John Joseph and... Corey Feldman???

Classic Records: In My Eyes - 1997 Demo

I feel fortunate to have seen In My Eyes, who in my opinion was in the top 5 best 90s Youth Crew Revival bands. Granted, the show I saw them at they didnt play their best because they had just come from the beach, were suffering from sun poisoning, and looked lobsters from how much they had been sunburned. I was able to knock them off my list of bands I wanted to see back in 1999. The first time I heard them was in 1997 when Neal was filling in on bass for Shutdown. Shutdown was on tour with Fastbreak (who has an equally amazing 7 inch in "Don't Stop Trying") in the beginning of the summer of 97. Fastbreak was setting up so I ventured out to see what merch the bands had brought with them and I managed to strike up a conversation with Neal. I had already bought a Shutdown shirt as well as the CD on Striving For Togetherness Records which depleted my funds. Out of the goodness of his heart, Neal gave me a copy of the In My Eyes demo telling me it was his new band and to check it out if I had a chance. On my way home, I popped in the cassette and it blew my mind. Here was one of the best representations of late 80's youth crew hardcore with a modern twist. The cassette flew by and I promptly rewound it and listened again. Each track stood on its own but to me, the standout track was definitely "This Is Our Time" which begins with a 4 count drum hit followed by that snare/floor tom fast beat that I love so much and the Boston bands made so popular. The lyrics reflect how getting older often people long for the "old days" and how there really isn't anything wrong with that. "You think I'm living in the past, Living out something long gone, But what's so wrong with believing what made me who I am, That's why I won't give up, Your criticism won't get in the Way!" With Stuck In The Past being a big part of my life, these lyrics mean more to me now than ever. While on the full length, the "In (My Eyes) Tro" precedes "This Is Our Time", here it is its own track though I wish they would have put it as it was later. The way it was on the full length just had so much more power because of this.
Out of the 6 songs (7 if you count the intro), 2 were not re-recorded. This is something you don't see too often anymore. Most bands, especially nowadays, basically re-record every song they have to make up their full length (hey, I'm guilty of this too) so its refreshing to see a band actually take the time to write new songs as opposed to taking the easy way out and fall back on previous material. Also, it was great to see a band who came out and said "Hey, we're straight edge, we play in a straight edge band but we're cool with you doing whatever you do". Not really being in your face about it but being blatant and up front saying that they were a straight edge band.
After the band signed to Revelation Records and released "The Difference Between", Big Wheel Recreation issued the demo, which was originally released by Stand Hard Records, on both vinyl and CD (the CD included a bonus live set) after an enormous demand for it. The CD started off with a a voicemail from drummer Luke's mother telling him that there was a special on television about straight edge and the band was mentioned. I believe the CD has since gone out of print so if that's the case, Ill upload the demo at some point. This demo was amazing for its time and even now holds up well against the current crop of bands. I'm glad that recently I've rediscovered the demo and hope that this brings back those feelings for those of you who had a copy of the demo when it came out.

ORANGE COUNTY HARDCORE SCENESTER update and t-shirts now available

My brother Evan continues to plug away full steam ahead on his ORANGE COUNTY HARDCORE SCENESTER documentary film on the Orange County, California hardcore scene from 1990 to 1997. According to the official OCHS Facebook page, the year 1993 has been rough edited and Evan is preparing to start working on the year 1994 this coming week, so the film is basically halfway completed. Evan has been doing a great job of providing weekly updates on the film's progress on the Facebook page as well as lots of video stills from the film and other related photos as well. Additionally, there are now OCHS t-shirts (pictured below) available for purchase from A.C. Silk Screen Company, so contact them via their Myspace or Facebook pages to order.

U.K.H.C. - A Compilation (1997)

'U.K.H.C. - A Compilation', as the name suggests, is a compilation CD promoting the British HC scene. Released in 1997 on Household Name Records, it features 15 bands from all over the UK, with most bands doing 2 songs. Some of the bands on here are Stampin' Ground (who do an Inside Out cover on here, 'By A Thread'), Knuckledust, Ninebar (who had just formed a few months before recording their tracks for this compilation), Imbalance, Freebase, Consume (great hardcore from Northern Ireland) and Medulla Nocte. Overall a sweet compilation with a bunch of early recordings of some great UKHC bands. I picked up this CD at the All Ages Records store in Camden, London a few years ago. This independent punk/hardcore record store was co-founded by Lil & Katherine, the people behind Household Name Records (they're not involved with the store anymore tho). Which reminds me: support independent record stores, they're a dying breed unfortunately.

U.K.H.C. - A Compilation

Most Precious Blood "Do Not Resuscitate" to finally see the light of day???

Credit source: Lambgoat.com

According to Lambgoat, Trustkill Records will no longer be releasing records and Josh Grabelle has started Bullet Tooth, a recording and publishing company. In the statement, Josh says that the last Most Precious Blood album "Do Not Resuscitate" will be released as early as the end of this summer. Will we finally be able to hear the long lost recording? Read the article for more information as we as an interview with Josh on the history of Trustkill Records.

Bullet Tooth press release and quick Most Precious Blood blurb can be read here.

Interview with Josh Grabelle concerning the history of Trustkill

UNRESTRAINED news

It feels like a million things have been going on around the Unrestrained camp, so here's a quick run down:

We have some shirts now available from the fine folks at Hellfish

Our split 7" with The Rebarker from Germany is almost back from the presses, and will be available real soon from Superfluous.

And while you're over at the Superfluous site, be sure to check out the limited version of the Rebarker 7" with the Mayhem rip-off cover.

A few months ago, we recorded a cover of "Let Down" by Chain of Strength, and it will be appearing on a 2x7" tribute comp on 1124 Records. The complete project is running well on schedule, and should be seeing the light of day real soon.
When we recorded the Chain of Strength cover, we also recorded two more songs that will find their way onto a split 7" with Incendiary from Long Island, NY on Trip Machine sometime towards the end of summer.

As of now, we're entering the writing phase again for an EP on a label that we'll be announcing once we start the recording process. If all goes as planned, we'll be leaving Portland to play Southern California at the beginning of September. As always, I'll post further news here, and you can also keep up with us on a multitude of sites such as: Limited Pressing, Facebook, Twitter, and Myspace.

Hardline Interview with David Agranoff - Value Of Strength zine #5 (1999)

As some of you may know, the Hardline movement was a pretty big part of the early to mid 90s with lots of kids following the ideas but quickly dropping out. Perhaps they changed their opinions or maybe they lost interest. Well David "Count" Agranoff was one who followed the movement for many years and has since become one of our regular readers, on-occasion contributor and friend. Since this interview, David has changed some of his views and when I told him I wanted to post this interview he did, he asked if he could write a sort of epilogue on how he feels about it now. I gladly accepted so please read on. David has a lot to say and its worth your time. He is still vegan straight edge and is currently writing another book as well as a book on the history of Earth Crisis. I scanned this interview from a European zine (Value of Strength) that my friend Ivan sent me. Please understand that the interview is almost 13 years old (when conducted, not published) so things have seriously changed. Read David's explanation before you read the interview.

"Hey Chip allowed me to say something before printing this interview from 13 years ago. During the last half of the 90's I was like a hardline robot totally dedicated like a machine to the ideology proposed in Vanguard#1 which was very much like a bible to me at the time. In 99 the hardline movement split, a minority who viewed hardline to based on muslam ideals copyrighted the name declared many of us ideologically impure. While I still believe they were reading vanguard incorrectly and at the time it was devastating to me. I had devoted everything to hardline for years.
I am not sure I would ever have left if I had been forced out. This kind of ideological headbanging has happened in revolutionary groups forever so I shouldn't be surprised. I still agree with many of statements from this interview. I am still 100% drug free and militantly vegan. But my stepping away from the ideology gave me the freedom to question some of the views I once held.

I don't feel the same way about homosexuality, and support the rights of all to express themselves sexually any way they see fit. I did then too, but now I don't care weather it is natural or not. As far as Abortion goes, that is more complex. I think both sides of the debate are lost. Lives are not for others to choose, and the pro-life movement is anything but. In the end most humans grow up only to be an endless source of death and destruction, so I see no need in defending the life of a fetus that will ultimately spend a lifetime eating animals, consuming wasteful and destructive products. At this point we need less humans, I see that now.
My views have changed but I feel the hardcore kids of today can learn from Hardline. It was movement that grew from hardcore that was truly revolutionary. We were not just kids advocating change we had a total praxis that was rooted in a belief in a deeper meaning to human life. We trained, we fought, and we took ourselves much more seriously than we had any right too. But compared to the lack of activism in the current scene we have a lot to be proud of. There was nothing like hardline ever before."

Communication Redlight

The Devildance Records blog describes Communication Redlight as "A newer New Brunswick, N.J. band… that play a modernized version of 90′s melodic hardcore. Think Knapsack meets Inside." All of their music is available for free download on their website, so go download it all and decide for yourself.

http://www.iheartblank.com/communicationredlight/

new Envision song posted

The Northwest's unsung heroes of heavy have posted a new track called "Accidental Sons" over on their blog at http://envisionannodomini.blogspot.com/. There's a music player on the top right hand side of the page, so be sure to check it out. I've heard the entire EP, and whether it sees the light of day in 2010 or 2011, it will undoubtedly go down as my favorite release of that particular year.

Undertow - Live on WPSC 88.7FM

On July 12, 1993, the mighty Undertow played an eleven song set in the studios of WPSC 88.7FM, which was the radio station of William Paterson University in Wayne, NJ. This set was a part of the On The Edge radio show run by Chris Kelly of 97a and Teamwork Records. Thanks to a kind poster on the Livewire board, I acquired a cassette dub of the performance, and have transferred it to mp3. I got most of the hiss out of the recording aside from the portions where John Pettibone is talking between songs. The volume was so low on those particular parts that I had to crank it in order to make sure what he's saying is audible. Undertow sound incredibly tight on this recording, and I'm quite sure that you'll agree. A long lost relic of one of the greatest bands of all time.

Undertow - On The Edge [WPSC]
7/12/1993
http://www.mediafire.com/?njt4vymetym