Restrain were a straight edge band from Lee's Summit, Missouri, a suburb just outside of Kansas City. I've never gotten a full grip on if they were a vegan band or not, but judging from some of the lyrics, they were vegetarian at the least. From the cover art to the lyrics, one gets a real sense of straight edge militancy from Restrain on this 7", but one thing that you might not guess from that statement is that the singer of Restrain was Sean Ingram. Yes, that Sean Ingram. The one that fashioned a new reputation for himself by talking endless shit about straight edge in his next band, Coalesce. Released in 1993 on Chapter Records, this 7" is a good representation of what one would think of when they hear the term "90's vegan straight edge".
Restrain - Armageddon
Chapter Records [1993]
http://www.mediafire.com/?mxtnjgkmddw
![Mayday - Victim [demo 1993]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNu1BD8eki-O6k8I4pN5KD6E73RK9aq7z4l4BQs8qSGNa6AB4OhbO-u9ACy-gWD_cwSmLJUqY_l8FtIzl0dYgpxhNH_55rrU5fDoHK9ggKrl4rw_j0Xk4-wMmszw-wokfmB9b1xnOqcB74A_9P2gmv1isDkT0J4jPFGnCnPnVMrVW2MpjPRsPWnMkgORk/s72-c/cover.jpg)
3 comments:
wow i totally forgot about this record...haha. i actually wrote sean a letter when this came out and told him my thoughts on the cover image about a sxe kid with a gun, etc. (i just didnt think it was "cool" haha). he wrote me back a fairly nice letter and also pretty much told me to go fuck myself all at the same time. haha. in between restrain and coalesce, he also started a small "straight-edge" skateboard company called reaction. their main thing seemed to be an anti-world industries slant or something, i cant remember. anyway, i bought a few decks from him, the idea of a super indie skateboard company at the time was pretty cool. it took me awhile to figure out that the singer for coalesce was the same crazy sxe kid i dealt with back then...funny times.
Definitely picked it up at that oh-so-impressionable age when damn near every bit of wax that had anything even remotely resembling an X on it was scarfed up faster than Denny's spicy fries. They were among the many staples which provided a hefty chunk of our (very poorly practiced "vegetarian") diets and as such we suffered through lengthy bouts of stomach aches as well as outbreaks of mediocre 7"s within our record collections. I swear, everybody caught it dozens of times!
Kidding aside, well said, Proven Hollow. Those were some of the most fun(ny) times.
Cheers.
Hello interested parties into 90's hardcore. I received a link to this from some old sxe friends, and what I have to comment here might be of some interest to you since I'm Sean Ingram (yes, THAT Sean Ingram).
I want to point out that blogs like this that post out of press and hard to find 7"s are very cool. I believe I have even grabbed a few off of here before this Record came up. On that note, thanks a lot, very cool.
As for the 7", it's never been fully commented on as It came out after the band broke up, and the members moved on. The first thing I wanted to comment on is the cover as it received a lot of flack when it came out for it's use of fire arms on the cover. The cover design was actually art directed by me, and executed by Brandon Askew (second nature Dan Askew's little brother). The cover was never meant to come off as militant or violent in nature. It was supposed to come off as reactionary when pressed in a corner. The idea was to have a group of thugs cornering a sxe kid, and him fighting back like a wounded animal. But instead it came off like a sxe kid pulling a gun on unarmed pedestrians with no cause.
Something else kind of silly is the back image is of me and the guitarist both singing. I'm pretty sure this was not a photo of Restrain, but since both of us were on it, it was used.
As far as the members go and what they are all involved with now, here is a quick list.
sean: not sxe or vegan, still involved in bands.
justin guitarist: not sxe, possibly still vegan or vegetarian, still involved in bands, but not hardcore or punk.
jj guitarist: still super involved in veganism, but I don't think sxe. Is a lawyer in philly currently
tony bassist: not sxe or vegan, came out of the closet a while back and is an active artist and activist in the gay community.
It should also be noted that Francisco, the owner of Chapter Records is rumored to have died of a drug overdose some years back. I have not been able to get multiple confirmations on that.
On a personal note, I want to agree with the other 2 commenters that this time was a wacky time. For me especially. At 17 I had thrown myself into the sxe scene and treated it much like a religion. I even moved to syracuse to live with sxe vegan kids, including the original guitarist of earth crisis in an effort to have a clean, pure, sxe life. But it became clear after a year or so, that life was about much more than being sxe, and then the title only served to be a label I could not out grow, but had to get rid of altogether. I rebelled. I was young, and have admitted repeatedly that I should have gone about it better.
anyways, wacky times indeed.
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