Video: Life Sentence Records showcase 1996

In 1996, Life Sentence Records had a showcase for the label at Showcase Theater in Corona, CA.  I transferred everything that was on a VHS that I have, but some of the sets are definitely incomplete.  If anyone out there has video of the full sets, please get in touch.

XCLEARX

Eighteen Visions

Focal Point

Lifeless

Excessive Force

90's Hardcore Fliers

I still have a stack of fliers I saved, somehow unscathed, mostly from the late 90's. Here's a few for your viewing pleasure...

Eighteen Visions - Unreleased Session [DAT source]

Back in 2009, I posted an unreleased recording session from Eighteen Visions that came from a cassette tape that Jav sent to me.  The heaviness of the tracks was a great precursor to what they were writing for Yesterday Is Time Killed, but the cassette had its limitations as far as sound quality goes.  Now, almost five years later, a box sent to me by Dan Gump of Life Sentence Records contained the master DAT tape for this recording session, so everyone can hear these songs the way they were truly meant to be heard.

If you want to get the full story about the recording, check out the original post here.

Eighteen Visions - Unreleased Session

[DAT source]

https://www.mediafire.com/?rmb2n9317d6uwn1

Hardcore Fliers

Like a lot of hardcore kids in the 90's I collected fliers due to the fact that it was the only way to find out about shows. We weren't on the internet or our phones 24/7, we would go the record stores and see what fliers were there and that's how we got our information. That being said, I have a pretty large stack of fliers that used to be all over my walls. I occasionally post them on my instagram account (vinylxdenim) so here's a few if you haven't seen them yet. All from the late 90's in Southern California.

Eighteen Visions - Showcase Theater [1/11/98] Soundboard

This cassette came to me in a large box from Jav quite some time ago, but for some reason, I just now got around to converting it.  This is a great sounding soundboard recording of Eighteen Visions at the Showcase Theater on 1/11/98.  They run through most of the songs on Lifeless and also play two tracks that would later appear on Yesterday Is Time Killed.

"This one goes out to the Monster Crew."

Eighteen Visions - Showcase Theater [1/11/98]

http://www.mediafire.com/?dok3ujtgfp909cd

Adamantium To Play Reunion Shows

Source: Lambgoat.com

Lambgoat just announced that Southern California's Adamantium will be playing a few shows this summer. No dates are confirmed yet but here's the info so far:

"Southern California hardcore band Adamantium, who broke up in 2001, will apparently play two reunion shows this spring (dates and venues have yet to be confirmed). Guitarist Dan Sena sent us the following:

"After 10 years, we have decided to do a couple reunion shows tentatively planned for the spring time. Two shows - one in Orange County and the other in Los Angeles. When and where will be announced in the coming months."

After breaking up, Adamantium members went on to appear in such bands as The Hope Conspiracy, Eighteen Visions, A Static Lullaby, and Bullet Train To Vegas.

For further updates, you can monitor the group's Facebook"

Clear - The Sickness Must End

From the Clear Myspace:

"Clear was formed in 1995 and was originally known as XclearX; the letter x serving as a symbol for straight edge. Often associated with hardcore music, Straight Edge (in the mid-1990's) was a fusion of heavy punk and heavy metal, and that's the sound that Clear produced. When the band began, Jason was 21, Sean was 19, and Tyler was just 16. The original guitarists would later be replaced with Mick and Josh, who fall in the same age range.

In 1996, six months after forming, they released a 7" record called The Sickness Must End, which they supported with a national tour. Tyler was 17 then, and, as he explained in a phone interview, it was an eye-opening experience for him. "I was traveling the world and pretty much living on my own with no money, and having these guys look after me," he said. "And they were young, too."

During the time that Clear was at its peak, Utah's straight-edge scene had a reputation as being one of the most violent in the country. In 1998-1999, Salt Lake City was receiving national media coverage for an alleged straight-edge attack on fraternity members. The members of Clear said that hardcore music fans who weren't straight edge were often afraid to come to their shows for fear of being attacked. However, Clear tried to reach out to everyone.

"We always tried to promote an embracing experience and get as many kids out as we could," Sean said. "[When] fights would break out ... we would stop playing. So all the kids that tried to channel hate through hardcore weren't OK with us."

In 1999, the band recorded a full-length CD, Deeper Than Blood, under the name Clear. After two national tours to support the record, Josh decided to leave the band to pursue his own indie-rock project, The New Transit Direction.

"I always felt like we probably could have kept going pretty strong if we'd never lost Josh," Jason said. "Because when this kid came and played with us for the first time ... you know that feeling that you get when everything clicks?" A replacement second guitarist was added, and another tour followed, but then Mick announced that he, too, was leaving the band. He said they no longer seemed to be able to write music together. While things looked great on the outside, they'd only managed to write two new songs in eighteen months. Sean said, "Mick wanted to be more metal, Jason wanted to be less metal, and [Josh] wanted to be more indie rock." Sean and Tyler were gravitating toward stoner rock. Once Mick announced that he was leaving, the rest of the band decided not to continue without him. Tyler said, "I didn't have the energy or the desire to ... find another guitar player and teach him the songs, especially since for the year before that, we wrote like, one song."

Clear played their last show in 2000 in the basement of DV8 to an audience of approximately 300. "It was an amazing show," Sean said. "We had a great time, kids were into it, we played everything we had at the time, and when it was over, it was like ... that's it. It was kind of anticlimactic, you know?"

Clear - The Sickness Must End

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=O9CQ3SQ1