Despair - 2xLP discography available for pre-order!

Pre-orders for the double LP Despair discography "Four Years Of Decay" will be going live at 3pm est/12pm pst today (3/18/17) through Safe Inside Records. 

Safe Inside has cooked up all kinds of cool stuff to coincide with this release, including shirts/hoodies and the chance to win test presses and original t-shirts with every pre-order.

Check it out over at Safe Inside Records.

And if you haven't heard of Safe Inside yet, they're a new label being operated by two former members of San Diego stalwarts, Built To Last.

Slugfest - Reunion Show 4/26/97 Buffalo, NY

Here's video of Slugfest's full set from their one and only reunion show on 4/26/97 at the Showplace Theater in Buffalo, NY.

flyer from: 94 Feet To Glory

Modern Problems demo

I play in a new straight edge band that I sing for called Modern Problems. I thought I'd share our demo with you guys. It's in the realm of Uniform Choice/ Unity/ early Ignite/ 7 Seconds/ Minor Threat. Check it out.

Modern Problems on Facebook

Modern Problems on Bandcamp

Modern Problems Demo DL

Zero Tolerance Live in Toronto 10/28/89

20+ years ago I was given a great soundboard recording of  Zero Tolerance labeled "ZT Toronto 1990" I dubbed it for a few friends and kind of forgot about it. A few years ago, I misplaced said tape and recently my friend Bill came to the rescue with the dub I had made for him. Larry Ransom (another friend I dubbed the tape for in '94) and I were trading emails discussing the recording and he surmised that though the copy I had back in the day was marked 1990, the show was actually from late '89. Sure enough, I shot a message over to former ZT bass player Eric Rice who confirmed that the show was in October of '89 in Toronto and the line-up was, get this: Zero Tolerance, Cannibal Corpse and the GOO GOO DOLLS. 

This set is pretty great, there's early versions of 3 songs that went on to be on the legendary 1990 demo, with Trapped In A World being performed for the first time at this show. Some of the laid back stage banter and guitarist Mike Robinson's late show outburst is great. There's also many songs played that were never released and recorded, check it out.

 

ZT Live In Toronto 

Longest War (ex Chokehold, Despair) 7" available for preorder

Longest War, Featuring Chris Logan (ex Chokehold) on vocals and ex-members of Despair, Union and Achilles laying down the crunch, just put the 7" on Press Gang Records up for presale. Head over to http://longestwar.bandcamp.com/releases to check them out

and over to http://www.storenvy.com/products/6979892-longest-war-7-pre-order to order.

Envy Never Forget cassette/ Larry Ransom notes and backstory

Envy were a great mid 90's straight edge band from Buffalo, NY. I had the pleasure of being friends with some of the guys, played with them(with Halfmast and No Reason) as well as booking them a few times. I always loved their pre-LP demo and recalled that it was initially going to be a second 7" on a west coast label. I couldn't remember the specifics, so I reached out to Larry Ransom, who sang for Envy, and he took the time to write a little something. Check it out and the great info from Larry (that's him as a youngster on the cover).

 "Hello everyone. Jeremy asked me to chime in on this demo tape so I thought I'd write out all that I can remember.

Going back a bit before this tape, I had released two 7"s on my label, New Direction Records. The first being an awesome and pretty much unknown 7" from the Buffalo band, Against All Hope (go seek it out) and the second being the self-titled 7" from my band, Envy. One of the distributors for my releases at that time was Network Sound (New Age and Conversion Records) in California. Their buyer at the time, who would call me when they needed to order a restock was this kid Jason. He was cool and easy to deal with and would always make sure that Network Sound would get me paid on time. He was friendly on the phone and we would often just end up shooting the shit about hardcore and filling each other in on cool new records we had purchased and what was going on in our local scenes.

At one point he was starting up his own label that was going to be an inprint under the Network Sound umbrella and he asked Envy if we would like to release a 7" with him. I talked it over with the band and we decided to do it as we had a grip of new songs we wanted to release and we thought the Network Sound distribution would be a big help in getting the record out into the world.

He named his record label X-hibition Records. The first release for his label was going to be an album from the New Jersey band, Strength 691. He had linked up with Strength 691 through a recommendation from Joe D Foster from Ignite. The Envy 7" was going to be the second release.

We booked studio time with Doug White at Watchmen Studios. We had recorded our original demo with Doug when the studio was still in his parents basement.  But now we would be the first band to record at his new studio on Snyder Rd at the corner of Robinson Rd. We were the guinea pigs of sorts for Doug's new studio so he cut us a great deal on studio time. I think he may have only charged us $100.

I don't recall too many specifics about being in the studio. I think we had done our best, performance wise, in the studio compared to our previous recording experiences and as always, Joe drove Doug crazy by trying to get the best sound and mix we could. At the end of the recording session we all signed and dated a dollar bill for Doug and it's still hanging in his studio as we were the first customers. I think next year will be the 20th anniversary of that day and recording. Scary to think!

Joe did the layout for the 7" and CDEP and we sent the layout and master recording to the label for the manufacturing etc. I know things started to go into production as test pressing were made and he sent us 4 of them so each member could have one and he sent us a CD of the mastered recording for CD version of the release. Things seemed to be fine at this point. We had even made flyers and started promoting the release at our shows.
 Things started to slow down after that and he was beginning to be hard to get ahold of and eventually he got fired from Network Sound. Things were starting to remind me of the all too familiar "Hardcore records take forever to come out" scenario like what happened to local bands that had come before us... The No Joke 7", The Slugfest 7" and the Fadeaway split 7". Records that took years to come out after they were recorded. Except ours got worse. It never came out! 

Finally I got ahold of the guy and he admitted he wouldn't be able to continue with the label. The Strength 691 album didn't come out either and I think the guy basically disappeared from HC all togother. We were excited to get that recording out so we pressed up a quick 100 copies as a demo to sell at an upcoming show we had with Mouthpiece in the summer of 1996. We had the tapes professionally dubbed at this place ESP and had the shells printed which was cool and we just made photocopy covers. We sold all 100 copies at that show. We didn't give that tape a bigger pressing or distribution as we had already written a bunch more songs by that point so we thought we would re-record those songs along with all our new ones for an album, which we did do.

So that's pretty much the story on that tape. It's probably the recording that turned out the best for us and the one that people tell me they like the best.

Thanks Jeremy.

-Larry"

Envy Never Forget Promo Cassette 

Against All Hope 1993 Self Titled Cassette

 While waiting in line at a local thrash/ death metal show in the winter on 1990, I bought a 7” by local Buffalo, NY hardcore band Against All Hope. I thought it was pretty cool and listened to it quite a bit over the coming months. The following summer of '91, I finally was able to catch them live and they were WAY better than that 7”. The line up I saw at that show had Jay Galvin on bass and Scott Vogel on drums, both of whom were also in Slugfest. Over the next few years, I saw them many, many more times and once their line up solidified they got even better.

In 1993 Against All Hope released my favorite material by them, their Self Titled cassette; they were on the more speedy, melodic side of hardcore, especially for Buffalo, mixing in some Dag Nasty style to their brand of 'core. Long gone were Jay and Scott, but oddly enough both Flipowitz and Tim Patterson from AAH also went on to be in Slugfest. This is a really great demo and includes a cover of Once I Cry by Uniform Choice. 

Against All Hope 1993 Self Titled Cassette 

Fadeaway- Blindsight Demo 1993

Caught somewhere between early 90's "Buffalo stye" hardcore and Turning Point, Fadeaway's Blindsight is one of the absolute best demos to ever come out of the Buffalo, NY hardcore scene. The song writing and pedigree (3 members went on to Despair and another to Snapcase) on Blindsight is top notch, combining songs from 3 different recording sessions; all of which were recorded at Watchmen studios. Though two of the songs (Perfect Blood and Gone) appear on the band's previous demo, they work better in the context of this release. 21 years later, it still sounds current and vital.

http://www.mediafire.com/download/xi0haa7nkecda4f/Blindsight_Cassette.rar

Mike Bird: Buffalo Kid Who Needs Your Help

If there is one thing I've learned through my years of being a part of the hardcore scene, we watch out for our own. Well, we need your help. Reposted from "The Kids Still Have Their Say":


On the evening of Thursday, April 14th 2011 the Buffalo hardcore community gathered at Mohawk Place to support Terror and Trapped Under Ice as they took the stage to play a show.

With plenty of pile-on's, stage-diving, sing-along's and an incredible vibe of unity and energy, the show got off to an awesome start.

However, what began as a good-old hardcore show ended in a tragic incident that has forever altered the life of one of Buffalo hardcore's very own members.

MIKE BIRD, regular show-goer, hardcore kid, and a member of the Buffalo Straight Edge community, was knocked to the ground by a stage-diver. Hitting his back and head on the concrete floor, Mike had to be rushed to the hospital via ambulance to be treated for his injuries. Unable to move his limbs, or feel any pain in his lower-body, Mike received emergency spinal surgery for his injuries.
The official diagnosis indicates that Mike broke the C5 and C6 vertebrae in his lower spine. With no feeling in his legs, it is unclear how soon 19-year old Mike will regain use of his lower body and be able to walk (or mosh) again.

Without the luxury of being able to afford his own health insurance coverage, this injury is crippling financially as well.
An ambulance ride, emergency room visit, sophisticated spinal surgery, X-Rays, physical therapy, and medication leaves Mike Bird with a medical bill that will most-likely amount to a six-figure sum. His lack of insurance and limited mobility will make paying this debt an impossible task.

The Buffalo hardcore community is banding together, pooling our collective resources and organizing benefit events to help offset Mike Bird's medical bills.

WE NEED YOUR HELP.

The community aspect of hardcore is something that transcends the boundaries of cities, crews, cliques, scenes, and sub-genres.
We are ALL hardcore kids; we're all cut from the same cloth.
We ALL go to shows, we ALL stage dive, and we've ALL had our share of mishaps.

It could have been any one of us in Mike Bird's shoes.
He just happened to draw the short straw that night and get knocked down.
But as we all know, when someone gets knocked down in hardcore, we PICK THEM BACK UP.

Several benefit events are being organized within the Buffalo scene as we speak.
I'm told that both Terror and Trapped Under Ice are both on-board for a special merch-run related to this incident.

We have set up a PayPal account for donations.
100% of the money donated to this PayPal will go DIRECTLY to Mike Bird's medical expenses.

If you have ANYTHING you can donate via PayPal, a quarter, a dollar, two dollars, please send donations via paypal to:
Sticktightbuffalostyle@gmail.com


NO donation is too small.
Mike Bird has NOTHING, so ANYTHING you can donate will add up.


If you have any questions about this fundraising effort, or want to help out and become involved, shoot me an e-mail at FrankNiemiec@yahoo.com


Thanks.

-Frank XXX

Anything helps so please, if you have anything just sitting in your paypal account, help this guy out.
In case you missed it, here's the paypal address again: Sticktightbuffalostyle@gmail.com