The Youth Crew Revival

One thing you may not know about me (Chip) is that as much as I love the 90s style bands (and boy do I), I do enjoy some of the 90s Youth Crew Revival bands. Granted the scene eventually became saturated with 1000's of bands that sounded the same, there were the few that stood out and did the style well. The first band I remember hearing about was Ten Yard Fight. The band released a demo and a 7 inch which would later be released together by Big Wheel Recreation before signing to Equal Vision Records. They were basically the front-runners of the genre and brought the 80s style of hardcore back to the forefront of the hardcore scene.
The next band I was genuinely stoked on was Fastbreak. Sure, their name seems like a bit of a play on the name Ten Yard Fight with the sports reference and all, but the band was its own. Their demo and 7 inch (Don't Stop Trying) showed some good youth crew jams but the band really came into its own on "Fast Cars Fast Women" which, to this day, Id list it in my top 20 Best Hardcore Records. Vocalist Pat Rorick is still in my top 5 favorite frontmen and man could he put on a good show. So much energy with the ability to get the crowds attention and keep it for the duration of their set. Its a shame that this record is now out of print. Anyway, the band eventually signed to Revelation, released another record and then broke up with Pat going to play in Right Brigade.
When I saw Fastbreak for the first time in 1997, they were on tour with Shutdown and had a fill in bass player named Neal. I spoke to Neal before they played and he told me to check out his new band called In My Eyes. I didnt have any money to buy it but he ended up giving it to me because he was a nice guy. That demo would be in constant rotation for quite some time and it is still my favorite recording from them. In My Eyes became the next big thing out of Boston at the time featuring Anthony Pappalardo from Ten Yard Fight and long-time showgoer Sweet Pete on vocals. The band also shared members with Fastbreak and would also sign to Revelation and release 2 records with them. The band literally blew up and became one of the biggest things in hardcore.
A little further south in New Jersey, members of Release and Ressurection got together and started a band called Floorpunch which was a return to more traditional hardcore. Their 7 inch "Division One Champs" pressed on gold has become the 90s version of "Chung King Can Suck It" in how limited it was and the amount people are willing to pay for it. They signed with Equal Vision Records and released 2 records. On the otherside of the world, Mainstrike was the premier European youth crew band along with Sportswear from Oslo.
While this is in no way covering all the bands of the day, it is just a small piece of the bands I felt were important at the time.