Morning Again Reunion, Confirmed! A Stuck In The Past Exclusive

I just got off the phone with John Wylie and he confirmed the Morning Again reunion. The show will take place at Churchill's Pub in Miami on Saturday, December 11 2010. More details will be released later this week but the following bands are scheduled to play:

Morning Again
Kids Like Us
All Hell Breaks Loose
Remembering Never
Knock Em Dead
Homestretch
Harbinger

The lineup for the band will be John and Steve on guitar, Jerry on bass, Kevin on vocals and Matt on drums. If you are interested in traveling down for the show, shoot me an email at Dancefloorjustice305@yahoo.com and Ill try and get you some info on hotels that are relatively close. Again, this is 100% confirmed by John. If you have any further questions, leave a comment or shoot me an email and Ill do my best to field them until John releases more info. No word yet on whether or not the band is going to make merch for the show (crossing my fingers that they will) but check out the Eulogy Outlet store. They had a few shirts up but quickly sold out. There are still loads of boxes to go through so it's possible there are more so be patient. This is something I've been bugging John about for years and its finally happening. As soon as we have more info, it will be posted.

"Love Is Never Wrong...."

Dave Smalley photo by Ken Salerno and Dave's letter on education eBay auction

A signed copy of the letter below will be included with the photo of Dave taken by acclaimed photographer Ken Salerno available for purchase here - http://cgi.ebay.com/Dave-Smalley-Photo-All-DYS-Dag-Nasty-Ken-Salerno-/320577333775?pt=Art_Photo_Images#ht_1172wt_930


"My name is Dave Smalley. I’m a punk rock singer, screamer, songwriter, guitarist and general tattooed misfit. And I can sometimes be an idiot. But I’m also not a total idiot, for the most part -- and the thanks for that go to some really, really wonderful teachers over the years. And my really, really wonderful parents.

If you’re reading this, that means you get it. You get the big picture – that we can’t raise the next generations of poets, scientists or punk rock singers without great schools, great teachers who are infused with enthusiasm for helping kids reach their highest potential.

For me, it all started with Mrs. Carolyn Zolbe at Jamestown Elementary School in Arlington, Virginia. It was really Mrs. Zolbe who is responsible for all those albums I’ve made over the years – without her, there would be no “Can I Say,” no “punkrockacademyfightsong,” no “Brotherhood” or “Allroy for Prez.” Because Mrs. Zolbe saw in me not just the young rebel/dork that I was, but also someone who had a gift for music. And she developed it in me. When we did plays or musical skits, she told me to sing, so I did. And I found that I loved it.

And I’ve never looked back since then. She gave me confidence, put me on the path. Without her, who knows what I’d be right now.

But it wasn’t just me. She did the same for all the kids. Kids with special needs got special attention. Kids with gifts for sports were encouraged to get out there and play hard. Kindness was encouraged. I remember she made me one of the tutors for a couple of the kids who had challenges with reading, and I was so honored to do that, that it made me realize the importance of helping others. That has influenced my view of punk rock, and what it means to be a musician. See, despite my absolute love for the Sex Pistols, I never was into the whole anarchy idea – instead, I saw punk rock as a chance to make the world a better place. Tear down the bad, leave the good, and improve the rest, including ourselves. Go for ALL!

So thanks for supporting this auction. Thanks for giving of yourself to help kids who really are at those critical points in life. What you’re doing, right now, by buying this and reading it, means you, me, all of us together, can be part of something bigger than ourselves. It proves that punk rockers and punk fans are, once again, the greatest group of people I’ve ever been honored to associate with. And it proves that even a tattooed misfit can do something worthwhile – all because of a teacher, an education, and some serious heart.

Cheers!
Dave Smalley"

Eulogy Outlet Store Now Open

A few weeks back, I went up to Ft. Lauderdale to see John Wylie. While there, we went through the Eulogy Recordings warehouse and came across about 40-50 boxes of old Eulogy merch. We started going through the boxes and decided to open a store through Limited Pressing to sell these items at a discounted price. Theres still about 40 boxes to go through but this is the first batch of what we found so have a look and see if there might be something you like.

Eulogy Outlet Store

Hardcore for Education summer 2010 eBay auction is a GO! (pun absolutely intended)

From HelpGoldenEmpire.com:

After a few bumps getting our non-profit paperwork processed by eBay and MissionFish, we are a go. The auction has started live on eBay as of about 9:30 PM Pacific Time on Aug 15. Items are going for ten days. Note that more items shall be added in the next few days as well. Please visit the auction page for direct links to the eBay listings.

Keep up to date on this website or via Facebook

Record Review : Losing Vision - Damnation

I met the guys in Losing Vision through the old Florida message board I used to post on. They were relatively young at the time (I'd guess around 18 or so) and being the guy that I am, I checked out the demo they had on their Myspace. Needless to say, I wasn't that impressed. They sounded like they had potential but they had yet to find their direction. Jump ahead to last year, about this time in Philadelphia. The band was on tour and hanging out at This Is Hardcore. I hadn't met the guys in the band until that weekend but they were nice kids and were real excited to be out on tour. TJ, the singer, told me about the plans they had for the band in regards to touring. Again, I hadn't heard anything new. Fast forward one more time. Last month I saw the band play in Pembroke Pines with Crucified and I could tell they really had gotten their shit together. After they played, I told them I thought they played very well and they gave me a copy of their current release, Damnation.
The current trend over the past year or two is cassette tapes. Bands are releasing cassettes again. It blows my mind when I can't sell CDs that bands are releasing tapes...either way, this was released by Double Or Nothing Records and did include a download card for the 5 tracks. The cover of the release reminds of the Disney cartoon "Fantasia" and its excellent segment "Night on Bald Mountain". I'm all in favor of bands thinking outside of the hardcore box so thumbs up for going a different route.
Musically, Losing Vision reminds me alot of Integrity. They aren't trying to reinvent the wheel in any way, shape or form but they found their niche by channeling their inner Melnick's. The band includes solo's (with wah pedal) in just about every song, something I was very happy to hear. A good solo (and obligatory divebomb) can break up the usual verse/chorus repetition so its nice to hear that the band isn't afraid to show that they can shred. This release would fall somewhere in between "Systems Overload" and "Humanity Is The Devil" in terms of musical style. Vocally, TJ reminds me of Craig Mack from Living Hell. Gruff, hoarse yelling with lyrics dealing with apocalyptic visions. My favorite tracks were Eternal Sin and Oblivion (which has its fair share of metal parts and double bass) though the entire release is solid.
My only real gripe is I wish the mastering were a little better. The release is a little low but I understand its a cassette so it's not a big deal. Just something to think about in the future. Bottom line is the band is helping to put Florida hardcore back on the map and doing a fine job. Im looking forward to their next release, what ever it may be.

Refused - This Is The New Deal MCD

Here is the first release (after 2 demo's) by Swedish hardcore 'legends' Refused. Hailing from Umeå, Sweden, they began in 1991 and played their final show in 1998. I'm not going to write down a biography or anything like that here, just check the Wikipedia page or google around. For me, their finest hour came with the 'Everlasting' EP (one of the best European hardcore records from the '90s IMHO), and not with the subsequent full-lengths, 'Songs To Fan The Flames Of Discontent' and 'The Shape Of Punk To Come', which are generally seen as their best records. Maybe I just prefer the more straight-forward and less pretentious Refused. Either way, it's hard to deny they had a huge impact on the Swedish hardcore scene, especially in their hometown Umeå, and to some extent outside of Sweden as well. I've seen them live several times, and they definitely rocked. But yeah, their later stuff just rubs me the wrong way. So to counter that, here's their first proper record, the 'This Is The New Deal' MCD. Recorded in 1993 on Burning Heart Records it features a far more old school Refused. Great fast hardcore with already fairly socially aware & politically motivated lyrics. Good stuff.

Refused - This Is The New Deal MCD

Vocalist wanted in the Los Angeles area

Alex Barreto and Paul Hertz aka Frosty (Chain of Strength etc), Andy Alvarez (Pushed Aside, Mindwar, etc.) & Shaun Ross (Excel) are on the lookout for a vocalist in the Los Angeles area to complete this lineup for a new hardcore/thrash project that has been in the works for a few months. Influences include Void, Negative Approach, BL'AST! & Black Sabbath... Serious inquiries to singerinfo@gmail.com for more info.

Unbroken at the Che Cafe on 9/3/10

Pre-sale tickets available here - http://tickets.frontgatetickets.com/choose.php?a=1&lid=46107&eid=53253

The 90's, Straight Edge and JNCOs

If you were part of the straight edge scene in the 1990's, theres a good chance you owned a pair of JNCO's. Be it jeans or jean shorts, JNCOs were all the rage and (most) everyone wore them. Im not sure who was the first to start wearing them and influence an entire generation of kids to wear enormous pants but I'd really like to find out. I never wore the pants because to be quite honest, living in Miami I can wear shorts year-round. To this day I only own 4 pairs of jeans. But I did wear my JNCO shorts into the ground, to the point they literally fell apart and by that time, JNCOs were on their way out so replacements were never purchased.
If you're reading this and saying "JNCOs? The hell is he talking about?", well let me give you the Cliff's Notes version. Denim pants and shorts that used an awful lot of fabric and had designs stitched into the back. You can read up on the history of JNCOs here. The shorts I liked but the pants I couldnt get down with. I hate stepping on my jeans and with JNCOs, they ALWAYS dragged on the ground and left the denim tassels following behind. Either way, somebody or some band brought them to the scene and transformed a generation of kids for the next few years. With the end of the 90s came the end of the JNCO fascination as "fashioncore" set in. Kids traded in their baggy pants for tighter ones and JNCOs became something that kids joked about as often goes in the hardcore scene.
Often times, companies choose not to associate themselves with the people that are buying their product (i.e., Faygo and Juggalos) but JNCO embraced the straight edge scene and even put out a pair of shoes for the straight edge kids. I had no idea they made these until our friend Brian Murphy of Hows Your Edge and Tee Till Death dropped them on TTD yesterday. I wish I had some info on them but some of the comments state that they were made in 1997 and sold at Journey's. This particular pair is up on Ebay right now with about 6 hours left so if you want to go after them, you still have time. If anyone has anymore info on them, drop us a line and let us know so we can do a follow up. Check the pics below. JNCO was definitely onto what was going on in the scene at the time with the image of baggy clothed wearing X'ed up kids on the soles of the shoes. Maybe they had hardcore kids working there at the time because seriously, take a look at the original tag that the seller included which states that the shoes are "hardline approved" and are the "rebirth of hardcore pride". 18 year old Chip would have been over the moon about this. I really hope someone scoops these up and can give us more info on them.
As we've seen, things go in cycles and now that 90s hardcore has generated interested again, is it possible that JNCOs and tulasi beads will make their comeback as well? Will JNCO jeans become sought after collectors items like records? Only time will tell.


-Note: All info regarding the shoes is from Teetilldeath.com and all credit to them.

Josh Grabelle (Trustkill Records) on his top 5 Trustkill Releases

I got in touch with Josh Grabelle from Trustkill Records/Bullet Tooth to look back on his catalog of releases and tell us what his 5 favorite releases have been.

Bullet For My Valentine “The Poison”

This one is pretty obvious to me as a choice. This was one of those signings that EVERY label or A&R person wishes they could score. The band was unheard of, from overseas (Wales), never been to the US, no manager or agent, etc. When I showed them to my friends and dudes in my other bands I got back comments like, "Dude, these guys are fags, don't sign them" or "They have gay tribal tats and wear shorts on stage, fuck these guys." Fast forward 2 years and this album has sold well over 1 million copies worldwide, and over 500,000 in the US, and the band deserves all their success as they are great guys and really hard workers.

Poison The Well “The Opposite Of December”

Most people point to this record as a major turning point for Trustkill, which is true. In 1999 Shai Hulud were recording a few songs for me for a split EP (w/ Another Victim) and Matt Fox called me from the studio and said, "Hey dude, you GOTTA check out the new PTW album they are recording here." The band were supposed to release this album on Good Life but when I heard it, we talked, and we released it on Trustkill in early 2000. In the summer of 2000 was the infamous Hellfest and when thousands of kids were singing along to the new PTW songs, I knew we had something special.

Eighteen Visions “Vanity”

I had seen 18V in Orange County in the summer of 1996 when I was on tour with Endeavor and Harvest. James was a little kid with a HUGE Hardline tattoo on his neck, so I wrote him off immediately. Ha Ha. I signed the band in early 1999 and released a 7" and the "Until The Ink Runs Out" album. I flew the band out to play Hellfest 1999 and that was a HUGE turning point for the band, and the scene really. Nobody looked like them at the time, and they turned a lot of heads. We released "Vanity" in 2002 and it was my first album through a major distributor, as well as a HUGE change in sound for the band. This album kicked off the new revival of the "Orange County scene" which saw great albums from Throwdown, Bleeding Through, Atreyu, A7X, and more.

Bleeding Through “This Is Love, This Is Murderous”

Brandan from Eighteen Visions (and Throwdown) told me he had started a "death metal" band and I probably rolled my eyes at him. Ha Ha. It wasn't until I saw them play at Furnace Fest in 2002 that I was sold. They DESTROYED that place and Brandan was an undeniable front man. I signed the band and released this album in 2003 and it was the first Trustkill album to break 100,000 sales, which is pretty huge. It's also pretty well known that when the band delivered the album I didn't really like it. However, it grew on me after a while and quite enjoy it now.

Various Artists “Saw VI Soundtrack”

This was one of those projects that I could only dream about, and something I ALWAYS wanted to do. A major motion picture soundtrack, with full studio support, DVD release, and I was given 100% control over it. With only 3 weeks to put the entire soundtrack together (the film business is even less organized and last minute than the music business I discovered), I think I put together a pretty awesome album with great music and artwork. Working with bands like Hatebreed, Converge, Every Time I Die, Shadows Fall, Chimaira, and more was a lot of fun.