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Sunday, August 30, 2009
Posted by xCHIPxSEM |
Molesting, a poster on the Catalyst Records board, posted a link to UnityHxC which has a section on 90s hardcore cover art and the explanations behind them. The really cool thing about it is that you can see, side by side, the original as well as the cover. Really really cool site which you should check out if you are into that sort of thing (I am). The only downside is some of the descriptions are in French without a translation but hey, minor setback. Great website. Check it.
http://www.unityhxc.com/hardcore/covers.htm
90s bands love Biblical artwork.
http://www.unityhxc.com/hardcore/covers.htm
Posted by xCHIPxSEM |
I remember the first time I saw Bleeding Through...Hellfest 2001. My friend told me they were the side project of Eighteen Visions. I watched a song or 2 and I thought they were pretty good, but nothing special. Then...I heard "Dust To Ashes" and said "Holy shit, these guys are good". It was the perfect mix of metal with a hardcore influence. Who would have known they would become one of the biggest bands in metal/hardcore. This was recorded right after they changed their name to Bleeding Through from Breakneck. Check out the record "Portrait of the Goddess"...their best in my opinion.
Bleeding Through - Demo 2000
http://www.mediafire.com/?m2ehloawnfk
Bleeding Through - Demo 2000
http://www.mediafire.com/?m2ehloawnfk
Posted by Anonymous |
One Step Ahead - Remission 7" single and Breaking The Silence 12" EP [1991 - Nemesis Records]
http://www.mediafire.com/?jyzem3ymtdm
Good early '90s Southern California melodic hardcore. Not readily available online, so I thought I'd do a post for it on here. Enjoy.
Posted by xCHIPxSEM |
Our friend in crime, Jav, just scanned and sent this to us. Here we have an interview with Chicago's always controversial, Race Traitor from Maximum Rock N Roll in 1997. This is another band that I always felt was regional since no one in South Florida was real into them. I knew very little about them for many years but I can definitely appreciate them now especially after reading their chapter in Brian Petersen's "Burning Fight" book. Big thanks to Jav for sending this to us.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Posted by xjustinx |
The zine is coming along really well and the finishing touches are being added to a lot of articles right now. This thing is going to be great and I can’t wait to have it back from the printer.
If anyone is still interested in ads then I can definitely include them but time is getting really tight. The magazine goes off to the printer the day after Labor Day so time is really tight. If you want to advertise then please get in touch with me right away at info@atbothendsmagazine.com.
Here’s some info on the magazine.
-3250 copies printed.
-In the range of 160 pages.
-Color covers with black and white interior pages.
-Comes with a double 7” compilation including new songs from Bane, Grade, Unrestrained (pdx) and Between Earth and Sky.
-Released in conjunction with the Undertow/Unbroken/Strain show in Seattle on October 3rd.
www.atbothendsmagazine.com
If anyone is still interested in ads then I can definitely include them but time is getting really tight. The magazine goes off to the printer the day after Labor Day so time is really tight. If you want to advertise then please get in touch with me right away at info@atbothendsmagazine.com.
Here’s some info on the magazine.
-3250 copies printed.
-In the range of 160 pages.
-Color covers with black and white interior pages.
-Comes with a double 7” compilation including new songs from Bane, Grade, Unrestrained (pdx) and Between Earth and Sky.
-Released in conjunction with the Undertow/Unbroken/Strain show in Seattle on October 3rd.
www.atbothendsmagazine.com
Friday, August 28, 2009
Posted by xCHIPxSEM |
Chase from Prime Directive Records passed this info on to us. Finally...these songs will be heard the way they were meant to be heard. But let Chase tell you all about it.
Disembodied "Psalms of Sheol" -- a collection of out of print, rare and unreleased tracks -- is available now on CD. Re-mastered by the band to sound heavier and more brutal than ever. 13 songs taken from "Existence in Suicide" CDep, "Confession" 7", "Bootleg" 7", and compilations.
These won't be at distros until next week at the earliest. Before that you can order directly from us. CD is $10 ppd.
PAYPAL: pdrecords@gmail.com
Cash: Prime Directive Records, PO Box 571, Balboa, CA 92661
Disembodied "Psalms of Sheol" -- a collection of out of print, rare and unreleased tracks -- is available now on CD. Re-mastered by the band to sound heavier and more brutal than ever. 13 songs taken from "Existence in Suicide" CDep, "Confession" 7", "Bootleg" 7", and compilations.
These won't be at distros until next week at the earliest. Before that you can order directly from us. CD is $10 ppd.
PAYPAL: pdrecords@gmail.com
Cash: Prime Directive Records, PO Box 571, Balboa, CA 92661
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Posted by xCHIPxSEM |
My dear friend, Mike Turley, requested a scan of the Threadbare record "Feeling Older Faster" so here we are. I remember the first time I heard Threadbare...the Anti-Matter comp. I remember reading the liner notes and Norm Brannon (Arenas) said he felt this band would always be underappreciated. I have to agree...I think the band was a regional thing because in South Florida I could count on 1 hand how many kids knew who they were. Either way, they released some great records and this is one of em. I can't recall if its out of print now (I know it is on CD) but if it is, Ill upload the CD.
Posted by xCHIPxSEM |
Ahhh, the Initial Records catalog. Sure there were other labels putting out big catalogs to include the distros they carried but Initial always had a leg up on the competition. Did they carry a lot of the same releases that other labels and distros did? Yup. Did they try to include witty descriptions of the releases like the other labels and distros did? Yes sir (or maam). BUT...what they did do that no others did was include a chart to to describe the releases. Each release had a symbol next to the title to explain what the band sounded like (scroll down to see the chart). If you were more metal-influenced, you got a pentagram, etc. Check it out. Also, they included various ads including one for Scott Ritcher (Slamdek Records, Metroschifter, Sunspring) for Mayor of Louisville, a section on bootleg Initial Records tshirts, and customer hall of fame letters. While the label has since folded, you can relive those great catalogs right here. Be sure to check this blog for downloads of old Initial releases that are now out of print including Despair, Ink & Dagger, and Falling Forward.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Posted by xjustinx |
I got a request for this 7" quite a while ago, but I'm just now getting around to it for some reason. I've given this a few spins over the years, and it's pretty good. The music falls into what could be deemed slightly heavier hardcore given its timeframe of 1991. Since there isn't even contact info for the band on the insert, I really have known nothing about this band, so all of my information has actually come from Dennis, who requested it.
Relapse were a straight edge band from the Detroit, Michigan area. They put out one other 7" on Progression Records, and they were supposed to do a full length on Conversion, but that never happened. Apparently they had recorded these 4 tracks, but at some point had trouble tracking down their singer to do vocals, which could explain why some recording happened in October 1990, and the rest in February 1991. After the breakup of Relapse, Justin (guitar) and Matt (bass) went on to for the band Current.
Dennis also sent me this sweet flier:
Relapse - If This Is Right
[1991 - Conversion Records]
http://www.mediafire.com/?mzymrmjdtnm
Relapse were a straight edge band from the Detroit, Michigan area. They put out one other 7" on Progression Records, and they were supposed to do a full length on Conversion, but that never happened. Apparently they had recorded these 4 tracks, but at some point had trouble tracking down their singer to do vocals, which could explain why some recording happened in October 1990, and the rest in February 1991. After the breakup of Relapse, Justin (guitar) and Matt (bass) went on to for the band Current.
Dennis also sent me this sweet flier:
Relapse - If This Is Right
[1991 - Conversion Records]
http://www.mediafire.com/?mzymrmjdtnm
Posted by xjustinx |
In the mid to late 90s, Dissolve were one of the few bands starting to do truly interesting things in the realm of metalcore. Hailing from Poughkeepsie, NY, Dissolve were still able to stand out amongst such great contemporaries as All Out War, Drowning Room, Overcast, etc. This full length, Caveman of the Future was originally intended to come out on MIA Records in 2000, but just after putting out releases for Indecision, Darkest Hour, Candiria, and Disassociate, the label folded. The record saw it's way around the scene via various tape trading circles in the early 2000s, but didn't see a proper release until last year on Trip Machine Laboratories.
Caveman of the Future starts off like a wrecking ball with the track "The Ultimate Nullifier." Ranging from heavey power chord progressions to dissonant, off timed parts, the song (like many Dissolve songs) feels like a journey. Vocalist, Paul Thorstenson provides a unique delivery that avoids becoming stale like the guttural growl of so many metalcore bands.
Standout tracks such as Graverobber, Flamethrower, and Subhuman are true crossover gems. From opposite sides of the spectrum, they can easily be viewerd as songs that are either just hardcore enough, or just metal enough to keep everyone happy. You can always hear various influences creeping through such as Voivod, Cro-Mags, Neurosis, Kiss It Goodbye, and more. These songs are a breath of fresh air for a mature metal/hardcore listener. They don't follow familiar formulas, or rely on standard chug parts to "open that shit up!" The production sounds large enough to give that sense of urgent pounding during the heaviest of parts, but also leaves just enough space to be able to differentiate what each guitar player is doing. For those older listeners that enjoy experimentation from a band via the likes of jazzy interludes laced with piano (see track 11: Dreadnought), and for the younger kids tired of metal being played for people that don't really like metal (see Trap Them and Saviours), Caveman of the Future should be a great dose of organic feeling metalcore.
Three tracks from Caveman of the Future are on the music player at:
www.myspace.com/dissolveusa
It can be ordered from the fine folks at Trip Machine Laboratories:
www.tripmachinelabs.bigcartel.com
(where it's currently on sale for the low price of $5.50!)
Caveman of the Future starts off like a wrecking ball with the track "The Ultimate Nullifier." Ranging from heavey power chord progressions to dissonant, off timed parts, the song (like many Dissolve songs) feels like a journey. Vocalist, Paul Thorstenson provides a unique delivery that avoids becoming stale like the guttural growl of so many metalcore bands.
Standout tracks such as Graverobber, Flamethrower, and Subhuman are true crossover gems. From opposite sides of the spectrum, they can easily be viewerd as songs that are either just hardcore enough, or just metal enough to keep everyone happy. You can always hear various influences creeping through such as Voivod, Cro-Mags, Neurosis, Kiss It Goodbye, and more. These songs are a breath of fresh air for a mature metal/hardcore listener. They don't follow familiar formulas, or rely on standard chug parts to "open that shit up!" The production sounds large enough to give that sense of urgent pounding during the heaviest of parts, but also leaves just enough space to be able to differentiate what each guitar player is doing. For those older listeners that enjoy experimentation from a band via the likes of jazzy interludes laced with piano (see track 11: Dreadnought), and for the younger kids tired of metal being played for people that don't really like metal (see Trap Them and Saviours), Caveman of the Future should be a great dose of organic feeling metalcore.
Three tracks from Caveman of the Future are on the music player at:
www.myspace.com/dissolveusa
It can be ordered from the fine folks at Trip Machine Laboratories:
www.tripmachinelabs.bigcartel.com
(where it's currently on sale for the low price of $5.50!)
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Posted by xjustinx |
For those that know me, I tend to be a pretty nice guy, but I often hear that some people think I'm an asshole. It's probably the sarcastic cynic in me that some people just never get past. This also heavily extends to my humor. Cynical, sarcastic things make me laugh the most, and that's probably why I love reading Metal Inquisition so much. One of my favorite contributors to that site is Sergeant D, and today we are blessed with a guest writeup from him. - Justin
-----------------------------------------------------------
5 Things I Miss About 90s Hardcore
I haven't listened to much 90s hardcore in a long time because nearly all of it is tuneless, amateurish garbage played by self-important assbags in clothes that don't fit. With the exception of, well, most of the bands on this blog, it is better if we just pretend it never happened. For every sick band like Turmoil, Day of Suffering, Abnegation, or Wrench, there were a hundred Extinctions and New Day Risings, to say nothing of the seemingly endless glut of atrocious, generic "power violence" bands in the late 90s. Rather than dwell on the negative, it's probably best to just put on our rose-tinted nostalgia goggles and remember the good things about those years. Like any other old asshole, I could go on forever, but because I value your time I will just share the five things I miss most (you are probably reading this at work and have to be in a meeting soon).
1. Stages full of scenesters
Whenever a bigger band would come to town, you weren't shit if you weren't watching them from the side of the stage- conspicuously positioned so everybody could see you, of course, so everybody knew you were hella tight bros with the band. Mike Ski from Brother's Keeper was a big fan of this technique, which was ironic since they had that song "Namedropper" or whatever. I feel like he must have really low self-esteem because he overcompensated a lot back then. It makes me a little vicariously embarrassed when I look back on it, but it's hard to be too judgmental. I mean, if I was from Erie and had a girl voice I would probably have an inferiority complex too, so I can't blame him. It's just hard to watch someone who seems like a pretty nice dude embarrass himself so frequently and publicly. For example, the atrocious cover art he did for the BK records or, well, their music.
Anyhow, aside from Mike Lastowski, one of the most common and annoying members of the Stage Scenester Crew TM was the Photographer Girl. There was at least one in every city, usually they were either the Alpha Mosh Hott of the local scene or the Plain Jane Who Is Really Talented/Cool/Sincere/Authentic. Either way, they got in the way at every show, pushing their way to the front of the stage where you were trying to mosh with your bros so they could stick a camera in the face of some asshole in whatever flash-in-the-pan band she wanted to feature in her zine this month and pat herself on the back for "documenting the scene." I always imagine these girls digging through boxes of old crap and finding like a huge stack of fucking Knapsack or Campfire photos and being like "I would have been better off just buying film and immediately throwing it in the trash without ever using it. Same result but I could have saved myself a lot of time and I would be a lot less ashamed of myself."
Kurt Catalyst: The last person on the planet who still thinks putting out jaw-droppingly average vegan straightedge hardcore records will save the world. Also, he is 100 years old.
2. Backpacks, JNCOs, sweater vests, and other fashion disasters
Sometimes you don't realize how absurd something is until you try to articulate it. For example, a while ago I was trying to explain 90s hardcore fashion to this 23 year-old hipster girl I was dating and the ridiculousness of it all hit me harder than the xbreakdownsx on the Green Rage 7". She listens to electro and Animal Collective so it was a bit hard for her to grasp: "I don't get it," she said, "Why did you guys wear Tommy Hilfiger? I thought you were like punk or whatever. My dad wears that stuff." I did not have a good answer for her, nor could I explain why Kurt Catalyst wore a backpack while onstage singing for Birthright (Catalyst records deserves a while thread of its own; that label's quality control practices are so atrocious it makes Back Ta Basics look like Rick Rubin's hit factory).
Before he was into pleather pants and eyeliner, 18 Visions singer Jame Shart (far left) wore JNCOs and Excessive Force shirts just like the rest of us.
It's hard to even know where to start when it comes to all the atrocious elements of 90s hardcore fashion, but let's begin with big pants. There aren't a whole lot of things more ridiculous looking than some 140-pound 18-year old with acne and an XXL Andrew Thomas Company shirt wearing size 40 JNCOs and karate-moshing his balls off to Downset. Wait, I just thought of one: the same thing, but with the addition of a sweater vest, a Krsna bead choker, and an Andre Agassi-style headband. I can only imagine what our parents thought: "I can't believe I'm letting him leave the house like that, he looks like a complete fucking asshole and he's going to be so embarrassed about this in five years. Oh well, you can't tell kids shit, we just have to let him make his own mistakes." One day I will write a book entitled "Why People Should Not Be Allowed to Express Themselves Before The Age of 21" and pictures of 90s hardcore clothing will be chapter one. Chapter two will be exerpts from Eddie Refuge's zine paired with a photo of my enormous denim shorts with a Shelter patch on them.
If you have the Hellfest 2000 DVD you can see one of my favorite showcases of 90s fashion in the Brother's Keeper interview segment. I tried to find it on YouTube, and although people have ripped what seems like every single other second of the DVD, I could not find any of the BK parts (to my complete lack of surprise). I am sorry to pick on BK so much, but it's just so easy. If you went to the boardwalk and had one of those caricature artists draw a cartoon of entry-level 90s hardcore, it would probably come out looking exactly like Brother's Keeper. Anyway, in this interview the drummer is wearing giant jeans, a Nautica shirt, and to cap it off, this colossal assface has on a fucking Gilligan's Island-style bucket hat! The first time I saw it I nearly fell of my couch in amazement. But again, you have to cut them a certain amount of slack, they are from Erie and don't know any better. It's like if you had an exchange student from Latvia, you can't laugh at him too hard for having a bowl haircut and a "USA" sweatshirt.
3. Tour laminates
Some time in the late 90s, hardcore bands started to have Pro Gear And Attitude TM. Victory led the charge, of course, but the worst offenders were the bands on then-smalltime labels like Ferret and Trustkill who acted like they were Aerosmith. One of the silliest manifestations of this was how these bands would have their friend who worked at Kinko's make tour laminates which they would prominently display on their keychain to make sure you knew they were in the band. This makes a lot of sense if you are playing, say, Warped Tour where there are a zillion kids and you need to control access to backstage, but this was 1998 and these bands were playing to 50 people in DIY venues with piles of cat shit on the floor. For example, Harvest played a little punk rock flophouse called Speak In Tongues in Cleveland and were literally laughed off the stage after walking around like rockstars with their laminates.
Ironically the people in legitimately successful bands like Earth Crisis and Bloodlet never gave a fuck and were much more down-to-earth than their entry-level counterparts. If I had to guess, their thinking was something like, "My band is about as big as a hardcore band can possibly be, and I still have to tour 9 months out of the year just to afford sleeping on my parents' couch. Even if I wanted to act like a rockstar, years of this torturous existence have humbled me so much that I could never pull it off. Is Subway hiring?"
"Our next song is a cover, it's called 'Panty Raid' and it's by a band called Murphy's Law!"
4. Everybody being a secret creepvert
I will go into more detail about it below, but as we all remember the 90s were very uptight and it was definitely not OK to be into chicks like it is for alt kids today (see Brokencyde, Hollywood Undead, 3OH!3, etc). That doesn't change human nature, though: boys were still super horny boys, and the No Fun Club TM simply forced it all underground. The net result was that there were tons of undercover creeps and it was that much funnier when they were uncovered. A few examples (I don't want to blow up these girls' spots so I will do my best to anonymize them; my intent is to make fun of the dudes, not the ladies):
- Charlie King is disappointed
One drunken night in Pittsburgh, I mentioned a girl that we both knew to Charlie from Bloodlet. The conversation went like this:
Me: [Girl] is super cool. She's a good photographer, too.
Charlie: Yeah I guess... But she's shitty in the sack!
- Scott Vogel's hamfisted game
I used to live across the street from a girl who was dating Scott Vogel, who was then in Buried Alive. They played in our city and she of course went to the show. Scott seemed to think he was being super slick/discreet when he asked her to "have a talk with him in the van." They returned about 30 minutes later, hair all messed up and sweaty; we pretended not to know what happened since it was really uncomfortable.
- Mike Score: Panty thief??
I can't remember if it was All Out War or Unconquered, but one of them may have stolen some panties (I'm going to say it was Mike from AOW, but it's possible I'm wrong so don't accuse him of panty-stealing just yet). They stayed with this girl I used to date. She was the local Alpha Mosh Hott and Mike was sweating her pretty hard. After they left, we were cleaning up and she got a little pale, paused and said "Dude, I think he fucking stole my underwear!! WTF!" I cannot say for sure whether this is true or not, but I can tell you that I never saw her wear the pair of underwear in question again. Also, in a moment of extremely poor judgment, I got a Morbid Angel tattoo from the guitarist of AOW in her kitchen.
Did you go to the infamous Pittsburgh fest in 1996? If so, then you must remember Rent America literally crying about all the worms on the sidewalk because it had rained. It still makes my head spin to think about that day!
5. The No Fun Club
The No Fun Club really deserves a post of its own. Shit, it deserves a BOOK of its own. I have written a little about this before [http://metalinquisition.blogspot.com/2009/01/screamo-crunk-cultural-primer.html ], but the No Fun Club TM was the essence of 90s hardcore, with the whole Ebullition scene being the most annoying example. I think I would rather chop off my dick with the pieces of a shattered Manumission 7" than listen to Spitboy again. The basic idea was, if you enjoyed something other than being on the front lines of the war for animal/earth/human liberation, it was grounds for being excommunicated from the scene. Or worse, someone might write a scathing letter about it and you would be tried in the pages of HeartattaCk!
A while ago I was listening to the Chokehold 7" after finding MP3s of it on some blog. I hadn't listened to it in probably 7 or 8 years, but I definitely loved it back in the day and I remembered every note. I was singing along and moshing it up at my desk at work when that one line came on about the Bible being a "sexist book of lies." I remember thinking that was like the coolest fucking shit ever when I was in high school, like "Yeah!! Stick THAT in your pipe and smoke it, organized religion!!" But what the fuck is a 15 year-old doing worrying about these things?! I should have been chilling at the mall, hanging out at Orange Julius and chatting up skater girls who were coming out of Zumiez, not trying to save the world. And regardless of how sincere I was, what does a fucking high school kid know about anything??
For example, when I was 18 or so my friend called to tell me he was going to raid a mink farm and wanted me to go. I told him that I couldn't because my friend's band was in town and I wanted to say hi since I hadn't seen them in a couple of years. He called me a straightedge poser who only cared about music (he was hardline, you see) and hung up on me after swearing at me a little bit. (As an aside, in addition to being hardline he was also a big fan of Mucky Pup and for a while made his meager living selling Beanie Babies on eBay) He and his girlfriend "raided" the mink farm, which basically amounted to opening their cages, then getting pissed off because the stupid things just sat in their cages. He didn't think about the fact that they were raised in captivity and didn't know any different. He got arrested, convicted of a felony, and the mink ranchers quickly rounded up what few animals escaped and put them back in their cages. So much for the No Fun Club saving the world- and I had a great time hanging out with my friends at the show!
--------------------
What are YOUR favorite things about 90s hardcore that I didn't cover?
Did you ever have someone in a moderately successful 90s moshcore band steal your panties?
Have you seen Kurt Catalyst lately? Was he wearing a backpack?
-Sergeant D
-----------------------------------------------------------
5 Things I Miss About 90s Hardcore
I haven't listened to much 90s hardcore in a long time because nearly all of it is tuneless, amateurish garbage played by self-important assbags in clothes that don't fit. With the exception of, well, most of the bands on this blog, it is better if we just pretend it never happened. For every sick band like Turmoil, Day of Suffering, Abnegation, or Wrench, there were a hundred Extinctions and New Day Risings, to say nothing of the seemingly endless glut of atrocious, generic "power violence" bands in the late 90s. Rather than dwell on the negative, it's probably best to just put on our rose-tinted nostalgia goggles and remember the good things about those years. Like any other old asshole, I could go on forever, but because I value your time I will just share the five things I miss most (you are probably reading this at work and have to be in a meeting soon).
1. Stages full of scenesters
Whenever a bigger band would come to town, you weren't shit if you weren't watching them from the side of the stage- conspicuously positioned so everybody could see you, of course, so everybody knew you were hella tight bros with the band. Mike Ski from Brother's Keeper was a big fan of this technique, which was ironic since they had that song "Namedropper" or whatever. I feel like he must have really low self-esteem because he overcompensated a lot back then. It makes me a little vicariously embarrassed when I look back on it, but it's hard to be too judgmental. I mean, if I was from Erie and had a girl voice I would probably have an inferiority complex too, so I can't blame him. It's just hard to watch someone who seems like a pretty nice dude embarrass himself so frequently and publicly. For example, the atrocious cover art he did for the BK records or, well, their music.
Anyhow, aside from Mike Lastowski, one of the most common and annoying members of the Stage Scenester Crew TM was the Photographer Girl. There was at least one in every city, usually they were either the Alpha Mosh Hott of the local scene or the Plain Jane Who Is Really Talented/Cool/Sincere/Authentic. Either way, they got in the way at every show, pushing their way to the front of the stage where you were trying to mosh with your bros so they could stick a camera in the face of some asshole in whatever flash-in-the-pan band she wanted to feature in her zine this month and pat herself on the back for "documenting the scene." I always imagine these girls digging through boxes of old crap and finding like a huge stack of fucking Knapsack or Campfire photos and being like "I would have been better off just buying film and immediately throwing it in the trash without ever using it. Same result but I could have saved myself a lot of time and I would be a lot less ashamed of myself."
Kurt Catalyst: The last person on the planet who still thinks putting out jaw-droppingly average vegan straightedge hardcore records will save the world. Also, he is 100 years old.
2. Backpacks, JNCOs, sweater vests, and other fashion disasters
Sometimes you don't realize how absurd something is until you try to articulate it. For example, a while ago I was trying to explain 90s hardcore fashion to this 23 year-old hipster girl I was dating and the ridiculousness of it all hit me harder than the xbreakdownsx on the Green Rage 7". She listens to electro and Animal Collective so it was a bit hard for her to grasp: "I don't get it," she said, "Why did you guys wear Tommy Hilfiger? I thought you were like punk or whatever. My dad wears that stuff." I did not have a good answer for her, nor could I explain why Kurt Catalyst wore a backpack while onstage singing for Birthright (Catalyst records deserves a while thread of its own; that label's quality control practices are so atrocious it makes Back Ta Basics look like Rick Rubin's hit factory).
Before he was into pleather pants and eyeliner, 18 Visions singer Jame Shart (far left) wore JNCOs and Excessive Force shirts just like the rest of us.
It's hard to even know where to start when it comes to all the atrocious elements of 90s hardcore fashion, but let's begin with big pants. There aren't a whole lot of things more ridiculous looking than some 140-pound 18-year old with acne and an XXL Andrew Thomas Company shirt wearing size 40 JNCOs and karate-moshing his balls off to Downset. Wait, I just thought of one: the same thing, but with the addition of a sweater vest, a Krsna bead choker, and an Andre Agassi-style headband. I can only imagine what our parents thought: "I can't believe I'm letting him leave the house like that, he looks like a complete fucking asshole and he's going to be so embarrassed about this in five years. Oh well, you can't tell kids shit, we just have to let him make his own mistakes." One day I will write a book entitled "Why People Should Not Be Allowed to Express Themselves Before The Age of 21" and pictures of 90s hardcore clothing will be chapter one. Chapter two will be exerpts from Eddie Refuge's zine paired with a photo of my enormous denim shorts with a Shelter patch on them.
If you have the Hellfest 2000 DVD you can see one of my favorite showcases of 90s fashion in the Brother's Keeper interview segment. I tried to find it on YouTube, and although people have ripped what seems like every single other second of the DVD, I could not find any of the BK parts (to my complete lack of surprise). I am sorry to pick on BK so much, but it's just so easy. If you went to the boardwalk and had one of those caricature artists draw a cartoon of entry-level 90s hardcore, it would probably come out looking exactly like Brother's Keeper. Anyway, in this interview the drummer is wearing giant jeans, a Nautica shirt, and to cap it off, this colossal assface has on a fucking Gilligan's Island-style bucket hat! The first time I saw it I nearly fell of my couch in amazement. But again, you have to cut them a certain amount of slack, they are from Erie and don't know any better. It's like if you had an exchange student from Latvia, you can't laugh at him too hard for having a bowl haircut and a "USA" sweatshirt.
3. Tour laminates
Some time in the late 90s, hardcore bands started to have Pro Gear And Attitude TM. Victory led the charge, of course, but the worst offenders were the bands on then-smalltime labels like Ferret and Trustkill who acted like they were Aerosmith. One of the silliest manifestations of this was how these bands would have their friend who worked at Kinko's make tour laminates which they would prominently display on their keychain to make sure you knew they were in the band. This makes a lot of sense if you are playing, say, Warped Tour where there are a zillion kids and you need to control access to backstage, but this was 1998 and these bands were playing to 50 people in DIY venues with piles of cat shit on the floor. For example, Harvest played a little punk rock flophouse called Speak In Tongues in Cleveland and were literally laughed off the stage after walking around like rockstars with their laminates.
Ironically the people in legitimately successful bands like Earth Crisis and Bloodlet never gave a fuck and were much more down-to-earth than their entry-level counterparts. If I had to guess, their thinking was something like, "My band is about as big as a hardcore band can possibly be, and I still have to tour 9 months out of the year just to afford sleeping on my parents' couch. Even if I wanted to act like a rockstar, years of this torturous existence have humbled me so much that I could never pull it off. Is Subway hiring?"
"Our next song is a cover, it's called 'Panty Raid' and it's by a band called Murphy's Law!"
4. Everybody being a secret creepvert
I will go into more detail about it below, but as we all remember the 90s were very uptight and it was definitely not OK to be into chicks like it is for alt kids today (see Brokencyde, Hollywood Undead, 3OH!3, etc). That doesn't change human nature, though: boys were still super horny boys, and the No Fun Club TM simply forced it all underground. The net result was that there were tons of undercover creeps and it was that much funnier when they were uncovered. A few examples (I don't want to blow up these girls' spots so I will do my best to anonymize them; my intent is to make fun of the dudes, not the ladies):
- Charlie King is disappointed
One drunken night in Pittsburgh, I mentioned a girl that we both knew to Charlie from Bloodlet. The conversation went like this:
Me: [Girl] is super cool. She's a good photographer, too.
Charlie: Yeah I guess... But she's shitty in the sack!
- Scott Vogel's hamfisted game
I used to live across the street from a girl who was dating Scott Vogel, who was then in Buried Alive. They played in our city and she of course went to the show. Scott seemed to think he was being super slick/discreet when he asked her to "have a talk with him in the van." They returned about 30 minutes later, hair all messed up and sweaty; we pretended not to know what happened since it was really uncomfortable.
- Mike Score: Panty thief??
I can't remember if it was All Out War or Unconquered, but one of them may have stolen some panties (I'm going to say it was Mike from AOW, but it's possible I'm wrong so don't accuse him of panty-stealing just yet). They stayed with this girl I used to date. She was the local Alpha Mosh Hott and Mike was sweating her pretty hard. After they left, we were cleaning up and she got a little pale, paused and said "Dude, I think he fucking stole my underwear!! WTF!" I cannot say for sure whether this is true or not, but I can tell you that I never saw her wear the pair of underwear in question again. Also, in a moment of extremely poor judgment, I got a Morbid Angel tattoo from the guitarist of AOW in her kitchen.
Did you go to the infamous Pittsburgh fest in 1996? If so, then you must remember Rent America literally crying about all the worms on the sidewalk because it had rained. It still makes my head spin to think about that day!
5. The No Fun Club
The No Fun Club really deserves a post of its own. Shit, it deserves a BOOK of its own. I have written a little about this before [http://metalinquisition.
A while ago I was listening to the Chokehold 7" after finding MP3s of it on some blog. I hadn't listened to it in probably 7 or 8 years, but I definitely loved it back in the day and I remembered every note. I was singing along and moshing it up at my desk at work when that one line came on about the Bible being a "sexist book of lies." I remember thinking that was like the coolest fucking shit ever when I was in high school, like "Yeah!! Stick THAT in your pipe and smoke it, organized religion!!" But what the fuck is a 15 year-old doing worrying about these things?! I should have been chilling at the mall, hanging out at Orange Julius and chatting up skater girls who were coming out of Zumiez, not trying to save the world. And regardless of how sincere I was, what does a fucking high school kid know about anything??
For example, when I was 18 or so my friend called to tell me he was going to raid a mink farm and wanted me to go. I told him that I couldn't because my friend's band was in town and I wanted to say hi since I hadn't seen them in a couple of years. He called me a straightedge poser who only cared about music (he was hardline, you see) and hung up on me after swearing at me a little bit. (As an aside, in addition to being hardline he was also a big fan of Mucky Pup and for a while made his meager living selling Beanie Babies on eBay) He and his girlfriend "raided" the mink farm, which basically amounted to opening their cages, then getting pissed off because the stupid things just sat in their cages. He didn't think about the fact that they were raised in captivity and didn't know any different. He got arrested, convicted of a felony, and the mink ranchers quickly rounded up what few animals escaped and put them back in their cages. So much for the No Fun Club saving the world- and I had a great time hanging out with my friends at the show!
--------------------
What are YOUR favorite things about 90s hardcore that I didn't cover?
Did you ever have someone in a moderately successful 90s moshcore band steal your panties?
Have you seen Kurt Catalyst lately? Was he wearing a backpack?
-Sergeant D
Posted by xjustinx |
Balance of the World existed in Seattle from 1993 to 1995, and originally appeared under the name Spearhead. Their sound encompassed that distinguishable 90s NWHC sound that was evident in counterparts like Undertow and Strain, but their sound also had leads and vocals that could be reminiscent of a band like Mean Season. They played many shows in once revered Seattle area venues like the Velvet Elvis and Ground Zero, and played those shows with the likes of Unbroken and many of the other 90s hardcore bands that have gone down in the annals of hardcore history. Members KC and SOTO went on to be in Everything Went Black, who were one of the heaviest bands to ever grace NWHC. The only recording that exists is a 5 song, self titled EP that was recorded in the fall of 1994.
Balance of the World - self titled
[1994]
http://www.mediafire.com/?qcis46x4m978ams
Balance of the World's singer, Isaac, recently created a myspace page for the band here:
http://www.myspace.com/balanceoftheworld
He has remixed and uploaded some of the songs from the EP, and also uploaded some recorded songs from practice sessions. There's also a great section of scanned fliers.
I'm thoroughly excited to see them play on October 3rd in Seattle with Undertow, Unbroken, and Strain. It also helps that it's the day before my 30th birthday. Sounds like a great way to ring in 30 to me!
Still one of the only Christian bands I've ever truly loved, here's the full length release from CA's Focal Point. This came out on Tooth & Nail at the tail end of 1995, and according to their site, is now out of print. Two of the three songs that were on the "Neglected" 7inch from Life Sentence Records were re-recorded and included on this eleven track full length. Members of Focal Point have gone on to be in awful bands like Training For Utopia and Demon Hunter.
Lest we forget the awesomeness of the 90s, let's examine a couple of the elements of this photo:
1. Adidas warm up pants. He must have been taking fashion tips from VOD.
2. Wearing your own band's shirt (although I must admit I like that it's a long sleeve).
I still say our ridiculousness of the 90s was far better than today's hardcore ridiculousness of flat brimmed hats, all over neon print, and general misappropriation of hip hop culture.
That being said, here's the download:
Focal Point - Suffering of the Masses
[1995 - Tooth & Nail Records]
http://www.mediafire.com/?znhauooaxow
Lest we forget the awesomeness of the 90s, let's examine a couple of the elements of this photo:
1. Adidas warm up pants. He must have been taking fashion tips from VOD.
2. Wearing your own band's shirt (although I must admit I like that it's a long sleeve).
I still say our ridiculousness of the 90s was far better than today's hardcore ridiculousness of flat brimmed hats, all over neon print, and general misappropriation of hip hop culture.
That being said, here's the download:
Focal Point - Suffering of the Masses
[1995 - Tooth & Nail Records]
http://www.mediafire.com/?znhauooaxow
Friday, August 21, 2009
Posted by xCHIPxSEM |
Hey everybody, hope you are all enjoying what is left of the summer. Im finishing up what is left of my vacation in South Florida visiting my folks and getting ready to head back up to Tallahassee and finish my last semester of college (hey it only took me an eternity).
I just wanted to address something in regards to the requests people have been making in the widget. We (myself, Justin and Jake) do appreciate all the feedback, suggestions and requests you all have made. We do check the requests as well as the suggestions on the message board but please think about some of the releases you guys are asking for. We will not post ANYTHING that is still in print and readily available to the public. Also we will not post anything that was once released on Victory Records. A few months back, I posted a classic records post about Hatebreed "Satisfaction is the Death...". In the post was a review of the record as well as personal recollections of the record but DID NOT include a link to download it. The post was taken down by Blogger and we were "warned" about posting copy written material (even though we didnt). We are trying to avoid a repeat incident so please understand our position.
The purpose of this blog is to preserve something we see special, making something that is unavailable available again. We are not trying to take anything away from the artists, simply showing those who were not there the first time around what it was like. To make a long story short, please don't ask us to post record you know we cannot and will not post. We appreciate all the support you guys have shown us. We have lots planned and will continue to keep it going as long as you keep reading.
Over and out,
Chip
I just wanted to address something in regards to the requests people have been making in the widget. We (myself, Justin and Jake) do appreciate all the feedback, suggestions and requests you all have made. We do check the requests as well as the suggestions on the message board but please think about some of the releases you guys are asking for. We will not post ANYTHING that is still in print and readily available to the public. Also we will not post anything that was once released on Victory Records. A few months back, I posted a classic records post about Hatebreed "Satisfaction is the Death...". In the post was a review of the record as well as personal recollections of the record but DID NOT include a link to download it. The post was taken down by Blogger and we were "warned" about posting copy written material (even though we didnt). We are trying to avoid a repeat incident so please understand our position.
The purpose of this blog is to preserve something we see special, making something that is unavailable available again. We are not trying to take anything away from the artists, simply showing those who were not there the first time around what it was like. To make a long story short, please don't ask us to post record you know we cannot and will not post. We appreciate all the support you guys have shown us. We have lots planned and will continue to keep it going as long as you keep reading.
Over and out,
Chip
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Posted by xCHIPxSEM |
One of my current favorite bands, Eye of Judgement (which also includes one of my favorite dudes, Jasper), is releasing their new record with Catalyst Records. Pre-orders just went up and include the CD, a limited edition t-shirt that will only be availble through this package, and another Catalyst release. You get all this for only $16. You can pre-order this package here.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Posted by xCHIPxSEM |
The new band from Steven Miller, formerly of Unbroken and Kill Holiday, continues in the direction that Kill Holiday was heading but adds a little more aggression. The band also features Marc Jackson who did time in Throwdown, Wrench and Cold War. The demo is definitely worth a download and you can you do so on their Myspace page. Be on the lookout for more info.
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