nearly all included a Discharge-esque dirge on their records.

I know very little about this band other than that they were on the same label as similar bands External Menace and Uproar, and were apparently from Leeds. If anyone knows any more (bands that followed for example), leave a comment.

Also, I wonder if the mis-spelling in the title was an 'accident', or rather a reference to their blatant worship at the church of Discharge. If the latter, it would surely be one of the earliest examples of a conscious Dis prefix (run into the ground by a million D-beat bands).

Download here.

DYS live at Love Hall, Philly '83 MP3 upload...

2009-01-04T21:48:00.007Z

Welcome to 2009 everyone. In celebration, let's all time travel back to 1983. Here's a really good DYS live-bootleg set that is apparently from a show on 28th May that year at the Love Hall in Philadelphia. It sounds like a soundboard recording. Although they're not my number 1 favourite early Boston band, in their prime DYS were so good - the speed and rage of songs like Brotherhood and Circle Storm, the moshy neanderthal beats of City To City and Wolfpack, the youthful enthusiasm of More Than Fashion... Even if you don't agree with their lyrics, it's hard to deny the POWER to their music. Staggering really. As a sidenote, I think the DYS LP has some of the best production on any hardcore record. Radiobeat was probably the best studio for early hardcore (listen to DEEP WOUND for further proof, or any of those early Boston records infact).

As you can see above, this show had an AMAZING line-up - SS Decontrol, DYS, The FU's, Jerry's Kids AND Antidote - with a ridiculous flyer to top it all off. With a line-up that solid you would have had no time to get food during any dud bands. As someone who "wasn't there and so doesn't know what they're talking about" I can imagine that even if each band played their at their worst - with half of SSD and DYS off secretely getting wasted backstage before playing their sloppiest and most embarassing sets ever - to an even worse crowd who only came because they saw the flyer and thought Manowar were playing, this would still have been an amazing show. Judging from this bootleg it probably was. I much prefer this DYS live set to the CBGBs one, where Dave Smalley's voice is much lower and sounds more forced/strained. On this set it's hardly any different than on the record, cracking all over the place. Also it includes an interesting live version of Escape, the dirgey Sabbath-heavy closer from their LP. I'm a big fan of the slow dirge tracks that all the Boston bands seemed to do, and it's cool to hear a good live version of this one.

Does anyone know if recordings of the other bands sets exist? It's also interesting that no local Philadelphia bands were on the bill. YDI?

If for nothing else, it's worth it for stage banter before 'Insurance Risk': "Brothers and sisters, you do not have to turn to drink. Coca Cola offers a viable alternative. Beer is the evil tool of communists, homosexuals and the devil".

DOWNLOAD HERE (I'm sorry that the tracklisting is messed up, I couldn't re-tag them with the correct titles)

Here's a video from Love Hall, Philly, not the same show though. See more in the user's related videos.

YD-I interview (new)...

2008-12-04T00:18:00.001Z

I recently interviewed YD-I, the great and intense hardcore band who put out the classic 'A Place In The Sun' 7" in 1983, and are currently active again. Such a primal sounding band, just watch the video at the bottom to hear just how brutal they were live compared to many of their contemporaries, a guitar led wall of noise. OUT FOR BLOOD!

As a sidenote, listen to Corrosion Of Conformity - Animosity.

Q 1. How and why did YD-I form? Were you all friends?

A. Neil (Jackal) vocals and Brian (Rev Big B) guitar formed Philly's first HardCore band,"The Legion of Decency"which quickly self destructed. Brian then moved to New Jersey where he played guitar in other bands for a while. Neil hooked up with Howard, drums, fresh out of "Pure Hell", Mike Cole on guitar and Chuck on bass. This was the original "Y-Di".Chuck soon left and Brian came back to Philly and took over on bass. This was the main line up through most of the 80's. Eventually,other projects became more important and the band split. About 5 years ago Neil, Brian (now on guitar) and Howard were convinced to do a one shot reunion with Chris Frascella on bass. The show was killer and the band was approached by management to keep going. Mike now lives in Arizona but has input in all we do. We bounce between 3 bass now, Chris Angelino, Chris F, and the sexy Joi Lacour.

Q 2. What was the scene in Pennsyvania like around the time YD-I started playing?

A. The scene in Philly was second to none. All the west coast bands came through (Black Flag, Circle Jerks, DK's etc) and we all became friends. We became tight with most DC and NY bands as well. Harley from NY, Tesco V, and Sab from Iron Cross continue to be good friends.

Q 3. How did you all get into hardcore punk in the first place? What was it that appealed? Can you remember the first band you heard described as 'hardcore'?

A. We were all into and continue to be into old school punk as well as HEAVY heavy metal like Motorhead and Venom. We loved hardcore because it was so over the fuckin' top but especially because it was OUR SCENE. WE MADE IT! RIGHT HERE IN THE GOOD OL USA. We didn't follow anybody else's rules and there weren't any rules to follow. We all just had the same ideas.The first bands were Black Flag,The Circle Jerks,and the Germs!

Q 4. What did your parents/families think of you getting into hardcore? How differently do you think it was seen, to be a punk, in the early 80s compared to today? Did you constantly get hassled?

A. Our families didn't give a shit. Were we hassled? No fucking way! Normal people would cross the street to keep away from us. Back then we all wore spurs on our boots so they could hear us coming a block away. Today nothings new. It's all been seen before. Nobody's shocked, nobody even notices.

Q 5. Was there a defining band of the time you all admired, or were impressed with? What bands were intense and ALWAYS put on a good show?

A. Black Flag, Minor Threat, Iron Cross, GBH, Discharge, Y-Di , the MeatMen, Flipper, Negative Approach etc. We were all always intense. We were all hardcore but we all had a little something special that made us a little different. Most of us were zipping at the time as well. The only bad shows were when someones van broke down and they didn't show up.

Q 6. In sound YDI had more in common with the more aggressive bands from DC and Boston or the Midwest, than other more melodic Philly bands. Did you often play with out-of-town bands, and did bands like SSD, Minor Threat, Negative Approach etc influence you? Also, were any of the band straight-edge?

A. See the other answer for most of that. I don't think we were influenced by other bands but a similar train of thought and playing style did make us sound more like many of the DC bands especially. We were all friends and always playing together so maybe something was in the food... No, nobody in Y-Di was straight edge. In fact we lost a drummer Eric (played drums on the Black Dust LP) to drugs. RIP bro.

Q 8. YD-I had/have 2 members who are black. Did you ever come across much ignorance or racism within the scene? Is the song CATEGORIZED addressing this?

A. Yeah, 2 blacks/American Indians and the Rev. Big B who is a Jew. No, we never saw any racism from anyone but we always give each other shit. But we are a tight motherfucking family. Categorized is more of a finacial/social status thing.

Q 9. You appear on the GET OFF MY BACK Philly comp LP, the regions version of 'Flex Your Head' or 'This Is Boston Not LA'... Can you say a bit about who put this out, and the other bands?

A: I don't really remember much about it other then we all hated the cover.

Q 10. What about Blood Bubble Records?

A: It's our own little unsuccessfull label. Yeah, other then music we're very much into horror movies! Especially Neil.

Q 11. While many dismissed the 'Black Dust' LP as being heavy metal, with fresh ears today it is a lot more punk than people give it credit for. What's your take on this? Were you trying to branch out?

A: At the time we were a little bummed. It was like "they just don't get it". Did we care? NO! Did it sell? YES! So we guess there were enough people out there who liked it. Do I see it on E-Bay? YES! People still ask for it and they got it on the "OUT FOR BLOOD"CD. We weren't trying to "branch out" as such. We still played and still do play the old stuff. It's just that when we got together to write songs that's what came out. There is still alot of KILLER SHIT we recorded but never released that you all might see very soon (hint hint). Psycho Bitch, Six White Horses, and Dirty Dog Day for those who might know.

Q 12. Do you have any funny stories regarding YDI, like an incident at a show? Also, of what show do you have the fondest memories?

A. There are tons of funny/scary stories that are all good but maybe best kept to ourselves. Lots of great memories as well but the one that comes to mind the quickest was only a few months back when Sab from Iron Cross jumped on stage with us to sing their killer song, Crucified. THAT was the shit brother!

Q 13. Why did you decide to start playing shows again, and how has it been so far?

A. See the above answer for why we got back together. It's been a blast so far and we'll keep doing as long as it's fun. Nothing blows our minds more then looking into a crowd and seeing the REALLY YOUNG KIDS singing along. The fact that they know the words tingles our balls.

Q 14. Were you approached about the YD-I footage being included on the American Hardcore movie? Did you see/like the film in the end?

A. Yes we were approached. I guess mainly because they were good enough to ask if they could use the footage as well as pay us. Of course we saw it and we loved it. We were honoured to be part of it. Our hats go off to those guys, GREAT JOB!

Q 15. Where do you think early 80s American hardcore punk fits in to the history of music, and are you proud of what YD-I achieved?

A. We are very proud of what we, the other bands, promoters, and everyone who contributed did. I think it's a huge part of music history. Has there been anything new that's better? Green Day and their likes can blow me. The only good stuff today is the new kids and their idea of what hardcore means to them. The rest is crap.

Q 16. How did you feel when Brutal Truth covered 'I Killed My Family'? Does it ever surprise you that there's still constant interest in YD-I?

A. Yeah, it's cool they did it. But did they give us writing credit? Did they give us a cut of the money they made? Ask them for those anwers. I don't mean to sound like it's about the money cause it's not (Rev.Big B is a Jew though). But in these times we all gotta eat and if we deserve to be paid we should be. Yes, it always surprises us that people still want to see us and listen to our music.

Q 17. Do you have a nice record collection that would pay off all your debts if you were to sell it on Ebay?

A. I don't have any debts right now so I'll hold on them for now. Yeah,I bought everything back then and I've saved it all!

Q 18. How important do you see having some kind of message, whether it be political or social or whatever, to playing in a hardcore band? Where did YDI fit in with the whole MRR peace punk scene versus the more apolitical tougher hardcore bands?

A. Except for a few songs we were not very political. We NEVER preached. We were more about survival and fighting back. Because we are usually armed and dangerous peace is not for us. We don't believe in fighting other peoples battles though. If you're a friend, we'll help you out but learn to take care of yourself! But because we're nuts we love to have fun as well. If you want to party with us, cool. If you want to fuck with us, don't. We've been at this a long time,it's what we do.

Q 19. Any last words?

A. For a bunch of old fucks we're alright aren't we?

CRO-MAGS 1984 demo songs...

2008-11-05T04:02:00.006Z

Here's a treat, 2 previously unreleased 1984 CRO-MAGS demo songs released as bonus tracks on the remastered CD of 'Age Of Quarrel':

1. You'd Be The Death Of Me.
2. Hard Times (early version).

There's 3 demo songs on the CD, but I didn't want to upload them all since I have no idea if this CD has even officially been released yet. Anyway, if anyone has any info (i.e. the line-up on this demo, when the CD is being released properly etc) please leave a comment.

Note how the riff 1 minute 23 seconds in on 'You'd Be The Death Of Me' was later re-used in the song 'Face The Facts'.

BILL BONDSMEN interview...

2008-11-05T02:20:00.006Z

A nice surprise for me was picking up the 'Swallowed By The World' LP by the Midwestern hardcore band BILL BONDSMEN earlier this year. I hadn't heard much by them before but this is a really good record: high energy classic Midwest style hardcore punk, taking cues from LP-era NEGATIVE APPROACH, POISON IDEA and NECROS (check out the guitar intro to 'Answer Me'), with a keen straight up rock n roll sensibility too. The fact that they did a (great) split 7" with OUT COLD should tell you something about what this band is all about. Anyway I interviewed them via email a little while ago, without realising Dan from Mad At The World Records had done a good one on his blog! Oh well, enjoy it anyway.

Q 1. Why did Bill Bondsmen start, and what bands had any of you been in previously (if you want to answer that question...)? Also, where did the name come from?

Tony : First show was Mother's Day 2004 with Nick Chunks on the drums. Supporting Damage Deposit if I recall right... I was in a grind/power violence band that went on for a while, recorded a pretty well recieved demo and then shit the bed. I think someone else already addressed who Bill Bonds is. If not, just google him or watch him on Youtube. Bill Bonds + Bail Bondsmen (dude who pays to get you out of jail til your court date) = Bill Bondsmen.

Mark: I don't mind talking about other bands I've been in. There's not much to talk about because this band is the only one that actually released anything, except my first band when i was 13- The Clown Butchers "Eat Shit and Die" tape, limited to 25 copies.

Q 2. How does it feel being from Detroit, not only the home of classic hardcore (Negative Approach, Angry Red Planet etc) but of classic music in general (Stooges, MC5 etc)...Have most of these bands influenced Bill Bondsmen in some form or another?

T : Ummm... I dunno what to say to that really. I mean, Detroit is a whole different state of mind really. All the things you've heard are probably true. I guess I feel stoked on it because when you tell people from other places in the world that you're from the D they seem to connect to it in both good (music, cars, etc) and bad (crime, death, fear, etc)ways. I guess being from here kinda takes some of the edge off of it. Once you've talked to the "legends" the mystery is gone and they're just folks. I'm sure it's had an influence though. And you also forgot the incredible boom of soul, blues, rock, etc that our city has enjoyed for many a year.

Mark: I can't say any of those bands influenced me, indirectly they did I'm sure. I grew up in Lansing which is 70 miles away so by the time I heard most of those bands, I already had a style of creating music. But supposedly we have a Detroit/Midwest sound, maybe the bad weather and rusty cars are the secret ingredients.

Amando: It's hard to tell how I feel about being from Detroit, since I don't know any other way. I tell you what, some people in other towns still take a step back when I say I'm from here. All of those bands you mention have spent alot of time on my stereo.

Q 3. How did you end up releasing on ACME Records? Are Out Cold like your brother-band in a sense?

T : John Evicci (Acme Records/Out Cold/Bad Chopper/etc etc) is a friend of mine. That's really all there is to it. Just a good dude who hooked it up for us. No real crazy backstory. Believe it or not, we've still never played with Out Cold. Something happens every time we even talk about it. Great band though. Probably one of my all time faves.

Amando: Tony hooked up the Out Cold/ACME flavor. He's known Evicci for quite a few years. I wouldn't say that we're quite at brother band status with Out Cold. They've been around alot longer. They're more of an uncle band to us. The cool uncle who'd buy for you and give you his old tapes.

Q 4. Like Out Cold, Bill Bondsmen seem to play stripped down fast rock n roll rather than a uniform version of another hardcore band, and there are clear non-hardcore influences at play...what are you thoughts on this?

T : Ummm... Listening to other music beyond hardcore helps. That's all I can think of. We all listen to a lot of different stuff and i'm sure it's had an effect on how things come out. And this isn't dogging on hardcore. Just that expanding your horizons music wise helps you come up with something more than just the same stuff I guess...

Mark: We all listen to different stuff, not just hardcore punk so it comes across when we make up the songs. Good, real music doesn't only exist in punk rock land.

Amando: My thought? Of course there's some non-hardcore touches here and there. Who wants to sound just like another band? (apparently a lot of bands, judging from what I've heard in recent years).

Q 5. What are your 3 favourite 80s Midwest hardcore bands, and why? I hear a bit of Die Kreuzen to Bill Bondsmen's sound...

T : Ahh the music nerd question. Tough one... Hmmm... Die Kreuzen, NA, S.B.L.C. DK for just being weird. That lp is just all over the place. Like Void after a steady diet of dark wave and 70's arena rock. Very cool. NA because their "Fucking NA maaaaaaan!" and SBLC because I grew up being deafened by them, Feisty Cadavers, etc. Good memories.

Mark: Tough question. Today i'll go with N.A., Zero Boys, and Crucifucks because they're from my hometown and I saw them play a basement show back in the day.

Amando: My 3 favorites off the top of my head....of course NA, lets just get that one out of the way. Effigies were good especially some of their more Gang of Four sounding jams (Security). Zero Boys are in there too, cause they had hooks and I like hooks.

Q 6. When did you first get in to hardcore? Can you remember the first record you heard, and band you saw live? What was the scene like in Destroit in the 90s?

T : Ummm... I was really lucky and had a way cool mom so I actually had the Suicidal Tendencies LP when I was about 9. I was all into metal like Venom, Celtic Frost, etc and read about Suicidal and was lucky enough to have a high school radio station that played all that stuff and then played punk rock on the program afterwards. I think the first punk related stuff I heard was Devo as a little kid. Hardcore would probably be Dead Kennedys on the radio station I mentioned. First band I saw was 7 Seconds with Token Entry on the Soulforce Revolution tour. Sucked balls. But I got an invite to a better show later and it snowballed. Ummm.... A lot more fighting back then, nazis, weirdos etc. It was a lot scarier to go to gigs for sure. Lots of great bands though.

Mark: I first got into hardcore because SST used to have ads in a heavy metal magazine and they offered a free sampler tape. I was drawn to the artwork of the Black Flag covers and then once I got the tape in the mail, the sound of it was 180 degrees different than what I was listening to. Even though I already had my punk band and wrote the songs, the stuff on that tape sounded so raw and intense. I didn't know anyone who was into punk or hardcore, but I knew other people did somewhere. The first show or "concert" I went to was Billy Idol on the Rebel Yell tour. 3000 people there so it wasn't really a "show."

Amando: Detroit in the 90's: Early 90's: Lots of beards, oversized t shirts, patches, corny breakdowns, t-shirt sleeves as headbands etc.

Q 7. What is one of your favourite underrated bands (from the past) you want to spread the love for?

T : SBLC and Feisty Cadavers. Look em up. I would say Swell Maps but that's probably a bit out of place. So yeah.... Original answer.

Amando: I'm gonna give love to some of the unsung Detroit bands. Cinecyde (quite possibly the first Detroit punk band) S.B.L.C. (rough hardcore punk from the roughest part of town. Flesh & Blood still blows away half of the stuff that's considered hardcore today). Feisty Cadavers (my all time favorite Detroit band! Dying Art gets played all the time!!).

Q 8. The recent LP is great and a real achievement considering it can often be hard for hardcore bands to translate from 7" on to full length format...Do you think punk often works better on a short urgent format (i.e. a 7")?

T : Probably the shorter format. But, if you put the effort in it can translate. I think it depends on the song writing more than anything. Anyone can hash out 10 songs that all sound the same. Taking the time to write a bunch that are similar but different enough is another story...

Q 9. On a related note, what are your 5 favourite hardcore LPs EVER and why? Tough question I'm sure...

T : Germs (GI) because side one is flawless. Poison Idea "Kings Of Punk" because they were. GISM "Detestation" because it's so weird. Black Flag "Damaged" because i wore it out more than once. Batallion Of Saints "Second Coming" because it rules. This is all I can think of right now.

Mark: My favorites are ones that I heard early on; Bad Brains s/t tape,Descendents - Milo Goes To College, All - Trailblazer live,Gorilla Biscuits - Start Today, Circle Jerks - Group Sex, and all of Minor Threat's records. That's more than 5 but so what.

Amando: Poison Idea - Feel the Darkness. To me (and alot others) that is the definitve PI album. So burly and fierce sounding!!! Dwarves - Blood, Guts & Pussy. The sound they got off a 4 track is amazing. Nihilistic, trashy and over in 14 minutes!! Fear - the Album. When I was a teenager. I got into Fear and made a homemade stencil. I wanted to put it all over my skateboard (which had bright green grip tape). There was no black spray paint in the house, and you couldn't buy it if you were under 18. So rather than ask my friends if they had black spray paint, I proceeded to use what I found in the house (shit brown spray paint) and paint the stencil all over my bright green grip tape. Every time I hear any song from that album, I think of that skateboard. Negative Approach - Tied Down. Not as good as their 7" but I gotta put it in there. It's a Detroit thing. N.W.A. - Straight Outta Compton. To me this was as hardcore as any Flag, Bad Brains or Minor Threat record. This record scared the shit out of many parents and even the FBI!

Q 10. What's the worst show you've ever played, and why? What's been the best?

T : Second show maybe? I dunno. Bunny (second drummer) had just joined that day. We practiced for hours. I drank way too much. etc. Probably the best was Limoges, France. We played my friend's birthday party and people went apeshit.

Mark: The worst show for me was some fest in Europe where it was all crust bands except for Idiot's Rule. 99% of the crowd walked out half way through our first song. We don't sound like watered down metal so they didn't want to hear us. People are so locked into whatever style, they can't appreciate anything else. Very lame. The best show for me was maybe at Kopi in Berlin last year.

Amando: I don't really know what would constitute being the worst show, at least in recent memory. I would probably have to say last March @ the 2500 club. It wasn't the worst, lets just say it was the least best. There was a pretty heavy snowstorm (which kept the out of town band from showing up) and we basically played to the bar. The best one to me is probably when we played at the same club in December 06 to a crowd of drunken Santas (there's an annual pub crawl in Detroit called Santarchy where the crawlers dress as Santa Claus and who happened to show up just as we were starting our set). It was just such an ridiculous sight and Tony was antagonizing the whole lot as well. Good Times. Sharing the stage for a week last year with the Cola Freaks was a close second.

Q 11. Dream 5 band line up for a show, any bands past and present, go for it. Also, what venue...

T : Nolan Strong, Feisty Cadavers, Germs, Swell Maps, "Space Ritual" era Hawkwind. In a basement.

Mark: Stooges,New York Dolls,Descendents,Slayer,and the Plasmatics in my basement.

Amando: Ramones/Black Flag (chavo era)/ Prince and the Revolution/SBLC/Doggy Style @ The Falcon Club in Hamtramck.

Q 12. Have Bill Bondsmen ever played any cover songs and if so, what songs?

T : Alan Milman Sect, Big Boys, Zero Boys, Descendents, Naked Raygun, NA, Feisty Cadavers. Some of this is recorded. Most is not.

Amando: In the past we did Fun Fun Fun by the Big Boys, Amphetamine Addiction by Zero Boys, Stitches/I Wanna Kill Somebody by Allan Milman Sect and most recently Live Like Vampires by Feisty Cadavers. On the Euro tour we did Can't Tell No One by NA (I know...we're reaching pretty deep, huh) and Kabuki Girl by the Descendents.

Q 13. What's your favourite Japanese hardcore band of all time, and why?

T : GISM because SKV is friggin awesome.

Mark: Teengenerate! oh wait they're not hardcore...Vivisick because we played with them.

Q 14. Tell us about how the song 'Comfortably Dumb' came about, and what it was about?

T : A stupid nazi that came to a show who had something like white pride or white power or whatever tattooed on his head and had all these other dodgy tats. My friend and I were debating asking him how the job hunt's been since getting out of jail. The thing about Pink Floyd is about the crossed hammers from "The Wall" and the fact that the hammerskins wear them and probably don't realize it makes as much sense as them wearing a tie dyed shirt.

Mark: That was one of the first songs we wrote together after I joined the band and kind of showed the direction we were going in, not lyrically but musically.

Q 15. How important are lyrics to Bill Bondsmen, and to hardcore in general in your opinion? What one hardcore vocalist from the past impresses you the most lyrically? (Jerry A is a personal favourite).

T : Depends on my mood I guess. I try to write something more than just "_________ SUCKS!" stuff because it's too easy. Jerry is a great writer but for my money gimme Darby Crash as far as punk rock goes.

Mark: I think the lyrics are important and I think it's one of our strengths.

Q 16. How important do you see political or social issues to hardcore? Do you think bands need to have some sort of 'message' or not? How have you seen politics within hardcore change over the years...

T : That's a loaded question. I'm not really into being preached to. But, I don't want a buncha gooney GG wannabes around either. I'll take six of one, half dozen of the other for 100 Alex. The evolution as I recall it : Nazis, Care Bears, fighters, Care Bears, drunks/druggies, Care Bears, ad nausem.

Mark: There's room for every style of lyrics and messages. People should be pissed off about what's going on today, so there's plenty to scream about.

Amando: It seems the scene in general is a little less uptight, a little less PC than it was when I was younger. Of course, the uptightness/pc vibe was a reaction to the super macho/violent vibe that preceded it. I think now it's at a happy medium.

Q 17. You are all older than the average hardcore kid, am I correct? Do you think it's reconsilable to be in o hardcore punk but also have a so called "real life" (career, perhaps a family, home etc)? Isn't it the kind of music that's just "for the kids"?

T : Ehh... Yeah. I think i'm a hair younger than Amado and we're both 32 right now. I dunno. It's just always been there. Like eating and breathing or something... I don't really think about it until we play a gig on a weeknight.

Mark: For a lot of people it is "just for the kids," a phase they go through. Obviously for us it's not a passing fad. It's a good thing there's lifers out there. My record collection would suck if there weren't.

Amando: I'm in my early 30's. I don't give a fuck. I do what I want. And if doing what I want includes having a family (which I do) as well as playing the kind of music I love with my best friends, then I'm for it. As far as this music being strictly "For the Kids?"... fuck it, I'm an old kid!

Q 18. Last words?

T : Thanks.

Mark: Bush is a war criminal.

Amando: Thanks for the questions! Live every week like its Shark Week!

All photos from the band's myspace.

Finally, an update. New SONS OF ISHMAEL interview...

2008-10-31T00:21:00.015Z

Updates won't be quite so regular I'm afraid, but to kick things off again here's a detailed interview with some members of SONS OF ISHMAEL I did recently, and it is infact one of my favourite interviews I've done.

If you're not familiar, SONS OF ISHMAEL were a great hardcore band from around Ontario, Canada, that existed from 1985 to 1991. They played a fast thrashy style akin to classic DRI, early JERRYS KIDS or VERBAL ABUSE, high energy and manic hardcore that was best captured on their debut 7" from 1985, 'Hayseed Hardcore'. Listen to some tracks on their myspace here ('Break Free' is a classic!). GREAT STUFF.

Participants:
Myke Canzi – guitar
Paul Morris – guitar
Daragh Hayes – bass
Chris Black - drums

Q 1. How did you first get into hardcore? Did you get into the old Canadian bands (DOA, Neos etc) first? Can you remember the first band you heard described as 'hardcore' punk rather than just punk?

Myke: I heard the DOA song "Fuck You" on the local college radio station and was hooked. The shock value of the cussing had a lot to do with it. DOA in turn was the gateway band to louderharderfaster stuff like MDC.

Chris: I’d sort of heard punk and HC in the background at house parties, but then a friend gave me a cassette tape with Black Flag’s My War on one side, and Dead Kennedy’s “A Skateboard Party” on the other. I listened to that tape every fucking night while I delivered ribs in my Datsun 510. I then found “Brave New Waves” on CBC Radio.

Paul: My introduction was in December 1982 when we saw a Dead Kennedys album at the Sam The Record Man store and bought it. I was introduced to more of it by listening to fuzzy broadcasts from Carleton University radio in Ottawa when it was audible over the static. As I heard more of it I was introduced to NEOS, PORCELAIN FOREHEAD, STRETCH MARKS etc. but no more or less than the English or American stuff of the time. DOA were already more well known than the rest at the time as even they got records into Sam The Record Man too. At the time hardcore in rural areas was pretty much a well kept secret and few knew of it. Apart from DOA or DK's, you couldn't buy the records any place but the big cities.

Daragh: I also grew up in a fairly small town and information about punk and hardcore wasn't so easy to come by at the time. My parents are from Ireland and Germany and I have very distinct memories of visiting family and having the BOOMTOWN RATS make a big impression on me when I saw them on Irish TV, which led to me getting my first LP. Later I was interested in finding something more aggressive than the "new wave" I was listening to at the time but what I considered to be "old" British punk like the Sex Pistols wasn't all that appealing to me. From time to time I would find the odd used LP in my small hometown and buy it based on the cover and as Chris mentioned, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation radio program Brave New Waves helped introduce those of us living away from the big city centers to music we wouldn't have heard otherwise. Two bands that finally provided the "A-ha!!!!" moment I was waiting for were the DEAD KENNEDYS and BLACK FLAG and fairly soon tape trading and fanzines helped fill in more of the gaps.

Q 2. What was the first hardcore band you saw live, if you remember? What attracted you to the music in the first place (the energy, the anger, the haircuts?...)...

Myke: My first hardcore show was DOA at Assumption Hall on the University of Windsor campus in February 1984. I was really worried for my safety before I went. I didn't know what to expect from "punk rockers." In the end, they were very forgiving of my mullet.

Chris: I went to see Youth Brigade at the Latvian House in Toronto in ’84 or ‘85, but they didn’t show up so I saw the Bunchofuckingoofs. I thought they played soooo fast! What attracted me was the swearing and anger. That and it was so different from everything else you could hear on the radio at that time. It sounded dangerous.

Myke: That's it exactly. It sounded dangerous.

Paul: I remember it very well. In fact it was July 1983 and the band was MDC at the Ottawa Boys and Girls Club. There were 4 bands, it was hotter than Hades and I was hooked. First and foremost I was attracted by the music and it's frenetic pace but I cannot really pinpoint what else made it so great.

Daragh: Well, technically the first real band I ever saw was JOHNNY CASH. However, since I was in Grade 3 at the time it wasn't all that interesting and running outside to play "cops and robbers" with my brother took precedence. Later I saw some "new wave" stuff like CABARET VOLTAIRE and some reggae like Toronto's 20th CENTURY REBELS but as I lived about two hours from Toronto it seemed like it took forever before I was finally able to catch a HC band live. I couldn't drive and only one or two of my friends in my hometown were really into the same music at the time. Also, I didn't know anyone in Toronto so the extent of my exposure to things happening there was taking a bus ride to the city to buy records, zines and to collect flyers. On a few occasions I bought tickets for shows and would get turned away from the club for being too young and just take the bus back home. In the summer of 86 I finally saw a flyer for an all ages show with some local bands and a band called NO SYSTEM from Boston. I took the bus up to Toronto knowing that I was finally going to get in! Circle pits, fast music, buying fanzines, it all seemed pretty fantastic.

Q 3. What was the scene like around Meaford, Ontario like before SONS OF ISHMAEL started? Was it an active scene, or did you travel to other cities (ie Toronto) in order to play shows?

Paul: I joined the band after they left Meaford and went to Toronto, so I cannot comment much. However, being from a tiny town of 1000 in eastern Ontario I had a parallel existence to the guys from Meaford so I will fill you in on hardcore in rural Ontario. There was NO "scene" outside of large cities in the early 80's. The entire Leeds County probably had less than 10 people actively listening to the music. It is nothing like it was 15 or so years after that. If you wanted records or wanted to see shows you had to go to Ottawa, Montreal or Toronto. Having said that I managed to find two others in my town who liked the music and played the right instruments to form a band. See next question.

Daragh: I joined the band much later (in 1990) but growing up and trying to be into punk in a small town in the 80s was not a great deal of fun. I remember a school friend getting beat up by other students in 1983 and having his mohawk cut off while our school principle laughed. Events like that helped solidify my determination to not "give in" and be like "them". As strange as it sounds in retrospect, it really felt like something as superficial as a haircut or a t-shirt was making a strong statement and was enough to invite harassment at the time.

Q 4. What other bands had you guys been in before (tell us about ANGRY THALIDOMIDE BABIES, what a name)...

Myke: My first band was Sanitary Napkins, which was a band on paper mostly. My second band was a duo called Butt Plugz. We did covers of Ramones and Killing Joke songs, as I recall. I played my guitar directly into one channel of my cassette deck. Matt played his bass directly into the other channel. Eventually we joined up with Paul A (later of One Blood, now of Legion) and starting writing our own songs. That band was called Burning Rectal Itch... See any patterns?

Chris: My first band was Charlie Brown’s Wang. We practised a lot, but I never played a show with them. After I got kicked out, I joined up with the Sons at a D.O.A. show sometime in ’86. (Paul remembers the exact date, I’m sure… Paul?)

Paul: I appreciate your confidence in my memory, Chris, but I have no idea! I was a in a band in Athens, Ontario from 1984-85 before moving to Toronto. We were called DISORDERLY FASHION but never really got out of our town.

Daragh: Nothing notable or interesting before or since! Still, I reckon the temptation to "make some noise" never fully goes away. On that note, while punk bands reforming can be a contentious issue in some parts, I have to say that I have a great deal of respect for bands like GAUZE from Japan or SEEIN RED from Holland who keep going year after year and still sound as vital as ever.

Q 5. What one band had the biggest impact on SONS OF ISHMAEL? In sound, and in attitude (who made you think "YES, I want to do a band too")? What bands influenced the manic thrash sound? Also, were you influenced by bands from overseas (Europe, Japan etc)?

Myke: To me, the early Sons of Ishmael stuff sounds like it was inspired by Jerry's Kids, which was a good band to be inspired by. If we'd been able to snare Brian Betzger as our drummer ... we'd have been deprived of Chris's friendship. The Crucifucks would have been one influence that led the band away from its manic thrash sound.

Chris: I think going to shows and seeing people that looked like me getting up on stage and playing was the biggest “I can do that!” moment for me. They weren’t “rock star” looking – just regular guys in jeans and t-shirts. Probably seeing S.O.I. before I joined them was inspiring. I remember thinking I’d like to be in that band.

Paul: MDC

Daragh: Again, I was the "late comer" to the band but I have very fond memories of getting the Hayseed Hardcore 7" in the mail and catching SOI live in Toronto. At the time I never would have guessed that I would end up playing in the band one day.

Q 6. How did you see the hardcore scene change from 1985 onwards? How do you respond to the argument that hardcore punk "died" in 1986? How was it different than before?

Myke: Hardcore is young people's music. It appeals particularly to young musicians that are just learning how to play their instrument(s) because it's a style that's fairly easy to play. As they improve, these budding, young prodigies continue to play with and for the same people they always have... Then at some point some authority decides it's not hardcore anymore and the world ends.

Chris: It got more serious and less humorous (with exceptions). Metal started to permeate in a big way (Crossover). Songs got longer, and equipment got better. By the early 90s the musicianship started to really improve (although, not necessarily the music). Today, it’s rare to hear a HC band that sounds like 80s HC. Hatebreed, Terror (which I listen to and like a lot) etc. are called hardcore today, but in the 80’s they would have been been called metal.

Paul: I think in the summer of '86 in Toronto things were more alive than ever. With a reliable venue and reliable promoters it seemed there were tons of bands coming through town that summer and it was a blast. By summer of 1987 things seemed dead despite a few large shows. I think by this time things were starting to sound the same and it was not fresh anymore and that's why you get the "death notices" from various punks. It seemed that there was a complete turnover of participants every few years.

Daragh: As I said, I spent a couple years visiting Toronto to buy records but age and a lack of contacts in the city meant that while I was collecting flyers for what looked like incredible shows (Articles of Faith, Battalion of Saints, even Einsturzende Neubaten around '85) I was missing a lot of it. A little while later I was fortunate to have lived in Germany in '87 and I was able to see and take inspiration from a lot of what was happening there at the time. Catching touring bands like Concrete Sox, Chaos UK, Heresy, Larm, Negazione or even Chumbawamba ensured that punk felt very much "alive" to me at the time. I had a similar experience while living in Japan between 1998 and 2007. Seeing bands like Gauze, Bastard, Gism, Corrupted, Forward and countless others was further proof that there are still a great deal of incredibly vital and powerful bands out there.

Q 7. Do you think the fact that your debut, 'Hayseed Hardcore', came out in 1985 as opposed to say 1983 impeded the band's popularity? (since by 1985 so many bands were playing metal/crossover, or had "progressed", while SONS OF ISHMAEL were still playing straight forward hardcore not unlike early DRI/VERBAL ABUSE)

Myke: The band broke up repeatedly so that its various members could pursue other opportunities. As a result, it was never able to build much of what you'd call momentum.

Chris: I don’t think so. There was still a sizeable audience for what we were doing in ’86 to ‘91 – they just didn’t come to our shows. Also, you have to compare North America to Europe. We had much bigger crowds and enthusiasm in Europe than in North America, for sure. Lots of girls too! But, we never had sex with them.

Q 8. Also, do you think being from Canada, rather than the US, meant you perhaps went more un-noticed than some of your peers from larger US cities?

Myke: A little bit maybe.

Chris: I’m sure things would have been very different had we lived in S.F.

Paul: No, it seemed of no concern of whether you were from USA or Canada but if you were from Washington, DC you could walk on water. Back then word spreads by way of trading of mix tapes and word of mouth.

Daragh: Agreed. Despite the lack of the internet at the time, tape trading and fanzines like MRR helped negate the distance and borders that separated people from bands from different parts of the world.

Q 9. What are your three favourite Canadian hardcore bands of all time, and why? Who was always really good live?

Myke: The Andy Kerr-era version of Nomeansno was magic, both live and on record. There were always good local bands, too: No Mind and Guilt Parade, for example. As far as live shows go, SNFU was always fun.

Chris: I’d have to say Nomeansno, along with SCUM and Fair Warning, both from Montreal. Montreal bands were always really good. Countdown Zero, Genetic Control, Asexuals among many. I loved early Sudden Impact as well.

Paul: It is hard to identify the "best bands" because most of them did not last that long or have a prolific output. If they did, they likely changed for the worse or put out bad records. SNFU was one of the best live bands. I'd say my 3 favourites are The Spores, Asexuals and Subhumans. I can't remember who really stood out as there were many.

Daragh: I never saw them live but I think the YOUTH YOUTH YOUTH record from Toronto still sounds great. They had a pretty unique sound and I would say that they were a band that perhaps went underappreciated internationally at the time. As far as a "top three" list of Canadian bands of all time goes, it's too difficult! It's pretty subjective depending on what someone has been exposed to and when. I'd agree with Myke and Chris that NOMEANSNO and SNFU both seemed pretty impeccable at a certain point in time but to someone catching those bands in their present form and comparing them with more recent Canadian bands (Career Suicide, Endless Blockade, Inepsy or Cursed, for example) that statement might make very little sense. Seriously, I have a hard time answering this one and in the end what I have to say about it just isn't all that important.

Myke: I agree with Daragh on the Youth Youth Youth record. A big influence on me at the time.

Q 10. When did you first tour Europe? I heard something about you getting stranded in a European squat? How did you find Europe different to Canada/US, in terms of the hardcore scene and how things were done?

Myke: Our first tour of Europe was during the summer of 1990. And yes, we were stranded behind the barbed-wire walls of a squat for about nine weeks. It was a pretty big squat that spanned several countries. But seriously, folks, Europe was very, very kind to Sons of Ishmael.

Chris: I arranged both tours with a phone and a fax machine. It must be soooo much easier now with email and Skype, but we didn’t have that back in the olden days.

I loved Europe. It looked different, and felt different. There was art, architecture, and urban landscapes that are so different from over here. The people may be been dirtier and smellier, but they more than made up for it in organization, competence, and enthusiasm for what we were doing. But, we never had sex with them.

Daragh: Yep, Europe was fantastic! Um, I don't remember being stranded but I remember spending the first part of a tour at a squat in London with no running water. After about a week I felt compelled to strip down to my underwear and jump in a water fountain outside of a posh hotel in the city in a feeble attempt to bathe. Or if by stranded you mean almost having to sit through hours of Poll Tax Riot videos while in London, well, you'll have to get someone else to comment on that one.

Q 11. I've heard various funny stories about SONS OF ISHMAEL shows; can you tell 3 stories of some of the funniest things that ever happened?

Myke: Wow, so many funny stories, so many of which involved ruining someone else's day... I laughed really hard the night we spent trying to encourage a large dog to hump a pal sleeping on the floor. I also laughed really hard the day our van got towed in Barcelona and was driven into a wall on the way back from the pound. Some cretin stealing my chorus from the stage in Derry while I was out in the van fetching merchandise ... that was a highlight, too.

Chris: I don’t think I ever laughed so much than the time Tim got on his hands and knees and serenaded us for an hour so with his farts.

Myke: That was funny.

Paul: We had to pay to play our own show in San Angelo, Texas.

Daragh: Being in a band with Tim as a vocalist pretty much ensured that every gig was entertaining in one way or another. He was a pretty incredible front man to say the least.

Q 12. SONS OF ISHMAEL displayed a strong element of cynicism and sarcasm, especially towards the hardcore scene in general. What was it about hardcore that, in the mid-80s, left a bad taste in your mouth (so to speak)?

Myke: The inability of some people in the HC scene to think for themselves and make their own decisions made their company very oppressive after a while. I had no respect for authority at the time, regardless of what kind of haircut it had. I still don't.

Of course, "group think" is not unique to the hardcore scene. It happens any time individuals try to work together. To be accepted as part of the team, you have to turn a blind eye to dishonesty, inconsistency and all that other shit.

Daragh: I think part of the band dynamic involved confounding people's expectations, something that became increasingly apparent as time went on and the band attempted to sing less "generic crap". I'm not sure how well some of the ideas translated but writing about rock formations (Paul) and incorporating polka elements into the music (Paul) was, if nothing else, doing something different.

Q 13. Tell us about when rednecks chased you out of Sault St. Marie...

Myke: It was about midnight when we decided to stop for breakfast at a roadside diner in the Soo. As we walked back to our van, a longhair in the parking lot made a comment about Paul's haircut. Safely inside the van, I rolled down the passenger side window and asked him to elucidate, but before he could, Chris put the pedal to the metal and we were on our way. The longhair tried to catch up to us in his pick-up and enlisted the support of two friends on a motorcycle, but our paths never crossed again, which is my single greatest disappointment. Tim was even brushing his teeth in anticipation of the meating.

Chris: Myke, you forgot to mention my excellent driving as we raced through the streets, running redlights and stops signs. At one point I made a quick left and the pick up truck when straight through. Watching Starsky and Hutch really paid off. Since then, I've heard stories from other bands who had things go down in the Soo. But, we never had sex with them.

Q 14. During your long tour of the US in 1987, how do think the hardcore scene differed from state to state? What bands are you glad to have played with on this tour?

Myke: All of them, really, but particularly Porn Orchard in Myrtle Beach and Penfold's Revenge in Chicago.

Chris: Playing in California was pretty amazing. Our show in San Diego with the Adolescents, and a bunch of other bigger bands really showed how ingrained the scene was down there. It was still underground, but really big. San Fran was great too. Gilman Street and MRR house: Wow. So much media – radio, zines, photography, and scenesters everywhere. I’m proud to say we played with Nomeansno, Government Issue, C.O.C., and Youth of Today on that tour. I like to speculate that little kids like Billie Joe Armstrong and Kurt Cobain might have seen us play in SF and Tacoma!

Myke: I've always wondered if Kurt Cobain was at our Tacoma show, too. Might explain why Nirvana did so many Sons of Ishmael covers.

Paul: Chris never had sex with him.

Q 15. Regarding the 'Pariah Martyr Demands a Sacrifice' LP, why is the production so bad? I have heard before that it is because the band couldn't be bothered to hire decent equipment?

Myke: By mistake, we booked time in a studio that didn't usually record guitar music. Its name was similar to the name of the studio we really wanted, but it wasn't the one we had in mind. We fucked up. That was mistake number one. Mistake number two was that our equipment was utter shiite: Paul was playing a $100 guitar through a keyboard amplifier, for example. Mistake number three was when the rest of the band ignored my pleas for more bass in the mix. Actually, now that I think about it, mistake number one was accepting money from a record label to record a bunch of songs that weren't very good to start with. This should serve as a lesson to all young people: money has a way of influencing decisions for the worse, in music and elsewhere.

Chris: That was my first recording studio experience and I have to admit I was completely unprepared. We agonized over the release of that record for months. Remixing it at huge expense ($200??) before finally sending it off to Over the Top. Seeing it in vinyl for the first time was a thrill, but that was soon replaced with mortification at the quality of the thing. I like the cover...?

Q 16. Why did you end up splitting up in 1991? How had you seen things change over the 6 years of your existence? Did the advent of grunge move things along? Is it true your last show was opening for Hole as you stated on the band's bio?

Myke: Paul and Daragh had girlfriends and didn't want to go on tour again. Tim chose not to continue playing with Chris and I and whomever we might find to "replace" Paul and Daragh. It was very disappointing, as I thought our newest songs, and we had a lot of them, were among our best.

Chris: Our last show in Toronto was opening for Hole, at the Rivoli, a very small room. But, our last show was actually in Ottawa in early ’92 (Paul, date?). I wore the same DOA shirt I wore at my very first show in Guelph in ’86!

Paul: Chris, I think you wore that stinky yellow Beethoven shirt in Guelph. It is true that our last show was in the Blue Room at U of O in Ottawa but I cannot remember the date. Daragh could not make the gig (hangnail? ) so either I or Myke played bass and I am sure it was an underwhelming way to end. It was not a girlfriend that kept me from touring for that would never happen. It was road burnout mostly.

Myke: I did not know that.

Chris: It was my DOA shirt, and I have the pics to prove it.

Daragh: My recollection was that not everyone was interested in doing more DIY-type touring and that some people were interested in trying something else musically. My "plan" after SOI broke up was to get another band going but the reality was that I spent a few summers as a roadie and driver for friends' bands going across North America, promoting diy shows for a while, and running a telephone "hotline" that listed upcoming punk shows and events in Toronto. Hangnail rumours aside, as for missing the final show in Ottawa, I was informed pretty late that the show was happening and had just started a new job and a weekend shift. I couldn't get anyone to cover for me and as great as it was to work in a photocopy shop for the next five years it was a shame to miss the last show. Regardless, despite the band breaking up everyone stayed active in some capacity; whether playing in other bands (everyone at one point or another), running a label (Chris), putting out the odd 7" record (me), or releasing a pretty awesome cassette of parodies of popular punk songs (Paul); so while the band ended, our interest and involvement in music did not.

Q 17. Was the band never tempted to go down the crossover/thrash route, in an attempt to ride the wave of METALLICA's success in order to become rich?

Myke: Uh, no. Personally, I was tempted to going down the college rock route blazed by Dinosaur Jr and the Jesus Lizard--not for the sake of money, mind you, but just because the music and its fans were more interesting. I got to a point, fairly early on, where I thought that an occasional loudhardfast song would be a great thing to leaven a set, but it wasn't something I wanted to play song after song of.

Q 18. Similarly were you never tempted to start playing in the style of the youth crew bands that was becoming so popular coast to coast? I heard you shared a stage with YOUTH OF TODAY once, how was that?

Myke: I wasn't interesting in playing by anyone else's rules. As for sharing a stage with Youth of Today, I have no recollection of this. I remember hangin' out with dem shits in SF for a cupola days. They seemed to be very interested in sports and muscles and stuff, which doesn't do it for me, but they were nice.

Chris: Yep, we played with them at Gilman. I broke my snare mid-way through our set and Mike Judge lent me his. I still have their Nerf football. It has “Youth Tour ‘87” written on it. But, we never had sex with them.

Daragh: E-bay.

Paul: They, in fact, opened for us at that show. I believe they had a 20 hour drive to Mormonia and had to play earlier.

Q 19. How important do you think having a message was to playing in a hardcore punk band? Did you often encounter people who just wanted to dance hard but didn't care what anyone had to say? On the other hand, how did SONS OF ISHMAEL feel about very politicised or anarcho hardcore/peace punk bands of the time?

Myke: I think the most important things are passion and creativity. Whether your lyrics are about man's inhumanity to man or a parakeet drowning in a toilet, if the song ain't got that swing, it don't mean a thing, yo.

Chris: We had those people (Harry Hardcore types) at pretty much every show and they’d be the first people to the bar or out the door after we finished. It was the folks who came up to us after or to our merch table who seemed the most enlightened to what we were saying. We met lots of really great people and had some real quality discussions. But, we never had sex with them.

I remember my moment of disconnect with anarcho/political types. It was in London UK and we were visiting some lefty collective. They were situated in a 15 storey apartment block that had one elevator (no light). As we sat around watching video from the Trafalgar Square poll tax riots, they took great pleasure in repeatedly watching a policeman get a metal sign planted into the side of his head as he was driving by. I remember thinking, wow, I’ve got nothing in common with these dolts.

Daragh: If anything, one thing I took away from my involvement in the scene is how easy it is for someone to write progressive and politically aware lyrics and still be a wretch of a human being. As for how this relates to SOI, I believe it's far better to be in a band with sometimes fairly opaque or cynical lyrics performed by fundamentally decent people than to simply wave the nearest banner while treating the people you deal with on a day-to-day basis poorly.

Q 20. Anything else to add? Say whatever you feel.

Myke: Thanks for showing an interest. I haven't had to answer questions like these in about fifteen years and I really enjoyed doing it. One other thing... There's a lot of good music being made today, too. Give Pissed Jeans a try, or Black Lips. If you're a little more adventurous, a listen to Califone, Deerhoof or Old Time Relijin might be worth your while.

Daragh: Agreed, I cringe at any suggestion that punk or hardcore died in '85 or '86 and really feel that the people who make those claims are being somewhat presumptuous if not downright disingenuous (not to mention the fact that some of these people attempt to draw a pay cheque from something they now claim to be "dead"). There's still a great deal of fun and fantastic music to be had by anyone willing to look for it.

More importantly perhaps, I'd like to commend the other SOI guys on remaining true to themselves and staying creative. Paul turned his hobby and interest in hockey into a successful business, Myke has been working for environmental organizations for many years, Chris has kept progressing in computer work, Tim is a University Professor, I teach at a college, etc. As with punk, life is what you make it and it's never time time to think you've seen or done it all.

Paul: I suggest you try Irish Rovers or Grandpa Jones.

Chris: There's talk of a Hayseed Hardcore re-release on 12" vinyl, that will include additional tracks that were used on comps. We'll post any info on the website (which is, for now, our MySpace page) at http://www.sonsofishmael.com/.

Also, if anybody has video, pics, or recordings of us, we'd love to see them! We're putting together a website and it'd be cool to include whatever we can get (that's good). You can contact us at thesons@sonsofishmael.com.

New posts soon...

2008-09-23T16:39:00.004+01:00

Just a short update. I'll soon have regular internet access again and I've got some good stuff to post up, so keep checking back! In the meantime, listen to Danzig II and the Inmates.

New interview with EXTORTION...

2008-08-04T19:26:00.004+01:00

Just a note that there won't be too many posts for a little while after this one as I'm moving house very soon... I'll try and do some posts here and there if I have the time.

Here is a recent interview I did with Rohan, EXTORTION vocalist. If you haven't heard them before, EXTORTION play straight forward hardcore thrash, not unlike a modern version of early DRI with strong hints of NO COMMENT. Solid, powerful stuff. They've been going for quite a few years now and I strongly urge you to pick up their records on Deep Six Records.

Q. 1. What was the hardcore scene like in your area before the band started, and were you all from the same place? What about the Australian scene on a national level at the time?

R: We live in Perth which is pretty isolated from the rest of the country (which is a country that is isolated from the rest of the world (that makes isolated squared)), the scene here had/has a lot of bands, probably because until recently very few bands would tour here, so we’d have to make our own music. That said most of the bands suck, shitty metalcore and melodic hardcore bands, none of the bands we started really fit in and I’m surprised this band has gotten the response it did. We just make music we like. Some bands rule, most bands suck shit in any genre really. I guess such is the case here also. We do our best not to suck.

Can’t really say what the hardcore scene was like on a national level, due to being so far away from it hah. I guess a little better than over here?

Q. 2. How did the band form, and what was the basic blueprint for your early sound? What covers did you do when first started playing together?

R: When we started it was like putting some early Boston hardcore bands with Negative Approach and a little Infest and No Comment in a blender and drinking it down like some sort of meaty offal milkshake. I think that’s audible on the first demo (the musical influence, not the offal quaffing), but we definitely veered off into more power-violence influenced territory pretty soon after that.

We covered DYS - Insurance Risk, Black Flag -Fix Me, Impact Unit -Nightstalker and Dwarves - Detention Girl (though we fucked this one up live on every attempt). We practiced No God by Germs, but its got too many lyrics and I was almost passing out due to lack of oxygen by the end of the song, so we ditched it.

Q. 3. What 3 bands do you think collectively influence Extortion the most, and why?

R: Collectively? Hahah I’m pretty much the evil totalitarian of the band, our new guitarist is more into technical death metal, the bassist first love is doom and sludge and the drummer loves stock standard rock, but they play what I tell them to so it works out fine.

No Comment, Infest and Negative approach are probably the main three but we try to pull influence from many places so we don’t sound like a clone of just one band (but we sound derivative of many hah).

Q. 4. What do you think of the term power violence, and do you get annoyed if people label Extortion as a PV band?

R: I don’t get annoyed because we definitely take influence from power-violence bands, but yeah, I’d say we’re a hardcore band with a heavy power-violence influence. Like Mind Eraser, heaps of their riffage is obviously lifted out of Crossed Out/Infest/Neanderthal etc, but the song structures and speeds are definitely not “pure” power-violence. But we’re really nit-picking here and there is no definition of power-violence written in any brutal dictionary or raging encyclopaedia anywhere, so it can mean whatever you want.

Q. 5. How did you first get into hardcore: can you remember the first record you heard and the first show you attended?

R. The first albums were probably the usual shit like Minor Threat and Discharge. I liked (and still do) whatever was punk but faster and angrier. I was a big FYP fan. A friend made me a mix tape with lots of early Boston bands and that’s when I probably got focused more on hardcore in general.

There wasn’t much in the way of local hardcore bands back then and no one bothered to tour here from elsewhere due to Perth being in the middle of nowhere. The first hardcore band I ever saw was probably a local band called Negative Reply.

Q. 6. List the total Extortion discography so far...

R: Demo tape
S/T EP
Degenerate LP
Control ep
Sick LP

We’ve also finshed material for splits with Completed Exposition, Rupture, Jed Whitey and Agents Of Abhorrence on various labels, we’re just waiting for them to be released.

Q. 7. What other bands had Extortion members been involved in previously?

R: Jaws, The Collapse, Burn For Me, Bete Noire, Sensory Amusia, Heist, Rupture, Nailed Down, Excretion, PC Thug, Dead Hand, Squandered, Los Goblanos, Cobra Clutch, All In Deep Shit, Hailstones Kill 200, Halo of Knives, Australia, The Bankrupt, The Jury, Hospital beds, Defeat, Drowning Horse, Frightener, Eagle Boys, Penetrating Stairs, Chris Mainwaring Is Dead, Meatlocker, XmerchX, Clever Species.

Q. 8. Incidently, how good is the HEIST 7"?

Pretty fucking good. So good we pilfered the drummer. Well, the drummer from the first two 7”s at least. They also released a 22 song cd later on that (bar about 4 songs) sucked sloppy shit. A bunch of shitty joke stoner rock songs. It was reportedly recorded by Stumblefuck from Rupture on his 4track, which he has done brilliant recordings on in the past (check out the Rupture -Righteous Fuck 7”) but it seems he downed a little too much bourbon the day this one was recorded.

Q. 9. What's been your favourite show so far (and why), and what's been the worst? Any funny stories?

R: When we last played in Sydney some cunt in a wheelchair was lifted onto the stage. now the stage wasn’t terribly large so I think I had to kick him out of the way and he ended up waiting for about the length of a song before “stagediving” off the front, a good 4 foot drop face first into the floor. Entertaining to say the least. The guy said he loved the set but thought the crowd were arseholes for not catching him hahah.

Q. 10. Explain what you love about the NO COMMENT: Downsided 7"...

R: It sounds like what you’d get if asked a man you locked in a 1m x 1m cage, which itself is in a dimly lit concrete cell, for five years and then fed them nothing but porridge and plain bread for the duration to write a record upon release. Pure desperation, you can see it in the points where the english language, as it is, isn’t enough and words are put together in an attempt to describe something that has no name. Downsided, mind-tied. Etc.

A dance on pins and needles. You may know the theory, the rules of how to dance, but without the feeling in your feet how can you be expected to do so in any sort of natural way? I suppose the same can be said for social interaction.

Q. 11. Since you've released 2 LPs so far, what are your 5 favourite hardcore LPS EVER and why? Do you think it's hard to translate the hardcore formula to a full length?

R: I think writing a full length album for a hardcore band (and ESPECIALLY a fast hardcore band) is difficult to do. Too many bands just end up writing the same song a whole bunch of times, which make for a boring record. Adhering too much to formula I guess. And here’s a piece of advice for the world- DON’T PUT BREAKDOWNS IN EVERY SONG.

The other problem is that fast bands always put too many songs on a record. When the track list gets to 20 songs or over, its pretty hard to keep interested. Here’s a ridiculous analogy- say you’ve got a photo with 5 babes in it. You can look at and appreciated each one (as nothing more than a sex object) separately and take in what each one different and/or awesome. Then look at a photo with 30 babes in it, you’ll find you end up appreciating a few, but ignoring a lot of em, for no other reason than its too much to take in.

Q. 12. In what other countries have Extortion played? How do you think the scene differs from region to region or country to country, from what you've seen?

R: Apart from a few short trips to Sydney and Melbourne, we’ve not played out of Perth due to our drummer having a job that doesn’t really allowing him to take much time off.

Q. 13. Tell us a bit about who does your artwork. There's a noticable Pettibon influence. Who's idea was the t-shirt design of the coathanger abortion!

R: That’d be me. And the idea was mine. ME ME ME. Yeah I like Pettibon and the way he deals with his subjects. Its very aggressive but without being too blatant. I gotta say though he does a better job of it than I do, I end up getting carried away and drawing chainsaws and axes into everything.

I must be screwed in the head because I still don’t get what the big deal is with the coathanger shirt. I mean yeah its offensive, but so is a lot of other shit I’ve drawn and its not as if there is actually any explicit imagery in it, its all implied. Its just some legs a stomach and a dude with a coathanger. Some girl in Sydney returned it because she said it re-enforced notions of male violence against women. If she thinks that I endorse coathanger abortions in real waking life (and how the fuck does she know the woman in the image is not complicit in the ordeal?) she is lacking in any sort of intelligence. Fucking cretins.

The above-mentioned coathanger abortion t shirt.

Q. 14. Who is your favourite hardcore frontman of all time, and why? Similarly, favourite guitar-player?

R: Sakevi. I don’t think I need to bother explaining why. Riff wise, I guess who-ever wrote the riffage for negative approach? Seriously, how good is nothing. and I was theorising that the stop-start-riff-with-fast—beat-over-it of friend or foe was probably inspired by AC/DC, though obviously AC/DC did it over rock beats, to less aggressive tunes.

Q. 15. What good current Aussie bands would you recommend checking out? How about internationally?

R: Around here I’m liking what I hear from Suffer, Wasted Til Death, Battletruk, White Male Dumbinance, The Kill, A.V.O, Mindsnare, Agents of Abhorrence, Straightjacket Nation, Deathcage, Snake Run, Crux and probably more but my memory sucks.

Realistically though, (and to answer the second part of the question) I’ve pretty much only been listening to Beirut, Grizzly Bear, Midlake and the Radio Dept recently. Not very hard or core.

Q. 16. How did you end up releasing on the classic label DEEP SIX? Do you know why they haven't released the LOW THREAT PROFILE 7" yet?

R: I sent our recording to Bob at Deep Six and he liked it. Pretty simple. I’ve asked about the Low Threat Profile 7” but never got a reply (how bullshit are those comp tracks? Fucking amazing!) but I heard a rumour it had something to do with one of the members taking off with the recording when he left the band? It was just a rumour, so its probably just a load of shit.

Q. 17. Being from Australia, did you only listen to 28 DAYS and MEN AT WORK growing up? How about watching Neighbours? (a show seemingly only known to the unfortunate Australian and the British it seems)

R: I don’t watch television, and didn’t watch much as a kid, but my sister loves all that TV soap bullshit. Neighbours and Home and Away and all that stuff. I don’t have the patience, it never fucking ends!

Also never got into 28 Days, but I was a big Frenzal Rhomb fan as a kid (and was chuffed to find out the drummer is a big Extortion fan). I am familiar with Men At Work’s one hit wonder, whatever it’s called...

Q. 18. How important do you think a DIY attitude is to playing in a hardcore band? Do you think some newer bands start, thinking they can easily 'make it big'?

R: Until recently everything we did was via the DIY scene, the style of music we play is not one that attracts the masses. though it must be said over the last year or so we've been offered some gigs in sydney and brisbane that paid quite well, enough to cover the costs of flights for all five of us, and so we've played them. DIY is great, but we're not about to look a gift horse in the mouth. Playing hardcore and expecting to make money out of it is downright ridiculous. We're doing well, and we just cover our own costs (recording, travelling, etc) The percentage of bands that actually make money and "make it big" out of playing would be tiny.

Q. 19. Speaking of Negative Approach before, did they play Australia on their recent reunion tour? If so did you get to see them? What do you think of reunions in general?

R: No, there was talk of it being organise (a friend of mine was in contact) but it fell through. reunions generally don't go well probably because the bands were never as good as the stupid level of hype and worship given to the band post-humous, coupled with the fact that hardcore is a pretty energetic style of music and you've got to be pretty fit to play it, something that getting old and fat doesn't agree with (Pig Champion is exempt from this statement (or was until he kicked the bucket). That said I hear the Negative Approach reunions were pretty good.

Q. 20. What will Extortion eventually turn into... a hair metal band like late SSD, or a progressive/emotive band like Fugazi?

R: Given my listening taste, probably "progressive" emotive bullshit, though if I want to play a different style I usually just start anoter band. I play in a sludge band and a Wipers-esque band on the side at the moment. so if I ever get the urge to play some wanky bucket of piss, hopefully i'll do it with another band rather than shit all over our good name hahah.

Q. 21. Negative FX or Siege? Perhaps not comparable, but answer anyway...

R: Probably Siege. The good songs by Negative FX are shitloads better than the best stuff Siege did, but there is a lot of filler on that album. A lot of short boring songs with boring riffs. All Siege songs rule, but if you think anything they did is as memorable as something like Protestor then you are insane and I would thank you to stop talking to me.

Q. 22. DYS or SSD...Why?

DYS! SSD had some killer slower anthemic songs, but their faster songs (what should be bread and butter for a hardcore band) were boring as fossilised turds. Too much verse-chorus-verse-choruse-verse-chorus-etc into infinity. Screw and Boiling Point are alright though. DYS slow songs (the hardcore ones, not the rock stuff) AND fast songs were both good.

http://www.myspace.com/extortionextortion

The results of this week's poll (favourite BLACK FLAG vocalist), and BLACK FLAG Last Show live boot upload...

2008-07-31T01:06:00.017+01:00

The results are in for this weeks poll for favourite BLACK FLAG vocalist, although I believe there was some confusion in Florida which might have skewed the results (people were ticking the box for Dez Cadena thinking they were voting for Henry Rollins as his name was below it). That's the only thing that could explain why Rollins received less than 50% of the vote overall. Maybe we should try again? To be honest, the results are to be expected, and it perhaps blasts any conception I had that the world is full of Rollins-era haters. Chavo would have been my 2nd choice, his energy on the live songs from the 'Decline Of Western Civilization' movie is undeniable, as are his versions of 'Revenge' and 'Depression' on Everything Went Black. I also prefer 'Jealous Again' sang by him to the original Keith Morris take on it (shoot me!).

Anyway, the results:

Keith Morris

10 (12%)

Ron Reyes (Chavo)

18 (21%)

Dez Cadena

16 (19%)

Henry Rollins

38 (46%)

Votes in total: 82

I think this got the most votes out of any poll I've started so far, which goes to show that either my blog's getting more traffic, or just that a lot of people like BLACK FLAG. They're probably the most well known/popular band I've covered on this blog so far, and incidently are probably the most deserving of all punk bands (or bands of any genre for that matter) of the praise and adoration they receive... I hate the sound like an asshole, but you either "get" BLACK FLAG or you don't. The vocalist debate is nearly as old as the band itself, and normally sparks heated debate whenever it's bought up, but to borrow a sports-personality-interviewee phrase, 'at the end of the day' we all know that each singer was great in his own way, suiting each different phase of the band (or Ginn's vision). Saying that, I'm just being diplomatic... Rollins will always be my choice of favourite frontman. Can you even imagine any of the other guys singing 'My War' and making it work? As for people arguing that he "ruined" the band, it's obvious that they would have followed the same direction regardless of who was singing... Rollins could just pull it off, I don't think anyone else could have fulfilled that role. Really, if you are diehard into punk but hate all hard rock or heavy metal, it's understandable that you wouldn't like later FLAG, since those influences are just so prominent.

To go with the poll results, here is the easy-to-get-a-hold-of soundboard bootleg of FLAG's apparent last show, at The Greystone in Detroit, 27/28th June 1986, I believe with GONE and probably the terrible PAINTED WILLIE supporting.

Download here.

It obviously covers a lot of material from In My Head and Loose Nut and while it's not as good as the CLASSIC Live '84 record, I think I prefer it to Who's Got The 10 1/2. Just think, this was the last time Ginn would play the twisted FLAG riffs in a live setting. There's some serious hippie jam fest moments, reflecting the heavy amount of GRATEFUL DEAD that was consumed in this period (you don't LISTEN to the GRATEFUL DEAD, you consume them like an illegal substance). I'm sure after this show a lot of old FLAG fans were grateful the band WAS finally dead... While nothing can possibly beat Damaged, My War or the 1982 demos (the triangle of perfection, with Slip It In not far behind...THE BARS! THE LIES!...), I really do love the later "difficult" records and live sets. There's a great hypnotic quality to the songs and just straight up bizarre riffs going on, truly fucked up and demented music. Also, Rollins never lets up vocally, just listen to 1987's Lifetime by ROLLINS BAND, a kind of continuation of later-FLAG minus Ginn's extremely signature guitar work. Also, I couldn't give a shit about the production, both Loose Nut and In My Head are great, great records.

It might be cliché to say, but they really were pushing boundaries and it is understandable why so many were hostile towards them for it... Even the dynamics of the members were volatile, a similarly disconnection between each individual as between the band and audience. But it all comes down to whether you believe bands have any kind of "responsibilty" to their "fans" to stay atleast marginally consistent in sound (BAD RELIGION's argument as to why they returned to playing their old style after the enigma that is Into The Unknown), or should be free to play and be whatever the fuck they want. While it's often said they were going through the motions towards the end, I do believe breaking up was the only thing to do at that point. There was literally nowhere else to go.

Anyway, enjoy the live set (or don't, depending on your preference).

New DESPISE YOU interview...

2008-07-26T13:37:00.010+01:00

Here is an interview I recently did with the reformed DESPISE YOU via email. As you'd expect for a band so steeped in mythology and rumour, despite now playing live (which they never did during their original existence) they don't give much away and mostly give fairly short answers. Still, they are/were easily the best 2nd wave power violence band to come out of the mid 90s, and I'm thankful to them for getting back to me as in general they don't do many interviews. I'm excited about hearing their new recordings as you all should be too.

Q 1. First introduce yourself, and say where you are right now...

DY: Inglewood, South Los Angeles. 310. Always and forever.

Q 2. You've not done many interviews, even less in your original existence...how come? Did the band attempt to keep a mystery around them originally?

DY: Naw, we never really got hit up to do interviews, and if we did, it was in some small fanzines that no one has ever seen.

Q 3. How come you never vouched to play live in your original inception? Was EXCRUCIATING TERROR the primary band to some of the members?

DY: Yea, everyone that was in the band originally (all the "West Side Horizons" recordings) were in other bands so we didnt have a lot of time to even practice that much, let alone play live.

Q 4. On a similar topic, how come you never printed your real names on the original DESPISE YOU records? Or appeared in many photos? Did you get a kick out the fact that some people thought you were members of a notorious gang?

DY: We didnt want to be "members of....bla bla bla", so we didnt print the names. There was plenty of "non-music" related shit going on with us then, though. haha

Q 5. Who chose the whole aesthetic of DESPISE YOU for the original records (gangland photos, starving children etc, bleak imagery all round)

DY: I guess that's just the vibe we wanted from where we were at around that time. It's kinda the same thing now.

Q 6. What bands were DESPISE YOU members also involved in during your original inception?

DY: EXCRUCIATING TERROR, STAPLED SHUT, CROM, RISE, FELT NUMB.

Q 7. How have the live shows been over the last year or so? What's been the best, and worst, experience so far?

DY: All the shows have been good. Playing 6th street/L.A. was good. A lot of our "friends" were there to dance and help break up fights.

Q 8. How did it come about that Chris Dodge would play bass?

DY: We needed a bass player and since he used to play in STIKKY, we thought he'd be good. Actually, he lit a fire under us to get back together and see what happens. Thanks Chris.

Q 9. When did you first get into hardcore punk? Can you remember the first record you heard, or band you saw live?

DY: For me it was BLACK FLAG "Jealous Again". The first band I saw was a local Inglewood or Lennox band called POLICIA PUTA or something like that, in a garage.

Q 10. Another question I like to ask, what did your parents or family think about you getting into punk/hardcore & metal?

DY: I was skating all the time, the punk rock was just a part of it. My folks didn't give a fuck either way, as long as I stayed out of jail and kept the trespassing tickets to a minimum.

Q 11. What was the scene in Inglewood like in the 90s, around the time DESPISE YOU started?

DY: No punk stuff, there was a couple death metal bands. NECROSIS was a CARCASS-style grind band in like '92. Just gangs, and people with anger management "problems". Inglewood Skate Rats etc. Perfect.

Q 12. How has the area changed over the years? What keeps you in LA?

DY: Things just got more crowded and expensive. Demographics in L.A. neighborhoods seem to be changing a lot recently. All my family and shit is here. I'll be here for a while.

Q 13. What were your favourite power violence bands in the early to mid 90s? Choose a favourite: CROSSED OUT 7", NO COMMENT: Downsided or NEANDERTHAL: Fighting Music, and explain why...

DY: All those are good. The MAN IS THE BASTARD/CROSSED OUT 7" too. The NO COMMENT "Downsided" is my favorite 7" ever. Beginning to end. Everything about that record is perfect. Birth to death in like 6 or 7 minutes. Beautiful.

Q 14. How close do you see skating in terms of a relationship to hardcore? How do you think it's changed over the years? Do you all still skate?

DY: Skating and punk rock. They go hand in hand, you weren't into one and not the other. If you listened to DIO or PINK FLOYD you rode some stupid BMX bike and brushed your hair all day. Stupid. I still feel the same today about it as i did "way back then". I see a lot of hip hop in skating now. Not sure what hip hop and skating have in common though. I guess you can buy both of them at Walmart or something.

Q 15. Who is currently providing female vocals at live shows, still Cynthia from GASP? What happended to Leticia, aka Lulu, the original singer?

DY: Lourdes "Lulu" Hernandez did all the vocals on the "West Side Horizons" stuff. She was in high school at the time. Not sure where she is now. She used Leticia cuz of her sister or something. Cynthia from GASP is doing the vocals for us now. We've all known her a long time, and she "brings it". Plus she's a 310 veteran. Those are always good.

Q 16. What were some of the key hardcore bands that influenced DESPISE YOU?

DY: DRI, LEEWAY, MINOR THREAT, AGNOSTIC FRONT, all the "standards" I guess.

Q 17. Who is your favourite hardcore frontman ever and why?

DY: Probably Rollins, cuz "Damaged" is my favorite punk/hardcore record.

Q 18. Obviously good metal bands were a big influence on DESPISE YOU too. Who are some of your favourite metal bands?

DY: All the L.A. shit. SLAYER, DARK ANGEL, OMEN, BLOODCUM. Then there's POSSESSED, VENOM, CELTIC FROST... all that stuff.

Q 19. What do you think are the main things that seperates heavy metal from hardcore?

DY: Maybe the metal bands try to be more musical? I don't know. Lyrical content is more "fantasy" related with the heavy metal people.

Q 20. What new records do you have in the works? I hear talks of AGORAPHOBIC NOSEBLEED and CAPITALIST CASUALTIES splits?

DY: We're doing a split LP/CD with AGORAPHOBIC NOSEBLEED called "And On, And On......", 23 or so new songs. It's all recorded except vocals. We hope to do a split with CAPITALIST CASUALTIES also.

Q 21. How did the MAN IS THE BASTARD split LP that was never released come about? Were/are you friends with any of those guys?

DY: MAN IS THE BASTARD asked us if we'd do it and we wanted to. We recorded like 16 songs for it. They recorded their songs, but got side tracked with some stuff, and never put vocals on it. So we put our songs with all our other out of print shit, and that's the "West Side Horizons" CD.

Q 22. What do you think was the best line up for a show you attended in the early/mid 90s?

DY: Probably the Fiesta Grande shows. DIVISIA, EXCRUCIATING TERROR, CAVITY, CROM, I think it was in west L.A. It was a good show too. There were a lot in A.A. that I can't remember the specifics on now. LACK OF INTEREST and RORSCHACH out in the valley was rad.

Q 23. What do you think of new bands taking influence from, and covering DESPISE YOU (HATRED SURGE, IN DISGUST etc). Are you surprised by the interest and influence the band has had?

DY: Yea, we're always stoked to see bands covering our songs. Sometimes they do it better than we do. ha

Q 24. Did you ever get to see INFEST? Write a little about why they're so good...

DY: Yea at the Chapalita. Well they were like the first band doing that stripped down "powerviolence" type stuff!

Q 25. What's your favourite DRI record and why? Did you ever get to see them, in any form? Do you even like their later crossover records (ie THRASH ZONE)?

DY: I like "Dealing With It" the most. I've seen them a few times. Nursing Home Blues...

Q 26. Any last words?

DY: Thanks for the support.

http://www.myspace.com/dxyx

HYPNOTICS: Indoor Fiends LP (1982) upload...

2008-07-26T12:55:00.005+01:00

As a follow up to the 'American Youth Report' compilation LP upload a few posts below, here is a cool LP by HYPNOTICS who appeared on that record. It was on Enigma Records, and I believe it was reissued on CD by GTA but I'm not sure if that's still in print...So, here you go.

Download here.

HYPNOTICS were an early LA band that musically bridged the gap between the garage stylings of early LA punk with the emerging hardcore sound... To me it sounds like ANGRY SAMOANS or CIRCLE JERKS meets VILE, a nasty and cynical hardcore punk record with subtle use of keyboards. Sadly it's not as well known as it should be. Lots of catchy tunes and interesting guitar riffs, not to mention great vocals and lyrics that I'm assuming were generally meant to shock and offend. The chorus to 'Nazi Snotzy' goes "Heeeeeil Hitler" (which you'll find yourself guiltily humming after hearing it) and others are about sexual diseases or insomnia, which should give you an idea of what's on offer here. Not unlike Doc of THE CRUCIFUCKS, the HYPNOTICS vocalist Marky De Sade was infamous for his onstage Jerry Lewis style antics, and the band's do share a similarity in style (both high on sarcasm and bile).

Their 1983 record 'The Expendables', which Enigma refused to release, is rarer than 'Indoor Fields' (I believe it wasn't even issued with a sleeve) so good luck finding that...

Here's a photo of them from the insert to the 'American Youth Report' LP.

New interview with OUT COLD (John)...

2008-07-25T12:57:00.006+01:00

This week I interviewed by email John Evicci, drummer, Ted Bundy lookalike and all round band spokesperson for Massachusetts's OUT COLD, who have been one of my favourite modern hardcore bands for some time. Every record is a winner, and their last LP 'Goodbye Cruel World' is no exception. They employ a no-bullshit approach to playing straight forward hardcore punk, with no frills and little in the way of popular appeal... Even though they've been active since 1989, they haven't followed any of the trends that occured throughout 19 years within hardcore and also haven't broken up, rotating members fairly often but never losing their distinctive sound (comparable perhaps to Tied Down-era NEGATIVE APPROACH meets early FU'S, or something. It's great regardless of comparisons). Currently, two members of excellent but sadly defunct LAST IN LINE are in them, as far as I know... John also runs the excellent Acme Records. Enjoy!

Q 1. Out Cold has always seemed like 'outsider hardcore', are you in any way connected to any local scene around Boston? Were you ever?

J: Yes, we've always been outsiders and never part of any scene.

Q 2. Why do you think Out Cold hasn't broken up after all these years?

J: A few different reasons. First and foremost, we still love playing and creating this type of music. Secondly, we've been lucky enough to find people to play with to replace the many lost members over the years. Thirdly, we do everything at our own pace and on our own terms, so there's no external pressures grinding us down. Lastly, we're still fucked up and angry.

Q 3. What is next for Out Cold? Have you recorded anything recently? Any plans for a new release?

J: We recorded a shitload of new tracks 3 years ago which are supposed to fill out our next two full-lengths. However, we've been too fucked up and disorganized to finish them off as of yet. In the meantime we've had some EPs and splits come out.

Q 4. When and how did you first get into hardcore punk? Was it a stagant scene in Boston at the time, mid 80s? What were the first shows you'd go to?

J: I first got into punk and hardcore in the mid-'80s. I don't know if the scene in Boston was stagnant at the time. I never went to shows. I was ensconced in my disconnected little suburban town and didn't start going to shows until I was older. My guess is the scene was active, but it was full of shit I wasn't interested in. Bad jock-core or progressive post-punk crap. The mid-to-late '80s was a bad, bad, bad time for punk/hardcore and just music in general.

Q 5. Speaking of when you first get in to punk, and hardcore, what were some of the first records that you really loved and had the biggest impact? Also, what did your parents/family think at the time?

J: Some of the first bands I got into, and who have remained some of my absolute favorites to this day, were bands like Black Flag, The Freeze, Bad Brains, Dead Boys. These bands were also big influences on where we took Out Cold. My parents were typically uninvolved/uninterested in what I was listening to, but to the extent they paid attention to it, they didn't like it. My mom has since warmed up to it a bit.

Q 6. Regarding when you got into hardcore, do you think it was the influx of heavy metal's influence, and metalheads, in hardcore in the mid to late 80s that ruined the music for you?

J: That was definitely a big factor, yes. It was also the influence of the more progressive elements that I wasn't into. People were straying from the simple, powerful, emotional, catchy foundations that made the music so great. I just thought 90% of what was going on at the time was either macho crap or pretentious pap.

Q 7. How important do you see audience participation to hardcore? Does Out Cold play as if no one else is in the room, just feeding off each others energy (ala Flag)?

J: It's really nice to get a good response from the audience. We want people to get into what we're doing, obviously, but it's not necessary. We're so used to being ignored or misunderstood that we don't need the audience's approval. We ultimately play for our own gratification and, as you say, feed off our own energy.

Q 8. I didn't manage to see Out Cold when you were in the UK last: do you plan to come over again? How did you find our dismal little country?

J: I loved touring there and seeing and hanging out with all the people, but the shows were mostly depressing as fuck. Dismal is a good word. With a few exceptions, the shows were poorly-attended and just felt like a waste of time. Based on this, it's unlikely that we'll come back, although I'm open to anything.

Q 9. How important do you think it is to be original playing hardcore, and do you think there's any room left for creativity? Do you think with the amount of 'retro' bands currently doing the rounds, it is overly contrived or afraid to experiment?

J: I don't think originality is supremely important. I love a lot of very derivative music and think it's worthwhile as long as it's not a blatant rip-off. Out Cold is very derivative in a lot of ways. That being said, I am starting to grow a bit weary of the current crop of hardcore bands that stick to a such a strict early-'80s style. It's so strange to now be in a position to say that considering that when we started out it was the exact opposite and we often railed about it. Now the pendulum has swung so far in the other direction that it's gotten a bit tired. It definitely does feel contrived now and that's a shame. However, I'm not really complaining because this is the type of music that I prefer, so I guess what we have is an embarrassment of riches, but there definitely is a lot of room left for creativity and individuality.

Q 10. Regarding the surge of retro style hardcore bands, is there any particular that DO really impress you? You've played NO WAY FEST (a few times?), was that good fun?

J: I must admit, I have not kept up at all with the flood of these new old school bands. Seems everytime I turn around there's another band. We only played No Way Fest once (this year's) and that was like the mecca of that whole scene and it was really mindblowing to see all that concentrated into such a focused event. I've never seen anything like it before. It was great. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Even given the high caliber of acts at that show I wouldn't've thought I could tolerate sitting back-to-back through whatever it was, like 12 hardcore bands, but despite being a bit tired and ear-fatigued, I really did enjoy it all. Like I said, I'm not really up on a lot of these new bands, but some I really like are bands like Direct Control, Career Suicide, not to mention foreign bands like The Heartburns, Auktion, Cola Freaks, etc.

Q 11. What is one of your favourite underrated bands, from the past, you want to spread the love for?

J: I don't know of any underrated bands from way back when. Seems every little obscure thing from the past has been plucked from the shadows and held aloft by the punk/HC intelligentsia. Christ On A Crutch aren't from too far in the past, but that's a band I really like that I don't hear a lot of love for. Also, I think that first Joykiller album blows away anything by TSOL, but doesn't have that early-'80s cult of personality status so it's easily dismissed by people.

Q 12. What was the worst show Out Cold has ever played and why?

J: Pretty much any show before 1998. There was no interest in or really understanding of what we were doing. We'd play depressing local shitholes to a sprinkling of people who didn't have any appreciation for us whatsoever. Generally speaking, that is.

Q 13. How did ACME start, and what is the favourite release you've put out?

J: It started because I love records and always wanted to do a label. It took me a good ten years and thousands upons thousands of lost dollars to come to the conclusion that I have no business running one, but I gave it the old college try, and that counts for something. Favorite release? That's like asking which one is your favorite child. I'm not saying it's my favorite, but the most criminally-underrated release I've put out is Hero Dishonest's "When The Shit Hits The Man".

Q 14. You recently played some shows in the US with the Horror from the UK, and you obviously did a split with Voorhees. What older UK hardcore bands are you into too?

J: Peruvian Vacation-era Stupids, Icons Of Filth, GBH (if you consider them hardcore), Varukers. I don't know, most of the old UK stuff I like I would consider punk and not hardcore.

Q 15. Did you like the American Hardcore movie?

J: I thought it was OK, but could've been handled much better. It didn't live up to its potential in my opinion.

Q 16. What do you think were the main problems with it? I personally didn't like the music-video way it was put together too much, with constant flashing of images and 5-second long interview snippets all the way through...never seemed to get to the bare bones of the matter.

J: I only watched it once so my criticism of it should be taken as more of kneejerk reaction rather than a thoughtful analysis, but I thought it came off kinda lazy and amateurish. My lasting impression of it was that they tried to leave it unpolished and raw or whatever, but to me it just came off looking like they didn't put a lot of time and/or care into it, like they just threw it together and put it out there. I just think it could've been delivered in a way to give it a lot more impact. For a documentary about such a incendiary type of music, it was a bit boring to me.

Q 17. What do you think of reunion shows of old bands? I'm guessing since you're from Boston you've perhaps gotten to see Gang Green or The Freeze in recent years? Have you heard about Springa's SSD "reunion" coming up?

J: I think it's cool, in general. It's sometimes cool to see some of your old favorites even if it's not the same as it was in the old days. I was very glad Jerry's Kids reformed because I never got to see them during their original run. The Freeze are always a welcome act to have around, although I haven't seen them since Bill Close left the band. I saw Gang Green a time or two in the not-too-distant past. They were OK. I have heard about Springa's SSD reunion and the contention over it with Al. I really don't care about that band, though. Much to many peoples' surprise I think SSD is quite possibly the most overrated band in the history of hardcore.

Q 18. Who else do you think is close to being as overrated as SSD? (Edit: I don't agree with this opinion by the way, haha - Rob.)

J: No one really spring(a)s to mind. They're in a league of their own as far as I'm concerned. (That wasn't a dig on Springa...I just couldn't resist the pun)

Q 19. What do you all do outside of the band to pay the rent?

J: I'm a mechanical draftsman, Mark works at a university, Deuce is a registered nurse in an emergency room, and Mikey works with disabled people.

Q 20. There are definite similarities between Out Cold and Career Suicide, in vibe and song writing (as in the songs are well written catchy tunes as well as being grounded in good classic hardcore). Are you into them at all?

J: Yeah, they're good. I need to get more of their records, though. Only have one at the moment. I meant to pick more up when we played with them in Virginia last month, but forgot to.

Q 21. Has the regular change of members, especially guitarists, affected the way the riffs have been written? Have you ever had anyone join who wrote riffs that sounded completely wrong for the band? Saying that, I understand Mark writes all of the music, so have any members felt artistically restricted perhaps? Is he the Mussolini of the band, and the rest the ethnically oppressed gypsies?

J: The change of members has not affected the way music is written since, as you mentioned, Mark has pretty much written all the songs since Fred left in 1997. On our recent recordings for the upcoming albums, both Deuce and Mikey contributed songs, though, which is pretty much the first time we'll release anything written by non-original members. We've never necessarily stifled the other members, it's just that everyone knows how particular we are when it comes to our material and most people are just content to play and are not really pushing to contribute. We've always been open to it, though, with the caveat that it has to be filtered through Mark & I first. These songs that Deuce and Mikey wrote, though, are awesome. I'm looking forward to hearing them finished off.

Q 22. Do you like classic Japanese hardcore? What are your favourite bands?

J: How can one not like Japanese hardcore? Some favorites include No Side, Real Shit, Stupid Babies Go Mad, Assfort, Death Side, Systematic Deth, Gauze, and a little band that I released (that naturally no one's heard) called Spend4.

Q 23. Regarding GAUZE, have you heard the new album yet? It's definitely a solid record...

J: No I haven't, but I've heard tell. That's a band I'd really like to get to see live someday.

Q 24. You've toured Europe a fair few times, how have you found it different to the US, generally and in terms of punk? You must be one of the only US hardcore bands to have toured Russia!...

J: I think you get treated a little better in Europe than you do in the US. The US has gotten a LOT better in the past ten years or so, but there's still room for improvement. We've never done a proper tour of the US, though, so maybe I don't know exactly what I'm talking about. Apart from MDC, I'm not sure I know of another US hardcore band to play Russia.

Q 25. Where do you think there's room for improvement in the US in terms of touring? Also what European cities did you really enjoy to play AND to visit over the years?

J: Again, not an expert by any means on touring in the US, but I get the impression that you get better turnouts in Europe, people buy more of your merch. Plus you play better quality venues, get paid a bit more, get treated a bit better in terms of getting fed regularly and well, things like that. Some of my favorite places to play were Amsterdam, Newport (Wales), Copenhagen, Belgrade, and to visit, Reykjavík (I'm a raging Icelandophile in case you didn't know).

Q 26. What would your dream 5 band line up for a show be, any bands past and present. Also, what venue...

J: Not THE dream, but A dream show would be Black Flag, The Freeze, The New Bomb Turks, The Ramones, and Zeke upstairs at the Middle East in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Q 27. What's one band that Out Cold are really glad to have played with?

J: Only one? OK, No Side.

Q 28. Slightly offtopic, but are you a GG Allin fan? I really like some, mainly the earlier singles/EPs (up to the mid 80s anyway)... In a more general sense, what do you think of the argument when people say you shouldn't listen to a band/artist because of their politics, attitudes or actions on (or off) stage? (like what's often said about GG)...

J: Hmmm...did you know I released a CD of his on my label? I hope you don't think I'd release something I wasn't a fan of. I definitely like some of his stuff more than other stuff. Some of the later records I'm not that into. I really don't care about politics when it comes to music. I listen to music because I like the sounds and the emotional affect it has on me. If it has good lyrics or a cool message, all the better, but that's not necessary at all. GG's an extreme case, of course. I view him more as an artist as opposed to an agent of spreading nihilism. To me he was an expression of some of the darkest sides of the human condition, which is to some extent the essense of punk rock in my opinion. I find this segment of positive, ultra-politically correct punk rock a bit perplexing. Imposing politcally-correct guidelines on punk is really misguided in my opinion.

Q 29. What irks you most when you go to a hardcore show? (be honest now!)

J: 99% of the time I'm at a hardcore show I have my distro with me. By far the most irksome thing is lugging all that shit around, setting it up, and manning it all night.

Q 30. It may be an odd question, but as a drummer what other drummers in hardcore have you always really digged or admired? I personally think Brian Betzger from Jerry's Kids was one of the most raging drummers...

J: A couple that jump immediately to mind are Earl Hudson & Slayer Hippy.

Q 31. In a similar vein to the above question, what are your 3 favourite frontmen/women ever (in terms of punk or hardcore)?

J: Given my above answers, the first two are going to sound unimaginative, but it's the truth... HR, Jerry A., and Iggy Pop.

Q 32. Ok then, what is your favourite Poison Idea LP, and why? Did you ever get to share a bill with them, when Pig Champion was still alive and raging?

J: Hard to choose but probably Kings Of Punk. Just great fucking songwriting and vibe throughout. Never shared the bill with them, unfortunately. I was lucky enough to get to see them once, though. Definitely a case where a reformed band was a godsend.

There you have it! I strongly recommend buying OUT COLD's last full-length, 'Goodbye Cruel World', some distros still have it: here, here, here, here or here.

HEART ATTACK interview from Flipside #42...

2008-07-24T00:21:00.009+01:00

Here is an interview with NY's early hardcore band HEART ATTACK from Flipside #42, 1984. It was done between the excellent 'Keep Your Distance' 12" (which has the aptly titled song 'English Cunts' on), which was recently posted over on Good Bad Music, and the not-amazing 'Subliminal Seduction' 12" (which sort of sounds like early 7 SECONDS with sloppy drumming, but not as good as that description would suggest. Still pretty cool though).

HEART ATTACK arguably put out the first NYHC 7" ('God Is Dead'), but remain a fairly underappreciated band if you ask me. In this interview they definitely come across as fairly "progressive", not unlike mid period TOXIC REASONS, speaking about having no barriers between countries, "pledging allegiance to love", the treatment of Native Americans... ideas more akin with 60s hippie counterculture than punk nihilism. Like many bands of the time they display a sort of delusional belief that playing in a punk band could really change the world (which is understandable when taken in context, if you consider early hardcore as a kind of "movement"... then new and exciting, now just another Myspace genre). While perhaps naive, bands like HEART ATTACK had admirable good intentions, and these sorts of ideas definitely add to the whole early hardcore vibe, whether it was a frustrated desire to improve the world, or destroy it... It's also interesting that they were so outspokenly critical of the church, something heard less and less from bands from around this area, atleast from the mid-80s onwards.

Another thing to note is the cool Dischord Records ad on the 2nd page of the interview. I don't think I've mentioned before how much I love SCREAM: 'Still Screaming'!

AMERICAN YOUTH REPORT compilation LP (1982) upload, and results of this week's poll (favourite Midwest hardcore band)...

2008-07-21T23:22:00.017+01:00

Here is the CLASSIC 1982 LP compilation 'American Youth Report', originally on BOMP Records.

Download here.

This was actually one of the first hardcore punk compilations I ever bought, finding it in a second-hand record shop (sadly no more) in my home city and being intrigued by the cover and the inclusion of some bands I already knew (BAD RELIGION, TSOL, MINUTEMEN etc). In my humble opinion, this record is up there amongst the great hardcore compilations. Like most good comps it exists as a sort of time-capsule, archiving what was happening at a specific time in a specific place, in this case the early emerging LA scene (the important bands that followed the original trailblazers like FLAG, CIRCLE JERKS, X etc). Each song sounds similar, in that you can tell all the bands are from California, and it therefore encapsulates the style of the region (in the same way that 'This Is Boston Not LA' captured Boston's sound, and 'Flex Your Head' captured the DC sound). It manages to bring together 16 songs from 16 bands, some classic acts and some often overlooked. The weaker tracks are still great, I seriously don't think there's a bad band on it! (feel free to argue this point with me.)

The photo on the back, of a fucked up kid with a spray painted shirt and work boots (see below), and the photo on the front of a punk with "lobotomy" tattood on his head with a dotted line underneath his mohawk, really "spoke" to me at the time as a young angry punk. I knew I had to buy it... Even the photos on the insert really added to the whole experience: RF7 hanging out in a graveyard, BAD RELIGION goofing around, FLESHEATERS and HYPNOTICS looking like they just came off the set of RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD (incidently FLESHEATERS actually appeared on this film's soundtrack)... This comp really helped open my eyes to the origins of 'American Hardcore', where not all of the bands wore the same uniform as each other, or sounded like any of the 90s hardcore bands I had been exposed to. There were real differences between the bands, they had their own styles going on (some to more of an extent than others). The suble use of an organ on the RHINO 39 song, and the simple use of piano on 'Tell Me Why' by M.I.A. are testament to the influence of 60s garage and other styels on these bands. It's odd to think that, at the time this was originally released, all the bands were creating a fresh exciting sound, new and vital. Even though 26 years have passed, thankfully records like this do manage to capture that original enthusiasm of hardcore, in sound, that can't be matched...

A real gem on this record is the LEGAL WEAPON song 'Pow Pow', an often overlooked female-fronted band from LA. While they borrow a lot from bands like THE AVENGERS or THE BAGS (sidenote: has anyone else noticed how much REM's 'Losing My Religion' rips off the chorus of 'Prowlers In The Night' by THE BAGS. Listen to it now, you'll see what I mean), and didn't form til later on and thus probably didn't quite fit in with the emerging hardcore bands who would thrash faster and shout louder, I still really like this band's early records. Another gem is the HYPNOTICS song, a band I know very little about other than that their singer was called Marky De Sade and he was supposed to be a wild and entertaining frontman. They did a lot of creepy sick songs, and sounded not unlike THE LEWD or ANGRY SAMOANS: check out their 1982 LP 'Indoor Fiends'. I also want to mention the funny lyrics of the RF7 song, which I didn't realise were a joke when I first heard them: "You can worship satan, any asshole can. But even he can't save you, when the judgement day's at hand. Remember, Jesus loves you, so don't be fooled by Bad Religion". Plus, it's got an obligatory 80s hardcore tune about ol' Ronnie Reagan by SHATTERED FAITH.

Anyway, here's the full tracklisting. This comp was the first time I heard classics like 'I'm Not A Loser', 'Only Gonna Die' and 'Working Men Are Pissed'...Fucking classic.

1. MODERN WARFARE "One For All"
2. BAD RELIGION "Only Gonna Die"
3. CHANNEL 3 "Catholic Boy"
4. ADOLESCENTS "Losing Battle"
5. LOST CAUSE "Born Dead"
6. LEGAL WEAPON "Pow Pow"
7. FLESHEATERS "Pony Dress"
8. RHINO 39 "J. Alfred"
9. HYPNOTICS "Weird People"
10. DESCENDENTS "I'm Not A Loser"
11. M.I.A. "Tell Me Why"
12. T.S.O.L. "Sounds Of Laughter"
13. SHATTERED FAITH "Reagan Country"
14. MINUTEMEN "Working Men Are Pissed"
15. RF7 "Jesus Loves You"
16. RED KROSS "Notes & Chords Mean Nothing To Me"

And here are the results of this week's poll, for favourite early 80s Midwest hardcore band. I didn't include NEGATIVE APPROACH to make things more interesting as I figured they would get the most votes and automatically win. The joint winners are HÜSKER DÜ and DIE KREUZEN, worthy choices. I voted for DIE KREUZEN, and would have voted for ARTICLES OF FAITH as second choice (they did in fact come 2nd). I AM surprised by the very few votes for NECROS though; as if anyone prefers CLITBOYS to them! Insanity.

Articles of Faith
10 (14%)
The Clitboys
2 (2%)
The Crucifucks
8 (11%)
Die Kreuzen
11 (15%)
The Effigies
0 (0%)
The Fix
5 (7%)
Hüsker Dü
11 (15%)
The Meatmen
3 (4%)
Mecht Mensch
2 (2%)
The Necros
2 (2%)
NOTA
2 (2%)
Spike In Vain
0 (0%)
State
1 (1%)
Tar Babies
3 (4%)
Toxic Reasons
2 (2%)
Zero Boys
7 (10%)

Votes in total: 69

Interview with HF from RINGWORM (2005/2006)...

2008-07-20T21:57:00.008+01:00

I've been gone for a week, but now I'm back... I went on holiday to North Wales, whereupon I walked up a lot of mountains, chased some wild mountain goats and stumbled into a river. A great time was had. I'm glad to see in my absence the 'favourite Midwest hardcore band' poll got a fair few votes. I'll post up the results soon (you can see on the right who won).

To get things going again, here is an old-ish interview I did with Human Furnace, from Clevo legends RINGWORM, done in late 2005 or maybe early 2006 for a zine I never printed... It was carried out via email and isn't the best interview ever, but I thought I'd share it anyway. I wasn't that keen on their last few records, although I did really like 'Birth is Pain'... CLEARLY nothing will ever beat 'The Promise' (one of the best LPs from the 90s), or the equally perfect demo.

EDIT: As requested in the comments section, here is the 'Voice Of Thousands' compilation on Conversion Records, I got it from Coregasm blog but the link was expired so I uploaded it again. Or, you can just download the FORCE OF HABIT song from it here. FORCE OF HABIT was HF and 3 Gun's band prior to RINGWORM.

Q) 1. You're all older (wiser?) than when Ringworm first started. Do you think you've calmed down at all over the years?

HF: ABSOLUTELY NOT. If anything, we're crazier than ever, for all sorts of reasons. Well first of all you have to be crazy as fuck to be in a band for this long, when you aren't rich and still drive all over the fuckin globe in a smelly van.

Q) 2. Compare the day you released 'the Promise' to the day you released 'Justice...'. What has changed in the band, and in hardcore generally (in your eyes), over the years?

HF: "Hardcore" is a different animal nowadays. There are still bands and kids that still "get it" but there are way to many kids and bands that have no idea what things are all about. It's not about getting laid and Myspace bullshit. Its not about yer haircut, and whats "in" or "cool". It's not about making money (but that is nice). Hardcore used to be about having and open mind and not caring what you wore. It was never about make-up and girls pants. It's so commercialized now that everybody thinks they can get famous and "big" easily by just copying whatever the cool thing is. There is hardly any musical integrity anymore and it's a shame. Hardcore for me is the way you deliver, the honesty, the rawness, your conviction in what you are doing. Not your willingness to be influeneced by stupid trends.

Q) 3. Why are all the bands from Cleveland so 'dysfunctional'? What is it about Cleveland?

HF: Well i dont think ALL bands from cleveland are dysfunctional. At a certain point we were, but we were young and didnt really care. We just wanted to have fun. Plus "real life shit" comes for everybody and sometimes you have to put priorites first. We are a little older know and have a great deal of focus now. Cleveland can be a tough place to live. Besides, some of the best bands EVER have been dysfunctional.

Q) 4. Are you proud of your influence on hardcore (the "Holy Terror" style has been gaining in popularity recently etc)?

HF: I guess so. We just do what we do, always have, always will. we are proud of that.

Q) 5. Ringworm seemed to go quiet after the first album. Did you ever actually split up any time in the 90s?

HF: Yeah, we actually disbanded from 1994 up until 1998.

Q) 6. What other bands have members of Ringworm been involved with in the past, and at present?

HF: Wow, well thats a long answer. Here goes... myself- I do a band called GLUTTONS, I play guitar and sing, it's a mixture of Misfits and Motorhead, punk rockish type thing. I also do HOLYGHOST, which is a band that i started in '97 while Ringworm was defunct. That band also included former members of Ringworm, Aaron Ramirez and Chris Dora. That band is together once again with a diferent sound and it consists of myself and current Ringworm guitarist Aaron Dallison. Aaron Dallison also is well known for his other band KEELHAUL, in which he plays bass guitar. It's a nice extention for me to be able to do different things, expand some horizons. Matt Sorg has also resurrected an old band of his called DECREPIT, awesome old school death metal.. Mike Lare also does a band called KRUSH EFFECT and THE COAST, as does our drummer Danny Zink. Other original member, Frank "3 gun" Novinec is well known for his tenure in TERROR and is now a permanent member of HATEBREED.

Q) 7. How differently do you see hardcore today compared to, say, the mid 90's? Are you glad to see the back of chug-metal? What current hardcore bands do you like?

HF: Well im not sure what you mean by "the back of" chuga-chuga stuff etc. Im actually just tired of anything thats watered down and generic, or shit that sounds exactly like everything you've heard before, which is a lot. I like good metal and shit that has drive to it and has some personality to it. As for current bands I'm into, that's hard to say... I suppose I'm still into alot of the same shit that I always liked, alot of old classic thrash, and rock, and alot of avantgard music. I do like a new band called UNHOLY from syracuse, the new ACCUSED, DEMERICOUS (GREAT FRIENDS, GREAT BAND).

Q) 8. Being contemporaries with Clevo bands like CONFRONT and FACE VALUE, were you ever tempted to play in a youth crew-influenced hardcore band?

HF: Youth-crew? not my style. Im not very positive and i dont care about unity.

Q) 9. Why are you called Human Furnace? Is there a story behind it (like the origins of 'Dwid')?

HF: There is but i never talk about it.

Q) 10. Do you ever see/speak to Dwid? In retrospect, what do you think about his infamous 'persona'?

HF: I speak to him occasionally, and see hiim when we travel through Belgium. Dwid is an extremely creative person who helped shape the way things are today. I've known him and been friends for many years, at times he can a bit eccentric, but most influencial and ground breaking people are. Never afraid to take chances.

Q) 11. What were you favourite bands from Clevo in the late 80's/early 90's? Any funny stories from 'back in the day'?

HF: There was quite a few great bands from cleveland back "in the day". FALSE HOPE, HYPER AS HELL, of course INTEGRITY, DIE HARD, CONFRONT. More currently BOULDER. I remember the day before the grand opening of the ROCK-N-ROLL HALL OF FAME in Cleveland, BOULDER took a generater down to the front steps and in the middle of the daytime set up and played the song "Cleveland Rocks" (for those of you who are familar with you classic rock) over and over again, for no-one but the construction workers and a few police officers, who enjoyed the set for quite awhile before telling them to pack it up, therefore making them the first official band to play at the hall of fame. I can go on about a shit load of stories, I have a million of them, but I won't. haha

Q) 12. Tell us about your troubles with Incision records with the first album.

HF: Well, we felt ripped off about getting our share of the pressings and having the album not get the proper promotion. Some things never change.

Q) 13. Whats the funniest thing to ever happen on tour?

HF: There's an awesome story about a "chick" we like to call "47 yyeeaarrssss". If anybody wants to know about that ask our bass player. hahahahahahahaha

Q) 14. Straight edge, what are your thoughts? Was there ever any antagonism between straight edge and non-straight edge kids in Cleveland?

HF: I dont have a problem with straight people whatsoever. I dont care what people wanna do. I'm too old to care about what anybody else wants to do, I have enough problems of my own. Problems? Perhaps in the early days. It was usually an issue with the straight edgers, the real hardliners, but that was brief and mostly had to do with individuals not "scene" shit. I never had any difficulties getting along with anybody that is straight edge. I am not.

Q) 15. Tell us a bit about the choice to use the quote "there is no god" on The Promise....There is a fascination with religion/satanism/christianity in your lyrics and imagery. Where does it all stem from?

HF: I find it an extremely interesting subject matter. It's called almost every world war in recorded history, for starters. I write about all aspects that effect my life, I just have a tendency to put a dark twist in things. If I was happy about something I wouldn't sing about it, that's not what this band is about for me.

Q) 16. What are your 3 favourite hardcore punk records? What are your 3 favourite heavy metal records?

HF: Punk records - hmmmm. MISFITS - Earth AD, DEAD BOYS - Night Of The Living Deadboys, CIRCLE JERKS - Group Sec, plus a shit load of others, I hate doing these kinds of lists... Metal records -MERCYFUL FATE - Don't Break The Oath, VENOM - Black Metal, TROUBLE - Trouble, plus tons of others...

Q) 17. Is any member of the band into collecting vinyl at all?

HF: Ah not so much anymore, maybe if there's something I really need to have.

Q) 18. Do you like any Japanese hardcore bands, like Gism or Gauze etc? Have you ever played in Japan?

HF: Yeah I like and respect alot of those bands, we haven't been there YET but it's definetely on our TO DO list.

Q) 19. It's obvious that horror movies have been a big influence on Ringworm. Name some of your favourites.

HF: Horror movies, here's another impossible list. Let's see... CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON, ANYTHING VINCENT PRICE, THE THING (CARPENTER VERSION), THE EXORSIST, ITALIAN ZOMBIE...

Q) 20. Remake of Hills Have Eyes. Yay or Nay? Horror remakes in general?

HF: Haven't seen it yet, I never make re-makes a priority to see, the originals are almost always better. The movie industry is completely out of ideas so all they do is make remakes of everything. Hopefully this trend will end soon. I enjoyed the remake of Dawn Of The Dead, I must say.

Q) 21. Who are some of your favourite authors?

HF: Favorite authors - POE, NIETZSCHE, BRADBURRY, HUNTER THOMPSON.

Q) 22. Are you looking forward to coming to the UK soon? Do you like any hardcore punk bands from the UK, old or new?

HF: We are excited as hell to get back to the UK. Can't wait to destroy every town we play in! Uk bands!? Are you serious? Fuck, MOTORHEAD, SABBATH, VENOM... about a zillion others. Thanks a million for the interview, can't wait to rage with everyone. Stay sick bastards!!!

The results of this weeks poll (favourite classic Slap A Ham record...)

2008-07-11T15:50:00.004+01:00

Here are the results of this week's poll, for favourite classic Slap A Ham record from the following list.

It was always going to be between the 4 heavyhitters: NEANDERTHAL, CROSSED OUT, NO COMMENT and the CROSSED OUT/MAN IS THE BASTARD split. I would be naturally inclined to vote for INFEST if any of their proper records were released on Slap A Ham, but since the P.H.C. split is only a live recording it doesn't make my cut for favourite... I can't say I'm surprised that NO COMMENT won, since it is a perfect record, but I personally went for NEANDERTHAL above all. That record destroys worlds. Ofcourse there are other good records on Slap A Ham, including the EYEHATEGOD/13 split and NOOTHGRUSH to name just two, but I wanted to keep things strictly hardcore (even though sludge IS hardcore in my eyes) and strictly "Slap A Ham-classic" (LACK OF INTEREST is the only later record included just for the sake of it.)

Infest/P.H.C. split flexi 2 (3%)
Neanderthal: Fighting Music 7" 15 (25%)
V/A: Bllleeeeaaauuurrrrgghhh! The Record 7" 3 (5%)
Charred Remains/Pink Turds In Space Split 7" 0 (0%)
Crossed Out: S/T 7" 9 (15%)
No Comment: Downsided 7" 19 (32%)
Crossed Out/Man Is The Bastard Split 7" 7 (11%)
Supression/Despise You Split 7" 2 (3%)
Lack Of Interest: Trapped Inside LP 1 (1%)
A 2nd rate fastcore record that isn't listed above because it's not as good... 1 (1%)

Votes in total: 59

I'm away for a week on holiday, so no posts for a little while. I've got some cool posts in store for when I return, so get excited. In the meantime, I recommend you buy and listen to the new GAUZE LP on Prank. Oldtimers showing everyone how it's done.

LOS VATICANOS: Nerone 666 LP upload...

2008-07-11T01:01:00.006+01:00

Time for an underatted gem! Here is a great LP from LOS VATICANOS, an excellent and unique band from Rome, Italy. It came out on Thought Crime Records in 2001, and is still fairly easy to get ahold of. I highly recommend buying it if you like what you hear...

Download here. (apologies for the not-amazing MP3 quality)

I'm fairly new to this band, but when I heard this album I was speechless, and surprised that I'd never heard anyone talk about them before. I don't think it's premature to say this is one of the best post 2000 hardcore LPs to come out of Europe; they have (or had, I have no idea if they're still going) a really fresh style. They sound kinda like a weird mix of RORSCHACH, CHEETAH CHROME MOTHERFUCKERS and LOS CRUDOS, or something along those lines... It also reminds me a little of the great and underrated COLD SWEAT but predates them by a few years. They have a truly unique and gloomy sound, with crazy basslines and peculiar guitar riffs that complement the deranged vocals. As I stated before in a post about NEGAZIONE, the Italian language suits hardcore so well in my opinion...

Generally they keep things fast, and aren't afraid to mix in metallic influences, but I wouldn't say they were a metalcore band. I can also hear elements of the original power violence bands, with some MITB-style bass licks here and there... There's plenty of tempo changes, in the tradition of good Italian hardcore, and the energy levels are high. Also, their lyrics (which are nearly all in Italian) seem to be vehement diatribes against religion and the Catholic church. If it wasn't for the bad singing on the last song, it would be a near perfect release. Oh well, you can't win them all. Great record nonetheless, and recommended if you like things a little experimental. YES.

I have no idea if they are still active, so please leave a comment if you know more about them...

Short NECROS interview from We Got Power #5, and BLACK FLAG photos...

2008-07-10T01:08:00.020+01:00

Here's a short funny interview with NECROS, from the classic We Got Power zine from California (issue #5).

I recently debated with a friend which song was better, 'Police Brutality' by NECROS or 'Police Brutality' by URBAN WASTE...I went for URBAN WASTE all the way, but I'm sure there's people out there who'd disagree (or who'd go for 'Police Brutality' by VICIOUS CIRCLE from the P.E.A.C.E. comp, just to be difficult bastards).

Nonetheless, NECROS rule. A cool thing about them was that they managed to have a real impact on the Midwest scene, encouraging other local bands to start up (including NEGATIVE APPROACH). Also they were incorporating Rock influences (Nugent, MC5 etc) into a solid 80s hardcore formula that would be copied so many times after. The singer Barry Hennsler even says in American Hardcore they wanted to sound like Ted Nugent, but ten times faster. Still, I don't think NECROS really get talked about much. The highlight from their short existence, for me, is the 'Conquest For Death' LP. Come on, what a good fucking record. Is it as good as 'Tied Down'? Probably not...But still, the way 'Search For Fame' kicks in gets me everytime, and the final song 'Friend To All' has been a staple on mix tapes for a while. Also the front cover art always reminds me of the classic movie DON'T LOOK NOW, but I have no idea where the photo's from. I'm guessing it was a staged photoshoot, since there's a shot on the back-cover of the band in the same field. (Sidenote: Ofcourse, like all good films from the last 50 or so years, Hollywood are remaking DON'T LOOK NOW for 2009. Expect total shit.)

From the same issue of We Got Power, here's a classic BLACK FLAG photo by the one and only Glen E. Friedman...

In the same zine, there's also a re-print of this infamous BLACK FLAG sticker from the ones they had printed up when ADAM AND THE ANTS played across the street from a FLAG show (Keith Morris period)...

MOB RULES (current UK band) MP3 links...

2008-07-09T18:03:00.009+01:00

Here are links to 2 MP3s by the great band MOB RULES from Leeds, UK (probably the most exciting band in this country right now), taken from their upcoming 7" tentatively entitled 'The Donor', which is going to come out later this year...

MOB RULES - SHAME
MOB RULES - SHUT THE DOOR

If you're from the UK, you have probably heard of these guys and may have seen them kill everyone live. Grounded in a solid knowledge of good hardcore, MOB RULES play music akin to the original Californian power violence bands, CITIZENS ARREST, and the early Earache Records catalogue (i.e. hints of TERRORIZER)... Saying that, they've got their own sound going on, and are undeniably heavy live too. I've heard the rest of this record and trust me, it's amazing. These 2 songs provide a good teaser. Plus, they're named after the great Dio-era SABBATH record. "IF YOU LISTEN TO FOOLS..."

I'll be uploading an interview with this destructive 4-piece soon. They don't have a Myspace but do have a blog here. Also look out for a split 7" coming out with Ireland's CROWD CONTROL soon.

DIE KREUZEN interview + live videos...

2008-07-08T13:13:00.003+01:00

Links to these Youtube videos were posted over on the daghouse messageboard, and I thought I'd post them here as a follow-up post to the 'America's Dairyland' Midwest compilation tape I uploaded below.

First is a bizarre TV interview from 1983 with DIE KREUZEN, where they in fact mention some bands on the 'America's Dairyland' tape (SACRED ORDER, GFO etc), talk about why they called their 7" 'Cows And Beer', and what it's like being a hardcore band in the Midwest when everyone thinks the coasts are the only places things are happening... The show is called 'Who Am I', I have no idea if this was on a regional show or public access or what, but I've seen a few other videos before that are from the same show. If anyone knows more about it, please leave a comment. The interviewer seems far removed from punk, asking the token questions: is it violent, what do your parents think etc.

Here is the interview, in 2 parts.

And here are a few songs from their live TV set that followed the interview:

AMERICA'S DAIRYLAND compilation tape (1983) upload...

2008-07-07T13:42:00.014+01:00

I'd wanted to hear this compilation for a long time, so a friend was kind enough to send me a rip of it some time ago (it's also floating around on Soulseek). So here it is, a good tape on Last Rites (the same label that put out the great Midwest tape comp CODE BLUE) that provides an overview of the Wisconsin scene in 1983. For any one who has read my previous posts on similar tapes, I'm a big fan of regional compilations from the early 80s. They capture a moment in time, archiving what was happening in a particular city/state or scene and also giving now-forgotten bands a place in hardcore-history. This isn't the best comp overall, but it's definitely worth a listen. While there's big hitters on here you probably know (DIE KREUZEN, MECHT MENSCH, CLITBOYS, TAR BABIES, perhaps SUBURBAN MUTILATION), the rest is comprised of lesser-known or in some cases completely unknown bands, many who recorded or released little else...

DOWNLOAD HERE.

Most bands have that Midwestern rough hardcore sound; rather than go for the melodic Californian hardcore style or engage in idealistic peace-punk politics, Midwest bands and especially ones from industrial hubs like Milwaukee (where DIE KREUZEN were from) seemed to generally keep things basic, angry and grounded in reality. There were apparently also no large active scenes in the state, like there was in LA or Boston: the bands featured on this comp played shows with extremely low attendance that never reached the level of activity going on in other Midwestern cities like CHICAGO... They were, in a way, the forgotten or often-overlooked bands of the US hardcore landscape. Most bands on this tape have the gruff-vocalled Midwest sound (MALIGNANCE, CRUSTIES, SUBURBAN MUTILATION, GFO, DISTAIN etc) and the recording quality is generally bad (half would be tagged "unlistenable" by some people, I guess). Overall though it's a good comp that sums up what was happening in Wisconsin at the time; for the most part low on innovation but with a fair amount of primitive power and energy... It's such a shame that these kinds-of tapes are so corrosive, and won't last as long as records. I suppose MP3-rips of them are important in keeping the music alive and in existence.

An interesting sidenote: the TAR BABIES tracks are sometimes labelled as being by BLOODY MATTRESSES, the pre-TAR BABIES band (members also split off to be in IMMINENT ATTACK who also appear on this tape). I have no idea if these songs were recorded before or after the name change. Also, there were various versions of this tape with slightly different track listings, this is just one of a few variations...

I'll be posting more old tape compilations in the future...

Maximum Rock'N'Roll review: "Although the sound quality varies, this is one of those must- have regional compilations. There are plenty of keen tracks here from the likes of Die KREUZEN, SACRED ORDER, the TAR BABIES, NR, MECHT MENSCH, the CLITBOYS, S .U .M ., the CRUSTIES, and many more . (TY) ($5 to P . Shanahan--3270A N. Holto'n--Milwaukee, WI 53212)".

Tracklisting:

1. DIE KREUZEN "Think For Me"
2. DIE KREUZEN "Enemies"
3. G.F.O. "Not Fair"
4. G.F.O. "Police Raid"
5. G.F.O. "Begin to End"
6. G.F.O. "Girl Problems"
7. SUBURBAN MUTILATION "Menachem Begin"
8. SUBURBAN MUTILATION "Plastic Chicken"
9. SUBURBAN MUTILATION "Police State"
10. SUBURBAN MUTILATION "I Object"
11. MALIGNANCE "Interagation"
12. MALIGNANCE "Frozen Popsicle"
13. MALIGNANCE "It's Too Bad"
14. CRUSTIES "Stankin Muckworm"
15. CRUSTIES "Dairyland Youth"
16. CRUSTIES "Who Cares So What"
17. CRUSTIES "Farmer Vick"
18. NO "Anti-Christ"
19. NO "Joker's Wild"
20. DIE KREUZEN "Rumors"
21. MECHT MENSCH "Killer Klowns"
22. MECHT MENSCH "What's Right"
23. MECHT MENSCH "Free Animals"
24. TAR BABIES "Boredom's A Fact Of Life"
25. TAR BABIES "Red White And Blue"
26. SACRED ORDER "Cowboy Intro"
27. SACRED ORDER "You Bastard"
28. SACRED ORDER "Erik Estrada"
29. DISDAIN "Killer Kops"
30. DISDAIN "School"
31. DISDAIN "Apartments"
32. IMMINENT ATTACK "We Are Not Alone"
33. IMMINENT ATTACK "Who Are You"
34. IMMINENT ATTACK "Bad Habits"
35. N.F.O.D. "Shock"
36. N.F.O.D. "Stand Your Ground"
37. N.F.O.D. "Intelectual"
38. CLITBOYS "We Don't Play Their Game"
39. CLITBOYS "Slogan Boys"
40. CLITBOYS "I Hate The K.K.K."
41. BACK STAB "No Rules"
42. JUVENILE THRASH "Seek and Destroy"
43. NO "American School System"

CITIZENS ARREST / RORSCHACH / KRAKDOWN / BAD BRAINS / ABSOLUTION live videos...

2008-07-04T11:11:00.006+01:00

Here are some great videos posted on Youtube by user gnrpdenver (a guy called AJ from Denver), who has been purging his VHS tape collection to rip videos of these great bands. The following CITIZENS ARREST footage is the only video I have seen of them, and it's a shame that they apparently split up shortly after this show, which Daryl describes as "a perfect example of our worst gig ever" over on Bid Hardcore. It looks like literally no-one is watching them. Still great though, and your mind will explode at 9 minutes 40 seconds in!

CITIZENS ARREST at Knitting Factory 1990.

Here's other good videos uploaded by the same user...

RORSCHACH live in Toronto, 1991. Part 1.

RORSCHACH live in Toronto, 1991. Part 2.

KRAKDOWN live at CBGBs

BAD BRAINS live in Philly 1982

ABSOLUTION in CT 1988

Take a look at the guy's other videos too, loads more good stuff...

Interview with Ryan from UNRUH...

2008-07-03T19:07:00.008+01:00

I did this interview via email a few days ago with Ryan Butler, guitarist of classic 90s hardcore band UNRUH. Such an underrated band in my opinion, who put to record some of the best raw metal-infused hardcore from the period (1995-2000), having more in common with bands like RORSCHACH and good early death metal than EARTH CRISIS or their copycats... Thanks to Ryan for the interview, and replying quicker than anyone else I've ever interviewed...

Q. When exactly did Unruh form, and what was the scene like around Arizona when you started?What bands were played regularly and who was good?

Ryan: We formed in spring of 1995, my senior year. I was jamming with a friends band called Uruk Hai which I jumped into right when they were about to record and break up. I really enjoyed playing with their drummer Bill who ended up going on to do Unruh and Structure of Lies with me. And the other guitarist Nick was down to play bass in a new band with us. We just knew we wanted to be pretty much speed metal mixed with hardcore at the time. (Man, I haven't used the term speed metal in years! haha). There wasn't many bands here at the time. Not sure who was around heavy music wise when we started but some bands that were around in our early days that were good were Pay Neuter, Atomkinder, Tho Ko Losi and some others I can't think of.

Q. What 3 hardcore bands would you cite as being your main influences in UNRUH, and why? I am guessing that RORSCHACH was one important band that influenced you?

Ryan: Haha, Rorschach is my favorite band of all time with Iron Maiden a close second. If I were to name 3 in the early days it would be Rorschach, Voice of Reason, and Citizens Arrest. We stole Voice Of Reason's crazy 16th beat high-hat beats and used that a ton. I was really into the band Ire when we were writing the last LP. Always loved Assuck and a lot of crust punk too..

Q. What about a few metal or sludge bands that influenced you too? Early Earache Records catalogue?

Ryan: We were way into Slayer and lots and lots of death metal bands like Incantation, Suffocation, Autopsy, Carcass etc. I was probably more into those bands than anyone else. I did the bulk of the writing over the years, though. So, that influence definitely crept in. Nick the original bass player wrote a bunch of riffs on the first LP, 7", and split with Enewetak, but he was a huge death/black metal fan too.

Q. What guitarists influenced your style of playing the most during your time in UNRUH?

Ryan: There was really no definitive guitarist that I was into for our stuff. I was always into the Steer/Ammott combo. Hanneman and King obviously. I don't know. I've always been into a lot of Indie rock and classic rock and shit too. I drew influences from all over and still do.

Q. What do you think mainly seperates heavy metal from hardcore? I was just pondering this when thinking about whether UNRUH was really a 'metalcore' band (when compared with the shit that gets labelled that today)...

Ryan: At the time we just called it hardcore. But it was very much metal/grind looking back. At the end of our days the term metalcore started coming around a lot and we usually got lumped in with that. We even had a reviewer compare us to Mine once and say that we had that "emo" sound. There is definitely a huge separation between the metal scene and hardcore scene and we generally played to the hardcore scene, but did play some metal shows every once in awhile. There's so many more separations in hardcore and metal these days though. Most people nowadays when you say metalcore think of kids in sideways hats and grills. We were far from that. We grew up in the ebullition PC era of things but had a way more punk scumbag attitude. So, it was very much more different than the metal scene cause we had politics and DIY and all that other stuff. Plus punks/hardcore kids were way more made up of roughnecks than metal dudes ever have been or will be.

Q. Why did UNRUH decide to break up?

Ryan: We did a European tour in 99 that was rough to say the least. It was also one of the best times of my life. Tensions were a little high when we got back and things for me just felt like I was done with it. So, we stopped and Bill and I started Structure of Lies.

Q. What did you think to Europe when you toured? I'm from the UK myself but didn't get a chance to see you; what did you think of it? Did you have any crazy run-ins while over here?

Ryan: I love Europe. Ive been to Holland since and really enjoyed it. I don't think I'd ever want to live there. I love the wide open Desert here and no real cold weather. The UK is awesome. We did most of our shows with Phobia there and they were amazing. They treat you much like they do in the states though and gas prices were out of control even then. So, we were totally used to getting paid well, fed at every show as well as breakfast, cheap gas etc. Then we were shocked when we got to the UK. haha. I'd really love to visit London not on a tour. I've always kind of loved British culture. So, being there was really cool. Wish we could have spent more time there. We didn't really have anything too crazy in the UK. More in the mainland. Being with Phobia is always crazy though. Those guys are nuts.

Q. ENEWETAK (who you did a split with) seem, to me, like UNRUH's brother-band, in sound and attitude. Along with GEHENNA etc, you all seemed to play an original style of metal influenced hardcore that was fresh and new, all with bleak lyrics that seperated you from other hardcore bands singing about the same issues... What are your thoughts on this?

Ryan: We definitely were super tight with all those RPT bands. We did a split with Enewetak, a US tour with Fall Silent, and played so many shows with Gehenna I couldn't even count them. That was probably my second most favorite period of hardcore (the first being the early 90's when Born Against, Rorschach, Crossed Out etc. were around). We had so many good times playing with and watching those bands. We probably went to California to play with them every other month and one of those bands was in Phoenix every month or so. It was awesome. We never really knew where to classify ourselves, as well as those bands.

Q. When did you first discover hardcore? Can you remember the first hardcore record you heard, and first band you saw?

Ryan: I'm not sure. I'd heard a few bands by the late 80's and was super into metal since the early 80's. I remember buying Bad Brains "Quickness" shortly after it came out cause I was super into Mountain Bike racing and John Tomac talked about how he loved Bad Brains in an interview I read. But that record was super metal. I just thought it was kind of weird metal. I think a little later, maybe 89 or so a friend gave me a cassette of the early Minor Threat stuff and a cassette of Cro Mags "Age of Quarrel" and I was floored. That started opening the door to other things for me. I got way more into punk and hardcore at that point.

Q. What was the worst thing about hardcore in 1995 when Unruh started, in your opinion? What bands did you really dislike and why?

Ryan: Good question. I don't know. I was always into everything that was hardcore and metal. There was always bands I didn't get into, but I mean I was into the whole Revelation/Victory thing, crust punk, hardcore, old school hardcore, all kinds of punk etc. So, I don't know. Probably about 1996, clap dancing made it into Arizona and I fucking hated that shit.

Q. Were any of the band straight edge? What was the deal with straight edge in the mid 90s in and around Arizona ('gang' violence?)

Ryan: I am, but have never really claimed it or anything. In the mid 90's all the SXE kids here were Christian and really centered around this band called Overcome. So, there wasn't really violence or gangs here until the early 2000's.

Q. What's the funniest story you can tell about your time in UNRUH?

Ryan: Dude, I have so many. It'd be hard to pick just one. Most of them centered around the last bass player of the band, Mike Bjella. Probably the night he stabbed himself in the head multiple times with a fork in Switzerland. It's a long story, but that alone should make you laugh.

Q. What was the best show you played and why? What bands did you always like to play with, and what bands are you glad to have been able to play with? What was your worst show?

Ryan: Man, you ask some challenging questions. Best show? I don't know man. We played one in Phoenix with Gehenna, Enewetak, Fall Silent, and Tho Ko Losi. It doesn't get much better than that. I don't know, we played rad shows and toured with rad bands the likes of Assuck, Phobia, Man VS. Humanity, Stack, Creation Is Crucifixion, Reversal of Man, Dillinger Escape Plan opened for us before anyone knew who they were, State Of Fear, Seein Red, Stalingrad, Machine Head, Catharsis, Congress etc. etc. Worst show? I don't know. I had tons of bad nights on tours, but locally, probably my birthday where I spent the day in traffic school for 8 hours and then played with Disembodied, Converge, Overcast, and Ten Yard Fight and we almost got in a fight with Ten Yard Fight. What a birthday. Blah.

Q. How important do you think having some kind of message, whether it be political or social (or whatever), is to being in a hardcore punk band? What do you think of the strongly political/activist hardcore scene of the early-to-mid 1990s looking back?

Ryan: I thought it was fucking great and it opened my eyes to a lot of stuff. I still think it's awesome when bands do it, but it's not like it used to be. I was never in a band with an overly political message though, I was more into the dark side of shit as were most of my vocalists. I was never too into writing lyrics. Wellington was the only band I ever wrote all the lyrics for and I wrote like three Structure of Lies songs, but I usually leave that to the more poetic people around me.

Q. You also played in WELLINGTON right? What other bands have you done time in? What bands are currently in, and what are the other guys upto?

Ryan: I played in a pop punk band called Richard Cranium when I was 15/16. I played in Lyburnum with the singer of Unruh. We actually had a song on Ebullition's Amnesia comp. Super Moss Icon esque type of band that originally sounded like Rorschach. Wellington, Unruh, Uruk Hai, Structure of Lies, Mercitron, North Side Kings, and now Landmine Marathon is my current band. The original bass player, Nick isn't playing right now. The second bass player, Jason, is in a band from Texas called Healers. The third bass player, Mike is in an amazing band from here called Black Hell and does a noise project called Gog. The singer, Mike, isn't playing right now. And the drummer, Bill, is in a rock band called Antique Scream. Most of them have moved on and have kids etc. and don't do the full time band thing. I'm still as into it as ever and Landmine Marathon is extremely active.

Ryan playing in Landmine Marathon.

Q. Who do you prefer, CROSSED OUT or NO COMMENT?

Definitely Crossed Out. No Comment ruled, but was really just DRI on speed. Crossed Out was the most insane, angry thing I'd ever and still have ever heard. I've never heard anyone match their intensity and brutality. Funny, cause our drummer and I just went to see this band called Ceremony who was doing the Crossed Out/Infest thing (though I'm not sure they're even aware of it) and all these SXE kids were huge into them and going insane and I'm sure they had no idea that the sound is 20 years old.

Q. What are your 5 favourite hardcore records EVER, and what's so good about them?

Ryan: Fuck man, here you go again. I hope a lot of people read this, cause this is straining my brain quite a bit! Rorschach "Protestant" is definitely number one, can Black Flag's first four years of EP's be one album? I'm saying yes. Ok, that's 2. Minor Threat's first EP. That's 3. Um, Citizen's Arrest "Collossus". That's 4. Shit. I don't know. Let's say, Fall Silent's "No Strength To Suffer". That's just the icing on the cake, but all of those records are amazing.

Q. What's the worst thing you've ever seen happen at a hardcore show?

Ryan: Man, all kinds of shit. I've seen some people get pretty messed up. Saw a dude get stabbed right in front of me at a Neurosis show in Phoenix. Huge brawls. All kinds of stuff. It's pretty safe here these days though.

Q. If you could bring together 5 bands to play a show, who would you choose?

Ryan: Current bands? Hmm, let's say Graf Orlock, Bolt Thrower, Carcass (they're doing a reunion!), Saviours, I don't know, um, Despise You. There we go.

Q. A metal question to end on...What's your favourite Black Sabbath record, and why? Are you a fan of Dio-era?

Probably Paranoid. I don't know. I have this rad box set called "Black Sabbath: The Ozzy Years" and I just rock that. So, I don't listen to any particular album generally. Mob Rules is the shit though. Some of their doomiest stuff was with Dio!

http://www.myspace.com/unruhhardcore

The results of this weeks poll (favourite Integrity record)...

2008-06-30T19:25:00.006+01:00

Here are the results for this weeks poll, for favourite INTEGRITY record. It didn't get too many votes, perhaps due to the fact that half of the people who read this blog probably either dislike or just plain hate the band. That's fine, I'm not expecting all polls to be of interest to everyone. For example, the one I'm about to start is for 'favourite classic Slap A Ham Records release', which will probably alienate a fair few who voted on the INTEGRITY poll...And so it goes.

I am surprised that 'Systems Overload' won, even though it would have been my firt choice. Melnick worship. 'Those Who Fear Tomorrow' didn't even get any votes for the first couple of days the poll was up, which was another surprise, as is the fact that someone voted for the INTEGRITY/MAYDAY split 7" as their favourite... Although a good record, that's crazy; maybe they just prefer Mayday to Integrity overall.

Also, even though I don't agree, I respect the fact that some people prefer RINGWORM's 'The Promise' to any INTEGRITY record. It IS a total classic.

And if you're wondering why I didn't include your favourite album 'Closure', '2000' or 'To Die For' on the list, this probably isn't the right blog for you...

Those Who Fear Tomorrow: 5 (12%)
Integrity/Mayday split 7": 1 (2%)
Systems Overload: 15 (38%)
Seasons In The Size Of Days: 2 (5%)
Humanity Is The Devil: 9 (23%)
In Contrast Of Sin: 1 (2%)
I prefer Ringworm - The Promise: 6 (15%)

ROSE ROSE: Liquidation LP (1989) upload...

2008-06-30T18:35:00.010+01:00

Here's an upload of late 80s Japanese hardcore, in the form of ROSE ROSE. They loved skating, they loved thrashing.

Download here.

This LP was put out on UK label IN YOUR FACE RECORDS, after their UK tour in 1988 (apparently they were the first Japanese hardcore band to tour Europe). I managed to pick it up for next to nothing, perhaps down to the fact that it was pressed in the UK and could have been fairly widely circulated... Whoever ran the label might even still have loads lying about, who knows. They're still not that well-known of a band, despite the popularity and rising prices of Japanese hardcore...While it's no 'Equalizing Distort', it's worth a listen.

I may be alone in thinking this, but some of this record in my opinion sounds a lot like label mates HERESY (especially on songs like 'Don't Excuse' or 'Freedom Of Choice', similar vocal patterns and blasting drums). On a whole it sounds like ACCUSED meets HERESY being filtered through SOB... or something to that effect. Instead of playing the Japanese style akin to the Burning Spirit bands, ROSE ROSE were more heavily influenced by what was going on in the UK and US it seems (reflected by the fact they sang in English, although a lot of Japanese bands did/do). They also didn't have huge mohawks or metal hair like some of their regional contemporaries; perhaps if they did they'd lose balance and fall off their skateboards...

There's a strong crossover/thrash element on this record too, so typical of the time period and to be expected from a Japanese hardcore band; Japanese bands seemed to be able to infuse metal influences with hardcore punk a lot more successfully that loads of US bands could (i.e. ZOUO, GISM, JUDGEMENT etc). Anyway, this metal influence would not long after this album take over the band's sound. However this LP is still a good energetic hardcore record, and I might even prefer it to the other two ROSE ROSE records I'm most familar with ('Mosh Of Ass', and their split LP with SIC. Both of these are great though).

While I've seen this on another blog, the MP3 files were badly labelled. Anyway, enjoy.

New interview with Jay from UNITED MUTATION...

2008-06-28T10:55:00.020+01:00

I recently interviewed Jay Fox, who played bass for the legendary VA hardcore band UNITED MUTATION. While all of their recordings are incredible (including the demos, which were released later on Lost And Found), their 2nd EP 'Rainbow Person' is truly one of my favourite records ever, of any genre. Completely original and one-of-a-kind. I'm very thankful to Jay for answering these questions, and I hope you find his answers as interesting as I did..

1. How and when exactly did United Mutation form? How did you personally find out about punk, and what about it appealed to you?

Jay: UM formed in the summer of 1981, my brother John, Rev. Noel, and John Hardin had been recording for about 6 or 8 months, just learning how to writhing songs, and we met thru a mutual friend Mike Brown and a guy named Bob Otte, we started a band called Dark Self Image in the spring og 1981, it lasted until fall, then broke apart. John,John and I did a house party that fall/winter, then a couople more in the spring of 1982... This was with Mike Salkind on ..drums... We.. re-ran into Mike that spring, and he grabbed the mic. That was the start. Our first show as UM was Halloween 1982 with Media Disease in Fairfax Va.

Punk. I heard about from the sensationalist American Media. They set punk up in the Music press, so kids like me(I bought my first punk record in January 1978 - Rocket to Russia)could be exposed to it. Happily it never went away and killed disco at the same time.

2. Do you remember the first hardcore band you saw live, and what was your impression? Were you strongly aware that essentially a new music genre was being created, from the foundations of punk, in 80/81 (hardcore)?

Jay: 1st hardcore band live... I saw a buncn of pre -hardcore bands first,Cramps, Gun Club, Slickee Boys, Velvet Monkeys, Root Boy Slim, Rupert Chapplle. The first "real" DC Hardcore show I went to was Deadline.

3. How did you end up appearing on the Mixed Nuts Don't Crack comp? Does it represent the 'other' side of the DC-area scene to Flex Your Head?

Jay: Mixed Nuts was definitely the other side of the coin from Flex. Were was asked by Laura Lynch. She ran the label and went to school with John Fox. Plus we were an active not-on-Dischord hardcore band from Virginia. At this time UM and Media Disease were playing parties and such and were both recording at Inner Ear studio. It seemed to make sense.

4. United Mutation has also striked me as being one of the quintissential 'outsider' hardcore bands. Did you fit in at all with the DC scene?

Jay: We were from the other side of the Potomac River, and were not straight edge. At the time most of the Dischord folks still lived in DC or were just moving across the river into Arlington. We also were not intently trying to be "in" the scene, we had our own little scene in VA, and didn't really see the sense in hanging on someone else's party. We had our own. As far as fitting in, we ended up with lots of friends in the DC scene, played shows with most of the bands we liked and got to take advantage of the greatness that was happening. So while not conforming or trying to be in, we still ended up in the same scene.

5.What was the response like to the 1st demo when it came out, and was it this that sparked interest from Dischord? Did you play many shows with the straight edge bands etc?

Jay: By the time the Fugitive Family demo was finished we had already done 2 full demos at Inner Ear, that had already broken us into the scene. Both of these are on vinyl or on the Lost And Found Records CD. I guess that Ian/Jeff liked it well enough, they helped us get it out, and still consider us on the roster of Dischord. As far as playing shows with Dischord bands, we played with Scream, Marginal Man, Double O, Insurrection, Beefeater... Lots of others.

6. Tell us about how DSI Records started...

Jay: DSI was started by John Fox, and Lee West. Lee went on to be in Always August, a Richmond VA psychedelic band that put out a few records on SST. It was basically an outlet to get bands out. Dischord was being inundated with bands trying to get on the label, and they just couldn't do it, so DSI and Fountain Of Youth Records picked up the overflow to help get more bands that were trying to get records out be able to make it happen.

7. Were Media Disease your 'brother band' so to speak? Were you also friends with No Trend (another real outsider band)?

Jay: Media Disease were all our close friends. We played parties/shows with them, hung around, and were basically the Northern Virginia hardcore scene's main bands. John, the singer, was one of Mike Brown's school friends, so yeah we were brother bands for sure. No Trend, not really. Mike Salkind, our original drummer, joined them for a couple of records/tours. Personally, I don't know any of them other than Mike. The first couple of records were good. Live, i found them mostly painful to sit through, but that may be because they played a lot of shows, and played real long sets.

8. United Mutation are often credited with being a pioneering band to mix psychedelic music styles with hardcore. Were you influenced by 60s psych bands heavily? Were drugs involved?

Jay: All members of UM listened to 60's psychedelic music. John Fox and I were and still are fans of the San Francisco sound - Dead, Airplane, Country Joe, Quicksilver + lots of other stuff like the 13th Floor Elevators, Electric Prunes, then stuff like Zappa, Beefheart, Hawkwind, Gong... All that stuff played into our heads/music. As far as drug use, we were pot head types, not hard drug users. No one in our band was ever involved with hard drugs. We did try and expand our music into a psyche direction, but more into the weirdness of it not the flowery bits. Hawkwind was more of an influence than most other bands. But stuff like Butthold Surfers were high on our list as well. Alternative Tentacles and SST bands all had the same kind of vibe aswell. Though not so many Dischord type bands touched that vibe... Void did I guess, and 9353.

9. Is it true you hung out in your basement most of the time and rarely played shows?

Jay: It is true we hung out in our basement, and we did practice a lot. There weren't that many shows so almost everyone got a lot of practice in, it shows when you listen back to the DC records of the time, bands like Faith, Marginal Man, Scream, those bands kicked ass big time. We had to work hard as the competition was fierce. In general, UM played out a couple of times a year. But that was about all you coule expect in the time frame.

10. What's the funniest story you have to tell from the UM days?

Jay: Funniest story... Mike Brown doing a backflip onstage and landing on a full can of beer, and the geyser shooting between his legs in front of the entire Wilson Centre was pretty funny... Getting to play with the Dead Kennedys because we said we would play for free was pretty funny as well as a great business decision, careerwise.

11. How did the transition between the two 7"s come about, in sound? Were you just listening to more Beefheart? I think Rainbow Person is a true masterpiece of the genre (or any genre), and an example of a band truly pushing the boundaries. What are your thoughts on this?

Jay: Thanks for the kind words. RP is still pretty solid, it has stood the test of tie where other discs have not. In general I think all UM stuff still holds its own, though we were contacted by a Major/Independent label recently, and we were interested in signing with them, but the main dude thought UM was "too lo-fi"... which in comparison to some things is true, but I never thought of us as a lo-fi band... What like Luna? hahaha... Transition was just a natural one, we wanted to make RP more like a whole disc of Lice And Flies, which I guess it is in some capacity. We were trying to push the edge, but the songs just happened as they came about. We just happened to mesh well together and the songs were just the way they came out.

12. How did Mike Brown come up with such a disgusting, and amazing, voice (years before many death metal and hardcore bands would adopt similar styles)?

Jay: Mike Brown's voice... No effort was made, that's the way it came out. He eid work on it after the fact but it was never planned as a vocal style. We have been touted as being innovators in the style as well as criticized by people who seem to think we were bandwagon jumpers, but the truth is, that was Mike's voice. What you hear is what it was.

13. Why is the track on the Bouncing Babies compilation under the name 'The Last Minute'? Is it all the same members?

Jay: Infinite Regression on Bouncing Babies was from our first session as Inner Ear with Steve Kirkland. We went in after Billy quit, and Steve joined just to keep up the momentum, and to get Steve used to the studio. We got a few tracks done, early version of Rainbow Person tracks mostly and some old UM standards. Fountain Of Youth contacted us and we wanted to use something with Steve on drums, and that was all we had mixed. It had me on vocals... It was kind of in between EP's. Band line up on it is John Fox on guitar, Steve on drums and me on bass/vocals.

14. Explain where the sample on 'Rainbow Person' came from, with the mentally unstable person talking about aliens etc?

Jay: The sample was recorded by Mike Brown and some of his friends. It was recorded in Old Town, Alexandria, VA. The guy was a homeless person who was ranting on about all sorts of things. I think some of the samples on the Malefice: Lotus Blossom LP came from the same era.

15. What are your top 5 hardcore records ever, and why?

Jay: Top 5 huh...

Damaged by Black Flag: Flag at this era were unstoppable. Two guitars, Dukowski, and Henry... No way to top.

Minor Threat, first 1 EPs: Minor Threat in the original format brand new were great. They lost something with 2 guitars in my opinion. But Out Of Step has some killer songs.

In A Car by Meat Puppets: Perfect example of what's great about punk rock. It can be anything, noise rock, psychedelic. This EP was the predecessor to the future.

What Makes A Man Start Fires by Minutemen: M-Men changed my life with this one. It showed you could be punk rock without having to be hardcore the spirit of D Boon lives on.

In God We Trust Inc by Dead Kennedys: Harder faster does rule.

16. What bands have you been in since United Mutation, and tell us a bit about your record label...

I've been in about 40 bands seriously. I have been a hired gun and a member of so many bands since UM kind of took a break. Most were one-off shows, some in Antarctica, where that tends to happen. I only consider bands that have played live, ones that did aren't bands in my opinion. UM is not over, it's just spread thin. Highlights--- most recent: Into The Ether, Birmanray, The Jane Wymans, Goiter, Anesthesia... It looks like I will be joining yet another band here in the near future, Denver punk trash band Daisy Cutter. It features Critter on drums who was the original drummer for Fang.

The follow are the most prolific or engaging post-UM bands...

1. Bullhead: Features all members of UM. Basically an offshoot of the UM theme.

2. Anesthesia: Lo fi druggy psychedelic stuff, kind of Velvet Underground/Luna/Television/Sonic Youth.

3. Birdmanray: All instrumental space rockish punk stuff, incorporated poets as vocals, lots of improv live. Performed with dangers/film/lightshows as "Fragments of Divine" but was really just Birdmanray.

4. Into The Ether: Most recent band, basically Birdmanray doing songs as well as the improv sets. Space punk like more recent Hawkwind stuff.

5. Jane Wymanns: Matt Hurley set list, kind of an offshoot of Anesthesia, Garegey punk folk.

6. Goiter: Ugly punk/hardcore, lots of weirdo songs. Kind of negative on purpose.

My label, Livingnightengale is an offshoot of DSI, which is currently just kind of floating in limbo along with everything else John Fox is doing these days. We have 3 released on the label, 1.) White Cold Days: Music from the McMurdo Station Scene, all 3 acts are from the Antarctic music scene. This is all attached to my job, which is based sometimes in Denver and other times in the Antarctic. All bands are doing original music. 2 tracks recorded in Antarctica, 2 in New Zealand, 2 in Denver. 2.) Historic Huts Of The Ross Sea, DVD slide show by Ed Anderson, photojournalist. Musical soundtrack by Savage Republic/Scenic, Bruce Lichers BNDs Score The Hut Tour. 3.) Shit From An Old Notebook Compilation CD, produced for the art gallery show of the same name. Features music from various bands I have played in, with outtakes, demos, live tracks etc... Bands include United Mutation, Pre-Mutation stuff, Mainline, Jane Wymann's etc... Hope to have Rainbow Person as LVG#4 split with DSI out this fall/winter... Other things in the queue are Sir Edmund Hillary Tribute CD/DVD...

17. Could you write a quick discography, including demos and a time frame, since there's been lots of confusion regarding this...

Dark Self Image: 1980-1981 home demos only

Quick Relief : 1981-1982 Spring demo at Inner Ear, later became UM demo after.

Overdubs of Mike Brown on vocs UM: 1982 Fall demo at Inner Ear, later appeared on Mixed Nuts Don't Crack.

UM: 1982-1983 Home demo with Billy Fox. Never released.

UM: 1983 Summer demo at Inner Ear Billy Fox on drums, Fugitive Family EP.

UM: 1983 Winter demo at Inner Ear first demo with Steve Kirkland. The Bouncing Babies version of Infinite Regression from this session, as well as Rock N Roll Party Mix off Freaks Out LP.

UM: 1984 Summer demo, Inner Ear, Rainbow Person EP from this. As well as Sensations Fix, which was re-mixed in the fall for the Alive And Kicking compilation EP.

18. Tell us a bit about what the other UM guys are up to now too; Billy playing jazz etc?

Jay: Billy is playing jazz and other styles of music, John Fox is into Hawaiin music, Mike Salkind plays in various bands here in Colorado, we jam about once a year just for fun. Steve is still MIA, no one has seen him in years. To my knowledge he's not doing any music on a professional level, which is sad. Mike Brown has a studio in his house and is doing psychedelic hip hop type stuff, and whatever else he feels like playing.

I usually have about 2 bands going at any time.

19. Are you glad there is still interest in a band that's been split up for so many years? Have you seen the rising prices your records go for on Ebay now too?

Jay: I'm very pleased that people are still into the UM thing as we all spent a lot of years and time on the whole project. It's great that hardcore in general is still around and people still want to hear it. It's funny, we never thought about the band being done, it's just in limbo, we could play any day and still have fun and make music, I guess kind of like Fugazi. They aren't really broken up just doing other things.

20. Any last words?
Jay: Thanks for your interest and the great questions... It is appreciated on every level.

From the insert to the 'Rainbow Person' EP.

SONS OF ISHMAEL: Pariah Martyr Demands A Sacrifice LP (1987) upload...

2008-06-25T23:23:00.024+01:00

Here's a 1987 LP by Canada's SONS OF ISHMAEL. While this is not a really a classic by any means I figured it's worth sharing and some people may be interested.

Download it here.

I picked up this LP by these Meaford thrashers for real cheap and it's easy to get; they're not particularly popular or widely known but this is a pretty good record nonetheless, although fatally flawed. Sidenote: my copy was issued by British label MANIC EARS RECORDS, who also put out RIPCORD, SORE THROAT etc...

SON OF ISHMAEL's first (and best) 7" 'Hayseed Hardcore' seems to have been more widely heard than this LP and it's understandable why... it just doesn't SOUND good, and is generally regarded as a letdown after the great initial EP. As you probably know from my previous posts, raw production doesn't bother me when it comes to hardcore and can often add to a record's greatness, but this just sounds shit, not unlike PSYCHO: 'Hosebags From Hell'...limp and lifeless with a weak guitar sound and annoyingly quiet vocals. Just listen to songs from 'Hayseed Hardcore' here and note the difference in sound. Saying that, it's not so bad it's unlistenable and the bands energy shines through...just about. It's a shame really that the songs suffer so much from the weak sound. Still, the fast songs are better than the slower mid paced ones and there's enough of them to make it a good listen. It's worth the download alone just for the hardcore version of 'Stairway To Heaven'...

A cool thing about this band is that they were playing a style of fast hardcore at a time when it wasn't popular or particularly cool to do so. When many of their contemporaries were either broken up, playing heavy metal or college rock, SONS OF ISHMAEL kept on playing fast DRI-influenced hardcore punk, from 1985 to their break up in 1991. Listening to this record you'd think it was from 1982 rather than 1987, they seemed trapped in some timewarp oblivious to everything going on around them. Sure it's generic, but they didn't care, they were just playing simple youthful hardcore, not attempting to win any prizes for pushing the envelope or receiving a pat on the back for following whatever trends were going on at the time...The fact that they listened to the shitty mix of this record and thought "yeah this sounds good, let's get it pressed!" is a testament to their simple charm... Their record after this, 'Sings Generic Crap', is definitely a stronger listen and I'll post that too sometime in the future.

DEAD YOUTH

We've got reason to be cynical, look what they've done to our world

Adults as role models are teachin greed and predjudice

Is it any wonder life is disillusioning

Burnt out kids are turning into sour faced adults?

Sit in classes for 5 hours a day

Told to act the Proper Way

"Competition and Self-Centred motives

are the keys to success in our world today"

Parents and Teachers plot to pull you their way

So you fight it off with drugs and alcohol

At a time when you think you're doing lots to rebel

You're stumbling around like a derelict adult

Then go to your job for eight hours a day

You hate it but you're getting paid

There is nothing left to do but drown

In your middle class cesspool of a life

Photo from the band's myspace

VOORHEES interview uploads from Tilt #8 and Murder Contest #2...

2008-06-23T22:17:00.008+01:00

Since I'm from the UK, it's probably about time I made a post about a British band...So, here are two VOORHEES interviews, one from Tilt #8 (1995. Taken from punksishippies) and one from Murder Contest #2 (2004)...

The interview from Tilt #8 is an interesting read; the interviewer questions the bands over them being macho, equates their horror-inspired lyrics with singing about porn/snuff, and criticises their "misogyny" and interest in serial killers. The last answer givcen sums up their attitude in response: "What a stupid question. Fuck off.". I guess the VOORHEES were kind of in 'the wrong place at the wrong time' during thie period: the politicized hardcore scene of the mid-90s, and 'right on' attitudes towards everything from what you should sing about to how you should act on stage, meant the band's violent imagery and sense of humour went over the scene's collective heads... They were 'the real deal', to quote ANTIDOTE. Oh well, I know I'd rather listen to VOORHEES and watch Texas Chainsaw Massacre than listen to ENDPOINT or any number of other bad 90s bands... does that make me a bad person? Click on the images to see bigger readable versions...

As a counterpart to the above interview, I've scanned in a "recent" detailed interview with Sean about his time in VOORHEES from great but shortlived UK zine Murder Contest, #2 (2004). Note on the last page the flyer from when HATEBREED supported them...

P.S. The VOORHEES 'Spilling Blood Without Reason' LP is, in my opinion, a classic hardcore record. Coming out at a time when most hardcore bands wanted to sound like EARTH CRISIS, VOORHEES instead wanted to sound like NEGATIVE FX and IMPACT UNIT, and did a fucking good job of emulating the early Boston sound in a uniquely English way (there's strong elements of HERESY and RIPCORD in there too). Plus they had a great aesthetic, and notice how the back cover of 'Spilling Blood Without Reason' is a homage to the back cover of 'Get It Away'. YES

NEGAZIONE: Lo Spirito Continua (1986) LP upload...

2008-06-22T22:23:00.009+01:00

I'm making this post/upload because I was just listening to the F.O.D. (Flag Of Democracy) LP 'Shatter Your Day', and some of the songs (especially from side B) made me think "hmm, this sorta sounds like Negazione". There's an insight into the mental processes that lead to new posts...

Download Negazione: Lo Spirito Continua here.

This is a great record, don't believe any one who tells you otherwise. While probably not quite as good as their masterpiece 'Condannati A Morte Nel Vostro Quieto Vivere', this is definitely my 2nd favourite Negazione record...I prefer both to 'Tutti Pazzi'. Anyway, Negazione were, in my opinion, one of the best Italian hardcore bands... just ignore their later records (basically anything after this one) because their songs gradually got longer and the metal/hard-rock influence took over. Slapshot even covered a fairly bad later Negazione song 'Back To My Friends' on their shitty album 'Unconsciousness'... weird eh.

Up to this point, Negazione just played perfect high energy hardcore. They were inventive and unpredictable, with constant time changes and odd guitar progressions. Furthermore Zazzo's voice is just WILD. The perfect example of how intense and unhinged-sounding vocals can carry along a good hardcore record. Fuck, all those monotone sing-by-numbers hardcore bands should take a lesson from the Italian masters (see Cheetah Chrome Motherfuckers, Chain Reaction and Declino as other great examples of crazy vocalled greatness). Plus, like many great Italian hardcore bands, THEY USE A COWBELL (to great effect).

Back to the guitar work; Roberto is another one of my favourite hardcore guitar players, and his riffs are instantly memorable. They take just the right amount of metal/crossover influence, echoing US bands like The Accused, Suicidal and Adrenalin OD, and more straight forward hardcore bands like Verbal Abuse... Overall it's clear that Negazione were taking their cues from what was going on in the US rather than the UK/Europe, in terms of hardcore (fellow Italians Wretched were diametrically much more influenced by UK bands). Nevertheless, Negazione still sang in Italian for the most part and, along with Spanish, I think Italian really is one of the best languages for hardcore - the way it flows, its stucture and its speed just suit the style perfectly...

Anyway, listening to Negazione brings to mind the image of a huge 80s Italian circle pit with bandanas, checkered shirts and homemade sleveless US hardcore shirts aplenty...What more do you want?

DID I MENTION THEY USE A COWBELL?

The results of this weeks poll (favourite NYHC demo)...

2008-06-19T21:07:00.003+01:00

To keep a log on the weekly polls, I'll make a post after each one has ended with the results...

It was no surprise that the Cro Mags demo would win this one. More interesting is the fact that Citizens Arrest came second! I'm not sure if that's a sign of a growing general appreciation of that great band, or just a reflection of the kinds of people who read my blog (i.e. similar tastes in hardcore)... I feel sorry for the Krakdown and Warzone 'Tommy Rat' demos though (as if they were living entities)...

Cro Mags AOQ demo
21 (39%)
Altercation demo
3 (5%)
Krakdown 87 demo
0 (0%)
Breakdown 87 demo
9 (16%)
Citizens Arrest demo
10 (18%)
Beyond Dew It demo
1 (1%)
Raw Deal 88 demo
7 (13%)
Warzone Tommy Rat demo
0 (0%)
Life's Blood demo
2 (3%)

CITIZENS ARREST interview upload from Profane Existence #8...

2008-06-19T19:35:00.005+01:00

Sorry I haven't updated it for nearly a week. Back to business now. To get things started, here's a CITIZENS ARREST interview from Profane Existence #8.

Daryl doesn't answer that many questions, the other three guys field most of the answers...it's interesting to read what they had to say. For example, how Patrick states he wouldn't want to play with SICK OF IT ALL or KILLING TIME, Joe and Janis debating the place of religion in hardcore, discussion of attitudes towards the ABC NO RIO scene...

However probably the most interesting thing in the interview (if you're a nerd like me) is the reference to a cover-song 7" which was in the works and was going to feature BORN AGAINST, CITIZENS ARREST, INFEST (covering SIEGE), NEANDERTHAL (covering CRUDE SS) and RORSCHACH (covering SEPTIC DEATH). Fuck! I wonder what the BORN AGAINST and CITIZENS ARREST covers were going to be? I assume RORSCHACH were the only band to record their song for it (Hardware, which ended up on the split 7" with NEANDERTHAL)... Also, there's mention of a possible split LP with BORN AGAINST! Could have been so good. I think I'm going to make a post soon about all the best COULD-HAVE-HAPPENED-BUT-DIDN'T hardcore records...Just to bathe in a idealised appreciation of what could have been rather than what was...YES.

Once again, thanks to Papst Benedickt XVI for the scans.

P.S. Thoughts for the day: the URBAN WASTE EP is better than most other 7"s, so people should stop pretending that other certain records are as good as it, or even better (MECHT MENSCH?? Come on, be serious!...). Also, INTEGRITY without Melnick's guitar work - pale imitation...

LÄRM interview upload from MRR # 29, and videos...

2008-06-13T03:12:00.016+01:00

There won't be any updates until mid next week unfortunately, but expect lots of new original content when I'm back, including many new interviews with bands I like; some that you'll care about, and some that you probably won't. One interview which I'm looking forward to will be with Dutch hardcore gods LÄRM, who kindly agreed to answer some questions when I recently contacted them. So, in the meantime, here is an old interview with them from Maximum Rock'N'Roll issue #29 from 1985....

Also, here's some great old LÄRM live videos I stumbled across on Youtube:

NO COMMENT interview from Lack Of Ideals upload...

2008-06-12T00:18:00.011+01:00

As a follow-up to the CROSSED OUT interview posted below, here's a good NO COMMENT interview with the guitarist Brent, from the German zine Lack Of Ideals... I'm not sure what issue. Thanks to Papst Benedickt XVI for scanning this in.

I have to say, NO COMMENT are one of my favourite bands and Brent is one of my favourite guitarists. The riffs just keep coming, all within short spaces of time other bands would struggle to fill. NO COMMENT simply manage to make each 20/30 second song matter, with numerous time changes and progressions that still sound fresh and exciting each listen. This is one band that just does not get boring to listen to, ever. An interesting thing to note from this interview is that Brent states he had a nervous breakdown following the release of 'Downsided', and says the next record would have been based upon this experience. Fuck, if only they'd have recorded this third record...it would probably have caused the universe to implode. Does anyone know what Brent is doing nowadays?

Personally, regarding the question of whether I prefer the CROSSED OUT 7" or NO COMMENT's 'Downsided' 7", I have to go for the latter...it's just such a PERFECT record, that I couldn't say I preferred CROSSED OUT with a clear conscience (that's not to say their 7" isn't perfect too ... it's just not as perfect). It's a total step up from the 'Common Senseless' EP (which is also right up there in terms of greatness, but sounds more like an updated version of early-DRI and doesn't quite reach the same level of intensity as 'Downsided'). I mean, it was originally meant to be an LP, but the 11 songs written didn't even last 10 minutes. Fucking hardcore. Also, it's probably one of the fastest hardcore records there is without getting into grind territory. The only people who could possibly dislike it are those who haven't heard it yet, and complete idiots.

Also, note the flyer in the background of the second page: BORN AGAINST, CROSSED OUT, NO COMMENT, MAN IS THE BASTARD ... what a show!

Click on the pictures to see larger readable versions.

p.s. if you like NO COMMENT, and haven't heard LOW THREAT PROFILE (Andy Beattie's band with Matt from INFEST on guitar), see the post further down the page...

DA STUPIDS 'Alien' demo (1983) upload...

2008-06-11T16:57:00.009+01:00

As promised here is the demo by DA STUPIDS from Western Massachusetts, which was pressed onto vinyl (unofficially I assume) by Mindless Records, alongside the great OUTPATIENTS demos.

Download here.

I know very little about this band, other than that they were from Western Mass, the same area as the OUTPATIENTS and DEEP WOUND, and that this demo came out in 1983. Like the OUTPATIENTS, DA STUPIDS seem to have been lost in obscurity, atleast compared to other Massachusetts hardcore bands. This is perhaps due partly to the fact that both bands were from Western Mass and not the city, so were not affiliated with the X Claim crowd nor the Modern Method bands as far as I know...perhaps DEEP WOUND too would have been forgotten (or atleast be more obscure) if members didn't go on to form more popular bands.

Since I don't know anything else about them, I can't re-tell any stories about them getting into fights with Al Barile, or beating up DEEP WOUND onstage leading to Lou and J to abandon playing hardcore, or threatening to sue THE STUPIDS from the UK over their namesake. If any of these stories actually happened, let me know. I guess I'll just have to write about the music...This is great hardcore punk; out-of-control and wild, psychotic and distinctive vocals, guitars that are all over the place. It's a bit like early MEAT PUPPETS meets NO THANKS. I believe they also shared members with PAJAMA SLAVE DANCERS (who's early stuff is also good).

By the way I think they also had a female singer, although I'm not 100%, it could be a eunuch or teenage boy (i.e. CRIPPLED YOUTH). Still...listen to a song like 'Ex-Communique' and try telling me that's a guy. I'm probably just an idiot: if any one knows the truth, or has an actual hard-copy of this demo, please get in touch or leave a comment...

REVIEW from Maximum Rock'n'Roll #11, Jan/Feb 1984.
"Some good psycho thrash noise with distinctive vocals, reminiscent of the Meat Puppets, the Butthole Surfers, and the Crucifucks. The recording is fine, and it makes for interesting listening, but the lyrics are as goofy as their band name indicates.-Tim Yohannon"

CROSSED OUT interview from Riot #7 upload...

2008-06-09T19:45:00.006+01:00

Here is a CROSSED OUT interview from the UK zine RIOT #7, from December 1993. I downloaded the zine again from the great punksishippies zine archive.

What can I say about CROSSED OUT? One of the best 90s hardcore bands, seriously god-like and a defining band of the power violence "genre". Just listen to the split with MAN IS THE BASTARD if you want to listen to perfection. Such a raw sound, huge floor tom hits, such intense vocals from Dallas, the dirge...Constantly imitated but never matched (SCAPEGOAT sure give it a good try though. Great 7").

This interview sums them up really. Anti-social, with short answers to match their short songs. Unlike some of their contemporaries, CROSSED OUT would never be likely to publish a 20 page political booklet with their records (Crimethinc anyone?), or spout out incessantly about the ills of society in interviews. They were straight to the point, musically and aesthetically: a single blow with a hammer to the skull. In that spirit, I'll keep things short...here's the interview (click photos to see larger readable versions).

SHORT POLL: Do you prefer the CROSSED OUT s/t 7" or NO COMMENT'S 'Downsided' 7"? There's no poll table, just leave a comment with your answer and explaination why...

SAY GOODBYE interview from 2004...

2008-06-09T18:08:00.009+01:00

Here's another interview I did to go in an unfinished zine with SAY GOODBYE from MA, sometime in 2004. I really liked this band and felt they never really got the attention they deserved. They put out 2 great EP's and an LP, as well as a demo. Solid hardcore with a distinctive sound, obviously taking influence from the X Claim bands but with other stuff going on too.

This interview was done with their bassist Craig and guitarist James. Craig now sings for WASTE MANAGEMENT, and plays bass in MIND ERASER. I'm not sure what the other members are up to now, so if you know leave a comment.

Q. First of all, introduce yourself and tell us who else is in the band and what does everyone play?

Craig: My name is Craig and I play bass. James plays guitar, Chris sings, and Eli plays drums. I believe we started in 2002, with our friend Ian on drums. He played on the first 7" and helped us write the LP.

James: Yeah our first show was in March of 2002.

Q. Is this your first band? Give us a rundown of band/s that you or other SG members have been involved with?

Craig: Yeah, SG was my first band. I'm also in Rampage now and James was in Police Beat. Eli is in R'n'R.

Q. Is your name a POISON IDEA reference or am I wrong? How fuckin good is that band?

Craig: People ask us that all the time, but its not. It's actually a line from the Citizen's Arrest song "Utopia". And yeah, Poison Idea is great of course.

James: Craig and I were in Blockbuster video one night looking for a movie and talking about Citizens Arrest and at one point one of us said "let's call the band Say Goodbye, like in Utopia". It's not the best name, but we were seriously starved for good ideas so we just went with it.

Q. Are you all from the same area? Whats the area like?

Craig: Yeah, we all live in southeastern Massachusetts right now. Its alright I guess. Its about a half-hour drive to either Providence or Boston. Its nice and quiet. I'm not a fan of living in the
city.

James: I grew up near New Bedford which is about an hour south of Boston, real close to Providence. I moved about a half hour north to be closer to school and the band. I like visiting cities, but I prefer living in a laid back, suburban/slightly rural area.

Q. What bands do you all listen to, and what influences the SG sound?

Craig: Well collectively we're all pretty into Black Flag, Infest, SSD, DYS, Cro-Mags, Adolescents, Bad Brains + you know, all the good stuff. Basically we just try to avoid sounding like the watered down bands that often pass for hardcore nowadays.

Q. What are some of your favourite current bands and are you encouraged by the "old school" resurgence recently? Are there many good shows in your area?

Craig: Well I guess its in the eye of the beholder. I'm pretty picky about what I like. I really like the 86 Mentality record and I'm looking forward to the new Annihilation Time and Mind Eraser LP's. And if by old school resurgence you mean listening to more 80's bands or whatever, then yeah I'm obviously down with that. And yeah, there are a decent amount of shows. Touring bands always play Boston or Providence, so that's cool. Regeneration in Boston should start having shows soon, then things will start to get good.

James: Our area does have lots of good bands playing often, both local and non-local...alot of the time turnouts are bleak when smaller bands play and I think alot of kids around here are spoiled but there are still quite a few who come out to lots of shows.

Q. What has been your favourite show so far?

Craig: Anytime we play Toronto or Montreal. The kids up there are super nice and always make us feel welcome. Great bands from Canada too: Fucked Up, Career Suicide, Inepsy, etc.

James: Ya Canada is my favorite place to play also. The kids are appreciative, supportive, and most importantly cool. Any time we've played up there has been memorable. I also love playing the AS220 in Providence because it's a great venue and all of our friends come out.

Q. How was it to play with the reformed INSTED recently? How do you feel about reunions of bands like Youth Of Today etc?

Craig: Well I was never a big Insted fan to begin with, but they were on top of their game. They sounded really good I thought. If a band wants to reunite, who cares? If it's a band I like I'll probably go check it out. The Sheer Terror reunion was great. I had no urge to see the YOT reunion.

James: I had a great time. I've always liked Insted and like Craig said, they were fucking tight. When YOT first reunited I was all about it. I was 16 at the time and I lived for Youth of Today. The older I get the more I find myself noticing/caring about hypocrisy, dishonesty, things like that...so I'm not too interested in seeing them now. They can do what they want though. It's just a personal thing for me to decide not to see them.

Q. Are the angry lyrics of SG aimed at specific perople or are they more general? Also, what do you think of politics in hardcore?

Craig: Chris would be better to answer this, but I'm pretty sure he's written some songs directly about one person. As for politics, I think a lot of these political bands just sing about that sort of thing because it's the "punk" thing to do. If someone actually knows about what they're talking about, then go for it.

James: I think politics definitly have a place in hardcore music, as much now as they did in the early 80's.

Q. What are some of your favourite current hardcore bands? Any particularly you want to play with (but haven't yet)?

Craig: Think I Care, 86 Mentality, DFJ's bands, Breathing Fire, Fucked Up, Refuseniks, Forward. we're playing with Dead Stop soon, I'm pretty psyched to check them out. I like their LP a lot.

James: My favorite bands right now are Think I Care, Righteous Jams, Out Cold, 86 Mentality, Ringworm, Fucked Up, The Lovely Lads, and Rampage. As far as bands we haven't played with yet, I'd love to play with Out Cold, they're the best.

Q. If there's one thing you could change about hardcore what would it be?

Craig: I hate people who get up on stage and preach about how we all have to get along and be happy and "dude X is so sincere" and all this bullshit. Fuck that! Those speeches don't make their crappy band sound any better, so they should just shut up and let it rip.

James: Like Craig said, more emphasis on playing good music, and less of this happy horseshit. Talk is good if you're saying something valuable, but that's not often the case. That I would definitly change. So many bands around now either suck or are just plain boring and have boring lyrics, but as stated earlier I guess that's all in the eye of the beholder. I just don't get how alot of these bands pass as hardcore.

Q. Who did the artwork for the LP? Are you into zombie movies?

Craig: Ben from Rampage drew it. I'm not into zombie movies actually. Maybe I should check them out sometime. But we just thought it'd be a cool idea to show the world ending.

James: I'm into some zombie flicks. My favorite would be the OG zombie classic Night of the Living Dead. I know it's a pretty generic answer but you cannot beat it. Dawn of the Dead is hectic too, the apartment scene in the beginning is the Age of Quarrel of movie scenes...

Q. Token question, What got you into hardcore in the first place? First record, first show?

Craig: I just started hanging with these kids in high school, they were like "hey lets go to the skatepark after class" and that was it. Of course the first stuff I heard was like Strife, EC, etc. Luckily I've found out about good bands since then. The first show I went to was with Ten Yard Fight, Reach the Sky, Time Flies and some locals. I wanted to go to other shows, but I didn't drive at the time and it was tough to find rides. The earliest hardcore stuff I remember having was the Judge LP and the Trust 7", oh and in 10th grade some hippie chick gave me a tape of her brother's "headbanging music". Turns out the tape was the Septic Death discography. Awesome.

James: For me it was basically a combination of things. My older brother is into hardcore and punk so he got me started on it pretty young. Also I was familiarized with the music through skateboarding videos, as well as some older kids in my town who were into hardcore. The first piece of punk I actually owned was the Germs discography, bought for me by my brother after I told him I thought Richie Daggers Crime was an awesome song. My first show was a local gig in the fall of 97. It was the first time my mother let me out of the house to stay out late with strange older kids. Little did she know. The show was Piebald, All Chrome, and Time Flies's first trip up North. Bane was supposed to play to but they cancelled. It was a good time.

Q. Are any of the band straight edge? Explain your view on it.

Craig: Yeah, we're all straight edge. We just don't label the band as a"straight edge band" since I think it would lump us in with theEmbrace Today's and Throwdown's of the world. And that wouldn't be cool.

James: For me straight edge is completely personal. It's second nature to me and it just fits into my lifestyle, it really doesn't come into play when deciding how I feel about a new band, or how I should present my band. It's just dead weight, the music itself is far more important, and there are far more important issues at hand.

Q. The internet: what do you think of things like Myspace/Livejournal, and also Messageboards? Do you use Ebay?

Craig: I think everyone, including myself is on the computer way too much. I was on myspace but I decided to get off. I don't see why you have to tell the whole world what you ate for breakfast or some stupid shit like that. I rarely use ebay, only if a find a deal. By the time you read this I'll probably have re-joined myspace because I'm a fucking loser.

James: My Space is competely stupid but I'm on it for god knows what reason. I'd like to say I use it to meet girls, which would be sad, but I don't even do that. I guess part of me likes to be plugged into some kind of halfass social group, and if I don't have to actually interact with people
personally, well then that's all the better. As far as messageboards, alot of the kids who post on them, even ones who use real names, often come across like complete assholes, spineless dickheads, or both. When I read the Bridge 9 board I wonder what stump in the ground these kids grew out from. Not all of them, but alot of them. And I don't use eBay because I'm afraid it'll drain my bank account and I'll never trust computers anyways so fuck it.

Q. What do you all do outside of the band (jobs etc)?

Craig: I go to college and work for my dads construction company. James and Chris go to college and work there part-time, and Eli is a photographer for school pictures. James: I major in English and writing in college, and aside from that I like to work out, check out music, movies, you know normal every day stuff.

Q. Black Flag - Rollins or pre-Rollins?

Craig: I gotta go with Rollins. It's all great music but I think Rollins was the most intense frontman. I saw Rollins Band doing Black Flag songs last year and it was awesome. The guy is possessed. Keith Morris did the first four years songs. Sick.

James: I'll go with Rollins. No discredit to the early singers because that stuff rules, but Slip It In, Loose Nut, and In My Head are just too killer.

Q. Judge or YOT?

Craig: I'll say Judge. But I really like BDTW.

James: I always liked YOT more, but now I listen to Judge far more often. Mike Judge is such an enigma, it just adds to the appeal of the band for me.

Q. Top 5 hardcore records?

Craig: Infest "Mankind" 7", Black Flag "Damaged", Minor Threat 7"s, Negative Approach 7", SSD "Get It Away", Cro-Mags demo/AOQ, Bad Brains s/t, No Comment "Downsided", Descendents "Milo Goes To College", Discharge "Hear Nothing, See Nothing, Say nothing", and about 20 more, I cant pick 5.

James: No way I could list 5 in order but some of my favorites ever are the Negative Approach 12", Agent Orange "Living In Darkness", Verbal Assault "On", Black Flag "Damaged", SSD "Get It Away", Slapshot "Back On The Map", Agnostic Front "Victim In Pain", Infest, Mags, Sheer Terror, fuck I could keep going.

Q. Band you hate that everyone else loves?

Craig: I don't have enough room to write them all down.

James: Same here.

Q. Favorite hardcore vocalist?

Craig: Daryl Kahan of Citizen's Arrest

James: Springa from SSD.

Q. Whats your favourite Boston-area hardcore band ever?

Craig: The early 80's stuff. The FU's, SSD, DYS, Jerry's Kids etc...totally awesome.

James: The early straight edge stuff. SSD, DYS, Negative FX, Last Rights, early Slapshot.

Q. Whats the favourite record you own and why? What do you think of record-collecting in general?

Craig: I don't know which is my favorite. Record collecting is cool, but I'm really cheap when it comes to that sort of thing. The music comes first, so I'll gladly take a bootleg or dub.

James: Record collecting is cool but I'm not very into it. Again, it would drain my bank account and cause lots of OCD related stress.

Q. What do you think about Bush winning the US election?

Craig: First of all, I hate politicians. Second of all, I'm not the most informed when it comes to politics. But here's my opinion. Bush got re-elected, which is very surprising. Bush obviously fucked up with the Iraq situation. But its not like the war would just be erased if Kerry was elected. Its nice to think that a President will follow through with all of their proposed plans, but you can't be sure until it happens. During the debates, both candidates said "I have a plan to cut the deficit in half." When asked how, neither of them could give a reply. What can you believe? Not much.

James: I agree with Craig. Neither candidate was very good, the one I disliked more won and for stupid reasons. Fuck church and state.

Q. Anything you want to add?

Craig: Thanks for the interview. Listen to Failure Face. Peace.

SUBURBAN VOICE #41 compilation upload, and OUTPATIENTS demos upload...

2008-06-07T12:44:00.018+01:00

The winner of this week's poll ("Favourite 80s hardcore compilation LP...") was 'THIS IS BOSTON NOT LA', closely followed by 'FLEX YOUR HEAD'. As a sort of tribute to this historic victory, here's two uploads:

1) Another comp which features some classic Boston hardcore, and
2) demo recordings from Boston's OUTPATIENTS...

1. SUBURBAN VOICE 15th ANNIVERSARY COMPILATION.

This compilation CD came with Suburban Voice #41 in 1998, and is a selection of (mostly) good hardcore songs put together by Al Quint...

Download here.

This comp includes rare and live tracks by various bands from the early 80s to the late 90s, many of which you probably know and some who have been forgotten or overshadowed by their contemporaries.

The highlight for me is the song 'Police Brutality' by Boston's short-lived DXA (who's members incidently went on to play in the MIGHTY MIGHTY BOSSTONES, just like IMPACT UNIT). Anyway, this is a GREAT song; high energy sonic speed hardcore, that can clearly be compared to 'My America' or 'Brotherhood', but faster! I think if they'd had written and recorded a proper record (and probably released it on X Claim), they might now be placed alongside bands like SS DECONTROL and DYS in terms of classic-status...maybe. It's a shame they never had the chance either way. I have no idea how many songs they actually recorded or how many shows they placed...if anyone does, leave a comment. Interestingly I've also seen this song labelled as 'New Right' rather than 'Police Brutality' on a few radio shows; does any one know which is the right title?

Edit: Chris Minicucci (Mind Eraser/Painkiller Recs etc) over on the Livewire Board provided this info: "Finally tracked down someone who knew about this, and that song on the SV comp is off of a live soundboard tape from the Rat. Unfortunately the person wasn't too keen on giving the rest of the set out. No studio recordings exist. Al's source for the comp was that he taped it off a radio show back in the day."

Other highlights include: a YOUTH BRIGADE song (Stern Brothers not DC) taken from the original, and better, recording of the 'Sound And Fury' LP; two good COC songs from the great No Core compilation EP 'Why Are We Here?'; radio and demo songs from JERRY'S KIDS, THE FU'S, RAW DEAL etc; a pretty good HAYWIRE song (a band which was effectively just members of HALF OFF attempting to be NO FOR AN ANSWER); a good song from the VICIOUS CIRCLE (RI) 1984 demo, and some good raw songs by Al Quint's own band NO SYSTEM...

It has horrible shit on too (SHOWCASE SHOWDOWN, HORACE PINKER etc), but just skip any dud songs...

Full tracklisting:
01. Proletariat - Abstain (demo)
02. Youth Brigade - Treachery
03. Corrosion of Conformity - Indifferent/Too Cool
04. DXA - Police Brutality
05. Jerry's Kids - Cracks in the Wall/Tear It Up (live on WERS)
06. Psycho - Contempt (live on WERS)
07. Outpatients - Pushbutton Warfare
08. MDC - John Wayne Was a Nazi (acoustic at UMass)
09. Stretch Marks - Dog's World
10. Vicious Circle - My Life, My Rules
11. Sorry - Misanthrope (live on WERS)
12. FU's - Lick My Shiny Boots (demo version)
13. Moving Targets - Changing Your Mind
14. Offenders - Impact
15. No System - Doomsday
16. No System - Life in General
17. Instigators - The Fix (live in Denmark)
18. Justice League - Chain of Strength
19. Burnt - I Wanna Pet My Cat (radio)
20. Raw Deal - Fear in the Streets (live)
21. Wrecking Crew - Judgement
22. Shattered Silence - Insecure
23. Half-Off - See It
24. Haywire - Pain
25. Kingpin - Let Go
26. The Showcase Showdown - Bob Barker Is Innocent
27. Horace Pinker - Hummingbird
28. No Fraud - I Like Hate
29. Adrenalin O.D. - Status Symbol
30. Nine Shocks Terror - Prozac Logic
31. Ensign - Say It to My Face (Underdog cover)
32. Avail - Midtown West
33. Rat Bastards - Let's Get Tough (Bad Posture cover)

Vicious Circle, taken from KFTH.

2. THE OUTPATIENTS DEMOS (taken from 'Hardcore Outcasts Revisited' CD).

I've uploaded this because the track on the Suburban Voice comp is, in my opinion, one of the weaker songs from the demos, and I didn't want to give anyone the wrong impression of the band. Good youthful and energetic Boston hardcore, some of which reminds me of early ARTICLES OF FAITH mixed with the JERRY'S KIDS songs from 'This Is Boston Not LA'...or something. Some really great manic drumming in places. These songs were recorded at various times at Radiobeat studio in 82-84, and featured DEEP WOUND'S Scott Helland on bass (who also strangely went on to be in DARKSIDE NYC)... This was known as the "Basement Tapes" for years, until it finally became more widely heard through the CD reissue. They later released a few records which I haven't heard, but I'm told are more crossover. Some of their demo recordings were also reissued on CD alongside the great DA STUPIDS demo, which I'll be uploading in the future...

Download here.

Enjoy!

Dan from MAD AT THE WORLD RECORDS interview...

2008-06-05T13:46:00.007+01:00

Aswell as interviewing bands, I'm going to start interviewing the people behind some of my favourite record labels, new and old. So, to get us started here is a very recent interview I did via email with Dan from Mad At The World Records, a great modern label. Dan's a really nice guy too, and gave some great answers to my mediocre questions! He also runs a really cool blog here. Anyway, enjoy...

Q. How did you get into hardcore? Can you remember your first record, and the first show you attended?

Dan: It was in the early 90's, and I was pretty young. I lived in Germany at the time and these guys that I hung with at school were Americans whose parents were in the Army. Some of them listened to stuff like the Sex Pistols, Suicidal Tendencies, and Minor Threat. So, the usual suspects, I suppose. I had heard the Pistols before but I remember the first time I actually gave them a serious listen; I remember saying to myself "this sounds like 70's music." I didn't mean it in a derogatory way-- I like a lot of 70's rock. But it sounded like such a throwback compared to what was on the radio then, and really pissed off at that. It left a big enough impression on me that I wanted to find out more about any music that fell under the same category. First record I ever bought would have been Bob Dylan probably. First punk record purchase would have been the Sex Pistol's "Flogging a Dead Horse" comp. The first show I went to was in Germany.... Don't know if you would consider these hardcore shows, but I saw Wool (ex-Scream guys) and Quicksand on their respective tours over there. When I moved back to the United States (New Jersey) in 1993, I actively sought out this music. Even though I lived a stone's throw away from a lot of stuff going on in New Jersey at the time, it was hard to find out about shows and bands right away, especially 'cause I was young and didn't know anybody. But I eventually found some likeminded folks and found out about shows and such. Incidentally, one of the kids in my English class was the younger brother of the bass player in one of the Taste of Fear line-ups Daryl was talking about in a previous interview on your blog. It felt like a looong few months living back in the States before I found other kids into the music, but once I did, it just went from there.

Q. Mad At The World has a solid catalog so far. What record labels from the past are your main inspiration?

Dan: Thanks. The catalog's a bit all over the place in terms of our releases. The first few releases were just small run 7"s either by bands I was friends with or bands I was in. Then we started getting into doing the NYHC reissues and a few current releases by folks I became friends with over the years. Labels I take inspiration from? The most obvious answer would be Dischord or Touch and Go simply because of the quality of their releases. They're pretty much flawless catalogs from top to bottom, and everyone knows it. Although there's some stuff I'm not so entirely keen on, I like how early to mid 80's SST first established a name for themselves through a relentless work ethic and then tried pushing the envelope in terms of what was acceptable within their scene. I like all kinds of music, particularly old post-punk stuff, so Rough Trade and early Subterranean Records are influential. Record labels nowadays are a dime a dozen, so I respect any label that documents particular scene or sound in a manner that gives it a sense of importance.It's a tough call for us because Mad at the World has a lot going on; there are the reissues which we will keep on doing, and there's the current stuff, which we try to keep separate. I sometimes wonder if doing the 2 coextensively doesn't confuse the consistency of the label, but what the hell...

Q. You obviously love YDI (taking the name Mad At The World from a YDI song). Describe what you love about their 7"...how good is the demo too! Have you caught any of their reunion shows?

Dan: It is actually from the YDi song. Damn, that's a great record. I actually got it as a fluke; I had no idea what it was when I bought it. I was in a record shop in a basement on Carmine Street in the West Village (Subterranean Records, I think it was called. I don't know if it still exists.) and was puzzling myself as to whether this was the band "YDL" I had seen on old CB's flyers play with bands I liked. I checked out the thanks list and it seemed old, they thanked the Iron Cross (who I knew from the Flex Your Head comp), so even though it was $20, which was an awful lot for me to shell out on a record, I thought I'd take the chance on it. When I put the needle to the wax, I was blown away by how intense and over-the-top it was. The drums were played with total abandon, and the guitar playing is ferocious in a savant kind of way. Even the off-kilter tempos on some of the songs just drip with venom. It took me a while to realize what kind of a fateful, lucky mistake I had made. The YDL record would certainly NOT have affected me that much.I didn't actually see any of the reunions; I do remember the first reunion show they played at CB's I was out of town and tried to come back into the city to make it. I missed seeing the band's show, but we had communicated before and met up for a drink and some food after the set on St Mark's Place. Real nice guys, I'd sure like to see them one day.

Q. Is NYHC dead? Who's worth checking out from the area? Do you get depressed thinking about just how good early Madball is compared to their shitty later stuff?

Dan: I moved to Montreal almost 2 years ago, so I couldn't tell you. It seems like there's bands around and that a good amount of people go to the shows, but I really don't know what's going on. I liked what I've heard of the Dustheads and Deathcycle, but I'd be hard pressed to name many current NY hardcore bands. That's not to say there aren't any... Shellshock is a good band, but I don't know if they're active anymore. There's a number of bands playing in New York that I liked 10-12 years ago, but I don't have much interest in seeing them if they're doing the same stuff they've done years ago. NY is a hard place to have a band. Living is expensive, practicing is expensive, and with the price of gas, you're certainly not going to see a bunch of NY hardcore folks be able to afford practicing a bunch and taking the show on the road. I seriously think a lot of those factors are going to be prohibitive for any kind of NYHC scene to flourish anymore. And, Madball.... are you trying to get me beat up? JK; I'm not terribly fond of the newer Madball stuff at all, but Freddy and Hoya and company are going to do their thing and I'm hardly going to be the one to ask them to stop. At least they've got new songs! I'm more depressed about the amount of shitty bands copying later Madball.

Q. Other than running the label, have you played in any bands? Describe what your dream hardcore band would be like with you as the frontman (also, what frontmen would you ideally be a mixture of)?

Dan: I've played in a lot of bands, actually. I played in Ka-boom! who played ABC No Rio a lot in the mid to late 90's. We were supposed to release a split LP with NJ band Fan Shen as the first Deadalive/ Manic Ride Records release, but we wound up breaking up before it happened. I played in Panopticon who have a 7" on MATW. It was more of an experiment to see if we could fuck with the non-hardcore music we were listening to at the time and still be a hardcore band-- without coming off sounding like a lot of the "post-hardcore" stuff which we were not fond of. I don't know if we succeeded, but the handful of shows we played (mostly at parties) were pretty crazy, and I liked the music. We tried to make a small pressing of the most hideously packaged record imaginable so that no one would ever buy it based on its packaging alone. We succeeded at that. The motivation was that if someone bought that first record, we would know it was because they saw the band and liked us. However, if you stop playing shows and never do another record, that plan will obviously backfire. I played in the Bad Form, who had two 7"s out and played a bunch of shows. I played in Trenchcoat Army from New York with Wendy and Don of Guillotine fanzine and a revolving cast of characters. We released a 7" that none of us were terribly fond of in the end, and then a full LP that is actually pretty awesome, but was never released. I filled in for the Nihilistics, which turned into a 3+ year gig. I now play in Omegas from Montreal and am starting something else up with some friends. Omegas have a 7" coming out soon-- most probably on Parts Unknown, which we're excited about. I don't have a dream hardcore band in terms of the sound of a band I'd like to play in. I just need a couple of wackos who are good enough musicians to keep a steady beat, and get along well enough to go on long drives together and play some raw music. A dream hardcore band I'd like to see? Clearly that band would have Lemmy on bass, Pig Champion on guitar (second guitar by Pat Smear), a young Stevie Wonder on drums (fuck yes!), and Raybeez on vocals. What frontman of the past would I like to be like? Someone with some brain cells left!

Q. What's your favourite hardcore 7" cover-art? LP? Which bands do you think had the best aesthetics?

Dan: It can go either way-- real simple and iconic like the Urban Waste 7" or real meticulous and detailed like the Rudimentary Peni records. I like stuff where the whole record has certain forcefulness and consistency, and doesn't particularly look like a pastiche of sources. Certain bands like the Abused or Septic Death did a really good job of representing their band in their record covers and flyers, but having an artist in the band helps. While not my favorites musically you can't deny that the Revelation Records releases had this kind of consistency. Black Flag covers are awesome, but that's obvious. I like the look of monochromatic, hand-drawn artwork, and in certain circumstances I like the real agit-prop look of a lot of early hardcore records. But when those styles becomes an imperative in laying out a record, I think it defeats the purpose. I think the Bauhaus records have a great aesthetic, but not hardcore obviously. As a general rule, I like more minimal layouts that achieve a lot with a small amount of compositional elements.

Q. You've put out a few Battletorn records, describe what's so great about them (my band played with them on their UK tour a few years back)

Dan: Well, this to me sums up what is great about Battletorn: When I first saw Battletorn, it was one of their earliest shows at a rock show in New York. I didn't go to many hardcore shows in that time and wasn't paying much attention to what was going on in the hardcore scene. I'll always like and listen to my hardcore records, but I also like plenty of types of music, so as long as there's music going on, I'm not going to particularly miss it. Plus, I'd rather see NO hardcore than shitty hardcore. Anyway, the show was the Witnesses and Bad Wizard, who are both great live bands. But in between these bands, these 3 folks get on stage and proceed to lay waste to the crowd over the course of 4 minutes. My jaw hit the floor-- they sounded like Nausea playing Victim in Pain, and to a totally unexpecting audience who had no idea what was going on. I knew I had to do something with these folks, and was excited when it happened. When they slimmed down to a 2 piece, I was curious how they would handle the transition, but it just streamlined things even more. Glad you got to play with them!

Q. Antidote 7" vs the Urban Waste 7"? (I think I know what you'll go with). Explain why...

Dan: I'd have to go with Urban Waste. The Antidote 7" is great, but Urban Waste is just so over the top. And knowing those guys, too, just reinforces how great this record is. They captured the sound of a bunch of crazy kids in early 80's NY perfectly. It's a shame there's not more recorded material. I heard rumors there was, but we haven't been able to track anything down over a number of years (2 demo tracks, but really shitty recordings... nothing more than that).

Q. The Abused 7" vs the Cause For Alarm 7"? GO!

Dan: That's a really tough one. To me both of these bands released top notch NYHC 7"s. I'll be taking the easy way out and say "depending on my mood". Last month I might have said the Abused, but I just rocked the CFA 7" the other day and it's great. So, I can't decide!

Q. What's the most fucked up thing you've ever seen happen at a hardcore show?

Dan: That depends; there's always been a good amount of shit going on at shows. The typical answer would be some crazy fights or violence, which I can't say that I'm particularly fond of. I wouldn't say I'm categorically against it, but I don't have much patience for it in the vast majority of cases. I do remember one thing, which couldn't really be properly labeled a fight, but is amusing nonetheless. It was at CBGB's in the later 90's. Breakdown played and Richie Krakdown (if memory serves) came out of the woodwork for the show. He must have got real high before going in the pit; he was having a good old-time, but was not exactly the most graceful, if you know what I mean. He must have bumped into some people the wrong way (one of whom was Jimmy Dijan) and took a sucker punch or two. Big Charlie Henkins was still alive at the time and took care of his friend Richie, which included getting into some scuffles on his behalf. On his way out the door, some smaller kid got in his face about some nonsense. Charlie picked him up by the face and threw him down the bar. That was kind pretty comical as it was so effortless. Who knows why that guy thought it was a good idea to get in Big Charlie's face; I certainly wouldn't have.

Q. How did you end up putting out reissues of classic NY records by bands like Urban waste, Major Conflict, Misguided and Nihilistics? Did you meet up with the members of each band? Nice guys?

Dan: Well, being friends with Wendy from Guillotine got me friends with a number of those people. The Nihilistics I met through her and became friends with them, which is how I wound up playing with them. Same with Johnny and John Dancy of Urban Waste. Also Johnny Stiff was always good at tracking people down and hooked us up with the Major Conflict and Misguided folks. Sure, they're all nice guys. Some are easier to deal with than others, but like and respect all of 'em. All older NY folks have a screw loose in one way or another, though!

Q. You put out the Out Cold LP 'Goodbye Cruel World' (which will no doubt be considered a classic in years to come, but fuck, all of their records will be)...how did that come about? How GOOD is that band?

Dan: I've been friends with those guys for a while and we had talked about doing releases before. I've been hooked since I mailordered their Permanent Twilight World LP. It was one of those records that you checked out on a hunch that it was going to be good and it delivered to a much higher degree than expected. It used to be cool to be able to pick stuff up without having heard a note off of it and concentrating intently on the first listen to find out whether it was a worthwhile purchase. People's buying habits have changed to where people often already have the songs of the records they buy. I suppose it's a responsible move on the consumer's part, but it diminishes some of the importance of that first time the needle hits the vinyl and finding out a record that you just dropped some cash on is a definite keeper. Anyway, since then, I picked up all their records and championed them in any way I could. I must have interviewed those guys a handful of times for a number of different zines, and booked them to play in New Jersey a few times. The last time was at my house in New Brunswick with 9 Shocks Terror, and some months later we decided to do a split LP with them and 9 Shocks Terror. Out Cold took a while to finish off their tracks. However, in the interim 9 Shocks needed a release to go on tour with in Europe, so we used those songs as an EP and the tracks from the Out Cold side were then put towards that album. The cool thing about Out Cold is that they have a clear idea of what they want to do with that band, and they are totally indifferent to contingencies of the current hardcore scene. If hardcore ceased to exist tomorrow, it wouldn't affect Out Cold's output.

Q. What else do you do to pay the rent?

Dan: You mean you didn't think Out Cold records paid the rent??? Moving to Canada was strenuous since I didn't come here with a permanent resident visa, so working was tough, and I lived on a shoestring budget for a while. I work in a call center; I used to be a relay operator (for deaf people) and now I am working doing customer service for a cell phone company. It pays the bills. In NY I was a special ed teacher, and that's what I'm most qualified to do professionally. I have some visa limitations here where I can't work in a school or on a farm, so obviously that limits my possibilities. I'm looking to get that sorted out soon because I'd like to teach again in the fall.

Q. What are the future plans for Mad At The World? I see you're putting out the Cheap Tragedies LP...More NYHC reissues too?

Dan: First of all a new website, which I'm hoping will be live soon. I was always a little bit disappointed that our site couldn't function as more of a resource for information on the bands we've put out, because I think people would especially be interested in some more information about the old NYHC bands. It used to be so hard to find any information on them. There are a number of internet resources now alleviating this a little bit, but I'd still like to be able to provide some sort of archive of the bands we work with. That will keep me busy for a while.We are doing the Cheap Tragedies LP, which will be incredible. It's been recorded and they're working on layout and artwork now. This should be out sometime this summer depending on when I get everything from those guys, but they'll have some killer 7"s come out on Livewire Records and High Anxiety 416 in the meantime as well. It fell into my lap in a sense; Erba sent me a link to Cheap Tragedies' myspace page when the tracks from the demo were posted. It took me a while to listen because I always have problems loading those myspace players. When I didn't respond right away, Erba sent me a nasty email sarcastically thanking me for listening to his new band! It impressed upon me that he's really got some fire under his ass about that band, and aside from that, I'd be hard pressed to cite a band the guy was in that wasn't quality. (Obviously we smoothed things over rather quickly.) I was able to download the tracks and the demo was good, but more than anything the songs were interesting and showed some real promise. The output since then has been stellar, and I got to see those guys live recently which reaffirmed my enthusiasm for the band. The album is a rager from start to finish, and I'm very proud to be able to put it out on MATW. I'll stop gushing about it now, in case those guys read this. They know how much I like it, but I want to still be able to bust their balls about stuff, so I can go off like a total fanboy.

Q. What's your favourite hardcore compilation of all time, and explain why...

Dan: Compilations are tough. I'll have to go with the old standbys: Flex Your Head, Yes LA, Where the Wild Things Are, The Way it Is, etc. They just capture a very timely sound and spirit that still managers to capture people's attention. I don't know if I'll ever do a compilation myself; too much hassle organizing them! I can definitely appreciate them when they're done well though! I have to voice my appreciation for that compilation From the Ground Up that had some of my NY favorites on the time on it (Awkward Thought, the Down Low, the Truents, etc). I don't know how appreciated it is nowadays, but I thought that pulled off the compilation concept quite well as it documented what was going on in NY at the time.

Q. Does it annoy you that there is growing number of kids who prefer Alpha Omega to Age Of Quarrel? (and if it doesn't...it probably should..)

Dan: I don't listen to Alpha Omega much myself. Age of Quarrel is a canonical rock record. It's one of the records that proves that hardcore can be done properly on a full length, and manage to be a crushing hardcore album while respecting the album format. It's kind of cool that people look to Alpha Omega as an example of growth and possibility and appreciate the sounds they were toying with. But come on! Age of Quarrel's already got everything AO brings to the table, and better!I'm just not into metal that much-- I like metal just fine, but I don't like the way it is incorporated into hardcore. I like a solid backbeat to my rock music, and it seems like with few notable exceptions (which can run from Absolution to Amebix), hardcore just takes the most insipid elements from metal. This is particularly true of the "mosh" variety. The Cro-Mags is an example of a band that got it right from the get-go, but I can't say I listen to a lot of bands that take obvious cues from the Cro-Mags. My point about this is that I don't see them getting into any next-level shit with AO, when they clearly could have. With John and Harley in the band, that could have been the Raw Power to their Funhouse, but....

Q. The F.U.'s - My America ... a near perfect hardcore record or what?

Dan: What do you mean "near"?

Q. Any thing else to say?

Dan: Thanks for the interview. I hope I made for a worthwhile read. Check out the Cheap Tragedies record when it comes out (and everything else they release), and the Omegas 7" when it comes out. And buy some records from our webstore since we need to raise some scratch!

INFEST photos from Megawimp #3...

2008-06-04T16:50:00.008+01:00

Short post; here's some photos of INFEST from Megawimp, #3. This zine incidently was done by Erich, from Fear Of God/Off The Disc (and who now does the great Good Bad Music blog)

I'M BUCK NAKED tape compilation ('84) upload...

2008-06-03T13:17:00.000+01:00

If you thought the Mox Nix demo was raw, you're in for a treat with this one.

Here's a great compilation tape put out the monster of compilation tape labels, BCT (Borderless Countries Tape aka Bad Compilation Tapes), from 1984. The tracklisting slightly varies from the one on KFTH, as it's from the CD reissue that had tracks from the 'Eat Me' comp tape too (and has the tracks by European bands taken off). Although this was reissued on CD, I think it's pretty hard to get now...

Download here: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=Q0Z21SDP

This is another great comp that features lesser known bands who deserve to be remembered. It's got some bands you might know (Psycho, White Flag, Diction), and lots you probably don't. All you need to know is that it has one of the highest concentrations of extremely sloppy, angry, urgent and raw 80s American hardcore punk to be found in one place...

Band-by-band overview:

LOVE CANAL: Steady hardcore from CA, named after the FLIPPER song I assume. They put out an LP later on the same label as PLAIN WRAP incidently.

SUBURBAN DECAY: One of the comp's highlights! Sounds like a practice recording. Totally intense and raging Midwest hardcore. Their 2nd song cuts off half way through, shame.

NO RESPONSE: Another Midwest treat, and a comp highlight. Intense hardcore, GREAT VOCALS.

EAT THE RICH: Sloppy hardcore punk from CA, singing about nuclear radiation and other staple subjects of the 80s. Good.

THE DRILLS: From Seattle, and easily the tape's sloppiest and most pathetic band (but still strangely appealing). A drum machine too, and nonesense jabbering vocals. Eat your heart out ASSERT.

ACCELERATORS: Mid-paced hardcore from NJ, singing about killing the rich, Reaganomics, and teenage zombies...YES!

DISORDERLY CONDUCT: Steady and raw hardcore from the NY area, nothing special.

DETENTION: Third comp highlight from this NJ band, in the Killed By Death tradition of raw hardcore punk rock, with great lyrics! You might know the classic song 'Dead Rock And Rollers' from KBD vol 2. "WHY COULDN'T IT BE BARRY MANILOW!"

PSYCHO: Radio recordings from Boston's long-lasting fast hardcore band PSYCHO, good stuff.

WHITE FLAG: Early hardcore songs from a band who later played total shit. This is pretty good stuff though.

DERANGED DICTION: Great tracks here from this Montana band. Catchy fast hardcore. "ARE YOU READY TO KILL, ARE YOU READY TO DIE".

CORRUPTED SERVICE: Dirgey Midwest hardcore, slow pace. Not bad.

UNEXPECTED: Another band from NJ, fast and humourous hardcore, the sort of thing that you'd expect to hear on Ax/ction Records.

Enjoy.

STARK RAVING MAD video...

2008-06-02T23:25:00.007+01:00

stark raving mad - Live 1985

I stumbled across this cool video of the very underrated and great hectic Texan hardcore band STARK RAVING MAD. It looks like it might be in a school hall or something. Anyway, this band is spastic and crazy in sound, not unlike THE SCAM, and extremely fucking good. I think they shared a member with DRI too. Eric Wood loved them and you can tell they were a big influence on his bands...just listen to some of the bass lines.

The video delivers too; total bunch of weirdos and misfits (the band AND the crowd! Spot the fat kid near the front for example, wearing a bandana and open shirt. Hardcore)....

"This is a new song called 'Ignorance Is Gay'".

GREAT BAND.

MOX NIX demo ('83?) upload...

2008-06-02T00:50:00.008+01:00

Here's a demo that I don't hear talked about much by LA band MOX NIX (not to be confused with the metal band with the same name). I'm not exactly sure what year it was recorded, but some of the songs appear on the 'Birth Defect' tape (great comp that I'll upload in the future) from '83, so I assume this is from around that time. If anyone has a scan of the sleeve for this demo by the way, please get in touch.

Download it here. (Direct link: http://www.mediafire.com/?xobhruedc2c)

I don't know much about this band, other than the singer sadly passed away. It's good solid early 80s hardcore anyway, and has more in common with the harder Midwest bands than it does the LA punk sound. The production is terrible, but in that good way where everything sounds amazing; lo-fi and fairly sloppy. Great vocals, which on some tracks kinda reminds me of URBAN WASTE, and cool riffs and guitar sound. The production does vary throughout the whole thing, so I wonder if its from a few recording sessions. While there are a few duff tracks ('She's Ugly', 'Teenage Poseur'...) on the whole it's a worthwhile listen. Some of the songs towards the end ('The Edge', 'Vicious Cycle'...) remind me of Pick Your King/demo-era POISON IDEA, which is obviously a good thing.

The hardcore-salvage company Grand Theft Audio (a more legit Lost And Found?) released this demo alongside material by the band they later morphed into, PLAIN WRAP, which featured MOX NIX's guitarist and Dave Mellow, who went on to be in UNIFORM CHOICE.

Since I don't have a photo to go with this post, here's a photo of a giant fish.

Chain Of Strength/Turning Point/Citizens Arrest flyer...

2008-06-01T22:07:00.007+01:00

I just came across this flyer on the GREAT site Hardcore Show Flyers and thought I'd share it. What a great line-up! I wonder what some of the more clean-cut Chain Of Strength and Turning Point fans thought of Citizens Arrest...The story of Chain Of Strength going along to the CxA radio performance and moshing in the peanut gallery and yelling at the radio personnel always brings a smile to my face...

Here's another cool Citizens Arrest flyer, just for the sake of it:

Bob from FAILURE FACE interview...

2008-06-01T14:21:00.024+01:00

Here is a recent interview I did via email with Bob Suren from the great underrated Florida hardcore band FAILURE FACE. He also sang in MURDER SUICIDE PACT, and runs the great Burrito Records/Sound Idea distribution. If you don't know FAILURE FACE, you should be able to pick up their records fairly cheap, or pick up the discography CD. I highly recommend doing so; angry-as-fuck 90s hardcore, taking cues from the old greats like Negative Approach but retaining their own sound.

Q. What was the scene like around Florida when Failured Face started?

Bob: Failure Face started in late 1992 but didn't really click until Spring 1993. There were a couple of line up shuffles, including a brief stint with me on bass and vocals. There were a lot of bands in florida around that time but not many that I would consider hardcore -- or the FF style of hardcore. There were a lot of post-punk Fugazi style bands and pop punk bands. But everybody went to every show and all types of music were accepted. Around 1994-1995 thrashier bands like End Of The Century Party started popping up. Florida, particularly the Tampa area had a lot of good venues. Shows were well attended. A lot of kids did labels and zines, too. And there were some good places to buy records like Blue Chair and Alternative Records.

Q. Did you see any of the old Florida bands play, back in the day (F, Roach Motel, Gay Cowboys, Hated Youth, The Eat etc)? Are any of those guys still kicking around, or are they all retired at Del Boca Vista?

Bob: F played the first show I ever went to. Roach Motel and Gay Cowboys were supposed to play that same show but both cancelled. I never did see Gay Cowboys, but I was at all of the Roach Motel reunion shows in the early 2000s. Never saw Hated Youth, but they played 15 minutes from my house and I didn't even know about it. A friend tried to call me but he had written down my phone number incorrectly so I missed it. The eat were a little before my time, but I caught their FEB 2, 2008 reunion in Miami. It was great. I'm in touch with a lot of those band members. Some of them are still playing music. Some of them have other interests, like fishing and golf.

Q. Who thought of the name Failure Face?

Bob: I came up with that. It is from a Charlie Brown comic strip. It's both funny and kind of pathetic.

Q. How did the split with Ulcer come about?

Bob: They sent me a demo and I liked it. FF played with them in summer 1994. The record came out a little later. It was Ulcer's first release. None of the other guys in Failure Face liked Ulcer and at least one was a bit angry that I put them on a split 7" with us without him hearing them first.

Q. Who were you favourite bands to play with back when you were in Failure Face, and what contemporary bands were you really into?

Bob: My fave 1990s bands are Dropdead, Disrupt, Scrotum Grinder, Antischism and stuff like that. FF played with Dropdead once. They were great but it was one of FF's worst shows ever. I was a bit embarassed.

Q. What were the key bands which influenced Failure Face's sound? I can hear Negative Approach, NY influences, bits of Septic Death/Siege, hints of Infest...?

Bob: I don't think we made an effort to play like any particular band. Lyrically, I feel a bond with John Brannon and Henry Rollins, so perhaps a bit of that shows through. The bass player and the guitarist were much younger than me and the drummer, so they certaintly did not have bands like Siege and Septic Death in their backgrounds to draw from. Perhaps later the drummer and I exposed them to those bands. Our drummer was a big record collector and had a lot of obscure hardcore and thrash. He introduced me to a lot of my favorite bands. I don't know if there was a particular drummer who influenced his style. People often compared us to Infest, but none of us except the drummer had heard Infest until we had a couple of records out and had been going for a couple of years. So, while I might hear some Infest similarities, it was not possible that they were an influence. Like I said, we just played the music we thought up. We didn't have a band or style we tried to copy.

Q. How many pressings were there of the s/t 7" in total, and was it easy to shift them all?

Bob: 2,500 copies in 4 pressings. They sold quickly and easily. That was my third releasse on Burrito Records and kind of helped get the label off the ground. The first two releases moved much slower. For some reason, people picked up on Failure Face and I am grateful. I had no idea how the music would be received. I knew I liked it. I'm glad some other people do, too. We recorded that first 7" after just 3 practices. One song was written an hour before we went to the studio. It cost us $145 to make. That night, we left the studio, went back to the drummer's house and listened to a tape of the recording. He said, "This is awesome," and was very excited about it. That got me excited because I knew he liked good stuff and he had a lot more band experience than me. Seeing him excited about what we just recorded gave me a real boost.

Q. Since 'All Pain No Gain' was on Ebullition, were you associated with the bands on that label?

Bob: In the early 1990s, Ebullition was what I considered a top notch hardcore label. They had done releases by Born Against, Econochrist, Los Crudos and more. We thought the logical step for Failure Face was to get on a bigger, more established label and Ebullition wanted to do it, so everyone was happy. It was not until a bit later that Ebullition started doing more arty/emo stuff. By that time, FF was broken up. Ebullition treated us well.

Q. How did the FF reunion show in 2003 come about? Have you played since? Do you have a strong following in Florida?

Bob: Just did it for fun to celebrate my record shop's 10th year in business. We have not played since. Reunions are only special if it is a once in a life time thing, not an every now and then thing. No more Failure Face. Failure Face probably has a better following now than when were were active in 1993-1996!

Q. Share some memories from the best and worst shows Failure Face ever played...

Bob: Best FF shows were the grand opening of my record shop and the last FF show in 1996. Just good energy those nights, lots of friendly faces in the crowd singing along. Worst FF show would be Philadelphia 1993. Sound was terrible and I was so off.

Q. Songs like 'I Won' and 'Broken Man' are pretty depressing and downbeat in subject matter...would you describe yourself as a negative individual?

Bob: Maybe more cynical than negative. I'm a lot better adjusted now than I was during the FF era. But still fairly cynical.

Q. Explain the photo on the back of All Pain No Gain! (see below)

Bob: That's me in a jockstrap slamming my fist into the stage. Photo was taken at the Nite Owl in Pensacola on the first FF tour in 1993. In those days, I played most shows in a jockstrap because I thought it was funny. Somebody stole the jockstrap after a show in Philadelphia.

Q. I don't know too much about the band Everybody Sucks, other than that their side of the split LP with Failure Face is great...Was it all they released?

Bob: E.B.S. put out a great 8 song 7" on their own called, "Cosmetic Society." The cover art is bad, but if you spot it, pick it up. Total early D.R.I. worship. Then they did the split LP with FF on Burrito Records, then a full LP on Vicious Interference from Florida and then a split 7" with a band called Hangnail from Ohio. John, the bass player and I started corresponding by mail in 1991. We met face to face in 1992. He was a founding member of Failure Face and helped write a few songs. It was his idea to start a band. But after a few practices, he and the drummer were at odds, so John left. Years later when I formed Murder-Suicide Pact, I gave John a call to be in that band. we go for long periods without seeing each other, but we're still friends.

Q. How did Murder Suicide Pact start?

Bob: FF broke up AUG 31, 1996 and I had nothing to do. I was itching to play music again. In October 1997, I was ready to do something. The first person I called was John from E.B.S. and asked him to play drums, even though his first instrument is bass. John wanted in. Then I called Joe Kiser from Slap Of Reality to play guitar. Joe and I did not know each other very well then, but I knew he was a good guitarist.

Q. Murder Suicide Pact is a bit different from Failure Face in sound; definitely slower overall. Were you going for a different approach? There's a bit of Bl'ast in there...

Bob: The three of us practiced a few times. We tried a few thrashy riffs that John and I came up with but the result was rather ordinary. I think it was John who said something like, "Let's just play old school hardcore like Black Flag and Fang." We started talking about music and it came up that our mutual favorite band is Black Flag. So we started writing some Flag style riffs and that just worked out well for us. It fit us. We made a decision not to thrash, not to play blast beats, but to write songs based around killer, twisted riffs. I called up Kevin from Failure Face to be the bassist. After about a month, he switched to second guitar, John switched to bass and we picked up B to play drums. MSP is slower by design. A lot of people were let down that MSP was not as fast as FF, but it's a different band, a different approach. People always try to chose a favorite between the two and tell me their reasons. I listen but it's like apples and oranges. FF means a lot to me and so does MSP. I can tell you that MSP is a much better band musically, much tighter live and much more intense than Failure Face ever was.

Murder Suicide Pact, '98.

Q. What are the others guy who were in FF and MSP doing now?

Bob: MSP is still going, back to a four piece with Kevin back on bass and the guitar player from FF on drums. MSP now has three people from FF. Brian joined as our drummer in Feb 1999. We had a few breaks, but we're back with a lot of shows and a lot of new songs that stack up to the old records. We have a gig tomorrow to help us rasie airfare to the UK. we're doing 4 shows in the UK in November with No fucker and War/System. I think it is Worcester, Nottingham, Bristol or Brighton and London.

Q.How did you first get into hardcore? Can you remember your first show? What attracted you to it in the first place?

Bob: Summer 1983, a guy gave me a mix tape and I've been hooked ever since then. My first show was 8 local bands in a rented hall for $3. The headliner was F, the line up with Phil and Ken that did, "You Are An E.P." Gay Cowboys and Roach Motel were supposed to play, too, but they cancelled. I was attracted to the music, yes, but also the underground nature of hardcore. About the same time I heard that mix tape, I saw my first few zines and I thought, "Wow, this is really cool. They make their own music, their own magazines and records and it seems like anyone can do it" I think the word I would have used would be "counterculture" if I had know that word at the time.

Q. Who's your favourite British hardcore punk band ever, apart from Discharge? Tell us how the Terrorain record came about...

Bob: I'd go with Heresy. Pat from Terrorain is a long-time Sound Idea mailorder customer. He used to call me from the UK to place huge orders. One day he mentioned that he was in a band. I asked him for a tape and he sent it to me. He was surprised that I liked it enought to put it out and that so many people have purchased it. Terrorain was only around a short time and only played something like 8 shows. The record has given them much more exposure.

Q. How important do you see DIY to hardcore? I know Sound Idea/Burrito keeps its prices low!...

Bob: D.I.Y. is what hardcore is all about. There is no hardcore without D.I.Y. Hardcore without D.I.Y. is fake hardcore.

Q. When do you think a label ceases to be a DIY label? Street teams, huge offices..?

Bob: Probably when they market their goods toward a mainstream audience. I'm not sure what I feel about street teams. I'd love to have a huge office but it's not gonna happen for me the way I do business.

Q. What are some good current bands you're into?

Bob: Reason Of Insanity, Direct Control, Bill Bondsmen, Out Cold, Acid Reflux, Double Negative, Cult Ritual, ControL De Estado, PMRC and lots more. There's always something good out there waiting for you to hear it.

Q. Who are the most underrated bands from the Florida area, past and present?

Bob: Past: Belching Penguin, present: Control De Estado.

Q. You sang onstage with Philly band LET DOWN, for their cover of a Failure Face song...How did that come about? Did you just happen to be at the show?

Bob: They were playing a fest that I was going to be at. They asked the promotor to ask me if I would sing with them. I never talked to the guys until the day of the set. I asked them what part of the song they wanted me to sing and they said, "all of it." I thought maybe they'd just stick the mic out for the chorus, but they waneted me to do the whole song. They said they play it just like the record, so I said OK. They actually played it a littler faster, I think. I think I fell behind the music on one of the last parts, but in general, it sounded really good. I was on stage with them for less than 2 minutes and I've seen about 20 photos from those two minutes. Anyhow, it was a lot of fun and it is nice to know that they thought enough of my old band to do a cover.

Bob onstage with Let Down

Q. How do you feel about the Failure Face and Murder Suicide Pact records today, years on? Do you ever listen to them?

Bob: I have been listening to MSP a little because we're playing again and I want to make sure we're doing everything correctly. But in general, I don't listen to my own recordings very often. Maybe once a year, I'll toss on the Failure Face CD and think, "Hey, we were fucking good." FF was always a good studio band, not always tight live. MSP can play it live just like the record and gets way crazier.

Q. What other bands have you been doing?

Bob: Just the reformed MSP. I was playing bass in a band called Gross National Product in 2006. We made a demo, a 14 song 7" and had two song on a compilation. I was really into that band. If you check out my internet radio show, I'm doing an all Brandon, FL special on June 28 which will include FF, MSP, Gross National Product and a bunch of bands few people outside of our area have heard. The radio show is on the Sound Idea web page. I post a new show every Saturday morning as an MP3 and leave it up for a week. New show every week, no repeats. http://www.soundideadistribution.com/

Q. You've been running Burrito Records for years now, and still put out solid records by new hardcore bands (including the excellent Cult Ritual, for example). How did the label start? Never tempted to 'progress' from hardcore and release more popular indie bands?

Bob: I'm not interested in indie rock stuff, so, no, I have never been tempted to produce a Fugazi clone. I don't like metal, either. I like punk and hardcore, which I used to think were the same thing, but these days people are drawning sharp divisions. The label strted in 1991 to put out a record by a band I was in. I thought that would be the only releases, but then I started thinking of other projects. I have "dream list" of projects a mile long, but most of them will probably never happen, like say a Society Dog discography.

Q. What's your one favourite record you've ever released on Burrito Records?

Bob: I like all of the records for different reasons, but the one I feel the most attatchment to is the Flaming Midget 7" because that's where it all started, my first release. I listen to that record more than any of the other Burrito releases. It always feels really good to hear that. At least one person called it the worst record ever made, but I think it's really cool. The scrappy, barely produced, barely tuned, barely in-time sound is what attracted me to hardcore. It reminds me of 7 Seconds "Skins Brains And Guts" or maybe the Solger 7" or the Teen Idles "Minor Disturbance" 7". Style-wise, no, but in terms of attitude, that's exactly what that record is. Some people are gonna get it and some aren't. Hardcore isn't for everyone. That's another reason I like it. Could you imagine if your math teacher and your idiot boss and jackass neighbors were into hardcore? I'm into hardcore to escape those people and to be with the screw ups. The hardcores in my school were so despised by the status quo. Total pariahs. That's the way it's supposed to be, not on MTV.

Q. What keeps you interested in hardcore after all these years? What do you do to pay the rent?

Bob: There are still a lot of great people making great music. Even if the music totally sucked, the whole D.I.Y. underground network is so much cooler than whatever else is out there. What else would I do? Listen to Maroon 5 and play tennis? I sell records to pay the rent. Sound Idea is my sole source of income and has been since 1993.

Q. What, or who, do you hate most in terms of "hardcore" today?

Bob: Tough guy, floor-punch, brass knuckle gangster boys and their shitty metal guitar wanking.

Q. Do you prefer the Negative Approach s/t or Tied Down LP? This question divides nations...

Bob: The LP has better songs but the 7" is more aggro. All Negative Approach is good. Fortunately, you can getthe "Total Recall" CD on Touch & Go and listen to all of it in one sitting.

Q. Top 5 band line up to see live, from any time period?

Bob:
Black Flag "Damaged"-era
Negative Approach circa 1983
Minor Threat -- any time
Misfits -- "Walk Among Us" era
Void -- circa 1982

Q. Favourite early NYHC band?

Bob: The Urban Waste e.p is a monster. So is the Cause For Alarm 7". The first Agnostic Front album, "Victim In Pain" is an all-time favorite, but I don't care for any of their other stuff -- including "United Blood"!

Q. Favourite underrated '80s hardcore band that you want to spread the love for?

Bob: United Mutation and Capitol Punishment!

'Fuck Rock' by Sam McPheeters, from DEAR JESUS #37...

2008-05-31T23:07:00.009+01:00

Here's an article by Sam McPheeters from his classic zine DEAR JESUS, published in late 1990, regarding the emergence of the ABC No Rio scene (along with it the formation of new bands and record labels), and the WNYU radio debate held with Sick Of It All about large labels and 'big-business' in hardcore, which if you haven't heard before you can listen to here...

The Sick Of It All camp seemed to go for the "maybe if we shout the loudest and cut off my opponents when they talk, people will think we're right" approach (now utilised to full effect by Bill O'Reilly). By the way, I believe that the debate moderator is Rachel Susannah Rosen from Indecision/Milhouse (correct me if I'm wrong)...

Anyway, back to the article. It's interesting to read Sam Mcpheeters's description of a 1990 MDC show: "They were energetic, but vaguely depressing and stinking of some basic existential malaise, sort of like old vaudvillains trying to recapture some past glory". Imagine what he'd say about their reunion shows now, 18 years on! Nothing left of the dead horse but some badly broken up decomposing bones to flog...

I'd really like to read the earlier zine, PLAIN TRUTH ("FAVOURITE 'ZINE? Dan O'Mahony: Plain Truth. Sam McPheeters is God!") ... if any one could upload this, I'd be very grateful.

HERESY video, including Siege cover...

2008-05-31T18:17:00.004+01:00

Whilst browsing through Youtube, I came across this great Heresy video (filmed at 3 shows in Germany in '87 and '88) and thought I'd share it. The first song is a cover of the Siege classic 'Conform'. Nice homemade Faith shirt/vest.

Ripcord vs Heresy?

Old Eric Wood/NEANDERTHAL interview upload...

2008-05-30T18:18:00.011+01:00

Staying with a similar theme as the Low Threat Profile post below, here is an old interview with Eric Wood carried out when he was in Neanderthal (a classic band I'll be making more posts about in the future). I don't know who scanned this, or what zine it's from, so can't give any credit...sorry!

This is a great interview anyway, in 5 parts. Click on the photos to see larger readable versions.

LOW THREAT PROFILE MP3s...

2008-05-30T17:24:00.010+01:00

I figured it was about time to spread the love for this band. Low Threat Profile feature Matt Domino from Infest/Neanderthal on guitar, Andy Beattie from No Comment/MITB on vocals, and I think a guy from Lack Of Interest (?). If someone knows the full line-up, please leave a comment to inform us. Only two songs have ever been released, and it sounds pretty much like what you'd expect it to sound like (later Infest meets No Comment), and is incredible.

Download the 2 songs here.

Deep Six Records should be releasing their full 7" any day now (atleast I hope so, years have been spent in anticipation), and judging from these 2 songs I've got a feeling it'll make pretty much every other current hardcore band sound like shit in comparison (just like Infest's 'No Mans Slave' did on its release in 2000). This is it, no bullshit, straight to the point. Both songs are under the 30 second mark but manage to leave more of an impact than the majority of LPs. Download and play on repeat.

'Ripe' is from SoCal Thrash Detonation 7", and 'Untitled' is from Reality #4 LP. You should be able to get these records pretty easily, they may still be in print.

Interview with Mark from WASTED TIME...

2008-05-29T12:00:00.011+01:00

Here is a recent interview I did with Mark, vocalist of the great active hardcore band Wasted Time. Their last EP 'No Shore' was the best thing they've yet released, and I urge you to pick it up if you haven't already. Powerful hardcore, with clear influences from classic Midwest and early Boston bands. They're doing an LP to come out on Grave Mistake Records next, so keep an eye out for that...

Q. Why did Wasted Time start? Just how awesome is the LAST RIGHTS EP you took your name from?

Mark: No real agenda, just wanted to play some hardcore in a town where there wasn't much in this particular vein. LAST RIGHTS rips. I own a Hitler sleeve, thats how awesome I think they are.

Q. You own a Hitler sleeve...(!). What other gems do you own? What's your biggest want?

Mark: I have some other goodies here and there. I can't say I'm too avid of a record collector, but I will say if anyone has a Cause For Alarm ep they're looking to part with they should hit me up. YES!

Q. A friend once described you to me as "like a D-Beat version of Fucked Up". Just how far off the mark do you think this statement is?

Mark: Ugh. I was thinking more along the lines of ALPHA OMEGA era CRO MAGS meets later CHRISTIAN DEATH. I've definitely heard the FUCKED UP comparison and the "D-Beat" thing too, but never together. I'm impressed!

Q. How important do you think it is to be 'original' playing hardcore? Do you think there's no room left for creativity within the scene? Out of many of the current retro-style hardcore bands, Wasted Time is one of the freshest in sound, and not at all stagnant, like some other current bands... Is your song RITUAL a stab at how something that's supposed to be so exciting can be so dull?

Mark: I'm not sure as to how important originality is now. I wouldn't say its a carbon copy of what happened years ago at all, but rather people who have an admiration for that particular sound having their own go with it. As a result, you have some bland shit and a few mind blowing bands. RITUAL has more to do with people trying to tell me our bands and our goals are the same, we're all "punks," yadda yadda yadda. We're not the same and we're not alligned in any way. Basically just people who pose hard and, as a result, have boring music and views. Not for the weak.

Q. What is one of your favourite underrated bands (from the past) you want to spread the love for?

Mark: Brandon, Eric, Lauren, and I were jamming the REBEL TRUTH ep last night. That shit is choice. And of course, all the old Virginia greats like WHITE CROSS, GOD'S WILL, FRONT LINE, HONOR ROLE, GRAVEN IMAGE, etc.

Q. Do you think having a well rounded knowledge of classic hardcore is important in being in a hardcore band? Obviously some of the greatest abd original bands didn't have nearly 30 years of history to catch up on or be influenced by...

Mark: Very true, they had their own thing going. It is and it isn't inportant. Some motherfucker can have all the sweet records but still produce a snoozer of a hardcore band. On the other hand, I've seen and played with bands of little kids who have little historical knowledge of all that shit yet still rip. It's a double edged sword.

Q. Favourite Midwest hardcore band? Negative Approach vs Necros? Die Kreuzen vs The Fix? Explain why...

Mark: NA, more brutal and Brannon has a funnier life and bands afterwards. DIE KREUZEN wins the second round. I loved the LP and "Cows and Beer" beforehand, but after touring the midwest and driving through Wisconsin thats when I realized how much more I like them. That place is so fucking boring, which I feel might have very well had an effect on how much they ruled.

Taken by Jason from Under Pressure.

Q. What's Virginia like nowadays? Did you grow up on a healthy diet of Avail and Gwar?

Mark: Virginia is great. I've lived in Virginia for 23 years, don't know how much longer I'll be here so we will see how that goes. But yeah, I can't complain, I'd go as far as to say Richmond is my favorite place in the country. I've been listening to AVAIL for over ten years now. I don't know if it's a Virginia thing or what but I definitely have a soft spot for them.

Q. What's next for you guys, new record anytime soon? It's been awhile, what have you been doing!? Did you listen to the reformed 108 record and decide you couldn't hope to compete?

Mark: Oh man, we're writing for a "full length" or something like it that will be out on GRAVE MISTAKE RECORDS whenever it happens. We just lost our practice space but its not like we used the other one too much before anyways. A snail's pace. Krshna wills it, though.

Q. Since you're writing an LP, what are your five favourite hardcore LPs ever? Do you think it can be hard to transfer a formula that works so well on a 7" to a full length?

Mark: I'm sure it could change weekly depending on what I'm feeling, but this seems pretty consistant:

1. Poison Idea - Kings of Punk2. SSD - Get It Away3. Die Kreuzen - S/T 4. White Cross - What's Going On?5. Poison Idea - War All The Time.

I'm not sure as to how hard it may or may not be to try it LP style, but we're just gonna see what happens. We're not gonna force anything.

Q. Favourite current bands people should hear?

Mark: BRAIN HANDLE is the best band in the country right now, hands down. WASTE MANAGEMENT has my heart as well.

Q. Obama, Hilary or McBANE?

Mark: OSAMA BIN HIDIN'!

Q. Is the song LEECH directed at the types of people who subscribe to Profane Existence? Explain yourself...

Mark: They probably read that! In a nutshell, overnight college hipster activist kids who bought their ideas along with their track bikes and short shorts. Annoying, know-it-all 18 year old kids with little to no conviction in whatever they believe in (depending on what week it is) going out of their way to "educate" me since we're "all punks" or whatever. It's just boring, hopefully they graduate soon and make 6 figures and I can sell them health food.

Taken by Daniel from Sorry State Records.

Q. Does it ever surprise you just how much Agnostic Front have spoiled their legacy?

Mark: Whatever man! That new album art is stellar! A fucking viking coming out of some thug dude's back!

Q. What's the worst show you've ever played, and why? The best?

Mark: Shit, many a shitty show has occured over the past 3 years of our being. But, I will say that Raleigh, Richmond, NYC, Philly, St. Louis, L.A., Portland, and the Bay Area are my favorite places in the country to play off the top of my head. I would think a bit harder and rack my brain but I'm still kind of drunk from last night.

Q. Rollins or pre-Rollins? There is a RIGHT answer...

Mark: Fuckin' a, neither, turn on "LIFETIME" by ROLLINS BAND. Or even "WEIGHT" man!

Q. What current hardcore bands can't you stand? Not just bad metalcore or pop-punk that calls itself hardcore

Mark: I'm kind of oblivious to a lot of things in that realm, I don't see too many shitty shows, thankfully. Whenever I do it's rarely hardcore, just the shit around here when I go to a bar or something. However, in the realm of "punk," the whole clean cut hardcore kids turning into junkies thing is boring. They start doing designer drugs and listening to "weird/crazy punk bands" and they wear the girl's pants and all that cute stuff. Oh, and the sketchy sense of humor thing is cute too. Saying "FAGGOT" a bunch really pushes the envelope, how punk! Worst trend, all of those kids should revert back to BANE or whatever they listened to before and go hang out with their Mothers or something.

Q. Thoughts on the SSD "reunion"?

Mark: I'd sneak into it and stagedive feet first.

Q. Dream 5 band line up for a show, any bands past and present, go for it. Also, what venue...

Mark: BIG BOYS-LEATHERFACE-POISON IDEA-REBEL TRUTH-WHITE CROSS. Venue: In my pants.

Q. What covers have Wasted Time ever played live?

Mark: Poison Idea's "Pure Hate" and "Cult Band," DYS's "Insurance Risk" and some others I can't recall at the moment. We do "Glue" for our friend Dane from VB because it's super dumb and easy and he will beat us all to bloody pulps if don't. FREE DANE TEBO!

http://www.myspace.com/wastedtimesucks

POISON IDEA interview uploaded from Suburban Voice #27...

2008-05-28T00:48:00.010+01:00

To round off this weeks poll question (Best Poison Idea LP), here is an interview with Pig Champion and Jerry A from Suburban Voice # 27 (1989). By the way, I voted 'Feel The Darkness' in the poll, but it was a close toss-up between that, 'War All The Time' and 'Kings Of Punk'...If we were talking all their records and 'Pick Your King' was included, I'd probably implode with indecisiveness.

I'll no doubt write about Poison Idea many times on this blog in the future, so I'll keep it fairly short. They're one of my all time favourite bands, and are probably one of yours too (if you have any sense). Basically, they have to be the longest running hardcore punk band to have consistently put of great records, changing and evolving their sound in the process, and never turning into total shit like so many others eventually did (Agnostic Front anyone?). Even their last record recorded before Pig Champion passed away, 'Latest Will and Testament', while not a classic, was a fine addition to their discography.

Also, I'd like to show my appreciation for 'We Must Burn', an underrated album if ever there was one. You can really hear the Dead Boys/Thunders influence, and I'm probably alone in preferring it to 'Black Blackout Vacant'... By the way, if you don't like later PI albums (Feel The Darkness onwards), you're just an idiot. Get off my blog.

Interviews with Jerry A are always excellent. This one, typed-up on Kill From The Heart, is especially great, and I recommend you read it if you haven't already...

Poison Idea also led me to discover the almighty GISM through their covers of 'Endless Blockade For The Pussyfooter' and 'Death Agonies Screams'. Note Jerry's leather jacket on the back cover of 'War All The Time', with the GISM logo painted on the back...

They were also into the great Bukowski, before all the hip students tarnished his name...

P.S. Al Quint who does Suburban Voice currently publishes it online, so support him and his great blog!

P.P.S. Interview with WASTED TIME coming soon.

WAR BETWEEN THE STATES: SOUTH tape compilation download...

2008-05-27T14:49:00.019+01:00

Here's a cassette compilation from 1985 released on TPOS Records. It covers many obscure US hardcore bands from the New South (and a few from the Midwest), bands from a particularly conservative region who have been forgotten or overshadowed by their more popular contemporaries (it does have a few bigger names on; Born Without A Face, Subculture, Rhythm Pigs, Anti-Seen...).

Download here: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=5RS0ZHD4

I really like comps like this, which capture what was going on at a certain time and place, and contains bands you probably wouldn't otherwise hear. While it's not all gold, what I find with a lot of these old US compilations is that there is an abundance of youthful enthusiasm and a willingness to experiment with strange guitar riffs and effects, which makes it all the more interesting.

Here's a band by band overview:

POWER OF THE SPOKEN WORD - One of the few notable bands from Nebraska. Fast manic hardcore with metal linfluences and slow strange parts. It's a bit like Cancerous Growth, and has fairly strong Void influences too. Sadly the singer passed away a few years after they broke up.

LANDLORDS - Good hardcore from Virginia. The 3rd song sounds different from the other 2 and has a harsher sound.

MAGGOT SANDWICH - A good mixture of KBD-style punk and fast hardcore from Florida.

DEATH PUPPY- Raw garagey hardcore from Oklahoma. Not bad.

YOUR WORST NIGHTMARE - Standard hardcore.

CRASH N BURN - Improvised-sound with minimal vocals, like Captain Beefheart being played by drunken punks (if you couldn't have guessed, it's great).

JAWS OF LIFE - Garage punk with an organ player. Interesting.

SEX MUTANTS - As you can probably tell from their name, this is raw rough snotty KBD-style from South Carolina, pretty good.

ANTISEEN - If you don't know Antiseen already, they play scummy and raw Southern punk rock, and were GG Allin's backing band for awhile: get the idea? Some early tracks here.

ACTIVE INGREDIENTS- The same band that were on We Got Power #3. Good hardcore with odd effects and great vocals. Don't believe it's the same band as the one from California (?).

BORN WITHOUT A FACE - Dirgy nihilistic hardcore from Michigan.

BLEEDING NUN - Only one song, but it's great simple hardcore.

SUBCULTURE - Youthful and energetic hardcore. The singer is now in Double Negative.

RHYTHM PIGS - Pretty good upbeat hardcore, not too different from Capitol Punishment.

NOISE FOR THE NEEDY - Annoying mid-paced crap.

LIKE A HORSE - What a band name. They also appear on We Got Power #3. High energy manic hardcore with good vocals and breakdowns, great riffs and guitar sound. One of the highlights of the comp. I have no other info about them (does anyone else?).

BEEF PEOPLE - Good straight forward hardcore from Georgia (I think). Strong and rough vocals. The 3rd song is a fairly shit joke song though.

MNP - Another high energy effort, youthful hardcore (they broke up after graduating!) from Virginia, with plenty of stop-starts and interesting riffs.

MOE - One very raw, primitive dirgy track, about Reagan pushing the button. Good.

INC. YOU BAIT - Terrible name, and HILARIOUS vocals on the 1st track. Like the Cookie Monster but singing underwater. The 2nd song is better; strange punk with female vocals.

ASSAULT - Gruff basic hardcore, singer reminds me of Springa a little bit. Good!

If you know anything about this comp or any of the bands on it, leave a comment!

Photo: Power Of The Spoken Word

Edit: Here is an advert for the comp from Maximum Rock'N'Roll #29; looks like there was a North counterpart, which I'll have to try and hear...