Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Posted by jav | File under : ,
For my first official post as a member of the team, I wanted to write about a band that was important to me in the 90's, and that was/ is relatively unknown.

Remain IS 90s hardcore. Emotional music, thought provoking lyrics, mid-tempo hardcore that is full of passion and is not pretentious or forced. Musically, it sounds like Ashes, later Outspoken, even later Turning Point. Lots of octaves, melody, no real "break downs" per se. This was the time before modern "dancing" had evolved, and the mosh was very ungraceful and barbaric, and the tempo of the music went along with that. There's even a couple of awesome dive bomb's hidden in there. Lyrically, touching on subjects that were VERY big in the 90s, like indigenous people's struggles, wondering why people abuse substances, and fires burning about something or other. Vocally, kind of a rough singing and very emotional delivery, like the singer could have been literally crying on stage because a tribal land is disappearing.

This CD was recorded in 1994 at For The Record in Orange, CA. Many OC bands recorded there in the 90s and early 2000s, such as Farside, Enewetak and Adamantium to name a few. I saw Remain many times in the 90s and I was initially drawn to them because some of the members weren't white. That may sound weird, but growing up brown in white-as-fuck Newport Beach, and realizing that Hardcore was (and to an extent still is) a white/male dominated genre, I appreciated the diversity.

Orlando Sanchez went on to form Parade's End with Leonardno and ex-Mean Season member Jae Hansel. After that, he resurfaced in the punk bands IM GONNA STAB YOU and FM Bats. Interestingly, many members of the Long Beach punk scene that spawned Le Shok, etc., were originally in and around the Hardcore scene.
Butch Bowen sang for the awesomely under-appreciated The Q-Factor, who had a 7" and appeared on a comp or two. He also sang for a band called New Day which played Outspoken's first last show, and they were amazing as well. He also played in Former Members Of Alfonsin (a great post about them can be found on WHAT WE WANT WE MUST CREATE)
Leonardo was in Parade's End and I'm Gonna Stab You.
John was in Parade's End.

A year or so ago, a few copies apparently "resurfaced" and were available from the Revelation distro, as the record was put out by Igby (who works there). You may still be able to pick on up if you're lucky. if not, enjoy this.

Remain- Die Alone

14 comments:

Shawna said...

I have the 7". Man I wish I had a record player still. I miss shit like this.

Cheesegrater said...

Orlando currently plays guitar for THE GRAND ELEGANCE

Unknown said...

Awesome post - thanks for the link and the band background.

C.Sutton said...

I think even for their final show they opened up.

Anonymous said...

Dam the link doesn't work...

jav said...

i just clicked on the link and it works.

try this?

http://rapidshare.com/files/280684492/Die_Alone.zip

Anonymous said...

"I saw Remain many times in the 90s and I was initially drawn to them because some of the members weren't white. That may sound weird, but growing up brown in white-as-fuck Newport Beach, and realizing that Hardcore was (and to an extent still is) a white/male dominated genre, I appreciated the diversity."

Well jav, it looks like you and I have some common ground after all. Growing up Jewish in white-as-fuck Fountain Valley was no picnic either.

Anonymous said...

rapidshare sucks, thanks for the upload though! MEDIAFIRE

ERIC SXE said...

I thought I was the only one who really liked this band! I bought that CD many years ago and it still gets played often. It's awesome! I was lucky enough to see them at some church in San Francisco back in like 95. They were great. It also was nice to see some other people of color in the scene besides me. We had a little more diversity in the Nor Cal scene but it still was primarily white kids.

Unknown said...

wooooooooooooo
gracias gracias
from chile!!!!!!!!!!

Karsten said...

So great - I love them. They have their greatest song "farewell" on this "Bringin It Back" compilation on Ammunition Rec. If you see it, buy it. Essential!
Parade's End is great, too.

ERIC SXE said...

Does anyone have any live video of REMAIN? I'd love to see it if you do!

Unknown said...

anyone can upload this again, please?

ERIC SXE said...

I've got it here on Rapidshare for anyone that wants it. =)

http://rapidshare.com/files/414731841/REMAIN_-_DIE_ALONE_MP3.rar.html