I absolutely love this version of "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?" by Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
Friday, December 30, 2011
Monday, December 26, 2011
Inside Out - No Spiritual Surrender
Release - 1990
Story by Sunny Singh, videographer for Hate 5 Six.
Editor's note: Since this is an album on a major label, there is no download link available.
When I was in middle school in the late '90s, early 2000s, I listened to a lot of Rage Against the Machine. No, really, that's all I listened to. Those records shaped the bedrock which has become my current set of core beliefs. I was obsessed with this band and soon found myself in a small community of people who collected and traded rare RATM show bootlegs. This was all before I became a hardcore kid. I had known Zack was in Inside Out, and I think I managed to find a few tracks from No Spiritual Surrender on the web via Napster, but that was the extent of my knowledge. I didn't know anything else about hardcore. I wanted a tangible copy of that album, CD or vinyl so I could actually listen to it, read the lyrics and all that jazz. Though I admittedly didn't search very hard, I was never able to actually track a copy down.
In the summer of my sophomore year of high school in the early 2000s, I found myself in the bowels of New England. My parents sent me off to some summer camp and at some point, we were carted around to visit college campuses. Somewhere between Harvard and MIT, we stopped for lunch or some shit and a bunch of us wandered into Newbury Comics. The place seemed pretty cool and it appealed to my sensibilities at the time, but in retrospect, it was just as tacky as Hot Topic... just in a disguise. I perused the CD section for a while and just as my group was getting ready to leave, there it was: No Spiritual Surrender, $7. I frantically reached for my wallet and froze as I realized I didn't have enough. I was a couple bucks short. I pleaded with a few people in my group to spot me. I forget who it was, but eventually one of them caved in, probably to shut me up. I remember the bus ride home clutching the CD and counting down the mile markers before I could listen to it.
The opening guitar feedback of "Burning Fight" sets the tone for the entire record: uncertainty slowly boiling over into chaos. Zack's vocals are so raw (which definitely withered during his time in Rage, especially by the end of the Battle Of Los Angeles tour). And then there's that guttural scream at the beginning of "No Spiritual Surrender." Every now and then, a friend's band will cover this and I plead with them to let me do vocals. I try to come out of the gate just like Zack, but it never amounts to even a fraction of what he does on record. Even when you watch a live Inside Out video and you see Vic and Zack throwing themselves around haphazardly, you can see what this music meant to them. They weren't standing up there banging on fucking instruments. This was direct expression of emotion to sound. When you read the lyrics to NSS from start to finish and hear the musical landscape accompanying it, you can see the purity. None of it was postured, which stands in stark contrast with so many other records.
And before you know it, the record is finished and you're left wanting more. The potential to do more is so fucking apparent as you listen to this.
What's especially interesting to me is considering the paths Zack and Vic took post-Inside Out and retracing those steps back to Inside Out. Inside Out encompassed self-awareness, facing emotional distress and abandonment, and even undertones (pun intended) of social/political commentary--all of which the members explored to greater extents in their later bands.
This record shaped my life. This is THE record that opened my eyes to hardcore.
Wrong Answer - Cross A Black Cat's Path
Wrong Answer are streaming their new four-song seven inch Cross A Black Cat's Path on their Bandcamp page. Tomorrow, Wrong Answer leave with Agitator for their 2012 Winter Tour together from Tuesday, December 27th to Monday, January 9th. Towards the end of January, Wrong Answer will be doing a European tour with the Vegan Straight Edge band Kingdom.
Agitator/Wrong Answer Winter Tour 2012
Tour Dates
December 27 – Barnsville, OH
December 28 – Covington, KY
December 29 – Ozark, MO
December 30 – Kansas city, MO
December 31 – Oklahoma city, OK
January 1 – Conway, AR
January 2 – Baton rouge, LA
January 3 - Jackson, MS
January 4 – Decatur, AL
January 5 – Tallahassee, FL
January 6 – Jacksonville, FL
January 7 – Atlanta, GA
January 8 – Florence, SC (early show, 2 p.m.)
January 8 – Wilmington, NC (evening show)
January 9 – Trenton, NJ
December 28 – Covington, KY
December 29 – Ozark, MO
December 30 – Kansas city, MO
December 31 – Oklahoma city, OK
January 1 – Conway, AR
January 2 – Baton rouge, LA
January 3 - Jackson, MS
January 4 – Decatur, AL
January 5 – Tallahassee, FL
January 6 – Jacksonville, FL
January 7 – Atlanta, GA
January 8 – Florence, SC (early show, 2 p.m.)
January 8 – Wilmington, NC (evening show)
January 9 – Trenton, NJ
The Hate 5 Six Diaries: Volume One DVD benefiting One Hundred For Haiti
Purchase your copy here:
http://hate5six.bigcartel.com/
View trailer here!
The Hate 5 Six Diaries: Volume One
Benefiting One Hundred for Haiti.
Featuring nearly 4 hours of live footage of:
108
Black Kites
Converge
Damnation AD
Give
Have Heart
Iron Chic
Kid Dynamite
Mindset
Pulling Teeth
Ruiner (from the last show)
Seraphim
Suicide File
The First Step (from the last show)
The Rival Mob
Touche Amore
Trial
Unbroken
[Running time: ~240 minutes, 16:9 widescreen]
Hardcore has the unique potential to be something other than a distraction on a Friday night, something other than a soundtrack to physical aggression. We readily reference it as a certificate that we are beyond the normative behaviors and thought patterns prescribed to us by society. Whether or not you act upon this conviction is entirely up to you.
The majority of society outside the hardcore scene is unwilling to comprehend why it is we drive hours on end just to see a band, why we jump off stages and crawl across people's heads just so we can hope to reach the mic and maybe--just maybe--get the chance to scream a few fucking words that happen to resonate with us, why we're so willing to virtually obliterate our bodies during a band's set in a self-sacrificial, yet purely cathartic, ritual.
The “hate5six diaries” is about leveraging the stagedives, the singalongs, and the discourse fostered through the music to do something more than what is given to us. 100% of the proceeds from these volumes will be donated to a specified charity.
The contents of this video are already freely available on hate5six.com modulo color correction, audio adjustment, encode quality and packaging. Unauthorized copying of this DVD is therefore an egregious waste of time and is morally and ethically reprehensible. In the event you obtain this DVD outside of the proper channels, please at least consider making a donation to onehundredforhaiti.org.
hate5six.com is a one-man DIY operation that stands for the redistribution of hardcore to a global audience. The project serves to connect people directly with music while bypassing anything that could impede or pollute that sacred connection.
DIY or Die
Bottled Up Records full catalogue available for free download
Truth Inside - Best Times 7” is up for pre-order.
There are Have Heart records for sale now too.
http://bottleduprecords.bigcartel.com/
Free downloads!!!!
Start Today Fanzine #7
http://www.sendspace.com/file/nj13ws
Truth Inside - Best Times
http://www.sendspace.com/file/k4xg3k
Outlast - Take Control
http://www.sendspace.com/file/0b7p98
The First Step - What We Know Sessions
http://www.sendspace.com/file/at4i9q
Learn - Life and…
http://www.sendspace.com/file/qrmm9a
Learn - Better Days Ahead
http://www.sendspace.com/file/e3h9bh
Crumbler - Dirty Weeks
http://www.sendspace.com/file/qf5ryb
In Stride - Place of Decay
http://www.sendspace.com/file/inyg2x
One Up - The Demo
http://www.sendspace.com/file/bocaa4
One Up - The More Things Change
http://www.sendspace.com/file/np2r1j
Efforts Made - Recollect
http://www.sendspace.com/file/k0pm1q
Have Heart - 2003
http://www.sendspace.com/file/he69wx
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Quiet Arcs - Morphine Derivatives
Quiet Arcs is one of two bands I currently play bass in from Philadelphia, PA. We play hardcore/punk music that leans more towards the mid '90s styles of hardcore and grunge. One of the things we are the most proud of is that we are a 100% DIY band. Every one of our releases (Electric Throne, Grim Business and Morphine Derivatives) were self funded and self released by the band and given out as a "pay what you want" download through Bandcamp. In the new year, we will be working on new material for an LP to be released on our own record label.
Happy hollidays from Pizza Friends
The first video below is for the song "Run Run Rudolph" being covered by Lemmy Kilmister, Billy F. Gibbons and Dave Grohl and appears on the the Metal Xmas compilation CD.
The last video is something else all together. From what I gather, Chris Wrenn of Bridge Nine Records fame is singing about LEGOS. This video is from the LEGO Club Music Season 1.
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Walter Schreifels - The Storm (Judge)
This is an incredible acoustic cover of Judge's "The Storm" by Walter Schreifels.
Merauder - Demo '98 (with Eddie Sutton of Leeway)
Download - www.mediafire.com/?93imur9qwrm
Release - 1998
I was talking to someone the other day and joking around I told them "you'll be out of style when I cut you a new smile" which made me think about this demo. From what I remember, Jorge Rosado briefly quit Merauder to sing for Ill Nino and during that time this demo was recorded with Eddie Sutton of Leeway doing vocals. Aside from Master Killer, this is probably my favorite Merauder recording.
Track List:
1. Find My Way
2. Five Deadly Venoms
3. Save My Soul
4. We Are The Ones
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Swarm Of Arrows - Swarm Of Arrows
Genre: Sludge/Metal/Punk/Doom
Contact: info@swarmofarrows.com
Download: http://www.swarmofarrows.com
FFO: Doomriders, Mastodon, Baroness, Coliseum, Neurosis
Year Released: 2011
Heavy hardcore/punk with a strong metal influence from Philadelphia. The bands listed above in the for fans of section are spot on.
Track List:
1. Bastard Heart
2. Lie Down With Wolves
3. Cauldron Overthrown/Cities of Lead
4. The Last Time
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Teen Wolves - The Tape
Genre: Punk/Hardcore
Contact: teenwolves732@gmail.com
Download: teenwolves.bandcamp.com
For Fans Of: not being a fan
Year Released: 2011
Fast punk influenced hardcore from New Brunswick, NJ. Teen Wolves remind me of Life's Halt with songs like "F The A" and "Shotgun No Blitz". Another band that comes to mind are The Adolescents. The recording is surprisingly good for a home/basement recording which is a big plus.
Track List:
1. Cop Blocker
2. F The A
3. Never Forget Your Root(s) Beer
4. Bedtime Stories
5. The Point C
6. T.W.P.
7. What It Is
8. Shotgun No Blitz
9. Prey
10. Epic Failure
Wanna play This Is Hardcore 2012?
Before you go submitting your band you must know that despite the fact that TIH pays bands well to come and play, if you're from Nepal (as one bad ass band last year was from) or even in the U.S and you just got a demo out and have never travelled before, you should really think of the cost involved in trying to come as a band to play. I often tell bands that I'd love to have them but I'd hate to see them travel out just for one show where the most they would get would be like $200 for 20 minutes.
Think about it and if you still want to submit- be my guest..
So how to submit your band??
send me A LINK to actual music from your band or some songs, though I've lost a few songs especially when they are untitled and named track 1 (I've got 2 gigs of demo links all named demo 09 or something generic)
I love bandcamps the best but don't mind stereokiller either..
If you send me a myspace link, I won't even bother as it will just take too long.
Also include some info about your band as in where you're from etc.
It's helpful to know if you're touring, have stuff recorded and being put out etc.
I'll also check out mediafire links etc.
email joe@thisishardcorefest.com
I got over 210 submissions last year and it was a daunting task to get back to everyone, on top of it I had some email issues that made some shit bounce back a few times.
Things are hammered out and I've got it all set, so don't be shy, send in your stuff and hopefully we can make something happen for you. If not on TIH then a show in philly...
Monday, December 19, 2011
Wound Up - Feeling Mean Demo
Genre: Hardcore
Contact: shelligolld@gmail.com
Download: woundupnj.bandcamp.com
FFO: Infest, Kriegshog, Striking Distance
Year Released: 2011
Short, fast and pissed-off blasts of hardcore from New Brunswick, NJ. Their demo CDR I picked up when I saw them recently came with a stick of Wrigley's gum. Classy mosh.
Track List:
1. Self Induced Genocide
2. How Did We Get Here?
3. Dreams Coincide With Reality
4. You Cant Help Me
5. Hopeless
Members of WarZone on Regis & Kathy Lee 1986
Every Monday, I try to have a new story to post, but this week the well ran dry. Hopefully next week I will have a great new story for you to post. For now, here are some awesome videos I found of Raybeez and Todd Youth of WarZone on the Regis And Kathy Lee show from 1986. "It's like Hardcore is a life style man. It's something inside you." - Todd Youth.
Part One: Intro/Bust.
Part Two: Why did you choose this lifestyle?
Part Three: The commercials are epic!
Part Four: Are you a punker?
Part Five: The Wrap Up.
Part One: Intro/Bust.
Part Two: Why did you choose this lifestyle?
Part Three: The commercials are epic!
Part Four: Are you a punker?
Part Five: The Wrap Up.
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Grey Area premieres "Lucky"
Listen to "Lucky" here:
Grey Area "Lucky"
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Ladder Devils - Forget English
Genre: Post-Punk, Post-Hardcore, Noise
Contact: ladderdevils@gmail.com
Download: ladderdevils.bandcamp.com
Website: www.facebook.com/ladderdevils
For Fans Of: Nirvana and loud music
Year Released: 2011
Ladder Devils play very loud and noisy music. You can pick up the 12" three-way split they did with Fight Amp and Kawloon Walled City on Brutal Panda Records.
Track List:
1. Get OK
2. Divorce Drugs
3. Dogs
4. Pyramid
5. Leavers
Monday, December 12, 2011
Into Another - Seemless
Download - www.mediafire.com/?jm122ylyby2
Release - 1995
Story by Zach Trotta, original Blacklisted drummer.
This record is such a fucking banger. The production and song structure to the ridiculous lyrics was the best transition of a “post hardcore” band pining out for a big record label. Hollywood Records probably thought, “Let’s squeeze the last drip of grunge out of this band,” which I’m sure was a disaster commercially. Redcheeks got me into this record. The conversation was sparked by Into Another’s never released “techno/industrial record” I always heard about but, back then, never heard. The drumming on Seemless is so in the pocket, behind the beat and sparse on unnecessary, wack fills. The bass is so punchy and prominent, a departure from Into Another’s previous records which had this slap bass feel. And the lyrics... oh man, the lyrics. What the fuck. I don’t even want to read them. I just want to assume what he’s fucking talking about. Just like my dear friend Jude Miller’s story of New Day Rising, Seemless was a change in my usual rotation at the time (Death Threat’s Peace and Security and anything Obituary)
Choice tracks: the song "Seemless" sounds like if Supertouch was mixed by Andy Wallace. "Regarding Earthlings" could have been a Collective Soul b-side at the time (1995), but has the best tempo and talks about “children being vampires?”
Monday, December 5, 2011
Husker Du - New Day Rising
Download - www.mediafire.com/?07njfm1yn3n
Release - 1985
Story by Jude Miller, Quiet Arcs guitarist and creator of the Slow Learner blog.
I’ve always felt that I had sufficiently eclectic musical sensibilities and that I listened to a wide variety of stuff. Yet for some reason I would compartmentalize these various musical interests in my head.
The most serious band ever I played in, however, was quite easily categorizable. We were a Straight Edge, Youth Crew Hardcore band called One Up, and it formed in the wake of two other fairly straight-forward, Straight Edge bands (Go Time and Straight To the Point). With One Up, our initial intentions were to deliberately fit neatly into a particular sub-node (Youth Crew) of a sub-node (Straight Edge) of a subculture (Hardcore). No moodiness, no punches pulled, no sobby lyrics about heartbreak, and no crossing over into other styles or genres. If you told us that our influences were transparent and quite narrow—ranging from Floorpunch to Youth of Today—we probably would have appreciated what we just perceived to be a complement. (In fact, I remember playing at least one show at the Pi Lam in West Philadelphia where our set was comprised of about a 50/50 split of our material and a mix of Youth of Today and Floorpunch covers.) I was 18, loved Straight Edge hardcore, and was thrilled to be playing it with my friends.
When I say One Up was “serious,” of course, I mean, primarily, that we toured, in addition to dealing with (very, very small) independent record labels, having multiple t-shirt designs, and having a fan base of people other than our immediate family and friends.
And tour we did, in a series of horrifyingly unequipped vehicles, from June of 2002 until about New Years of 2005. In that time period, I spent two weekends a month and every winter and summer break with my best friends, eating peanut butter sandwiches in an un-air-conditioned van with poor ventilation and no stereo, getting out of the van to play straight-forward hardcore shows with straight-forward hardcore bands at straight-forward hardcore venues all around the country, and I loved every minute of it.
I still look back on those days as some of the fondest moments of my youth. Despite occasional bickering matches, everyone in the van on those often very long trips was so happy to be in that death-trap of a vehicle with everyone else.
Somewhere in the middle of that period of intense touring, however, my faith in hardcore began to secretly waver—or maybe I just needed a break. I was running out of steam, and my desire to play exclusively simplistic hardcore was waning, love hardcore as I did (and still do; I still listen to Youth of Today and Floorpunch at least once a week, often while doing categorically “adult” things like grading papers or cooking dinner. Not to digress too much here, but I’ll argue that songs like “Changes,” “Wake Up And Live,” and, especially, “Positive Outlook” have so much more significance for me now that I am a depression-prone adult than they did when I was an excited but very naive teenager.) I wanted to drastically evolve past power chords, stage dives, and sing-a-longs. I wanted to draw on some of my other musical interests. Unfortunately, I didn’t understand what that evolution could even sound like, much less where it would fit in the context of the hardcore scene that I was now an active member in. (Of course, this yearning to “branch out” after you’ve established yourself within a specific sub-aesthetic is an archetypal portion of virtually every serious hardcore band’s trajectory from Minor Threat to Agnostic Front to Gorilla Biscuits to Count Me Out to Carry On to Blacklisted to Ceremony, and the list goes on. Sometimes this musical evolution works, and sometimes it doesn’t, but what’s interesting to me is that each time a hardcore kid goes through this natural step, they’re treated like they’re the first 22-year old who grew tired of imitating the Cro-Mags or Madball or Black Flag or Chain of Strength or Poison Idea or whatever they were initially trying to sound like.)
At some indeterminate time after that last summer tour, I was shopping at my local music store, Full Circle Records, and I saw an LP that would later have near-religious significance for me—Husker Du’s New Day Rising. It was affordably priced at $8.00 US used, so I couldn’t resist. Of course I was familiar with the label it was on, SST Records, and I had heard plenty of people talk about this band, but I was not familiar with their actual material.
I’ll be perfectly honest here: when I first pulled the vinyl out of the jacket and hit play on my record player, I couldn’t really get it. I was obviously into Black Flag and Bad Brains (duh!) as any self-respecting hardcore kid should be, and I was into Neil Young and R.E.M. because that’s the stuff my parents played for me when I was growing up. But this record was not squarely either of those extremes. It was genre-crossing in a way I acknowledged, but didn’t quite understand. Even the cover art—what were they going for? Those dogs playing in the water? I didn’t wholly feel like I wasted my money, but certainly I didn’t wear down the record the first week I got it.
Nonetheless, I was intrigued by this album, perhaps largely because I didn’t know what to do with it. Do I play this record for my parents, or do I play this record for my friends? Is it for Beatles’ fans or is it for T.S.O.L. fans? There were both melody and aggression in doses I was, frankly, confused by. That song “Celebrated Summer,” for example, oscillated schizophrenically between a fast-paced punk song and a mid-tempo, twelve-string ballad. What was up with that? And that song “Books About UFOs” had a really cool title, but it sounded like Springsteen meets the Beatles with the most overdriven, but still present, guitar sound.
When I found pictures of the band members, my confusion was not transformed into clarity, by any stretch. “The dude has a mustache?”
Something that did immediately stick with me, however, was that guitar tone. The first time I heard New Day Rising, I was professionally employed as a guitar teacher and playing quite regularly in a band, and I had never heard anyone make a guitar sound like that. Underneath the pounding drums and melodic semi-chanting of the first song was the hottest, fuzziest (yet still extremely distinguishable) guitar sound I’d ever heard.
My interest was peaked just enough that I kept letting the needle drop, and I think now that I was so weirdly fascinated with this record because I knew subconsciously it was exactly the mix of what I wanted to play, but was incapable of articulating at that time. It was informed equally by After the Gold Rush and Reckoning as it was by London Calling or Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables and unabashedly so.
These guys clearly loved hardcore to some extent, which was evident not only in their being on SST, but also in the urgency and fast tempo of tracks like “Girl Who Lives on Heaven Hill” and “I Apologize.” Yet they also had obviously studied their rock and roll history and listened to The Beach Boys, evident in the gorgeous vocal harmonies on every song. It took some time, but I soon came to realize how perfect—how intelligent, witty, catchy, subtle, and even aggressive—The Huskers were.
Around early 2006, as it became clear that the end was in sight for my straight-forward, Youth Crew Hardcore band, I began listening to New Day Rising with increased frequency, and I began to feel that this mustachioed trio was not only brilliant, but that they were capable of loving hardcore in a way that was not as narrow minded as how I had when One Up began.
In a sense, Husker Du’s kept me interested in hardcore at the exact moment when I was getting fed up with it. And in that regard, I view my finding New Day Rising as a cosmic gift. When I was convinced that hardcore was too simplistic, too immature, too repetitive, I found Husker Du, and they showed me that it was me (not hardcore) that was too simplistic and immature. There were still cool bands out there; I just needed to stop being so cynical as to not even bother looking for them. Not only were Husker Du a legendary group of musicians, but they taught me a new kind of positivity—the mental health exercise of finding yourself in a sea of sameness and searching for the worthwhile elements.
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Hazards - The Barrens
Genre: Hardcore/Punk
Contact: hazards.pa@gmail.com
Download: hazards.bandcamp.com
Website: www.facebook.com/pages/Hazards
FFO: Comeback Kid, Good Riddance, Bane
Year Released: 2011
Fast melodic hardcore filled with both passion and aggression from Philadelphia.
Track List:
1. Old Friends
2. Stubborn Eyes
3. Stay
4. Departure
5. Cliche
6. The Last One
7. PTSD
8. 91906
9. Sink or Swim
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Into Another at Maxwell's in Hoboken, NJ 1992
The next video from the Shawn Christian Zappo Collection is of Into Another. This video is from a show they played at Maxwell's in Hoboken, New Jersey on June 28th in 1992. The audio and video quality for this video is exceptional. Another great aspect of this video is the hardcore fashion of the '90s. There are a lot of young kids in hardcore today that may have never experienced hemp/shell necklaces, JNCO jeans, bowl cuts and the plethora of other bad HC fashions of the day.
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