THE HARDWAY MAGAZINE

2011-01-21T04:16:00.000-08:00

Those who know me, know that Sheer Terror is one my favorite bands. Their style changed quite a lot from Celtic Frost influenced hardcore to punk rock influenced hardcore, but I gotta say I love each album of them. I couldn't even say which one is my favorite.

I never saw them play in the past, but then it was announced they would play This Is Hardore fest. Unfortunately I couldn't make it, but I was stoked about them playing New York. As soon as the date was announced I booked my plane tickets to New York.

I've seen a lot of bands doing reunions lately, and let's say, well some should have never done it. But Sheer Terror, that's a whole other story. Even when Paul Bearer is the original member left, this band has every right to be on stage again. Every song was played tight, the banter and crowd interaction in between was pure stand up comedy, and the crowd just went insane. I also love the honesty when the Reverend is saying that Sheer Terror do get a fair amount of money to play shows. And to show, it's just not like a one off reunion, a new song was played as well.

Anyway, I'm at work, so I'm not going to write an extensive blog here. What I want to say is, come to tomorrow's show in Antwerpen! You won't regret it.

Ah yeah, those other NY legends Supertouch are playing too. I saw them play a couple of songs at the 2010's Superbowl, and it wasn't the most perfect set, but definitely psyched to check them out again.

See you in the pit.

I got something to say:

2010-09-19T13:58:00.000-07:00

I'm lookin' at the world I live in, I don't like what I see. 
Bustin' my ass with nothing to show for it, it ain't fair to me. 
If being too patient is a crime, I'm guilty as sin. 
Getting held back while you get ahead, now it's my turn to win.
That's all that I can take, can take no more. 
Been a victim for far too long, time to even the score. 
Gotta fight the hard way, there's no easy way out. 
Nothing comes easy in this world that's what life is about. 
I've been a nice guy once too often, I always get screwed. 
Sacrifice myself to your greedy hands, why do you act so rude. 
I've come to realize, you don't care, you left me on my own. 
If you won't help me get where I'm going, I'll do it alone. 

Soundtrack written to my life these days, Outburst, The Hardway.
http://www.myspace.com/outburstnyhc

Superbowl of Hardcore, NY, May 15

2010-05-24T12:05:00.000-07:00

It was the third time for me being at the Superbowl, and again, it was great. Personally the line up didn't appeal to me as much as the previous editions, as I already saw most of the bands playing in Europe in the last couple of months. I don't want to sound disrespectful to any of the bands who played, or to be the kinda guy who is only into the older bands, but what can I say, I guess Black 'n' Blue spoiled us with the previous editions.

I never thought to see bands (again) like Fahrenheit 451, Crown Of Thornz, Breakdown, Stigmata, Setback, Killing Time, CIV, Terror Zone, Bulldoze, Second To None. Many of these being exclusive reunions on 2008 and 2009 edition.
But we knew we'd have a good time anyway, so when the date was announced, the plain tickets were quickly booked. And with Yuppicide and Supertouch added to the bill, BnB managed to make it something special again.
Since I have already read a dozen of reviews, I'm going to do a full one here. I just wanted to share a couple of pictures I took.
Best set I have seen was Skarhead, I dug the ghetto blaster to start with. Good set, and nice to see Puertorican Mike back with Skarhead, and the stage being packed with DMS heads definitely made it impressive. There was also a really good vibe going on the crowd, hard dancing, but just as many singalongs, stage dives... Everyone was basically just having a good time. Oh yeah, Eddy Leeway was going berzerk. When JJ and his band did the Rise & Fall intro, I was still hoping to see Eddy come out again to do something crazy, but no.
Though, I expected more from Supertouch, it was definitely worth having seen them once. Same for Yuppicide.
From the younger bands, TUI made the best impression on me. I'm still bummed out to have missed H8 Inc, but the burritos before the show took us too long.
I really liked the venue as well. The ones who were there the last years definitely remembered Studio B in Brooklyn being packed and extremely hot. The Ritz was perfect, more space, rooms from the balconies, re-entry, good sound... and it has the history.

Looking forward to next year's edition!

Skull Crusher: live in Brooklyn May 14

2010-05-18T11:30:00.001-07:00

I only heard Skull Crusher once before, in a car coming back from a North Sea swim in January. I do remember asking, 'hey, what band is this, sounds tight'. I didn't follow up on them, but in the meantime they released their first 12", Blind By Illusion, on Livewire and Reflections Records.
When we were in NY last week, we somehow found out they were playing their first show. So we headed down to Brooklyn to check it out.
The show was really low key, it's even better to call it a try out, before they will share the stage with Breakdown, Wisdom In Chains and Reign Supreme May 23. No real promotion was made (I'm not even sure how we found about it), and not too many people showed up. Anyway, it was good see that the Skull Crusher guys didn't care, as they were stoked to play!

Already during the intro it was clear that Skull Crusher sounds tight live, which is no surprise as none of the members is new to the scene, and the fact that they already recorded their 12" before playing any concert.
Musicwise, Skull Crusher plays a cross over between hardcore and (trash) metal. It's always difficult to make comparisons, definitely as they already have a style of their own, but one should think of bands like Cro-Mags, Leeway, Judge... I dig the double bass drum parts!
They played the complete 12", to finish with a Judge cover.

I didn't pick up the 12" itself, so I can't give you a full review, but from what I've already seen and heard, you definitely need to keep your eyes open for this band. Looking forward to seeing these guys play again in Europe. Make it happen!

I'm not the best photographer, and the pictures are just taken with a very modest camera, but anyway, I added some pictures here.

Oh yeah, on a sidenote, respect to the female DJ to play Neglect's 'the LSS' straight after Skull Crusher!

Find out more about Skull Crusher:

http://www.myspace.com/skullcrusherapocalypse
http://www.livewire-records.com
http://www.reflectionsrecords.com

I just wanna see a street fight

2009-12-20T07:05:00.000-08:00

Breakdown is one of those bands which has at the same time lyrics which genuinely express the hardships of life, but on the other hand lyrics which are a bit, well let's say, tongue in cheek (a fact which later got confirmed by Jeff Perlin's lyrics for Slumlords).

One of those lyrics which always got me confused, where the words for Streetfight. Musicwise this song is close to perfect, but it was always hard to me to take the following serious:

"I like to see a street fight especially when it's on a weeknight. I dont care who's wrong or who's right. I just wanna see a street fight. Walking down the street with my Big Mac out of nowhere someone gets whacked.
I dont care if you're white or black. Start the violence. Fuck the facts. I don't care who's wrong or who's right, I just wanna see a street fight"

On a random note, it was really funny to see Breakdown live in New York last year, and when performing Streetfight kids were moshing with Bic Macs in their hand and offering them to Breakdowns vocalist.

However, wisdom comes with time, and yesterday night it came clear that the above lyrics are amazingly true to me.

Breakdown live at the Superbowl of Hardcore, NY, 2008

Don't get me wrong, I'm not the kinda guy to start a fight or anything, but I have to say, to see some random violence on the street always gets me siked.
So, I was going to take the subway, and while taking the stairs I already heard some stuff going on, but when I was at the tracks, I saw kids bringing da motherfucking ruckus. Imagine a dozen of youngsters brawling, kicking eachother to and on the ground, mixed up with some hysteric girls screaming at their boyfriends to stop, and more people crossing the tracks to get some as well. It must have been looking pretty bad to the subway drivers as well, as they just didn't stop anymore. I don't know the exact reason for the whole fight, but it was probably related to alcohol and a broken heart, which got mixed up with some racial tensions. But as just said before, fuck the facts, I don't care who's wrong or right, I just wanna see a street fight.

Anyway, the whole scene got my blood pumping, knowing that everything can go wrong at any time, seeing rage in people's eyes, seeing people being fucked up, and the general hysteria linked with it. It was at that moment, I truely understood Jeff Perlin's words. I took my Ipod, changed the music to Breakdown, got out of the subway again, and continued my journey through the snow with a big smile on my face!

Breakdown: www.myspace.com/breakdownnyhc
Slumlords: www.myspace.com/slumlords
Black and Blue: www.myspace.com/blacknblueproductions

Older, colder stronger

2009-07-17T12:55:00.000-07:00

KICKBACK - no surrender cd review

Ask around and you'll hear everyone having an opinion about Kickback: the older guys will always be saying nostalgically how much harder the band was in the past, the younger kids will be jocking the band and saying how hard they are, and a lot of people will call Kickback just a bunch of fools or will simply be hating the band. Whatever you think of it, Kickback managed to get their name out and never gave a fuck about your opinion anyway.

It took nine years since the last album before No Surrender was released, that's a long time, even longer than the average career of kids in hardcore. In the meantime Kickback had been cancelling shows, playing fucked up shows, causing trouble, changing line ups, causing kids to cause trouble and luckily, playing some shows which were beyond hard! So, it's not a big surprise that to some Kickback became somewhat of a parody, instead of a band to really take serious.

However, one should not forget that this French band is one of Europe's longest existing hardcore bands, being around since 1991. Before releasing the, now classic, album Forever War, they already released two demos, a 7" and a full lenght. Also taking into consideration that Kickback's singer Stéphan released on his label Hardway records bands like Bulldoze, All Out War and Confusion, it is clear that Kickback has meant a lot to the (European) hardcore scene.

But now it was about time to let music speak for itself again, so let's talk music. With every new album Kickback succeeded to evolve as a band. The Cornered album was more of a classic NYHC album, Forever War became more of a crossover album mixing classic NYHC with metal and the Les 150 Passions Meurtrières album took the nihilistic, sick approach a step further. So what about the new one?

Never Surrender definitely is not a reunion album, going back to the early days, but is a logic continuation of Les 150 Passions Meurtrières. Never Surrender is a more complex album, adding some new elements to the well known Kickback sound. I'm hearing some people saying how Kickback added black metal riffs to their songs, could be, but this basically is still a hardcore band, which you might put in the same category with bands like Integrity, Starkweather, Ringworm, All Out War or Catharsis. I'm hearing the same rhythms than on the previous release, but additionaly to this, I hear a lot of noise and dissonant guitars. There's a good combination of compact, fast songs with some lengthier, drawn out songs. The vocals became even more high pitched, which all ads up the tension and sick athmosphere of this album. It's hard, it's mean, it's aggressive, let there be no doubt about that, but due to these new elements in the music this will never be my favourite Kickback album. And not to confuse you, that's a good thing, cause if it was, it would probably just mean that they recycled their old stuff. Here, they really took a step forward and extended their musical limits.

www.myspace.com/kickback

www.gsrmusic.com

oh shit, you know what this is? it's a motherfucking bloodbaaaaaath

2009-06-11T12:59:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time since I posted anything on here. But don't worry, I'm still around. My man Pete sent me the new Setback record already a while ago, and it has been played a lot since! I have been planning to write a review since a long time, but never got to it. Here it finally is.

SETBACK - Unfinished Business

Setback was a band from the nineties coming from Queens New York which have released only one record called No Hope on the legendary Time Served records run by Bulldoze frontman Kevone. They broke up in 1998, its member kept on hanging around in the scene, and they are now back together with a new record on Crash Course Records. For those who wonder what this label is all about, it's about a hardcore principle called DIY: Setback released the album by themselves.

When I went to the Superbowl in 2008, I was really stoked to see this band, and let me tell you, I was right to be so. Initially they only planned to do a one time reunion at the Superbowl, but already at this show Setback busted out some new songs, which made me really looking forward to the new album.

I could keep it short here and just say, if you like genuine NYHC, you will definitely love this record. But let me explain a bit. The NYHC style is very popular at the moment, there's bands from all over the world playing a NY influenced style, and as much as I love many of these bands, most of them miss something. Somehow, what these bands are playing, I don't know, it's not the same as it was. It's a different sound, different attitude, different songs, and somehow, all of these bands have the hardest breakdowns in their songs, and sometimes it evens seems that the breakdown is the main element of the songs (especially when seeing these bands live).

It's hard to explain, but when I'm moshing to the new Setback album, I just hear the difference. It's the difference between a band playing NYHC and a genuine New York band. Somehow it's a good thing Setback had a break for over 10 years, because listening to this record it seems that time stood still for these guys and they didn't listen to any new albums released since 2000. Also none of the members have played in an other band since they broke up. This record brings you straight back to the nineties with straight up hardcore. Also production wise it's a pleasure to listen to 'Unfinished Business'. The record sounds like a hardcore record should sound like, raw, unpolished and pure. I especially like the bass sound which vaguely reminds me of Breakdown's bass sound on the Blacklisted album.

Lyrically nothing changed either with songs about surviving, sticking up for yourself and of course, taking care of business. Just to give you a quote "you know you fucked up and now you'll pay, you're out time, your ass is mine I'm out of control".

I said I could keep it short, so I'm gonna keep it short. Check out the record and start moshing.

Check out the band, listen to their songs, buy their record, and while you're at it, buy some merch:

http://www.myspace.com/setbackdms357

For the Europeans, the album is available at:

https://www.hardcore.gl/

http://www.filledwithhate.com/shop
http://www.lightthefuse.nl

BILLY CLUB SANDWICH

2008-12-24T03:58:00.000-08:00

If you're into NYHC, you gotta know this band. BCS has been around for years, dropping some new music every couple of years and never disappointing, playing a great mix of NYHC, hard moshing and fun. I saw them play a home match in the Pyramid NY last year, and believe me, show was off the hook.
Right before they came to Europe for their latest tour, I had a little talk with BCS:

- For those who don't know Billy Club Sandwich, introduce the band. Who are you? Where are you from? Since when have you been around? What do you stand for?
Glen: BCS is Martin on vocals, Tony Malone on guitar, Gary Muttley on Bass, and Glen on drums. We are all from in and around NYC. Currently, Gary and Martin are in the Bronx, Glen is in Harlem and Tony is in Westchester. The band started in late 1990 but we didn’t play our first show until May of 1996. More bands should take their time before they come out! Don’t embarrass yourselves! Haha What do we stand for? I guess, drinking, smoking, eating, playing hard music and having a good time…We’re not really a political band. We have some songs that are political but we don’t have a set agenda about anything you know? We just write about different shit that we see around us. We try to keep it light and fun. Music is a form of entertainment and there for should be entertaining, too many bands are just straight serious. What’s the fun in that?? This band’s music is hard but we still want to have a good time and we try to keep the shows more like a party. That’s why we kept such a crazy name: Billy Club Sandwich, it goes with all of that, it’s a hard name but it should still make you laugh.- BCS will release a new album, tell me what can we expect from it?Glen: The new cd "The Usual Suspects" just came out in the beginning of October on Dead City Records in the US and Rucktion Records in England. And it’s gonna be distro’d in Japan by Juke Boxxx Records. You can expect more of the same BCS craziness! New York Hardcore with a touch of Metal. There are some big sing-a-longs in these new songs. Really catchy shit. The production is dope! The layout is hysterical!! Our boy, Jimmy Dreadz, hooked up some crazy photoshop work for us and the cover is a cartoon of us by M40 that looks so much like us it’s just crazy! There are less samples on this record but there are some of the familiar BCS "extras" including an outro beat.

- What's up with the Charlie Brown shirt? Where does that come from?
Martin: Well I’ve seen a lot of shows over the years… I’ve seen great bands, but you know… smoking… drinking… I try to remember but it’s tough. So I decided to go with the Charlie Brown shirt… You may not remember the name of the band but you will remember a big brown Dominican wearing a Charlie Brown shirt!!!

- Something which I always thought to be really crazy, is the piano on "D.E.A" on the "…Hold The Bolgna" 7". What's the story behind that?

Glen: Well, first off, you have to understand that BCS has never had much money to record with. That’s why it’s usually taken us 3-4 years to put each release out!! Our demo, 7" and the split 7" we did with EGH, were all done at NYU when I was going to school there. They were all done as class projects for the classes I was taking=they were free. We didn’t pay for a recording until the "Superheroes At Leisure" CD. So, a class requirement when we were doing the 7" was that one of my classmates had to play on a recording so he could grade how I acted as an engineer. I was sitting there thinking, "This is a Hardcore recording! Who can I have play on this record? And play what?" No one in my class knew anything about this kind of music (of course- this was 1997). I started talking to kids and this one dude who played piano wanted me to play drums on his project. So in return I was like, "Okay, but then you gotta play piano on my project." He agreed and then I had to think where to try it! "D.E.A." with the funk parts and all the other crazy breaks just seemed like the best choice. I wish I had put the piano louder in the mix because it IS crazy but I didn’t know which way to go with it and we had limited time to mix it. But we’ve always been down to try different things, you know, add some production to certain songs, take things beyond "just Hardcore". "D.E.A." also had hand drums on it and we’ve always liked putting 808’s (Rap style kick drums) in songs (the new cd has plenty!) Actually on the 7" we didn’t have access to 808’s yet so I tried to fake them by playing big hand drums and recording just the low end! Some people give us shit for having samples, 808’s and everything but too many people in this scene are so closed-minded now, it’s pretty sad. This music was based on breaking the mold and doing your own thing but for at least 15 years now it’s like 98% of the bands out there just do the same, "safe" thing. And I guess, people from outside of NYC have a different view of Rap music, and since so many bands have already done such a terrible job of mixing Rap and Metal/HC that people just hate it, but you have to understand that Rap music came from NYC. We all grew up hearing it everywhere our entire lives! It didn’t "find" it’s way to us in the late 80’s/early 90’s like the rest of the world. We knew about it almost from the jump. Remember that two of the guys in this band are from the Bronx. The cradle of Hip Hop, so it HAS to effect our music. Wow, that was a great question! I’ve never been asked about that before! Thanks…

- You're coming back to Europe. What did you think of the previous shows, stoked to get back here?

Glen: Oh man, we had a great time in 2004! And had always wanted to go back but it’s the same for us as always, no money… We barely scrapped enough together to do THIS tour coming up. The shows were fun in ’04, we didn’t have any problems. We are starting in Paris on Oct. 16th. This time we are playing 9 shows in Europe. 8 of them with Onesta from France. And 4 of those shows are with Backfire also so I expect those to be really good! They are good friends of mine too so I know what a bunch of fucking maniacs they are!! It’s gonna get real messy with these two bands together in Holland! Haha And we are finishing up the tour headlining the "Running Riot Fest" (formerly "Ninjafest") in London on Saturday, Oct. 25th. When we played at the Underworld in 2004, it was our best show of the tour so we are hoping that people haven’t forgotten about us after all these years but with Rucktion putting out the new cd LBU and the rest of the peeps there should be ready for us!!

- You have songs in both English and Spanish, which works out really well, but it isn't done by too many bands. Why do you do this?

Glen: Well, Martin is Dominican and Puerto Rican, but growing up the Bronx, he speaks both languages and like I said, we always wanted to try to do something different so that was one instant way to do something very few bands were doing. Once again some people talk shit about it and we have run into some racial problems over the years because of it but what are you gonna do? Better to try and be different and stand out then just be "another band". It also works because some phrases just come out better in Spanish than in English. Also, you have to realize that while NYC has every kind of person living in it, it has A LOT of Hispanics- haha, so Spanish is all around us. The rest of BCS doesn’t speak much Spanish but you can’t help but pick up some words living around here. NYC is so bi-lingual that almost everyone calls a delicatessen a "bodega", you know, a small convenience store on the corner. In fact, that’s the title of the opening track on the new album, "Bodega". The song is about going to the store to buy some beer, condoms, or whatever it is you happen to need. That song has the most Spanish out of all of the new songs. A couple of the new songs are only in English but the mix is still there.

Check out the band:

http://www.myspace.com/billyclubsandwich

Backtrack NYHC

2008-10-06T10:59:00.000-07:00

Yo, here's a band from New York called BACKTRACK. Coming from NY and naming your band after one of the best NYHC songs ever, you can figure out what to expect. These guys are around since the beginning of 2008 an already gained a lot of experience by sharing the stage with bands like Sick Of It All, SubZero, Merauder, Cro-Mags, Death Threat, Madball...
Here's a talk with them about the band, NYHC, Long Island and more. Check it out and support these guys.

- What's up with the band 'Backtrack'?
Backtrack is a new hardcore band from Long Island New York. I'm James and I sing. Ricky the rager and Chris play guitar, John plays drums and Nick plays bass. We all live on different parts of Long Island. Some of us live close to the city, some of us live in the sticks. The NYHC scene is strong right now, so were siked to be a part of it. There are a lot of awesome bands on Long Island and in the city area, new zines are coming out of NY which is something that was missing, a lot of people are booking shows. I'm real stoked on the core in ny right now.

- How did you guys in the band all meet each other?

Ricky: Well me and our drummer John play in another band together, called The Fad. I've played in a band with our bass player Nick in a band before, called Black History. I met James through mutual friends and our other guitar player Chris has been friends with James for a long time. Originally the band was Me, John, one of my best friends Brian, and James because me and John were jamming and Brian and James wanted to start a band too so we just combined and then it eventually evolved into this lineup.

- You’re still a young band, since when are you around, and what did you record already?

Ricky: I'd say we started somewhere around January 2008 give or take. Since then we've recorded a 5 song demo. We've also been demoing out some tracks for and EP 7" we plan on putting out Early 2009.

- What can we expect for the planned 7"?
Ricky: I'm more than stoked about how the new songs are coming out. I'd say the songs are heavier but still have a lot of elements from the demo. We'll be announcing what label it's coming out on soon. Besides that Flatspot Records is putting out our Demo 7".

- Let's talk about music. You clearly play NYHC, but how would you describe your style yourself, and which bands do you see as an influence?

James: We all love NYHC but it would be hard to list bands that are a common influence. It's hard enough for us to all agree on a cover, but so far we have covered Warzone, Outburst and Life of Agony. I'd say our major influences are Madball, Warzone, Breakdown, Cro-Mags, Killing Time, Leeway, Outburst... mostly NYHC from the late 80s and early 90s. That's my list I'm sure it will be different if you ask every member of the band. Soundwise I guess you could say the same, well that's what we’re going for at least. We all just wanted to start a hardcore band on Long Island that was influenced by the bands we love.

- The Killing Time influence is already clear from the name. Next to Backtrack being one of the hardest HC songs ever, why did you pick that name?

James: We got the name backtrack from the Killing Time song. That song means a lot to me, its hands down my favorite hardcore song. One step forward, one step forward, one step forward, two steps back..that line sums up my life for the past two years. There’s been a couple of consistent problems that have been setting me back in the past couple of years, I felt that the name fitted our band. I'm caught in the void between anger and depression.

- Do your lyrics reflect these feelings?

James: Yea the lyrics on the demo reflect those feelings. I'd say that will come out more on the 7''.

- Though, you’re a young band, you seem to be playing all the hot shows in NY. Shows with SOIA, Merauder, Death Threat, SubZero, Madball, EGH, Cro Mags, Murphy’s Law. It’s a big audience you reach there. Who’s pushing you on all these shows?

Ricky: We've had a lot of help with getting on some pretty sweet shows. Cousin Joe from BlackNBlue Productions has been hooking us up a lot and it's been awesome of him to help out a newer band like us. Wes from Death Threat has also helped us out, along with our dawg Ronie and Steve Huey from Long Island.

- You say the NYHC scene is strong. But I gotta say I have a mixed feeling about it. When I was at the Superbowl, the place was indeed packed, but the next day it was SubZero, Maximum Penalty, BCS and others playing in the Pyramid, and there was like max 100 people. I mean, that's a crazy show. And I heard from some other NY heads, that NYHC is still pretty much dead. What's up with that?
James: I wasn't at the Pyramid show, but I was at the Superbowl. The Superbowl of hardcore speaks for itself, NYHC is not dead. There are a lot of factors as to why the pyramid show didn’t do well.-It wasn't all ages... this discourages a lot of younger kids from coming out. Even kids who are of age might not go because they know the shows is going to attract an older crowd which can be weird for a younger kid. I personally hate shows that aren't all ages... I'll still go but I can see why people would avoid them.- It was the day after the Superbowl, a lot of people can't get off work for two days in a row. If you could pick between seeing Breakdown, Madball, AF and a bunch of other sick bands or seeing the line up at the Pyramid what show would you pick? I know both line ups were awesome, but some people were faced with a dilemma. The hardcore reality is... NY is fucking expensive. A lot of people have to work 6 days a week just to pay bills. To take off for two days to go to shows is hard to do if you live in NY. That show is not a good show to judge NYHC by. We're playing with Death Threat and Merauder on Saturday, that will be a solid NYHC show. I'm siked... NYHC is still on top.

- Long Island, where is that, is it still NY City?
Long Island is not NY City. It boarders Queens. Some parts of Long Island are pretty close to the city, but Long Island's kinda big so some of us live pretty far from the city. I can get to Manhattan in like an hour if I'm driving fast. In the end, Long Island hardcore is New York hardcore. I've read people say on the internet "Backtrack isn't NYHC, they’re from Long Island" but Long Island is part of New York. Long Island has a different scene than NYC but still, we must be united as one. So to anyone who says LIHC isn't NYHC..suck it!

- Long Island hardcore, that's NEGLECT. Tell me did you ever singalong FUCK LIFE and got Brian's blood on you on one of their shows?

Yo neglect rules but I’ve never seen them play. I’m 20 years old... Neglect is straight up 90's shit. They have played a bunch of reunions on Long Island but I never went to any of them. I've definitely moshed in my room to Neglect before, and that’s a fact. Our bassist is actually second cousins with Derek the guitarist of Neglect, that’s pretty sweet. Brian from Neglect comes in to my job once in a while. Every time he's wearing the same Neglect shirt and he looks super pissed.

- Yo tell me. How does Brian look like these days. Is he still into hardcore, and does he still cut himself? And where do you work that this guy passes by?

James: Brian looks like an average dude... with a "Fuck Life" head tattoo. He always wears a Neglect shirt when he comes in to my job... so I would assume he's still in to hardcore. I don’t know if he still cuts himself, I haven’t gotten that close to him. I see the dude like once a month so I can't comment on what he does in general. I don’t picture him teaching 5th graders (due to the fact that he has a head tattoo that says fuck life) but I'm sure he has a job and a normal life. I work at a pizza shop as a delivery driver that’s where I see him. I always think about trying to talk to him but I don’t really know how I’d be able to do that without sounding like a dork/fearing for my life.

- Next to Neglect there also was VOD. Any other great bands worth mentioning?

VOD was awesome, they actually just played a Long Island show a couple of weeks ago. We were on tour but I heard it was wild. There’s a ton of awesome older bands from Long Island. Silent Majority is my favorite Long Island hardcore band, ever. Other bands worth checking out are Mind Over Matter, Kill Your Idols, Crumbsuckers, Milhouse. That’s mostly the 90's shit I’m in to. In the early 2000's there was a bunch of awesome bands Strongpoint, Gabriel, Subterfuge, The Back Up Plan, The Heist (scraps and heart attacks) but most of them didn't get much exposure out of New York.

- And what about present Long Island bands?

Present LIHC is awesome. Two nights ago we played a show with Crime in Stereo/Capital/Agent/Fake Problems and there were probably 300 kids there. Shit was wild, best show I’ve been to in a long time. There’s a lot of young kids siked on the core, a lot of awesome bands. For the past couple of years Long Island had melodic hardcore on lock with bands like Agent, Capital, Crime in Stereo, Thieves and Assassins. I love all those bands but until recently there wasn't a lot of heavy hardcore bands out which bummed me out. In the last year we've had bands start up like Incendiary, Short End, Curtains, Days, Point Counterpoint, Wolverine... a bunch of awesome bands. Different styles, all good shit. I couldn't be more siked on Long Island right now. Long island just needs a youth crew band. Soon.

- The NYHC style is very popular at the moment. A lot of non NY bands playing it like, Bitter End, Trapped Under Ice, Iron Boots (rip), Mongoloids, No Turning Back...

Do you like what these bands are doing, any other bands we need to check out playing this NY-style?James: The NYHC style has been popular for as long as I can remember. But it seems like right now bands are more in to the 90's style of NYHC. A couple of years ago it seemed that bands were more influenced by 80's NYHC like Underdog, Warzone, Leeway, Outburst. All those bands you mentioned are awesome and I'm really into what they're doing. At the same time those bands are doing they're own thing, so it’s cool. Other bands to check out... Bad Seed and Brick. Bad Seed is from Wilkes-Barre they sound like Merauder, hard as shit. Brick's from Baltimore and they have a mix of NYHC and Clevo style, it's tight. Both bands are awesome and they're only gonna get better. Short End is another band from NY playing the NYHC style… they don’t have a demo yet but when it comes out its gonna be huge.

- We mentioned Killing Time earlier, who will release a new album. Are you siked?

James: New Killing Time record could be awesome. Brightside is in my top 3 favorite records of all time. I have mixed feelings about the method. I'll definitely check it out. I just hope Underdog doesn't put out a new record.

- The Underdog reunion tour was top notch. And there has been some gossip about a new record. Why don't you wanna see it come out? If there is a band in which I’m confident they'll make a decent reunion album, it's Underdog.

James: I've seen Underdog at least 5 times since they started playing again in 05 and every time has been incredible. Underdog does not have one bad song and it would be devastating if they put out a new record and it sucked. I'm not saying they couldn't pull it off, but it's a serious gamble doing a new record. I'd rather just have them stick to the classics.

- Let's talke some more about NY, what's the best NYHC show you've been to?

James: Best NYHC show was probably "the last matinee" at CB's. Underdog/Killing Time/Bulldoze/Icepick/BCS. The show was packed. It was Underdog's first reunion(since the 90's), Killing Time ruled. Bulldoze was sketchy. Icepick covered Sheer Terror. It was an awesome show. Another show that was up there was the Superbowl 06… The line up was much better but I went to that show straight from the hospital pretty much. I was in a sling and i couldn’t move around at all so it kinda sucked. The show was sick tho.

- Any NYHC show you really wished you were but weren't?

A recent NYHC show I wish I was at was Outburst/Merauder/Dynamo/Backlash at CB's in 06. Outburst put out one of my favorite 7''s ever. I was on tour at the time so I couldn't make the show. I was pretty bummed but the show on tour that day was sick, so it's all good. There’s a thousand older NYHC shows I wish I was at. A bunch of old Long Island shows I wish I was at too. I've seen flyers for sick shows that were in the town I was born in. It's devastating to see a flyer for a show with The Crumbsuckers and Breakdown playing in the town I was living in at the time, when at the time of the show I was probably learning how to walk or learning how to count. Shitty

- Next to the upcoming 7", what's the plan with the band? What can we expect?

Ricky: Basically what we plan to do is play out as much as possible. Maybe a split 7" down the line. We're defintely going to keep busy.

- Any last words, shout outs you wanna do?

Ricky: Shoutouts to all our friends from long island and all over ny for that matter, all the awesome bands and people we met and played with this last tour, brick, bad seed, crown of kings, blacknblue productions, che flatspot, the agent, incendiary, and everyone who i forgot.

Check out the band

http://www.myspace.com/backtrackny

NJ Bloodline

2008-09-08T11:41:00.000-07:00

Excuse me scumbag? I'm gonna keep it short here because NJ Bloodline doesn't need an introduction and Wreak has a lot of things to say! Make sure you show up Saturday 13 on their Belgian show to party hard on the dancefloor, because that's what these scumbags wanna see!

NJ Bloodline is coming back to Europe. Are you looking forward to it?
We always look forward to playing anytime and anywhere. Only thing we can ever expect is to see and play with some old friends, as well as just have a great time no matter what happens. We're easy, all we need is somewhere to plug into and a room to play in, we'll be fine with that.

What is the current status of the band? Are you officialy back together?
Yes, NJBL's back together and we have been at least since last year as opposed to just reunions every so often. It's a little difficult to plan stuff as often as we'd like being that all of us work, Ian's in school, and Joey's in either CA or FL most of the year. We really don't even play locally at all anymore that often. As you may have noticed our last shows were in Puerto Rico, then before that maybe a month and a half prior to that. For the next few months Eric from E-town Concrete is actually going to be filling in for us just to play around NY and NJ.We do have some new material in the works, but that's all a matter of how busy Frank, Ian, or myself is.

So it's fair to say NJBL is taking it easy at the moment?
Exactly, couldn't put it better myself.

Must be a good feeling after all the hard work in the past to be able to pick out shows you really want to play?
Well if it was up to us we'd be playing 2 sets about an hour and a half long each. The shows that mean the most to the kids are the ones we have to do.

How and when did you decide to get back together?
We tried a few times and it was a pile of arguments between me and Frank. Both of us were in Homicidal at the time too.Well about two years ago when E-town Concrete decided to end their run we were asked. Frank and I had already been talking once again and made plans to get NJBL moving once more.

So was NJBL something you missed doing? How does it feel to be back in the game now?
NJBL is my baby, I'm the only original member so... - this is what keeps me alive. I just regret not being able to spend every living moment in a metal box with my best friends every day. You would have to come on a tour with us to understand.

Do you remember the previous European tours / show?
I remember everything well, US shows as well. We have fun with every second regardless. As far as Europe well let me just leave no comment on that one.

Let's get back to the beginning. When and how and with who was NJ Bloodline formed?
January 1992 I introduced some friends that played instruments. I went along to hang out and watch, then ended up singing the few cover songs they were doing which was primarily stuff by Cro-Mags, Leeway, Killing Time, Breakdown, and Warzone. We realized there was a connection and we would definitely be a band. Within the following month we finished off our first three songs (sorry folks but if you write a song in 10 minutes, it's probably not going to be very good). The songs were something different that the stuff out at the time. We had a lot of straight up punk/thrash/hardcore, but also a lot of blues with some rap, reggae, southern rock -influences. The stuff was different, and it stuck out more than what we were hearing from other local or national groups. By Sept we had six songs plus a designated cover song, "New Release" by Killing Time. That was Jim Marela on Guitar, Mario (Guitar) and Tony Simoes (drums), then me on vocals. Our friend Joel from the classic NJHC band "The Human Offense" filled in for us on bass for the first two shows, the first being Friday November 13th 1992 with Biohazard, Dog Eat Dog, and Enrage at Studio One in Newark, NJ, and we were only going by the name Bloodline. Our second show was with Bad Brains on Dec. 3rd, 1992, and by that point we started hearing about other bands with the same name. I got news of a hardcore band from Minneapolis named Bloodline, so we became NJ Bloodline. The name stuck out like a sore thumb, kind of like our music, so we defined the name and it defined us too. By our third show we added J-Crime on Bass and we were complete.

In the early days, did it take NJ Bloodline a lot of time and effort before getting recognised?
In general, how were these early shows? Well just imagine our first show being in 1992, and playing with Biohazard, the show would be packed regardless who was on stage at the time. We did get a great response at our first show, and by the second show we got people moving. It progressed well, and actually by our third show there had been enough of a buzz (and also enough people talking shit...) going around North Jersey about NJBL so naturally that set turned out to be insane. We established ourselves as a "party hard dancefloor band" by the end of that show and over the next few months.

How was the NJ scene in the beginning of the nineties? I guess everyone immediately thinks about New York when it's about this period.
Well, NYHC was really strong at this point. Being from North Jersey though, we were all pretty much part of the NYC scene, and many of the shows happened near us. I grew up 10 minutes from CBGB's but still on the NJ side. I and alot of my friends were closer to CB's than alot of kids from NYC. Of course just saying you were from Jersey, many times you didn't get the attention that a band claiming NYC did. I personally didn't care, none of us did, we all just played when and wherever we could.NJ started getting really strong in like 91-92. The shows went to being packed for a national/headlining act with a couple locals, to packed by just locals. Everyone came out too, metalheads, skins, punks, skaters, etc. The bands were really a wide spectrum too. All of the bands had the NJ-thing about them, but also something distinct about them too. It was a good time to be a teenager.It's funny because I was talking to Mike the Gook last night (from Cold as Life, Sworn Enemy, Agents of Man, and now Vehement Serenade, we had a little party for him) at a death metal show (oh and one thing you all need to know about North Jersey as well as Brooklyn, death metal and hardcore bands played together constantly and shit was cool!), and he expressed one thing he loves about this area is how you don't see really metal heads and hardcore kids at the same shows anymore except here, nor do you see them dance the way they do here.

Which are your favourite NJ bands? I know bands like E-Town Concrete, NJ Bloodline, Floorpunch and Fury of Five for instance all were from NJ, but did they have any affiliation with eachother?
Well everyone knows each other pretty much. As far as E-town (E-town actually stands for Elizabeth, NJ our/my home town), I've known those kids forever and they actually played their first set on NJBL's equipment. Also Eric from E-town Concrete is married to our guitar player's (Frank's) sister. Fury are all pretty much good friends of ours as well. I live near those guys actually now since I moved to the Jersey shore. I first met Stickman ( AKA Ismean) in I think 1990 when he had a band called Locked Up In Life. The era when we were all around and the "NJ tough-guy style" or whatever was in full bloom, we were all pretty much always hanging out together. It was Fury, 2nd to None, E-town, NJBL, and Fat Nuts -always hanging out together. Good times...

How did Locked Up In Life sound like? Who else was in that band, and did they record anything?
I believe Mike Terror was also in Locked up in Life. Fury actually covered one of the LUIL songs called "Megablast to Hell". Stickman also had another band called Position of Power. The only thing either of those bands released was demo tapes.
Both bands were really heavy and dancy. I call it "stompy", others may refer to it as "beatdown". It's definitely more high energy than what you would call "beatdown".

New Jersey bands have a certain hip hop flavour to them, take ETC, 2nd To None and NJBL. What's up with that?
Just a bunch of ghetto rats, nothing more anyone can say.

Between the first demo (1993) and the next recording were 5 years. What exactly happened in this period?
For starters 2 lineup changes... After about 2 years since the start Jim and Jay left, each to sort out their own problems. Joey (my best friend) joined on bass and pretty much started teaching himself the instrument from that point. Tony played drums for maybe another few months then left due to a new job. We recruited an old friend named Ray Chojnowski (R.I.P. my brother) to play drums. The new rhythm section spawned songs that were more along the lines of "shake your ass" type material. It wasn't funk, it was good dancy beats delivered heavily as fuck. One common factor of NJBL was soul, any member of the band had to have it. Joey met Frank after another year passed and we were on hiatus. They got together with Ray and then called me after two jam sessions because they felt that we were about to take off and start something new. They had written a piece and wanted me to set lyrics down (that's actually the song Blackout #2 on the "Faceless" LP). Frank that fucking dick (hahahaha), pulled me aside to talk after maybe the third time we jammed as a four piece without Mario still (mind you I was stoned and not ready for this at all!). He asked me what our intentions were being the three of us had already been in NJBL. I told him we were trying to do something new. He replies with, "I like that band, I thought I was joining NJ Bloodine". I'll never forgive him for it, nor will I ever stop thanking him for it at the same time. Ray and Mario worked together at the time and began arguing at work, so Ray left. Ian had just left Fat Nuts, and I was asked to sing for Fat Nuts at the same time (Seth was both singer and drummer Fat Nuts, so it was either get a drummer he could work with or a singer that would entertain). While we got Ian into learning the old material, we really weren't playing, so it made sense me being in Fat Nuts. Well with Ian being added to the band, there was the "Be Afraid" lineup. This lineup had the same soul, but with a lot more high level violent energy. The stuff they were writing was intense and it got me going. I found the raw screaming power and added it to my style. The first show with the new lineup was chaos. People that had seen NJBL before expected 1993. They got not only that but the five faced demon we turned into. We went a year just gigging and finding and tweaking the exact new sound before the infamous "Red Tape" aka "Be Afraid" was finally released. The next couple years changed us all, and Mario eventually left about 9 months after "Be Afraid" came out.

Almost all the NJBL stuff was released on vinyl. Of course in the 90's it was still the standard, but the Faceless album is available in vinyl version too. Do you prefer vinyl to cd?
Vinyl is always something collectable. Chris Rykers knew Frank, Joey, and I would love to have Faceless on vinyl because we're old farts. It was necessary to put out a 7 inch for us just to have, and also to just release something that had 666 limited copies. Also the fact that people approached us and said they wanted to release vinyl for us, and it wasn't out of our pocket. The entirity of "Be Afraid" was never available on vinyl, nor was the "93 demo". Vinyl to me was always something collectable only. It was really a pain in the ass dubbing it onto tape. The standard for me was always cassette (through the 80's and 90's) because you can't carry a record player on the train or on your skateboard. Not to mention the cd player in my car skips every so often when riding over a speed bump, imagine a fucking turntable in your center console. When we released the cassette version of "Be Afraid", it was meant to be the last great "tape". I wanted it mastered and laid out like a late 80's major label release on cassette, and I specifically wanted it to be a clear red tape like Iron Maiden's "Stranger in a Strange Land" cassingle/7 inch. If you take a listen to the cd version of "Be Afraid" it actually sounds like shit in comparison because it was specifically mastered for cassette, The moron who mastered it for cd when RPP released it didn't read any of the instructions we sent, and the guy who did the layout ignored our instructions and the specs we sent him as well. WE EVEN SENT HIM THE LAYOUT SPECS IN METRIC!!! That pissed Frank off more than any of us because he's the one who went to art school and the one who did the artwork. So to sum it up we're into how our releases look and sound. It should be a total experience when you get a new cd (maybe because I'm a stoner and do bong hits while listening to music in my apartment all alone, reading the lyrics, and peeping the artwork).Vinyl's always the collectable memoribilia thing, but really not that important to me. I personally am all about the presentation of the entire package. Isn't that what you're actually paying for?

NJ Bloodline was / is a big band and has a thick following, but always stayed 'underground'. I mean you never got like Madball or Terror. What do you think of this?
Well, we ran into too many obstacles when the actual opportunity to make a serious run at doing NJBL for an actual living. The reason for that I think as well is that even though we had already been around for a substantial amount of time, a lot of kids were just starting to catch up with what our older material was all about. What amazes me is even while we were broken up and up to as recent as maybe a week ago, I've read e-mails from people just finding out about NJBL now. They say it's good to hear some fresh new shit that's hard as nails, or just say shit that implies they think we're a new band. It'd be great to break large and have the opportunity to do this full time. Who wouldn't want that? That's why I get a little angry when people hate on bands that have blown up or that are currently blowing up. I'm content though just as long as whoever gets into us really feels that shit!Over time it may actually happen where our stuff becomes cult status and we get to that point in popularity. I just hope if it ever happens, we're not too deteriorated from years of playing shows and partying to fully take advantage of it.

Next to the musical variation another element which is, to me, typical to NJ Bloodline is humor, how do you see this?
If you never laugh, you never live. Sarcasm makes for great lyrics and has always been part of some of my favorite songs. Old hardcore bands I still love to this day like D.R.I., the Beastie Boys, the Dead Kenedys, and Murphy's Law all have plenty of funny stuff in their lyrics and liner notes. I actually think the abrasive styled humor people find in my lyrics is misunderstood most of the time, but whatever.To sum it up, we still do this because it's fun. The guys with guitar/bass/drums play what's fun to play, I can only say what's fun to say. We switch back and forth from angry to happy, then stick profound in there -a lot of times in our set. It feels good to say things the right way for each particular song. I tend to say it with shoot to kill-type comedy where noone and nothing is safe.As for the skits in between, just have to take the jokes a little further than the song sometimes or add one where it just totally doesn't belong but somehow make it work also.

There was time when you did the Kiss style make up. When and why did you do that?
Not Kiss, John Wayne Gacy the killer clown...
I did the JWG paint for a halloween show and people started digging the idea, so war paint became a little treat for the kids.
There were times I ran out of either white, black, or red paint and so I couldn't do the clown paint, so I just threw together some quick war paint here and there. Other times I'd slice my forehead open like a wrestler, I've also spit fake blood on the crowd (or bite the inside of my mouth and spit real blood too).
One show the fake blood mist wasn't mixing right so I worked on it in the back by adding some vodka, cinnamon, and orange juice, then spit that on the crowd. I let it go right into a bouncer's eyes one time, then he was all stung and blinded for a few seconds. It was kind of like the mist you see Japanese wrestlers use in matches.
I like the funny last minute theatrics like wrestling themes, war paint, costumes, weapons, etc...
I don't go too crazy with it, but there've been times we did do it and it got messy.
Some people still have the costume samurai swords I bought before our last show in 2001 before we broke up back then. I'll tell you what. That shit was violent. I had my friend throw out swords to the crowd and from nowhere was blood, lots of blood!
"Nick did we buy fake blood capsules?"
"No. Why?"
"Oh shit, people got cut already! Hahahahahahaha!!!"
"Fuck it, just keep singing!"

Next to NJ Bloodline you've also been in a lot of other bands such as Homicidal, Hoods, Fat Nuts and now Hell Brigade. How were those experiences?
Fat Nuts was just mad fun. I was helping some friends and getting in shape. Fat Nuts had a purpose according to Seth. I knew NJBL would be doing something monumental soon too. Fat Nuts charged me up I always got energized singing that stuff. Hoods and NJBL became friends right away. The bands were almost identical in regards to the members' personalities. We all got along, and we all still do. I first joined Hoods in 2001 when Benito went to prison and after NJBL played our last show. I was thinking it was just a fill in but ended up staying and eventually moving to CA for a little while. I couldn't handle living in CA though. One thing to just live on the road and see friends and family when home. Then there's live on the road with no family when you get home. It took its toll and I had to come back to NJ. I also joined them again in 2006 and helped record "Ghettoblaster". Once again it was just too difficult being that my life is here in NJ. I had so much fun with Hoods and always do whether singing or just watching. Who knows, you may even see it happen again. When Homicidal started it was a little something featuring members of One4One, Bulldoze, and NJBL. The original lineup was Frank (NJBL), on guitar, Mike the Bull (Bulldoze), Brian the Kid (SubZero), Seth (One4One), and myself on vocals. We were basically trying to do "North Jersey the right way" once again. Everybody was sick of the way that current stuff mostly sucks nowadays. Once the name Homicidal was chosen, the mission statement of that band was just more important that the band or any of the members in it. Frank and I were arguing at the time, and I decided to leave Homicidal, plus ask my friend Brian (McG) to sing. I started jamming with Tomoki (of EGH and Dyingrace) and Hell Brigade started coming together.I personally liked Hell Brigade the most because it was more something to my personal tastes and liking. It was straight up thrash punk with plenty of driving hardcore grooves. On top of the 4 song ep there are still about 9-10 unreleased Hell Brigade songs we finished up. If we ever get the chance I'd like to finally record the stuff and lay it to rest.

Being in NJBL and some other bands, for such a long time, what do you consider as the hardest part of it?
The only hard part for me is being away from home, I think that goes pretty much for the other guys in NJBL as well. To be more specific, I personally just always wish we could bring more of our friends with us whenever we go on tour for a few days. Another thing is you can only find "Taylor Ham" (aka Pork Roll) in NJ! The biggest gripe about touring especially about NJBL, we all like to cook and eat together. You seldom get to do that when on tour, but when we do get the chance we cook and eat like a band, the same way we play music as a band. Let's say Joey and I are making breakfast, Ian does the dishes. If Frank makes breakfast, Ian does the dishes. If we have one of our friends with us doing merch and they cook breakfast, Ian does the dishes. I'm not even joking, Ian always does the dishes.

Do you still remember how you got in to hardcore, and the first shows you went to?
I was always into punk even when I was young, and eventually got into thrash so I was always into hardcore music just I never knew there was an actual name for it. I was all about heavy stuff like Celtic Frost and Venom too. I was never into power or glam metal (it was garbage then and still is today) like most people my age were. Face it, that shit was awful and Motley Crue blows.Being a kid and not really knowing the difference there were just two classifications which were the bands that were corny and bands that were good. The bands that stuck out the most when I discovered them were the Misfits, Bad Brains, Dead Kenedys, D.R.I., (First Album-) Exodus, Cro Mags, etc...I started going to shows around 12 years old. First to local shows, then I'd venture into NYC or down the Jersey shore. My home was the bricks though. My friends and I were usually at the clubs in Newark like Studio One (R.I.P.) and The Pipeline (R.I.P.). There was also Connections in Clifton (good riddance) which I hated going to (mainly because it smelled like cat piss and my allergies always bothered me in that place, but they had some great shows there. Then there was the Cricket Club, which was in probably the worst area of all, right down the block from Chris Bulldoze's house in Irvington.By that time I was deeply into the music and certain bands made it impossible to stay home. I loved walking into shows and having the sense of fear hanging over the entire place. It wasn't fear of getting beat up, it was fear of the place just erupting into chaos and getting trampled or just watching someone pull off an impressive move then getting clobbered in my amazement.

Which were the best hardcore shows you've seen?
Leeway, Suicidal Tendencies, Kurbjaw @ City Gardens in Trenton, NJ. I think 94Biohazard and Wrecking Crew at Studio one in Newark. 1992 or 93 not sureAlive and Well festival in Asbury Park either 96 or 97Leeway, Mucky Pup at the Cricket Club in 91Cro-Mags reunion where MCA got up and played bass when they covered Right Brigade hmmmmm-95-96Last August -Bad Brains in the parking lot of the Fastlanes in Asbury ParkToo many to try to remember right now.

Being in the hc scene for such a long time now, do think that a lot has changed? And would this change be for the better or for the worse then?
What I said about that pure element of fear when walking into shows in that last response, is missing nowadays. Now the kids fear not fitting in, or fear not being assimilated. Everyone looks the same. The people on the floor all do the same shitty moves without any regard for rhythm. I remember the crowd being a mix of skins, punks, metalheads, skaters, and just people that didn't fit in a specific category years ago. A lot of the bands nowadays sound the same and most of them suck. I liked how bands really didn't sound very similar when I first started going to shows. Every group I'd actually take time to go check out had something distinct about them. Sorry, but I'm being dead honest here. Also I just pretty much go to death metal or goregrind shows. Funny but those are the bands that are interesting to me now, and those are also the bands sound more like good heavy thrashing dancy hardcore, while "hardcore scene" bands just sound like bad and severely abridged metal. I mean don't get me wrong, there are still alot of bands that are putting out well written hardcore with a serious fire. Hoods always does that well, Homicidal is coming on strong, Billyclub Sandwich is amazing, The Ice (Germany), NTB (no matter what style they do they do it well), Lose None (BRUTAL!!!). Just have to look a little more these days. There are more bands now, that's great. There's more kids and bigger crowds now, that's amazing. I just think that musicians who are trying to put out inspirational hc music need to try a little harder. HC heads were always "picky" I think that should be one thing that remains.

So I guess you ain't the biggest fan of what is called 'metalcore' nowadays?
I like brutal hybrid metal hardcore, but screamo tight pants dyed black haired flay C chord crap is the enemy. There is already a Hatebreed and already a Converge. Also, there are a lot of bands that do metalcore the right way and the rough way, that should be getting more attention. Metalcore is a natural progression that just has too many people thinking it's easier than it should be. Too much of it is redundant and lazy sounding. Also too many singers are concentrating on how they say things, not what they're actually saying. That's a big thing about hardcore in general, the lyrics are the voice of more than just the vocalist.

Hardcore speaking, are there still some bands you think we should check out?
Oh yeah, Lager (NJ), Everyday Dollars (NYC), Jerk City (featuring Danny from Shattered Realm), Suffer the Living (NJ). I mentioned a few before as well. Like I also stated before, just have to look around for those bands that move you.

You've been in Europe, and played shows here. How did you like it? I'm sure you know a couple of good European hardcore bands. What do you think of European hardcore and the scene here in general?
The European scenes are pretty cool. I myself would prefer to hear more European bands' lyrics in their own language(s) though. That would sound and just all in all be more something authentic. Aren't we describing the experiences of our lives in lyrical format? Come real, use your own slang. I know that English is a common factor when crossing regional borders, so everyone just speaks English anyway, but I'd like to actually go in depth and read something in the pure form from the mind of the lyricist.
I love St. Hood (Finland), they're fucking HARD as nails. Punishable Act are just classic Berlin hardcore with a distinct style. Kickback is definitely in the top rung also. No Turning Back, as I may have said before are just great with whatever approach they come with. Black Friday 29 are good classic style. I could go on forever too.

Something completely else now, how did you actually get the nickname 'Wreak Havoc'?
My name's actually "Enrique", and since 6th grade people have shortenend it and called me "Rique", then eventually it was shortenend furthermore to "Riq". I can't even come close to remembering exactly when it started to stick but just once the first NJBL recordings were done, it was final.What some of my close friends say that "Wreak Havoc" is almost like an articulate well spoken Mr. Hyde or the Hulk, while "Rique" is still a nut just a little more passive and polite. At the reunion show in 2006, I remember going outside for some air about 10 minutes before our set, and hearing people say, "He's going to go transform right now, watch when he gets back!".

Thanks for the interview! If you got anything left to say, go ahead.
Let me shout out Waking the Cadaver (they're fucking sick!). Thanks to everyone we've met and will meet. Anyone who's bought, downloaded, or stolen any of our cd's or 7"s. See you all in Sept hopefully.

Check out the band yourself:

www.myspace.com/njbloodline
www.njbloodline.com

Everyday Dollars

2008-09-05T12:28:00.000-07:00

I don't even remember anymore how I got my hands on the Bumps, Bruises and Ballantine demo, but I do know I like that shit from the beginning. When the 7" got out, I ordered a bunch of them to sell to some friends (most of them were forgotten on a train), and now the first album by this New York band is out. Knowing that these guys are all in their mid thirties and have been involved in hardcore since a really long time, you just know they have a lot to say. Here's an interview with Sean.

Who is Everyday Dollars, who is in the band, when did you get together?

Everyday Dollars is me Sean Money on guitar, Rob Daly vocals and Rich O'Brien on drums, Take plays bass and Tomoki plays guitar. Me, Rob and Rich got together in the fall of 2003, with Sean O'Brien on bass and started playing the style of hardcore punk that we all grew up listening to early Agnostic Front, Warzone, Cro-Mags, Side By Side. We recorded the Bumps, Bruises and Ballantine demo in our practice spot and in Robs apartment and started selling it in 2004. We also recorded a Necros cover that didn't make it onto the demo but it did make it onto the 7inch that came out on A389 Records in 2004.

What does the name Everyday Dollars stand for?

Everyday Dollars doesn't stand for anything in particular, it can have several meanings though. Rob actually came up with the name, and I thought it was cool and kinda different.

Though the music is not that original, it sounds fresh and intense. What is the sound you wanna have?

I want our stuff to sound raw like the original Warzone 7inch "Lower East Side Crew." or Agnostic Front's "Victim In Pain". Although we did spend some money in a nice studio my favorite track on the cd is "YouthFight" Live at CBGB's. Also because I have so many fond memories of CBGB's. That was the ultimate club for hardcore shows. Every show that I ever went to at CBGB's was a memorable show.I've seen all my favorite bands there. I really miss that place.

You must really miss that place? Was it an honour to play there?

Yes I really miss CBGB's. That place was an institution, it was home. It definately holds a special place in my heart. The sound in that place was better than any place I've ever been that featured punk and hardcore bands. There will never be another CBGBs ever. I have been going to CB's off and on for over twenty years. It was an absolute honor to play CBGB's. To walk on that stage and know that just about every one of my favorite bands had played on the same stage was a great feeling.

Which were the best shows you've seen yourself at CBGB's?

I can't pinpoint one particular show that was better than others, but some of my favorites were 7 Seconds, Token Entry, Pagan Babies in the summer of 87, as well as YOT, GB's, and Side by Side that same year. The numerous Cro-Mags shows over the years, Agnostic Front was always special at CB's, of course Warzone, Underdog, Super Touch, Maximum Penalty, Krakdown, Sheer Terror, Murphy's Law, The Icemen, Raw Deal, Killing Time, Leeway, Breakdown, Dmize, Madball, all the benefit shows over the years were special, Absolution, I can go on and on. The Bad Brains. The Bad Brains were fucking dope at CB's. Like I said before there will never be another CBGB's period. At any point you could walk into a CB's matinee and see a bunch of old heads, newer kids, just a fuckin dope mix of hardcore history.

So how old are you guys? In which bands have you been before?

We are all in our mid to late 30's. Take and Tomoki were in Hell Brigade, Tomoki was also in Homicidal, Richie is in Darkside NYC, Rob was in The uprise, and me (Sean$) and Rob were in Brickhouse.

What's the goal with this band?

The band wasn't really started with any real goals in mind, we just wanted to have fun and write the kind of music that we grew up on. Me and Rob hadn't played in a hardcore band since Brickhouse broke up in 1991. We actually recorded a Brickhouse song ("No More Favors") on Before the Supply... As long as its keeps being fun we'll keep playing and recording. We are not about following any trends and we aren't trying to do anything that hasn't been done before. It would be cool to maybe tour Europe or Japan.

NOW IT'S TIME is a great song, and the Warzone reference matches perfect. What's this song about?

I've enclosed the lyrics for Now It's Time. Rob and Raybeez were good friends when Rob was in the Uprise, around '87, and they stayed tight over the years. He, like all of us, were very upset when Ray died and I think Rob just wanted to give some props to him and he actually sampled him on our cd. We played a Raybeez tribute show in this passed year to honor Ray, he died in 1997 and a lot of the bands who played were younger bands who didn't know Ray but were influenced by him and it was cool cause Rob actually was boys with him and Rob shared his memories of Raybeez before almost every song.

NOW IT'S TIME

Now it's time

I've got a powder keg here

And the while I've just been sittin in gear

And all I hear is

"Always keep the faith"

Now it's time

I've got nothin

and all the while you know there's somthin'

and all I know is go-go -go -go!

Two black eyes, but I'm still believing

Beaten down, but I'm never leaving

Now's the time--as good as any time

I've got-- two black eyes, but I'm still believing

Beaten down--- I'm never leaving

Now's the time--as good as any time

Now it's time

I've got a powder keg

And the while I've just been sittin'

And all I hear is

"I can't take it no more, I'm buggin out"

Now it's time

And I've got one more to go

and the while -just another show

and all I know is go-go -go -go!

Two black eyes, but I'm still believing

Beaten down, but I'm never leaving

Now's the time--as good as any time

I've got-- two black eyes, but I'm still believing

Beaten down--- I'm never leaving

Now's the time--as good as any time

Days, into weeks, into months, into years

It keeps goin, and, goin and, goin and goin, and goin--HEY

Drip to a trickle to a stream to a flood

It keeps flowin, and flowin, and flowin, and flowin, and flowin

What's up with the label Satan Wears Suspenders.

Satan Wears Suspenders is a label out of Brooklyn and the brainchild of our drummer Rich O'Brien. We decided to go with Satan Wears Suspenders because it allowed us the freedom to do what ever the fuck we wanted with the music and the artwork. Also we knew that every cd would be accounted for and we weren't gonna get fucked. Satan Wears Suspenders has an impressive list of releases planned including Darkside NYC, The Uprise discography, Devils for Islam black metal from Yemen, the Confusion discography, and the next Everyday Dollars release, "The Age of Demand". We are currently writing new music for that new cd. You check Satan Wears Suspenders at www.myspace.com/SatanWearsSuspenders

Tell me about Brickhouse

Brickhouse formed in 1989, it was me Sean$ (vocals), Rob Daly (drums), Dan McGinnis (guitar), Chokes (guitar), Sauce (vocals) and Tweets (bass). Rob was in The Uprise and Dan was in The Pagan Babies, and me (Sean$), Sauce and Tweets roadied for the Pagan Babies. We got cool with The Uprise guys because Pagan Babies played with the Uprise a bunch of times, and played City Gardens a bunch also, and that was The Uprise's home base and The Uprise played Club Pizzaz a bunch and that was our home base in Philly. We were all boys and Brickhouse was all about having fun and hanging out. We played a handful of shows, it was a real tough time for hardcore because violence was everywhere, there were hardly any shows in Philly and NYC was just crazy violent too. There were just nowhere to play. We recorded a demo and a seven inch that came out on Street Level Records, I think there were like 500 of them, not sure. Everyday Dollars actually covered a Brickhouse song on "Before the Supply..." called No More Favors. We played with Killing Time, Jaw Box and some other bands that I can't remember.

Ok, we're going back in time, but who and what were the Pagan Babies?

Pagan Babies were a hardcore band out of Philly that were around between 86 and 89. They were and still are good friends of mine. They had a seven inch record that came out on Positive Force Records and a full length that came out on Hawker Records. They had a solid following when they were around and they toured across the country in the summer of 1988. I roadied and sold merch for them. They played with all the bands that were around at that time, Raw Deal, YOT, 7 Seconds, Uniform Choice, The Exploited, Token entry, Gorilla Biscuits, Warzone, Operation Ivy, etc. They did a reunion show this passed summer and it was a blast. You can check them out at www. myspace. com/paganbabieshardcore

There's a lot of bands playing this NY style of hardcore these days. Do you follow some of those bands?

I don't know if I agree that there are a lot of bands playing this NY style of hardcore. I see a lot of bands playing a lot more metalcore than what I'd call hardcore. I have friends that say that hardcore died in 86. I don't agree with that either. I say it started to change around 89 and I think a lot of bands started to become influenced by metal. Bands like Leeway, Raw Deal/Killing Time, Breakdown took hardcore to another level of musicanship, and then in the 1990's bands like Bulldoze, Fury of Five, Merauder, and All Out War took it even further towards a metal sound and now I think a lot of bands are influenced by that style of hardcore/metalcore, than by the earlier stuff that we are influnced by like Necros, early AF, Warzone etc.

A lot of bands are doing reunions these days. How do you like that?

I think its cool if it's done right, there's nothing worse than seeing a band do a reunion show and sucking. When a band does a reunion show after not being around for awhile it gives the younger kids a chance to see bands that they were probably too young to see the first time around. Some of the more notable reunions in last few years or so were Sheer Terror, Negative Approach, Killing Time, Leeway. It bummed me out when Reagan Youth did a reunion show in the summer of 2006 because they dragged the name through the mud. I'm not crazy about seeing a band do a reunion show with a different singer either. It will be cool to see Breakdown and Fahreinheit 451 at the Super Bowl this year.

What are the future plans for the band?

Right now Everyday Dollars is in the studio recording our second cd, "The Age of Demand." It's all new songs and maybe a cover or two and it's all gonna be recorded this summer as opposed to "Before the Supply..." which was recorded over a couple years and had various tracks from other releases. We have some shows lined up this summer, the biggest probably will be with Have Heart and Killing Time in Philly. We'll see how things pan out with upcoming shows and recording and we'll take it from there. We would love to come to Europe, and we would love to play in Japan, but since we do everything ourselves, no booking agent, no management that might be tough.

Any last words, shout outs?

Yeah 2009 is gonna be the year for Everyday Dollars! We'd like to shout out to Wim and The Hardway Zine, Emmanuel and Hardcore For Life Magazine in Puerto Rico, Doll Magazine in Japan, Bader Super Hero Records in Germany, Mike Awake Strong, and anyone else that gave a fuck and reached out to us.

Check out the band at:

http://www.myspace.com/everydaydollars

Bulldog Courage

2008-09-04T11:15:00.000-07:00

DEATH IS STARING ME IN MY FACE AND LIFE'S TOO SHORT FOR ME TO WASTE. I WON'T LET MY LIFE PASS ME BY. I'M GONNA LIVE BEFORE I DIE

If you don't know this band from upstate New York yet, check them out. A great mix of hardcore, punkrock and oi. And if there's one thing that can be said about this band: they're REAL. Here's a talk about hardcore, fighting, tattoos, hating cops and most importantly: having a good time at hardcore shows.

The interview was done with Bulldog Courage's singer Shane.

Introduce the band
Bulldog Courage is myself (Shane) on vocals, Justin King and Buddy Armstrong on guitars, Joe Hallmark on bass and Jameson Muller on drums. We started the band about 2 years ago in Albany New York. We play a good mix of old school hardcore and punk rock. We draw from a lot of influences from both genres of music so we basically just write and play the kind of music that we like to listen to.

What's up with the name?
The name Bulldog Courage, that was pretty much Justin's idea, it's the name of an old cowboy movie I think. All and all I think it describes us pretty well. The name stands out and seperates us from a lot of the other bands out there. I think people who like us (regular blue collar types) can relate with it, ya know? There's nothin flashy or pretty about bulldogs and there certainly isn't about any of us either. And a bulldog doesn't ever run from the fight... That's what Bulldog Courage is all about to us.

You mention Blue Collar, what jobs do you guys have?
Well right now I work at club/bar in Albany, NY in various capacities like security, bartending, and booking shows with a co worker and good friend of mine. Buddy, Jameson, and Joe all work in the print shop for Equal Vision Records, and Justin, well I'm not sure what you'd call his job. Seems like whenever I talk to him at work he's not workin Haha. I have worked and done so many crazy fuckin factory jobs and kitchen jobs I couldnt even begin to tell you about all of them. I was raised in a very blue collar family, my Ma took care of the kids and house and my dad worked 12-hour days for the Railroad in Pittsburgh PA. All my friends' parents were the same, working either for the railroad or steel mills. We didn't mingle much with kids from the suburbs who had money and cool stuff.

So would you say you had a tough youth?

I would hate to say I had it tough as a youth, because allthough my family wasn't perfect... we did love and support each other. My parents we're very good to us, and my siblings were always there for me. I guess things didn't get tough for me until I had to make my own decisions... I made alot of bad ones and it's taken me a long time to come back from them, but I am and will continue to.

Do the lyrics reflect this?
All the lyrics I write are about people and things I've come across in my life. We try not to get political and stuff, the songs are more about good times and bad times, friends and family, love and hate... things that anyone, black, white, punk, skin, hardcore kid, or just your basic run of the mill person can relate to. Hating cops is about as political as it gets....haha and who can't relate with that, right?

Did any of you had some issues with the cops?
Who hasn't had problems with the cops? I'm not sure about everyone else but I do know that my best friend is doing 15 years on some bullshit charges and some very shady witnesses that the police came up with, and 3 of my friends were arrested for a murder that they werent even around for, they eventually were freed but it was the cops that coherssed witnesses and threatened kids into saying they were there. I just beat an assault case for a fight i didn't start, but the cops took one look at me and locked me right up. Yeah so fuck the cops.....A.C.A.B.

So the question is, did you win the fight, and how fucked up was the other one?
Well, in my expierience no one loses a fight and goes to jail Haha, I'm not sure what he looked like after....the cops told me it was pretty bad....and my lawyer laughed when he saw the pics they took in the emergency room.

Let's talk about the music again. Which bands do you consider as an influence on BC?
There are alot of bands that i think influenced us, ranging from punk rock bands to hardcore bands. I'd say Blood For Blood, Sheer Terror and even H20 are prolly three of the most obvious influences. I'm not sure why i say H20 but i think the catchieness of some of the songs is reminicent of them. Somebody at a show told us that if Cock Sparrer and Blood For Blood made a record together it would sound like Bulldog Courage... wich is funny as hell to me because thats what I said about Wisdom In Chains when I first heard them.All in all I'd say we were influenced by all the great New York hardcore bands, like Agnostic Front, Madball, Sick Of It All... and you can hear a lot of that if your really listening.

So were any of you guys in other bands before?

Yeah, we've all been in bands before. Most notably Buddy was in Stigmata for years. Justin and I were in a band called Only Revenge right before BDC started. Jameson has been in a few bands and so has Joe.

What have you released so far?
We've put out 2 demos, "Always Down, Never Out", and "Old Friends Die Hard". We are finishing up a full length right now to be titled "From Heartache to Hatred". It should be done by Spring I guess.

The working title for the album was "Live Before I Die", why did you decide to change it to "From Heartache to Hatred"?
Well first of all I wanted to kinda stay away from actually having a "title track" as there is a song called "Live Before I Die" on the record. I think it puts too much pressure on that 1 song, you know, and the title "From Heartache to Hatred" really gives a good description of what the record embodies: true stories of everything from, loss, friendship, love, hate, revenge... all of it. The actual term comes from a friend of mine who told me "that's what I've always loved about you Shane, you can go from heartache to hatred in no time at all never sticking around to sulk....just getting right to it like a robot". I'm not sure if that says anything good about me really, but I guess in the end I don't really care Haha.

Did you already play a lot of shows, do tours?
Yeah, we've played alot of shows, we havn't done any real touring just because of schedules and stuff, Buddy and Justin are both pretty serious family guys and have kids so it's tough, but we've got some things worked out for that now so we will be hopefully. But yeah, we play alot of shows and we travel and shit to play, we've played with a lot of awesome bands, we did a few shows with Ramallah when they were still playing, we've played with Death Threat, Agnostic Front, the U.S. Bombs, Ducky Boys, Shattered Realm, Death Before Dishonor, Cheech... but hands down to our favorite band to play with: Wisdom In Chains, we've played a good amount with those guys and it's always awesome.

What do you like most about playing live? What makes a show a good show for you guys?
Well there are 2 things to me anyway that I always want to see...
1. is that people are into it and having fun, not just standing there staring at us, haha.2. is that people stay safe, and that nothing crazy happens. Unfortunatley we played a show in New Jersey a little over a year ago where some sort of fight broke out near the front of the club while we were playing and some dude ended up getting killed from a blow to the head or somthing. That was a very fucked up situation, cops, detectives... The whole nine yards, and they wouldn't let us leave for the longest time, it was crazy. I mean we try to keep things a little comical and light hearted, joking around a lot on stage, maybe poking fun at people we know in the crowd and what not... it's generally a good time and that's all we really can hope for ya know?

How do you see the band evolve. What are your ambitions with it?
I guess we just wanna keep doing it, we're all having a great time and it's a really non stress situation for us, we've all been in bands before and i think it's pretty much unanimous with all of us that we all feel more comfortable in this band than we have in others.After we replaced our old drummer and bass player, things have been awesome, not to say those dudes weren't good dudes but they just kinda brought a feeling of what next? You know, like you never knew if Mike (bass) was gonna show up for practice or Christian (drums) was gonna flake out and let stress get the best of him. That whole situation put things on hold a bit but now with Jameson and Joe that feeling is never there, we just keep getting better and things keep looking up for us.

When you speak about WIC being good friends. They are a well known BFL band. Is BC affiliated or part of this or any other crew?

Bulldog Courage is not affilitated with any crew....well, let me rephrase that....we are part of a world wide crew in our eyes, Punk Rock and Hardcore! We are all in the same boat 3 letters will never stand between what society thinks of us all as a whole. I (Shane) am actually a respectfully retired member of FSU New York, and have nothing but love and respect for FSU to this day. With that said, let me shout out to all my friends and family from FSU nation, BFL, and DMS... I love you all and Bulldog Courage supports all of you openly and as proud as it can be said... hardcore will never die as long as there is people to defend it.

How do you retire from a crew man?
Well I was In FSU for 10 years, and am well respected for the things I did and acomplished in that time. So when things in my life changed and I couldn't give FSU the time and dedication that I always had, I felt like it was time to move on, because of my long standing good relations I was respectfully retired. I dont regret ever being part of it, and I still stay in contact with many of my brothers and wish them the best always.

You got quite some tattoos. What do you all have on your body, and what does it mean to you? Who did the tattooing?
Ha... yeah, I got a lot of tattoos, they all mean something to me. I got a lot of words and what not tattooed on me, a lot of tributes to dead friends and family too. Let's see, well clearly I have revenge under under my right eye and a snake over that eye, I have a heart with soulles on my neck, I have a Misfits themed tattoo on my left inside forearm, Mom and Dad roses on my hands. I'm working on getting a tattoo of Darth Vader on my arm finished. My favorite tattoo was done by Dustin Horan at Dead Presidents in Albany NY. It's a snub nose .38 pistol with a banner that reads "I am the enemy". Most of my work was done by Horan and Dan Belcher at Dead Prez, and Cindy Maxwell at Albany Tattoo, but I've been tattooed by about 13 or 14 different people over the years.

The revenge tattoo is very visible, what made you decide to have it tattooed there?
Well I certainly have my reasons for having the tattoo there, unfortunately they are very personal. I thought long and hard before I got the tattoo done, like for 4 years I thought of it. I guess what finally made me mind up my mind was that I didn't care what society thought of it. I don't consider myself part of everyday society anyway, I've never lived my life to be accepted by anyone. People can either take me or leave, it doesn't matter to me at all. As far as other tattoo, as long as I have room I'll keep getting them. Who know what's next. Haha.

Anything left to say, shout outs?
Shout Outs...yeah, Wisdom In Chains, Db4d, Tried And True, Mahoney And Thunderhog, Cheech, Shattered Realm, Aces High Merch And Mike 335, All Our friends and fans...and big thanks to all the people booking hardcore and punk rock bands everywhere, you guys keep this shit alive-thanks, BDC.

Check out the band yourself:

http://www.myspace.com/bulldogcourage

OVERLORD

2008-09-03T10:40:00.000-07:00

You might be confused when you see the Overlord hit the stage, thinking that it's The Setup that will play, especially since Dries took over the vocals from Kris. If you get the chance to see Overlord, don't hesitate because with no clear ambitions neither a clear plan, it might be the last time you see this band. Here's a talk with Andries guitarplayer for Overlord and currently also playing bass for Born From Pain and guitar for Diablo Blvd.

Hi Andries, how are you doing?
Hardway! I am doing fine actually. Tomorrow morning I'll be flying to New York. Not for the superbowl, but for 5 days of chillin' with my mother. Sounds weird, but keep in mind she is pretty cool and she is one of the few persons that can actually diss the shit out of me, so it's gonna be great. Hopefully, customs won't be a pain in the ass, because I know she will not keep her mouth shut when someone will be an asshole towards her.

Let's talk about Overlord, what is this band about?
You know I play in some other bands and I am also one of the people running a record label plus I am back working again full-time for an oil company which basically means, I do not have that much time, but for some reason I cannot say no to things like that, because unlike the other bands I'm involved in, there is absolutely no plan with this band.
The main idea started somewhere at the end of 2005 when the guys from Officer Jones and Vince from Amen Ra wanted to do a real tuff guy band. More as a joke, I believe, but they asked me to play bass guitar. As usual, I was down with the plan, but again as usual, it never happened. You know how it goes... The Pain Principle style... big plans, but it never happens.
Nevertheless, Kris who was singing for OJ approached me again to do something else outside OJ, because he wanted to do more than playing the BOTCH-thing... and again I said yes, but this time it was different.
I asked Serch to play drums and my friend Nicolas from Leng 't che to play bass, so we had a line-up. The only thing we discussed was the style of music we wanted to play and the initial plan if you can call it one was to do a mix of Hatebreed and Crowbar which is kinda weird, because at that time we had not heard of the Kingdom of Sorrow project, but luckily for us, we were not that creative at the time so it ended up being more Hatebreed than Crowbar, so that problem was solved.
This was all March-April 2006 and next up, we booked a studio and me and Serch wrote 9 songs in 3 weeks. We recorded them with Vince from Amen Ra and that was it, aside from the fact those recordings are still not finished which had a couple of reason but I won't go deeper into that.
Last year, September, we played our first show and at this time we have played three shows, with no demo or whatsoever, but it's fun. It's nothing fancy, hell It's not even fantastic, but we don't care. It's heavy and it's fast. We have an uncertain future and no ambitions, for instance the unfinished demo, but we all have our reasons to do it. For years, Nicolas and Serch were saying they would do a band together, me... I just needed a reason to downtune my guitar and play with two guitaramps and Kris, I don't know about him... but he sure likes doing it.

Since we're talking Hatebreed here. Which is your favorite HB album and why?
To answer your question. It's hard for me to tell. Like every other reasonable person, it's impossible to choose between Satisfaction is the Death of Desire and Perseverance. Both albums are classics from the first song to the last. It kinda bugs me when people consider those releases of the 'Breed as some more tuff guy hardcore or at best see Hatebreed as the band that started that kind of music. I mean, it's so ignorant if you don't hear the excellent hardcore riffing on Satisfaction or the sheer brutality and heaviness on Perseverance. Another thing about those releases is the fact that both of them have a lot of songs on it. You could say that there are maybe too many songs on it, but not in this case because they all deserve their place on those albums.
When years are passing by I realised there are a couple of songs on those albums that nobody often talks about because they are at the end of the record and I'd like to elaborate a bit about for example the 13th song on Perseverance; "Healing to suffer again". Holy, shit... that opening riff... massive. " I feel cheated, so I cheat myself, I feel defeated, so I defeat myself". One of the many examples of how Jamey Jasta's lyrics are simple and yet effective. It's easy to call it superficial and dumb, and I know many people do but I disagree. It fits the music and this lyrical content is stripped down to the bare essence of how we all have to find our way in this world. If I want to read something more intelectual, there are so many other things out there and let's face it, it's not because you use more metaphores, it means it's deeper.
Too bad it's not in their normal setlist. When I was working as a guitartech for them, I kinda asked why not and the answer I got back from Sean Martin was kinda predictable... we simply have too many songs we want to play live. I guess, he's right... well what can I say... I stole some parts of it for a song on Minister of Death and I don't feel bad about it.
Anyway, even Kerry King said that if Slayer would be a hardcoreband, they would sound like Hatebreed on Perseverance. Aside from the fact, it's a huge compliment coming from that guy, you can't deny the truth in those words.
If I take a closer look at some of the rest of their discography, it was already clear on the Under the Knife release that this band was up to something. I don't consider Under the Knife on itself as a true classic but I've always been a fan of what you could describe as 'a band's first release phenomenon'. Technically It sounds like shit, the snare drum sounded like everything back then, especially on half of the Back Ta Basics discography and later on Metallica's St Anger, but all this aside, it was raw and effective and more importantly and you knew this ep was only the beginning.
On the other hand, Puritan, Smash Your Enemies, Not One Truth are on that release and I doubt it ever gets harder, so maybe I should take those words back and make it a classic as well.
Both The Rise of Brutality are and Supremacy may not be flawless records but in the end it's still Hatebreed and far better than what we are all doing and let's be honest... you may or you may not like this band, but when Hatebreed is playing on a show, the rest of the line-up are just details.

As you mention the sound quality of the first hatebreed recordings: in the discussions we have about music, it always strikes me how important you consider professionalism, sound quality, production and things like this. Whereas in my eyes it doesn't matter that much, as long as a band is honest about what they're doing. Sure, you mention digging the Hatebreed debut which is for sure a sloppy sounding album (and indeed hard as nails), but you know what I'm talking about, Back Ta Basics style! And don't you think the albums of the current 'bigger' hardcore acts just sound too smooth? To me, these are great albums, but they somehow miss this kind of authenticity and spontaneity. What do you think about this?
I guess you're right in a way. Before I start answering your question, the bottom line is, it's of course a matter of taste, although I must admit that there are so many records I like that have a shitty production, so it's not the most important thing for me. I think the vibe of a record is way more important. For instance, if you compare under the knife with Perseverance, it's hard not to hear the difference in sound, but at the same time, they both have the same agressive vibe.
Nevertheless if I have to choose I'd go for Perseverance and that's of course a matter of taste.
On the other hand, I hate reading nonsense about how people think that if a band chooses to sound as raw as possible or even shitty or wants to sound like they are from a certain time, it's more genuine or more real, because imo, that's bullshit. bands from the 80's or even bands that came out on let's say Back Ta Basics 10-12 years ago did not have a choice. They sounded like that because they had no budget or they did not have the equipment. Recording back then was way more expensive.
So to me there's not much difference in authenticity with a record that sounds almost perfect, because in both cases you're trying to have for a certain sound.
The only exception is when you're using too much pro-tools by replacing and triggering almost everything,..in that case I agree, but if that's not the case, I don't see the problem. The bands you mentioned surely can pull off live what they do on record. By the way...that song "Betrayer" on the new Terror record... holy shit... so good.

Let's get back to Overlord, compaired to your other bands, it must be a good feeling to do a band with no stress whatsoever?
It feels great. When you play in a band and you start playing outside your hometown or even when you're on a tour outside Belgium, it still is a lot of fun, but then you get a little bit bigger and all of a sudden there are people trying to get your band on bigger shows or tours, even on the level we're on with The Setup, I mean, there's the label, there's a bookingsagence and it changes the overall feeling a little bit. You know, deadlines, albumsales, merch... Not that I don't enjoy playing in that band, anymore, not at all, I love doing all those things, but sometimes your ambitions or your goals become too important and with Overlord, it's not important... and it has been a while since I only felt that.

Where do you keep getting your inspiration from, as you're also in TSE and DB?
The thing is, when I am alone in my room playing on my guitar or working on my 8-track, I feel completely happy. It relaxes me and most importantly, I have this urge to make songs. the reason I will never be the best guitarplayer in the world, is basically because I want to write songs first and then be able to play them. I can't play a lot of coversongs, because I'm not interested in that. I used to play in a classical orchestra for many years as a saxophone player and for years, I've studied this instrument until I became pretty good at it, but it was always playing other people's songs, obviously.... I mean, when I was playing a lot of saxophone, I could play some pretty coole jazz classics or even classical music, but writing a simple a hardcore song is way more exciting than playing "Take five" by Dave Brubeck for instance.
Moroever, since we started playing with The Setup, I've been writing songs constantly. First with that band, then I started doing the Diablo songs and with Overlord, it just happened. To me it's all the same. A song is song. I don't believe in genres, I believe in an interesting structure and most importantly, every good song needs a good hook.
When you have the basic idea ready, it's just a matter of finding the right frame. All the creativity lies in the riff or the hook.
When it comes down to influences...I must say I listen to everything. My favourite rock bands are probably Helmet, Social Distortion, The God Machine, The Cult and Danzig and for hardcore bands, it depends. There are some classic bands that everybody loves... SOIA, Cro-Mags, Madball, Merauder, Hatebreed, Judge, Killing Time, you know what I'm talking about.... Lately, I love the Bitter End and the Shipwreck records a lot.

Yo Kris, what do you write about for Overlord? Is it different than your lyrics for your other bands?
Kris: Well to be honest, I only wrote a couple of lyrics for the OJ thing, most of the OJ lyrics where written by the bassplayer. For "Daggers" I wrote every lyric and yeah there is a difference between Overlord and Daggers lyrics... I think Daggers lyrics are in a certain way more poetic, there is more of a romantic naive punkvibe in the music and lyrics. Overlord lyrics have more or less the same subjects but they are more direct, It are collages with sometimes different subjects in one song, I never write lyrics in one piece they constantly change. It's not an easy job to write lyrics, especially when they are personal. You keep somethings too yourself... somedays you feel like shit and and other days you don't... so we have to relativate every thing, also the people who read the lyrics. For example American Nightmare lyrics are so dark and without a future, but I guess Wes Eisold can relativate his own toughts and we have to keep that in mind we read them. But to say something about the Overlord lyrics, well they where honest on the moment I wrote them...

Are you tuff enough to be in a tough guy band?
Kris: I have a full grown beard... But then again I will not be typecasted to act in the next wiggaz' gangmovie. You know I've spend a lot of time in the punk and crust scene wich has it's specific ideas and I guess some other morals and values than the typical tough guy. I know that there are in both scenes walking cliches and cool people but in the end you have to create your own values. I think you don't have to take yourself too seriously, never lose the sense to relativate. I like what I'm doing whit Overlord, it's a fun thing to do... no pressure, still no demo and not too much rehearsing , damn! we could be a crustband! But to answer your question, I'm near thirty years old and still involved in the hardcore thing... so yeah I'm tough enough!

Do you care that the lineup for OL and TSU is highly the same?
No, I don't care although I must say I'm the only one that doesn't care about that. It seems that some people think it's not done, I don't know. We'll see. We will never play a lot of shows, so... I don't think it's gonna matter that much... especially when Nicolas Leng 't che plays without a shirt, ... then it's all eyes on him.

Andries, we could go on and on, but let's wrap it up here. What can we expect from OVERLORD in the future? Any shout outs?
Well, somewhere in July, we're going to record the vocals for the ep, so we're aiming for a september release, right on time for our new show on the 20th of September, together with NJ Bloodline, No Turning Back and some more bands, so be on the lookout for that.You, Wim, thanks for the interview and lots of love to everybody that's playing on stage with me. You know who you are, cuz that's too many names to drop, haha!

Check out this band:

http://www.myspace.com/overlordhc

Setback

2008-09-02T09:52:00.000-07:00

If you like your hardcore real, you can't go wrong with Setback. This infamous NY band started out in the early nineties, and now they're back! I had the chance to see them play at the Superbowl, and it was great! Word's on the street Setback will release a new album December 2008! Here's a talk with Pete, who plays bass and is an OG Setback member. Be sure to check them out!

Tell me about Setback?
Setback was formed in 1991 in Queens NY. Setback is G on guitar, Bundy on vocals, Pete on bass and the incredible Harry Minas on the drums, formerly of Ocean Of Mercy and 25 ta Life.
We play hard and heavy hardcore with alot of good dance parts. We are influenced by old school hardcore and metal, I think we have a really good style.

When did you break up and when did you get back together?
We broke up around 1998, because some of us were having kids and some of us were just going through some really tough times and we could not focus on the band the way we wanted to.
Ten years laters we are back together, just because we want to have fun and play our music. We also plan to put out a new cd sometime in 2008. We already have a few new songs, I think they sound really good and are hard for sure. I think we still have OUR style in the new songs, we will be playing new stuff at the Super Bowl!!

Is it the original line-up coming back together now?
No the original lineup is not coming back. The lineup from the No Hope CD is coming back except for a change on the drums. This is our best lineup. Myself and G are the only original members still in the band.

You formed in 91, it took quite some time before you released the 'No Hope' cd, why did it take such a long time?
It took so long to release the No Hope CD because we had made some changes to the band and waited until we had the right lineup to record the No Hope CD.

How did you hook up with Time Served records?
Kev from Bulldoze is a friend of ours and when he started Time Served Records he asked us to do a CD for his label, so we just did it, yeah we are happy with the way the CD came out, big up to our boy Kev!!!

Am I mistaken or did you have at one point Rob from Everybody Gets Hurt in the band?
Yes at one time he was our singer. But I don't really wanna dwell on the past but rather look towards the future, let's just say things between us did not work out and we both went our seperate ways many years ago. We have our best lineup ever rite now for sure!!

Setback never was a big band, but always stayed underground, were you happy with this?
We are a hardcore band and have no problem being underground.

What's up with other bands calling themselves SETBACK. did you had the deal with shit like this before?
Lately we have noticed that there are a few bands using our name, we are the only SetBack that matters and have had the name since at least 1990. We have put the word out that using our bands name is dangerous to your health!! We have already been contacted by several of these bands and they have already changed their names!!To any other bands still using our name, change it now and avoid a situation!!

I also heard some faggots talking shit about the band...
There are a few haters talking shit online, cowards that do not have the guts to say something to us face to face, just a few assholes. We will not let it get to us. We will take care of these assholes when we catch them for sure!!

Now you're back together, which bands do you still wanna play with?
We still want to play with our boys AF, MB, Cold As life and many others. In 2008 we will be playing with alot of different bands.

What's up with NYHC these days, the Superbowl is back, but there's more reunion bands than new bands. How is the NY scene these days?
The NY scene is good AF and MadBall are still playing killer shows there are also alot of other bands playing good shows.
I think its cool that alot of old bands are coming back, many of them are good and it brings back alot of memories.

How was it to play shows back in the early 90s?
It was cool to play shows in the early 90's, there were alot of good shows and always a good crowd. We usually played with MadBall, AF, Cold As Life, Fury of Five, Next Step Up and many more.

Do you think it's a big difference to play shows in 2OO8 to back then?
I think its still kinda the same, all of our boys are still around and many bands we used to play with are still around as well. I think the crowd got a little younger, but we all got a little older at the same time.The scene is still going strong here in NYC.

Any last word?
We would like to thank everyone around the world for the continued support!! Hit up our myspace page at : myspace. com/setbackdms357 and check out our website at www.setbacknyhc.com to see pix, get news on the band and get merch that will be available very soon!! Peace out.

Inner Rage Records

2008-08-31T01:22:00.000-07:00

Inner Rage records from France, I'm not even sure if it rings a bell to the new kids out there, but it is legendary. My favourite releases on the label are the Fury of V Telling it Like It Is 7", the Starkweather 7" and the Five Minute Major album.
I never knew Jean Marc during the life span of the label, or during his Drowning days, but everytime he shows up on a show, I always end up talking with him, as he has this huge knowledge about NYHC, and he is a nice guy to talk to. When you know that he is involved in the movement as from the 80's on, you know he is interesting to speak with. So here it is, a talk about Inner Rage records, Drowning and hardcore.

Let's go the beginning immediately: how, when and why did you start Inner rage records?
From mid to late 80's I started to get into underground music, I was previously into Punk rock, Oi! and some metal but then I started to get into more aggressive stuff. There was a lot of tape trading at that time too, so I discovered a lot of hardcore and some death metal demos, live tapes...The French scene was a bit late at that time but some local bands started to get influenced by American punk hardcore. Everybody was also into ordering new demos, new EPs, I was giving ideas to guys that started labels in like 88-89 then I thought it would be cooler to start my own label. I contacted a few bands, I was looking for some hard stuff and choose Dare To Defy for the first EP. That was in late 1990.

How did you manage to do this back then?
Well staying in touch wih bands whthout internet was not always easy of course, you could have contact with a band for a time, then the guy left the band or just didn't answer anymore, now the easy thing with the net is that you know faster if you can trust a band or not. It was just a matter of luck to keep in touch with a band for a long time and then be able to work with them. The thing is that in the early 90's US Hardcore bands started to have more people interested in Europe than in America, Hardcore was considered dead at that time. People there were more into all the post Hardcore stuff like Quicksand or more of the Sub Pop thing. There was also lotsa problems with violence in the East Coast at Hardcore shows. So Hardcore got banned. That's when a lot of European labels started to sign US bands.

Did you go to the Eastcoast to visit shows in the early 90's too? If so, was it really that crazy / violent as is being told?
Well I went for the first time in New York in 1991, I saw a few good shows at the time, the first one was a l'Amour in Brooklyn with Cro Mags, Leeway, Biohazard and Type O Negative, I saw Cro Mags at CBGB's a few days after that and Breakdown in a bar. All of those shows were really impressives, and crazy but I didn't see any violence. The craziest show was whithout a doubt the one at CBGB's, the crowd was mostly scenesters, friends etc... Most of the people knew each other so the atmosphere was great, it was one of the best shows I have ever seen.

Looking back at the releases you've done, which is your favourite one?
Whithout a doubt I would say the Starkweather 7". I honestly don't like everything I released on Inner Rage but there's a few that I'm proud of. The Fury of Five and Overcast 7"s are also pretty good I think, Stormcore/Krutch was cool, well I won't name all the stuff I like in the back catalogue but besides 2 or 3 releases I'm not ashamed of what I did. I like the CDs I released too."

Bands like Starkweather, Fury Of Five and Kickback became pretty big bands. Did it make you pride to have them released as the first one?
Well sure I'm proud of what these bands did and still do. That's the main reason of why I started the label, first release records I would have liked to buy, and secondly discover bands. so the fact they became big after they had something out on Inner Rage is a reason to be proud for me

What's the reason that Inner Rage didn't continue with these bands? Like grow together with these bands, release their LP's or something?
When I first started the label I did it alone so it was really impossible for me to see it become a lot bigger so I guess I wasn't really able to release albums, promote and sell them properly. In 1998-1999 I was joined by two friends who did more than help, but before that it wasn't the time to do it.

Some of the IRR bands are still active, like Kickback and Starkweather. Do you still follow up on them and check their new releases?
To be honest I never listened to the whole last Kickback album. Just heard a couple of songs here and there. About Starkweather I love everything they did since the demo. I went to see thm when they played in Belgium on the last tour. They were amazing. They are my favorite band released on Inner Rage records ever

If there was one band known not to be fucked with it had to be FURY OF V. How was it to work with these guys?
Fury of Five was some of the coolest guys to work with. They exactly knew what they wanted so when there was something they didn't like they were straight to the point and the problems were solved fast. I worked on the 7" mostly with Jay and it was really easy and cool. It was so cool to meet them when they finally came on tour in Europe. I can only say great stuff about Fury Of Five.

Did you also join them on the tour?
I went to see them a few times durings their European tours, went to see them during the first one with Integrity. The first time I saw them in person was in Rennes. I saw several other shows during that tour in Belgium. Then I saw them during the next tour in Paris and in Belgium. It was fun anytime. Plus they were a tight and powerful on stage. I met them in the US too but never saw them live there.

What is your favourite FO5 record? I'm always in doubt whether it's the 7" or their latest This Time It's Personal. The 7" definitely got some of the hardest songs ever made on it.
I will not be too original but I have to say that my favorite release is the 7".

There were also European bands, like you did the Kickback 7". How was it to work with these guys back then?

Sure some European bands started at that time, I guess all the Dutch, Belgian and German bands started at that time, of course this is talking about the more NY influenced hardcore bands, there was hardcore bands way before that of course. I guess first generation of bands influenced by american hardcore came from Italy, the Holland, UK and Belgium.Well, working with Kickback was kinda natural at that time, we were going at shows together etc... It was pretty easy to work with them at that time"

A lot of people will know Kickback, but not too many know that 7". If you listen to it know, how do you like it?
Well, honestly I didn't listen to that 7" recently, but I did enough time. I think it sounds typically like what was around in the New York hardcore scene at that time, not bad for a French band I guess. It was really influenced by stuff like Confusion, early Merauder, Cro Mags, Biohazard and Sheer Terror. About how I have been attracted ? Well that was just natural thing, we knew each other, shared the same musical tastes and there was not so many labels around, they had the choice between Inner Rage and a German label which I can't remember.

Stephan from Kickback also had a label, Hardway records. It's like France had all the top NY bands! Was there ever any competition between the two labels?
There wasn't any competition really !!! We started around the same time and at the beginning we were even discussing on who we planned to contact for upcoming releases. There's a few bands that I contacted that I was close to have a deal with and unfortunately it didn't work out. I guess those bands would have made Inner Rage even more recognized than how it is now.

Tell us, which bands are we talking about here. What went wrong?
One of the first bands I asked for the label was Fit Of Anger from New York, The label didn't even have a name at that time. Inner Rage was a Fit Of anger song. They split up around the time I was in contact with them, they started Cold front just after that. Some other bands I was close to release on Inner Rage were Darkside and Enrage. Nothing went really wrong but I guess it was easier for them to sign on a label from their area at that time.

So what is the current status of the label now? Its been a long while since something came out?
Even if you can never say never, I really doubt there's gonna be another release on Inner Rage Records. But who knows. I guess I'm tired of all the boring work of the label, being in contact with bands and all that part was cool, but the promotion and all that work was boring.

You were also the singer for Drowning. Tell us, how and when did Drowning start?
We started Drowning around mid 1996. That was when a lot of american hardcore, Metalcore bands started to tour Europe. We were into the harder, heavier stuff and that was what we wanted to do. The main thing we wanted to accomplish with Drowning was simply to play as many shows as possible and have fun. We wanted the crowd to feel that we were having as much fun as them. I guess it worked a bit and as far as I'm concerned, I'm proud of what Drowning did when I was in the band. Sure we did some bad shows, some recordings that were not perfect but I still like anything we did.

So what did you actually record with Drowning?
I did a first demo with Drowning that consist of one studio song and a few live songs recorded from the soundboard at one show in Beauvais in the North of Paris. Then I also recorded 2 songs for a split 7" with Queens, NY band Restrain for Back Ta Basics records and 2 other songs a french hardcore compilation with bands like Stormcore, Kickback, Primal Age, Right For Life and a few others.

When and why did you quit the band?
I played my last show with them in May 1998 in As, Belgium. There was a lot of bands on the bill but as far as I can remember Bloodlet, Better than a Thousand, All Out War, Sportswear and Liar also played that show. Well it was a mutual decision, I wanted to quit and they also wanted me out because I wasn't good enough for the new direction they wanted to take and I also didn't like that direction so it was inevitable. Drowning is only good memories, I met a lot of people that I'm still friends with from that time.

Drowning was a band which had the crowd totally in hard dancing. How did it feel to see all these people dancing crazy on your shows?
That was always great thing to see, but as hard as i gets it was never in a bad way. We were always having fun on stage, even laughing and smiling at times. Even if we were playing hard music, we were not acting hard or pretend to be. We though that there was enough people pretending to be asocial and hating the world while they're actually nice guys, we were nice guys and didn't want to look differently.

And what about you moshing? Which were your favorite bands to slam on? What was your style?
Well for the violent aspect of ot, i loved All Out War, Fury Of Five, Next Step Up and above all these, the Cro Mags. But I would say the best band ever to dance to, whithout a doubt, Leeway. Well about style, it depends on the music, you don't dance the same way to Underdog, Leeway or All Out War. But my favorite is the floorpunch. I used to like the windmill etc... I don't dance much these days but sometimes, when I feel it...

Which is your top 5 hardcore records?
I guess it's almost impossible to only name 5 records. Anyway there's Leeway Born To Expire, Cro Mags Age of Quarrel, Outburst Miles to go and then I can give an hundred more like Negative Approach, Sheer Terror, Crown Of Thornz, Merauder, Jerry's Kids etc... It just depends on the mood. I like almost all styles of hardcore from early really fast stuff, to some tough guy metalcore, oi or punk rock.

Talking about NYHC, what is that attracts you in this specific genre?
NYHC always had it's difference, I guess in the early 80's when everybody was into DC or Boston, New York was trying to have their own sound. I'm also into DC, Boston, California hardcore etc... but there's something I like about New York hardcore. Probably the groove, the beat, the mosh part. Plus there was a lot of bands from early to late 80's and then a few others in the 90's. Urban Waste, Cro Mags, Underdog, Leeway, Breakdown are some of my favorite bands from New York.

What do you still expect in hardcore? Any band you still would like to see? Or any genre of band that schould come back?
I just expect from hardcore to be like hardcore. It's just fun, aggressive and powerful and the most important thing, honest. Doesn't really matter how it sounds like. Sure I do have my preferences but that's not important.
There's always a lot of bands I'd like to see like Cold World, Government Warning to name a couple of current bands and tons that I never had the chance to see. About a specific genre of band I'd like to see back ? My favorite style is mid 80's NYHC but there's a lot of other I'd like to see.

Thanks for the interview!

Inner Rage discography, from old to new

Dare To Defy - st
Test Of Time - Refugee
Kickback - No One Gets Out Alive
Subjugator - st
Garden Of Silence - st
Judgement Day NYC - Mind Over Matter Of Fact
Starkweather - The Divine Art
Overcast - Stirring The Killer
V/A - Harder They Come Harder They Fall
Fury Of Five - Telling It Like It Is !!!!!!
Krutch / Stormcore - S/T
One Last Sin - The Fall Of Darkness
Beneath The Remains / Underground Society / Face Down NJ / Knockoutz - A 4-way split CD
Five Minute Major - When It Ends
Fury Of Five - Telling It Like It Is !!!!!!
Wake Up Cold - Deliver Me From Evil

Visit Inner Rage's website: http://districtproductions.online.fr/

5 years of dedication

2008-08-25T13:00:00.000-07:00

On their latest release they have a song called '5 years of dedication', and this title sums it up, because dedication is what this band is all about. Five years ago I was there when they recorded their first demo. We helped them out with the backing vocals, and I even did some guestvocals for a song. It was all basic shit, recording it in someone's garage, without great material or the best sound quality, and even the songs might not have been the best ones ever. But which was very clear at that moment, was that this band was stoked about what they were doing, they loved it, they were there for a reason!
In the meantime some faces have changed in the band, they played hundreds of shows, they got dozens of people knocked out in the pit, released an EP, a split EP and 2 full lengths. And they did all this DIY, you still know what that means? They didn't took shit from anyone, didn't suck any dick, and took all the risk.
And now, everytime when I see these guys enter the stage, they're up there with the same dedication and passion as five years ago, and always, whether a crowd of 50 or 300 they're giving all the energy they have. Respect to who respect is due, and my boys in PTF definitely deserve a lot of it.
Here's a talk with my man Bert, vocalist of Pushed Too Far.

- Bert, since when is the band around? How and when did you start it?

Hey Wim, What's up? Ok here we go : In the summer of 2003 it all started, but not easy, no not easy at all! In the first place we were with 2 singers and we played something like metalcore. But actually nobody liked it, After a few months we were with 1 singer, 1 guitar player, a bass player and a drummer. In that line up we made 6 songs and we played our first gig in the summer of 2004. But Derwin never moved on like the rest of the band had in mind, so we kicked the guy out. And then there was Jef. Once Jef was in, everything was going very quickly. Recording our demo, doing a lot of shows, recording our mcd and our full cd. After we recorded our full cd we wanted more power on stage. Bart from Lost in Rhone joined us, but less than a year later he decides to quit and we find Nicho. There were plans for a new full cd, so we were writing new songs, 5 days before we hit the studio, Roel decides to quit PTF. So on the record Nicho has played the bass. After 2 weeks we found a replacement in Gert Ooms, the motherfucker rocks the bass like no one else! So right know we have a steady line up! Jefcb and Nicho on the guitars, Krisje behind the drums, Gert rocking the bass and me destroying the microphone.

- I guess things have changed quite a lot since the beginning?

Some things have changed; like the line up, new guitar and bassplayer. But the music is still the same, some people tell we have a new sound and stuff, but I can't really say it because we made the songs. So I don't hear the difference. To me it's old school with some moshparts you wanna kill a bitch on! The lyrics are a little more mature, but hey, I'm getting older you know. But some are the typical PTF lyrics. The cd we recorded at CCR studio in Zulte and it was mastered by Alan Douches at West West Side Music in America. We are pretty stoked about the quality and the cd! The artwork is done bij Serch. Cool shit! We like it a lot.

- Do you still remember how the demo recordings were?

Yeah man it was so much fun, everything sounded bad, but it was cool! I'll never forget that day in the garage. The singalongs were with so much violence, I like that. There was some kid, that was so stoked about our stuff that he almost moshed the garage away, hey that kid was you.

- You have released all your records yourself? Why have you done this?

Because it felt right. In the beginning we have sent out our demo, mcd and stuff to the labels, but only one out of 10 reacted. So we were sick of doing that and it felt good to do it yourself! It's not that easy to promote your record but we do our best! And with all the love for the music. Maybe someday some record label picks us up, you never know. But it's cool the way we do it now, and we can ask less for a cd!

- In the grapevine it was told GSR was interested in PTF, but that Rob really didn't want to work with you guys. What's the story with him?

No clue? Got no issues with that guy, he fixed us some shows and we know Theo appreciates our work. However, we're doing fine ourselves, but honestly GSR actually is a great label. But what can we say? We work hard and we'll get what we deserve, I guess.

- So you never had problems selling your stuff?

These days it's very hard to sell your shit, 16 year old kids don't understand that releasing a cd costs a lot of money, and they just copy or download those cd's. It's good that kids know the songs and stuff. But like i said, it's a lot of money and if everybody copies the cd's we cannot bring out cd's anymore in the future. But hell, it's all good!

- But I guess selling merch compensates this.

Yeah, the kids buy a lot of merch, and because of that we can break even. But we also keep the prices low, like 10 euro for shirt. We don't wanna sell out to the kids. Sometimes we sell no merch and 10 cd's sometimes we sell 40 t-shirts and no cd's! Its always different. But if they like our music they support us!

- You've done a lot of different designs. How many by now, which people have designed shirts for you?

We have done a shitload of designs because we want to have differend things because everybody has a different taste. I don't know how many but if you take everything we have 20 designs I think. Spoiler, Harai Tatoo, Lucky One tattoo, Famooze, Michiel artwork, ... and of course our own Jefcb. I like as good as all our designs, but especially the one Michiel did, we also have our backdrop with that design.

- PTF has not yet done a lot of touring. How was the previous tour. And do you plan new tours in the future? With which bands you'd like to tour?

It's not easy for a band like us to tour, because we do release everything on our own label and it's not a big label. So it's difficult to do tours. But for this summer normally something bigger is coming up! The previous one was with our buddies from Point Of View. The tour was sick, cool shows and cool hang outs. Our "tourmanager" was drunk everyday, he crashed at every show under a soccer table, he threw up blood. But it was because of the long distances, for every show we had to drive around 10 hours. We have learnt our lesson about that!

- You don't only release PTF stuff. So what's up with the label?

With Clenched Fist records we want to help begining bands, because it's not easy to print a cd without knowing how! Much shit with sabam, especially if you don't want to be a part of their game. And I think for the bands it's great if we can help them out because finding a label is not easy these days! This year you can expect our new full cd "Fools Never Move On" coming out on 22 march, Tear It Down MCD coming at you at 1 march and Johnny Unstopable coming on 11 april. It will kill all you niggas.

- Which bands do you see as an inspiration to PTF?

Our biggest inspiration is No Turning Back. What they do is so great! Man, they do it with some much love and strenght! But we have more bands we look up like Death Before Dishonor, Kickback,... But we want to have our own sound, something different than the rest. We hope it worked out well. Next to bands, anger, love, hate, pain, everyday bullshit, arrogance,... is also our inspiration!

- So which are your favourite bands to play with?

Every band that plays from the heart! And every band with a frontman that means what he says! Not a bullshit band that comes to play for 1000 euro, with the same songs like 5 years ago. And only do it for the money. Our a fucking American band, who on stage pretend to have invented the wheel and who is crying backstage how they want to go home!

-What would be your dream line up to play with?

I definitely wanna play with Stout and Homicidal. But every show is a dream for me! All the energy from all the bands and the crowd. I think I'm addicted.

- You've also done some covers. Which songs have you played so far? Why did you chose those songs?

We have played in the past 3 coversongs. We choose these songs because they fit our music. In the beginning we played Sick Of It All with Injustice System, great song with good lyrics and a fucking great vibe. Than we did Bulldoze with Our Way, another great song, with a fucking hard mosh part. The way we like old school beatdown! And the 3rd song we did was Kickback with Be My Guest. Very good lyrics and very heavy shit. Fucking in ya face style! Now we don't play cover songs anymore, maybe in the future? You don't know!

- Andries from TSU helped you writing a song for the new cd. How did you end up working with him together?
Man, it was so cool. He came in our rehearsal room and rocked his balls out, the same as in the recording room. He was rocking from beginning till the end. I just love this guy! We just had the idea to make a song once, and we just did it and it ended up very cool! And the song fits in our album:) Mayby we do another thing together in the future, you never know!

- Your shows are hard, and people get hurt from time to time, but to me it seems there's always a positive vibe. Do you think it is important to keep it positive?

Our shows are hard and that's the way it should be! We bring hardcore not some random pussyshit! But we always have a smile on our face. We sing about anger, hate and stuff but some time a joke is in the right place. And we do it that way because some people take our lyrics and stuff TOO serieus. They really believe if i say I'm gonna kill somebody, I'm actually gonna do it. And for that kind of people sometimes I do some sketchy ballade on stage of some kind of that! But I don't care about positive of negative, for me it's all hardcore. The 25 minutes on stage I release all my anger and hate that I have built up during the week! I always feel pretty good after a show, I feel free because I have done my thing you know?

- So what's been some of the craziest shit going on in the pit and on stage during your shows?
Everytime there is some thing else: broken noses, people knocked out, blood all over the place, chairs getting involved, the last time we played, there were a lot fights. And that is not cool, we like fucking hard dancing, but fighting with no reason is not cool! Sometimes it is necessary, but without a reason? It just sucks, then you can better fuck off! Last time we played 3 girls were stroking my knee, they were like fucking 14 years old. I still don't understand! That was also the show were 3 fight brokes out, 2 people got knocked out. It was weird I guess.

- Still a lot of people don't understand the dancing or the band in general. When you play a show with different kind of bands, you are sure to read some shit on PTF and your crowd on some messageboards the next day.
What do you think? Messageboards are the opposit of what we call hardcore, so we don't give a fuck. I tought hardcore was all about being a pain in the ass and saying fuck you to the latest fashionhype. As long as I feel we do that our own way, people can go all gay on Myspace as much as they like. And I'll live it in real life just like I always did. So, we do this shit for 5 years now and we still love it to be hated, and lately we're even loved for what we do. We try to bring you hardcore, grinding hard on the edge of the core.

- How was the release show?

It was a fucking blast man! More then 300 people paid at the door. Every band gave the best they got, and the kids seem to like our new songs. We have selled more cd's than we did with the Anger. Now we hope the kids know the new songs and go crazy on the new ones too! There was a lot of sing a long, mosh, dives, it was just crazy. We can't say how satisfied we are. We put many effort in the releae show and the new cd, and if you get a response like that, than it's worth all the work!

- You're finally playing the Ieperfest. It took a while before you could play there, what took you so long?

Ypresfest is a big fest, a group of people are doing hard work each and every year to get it going. But that also means, they all have to agree about the bands, and some of them can even say NO WAY to a band. There's some people outthere who where supporting us from the start, but God knows why somehow they turned against us. Dunno why, maybe they rather support their friends band and don't like it when we're getting more shows than those bands. But Bruno always helps us out and he is a good friend of PTF!

- PTF always has been a band some people talked shit about. How do you feel about this?

I really don't care, but if I say that I'm lying. Because you put all your effort in the band, all your energy, all your time, and always there are loosers that say this and that, about your band, but have never seen us. So I don't get the point why they talked shit, if you don't know, don't fucking judge. But if they have seen us and then talked shit, I don't fucking care. We do what feels right for us and what we like! But after five years, the people who always talked shit, seem to like us these days, and that's cool of course! But there are always stupid fucks who have no own opinion and just say what the group want. Like 2 years ago, some guy always moshed in front of us, always said cool things, now he is with a group and never checks us out anymore, talks shit and never says hi, haha, what a fucking loser!

- What does hardcore means to you? And what has attracted you to hardcore? What makes a band a hardcore band in your eyes?
It's my life, I'm lost without it I think. It has thaught me to think, that I can speak my own mind, that I must come up for myself, and not care about what others think of you,... The dedication of many people is wat attracted me the most, the passion and the love! In my eyes a hardcore band is a band that mean the things they say on stage. Do the music with all there love and passion and not sell out themselves!

- You got the OSB thing going. What's up with that? What's your opinion on crews in general?

Jef has started the OSB thing, so I give the question to jef, our guitarplayer: We started out OSB as a joke, just to see how long it takes before people put that in their nicknames, considering theirselves part of that "crew". Haha. It didn't took long, we had a laugh. Crews... never understood why 30 year old men get in front of a christmastree in a crew-shirt, to take some homie pictures to put them on Myspace. People also seem to like to come all alone to a show.. in a crew shirt.

- How do you see the future of the band?
Now we are going to start to promote our new cd. We have made new merch, posters, stickers and so on... To promote the new stuff. Hopefully kids pick it up and like the new record. We will do a tour in the summer, so that everybody gets to know our music. And we hope we can push our band to the next level. Of course we're gonna write some new songs etc.. But we're defenitlely heading towards the next level.

- You used to organise shows yourself. What's up with that now?

Pushed Too Far and the label ask so much time of me that I have no more time to do big shows, sometimes I organise shows like our cd release, but nothing big anymore It's too much work! I have done shows for bands like, Kickback, Do Or Die, Backfire, Justice, No Turning Back, Settle The Score, Morda and many many more.

- Any last words, shout outs?
Wim, thank you very much for letting me speak my mind. Don't be afraid about 'de kempen' check out bands like : Brickbat, Angelskin, Pushback, Trail Of Hope, Tear It Down, Homicide, POV, Johnny Unstopable,...

Also check http://www.myspace.com/pushedtoofar and http://www.myspace.com/clenchedfistrecords. Buy cd's don't download! (only if it is a band with a lot of money) Buy zines, shirts, suport your local bands! Mosh hard don't be a winer. And last but not least FEET FIRST IS THE LAW! Thank you