Monday, September 21, 2009

HURRICANRANA- Destroying The Opposition


When the singer of a band rolls in with a hammer taped to the microphone, you know its gonna be a good time.

Hurricanrana was a band that didn't really break out of Southern California, but the bands that it spawned sure did. Andres and Martin were once mild mannered, if not large and unsuspecting member of the audience of hardcore shows. Eventually they formed a band, and the Destroying The Opposition demo was the first thing to come from the band named after a professional wresting move.
Musically, its hard to compare it to anything. Hints of Vision Of Disorder, tribal drumming, weird chords, and most of all, punishing breakdowns would form the band's sound. Visually, it was interesting to see a hardcore band on stage in Southern California with NO WHITE PEOPLE IN IT. Blood, hammers, "fight sticks", prop bottles... violence of the showey kind would eventually lead to violence of the real kind, or life imitating art.

Martin and Dre and Nick would eventually start the infamous Donnybrook!, and Martin now plays guitar in Terror.
This is the first demo the band put out, but i really feel like the second one was better. I only have the "remixed" version of that, with a bunch of extra sounds and effects that Nick put in after his time in recording school, and i feel that it is missing the rawness and brutality of the original version. But at least there's no Mike Milford singing on it.



Hurricanrana Destroying The Opposition 2001

Saturday, September 19, 2009

SSITNHaC


When you gonna shave that hairy fuckin' chooch?

Friday, September 18, 2009

18 Visions Tour Journal


i found an old journal with some entries devoted to 18 Visions tour
heres a sample:

December 29th, 1999
We are leaving Chicago and things have been so great. It took us 38 hours to get here. I drove for 13 hours straight, from Albuquerque to Missouri. We got to Brandan's mom's house at about 5pm, and decided to go to a movie at the mall. We ran into Pete (Wentz) and Mani, who we thought was in Guatemala. We got into the movie and i slept straight through it. Went back to the house for showers and sleep. I had one of the worst sleeps of my entire life, which didnt help after 6 hours of sleep in the past 2 days.
Woke up and made our way downtown. Vegan Chicago style pizza was a treat. Just chilled in the city until the show, which was at the Fireside Bowl, an old bowling alley that Brandan and i have always dreamed of playing. The show was with XCLEARX and 3 bands that sounded like Hatebreed. Lots of friends. After the show we had vegan french toast and other good stuff.

December 30th, 1999
At our show in Albany. The last couple days are a total blur. We left chicago and made it just into Ohio when our van took at shit at around 6am. We were 11 hours from Philly and didn't think we'd make it. After a trip to a mechanic, we made it back on the road and barely made the show in Philly. The show was fucking awesome! Hung with Carl (Severson), Big Daddy, and Torn Apart. They were so amazing!!! Nora was kinda whatever, but still fun. Overall, the show was really really good.
Stayed at (Chris) Ross' house in Jersey. It was a nice sleep but it smelled like smoke. Snapcase came to sleep too. Uh, Cool. Ate and stuff in NJ and made it here to Albany.

(note: That show in Philly was at the Stalag, and Try. Fail. Try also played. I also bought an Ink & Dagger record from Robby Redcheeks. I remember that he had one with real blood on it that he was selling for 75 dollars!!! I also remember Keith being so shocked that there were no white people on the streets.)
Torn Apart setlist

December 31st, 1999 I-90 westbound
I just realized that its the last day of the year. Fuck the y2k bullshit.
Anyway, we are on our way to Syracuse from Albany. Small show, but still awesome. The August Prophecy played, and they were amazing in every way. It really made me want to start another band.
I've had such a good time on this tour. Meeting new people is the best. It makes driving crazy distances all worth it.
We haven't been fighting, and I'm not sure why. Maybe because all of the shows have been good and we are just excited to be here. Biggie has really kept the spirits up too. The next four days should be awesome.

January 4th, 2000 Winston Salem, NC
We are in North Carolina and it sucks. I'm not really having a good time at all. Ever since we left Buffalo I have been in a shitty mood. Everything was going so well. The New Year's Day show was really fun... so many rad bands and good kids, except Snapcase being fucking assholes.
From there we went to Erie and it was one of the best shows of my life. We played good and had so much fun. Girls were throwing bras at Keith. We stayed with Leah (Urbano). It was just a rad time.
From there we went to Buffalo. It was cold and rainy, as most of our time in that area was. We played some bar with Dillinger Escape Plan and Idle Hands. I got to hang out with Sweeper and Janelle, and saw Scott (Vogel). The show was just OK but being around friends made it worthwhile.
In Syracuse we picked up a passenger, Angela, who looks a lot like Kathleen. She wants to move to OC and she seems pretty nice.
I guess it all started going downhill when i drove through the night in really bad weather into the shithole part of America. I've been arguing with everyone. I don't like where I am, my body is sore, I just want to be back home with my friends. Things were so awesome until today. I just already have this idea in my head that the next 5 days will suck so bad.

January 5th, 2000 Tennessee
We're driving through Tennessee right now and it looks kinda nice, but I'm sure as soon as the car stops it won't be cool. We played NC last night and I had zero fun. Yesterday was so shitty.
The August Prophecy randomly showed up and played. We all went to this fat kid named Dave's house out in the boonies. His grandma had died in the house and it stank of death. There was mildew and trash everywhere and Doug took a shit in the shower, so i slept in the August Prophecy bus. They have a short bus with a TV and playstation and tons of room. I hate the south a lot so far. We are on our way to Nashville and then to Memphis. Suck.

January 7th, 2000 Texas
We're on our way to Houston right now after driving all night from Memphis. Memphis wasnt as good as Nashville. In Nashville some girl asked me and Ken to Sign her boobs and then we got to touch them.
The south itself sucks, but the shows have been ok. We played a few times with this band called Spitfire from VA and they are pretty cool.

January 10th
Just made it home. We didn't die. Good times.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Stuck In The Past

so it looks like they might have to drop the X's from the name, cause Xstuck in the pastX has asked me to contribute to the blog.

now i only have 5 blogs

www.xstuckinthepastx.blogspot.com

Saturday, September 5, 2009

18 Visions

found some old 18V stuff in an envelope.

Josh Trustkill sent us a batch of stickers. we were just as baffled as anyone else as to why it said "hollywood" on it, but whos gonna say no to free stickers? i think that he thought it added to the "mystique" of the band


Review from Scratch Magazine. awesome.

Friday, September 4, 2009

lost mstk layout

i found the original layout that Ben Goetting made for the "fuck everything up" record. unfortunately, this layout was scrapped even before the lyrics were inserted. We took some of the rest of the layout and messed with it until Ben, Cheesegrater and myself were happy with the end result. While the final cd booklet isnt as exciting as id planned, or as some of this, its still a great snapshot in time. keep in mind that this was 2002.

rough draft of the cover of the cd


i believe this quote was from "please kill me" and pretty much summed up the reason why we started the mistake.





what became the back cover was originally the center spread. it was taken with a disposable panoramic camera at Showcase Theater.