Superbowl of Hardcore, NY, May 15

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

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

NJ Bloodline

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

Bulldog Courage

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

Setback

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.

5 years of dedication

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