A-Team Crucial Christmas #2

The amount of neglect this band receives is nothing short of criminal.

Crucial Christmas

I know it's not Christmas Eve yet, but I just couldn't resist.

The A-Team: "Christmas Claws." Forever in our hearts. 
The A-Team were a short lived hardcore band out of Boston MA. They released two 7" EPs "Sewer Rats" & "Clusterfuck", a split 7" EP with R'N'R and an album on Stab & Kill Records entitled "A is for Asshole". They were equally loved and hated it seems. -Stolen from the internet

Crucial Yule (Inky Fanzine Nugget #4)

Straight Outta Christmas

Christmas and Hardcore collabo by a dear friend of mine. He's got some left over. Get at him if you want in on that action. (Jeffreelee@yahoo.com)

Teen Baldness (Core Core Core #6)

Heard the trial has been adjourned. D'oh.

Written Off Shirts (Art Dork #1)

Wacky Collage

So, some of my shirt designs are available again on the Written Off Bigcartel (and from what I'm told, the SFU webstore will have 'em too).  Buy one if you want. It's cool. 

Word on the Street - "Streets is Watching + Demo" (Demo Dogz #7)

Lizard King

This ain't exactly new, but I've been told that it was recently dubbed onto a tape along with the demo, made available for those lucky ducks who went to Not Dead Yet. Also this band's from Halifax. I don't know anything about that area except it's cold in the winter time (right?)

Looking at the cover probably psyches a lot of people out. Genndy Tartakovsky-esque monster thugs posing hard in an alley. I was duped into thinking this would be bad Third Tier LOC worship, because of the serious Risky Biz vibe, but this honestly sounds like Straight Ahead's Breakaway 12" melting (or being played at 33 RPM). Rev era Sick Of It All too. Just like full-bore retarded. Anyway the mutant mongoloids on the cover are perfect indicators for the kind of 'core kept within. 

The vocals have that strange razor-thin mix of tuff-dude bellowing and down syndrome drooling. The Celtic Frost/Sheer Terror tonal breakdown in "H.R.M. Mayhem" is straight NASTY, like kitty litter gargling in a garbage disposal, and the "Cut to the Chase" weird psyche-out/double tracked vocals are glorious and evil. Nutshell? I love this. I think it'll take a few listens to sink in for many, but this is how 'core I like it.

Buy and D/L at their bandcamp here.

United Stance (Logo Power #2)

They come to snuff the Rooster Punx. 

Words to Live By #1

Not a long post today. GRE studying and working on the Drug Dogs Holiday Newsletter (not a joke). F'real doe. Look at the picture above. Live it. Love it. Lurve it. 

Crispus Attucks (Time Machine #1)

On this day, 13 years ago, this show happened at DC's Wilson Center. Pretty cool lineup, and for the goofballs that care about Thursday, it might be sort of astonishing to see them playing somewhere for only $5.

I never "got" Kid Dynamite. I still don't. 

Crispus Attucks is cool. I have their album Destroy the Teacher because one of my friends stole it from a chain CD store. Good punky hardcore with (if I remember correctly) mostly political lyrics. If anyone listens to the Dissonance Podcast, there are some pretty choice episodes that have a guy from C.A. on them. One of them is called 'When Good Punk Goes Bad' and it's strictly about really crappy punk songs from bands that used to be good (notably playing something from the oft neglected Clash album Cut the Crap). That's all I can really say.

No Justice rules. Just search any of their live sets on youtube (especially their last show). Stuff getting thrown all over the place, and a madman vocalist (Timmy) with no regard for his own safety. Really cool, not a lot of songs, but most of them are great. Big fan of the version of "Political Scheme" that appears on the Memories of Tomorrow compilation that came out on Youngblood. Sounds much fiercer than the one on Still Fighting.

Ancient Heads Demo Vol. II (Demo Dogz #6)

like...yoinks Scoob! 

Woah. I slept on their first demo, but came across the second installment to find that it's a ripper. These dudes are from Toronto, they're straight edge and I heard physical versions of their cassettes were being sold at Not Dead Yet fest in Toronto, and that piqued my interest enough to try and procure one (details on how you can do so at the end of this post). 

The name "Ancient Heads" is awesome. I mean, there's so many interpretations. I'm imagining deep space explorers crash landing on some old planet of humanoid raccoons. They happen upon the hidden temple, cloaked deep within the reaches of a steaming jungle to find rows and rows of ancient heads...that are EXACT replicas of their own! The explorers freak out and...yeah, it pretty much writes itself. The other would be like "Heads" (meaning "experts" or "fanatics" of the "ancient" variety). Like an ancient sneaker head...or something else even more ridiculous that my brain is struggling to come up with. 

The Andrew Peden cover art is insane. I Love the stippling and the image of a youth-crew kid running away from a Scooby Doo-esque mummy.  Also I'm a fan of the Youth of Today graffiti on the pyramid wall. Imagine Ray and Porcell being chased by mummies. It's Boomerang-channel gold!

Tunewise, this has some definite youth crew elements, but doesn't completely pander to that aesthetic, so if that ain't your bread n' butta, don't shut off. In the riffs and urgency I hear traces of Floorpunch, but it's a little bit burlier, and the punchiness can probably be attributed to a recording/production by Jonah Falco, but it's fresh and vital in ways that a lot of the youth crew type bands aren't really nailing.  Also that mosh part in "Waste of Life" that cannot (should not?) go unmentioned as one of the more well-placed bits of a core song. 

Verdict: Definitely check this out. Bandcamp here and if you couldn't trek to NDY last month, you can still score a physical cassette here. 

Free Spirit: Everything Dies #1

Be Yourself

Mannnn....bye bye Free Spirit. And the promo tape is SO good too. :( 

A.B.A.Q #1

Not a long post today (it's Friday, let's party), but just a lil' reminder that I have only a few issues of A.B.A.Q #1 left. 

An inky collaboration between two friends, A.B.A.Q tackles real issues plaguing the mind of the American hardcore "kid" (that's codespeak for "upper middle class wigger"). Why kids with Neckbeards love Xibalba. Why clueless Mom's love Paper Trail. Why Harley Flannagan refuses to use commas in his Facebook status updates. The real shit.

Also a softball interview with Sorry Excuse, some hardcore news briefs, and some real polarizin' reviews. A quick read, but well worth your parent's pennies. (12 pages, 1/2 size)

(Attn Foreigners: We'll ship to ya, but we're not doin' bulk/wholesale stuff. Limited quantities. Yarrr....)

It even got a review here. 

Snap one up at the bigcartel here. 

ENUF (Logo Power #1)

My ADIDAS

New Jersey's hardest. Unless you've been camped out under a rock, you know about this band's pedigree. Cool logo here. I can't get behind homeboy's Yankees hat, but great lettering and the barbed-wire effect isn't cheesy.

For the unenlightened: Sucka Mosh

My War Records (Core Core Core #4)

Still on dat My War tip. Also, Insurance Risk's How Much More 7" was a great 90's record that doesn't get acknowledged too much. \m/ ** \m/ 

Free Spirit 2012 Demo (Demo Dogz #5)

Pink-Hand Sandies

Free Spirit doesn't need an introduction, but this demo does. Woah. It's a little teaser for the forthcoming 12" (which promises to be a stomper) and I'm going to say it showcases a bit of a "darker side" for them. 

The vocals are way nastier and burlier (I should know this, but is that Gil singing? It sounds quite a bit different than on other releases) and the drums have Paincave mitts all over them. I get vibes from Alone in a Crowd (mostly in the lyrics) and the mosh bits remind me of Uniform Choice. Why do so many people hate this band again? I don't know. Screaming for Change is perfect.

Dig the artwork too. Pink is punx and so are hand-drawn graphics of fists. The cursive lettering is a cool Straight Ahead homage (maybe?) too. 

Anyway, a really muddy version of "Casting Down" was featured on the Joy Boy Mixtape Vol. III, but this one's a lot cleaner. Opening riff rules and the back and forth vocal trick is clutch. "Control You" has a bit of a funky backbeat with an ironclad mosher, and both "Figure You Out" and "Selfish" showcase great divebombs (and the latter really reminds me of UC's "Scream to Say").

Very excited for the upcoming full-length. These are my favorite songs they've done so far.

Cassettes are only available at the shows, so the journeymen can have their pic, but for those of us not in the city-limits, we can take a samplin' here.

Latin heat (Core Core Core #3)

'Rican Havoc!

Yeah yeah, I nicked this from the New Breed Comp Facebook, but it was too kyut to pass up. I saw Merauder on a reunion in Philly. Couple of notables: My buddy Wiggles (who's now an ultra famous hip hop video director) got knocked out temporarily and peed in his pants a little bit, and there was lots of talk of crack transactions in the alley next to the venue. Kewl.

Turkey Lurkey #2: Thanksgiving Hardcore

A.C.A.B (B is for "Butthole")

Last night I sent out a charge to my (dozens and dozens of) fans on leads to hardcore songs about Thanksgiving. I was sure it'd be a lost cause (except for maybe some vegan poetry on the Ebullition catalog about how we should say 'Indians' or something), the encyclopedic brain of one Scott Kilcoyne kept my spirits higher than a Macy's Day Cheech and Chong float. See, he hipped me to this Clevo band called Party Plates. It's dudes from Cleveland luminaries like Inmates and Cider, and besides the endearing "Stoner Pythong" they've a song called "HAPPY THANKGIVING!"

Sloppy and psychotic punk in the grand Clevo tradition (you know, the one that doesn't involve Dwid) and is most notable for sporting some wah wah effects (guitar brohs don't correct me) and a jumpy time signature. Thanksgiving is a happy time. Here's the song on a "choose your own price" deal-io on Bandcamp. Check it.

Again, thanks to Scott, for keeping me honest and for being a Drug Dogs lifer even if I send him his stuff way later than I should.

Anthrax Turkey Lurkey #1

Cry for the Indians

Does anyone know any good Thanksgiving themed 'core?

Waaaar daaaaaaaance!

Chaotic Neutral - Living With Neighbors (Demo Dogz #4)

Suburban Discipline

Chaotic Neutral is an Indianapolis super group composed of guys from Picked Clean, Critical Response Team, Axis and Allies, Wasteland D.C., Slow Motion Enslavement and a gajillion others.

Great artwork, reminds me of something like How Could Hell Be Any Worse, and we know that the suburbs created hardcore.

This is only one song, albeit a really long one ("Exhaustion/Opportunities"), with a great build up, kind of psyche-y and lots of crazy guitar effects, and it kind of morphs and progresses throughout. They don't really sound like Guilt Lust, but I get the same little tingling nerve in the back of my balls when I listen to these guys as I do with GL, so take that for what it's worth. Really unique and totally worth copping here.

Midwest hardcore is the best.

Mistaken Identity #1

Y'all probably don't know this, but Ian Mackaye was lyke, REALLY into UK house music in the early 90's.

CORE CORE CORE #2

10 great releases. Very little hype.

Hardcore 2K12 #3

Other things that are forever: Goonies, AIDS, this terrible decision between your mouth and earlobe.

Hardcore 2K12 #2

Only slightly lamer than Earth Crisis Face Guy's. SLIGHTLY.

Become - Demo Tape (Demo Dogz #3)

Against the Grain

Before Become, the only thing I knew about Santa Barbara was that a guy I knew in L.A. used to fly there daily to go work on heat-seeking missiles. Members of this band have done time in a bunch of other bands, most notably Broken Needle, but also X-Wing who I got a 7" split for at a crappy house show in Utah out of a distro.

This demo tape sports great artwork with an excellent logo that looks absolutely great on the shirts in the Take it Back store.

This is a style of hardcore that's often attempted and more often than not, not done well. I really can't complain about the execution here though as the latent melody (which does exist) never chokes out the throaty scrap and explosive rawness of it. Obviously Swiz and Rites of Spring get connected to this band (and "Ever Know" sounds the most Rites of Spring-y in the bunch), but I also hear flecks of Grey Matter (their label, Take it Back is named for a Grey Matter album), some of the later era Turning Point riffs n' tones and Embrace (particularly in "Floor.") Toss up between the aptly named "Drowning" (which has everyone going at mach-ten, sputtering in exuberant brilliance) and "Melatonin" (with a saccharine sweet riff to close it out). The only real breather is the break at the end of "Ever Know" while the rest maintains a wild-eyed ferocity throughout. Infectious.

Verdict: Excellent...and word on the street is that they're going to have a new song on the 'Starting from Zero' comp that Crucial Response is releasing.

Stream it at their bandcamp here and then buy it from Take it Back here. Find more info at Take it Back's Facebook page.

We All Hate Mike Vallely (Inky Fanzine Nugget #3)

Southern Discomfort

Not much I can say 'bout this one, cuz the poetry's in the pudding. Comes from Stan Forsack's Atlanta Youth Report zine, ish #7. An interview with the always entertaining Brendan Radigan had me in stitches. One little quip. Love it. 

Elephant sac

I don't care about his part in that one Powell video where he's running through a graveyard. The world doesn't need another Hank Rollins. Take it to the bank. Mike V sucks.

Boarders SXE Thrashers (CORECORECORE #1)

Hey man, you like roller-boarding?

SEND SOME STAMPS FOR A FREE CATALOG. 4-6 WEEKS.

Hardcore 2012 #1

HANGING WITH THE YOUTH CREW, FLYING THRU THE CLOUDS

Hounds of Hate Promo Cassette (Demo Dogz #2)

Release the hounds

Hounds of Hate popped up on my radar this time last year when I was contributing a little more regularly to an indie rock blog and looking for submissions. Despite the "this was recorded in a cave full of wet macaroni" recording quality of the demo, the cool mix of slow-ish, dirgey oi-inflected straight edge 'core wet my whistle, enough to snag the No Redemption 7"quicker than snot sliding on brass door handle.

While this isn't exactly a demo, it is a teaser for the upcoming LP (that's apparently already been written!), featuring three new bangers and a re-tooled version of of "Brotherhood of Night" from the first demo tape. 

Artwork is simple, and works great for the tape. Old english fonts can't ever really get overused in the 'core, so no complaints there. I'm feelin' the way that spine would look on a shelf.

Tunewise, they've really stepped up the proverbial game from the 7". Recording is crisper and vocals still hit with a gravelly power. "Pride" has the illest break, and "Clean Today" has great subject matter, namely junkie-scum butt getting a hard dose of edge reality (reminds me of the real life spoken word intro of that one Rollins Band song that I can't remember the name of right now). Comparisons to Sick of it All still seem apt, but so do some of the other second-wave NYHC bands along with Life's Blood and any of 'em with a little bit of skin-savvy in their braces.

Verdict: Fiendin' for the full length. Catch them on tour.

Buy it before you steal it. 

INTENT - "No Rules" Demo (Demo Dogz #1)

Hey kid, wanna cop a Swazi?

Intent is a multi-state conglomeration featuring former and current members of Free Spirit and Rival Mob Mentality (see what I did there?). A one word name like "Intent" may conjure up images of Jncos, Wizard Sleeves and whole host of doofy 90's trite-isms, but this is rooted in the ever popular late 80's NY sound with hints of Boston's "new scene" all over it. Internet geniuses are probably rushing to point at that "Intent" has already been used at least twice (Texas and NY), but who cares? I heard on the Livewire board that a member of Give put tape on an Intention shirt to make an Intent shirt at the Clear (wait...that name's already been used) debut show.

The cover's awesome (and long-since sold out) but features a Frank Miller-esque comic character peddling a trenchcoat chock-fulla vices (my fav being the bird-flipping finger). Was it the same guy that did the WW4 artwork?

In terms of tune-age, 3 songs is hard to make a deep assessment but "My Point of View" has a typical Rival Mob style bass line, "Set it Straight" is the hardest song with the spoken word "cross me again, and I'll seal your fate" part and "Friendship" steals it all soaked in Pain Cave style drum sounds.  Vocally I hear Pat Dubar singing for Straight Ahead.

Verdict: Not essential but certainly not disappointing. Sounds a little bit too much like Free Spirit (albeit less sloppy and a little harder) to fully distinguish itself among all the other excellent bands that've popped up in 2012 (Prisoner Abuse!) but I shant complain. A good band is a good band.

Steal it here. 

VEST-iges of Life on the Wrong Side (Inky Fanzine Nugget #2)

Wake up before dawn, it's already pounding me...

Looking back on the "2000s" era of hardcore, my genesis era, I'm sometimes entirely overtaken by douche-chilling memories of boys in girl pants, man breasts filling out youth medium tees and the ubiquitous "YOU'RE SCUM" Outbreak shirt that at least one kid sported at every show between 2004-2006. Still, like a retarded moth to a raging flame, I perused the B9 board today to find that old sleeping beast, the "trends from 2000's hardcore" thread had been brought out of e-core retirement. The comment? "The bubble vest/hoodie combo."

How could I have forgotten? An excellent vestige of hardcore fashion, that might still be kicking (or may have died out, along with studded belts and Guns Up) but was certainly seared into my immediate sphere of influence via "cooler" bands from the Northeast playing my town and covering Life of Agony. Anyway, I got to thinkin', and poring through the ol' zine collection and stumbled across this gem from the "can't quite keep 'em down" Wrong Side. Since my Drug Dogs interview with Chris Morgado is stuck somewhere in development hell (i.e. a storage locker on the West side of Salt Lake City), I'll throw this 'un up for your reading pleasure...because looka that! Dude rocks a bubble vest/hoodie combo!

Swinginnnn' YOU

Credit for the nugget goes to the excellent, and largely undercelebrated, Final Word fanzine. Active in the mid-later 2000's Final Word was a partnership between Pauly Edge and another guy named King Adross who gets ragged on a lot. I'd done some business with Pauly, designing a few Meltdown shirts (one I'm really proud of, and one I'm not) and found the guy to be super likeable and enthusiastic on the 'core...and his zine shows it. At one point, we spitballed some awesome Meltdown shirts, one of which involved two muscle-bound jarheads raiding a supermarket, copping armfulls of raw eggs and "ANYTHING FOR LEAN GAINS" on the back, and another with a Satanic creature dismembering an Atreyu shirt-clad pantywaist and "HIPSTER HOLOCAUST" emblazoned in some weird script around it. Alas, neither panned out, and it's a crying shame, but in a "business" with no contracts and only "good dude backed hard" recommendations to go on, many great ideas get tossed to the dogs. Anyway, peep this excellent exchange between Pauly and Chris Morgado on the subjects of moshing, Earth Crisis, The Bloodhound Gang and Hatebreed. The zine's gotta be long out of print, but if you're interested in some good readin' seek it out.

From Final Word Fanzine #3:

Pauly: You're known for going completely nuts at shows and doing some crazy shit. What are some of the craziest things you've ever done?
Morgado: (Laughs) Let me think. Down But Not Out shows always brought the craziest shit out of me I think. Their set at that last Proclamation show in particular...punching myself with brass knuckles, throwing chairs, one man wall-of-deathing kids, that was a good show. Q from the A-Team had a video of it. I sang "Life of my Own" and this kid Cappy we're friends with was in the pile on and you just heard THUD THUD THUD instead of the words, 'cuz I was hitting him with the mic. I know that sounds like some asshole shit, but whatever I do to people I have usually done to myself twice as hard in the same time frame. One time during Death Threat, I headbutted the stage so hard I blacked out. Moshing used to make me completely insane and unconscious of everything...now it's singing in the band that does it. I'm a much mellower mosher now, most of the time. Certain songs will still bring it out of me though, as will certain bands. "Why Must They?" and "Life of my Own" are guaranteed mind erasers for me, and Outbreak sets just make me the biggest asshole on the planet. If you were on stage during their set at Posi Numbers, I probably hit you. That goes for the guys in the band too. I fucking whaled on poor Ryan O and Chris a ton (laughs). They fucking love it though. For some reason it gets them really psyched and I think everyone knows it's not a malicious action; they just make me go nuts. I got what was coming to me anyways. I stage dove and bounced ribs first off the PA's at the end of the set, fucked myself up good for like, three months.

Pauly: A lot of people don't really give Earth Crisis the respect they're due. I know you said in another interview that Ten Yard Fight and Earth Crisis was your first 'real' hardcore show. What do you feel ExC did and how are bands influenced by 'em now?
Morgado: I know you're full of Syracuse pride Pauly, so this will bum you out and I'm sorry, but I think Earth Crisis ended up doing more harm than good. They were so over the top, politically, that to an extend it made straight edge a joke. You have to look at it from the mainstream sense, because ExC were the band that took the edge to the mainstream. That's something you can't separate when you talk about the band because that's one of the reasons they're still an important band from a historical perspective, despite how it turned out. I mean, the result was completely unintentional obviously, but for years anytime anyone found out I was straight edge it was like 'oh yeah, I saw that Earth Crisis band on CNN. How come you think you're better than me because of my leather shoes?' It was like you were automatically a little vegan soldier because you were straight edge. Fuck, occasionally it still happens to me. 'Oh yeah, I remember seeingthat on MTV in 1998. I thought that fad was over.' I respect that they were trying to spread a message and promote something good, but I think it bit them in the ass, in part because the media is bullshit, and in part because it was so over the top and deadpan. You know those dudes weren't shooting drug dealers and vivisectionists dead, but they were on TV all solemn and straight-faced...and I LIKE Earth Crisis! I hunted down the '93 demo and I think it's probably some of my favorite material, and the title track from Gommorah's Season Ends is one of those songs that makes me lose it. But as a political movement or whatever, I think they ended up making things worse for straight edge instead of better. For a while there, they made it huge, definitely, but all the kids I personally met who swore by ExC back then? I don't see all that many of them still edge or vegan today. Was it awesome to have a shitload of kids screaming 'A Firestorm to Purify!?', absolutely. Did the message have any lasting impact to the majority of the mass populace? Straight edge is considered a gang to cops all over the place now because of the Earth Crisis disciples in Salt Lake, does that count? Should that count?

Pauly: Who do you hope for the Wrong Side to tour with, since you guys have a lot more exposure on Stillborn records? I remember Stand Accused dropping off a Hatebreed show because they didn't want to play to the type of fans that Hatebreed brings out. How would you feel about touring with Hatebreed if you were given the chance?
Morgado: I don't think was why Stand Accused didn't play those shows, or if it was it wasn't wasn't the deciding factor. Obviously I would tour with Hatebreed in a second. I respect the hell out of Jamey and I'm told he's really into our record, the Blacklisted record too. That is a dude that just loves hardcore and has done so much for it. I went to so many shows in Connecticut when I was coming up, that were shows he booked at the Hanover House and so on. I saw him reaching out to hook up bands like Down But Not Out. Down But Not Out, the band who everyone knew would never reach their potential but wanted to, he was gonna do a record on Stillborn. They dawdled on it like they did everything else, and it never happened, but I've always remembered that he wanted to do that for them. It wasn't because they were huge scenesters like a lot of the bands who started at the same time as them, but because he just thought they were a great band. That has always stuck out for me. I met my wife at a show he booked, ya know? And Hatebreed is still the same band they always were musically. You can't tell me otherwise, they're just better at it now, like a whole 'nother level. That song "Doomsayer?" That's right up there with any Slayer song to me man. They're at that level of mainstream hard music, yet it's totally a hardcore song.

Pauly: What are your favorite Lockin Out bands?
Morgado: Righteous Jams without a doubt. The lineup they have right now has really come together so that their live show is completely tight. Everyone in that band is a great dude and the music they're making is just so awesome. It's so stripped down but it's still a current sound, ya know? It's hard to say Mental because everyone in my band is also in Mental, but they've really picked up their game from the 7" on Bridge 9 and rekindled all those feelings I had when they started with the 7" they just put out. That the best material they've done by far. It amazes me with the song-writing skills they possess to do that and still come up with what they come up with for the Wrong Side. I mean, to me, just on a personal level of being there when it started, that is Lockin Out to me: Mental, Dump Truck and RJ's. That's not trying to slight Rampage or Jaguarz or whoever, it's just that those three are who it started with. Those three and Crunch Time, that was like AJ and Greg's big thing when it started I think, that Crunch Time record. They really took that band under their wing.

Pauly: What bands do you like that no one would guess you'd like?
Morgado: As far as within the core, I like a bunch of what people would call tough-guy style hardcore bands, "thugcore" I guess they call it, like Death Before Dishonor from Boston. They have lots of songs to move to. Fury of Five, and Shattered Realm have stuff I really can get into as well. Nobody thinks I'm genuinely into that stuff but I am a little bit, I think it's cuz that style was so prevalent when I started going to shows at like 121 in Brockton, so it's like I have a soft spot for stuff that's hard as nails and causes spin kicks. I'm not talking like screamo metalcore with artsy lyrics and acoustic parts, I'm talking hard chugga-chugga hardcore about revenge and drugs and whatever. Outside of that, the strangest thing I really dig is this weird band called The Bloodhound Gang. I think they're hilarious, they're like slacker rap/punk stuff. They have this record called Hooray for Boobies and the leadoff track is just a great skank riff. It's called "I Hope You Die" and it's HIGH-larious to me.

LOL, We're gonna headline TIHC 2016

S.O.D - "Noise, That's What" (Dylan's Dumb iPod #20)

Tha number one Obese

I'm not sure Bigger than the Devil was entirely necessary and it's not without it's share of disappointments. Maybe S.O.D was cash strapped and they decided that because of Nuclear Assault's inactivity and Anthrax's shittiness, they'd try to resurrect some old glories. I'm not sure the approach worked entirely, but who am I to say?

They say a joke's never funny the second time and to those people I say: absolutely true...except for this one that I made as a first grader.

Note the botched Ghostbusters logo

In S.O.D's case, satirizing cultural icons (Michael Huchens) and even some antique metallers (Celtic Frost and King Diamond) bring a chuckle or two, but nothing from the deep belly. Still though, Celtic Frosted Flakes....what do you think these taste like? My guess is kitter litter and Zürcher Eintopf.

"I like mine with a glass of Cold Lake"

Ultimately, Bigger Than the Devil is only for completists, nowhere near as essential as the deathless Speak English or Die and shows the band's shtick running a bit tired.

"Noise, That's What" is likely a clever play on the famed "What's That Noise?" track from the aforementioned debut. It's an instrumental that features a slappy groove element that surely pissed off lots of thrash kids while appealing heavily to fat zitty douchebags in Fear Factory hoodies. Many of them rode my middle school bus, and they universally smelled of lunchmeat.

The guitar tone is cool, and if the album were more famous or respected, HC bands would totally cop it and use it for a mosh intro along with "March of the SOD"...but it's not and so they don't. It does serve as a good segue into "We All Bleed Red" though. S.O.D is S.O.D, but this is them at their tiredest and least relevant.

Beastie Boys - "Slow Ride"(Dylan's Dumb iPod #19)

OMG. The plane totally says "Eat Me" backwards

I was born a solid year after Licensed to Ill's release, but it was still my initiation to the Beasties a few years later. Listening now, it does swing a little clumsy and plays heavier on the cheapshot party anthems than the technical prowess they'd later showcase. Though it doesn't hold a candle to the masterpiece pastiches of Paul's Boutique and Check Your Head it's still an exuberant nod to a special and transitionary (nerd journalists say "Golden Age") time in hip-hop, and for a suburban white male still feeling his way around 70's dinosaur rock and 90's alt, it was the perfect jumping off point.

Anyone with a fistful of brain cells to mash together will spot the sampling of War's "Lowrider" (copyright rules were much different then, just ask Biz Markie), as the Beastie's freely wore their influences on their respective sleeves. The track tackles heavy-handed issues like grubbing at White Castle, physically assaulting school teachers (she chased me outta class/ she was strapped wit a ruler) and doing drugs (I went to the bathroom and rolled myself a wooler). [Editor's note: The Wu-Tang Manual describes a "Wooler" as a joint that's been lightly dusted with Cocaine].

Personally, I dig 80's hip hop because of all the references to "dust" and "brew." Somehow the terminology seems delightfully archaic, but maybe that's just because I grew up in the midwest. It's a tight, danceably giddy song in blatant celebration of rebellion, pranksterism and youthful indifference, and one worth spinnin' on a leisurely bike ride or a house party when the folks have bounced.

MCA RIP

Millenial Reign - "Moore's Law" (Dylan's Dump iPod #18)

Rejected Milwaukee Bucks logo design

It wasn't any secret that the ultimate purpose of this band was to worship Humanity... era Integrity, and in that regard it's spot on. With a lineup comprised of Damien Abraham (Fucked Up), Jordan Posner (No Warning, Terror) and Jesse Labovitz (No Warning), and some additional vocals by Chris Colohan (Cursed, Left for Dead, tons more). I once read an interview in which the journalist asked Damien condescendingly about his interest in Hatebreed and Integrity and Damien backed both bands...I wish I remembered his exact response.

Mr. Clean

Though only a four song EP, Bones Dust Nothing is remarkably well formed and complex, full of tempo changes and musical shifts, and the guitar work is absolutely stellar. Dwid vocals are seamlessly achieved, as is the chilling (and sometimes wacky) subject matter of the Holy Terror ilk.

"Moore's Law" gives me nothing to complain about as it contains great Melnick's style riffing at 1:16, a concrete mosh bit at 1:42, and again with those Dwid vocals. "A Final Evolution/ to a homeland where our spirits reborn/ pure information living together/ this is the heaven we prophesied/ we are destined for immortality." Sounds like the kind of stuff I was learning in LDS Sunday school, that we are all "intelligences" and our minds eternal...that when we die, all we take with us is the crap in our brains. Furthermore, besides taking their name from a famed Integ track, "Milennial Reign" references the belief that Christ will reign for 1000 years, prior to the final judgment (something you can find more about in the last track on Humanity is the Devil).

Anyway, to my knowledge the band only played one show (maybe a handful) and it's likely that this 7" is the only remnant of their existence, but if it was merely meant as a tribute to Cleveland's most infamous band, it stands resoundingly well on its own and comes highly recommended. Nothing to complain about.

Copyright 2007, A389 Records, blah blah blah

World Peace Can't Be...Pun

Tommy Carroll 2012

Thoughts on Harley going to jail:

1) How long must we await the famed Harley's War album on Southern Lord?

2) JJ's mags are kewl, but those who don't acknowledge Best Wishes are (to quote the aforementioned) "pussies."

3) Is there any famed NYHC guy that uses commas on social media? Do y'all need editors? *I'd do it.*

4) Haven't heard from Rick Ta Life for a while...are we sure it wasn't him? (ever?)

Black Cross - "Let Me Sink" (Dylan's Dumb iPod #17)

Goggles

These three song EP's (cleverely titled Sink, Knives and Chrome) were officially "released" at an exclusive Black Cross show in 2004 (?). I was grounded so I had to have my good friend Keith pick it up for me. High school was a bummer.

Black Cross was a band I don't think I fully appreciated at the time, though I saw them plenty of times. They were Louisville mainstays, played a ton of shows and I liked 'em, but I don't think I ever LOVED them the way many others did. I preferred Coliseum. Looking back, Art Offensive is a really cool album, and listening to it now it really speaks (sings) to me and makes me realize how unique Louisville's music scene really was. Still, Rob Pennington's vocals are an acquired taste and have always been a stumbling block for this reviewer. Also, I never really got that into Endpoint. Kinghorse on the other hand...

Pushead? Who wants Pushead?

Anyway, a totally serendipitous moment happened when I started writing for a magazine in Salt Lake City called SLUG and when I went in for my interview, I saw a Black Cross sticker on their trashcan. Being a nostalgic ninny, I got all bleary-eyed and longed for home.

The CD pacakging for this was awesome, I think it was hand-screened on some heavy cardstock, but if I remember correctly the disc itself was just a CD-R. Auxilliary Records, which was (is?) Ryan Patterson's label and bore his distinct visual aesthetic.

Anyway, La Cruza Negra (That's mexi-speak, pendejo) was doing that wirey post-punk thing at this point and I remember thinking that it was great musically, but seemed like throwaway cuts compared to Art Offensive's material. I didn't hate it, and listening to it now, I can key into its brilliance. It honestly reminds me of the stuff Coliseum did on the Parasites EP last year. If I have to pick the standout track of these three, "Playing with Knives" takes the cake because I love those ringing guitar lines.

Maximum Louisville

Quick and (not that) funny Black Cross anecdote, lots of kids at my high school had the hoodie that kind of looked like a motorcycle gang logo. Once at lunch, our janitor came to our table to talk to my friend Brandon about it...and it took forever for him to realize that none of us knew anything about motorcycles.

Also, if we're being honest Severance Pays was a really boring record.

To my knowledge, Sink, Knives and Chrome is pretty long out of print, so go download it and see what you think. Also, it ain't on Youtube, so just watch a live set.

Paper Chase

I didn't change the times. The times changed me.

DYS: Please break up!

My instincts are telling me that this is a little harsh, but even Smalley signed the damn thing, so let's take him out of his misery. Maybe with some historical manipulations we can convince our children's children that the only record they ever released was Brotherhood.

Sign the petition here. Let's pull the plug.

 

In Effect Fanzine

Bonkers for Yonkers. Whut?