I can't get enough of Shipwreck lately. The sound takes me back to 90's hardcore like One King Down and Trial and the imagery impresses me to no end. If I had a hardcore band it wouldn't sound like Shipwreck, but the lyrics and symbols would be the same.
When I was getting heavily into hardcore in high school Bridge 9 Records was on top. As I went though college I grew wary of the bands they were signing: straight-brimmed hats and '508' tattoos. With the new Have Heart and Ceremony records, they've recovered for me.
I think Have Heart's Bostons is one of the best hardcore songs ever written. It's unbelievable. And I can't stop thinking about Ceremomy's "Still Nothing Moves You." It's beyond angry. Punk. Pure. In the spirit and vein of Kill Your Idols truly, NO GIMMICKS NEEDED.
I've been in California for awhile. Swimming, arcading and record shopping. The greatest surprise of all was driving by a record store called "TKO". It was closed so the next day we swung by and my assumptions proved right, it was the retail store for the San Fransisco punk label, "TKO". I spend a lot of time and (somehow) minimal money in there but I re-bought some old New England classics: The Vigilantes - No Destiny EP and :30 Over Tokyo's eponymous full-length.
It was pretty amazing to see these records as the :30 one is way out of print and I never thought I'd be able to get my hands of another copy. As I get back into these again I'll post about them.
Tuesday proved to be 90's day though. I saw the Melvins (!!!) then finally picked up Mudhoney's Superfuzz Bigmuff. It's the new Sub Pop Deluxe Edition. I can't turn it off and I'll post about that one too as I get more into it.
I work as a bartender and one of the absolute benefits of the job is listening into my customer's conversations. On a daily basis I meet assholes, alcoholics, yuppies and musicians. Last night though, took the cake of embarrassingly stupid conversations. The blonde's voices were high, dainty and airy. Every syllable was drawn out. I was so annoyed I was grinding my teeth.
Blonde 1: I think I'll get a Diet Coke. I need to wake up. Blonde 2: Yeah. Good idea. Me: Diet Coke doesn't have any caffeine. Blonde 1: (Very confused look.) Umm, what do you mean? Like, your Diet Coke is caffeine-free? Me: Uhh, no. Diet Coke is caffeine free. Blonde 1: No it's not. Me: Yes. It is. Blonde 1: Ohhh my Godddd. What should I get? Me: A Coke. Blonde 1: No wayyy. Too many calories. The other bartender: How about I make you an espresso martini? Blondes 1 & 2: Yeahhh. We want those. Me: Don't you think there's more calories in that than in a Coke? Blonde 1: Oh wow. I didn't even think of that. Wow. Oh my Goddd. You're smart!
I recently got Motorhead's 1982 album, Iron Fist. It's no Bomber, Overkill or Ace of Spades, but like the Ramones, it's all fuckin good. The title track slays and the 11 others make me want to drink heavily. Job well done, Lemmy.
I recently found and bought the "Straight to Hell / Should I Stay or Should I Go" 12'' single at my local record shop, in alright condition. I don't know how rare it is and I don't know how much it's worth. I don't care. Flipping through the bin and coming across it made me so excited; like first getting into punk rock and buying a Stooges record. I've been just staring at the cover, an image I've always loved and considered getting tattooed. The back cover is the blue dragon from the Combat Rock days.
It made me think about how stupid it is for people to spend hundreds of dollars on all of versions of colored vinyl and stick them in a bin in their closet. I don't think they'll ever get it. Sometimes it just takes $10 to get really excited about rock and roll vinyl.
It also made me think about the Poison Idea album, "Record Collectors Are Pretentious Assholes."
"Golden Shower of Hits" was the first record I ever bought by the Circle Jerks. It was actually one of the first punk records I ever bought. At that point I don't think I realized that "Group Sex" and "Wild on the Streets" were such classics and that I should dive into those first. I had seen Circle Jerks T-shirts on the bands that I worshiped at the time and I knew that somewhere, somehow they had a connection with Black Flag. I didn't know or care what that connection was, and I was so in love with "Damaged" that it didn't matter; any band who had anything to do with the Flag was rad in my book.
As their third album, 1983's "Golden Shower of Hits" never gets the recognition it deserves. It's not as amazing as their first two records, but punk doesn't get much better than those records. I see a lot of copies of this in used bins all around and I have to say, it's worth much more than it's it's sold for. Classic hardcore punk.
Sidenote: I never realized until recently that the cover was actually a Glen Friedman photograph. It's included at the top. Now that dude was a hero.
"10 kids in a Cadillac stand in lines for welfare checks let's all leach off the state Gee! The money's really great!
We just get by however we can we all gotta duck when the shit hits the fan!" -When the Shit Hits the Fan
Originally planned to be a Misfits side project, Samhain became Danzig's full time band when the Misfits broke up in 1983. In three years they released two full-lengths and an EP, and my favorite remains 1986's "November-Coming-Fire." It's out of print now but you can definately download it somewhere, or find the songs in the Samhain boxset.
The record has a lot of reverb, which really adds to the mysterious and creepy feel of the songs. To say Samhain was merely Misfits part II doesn't do them justice. These songs are definately good enough to stand on their own and any Misfits fans who don't have any Samhain need to change that. The lyrics are just as dark, and the music is slower and even creepier. Also, there's a rad version of the Misfits' "Halloween II". Outstanding record.
In 2001 Bridge 9 re-released Toronto's No Warning's self-titled 7'', and it was my introduction to the band. I remember going to many Worcester shows, seeing B9's small (at the time) discography on sale, and after awhile I broke and bought it. That record, with "A Day In The Life" and "Too Much To Bare" hooked me and I probably listened to it everyday that year.
Then one year later they put it to a full-length and released "Ill Blood", a record that not only introduced hundreds of younger hardcore kids to the Cro-Mags and Judge, but was absolutely the best NYHC record of my generation...and they're from Toronto! The energy, the hooks, the riffs, the lyrics, the heavy drums and that nuts live show.
In those couple of years I saw No Warning three times in New England, but the best was at the Back To School Jam in Framingham, MA. The line-up was out of control: Some Kind Of Hate, Impact, Fit For Abuse, Count Me Out, Panic, No Warning, Reach The Sky, Converge (canceled because Kurt broke his hand, Hatebreed showed up and played a set of covers), Stars & Stripes, Slapshot and Blood For Blood. Yeah, my thoughts exactly. Anyways, I remember that "Ill Blood" has just come out, kids were flying everywhere and the singer kept instigating the cops who were doing security.
"Ill Blood" was one of the greatest hardcore records to come out of my generation of hardcore bands and they inspired legions of bands to copy the sound that they copied and perfected themselves. Everyone needs this record. Even if they made some, ahem, bad decisions further down the line, it's heavy, pissed and focused.
Bjorn from Rise & Fall has a two-part interview with the guitar player at his blog: http://www.mindovermatter07.blogspot.com/
(For fans of all things very heavy and very angry.)
I've been a fan of Cursed since Deathwish put out their debut "I", in 2003. I loved the darkness in the guitar tones, Chris Colohan's intense lyrics and growl, and the band's imagery, evident on all their releases and merch. I remember buying "II" in the summer of 2005 and to this day that record reminds me of driving up and down 95 in the dead heat of summer, blasting those cold, sinister songs.
Three years later Cursed finally put out "III: Architects of Troubled Sleep", and it is by far their angriest, most intense record so far. The minute and a half sample collage that opens it sets the tone for the rest of the record. Voices go in and out, talking about fear. In the end a woman states, "We really begin to feel that you don't have any power. That you're just going through the motions," before a man interrupts her with, "Go shopping. Go back to the mall, go back to your normal lives. We'll take care of everything." With that, Cursed leap into a blast beat that they don't relent from for the next 30 minutes. Insomnia, distrust and frustration are the keys and fear through religion and government is the subject they explore.
Cursed are on the top of their game and I am sick of waiting patiently for them to tour the States, (they're from Toronto). Oh yeah, and the artwork (top picture) was done by Baroness's John Baizley. That man's resume is incredible.
"Kill the bosses. Kill the priests. Kill the shepherds. Save the sheep."
"Don't wanna bite the hand that feeds I wanna fucking break it off."
Yesterday at the bar I met a local Vietnam veteran. I picked his brain for a half hour about his experiences and when I asked him if his year and a half tour was of average length he replied, "My tour was a little more than average and at the time I was furious, but compared to our troops' tours today, I have no complaints."
After that I started thinking, really thinking about what it means to serve two + tours like is commonplace today. All I kept thinking about was the Pogues' "The Band Played Waltzing Matilda". The eight-minute traditional song, sung from the point of view of a young Australian soldier about his experiences at WWI's Battle of Gallipoli is, as my friend John drunkenly declared to me on St. Patrick's Day at his apartment in Cambridge, undoubtedly the saddest song we know.
The more I think about that declaration, the more I believe it. I don't know a sadder song. I can't think of another song that literally hurts to listen to like "The Band Played Waltzing Matilda". Love songs hurt on a personal level; "The Band Played Waltzing Matilda" hurts on a human level. It extends beyond your small life and looks at the experience of war that has lasted as long as humans have been on Earth.
This blog has been one of my absolute favorites over the past year or so. I think the guy who does it has a hand in Gloom Records, a great Albany label that has put out awesome bands like Last In Line, 9 Shocks Terror, Close Call, Cut the Shit and the Prowl. Anyways, he searches his amazing record collection, uploads a record, and reminisces about it. He pulls out a lot of gems and tells great stories about growing up as a metalhead in Albany in the 80's.
Example: "I eventually bought this only because the band thanked bong hits & brew hahs, I was baffled that this came out on the label that it did, not typical at all. Listening to this totally brings back those memories of Luke picking me up Friday after work, and us hitting all four record stores in Albany. I typically might have spent about $80 a week on records back then."
