Some Dudes Tell Stories

GEHENNA interview

2010-02-12T17:52:00.001-08:00

Gehenna's Mike Rhoades was interviewed for Blood Book Issue #4 (Winter 1995/1996) - a 'zine done by Dwid (Integrity). This issue was limited to 666 and included a 7" version of the Ringworm demo.

BB: What does "Gehenna" mean?
Mike: A lake of fire, in a part of hell which is pretty much on earth right now.
BB: What releases do you guys have out?
Mike: We have a demo and a split 7" with Apt. 213.
BB: Do you have aspirations for an upcoming full length record?
Mike: It's all up in the air right now. We may do something on our own or maybe something with Earache.
BB: Earache?
Mike: Yeah. We have been talking to this guy who works for them. He used to be in Heresy! He's totally cool. I hope everything works out. They put out a ton of awesome stuff. Entombed "Left Hand Path"... you know?
BB: So, what are your feelings on the fallen hardcore movement at present?
Mike: It's pretty pitiful. There's just a bunch of fucked up kids. Followers. There's too many cliques. And whatever is thought to be "cool" in the city you're in, well then that's what you're supposed to be into. And if you don't fit into the trendy style that they like, then you get ostracized. We're not even recognized as a band from our old home town. We were outlawed in San Diego. That's one of the reasons we move around so much.
BB: Yeah, we saw a flyer for your band with pictures of you and Mike Cheese on it, saying that you were banned from the scene! How fucking ridiculous. Who did that stupid shit and why?
Mike: A bunch of kids that look like Spock from Star Trek did it. They all have that stupid haircut like him. They're supposed to be like all the "cool" kids that everyone wants to be tight with, and we know that these kids are full of shit so they all hate us, they made flyers with our pictures on them stating that we were "kicked out of the scene". They were like wanted posters.
BB: Judging from your live performances and your approach to this interview, have any of you ever been institutionalized?
Mike: Not recently. Maybe once a long time ago in the bowels of a worm.
BB: Let's try something easy. What are some of your favorite bands?
Mike: Voivod, G.I.S.M., Integrity, Mobb Deep, Wu Tang.
BB: I know you are into collecting records, and you are the only guy I know that has at least a dozen Project X e.p.'s, but what records are you looking for?
Mike: Snukythe
BB: What are your religious affiliations?
Mike: I'm not sure I believe in anything.
BB: You seem rather calm today. Is there something wrong?
Mike: I'd like to do a split 7" with a river. (??!!!)
BB: How do you feel about the newly formed Holy Terror movement?
Mike: It's good that you turn your back on all that candy ass hardcore stuff. Now there will finally be a genre where we "fit in".
BB: Didn't your old room-mate shoot your girlfriend in the head with an AK-47?
Mike: Yeah, he did. The dumb ass was f**king around with it and didn't know it was loaded. She was just sitting on the floor and he shot her in the neck. She didn't die though, she bled all over the place.
BB: Have you guys been touring?
Mike: We did a small tour with Integrity last summer, and this summer we're going to tour across the country with this band called Fall Silent from Reno.
BB: Final words?
Mike: Gehenna killer bees are swarming.

WORKSHED RECORDS

2010-02-12T17:49:00.000-08:00

Workshed Records existed from 1988 into the early 90's. It was run by Dan O'Mahoney (No For An Answer, 411, God Forgot, Carry Nation, Speak 714). Here's a somewhat accurate Workshed Discography:

Hard Stance - Face Reality 7" (WSR #1, 1988)
1st Press - Blue Vinyl (1000)
2nd Press - Red Vinyl (1000)
3rd Press - Green Vinyl (1000)
4th Press - Black Vinyl (1000)
5th Press - Clear Vinyl (1000)

Headfirst - Back In Control 7" (WSR #2, 1989)
Clear
Purple
Black

Carry Nation - Face The Nation 7" (WSR #3, 1989)
Clear
Black

Shocking Truth - Acquaintance 7" (WSR #4)
Yellow
Black

Voicebox - Silence Lies 7" (WSR #5, 1990)
Blue
Black

Headfirst - The Enemy LP/CD (WSR #6, 1991)
White
Black

411 - This Isn't Me LP (WSR #7, 1991)
Maroon
Black

Mission Impossible - s/t 7" (WSR #8)
Purple
Black

Blackspot - Check Out The Helmet 7" (WSR #8)
Pink - 1
Green - 1
Purple - 2
Orange - 50-100 (?)
Clear - 300 (?)
Black

Triggerman - Dead Like Me LP/CD (WSR #9, 1992)
Black

Note: Blackspot 7" and Mission Impossible 7" are both Workshed Records #8. I've been told this was due to an argument over whose record would come out first, thus the label listed them both as #8.

GEHENNA

2010-02-12T17:46:00.000-08:00

11.11.07 / Que Sera (Long Beach, CA) / Pic: OldHCdude.com.

Gehenna Discography (leave a comment with more / different info):

- Demo [Revolutionary Power Tools #1]
- Split 7" with Apartment 213 [Area 51 #3]
--- Photocopied Cover w/ 7-headed serpent on back
--- Manilla Envelope Sleeve w/ Silkscreened Acetate front
--- * Blue Ink on Insert
--- * Red Ink on Insert
- Birth of Vengeance 7" [Revolutionary Power Tools #6]
---Red Cover w/ vellum lyric sheet
---Serpent Cover
- War of the Sons of Light and the Suns of Darkness CD
- Live Split LP with Catharsis [Wicked Witch #15]
---Black Vinyl
- Negotium Perambulans In Tenebris LP [Crawlspace #3]
---Black Vinyl
- Upon The Gravehill LP [King of the Monsters #17]
---Black Vinyl
- V/A In Our Time LP [CrimethInc]
---White Marble Vinyl
---Red Marble Vinyl
- Lands of Sodom 7" [Hit The Deck]
--- Limited Cover (# / 25)

--- Regular Cover
- War of the Sons of Light and the Suns of Darkness LP
--- Orange Vinyl
--- Green Vinyl

"Birth of Vengeance" Test Pressing:

"Birth of Vengeance" Limited Cover:

Finn McKenty did an interview with Mike Cheese around 1995. I copied it from his blog (http://lightheavyweight.blogspot.com):

I interviewed Mike Cheese from Gehenna. He wasn’t very nice, but since I went to the trouble of writing him I guess I might as well print this anyway... I don’t think it turned out very well, but interviews aren’t very interesting to begin with so whatever.

What’s up in San Diego? It seems like the stereotype is that they’re all screamo Gravity type bands...

It’s really hard to say cause we all live in different parts of the West. One in San Diego, two in Orange County, and 2 in Reno, Nevada. As far as the “scene” in general everywhere in the US sucks shit pretty much. And Southern California is no different. Stupid ass people and crumby ass motherfucking chump bands everywhere you look. Fashion rules while any real threat takes a back seat. Hardcore is shit!

How would you say the band has changed since it started? The demo is pretty straightforward HC, while the split w/ Apt. 213 is more grindy.

Gehenna is a band with a sort of “revolving door” line up. Members come and go, each adding or subtracting a bit of an influence or another. But it seems to always move to a more extreme form of music every time.

How many people in the band write? (I meant write graffiti...)

None of us are illiterate. But when it comes to writing letters to friends or what not, you’d think so!

What records do you still have available?

I couldn’t help ya there. Sorry.

I heard you got in a fight or something in San Francisco when you played with Spazz and Fall Silent. What’s up with that?

I got Terrets Syndrom (sic) and sometimes shit just goes wrong and I’ll freak the fuck out and just start doing wild shit. I don’t remember exactly but you can ask the nerd who does Monkydickbite zine. He was at our show to pretend he was punk but went outside to *** off and suck some cock to get an interview or scene points for his *** ass zine. Or maybe ask the vegan Monster Crew ***, who thought he was tough and wound up layed on his sissy vegan ass. I don’t fuckin’ know though.

What bands / records / people are you into right now?

We like a ton of stuff here’s the rundown: Bands: GG Allin, The Motherfucking Titty Suckers, Avalanche Master, Fall Silent, Unruh, Apeshit, DEA, Schellar, DRI, Chain of Strength, Enewetak, the Chiefs, Catharsis, Sleep, the Police, The whole Rap-A-Lot Records family, Gehenna (us of course!), Herb Alpert and the TJ Brass, and 3 Stoned Men! Records: 7”, 12”, and misdemeanors. Felony’s (sic) are to (sic) hard to shake. People: “The 3-D’s”: Dice, Dangerfield, and el Duce.

When you hear about people in bands like Nirvana, Pennywise, etc. dying from overdoses, what’s your reaction?

I hope our band end’s (sic) up like that. I couldn’t give a flyin’ fuck. Suicide is the only answer anyway’s. (sic) Just do it. Kill everybody.

Anything you want to add / thank / talk shit about?

I would like to thank: Everyone who is dead for not bothering me, the inventor of pot and the inventor of fire, the inventor of pot on fire, and all the bad words that make people mad. I would like to talk shit to: Everyone alive for bothering me. I want to add: 420 + 40oz = fucked up’ 420 + 69 = party! Shout outs: “Check me out.” “That’s what men’s do.” “Sometimes I just loose my mind when I play drums.” ‘Blow me.”

Gehenna / Box 83694 / San Diego, CA 92138-3694

SANGRAAL

2010-02-12T17:44:00.000-08:00

SANGRAAL is Gehenna's black metal/thrash side-project. It features Cheese on bass, Rhoades on guitar/vocals, and Josh on drums. When they played the PCH Club, I took 1 picture and it turned about pretty bad:
Wicked Witch Records released an LP titled "Wolves of Armaggedon" (WWR #16). The regular version comes on black vinyl and features a gatefold sleeve (note the Seven Crowns on decapitated heads in the cover art). I've heard it's limited to 500.
There's also a limited version on maroon/black swirl vinyl, with different cover art, a pentagram drawn in real (human?) blood on the back, and hand numbered out of 48.
Shirts were made, but unfortunately, I never ordered one.

Download the SANGRAAL LP

Function

2010-02-12T17:43:00.000-08:00

Orange County hardcore in 1992 and 1993 saw the emergence, rapid rise, and sudden demise of Huntington Beach's FUNCTION. A sort of "little brother" band to Blackspot (literally, as Function's Barry Fader was Sean Fader of Blackspot's younger sibling), they quickly garnered a rabid legion of young fans aided in part by some members association with "Kid Crew", a sort of Sloth Crew, Jr. Function, along with Neck Deep, played their last show(s) on December 10, 1993 at Club 8 1/2 in Fullerton, CA (a/k/a Club Apparition / Club 369).
The lineup: Matt Enright (Eleven Thirty-Four / Enswell / Piccolo Petes), Barry Fader (Blackspot / Eleven Thirty Four / Innaway), Chris Cechin, Zack Woods, and Jason Luparello.

They recorded 7 songs total. Six of these were released as a demo, a 7", and in a cassette version of the 7". The 7th song was a cover of Embrace's "No More Pain" which appeared on the "Land of Greed, World of Need" compilation (Trustkill / Watermark).

The "S/T" 7" is Crisis Records #7. There are Green Vinyl and Black Vinyl versions:

After the demise of Function, Matt and Barry formed Eleven Thirty Four, whose song "Step Off The Tracks" was rumored to be an unrecorded Function tune.

Flyer for Function / Blackspot Summer 1993 U.S. Tour:
Function Discography (warning: low quality rip): http://www.megaupload.com/?d=2TWI66EN

If anyone has a better quality MP3 rip, please let me know.

Looking for a Test Pressing of the 7", as well as any shirts, flyers, etc. PDRecords [at] Gmail [dot] com.

Blackspot

2010-02-12T17:41:00.000-08:00

Cleaning up / consolidating blogs. This was posted elsewhere before, but will reside here now:

Blackspot existed from 1991 (their first show was Insted's last) until about 1998, and in that time rarely played beyond the borders of Southern California - with the notable exception of a Summer 1993 U.S. tour with Function.
Alano Club / Long Beach, CA / July '94 / Photo: Prime Directive

The original lineup featured Greg Brown, Scott Lytle, Chris Lohman (Collateral Damage / John Henry Holiday), and Sean Fader. Barry Fader (Function / Eleven Thirty Four / Innaway) & Roger Merritt replaced Lohman on guitar in the summer of 1994, but Lohman returned in the end for a 3 (!) guitar attack.

My pride and joy:Blackspot Discography:
- Demo
- "Check Out The Helmet" 7" [Workshed Records #8]
--- Pink Vinyl (1)
--- Green Vinyl (1)
--- Purple Vinyl (2)
--- Orange Vinyl
--- Clear Vinyl
--- Black Vinyl
- "Banana Split" 7" with Triceratops [Bastille Records #1]
--- Chinese Symbols Cover (10)
--- Live Cover (30)
--- Yellow Vinyl (300)
--- Black Vinyl (600+)
- V/A Guilty By Association LP [Indecision Records #5]
--- Red Vinyl (476)
--- Black Vinyl (1260)
- V/A Bringing It Back 7" [Ammunition Records]
--- White Vinyl

If anyone has more specific pressing information, please let me know. Also, if you've got anything I might want (rare 7" pressings, test pressings, SHIRTS, etc), drop me a line: PDRecords [at] Gmail [dot] com.

Blackspot Discography: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=8H6PQXIQ

into another again

2010-01-21T08:50:00.000-08:00

i love into another.

i have a couple of into another 12"s on ebay right now. i dont really care about collection vinyl anymore.
my ebay

we posted a live into another record a few months ago
http://bestoftimesoc.blogspot.com/2009/05/into-another-live.html
but when i started doing that i was naive to the ways of uploading music for downloading and used rapidshare. here is is again, on mediafire
live at the tune inn, 1994

and if youve never heard it, i suggest picking up their lost, unfinished masterpiece "soul control"

the first time i heard them was probably in Gabe Wyatt's car, maybe 10th or 11th grade (so, 1994?) and i think i literally laughed out loud. i remember Gabe and Jim Schwartz singing about lying on their backs in the front yard of a suburban home, and i didnt get it. for a few weeks. then, i got it.
i think i saw them 4 times, including once at Cal State Fullerton with Seaweed. amazing every time.
i saw Richie once at Alisan, wearing like Oakley's with yellow lenses, playing chess by himself. it was really awkward.
ive always wanted an into another tattoo. maybe i will will some day.

how i learned how to lick basses and stop worrying

2009-11-26T12:56:00.000-08:00

i was reminded by my friend Buske about this awesome part of my past:

@javjavjav Whenever I see dudes lick their basses I think of you. No homo.

he is, of course, referring to the video where i lick my bass. actually, maybe hes referring to the whole period of my life where i was licking the necks of both my bass and James Hart.

but, as with all cool things, there has to be an origin or inspiration. mine came from an unlikely source.

Refused.

yes. Refused. the influential, liberal, revolutionary hardcore punk band from Sweden. who woulda thought?
but in i believe it was 1996, Refused played the Showcase Theater in Corona. i think with Spawn, maybe Strain. who the fuck knows. anyway... it was before they were super mod. they were still a hardcore band. "rather be dead" was their best known song at the time. the bass player had an awesome bowl cut, and guess what? he licked his bass. a lot.
bass guitars do not taste good. especially after a few nights on the road, where all you taste is literally metal, sweat, and maybe a little blood. i dont recommend it.

population: 1

2009-11-21T11:24:00.000-08:00

in the book WE GOT THE NEUTRON BOMB, they talk about a movie called Population 1 that Tomata Du Plenty starred in, and about how it tore apart the Screamers.

here is the trailer to that movie

GEHENNA video

2009-11-12T17:35:00.000-08:00

Vintage GEHENNA (circa '96) @ Koo's. Yours truly can be spotted sporting a Mummies t-shirt:

Ray Cappo explains Straight Edge

2009-11-11T07:16:00.000-08:00

Over the years I've ignored most of the gossip I've heard about myself. I find gossip a waste of time for both the hearer as well as the speaker. I let it go, "Ray Cappo's dead, Ray Cappo's in Jail, Ray Cappo has a secret arcade in the temple basement, Ray Cappo's not a Krishna.... I know all these things first hand" But I must address my recent accusation... "Ray Cappo's a drunkard and gets wasted everynight on tour with Better than 1000 and preaches Straight edge on stage, and this is why Jeff Neuman quit the band, due to Ray Cappo's blatant hypocrisy".

Sit back cuz all this I'm going to address all this, and not to save my face, but to point out the fucking idiocy, psychosis, and the neurotic behavior that has comes about in our hardcore scene over something like SXE, which was initially intended (at least in my book) to better one self and have one keep their body and mind in control. These principles I love and support and rally behind both in my lyrics and for the most part, in my life.

Important personal backround: As a person I love natural foods, healthy living, working out, natural medicine martial arts, yoga, enlightening literature and good friends. I hate; lethargy, laziness, junkfood, duplicity, arrogance. For the most part I try to steer myself in the direction of the first batch although I'm definitely not perfect. I don't like intoxication and I never really have. I don't like how it makes my body feel, I don't like the fact that it destroys my liver and brain cells and I don't like the fact of potentially doing something ridiculous by my not having control over my body and senses.

But I've grown, the hard way into becoming very accepting of people that do drink, smoke or whatever. I guess because when YOT started I had fanatic blood in me. (which I think mellowed down by the time Break Down the Walls came out, only to be traded in for fanatic Krishna blood which sort of calmed down by the time of MANTRA was released) I condemned, criticized and belittled those who weren't like me. Any shit I get now from kids is some karma I'm going to have to eat so I don't even mind so much.

My real important lesson over the years was that there has to be a motive behind things. WHY? WHY are we SXE? What's our motivation behind the Act? Is it merely so we can get a "True till Death Tattoo"? Is it because we want to feel accepted in a crew and part of an elite rank? IS it because we have a hardcore hero that is? Or is it because we want to better ourselves in this lifetime? Now I hope you chose the last one. If you chose any of the others I think you should start being a little reflective, perhaps start thinking for yourself and develop your own opinions.

Whenever we do something for self-improvement we should be careful not to be arrogant though. This is the sticky web the fanatic gets caught in all the time. The Fanatic hates dialogue. There's one way. His way. The only way. We've all witnessed it with bible thumping Christians, Bhagavad Gita thumping Krishna's or banner waving SXEer's. Fanatics don't necessarily even know Why they are intowhat they're into a generally can't explain it very well to an educated person. They're generally arrogant. Arrogance is not a quality those who want to improve themselves cherish. We generally don't see arrogant people as evolved. So, the question is, "if you're getting into straight edge for bettering yourself, why develop arrogance alongside of it?

The real sad gist of it all is that not all people get into SXE for the right reasons and they further complicate their lives. For example, my mother. She's not SXE. But she's great. She's funny, sweet and would do anything for anybody at any time of the day. If I chose to call her up right now (I'm in Washington DC) and said "mom (she's in NYC) I don't feel good can you come down here" She would come. At the same time I know a few SXE kids who are the biggest meanest assholes I ever met. Which is a higher principle?

When Youth of Today would play in Boston and Slapshot would put meat products on our van did I have any respect for their version of SXE. No. As a matter of fact from then on I realized people have different motivations why they get into it and a lot of times it's less than noble. In the name of this noble movement we have some people doing some real fucked up things yet feeling safe, self righteous, above the rest behind their SXE banner. This is fucking disgusting- right up there with the inquisitions, Salem witch-hunts, Ku Klux Klan, and McCarthyism. Hiding behind a veil of perfection but fueled by arrogance. How 'bout SXE band that recently had a stripper over there house and were licking whip cream off her body. Is this type of depersonalization of women something to be self righteous about?

Let me also state that this is the exact same reason why I gave up waving a Krishna banner. Not because I don't believe in Krishna, God or the particular way of life...I don't preach it unsolicited because I felt the same thing was going on in that scene too. Arrogance in the name self betterment (I was guilty of it too-an apology) I've forced myself to become accepting of others because, fuck, maybe other people have some good idea's too. Fuck maybe I'm not the smartest most perfect guy I thought I was, and fuck I don't even know the person yet I'm jumping to all these conclusions about them.

My crime was when I was in Italy, in wine country, in a particular village in front of the entire band I had a glass of wine with my meal. Big fucking deal. Some how this turned into "Ray's been Drinking in Europe". (There's an equal amount of truth in that statement as in Bill Clinton's "I didn't have sex....") It's nothing I'm ashamed of. It's nothing I even thought twice about. It's nothing I feel to be ethically twisted or a philosophical U turn. Has it scarred my character? I think, and I'm sure any practicing psychiatrist would think that if you have a problem with it then you've got the problem, not me. Is this type of neurotic finger pointing the sign of people psychologically healthy and secure with their own convictions? Even if I got wasted out of my mind...why is that anyones business or problem but my own? Shouldn't one offer sympathy rather than cruelty? I urge peoplee to really look at why we became straightedge. Is it merely to prove we're better than other people? No. This is fucking wrong.

Here's the other sad thing. Imagine if I did get drunk every night. What kind of a community have we developed that a person gets, condemned ostracized and expelled rather than encouraged loved and supported by friends? Wouldn't true friends say, "shit ray you've been getting drunk every night, are you going through a rough time or something? Could I help in any way? Do you need a friend to talk to?" This is friendship in my book. This is the type of community I want to be a part of. Wouldn't you want that as a friend instead of a fair whether Judas who betrays you in a moment. Finger pointing SXE kids should take a lesson from Alcoholics Anonymous. I recently went to an AA meeting with a friend who is a recovering alcoholic to observe their techniques in healing and empathy. The groups trust and lack of judgement fascinated me. Because they've developed a society of trust and confidentiality, people feel free to entirely reveal they're faults, which is a first step for improving them. The others in turn empathetically listen and encourage. I was so impressed by their character and aspire to be like that too. I want to become that type of friend that a person can really trust and count on.

So here's the deal. If we want to become SXE, Krishna, Vegan, Vegetarian, Hardcore, or what ever do it for the soul reason that WE want to become it. These are personal choices. Practically speaking no one else's business. Once we make them into political parties they tend to be self-defeating. We should be happy with ourselves and not make others feel intimidated because they're not like us. If we actually want to influence (a lot of these groups want to preach because they're into what they believe) follow the Advice of Socrates. Just become happy and balanced with your life. Socrates said being a living example is the best form of influence. It's better than debate or preaching. If you 're happy and balanced people will want to be like you. You need not even speak unless asked.

To me life and spirituality has become so personal. I don't talk about it unless people want to know. I'm saddened by the even the questions "are you straight edge or are you Krishna?" because I don't want to be sized up by people right off the bat. I want people to respect or disrespect me for what I am,and get to know me but not because I wear particular logo or subscribe to a particular philosophy.

In closing I especially feel sad for the bands who rant and rave about fallen SXE heroes on stage and how fucked up they are. I know all those fallen SXE edge heroes. I grew up with them and they were good people with good hearts who said good things and changed a lot of people's lives. (Even yours Toby) If they can't live up to those principles today it's sad but maybe they're better off in some other way that you or I can't see. Instead of scrutinizing their foibles, why not scrutinize your own? Encourage and support each other. Life is a long path filled with ups and downs. If you're down someday won't it be nice if someone picks you up. Most of all people be kind.- rc

Shirts v.3 (New Age Records)

2009-10-21T00:09:00.000-07:00

I've never seen or even heard of another one of these. Beverly Hills 90210 rip-off design. Very early shirt as that's the Big Bear zip-code. At what point did Hartsfield move? Not near my record collection, so can't check my Powerhouse, etc. 7"s to figure it out.

Shirts v.2 (Man Is The Bastard)

2009-10-21T00:03:00.000-07:00

I missed out on this gem when M.I.T.B. was around. Found it on eBay semi-recently, though. Still looking for the one with a Hindu god (?) juggling MITB skulls. They were selling it at the Koo's show with Lack Of Interest (Nov. '94 ?), but I was an idiot and didn't pick one up.

Classic M.I.T.B. showcasing their love of Hello Kitty. Simple and awesome:

Shirts v.1 (Econochrist)

2009-10-20T23:25:00.000-07:00

I'm going to post some pictures of my shirt collection. Part archive, part bragging, part addition to the institutional knowledge of hardcore.

Everyone knows my love of all things early 90's and crusty. Resultingly, sometime in the late 90's my man A.P. gave me a sweet original Econochrist shirt. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of lending it to a friend. Word of advice; never do this. I never saw it again. I was mad for 10 years. Like, legitimately pissed every time I saw that person. Then I found the exact same shirt on eBay. Now I can be nice to said human again.

Coalesce / Cave In 10.8.09

2009-10-09T11:15:00.001-07:00

got the chance to hang out with Sean Ingram at the free Coalesce and Cave In show at the Knitting Factory in Hollywood that was sponsored by Scion. I felt like i was interviewing him, so ill try to pass along some of what i learned.
1. Scion was sponsoring the event as a marketing tool. instead of putting money into tv ads and stuff, they flew the two bands across country to play in markets that they thought needed help, Atlanta and LA. the bands got to stay in 4 star hotels and all expenses paid for. the cool thing was that Scion didnt put up ANY posters. all they did was pass out shirts after the show. the knitting factory holds 500 people, and close to 2000 people RSVP'd for free entry.
2. Sean has 4 kids, Jes has 4 kids, Nathan has 2 and Jr. has 2.
3. Smallville is a real city in Kansas
4. Coalesce rules

Sean is one of the smartest most down to earth dudes ive ever met. i feel lucky to call him a friend. its awesome when your friends happen to be in some of your favorite bands.

Cave In was whatever. they played a couple old songs, and a bunch of new ones. honestly i dont like anything they did after Creative Eclipses.

After the show we went to House Of Pies and then walked by Danzig's house.
Good Night.

Born Against

2009-10-02T15:26:00.001-07:00

From Adam Nathanson's zine, a little write up/ history of Born Against. Awesome.

Indecision Newsletter

2009-10-01T10:21:00.000-07:00

Before Indecision was a prolific record label, it was an awesome zine.
I think this may have come out before the final issue, and is just kind of a scene report. it's a cool snapshot of the time.

HURRICANRANA- Destroying The Opposition

2009-09-21T18:57:00.000-07:00

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

SSITNHaC

2009-09-19T17:30:00.000-07:00

When you gonna shave that hairy fuckin' chooch?

18 Visions Tour Journal

2009-09-18T16:45:00.000-07:00

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.

Bringing It Back, part 2

2009-09-17T16:22:00.000-07:00

Stuck In The Past

2009-09-15T15:57:00.000-07:00

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

18 Visions

2009-09-05T18:25:00.001-07:00

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.

lost mstk layout

2009-09-04T15:05:00.000-07:00

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.

Throwdown at Stone's house

2009-08-31T21:04:00.001-07:00

Aaron Stone lived on Santa Ana Avenue in Costa Mesa, CA. His family had decided to move away, and they let Aaron have a show there on the last night of living there.
Sadly, due to either work or being ostracized from that scene at the time (i'll go with the latter), I didn't go to the show.
I found this picture of Throwdown in Accession Fanzine, made by Matt Mently, who went on to play for Throwdown a few years later. It's an awesome picture. From left to right, ill lay the scene.
First, Brandan is playing guitar, and striking a nice pose. Next to him, you can see the blond ponytail of one of the Bowne brothers. To his right, wearing a visor, is Dave "brundy" Brundage. Adam Vanberklaer is possibly smiling next to him, and our very own Cheesegrater is sporting shorts and most likely flip flops.
Couple other randos, then you see Aaron Stone himself. Heavy K looks like he's flying quite high, but im quite sure that it is an illusion of perspective, because Dom next to him is only 5'6" and kinda bent over. The Mighty Bishop is in the background, next to the GET SICK sign.
This was also the night that Sean Gorman threw Dom's girlfriend off of the room, and im pretty sure someone went through a wall.
Good Times.

newport takeover

2009-08-31T20:57:00.001-07:00

found this in Tumult Fanzine, made by Kathleen. wow.

bringing it back, part 1

2009-08-20T18:45:00.001-07:00

hang up your boots

2009-08-16T14:04:00.000-07:00

in 2000/ 2001 i lived at this house called Rosscore, named after its primary resident, Mark J. Ross. Mark was/is and awesome dude. he had a website called www.markjross.com where he would just put pictures he took of his friends in chronological order. if you missed a day in the pictures, you felt like you missed out.
i dont remember much about living at this house. a few random flashes, like taping Eric Johnson's entire door from floor to ceiling with packing tape. getting home from being on the road for 7 weeks with Poison The Well, sick as fuck and throwing up/shitting at the same time in the shower. being called a sellout by Keith Barney. stepping over Mark's new wife's puke in the doorway. having Erick J. Pressman live on my couch for an entire summer while 1000 Knives mailed us what we dubbed "green vinyl", which we smoked and then would get in the car and listen to ISIS for like an hour.
i especially remember discovering this band called Right Brigade. holy fuck. just pure fucking hardcore, with an emphasis on the HARD. i was hooked. i dont know where i picked up the split with A Poor Excuse, but i know five things about this record for sure.
1. ive only listened to A Poor Excuse's side once
2. its on yellow vinyl
3. they cover SLAPSHOT
4. its fucking awesome
5. i know absolutely fuck all about Right Brigade. nothing except maybe members went on to be in American Nightmare? and they had some sort of debacle with Revelation Records.

i searched around the interwebs for a download of this, but then i found a cd in my 8 stacks of loose cds titled "VINYL", and it was filled with random crap that i burned while my cd burner was still working. in the middle of this cd was this split 7".
i have tried to start a band that rips this record off 100%, and have never sucessfully done it. bummer.

http://rapidshare.com/files/268140414/Split_7_.zip

just past Gay St.

2009-08-14T18:02:00.000-07:00

here is the final six songs the mistake ever recorded.

For some reason we just could never make the mistake die. theres been years in between releases, shows... band members come and gone. nobody cares. well, Agi cares, and Cheesegrater cares.

Mark and i decided it was time to record some new stuff, to annoy people, since we had some old shit lying around that never got recorded. we actually at one time had an entire full length written "adios motherfuckers", for Indecision Records. Mandel even made ads for it and we simply forgot the songs because we didnt practice for almost a year. idiots.

well, Dan (as previously posted in Throwdown VS Reno), owed me some studio time (we traded haircuts for recording). Mark and i recruited Evan Sinclair to play drums for the recording. His brother Blake had been in the Mistake for about 5 minutes (or one show, whichever came first). we never practiced with him. well, maybe once, as we had with Alex the day before HE recorded with us. itow never laid down his bass tracks, i played bass, guitar, and song on this recording.

this was actually recorded with the intent to go straight to iTunes, as Cheesegrater was putting the mistake catalog up. somehow these songs didnt make it though, and just kinda sat around. Dan's hard drive even crashed, and we thought the songs were lost forever. luckily, Mark had a cd of them.

it was all recorded in ONE DAY. i dont even know when. it was named for the fact that Dan's street is just after a street named GAY. i have a picture to prove it.

Mark and Evan wrote this version of "adios motherfuckers" before i even got there, i just learned it and jammed it out on the spot. wrote the lyrics too. we had a couple different versions of it before, but this is the one laid to tape (or whatever you say for protools). the lyrics to AMF were a stab at certain members of certain old bands who decided to reinvent themselves and return to the hardcore scene.

"tie a red ribbon" was recorded on the infamous "live at showcase" like fucking 8 years before. it was inspired by the movie AND THE BAND PLAYED ON

FUCK LIFE was something that we always said... its just a catchy phrase. and putting it to the bastardized music of Throwdown's UNITE? fucking genius if i dont say so myself. i even say "cock" instead of "rock".

yeah, we cover Jawbreaker covering Psycadellic Furs. so what. its so ridiculous that you can even hear me laughing as im singing it. and at the end i say "oh my god that was fucking terrible" and i meant it.

whatever. here it is.

1. tie a red ribbon
2. i miss my friends but my aim is improving
3. fuck life
4. at least im STILL not you (or travis smith)
5. adios motherfuckers
6. into you like a train

http://rapidshare.com/files/233892889/Just_Past_Gay_Street.zip

The Blackest Curse

2009-08-12T15:52:00.001-07:00

Fugazi 10 Year Anniversary show

2009-08-09T09:43:00.000-07:00

a while back, i saw an ad somewhere that this dude was selling soundboard recordings of like... over 100 Fugazi shows. as previously posted, im a HUGE Fugazi fan, and i had to have at least one. i thought about getting cds of shows that id been to, but decided to get one that was important and that i hadnt been to.

i settled on this one, September 3rd, 1997. it was recorded in their home town of Washington, DC. when the cd came, i was surprised to find that it wasnt just a crappy cdr with a photocopied cover, but had an actual cover and the cds were printed on. its 2 cds.

insert (not copied, sorry) says:
"please note: no attempt has been made to correct for volume shifts, drop outs or any other sonic anomalies found in the original live master tapes"
a couple of photos were stolen from Glen E. Friedman, and its interesting to note that Ian's long time partner, Amy Pickering, sings backups on the song Suggestion.

overall, its a great cross section of their music up to that point, songs from every album up to Red Medicine.
enjoy, i always do.

DISC ONE
http://rapidshare.com/files/265483404/live_1.zip

DISC TWO
http://rapidshare.com/files/265276053/live2.zip

Full Circle Thrash

2009-07-27T01:01:00.000-07:00

Full Circle Thrash Tour 2000. I caught the November 25th show in Pomona, CA at the Millenia Co-Op across the street from the Glasshouse.

Lineup was Esperanza, Lifes Halt, What Happens Next?, Total Fury, and The Oath.

The whole show was fast and fun -- reminded me of a PCH Club show. The pictures for the limited version of the What Happens Next? "Ahora..." 7" are from this show.

Luckily, this was before The Oath watched too many German submarine movies and decided to become crappy concept art-punk (if I want art-punk I'll listen to Wire or Pere Ubu)

Esperanza featured Rich (Dirty Dirt and The Dirts) on vox and Steve Aoki (This Machine Kills, Dim Mak, DJ) on guitar. They had a song on one of the Max Ward 625 comps, but the real deal was their demo. It shreds in a Minor Threat kinda way. This is a reminder to myself to upload it.

I bought a medium "tour" shirt but have gained weight. So, I recently grabbed a size large off eBay. Here it is:

BRINGING IT BACK

2009-07-12T16:09:00.000-07:00

so theres a show coming up, august 16th 2009, and you can read about it HERE. i wont post the details on the blog.
also peep THIS for some lolz

then watch this video:

it may look familiar as the setting of the back cover of "humanity is the devil" which always looked a little odd to me, Integrity playing outdoors? wtf? but this video puts it into perspective, and shows Integrity at their peak if you ask me. the classic SYSTEMS OVERLOAD era line-up.
also interesting about the video is that it was filmed by Jason Popson, who sang for In Cold Blood. he also did a lot of vocals on the HIGHLY under-rated INTEGRITY 2000 record... oh and he was in some band called Mushroomhead. he was also in this short film with Ryan Dunn (from Jackass)

also found a really cool thing about Integrity HERE on the Bid Hardcore blog. the replies to the post are awesome.

writing this, i got side tracked trying to find a video for the Damien Done song "ass-crack is the new cleavage" which Dwid directed, and also an awesome Vice TV interview ive seen before, where Dwid rambles pretty incoherently about Anton Lavey... but i couldnt find either one.

i found a "full discography" HERE, which isnt complete but still pretty good

i was actually kinda bummed when i read the Burning Fight book, and in the Integrity chapter Dwid talks about how the whole Holy Terror Church Of Final Judgement was MADE UP. i was actually contemplating JOINING that church when that shit came out. fucking joke's on me.

anyway, dust off the jersey, come sing along on August 16th.

Dead Kennedys

2009-07-10T03:43:00.001-07:00

On some tour, as we exited the vans in Portland, Jav said to me: "So this is Oregon, huh? Tolerant Oregon." I laughed, and probably responded with something about the KFC on Burnside or "I threeeeew the rock!" I don't think anyone else had a clue what we were talking about. Their loss. Posers.

"Too Drunk To Fuck" has always been my favorite Dead Kennedys song. No wonder my edge didn't last:

Anyway, I dare you to find a better line in punk than "Take out your fucking retainer, put it in your purse". Well, perhaps when Michelle says "No. Not at all, because I hate painters" while cooking eggs with Darby in Decline of Western Civilization:

Dead Kennedys "Live at The River Theater / 12.15.84" from Shiny Grey Monotone blog (which has great downloads for all you 80's/90's heavy-stuff AmRep / Northwest fans):

Part 1
Part 2

Track list:
1. Intro
2. Take This Job and Shove It
3. Hellnation
4. Dear Abby
5. When Ya Get Drafted
6. Buzzbomb
7. This Could Be Anywhere
8. MTV, Get Off the Air
9. Drug Me
10. Winnebago Warrior
11. I Spy
12. Jock-O-Rama
13. I Kill Children
14. Goons of Hazard
15. Kill The Poor
16. Police Truck
17. I Fought The Law (and I won)

Classic HC Downloads

2009-07-10T03:17:00.000-07:00

Blogged and Quartered has been posting outstanding collections of classic HC, heavy on 80's NYC and the Midwest. He does a great job of collecting various sources, cleaning up the sound, adding extensive discography and liner notes, and posting it all for my/your pleasure. Stuff like:

Straight Ahead, Absolution, Antidote, C.O.C., G.I.S.M., Life's Blood, Born Against, Krakdown, Outburst... with a mix of Rites of Spring, Joy Division, The Hated, etc. thrown in.

Highly recommended.

On that note, you should watch this incredible video again:

How great is Antidote?! I guarantee your band won't sound this good 25 years later:

Grandma's Boy vs. Throwdown vs. Reno

2009-07-08T21:11:00.000-07:00

sometimes, rarely, Keith Barney is right. in this case, its his words "dont lose sight" that ring in my ears.

i've lost sight.

we started this blog to tell stories. cool/ funny/ random stories about punk and hardcore and music and not just what rare bootlegs we've found to download.

my friend Dan spent some time playing guitar in Scars Of Tomorrow before he became an awesome recording dude and masterminding in Teenagers From Outerspace. he sent me his take on some sketchy shit that went down in Reno. its unedited, enjoy the story.

heres dan, to the right of Milford

The Throwdown/Reno Debacle

Let's set the scene here (so to speak)... It's 2004. Orange County Hardcore bands are bigger than ever. Dave Peters and Keith Barney had traded positions within Throwdown, with Keith moving to guitar and Dave making his formal vocal debut for Throwdown on 2003's Haymaker. By 2004 Haymaker was a pretty resounding success for the band and for Trustkill Records (whom they had joined the ranks of after leaving the mentioned-in-a-previous-post-and-now-Sherdog-employed Dave Mandel's Indecision Records). Dave's transition to vocalist was a relatively smooth one, and the backlash seemed relatively small. I don't think Jav and I will ever agree with who we thought had the “better voice”, but these matters are important when it comes to stupid debates that will go nowhere.
Throwdown was not the only band going through changes at the time. 2004 was kind of a weird time for the Orange County and LA scenes. Nearly every band was going through member changes and name changes on a monthly basis. By this time Hurricanrana was gone and in it's place there was Donnybrook! (More on them later.) Eighteen Visions had put out “Vanity” and the generally pop-influenced “Obsession” was just a few months away. Bleeding Through's “This Is Love, This Is Murderous” had become a massive record, and they had become a huge band in metal. With all these bands sharing members, it was no surprise that there was change in the air, and it's almost as though you could feel the end of that generation looming.
For me, these bands (Throwdown, Taken, Bleeding Through, 18v, Hurricanrana, etc.) were my introduction to what hardcore was. Seeing Throwdown or Bleeding Through at Showcase or Chain Reaction was as normal as high school parties were to all the other kids I went to school with. I finally got to see all my friends I had been waiting all week to meet up with, but didn't get to because they all went to different schools in different cities. I remember going to Showcase alone on my 19th birthday, because I knew I would get to see the friends that I would want to spend my birthday with anyways. That was just how it was then. Shows served as an excuse for me to spend time with the people that I didn't ever get to see otherwise.
So as these bands began to get more exposure and move on to bigger labels with better distro. Bigger venues (I refused to go to that Throwdown/Bleeding Through show at the Glasshouse just based on the sheer size of that fucking venue), bigger tours (Ozzfest?), and inevitably bigger problems, my interests started to change. By this time I had known people like Javier, and Grant from Bionic Cypress, and they would tell me that I would get over what I thought hardcore was, and develop new definitions and tastes. Grant would show me incredible music like Bohren and Der Club of Gore and The Blackheart Procession. Jav would tell me some ridiculous goal he had set for himself, like finishing an entire bottle of gin by 2am while instant messaging all of his friends. These things began to redefine what hardcore was to me. Shows became less important, and the acquaintances and friendships I had made moved beyond the bands. The final nail in what was my “hardcore youth” so to speak occurred in March of 2004 when I accompanied my friends on a trip up to Reno to see Throwdown, Donnybrook!, Bound In Blood, and Fate Thirteen at the final show at the Arkaik.
I wasn't really the roadtrip type. I didn't really like long drives, and I found it relatively hard to believe that any hardcore show was worth more than a two hour drive. Living on the border of LA and Orange County had spoiled me. Being able to get to any LA, OC, or IE venue in a half hour or so basically rendered me lazy when it came to going to hardcore shows. Most of the bands I wanted to see were coming through here and playing a couple of shows anyways, so why the hell would I want to drive hours and hours to go see a band I could see at home? Well for whatever god-awful reason, I decided to take this trip to Reno with my friends JD Kramer and Kevin Fifield. We went up to Reno with the Bound In Blood dudes, Gabe, Fick, Leib, and Graham. Previously, I had filled in for Bound In Blood on guitar, and at this time Kevin had taken over guitar duties for me. This would lead to a long and boringly-storied history of Kevin and I literally sharing everything. Bands, girls, burritos, jobs... But that shit would be even more of a waste of your time to read than this has been so far.
So anyways, we head up to Reno on what is one of the most ridiculous and pointless drives ever. Reno is a shithole, and I don't care if I ever go back. The best thing that has ever happened in Reno was the fact that I bowled there once. And I don't even think I cracked 100. So fuck that place. The SECOND best thing that ever happened in Reno was what happened after the Throwdown show.
We got to Arkaik early and loaded in. Knowing that this was the last show there, we expected a decent crowd, and given Throwdown's larger sature due to Haymaker's success, we had no doubts that it was going to be a good night. Local bands started the night and the place was already packed. I believe Armed For Battle and Cherish played first and second. The Southern California bands began to play and things began to kick up a bit. I believe Fate Thirteen went on, then Donnybrook!, then Bound In Blood, then Throwdown. At one point I was out in front talking to the door-girl (being sketchy) and I distinctly remember talking about how hot it was inside. The girl went on to tell me that they were way over capacity, and she was hoping the cops didn't get called because they would shut down the show. Before I knew it though, Throwdown was playing Don't Lose Sight and all of us California kids were losing our minds. By this time JD had already sold out, but it didn't matter, we all sang together and had a blast. The crowd was non-violent and there didn't seem to be any bad blood in the air.

After Throwdown's set we loaded up all of the gear and got ready to take off. Something weird was going on out front, and I didn't really pay much attention to it. A few minutes later I made my way to the front and there was a decent sized crowd out there yelling into the main entrance door. Just inside the entrance door I could see Dave Peters yelling back at the kids outside. Some of the kids had crowbars and they were hitting them against the wall telling Dave to come out. Dave was basically responding with common sense answers and asking them why he would want to come out if he knew he was just going to get hit with a crowbar (a reasonable response). The kids were yelling something about Throwdown stealing money from the other bands, and Dave was trying to respond with proper answers, but to no avail. By this time some unnamed members of one of the Southern California bands had found out about what was going on and stepped in front of the entrance, blocking the kids from getting at Dave. The kids weren't trying to hurt them though because their supposed “beef” was with Throwdown. The bodyguards from the other Southern California band instructed all of the kids to get the fuck back and/or leave. If anyone wanted to stay and talk, then they could, but no one was going to touch Dave. Some of the Reno kids challenged these guys and asked why 4 dudes who were clearly out-numbered would talk to kids they didn't know, in a town they weren't from, that way. The bodyguards told the Reno kids that if they tried anything, bad things were going to happen. Then they proceeded to flash a gun at the Reno kids to show how serious they were. The Reno kids did not take this well and became even more heated. Words were exchanged and we feared the worst was going to happen. Enter Dave Peters. Dave, obviously a generally level-headed dude, began to talk to what seemed to be the head Reno Kid with the bodyguards keeping the crowd in check. The kid accused Dave and the rest of Throwdown of stealing money from the Reno bands and threatened to get it back by beating the shit out of him with crowbars. Dave explained what had really happened to them: The promoter told Dave that the venue was NOT sold out (see my comment about what the door-girl said a few paragraphs up) and that the door did not make enough money to pay ANY of the bands from California except for Throwdown, but he would have to short Throwdown some of the money. Dave knew the promoter was full of shit, so he called him out on it. The story from there is a little foggy, but it seemed as though the promoter then went to each Reno band and told them that he could not afford to pay them because Throwdown demanded ALL of the money. So basically this promoter was RIPPING OFF the Reno bands AND the California bands. Dave explained that the Reno kids should be going after the sketchy promoter, and not them. And that all he asked of the promoter was for money to pay the bands who had driven all the way out to Reno from California. The promoter would not even give the California bands gas money, although the venue was clearly sold out, and the promoter made a killing. After Dave explained the situation the kid relaxed a little bit and the crowd began to disperse. Dave reached out to shake the kid's hand and the kid just walked away. If I remember correctly, this was the end of the threat, but we knew someone had called the cops once the gun was shown, so we had to get out of there. At one point I remember walking with one of the members of the band that stepped up to guard Dave, and him telling me that the member with the gun had ditched it in a trash can. Eventually the cops found the gun and arrested the band-member and took him to jail.
Fast-forward to an hour or so later. We are at a motel room near the venue. Throwdown had invited all the bands back to their motel room where I remember Biggie sitting on a bed getting money together to pay each California band out of Throwdown's own pockets to make sure they got gas money to get home. They also offered their motel room to anyone who wanted to stay, because they were going to leave once the other band's member was released from jail to go straight home. After this we end up at a Denny's getting some food and waiting for the phone call when this guy would get released. One of the bodyguard band's members gave me a plate of pancakes. I was pretty happy about this. Then the phone call came and everyone went their separate ways.
When JD, Kevin, and I made our way back to the motel, the rest of the Bound In Blood dudes contemplated whether they should stay the night, or leave. Seeing as two separate cars were taken, the decision was made that one car would leave that night, and the other would stay until the next day. JD, Kev, and I decided to stay with Graham and Fick (I believe), while the rest of the band went home that night. The next morning we got our shit together and went to Fick's truck to head home. Somehow between that night and the morning the truck decided to die, and none of us had any clue what to do or how we were going to get home. It was a Sunday morning, and they could not get the car fixed until Monday or Tuesday, depending on when they could get the part in. The idea of spending even one more day in Reno sounded like pure fucking torture, so JD, Kev, and I decided to tough-it-the-fuck-out and Greyhound it home.
After looking at the prices we figured out that it would be sixty dollars each to take a 16 hour bus-ride back to Anaheim. The reason it was going to take so long was due to lay-overs and changes between buses, but it was necessary, because we all had work on Monday morning. When the trip started it wasn't that bad. The fact that there were three of us sucked, because it meant one person would have to sit with a stranger at all times. That was bullshit after a while. At one point I remember stopping around 2am at some fuckhole bus stop in the middle of nowhere and eating the WORST grilled cheese ever. How you fuck up a grilled cheese, I don't know. All of the bathrooms were fucking travesties as well. About midway through the trip we got on our final bus. This was going to suck immensely because the only bus going that direction was headed straight to Tijuana. Of course. So all of the scum bag fucking shitheads that you would imagine going to TJ were surrounding us. Babies crying. Kids throwing up. And of course this was when it was my turn to sit alone on the bus with some fucked up stranger. And the sketchiest dude ever sat next to me in a HUGE snow jacket that was poofing onto my side of the seat non-stop. I was fucking bummed.
So around 4am we arrive in an LA bus stop right by Skid Row (not the band). We decide to call my grandmother then and have her pick us up from here because we can't deal with another minute on that fucking bus. So she comes to pick us up in LA instead of Anaheim. On the way to the station she got lost and started calling me crying and freaking out because she was “surrounded by hookers and homeless people”. Eventually, she found us and took us home. FUCKING FINALLY HOME. I laid down in bed and never felt better/worse. I slept for two hours and then got up and went to work at Mervyn's. After spending two hours there I told them I was sick and fucked off and went back home to shower and sleep.
Looking back on this trip that now happened five years ago I realize that this was what really changed my mind about what hardcore was to me. Before this it was about having a “good time”, hanging out with friends, and just enjoying the people that surrounded me when I got to see them at shows. After the trip I realized that I had grown out of that. The trip was fucking terrible. And I didn't want to see what I saw in Reno ever again. I'm not cut out for that shit. I realized that when it came to hardcore, I no longer needed to be around the venues anymore. I could enjoy the people that I knew, and explore what I thought was great about it, in a much different way. I didn't need to rely on the scene to keep me entertained anymore, because it wasn't entertaining. Seeing people in the bands that I looked up to threatened with crowbars was not very much fun. Watching the Throwdown dude's pay the bands out of their pocket because sketchy fuck promoters were screwing bands was not very much fun. And when laying back down in my own bed after spending 2 days with a bunch of my best friends is the BEST part of my trip, it was time for me to change my mindset on this scene that had been such a big part of my life.
Call it jaded. Call it what you want. But when it came down to it, I decided that I didn't want things like what happened in Reno to re-define what hardcore was for me. I still wanted to hang on to that previous (more naïve) version of what this music and scene meant to me. So here I am. And for the first time in a long time, tonight (June 6th, 2009) five years after that Throwdown show in Reno, at the Disembodied show at Chain Reaction, I thanked myself for never forgetting what it was like to be a young fool involved with this ridiculous kind of music. I felt young again. And I have the king of jaded fucks, Javier Van Huss, to thank for it. I may have believed over the past 5 years that hardcore had become a bit of a shadow of what it once was. But tonight was a huge reminder of what this meant to me before the Throwdown/Reno debacle. And I'm glad dudes like Jav allowed me to once again change my view on what hardcore is.

Thanks Jav.

-Dan

walter sings the hits live

2009-07-04T13:41:00.000-07:00

i never saw Gorilla Biscuits. the first LP i ever bought with my own money was a used copy of START TODAY that i still own to this day.

a couple years ago, i was living in the City Heights part of San Diego. not far from our house was this city hipster bar called The Beauty Bar. and when i say "not far" i mean a 15 minute stumble home.

the Gorilla Biscuits were playing somewhere else in town, and i received word that Walter Schreifels was playing acoustic at the Beauty Bar after the show. i decided that for some reason id rather go there than the GB show. so i made my way to the bar and proceeded to start drinking Tom Collins (as i did nightly when i lived in SD, at some bar or another, but thats another story). eventually i plopped myself in an opportune spot, and it ended up that i was sitting at a table in the front of the stage. nobody was sitting in front of me as Walter flew through some of my favorite songs. Quicksand, GB, Rival Schools, even The Smiths and Sick Of It All. it was an amazing night. i barely spoke to anyone, just sat there with a huge smile on my face, feeling the drinks and music flow through me. a truly magical night.

i stumbled across a 2 part recording of Walter from 2006. i downloaded it, and decided that part 2 was the more important part, and that id love to share the songs and story with the world. it was recorded somewhere in Holland, and the song choices and banter make up for the somewhat low volume of the file. so turn it up, mix some gin in a highball glass with some collins mix, or if youre in a pinch some Squirt, and enjoy the show.

Walter Sings The Hits Live

Trojan Box Sets

2009-06-26T22:18:00.000-07:00

i love reggae. not like the kind that Leah Putnam's dad plays. not like the kind in the credits to COPS.

im talking real roots, soulful, old reggae.

a few years ago i scored the Trojan Records BEST OF SKINHEAD REGGAE box set. many people are confused by the notion of "skinhead reggae", but i assure you, its better than most of the crap that you are listening to.

i found this blog that has a link to (what i gather is) every Trojan Records box set. in the past two days ive downloaded 16 hours worth of reggae.

sure, its not punk or hardcore, but its fucking good.

TROJAN BOX SETS
http://rage39a.blogspot.com/2008/06/trojan-box-sets.html

also watch this truly mouthwatering video

Chain Of Strength live bootleg

2009-06-14T15:55:00.000-07:00

live recordings of hardcore shows are an undertaking thats sketchy at best. especially older ones.

here is a live recording of Chain Of Strength from 1989. i dont know where it was recorded. the sound quality isnt the best, but whatever. they cover "betray" by Minor Threat. crazy.

be warned, it sounds like a bootleg.

http://www.zshare.net/download/517560440dbb8bd0/

videos

2009-06-12T19:57:00.000-07:00

josh highland let me use his Flip camera to film some shit over the weekend that Disembodied was here.
ive started to make some movies.
check them out

AllOverThisTown

WARSHIP JAMZ!

2009-05-27T18:20:00.000-07:00

i dont know when it was. maybe a year ago? two? i decided to write some new Mistake material.

for some reason, i couldnt find anyone else in the band so i decided to do it all myself. our previous session had just been myself, Mark and this kid Evan Sinclair (who's brother had played bass for one show for us) and was recorded by Daniel Bieranowski at his house, which was a couple streets down from this street called Gay so we named the recording "just passed Gay Street". 4 of those songs are on The Mistake MySpace page, and two have been swept under the rug. i may release them here eventually, i may release them on a Cd. who knows, who cares.

anyway, this is one song i wrote and recorded all by myself, with this kid DFH playing drums. its unmastered and unmixed but i figured someone would be into it, so here it is.

i didnt name it, but the album was supposed to be called WARSHIP JAMZ. get it? like worship jams? ha.

no name #1
http://rapidshare.com/files/238000873/01_no_name__1.mp3

Jawbreaker Live

2009-05-25T12:09:00.000-07:00

found this on some other blog. pretty good quality

http://www.divshare.com/download/4190399-d8d

track listing:

1. Do You Still Hate Me?
2. Donatello
3. Boxcar
4. Chesterfield King
5. The Boat Dreams From the Hill
6. West Bay Invitational
7. Want
8. Outpatient
9. Jinx Removing
10. Kiss the Bottle

Carry The Casket

2009-05-25T10:57:00.000-07:00

Carry The Casket was a great hardcore band from Orange County. Not really formed in the ashes of anything other than cigarettes and smoldering dreams, they became a formidable opponent to not only their own livers, but people's ears and eyes.

the band's myspace says that they formed in 2003 and recorded a demo in 2004. the demo was packaged in a DVD case, much like the Graf Orlock "corpserate greed" demo, and featured a photo of a graveyard in front of the whitehouse, which is a strong indication of their lyrics.
the demo is credited to
JOLLY- BASS GREG- GUITAR NICK DIBS-DRUMS JERRY- OBNOXIOUS TWAT
and was recorded in a mobile home in costa mesa

in 2005, two split 7"s were released. one with The Mistake and one with Motherspeed.
the Mistake split had no less than 5 different covers, released by Prime Directive Records. the lyric sheet is one of my favorites ever, literally just a photocopy of the lyrics emailed to Cheesegrater. genius.
the lineup on those splits was the same. they were recorded at Shiva Industries by (i think) one of the dudes in Mindrot.
the thanks list on the Mistake list includes this
"FUCK ANYONE WHO WAS BUMMED WE DIDNT THANK THEM DIRECTLY. YOU ARE A FUCKING PUSSY. FUCK ANYONE WHO HAS EVER ARRESTED GREG. FUCK THAT SOUND GUY IN SANTA CRUZ. FUCK THE VAULT 350"

the thanks list on the Motherspeed split says
"CARRY THE CASKET WOULD NOT LIKE TO THANK ANYONE"

in 2006 CTC got a new drummer and started recording a full length, titled "feed me drugs until i choke". The vocals for only a few songs were ever recorded and lyrics not even written for all of them. i dont even know if all of the instruments were recorded, but the thing could have easily been finished. members blamed each other for laziness, apathy, and various states of sobriety for the debacle the album became. i witnessed first hand the anger and anguish that was caused.

i dont know when Carry The Casket played their last show, and i dont think they had an "official" last show. the last time i remember seeing them was at the Mistake's first last show at the Roc bar in costa mesa, and they fucking slayed. that was a great time, playing with bands like Pressvre, Come And Get It, Graf Orlock... bands playing in warehouses and bars and not giving a fuck.

i know that Carry The Casket played out of state a few times, but i dunno that i'd call them "tours". i remember being regaled with stories of meeting members of Gehenna on the road and taking various psycotropic drugs.

ive collected here the 2004 demo, and the songs from both splits. i highly doubt the LP will EVER see the light of day, and thats kind of a shame.

Jerry and Greg went on to form Neon Claws with me. Jerry always told me that Dan was in some band that allowed "pussy and coke to be thrown at him". Gettman formed a band that featured just him and a drummer, playing 22 minute songs with no parts repeating. sounded painful yet awesome. Justin Jolly was in a few bands like Cold War, Perish, and is just doing whatever he does.

www.myspace.com/carrythecasket

from their myspace

ctc at Vinyl Solution, photo by me
the mistake played this show, and afterward we all went to Johnny's bar and i spent over 250 dollars on alcohol, earning the nickname "rich uncle jav" and almost being sent home from work the next day for smelling like gin.

Carry The Casket
http://rapidshare.com/files/236848467/CarryTheCasket.zip

God's Iron Tooth "the getting fucked ep"

2009-05-24T14:46:00.000-07:00

Gods Iron Tooth was one of the first sludge/doom/"stoner" bands to infiltrate the OC hardcore scene, if not THE first. I cant remember when this cd was handed to me, but i'd venture to guess 1998? everyone was still wearing big pants and trying to be evil. Phil (vocals) and Jeremy (guitar) and Travis (drums) handed me the demo, saying something about EYEHATEGOD and IRON MONKEY (hence the name) and at the time i didnt really get it. Phil had been in a sxe band called Exempt, and was one of the biggest, most tattooed dudes around at the time. Jeremy was in Xessive forceX and had been through Navy Seal training. these were not dudes you wanted to mess with. i just remember Travis smiling a lot, and not really liking their bass player Ryan cause he was friends with Tyson.

i tried to contact Phil via myspace, because neither Cheesegrater or I have any contact info for him right now, but that was fruitless, so i had to do some work on google.

Encyclopaedia Mettalum says that the Getting Fucked EP was released in 2000, and had 5 songs. "the last vista session" 2001, had 3 songs. i remember not really as into anything past this demo. there are some funny pictures here

GIT has a myspace page, as well, with some cool photos

Phil went on to be in Dirty Girls and City Scum. Prime Directive put out the Dirty Girls 7", i suggest you purchase it IMMEDIATELY

for now, blaze a fatty to the ORIGINAL GETTING FUCKED EP

http://rapidshare.com/files/235627568/The_Getting_Fucked_Ep.zip

edit:
i received this reply from phil via www.notpopular.com

Sorry Jav, I dont use my myspace account anymore. The "Getting Fucked" ep was recorded in 1998 with Paul Miner at For the Record. It was 2 songs and we did it with Jeremy playing the bass tracks. I think at one point we asked you if you wanted to play bass? In 2000 we finally got a bass player and recorded "The Last Vista Session" ep. Rusty Cavender from Treadwell and Le Shock recorded that record at his house. It was the very last recording he did at that home studio, so we payed homage to it by calling the record "the last vista sessions". His house was on Vista ave. in Long Beach. Rusty also recorded our full length that never saw the light of day.

We kicked Ryan out of the band before we recorded the full length and got our good friend Kelly. That was a pretty awesome line up that played probably 3 shows before breaking up.

over the edge

2009-05-24T12:28:00.000-07:00

reading the Isaac Golub interview on XSTUCKINTHEPASTX, and the comments about it. all 27 of them.

i just gotta say a couple things.

1. XCHORUSX was a good band.
2. Straight Edge is like marriage. for some, it can last a lifetime. for some, you try it, it doesnt work, and you move on.

im just gonna leave it as that. short and sweet.

Black Flag

2009-05-19T20:23:00.000-07:00

Everyone likes Black Flag. If you don't, you're wrong.

I really dislike reunions, but find myself attending anyway. I'm almost always right as I walk away totally disappointed. Over the years I've seen some version of Black Flag a few times. I saw 'em at Amoeba (Hollywood) in December '02 when Rollins Band covered Black Flag songs as a benefit for the West Memphis Three. Keith Morris, Dukowski, and Rollins took turns on the songs. I don't remember much else except there were some forgettable famous people there (I really forget who).

Attended the "Benefit for Cats" thing that Gregg Ginn put together in '03. It was Ginn, Robo, Dez, and a pre-recorded bass track. I was thoroughly disappointed in the entire event. Mike V and the Rats opened up playing "My War" start to finish -- it was forgettable.

The most enjoyable for me was the Class of '77 reunion show at the El Rey in December '01. A bunch of bands got together to promote the release of "We Got The Neutron Bomb", the oral history of L.A. punk. The Screamers (just K.K. and Paul Roessler), Circle Jerks, Weirdos, Red Cross, Adolescents, The Crowd, The Controllers, The Skulls, Bad Religion, The Dogs, The Runaways, Geza X, Lee Ving, TSOL, and Agent Orange all performed with some bastardized lineup or another.

The two highlights of the night were:

Watt and Hurley playing Minutemen songs. At the end of their set Watt yelled at the audience: "Start your own band" and "FUCK NEW WAVE". Incredible.

Keith Morris doing "Nervous Breakdown" songs backed by a lineup of Weirdos / Circle Jerks / Redd Cross members.

Sweet pic (probably '83 lineup?):

Still wondering how long the world will have to wait for an official release of Decline. Would love to see the extra Black Flag, Bags, and Germs footage. Here's Flag with their best singer, Ron "Chavo" Reyes:

The Mummies

2009-05-17T21:57:00.000-07:00

Anyone who knows me is undoubtedly aware of my love for all things garage. Billy Childish, Teengenerate, The Registrators, the entire Rip Off Records catalog... On that note, my man 'Ben Alvie' over on the Livewire Board recently hooked up this insane collection of The Mummies. Enjoy:

The Mummies 7" Bundle:

Larry Winther and his Mummies – Live @ Pony Express Pizza Parlour 4/13/89
Mummies and Greg Lowery – Food, Sickles, and Girls
Mummies / Wolfmen
Mummies – You Must Fight To Live On The Planet of the Apes
Mummies – Get Late
Mummies – Peel Sessions
Mummies – Sessions
Mummies – Shitsville
Mummies – Stronger than Dirt
Mummies – Tales from the Crypt
Mummies – That Girl
Mummies – Uncontrollable Urge

best of 2008 mixtape

2009-05-17T09:50:00.001-07:00

its no secret, but maybe not widely televised that Cheesegrater and myself are into hiphop. Cheesegrater has some of the best Kool Keith records ive ever seen (that Santessa record is infectious!), and i used to DJ a hip hop night with Efrem (www.myspace.com/browntowndjs)

i came across this mixtape a few days ago from Hype Machine, and its pretty fucking awesome. my only real complaint is the same for pretty much any mixtape, and thats when they continuously announce who the DJ is for that particular mixtape.

"american boy" is one of my favorite jams right now, and this version is pretty cool, with Jay-Z dropping a live verse. Jay-Z's collab/ mash-up with Oasis is pretty cool too. im kinda sick of hearing that MIA song, especially after Slumdog Millionaire, but the version on here is cool. once you get past the first couple of songs, it starts to rock pretty hard. give it a shot, broaden your fuckin horizons, son.

Cornerstone mixtape 2008

track list:
1. Intro (6th Sense)
2. So Fly (Slim f Biggie - Mick Boogie Mix)
3. Announcement (Common f Biggie - Mick Boogie Mix)
4. I Luv Your Girl (Dream f Jay-Z MB/TU Mix)
5. Paper Planes (MIA - Terry Urban Mix)
6. Swagger Like Us (Jay-Z - Mick Boogie Transition)
7. Jockin My Wonderwalls (Jay-Z & Oasis)
8. Diamond Girl (Ryan Leslie f Kanye West - Mick Boogie Mix)
9. Paris Tokyo (Lupe Fiasco f CL Smooth - Mick Boogie Mix)
10. Girls Around (Lloyd f Rakim - MB/TU Mix)
11. Drivin Down The Block (Kidz In The Hall f/ El-P)
12. Gettin Up (Q-Tip)
13. Milli (Lil Wayne - Wonder/Excel Mix)
14. Love Lockdown (Kanye West f LMFAO)
15. Falsetto (Dream - Terry Urban Mix)
16. Day N Night (Kid Cudi f Jay-Z - Terry Urban Mix)
17. Lollirock (Lil Wayne & Kanye West - Kickdrums Remix)
18. Dangerous (Kardinal f Akon)
19. The Boss (Rick Ross f Lil Wayne - Mick Boogie Mix)
20. Out Here Grindin (Khaled)
21. My President (Young Jeezy f Nas)
22. Black President (Nas f Young Jeezy)
23. American Boy (Estelle f Jay-Z and NERD - Terry Urban Mix)
24. Everyone Knows (NERD - Sammy Bananas Remix)
25. Dont Touch Me Remix (Busta Rhymes f Nas)
26. Magic (Robin Thicke f Jay-Z - Mick Boogie Mix)
27. The Light 08 (Common)
28. How We Rock (Termanology f Bun B)
29. Rising Down (The Roots f Mos Def & Styles)
30. Viagra (88 Keys and Kanye West)
31. Midnight 08 (Q-Tip)
32. Go All Out (9th Wonder and Buckshot)

Record Trading

2009-05-16T23:34:00.000-07:00

The late 90's were a great time for internet record trading. Popsike didn't exist and things things weren't exhaustively cataloged, so a good score wasn't unheard of. I got my copy of "Kids Will Have Their Say" for a few YOT records and a Tenfold 7". Of course, there's those near-misses that still haunt me as well. I was this close to getting a Chung King for a stack of about 40 hardcore records, mostly late 90's youth-crew revival stuff, Rev colored vinyl, etc. Dude pulled out at the last minute and I've been angry about that ever since.

I was recently reminded of one of the all time great trades (from my perspective). Via the RevBoard I received an e-mail from a guy willing to trade me a mint copy of DYS "Brotherhood" for the Evergreen LP. At the time I think every single person who hung out at Softcore owned one and since I didn't want to trade my own copy I just asked someone at Softcore to trade me theirs. I think I gave up an Into Another "Creepy Eepy" on red vinyl for it. Then I traded that extra Evergreen LP for the "Brotherhood" LP. Still own it, too.

Evergreen live at Costa Mesa Community Center (sorry for weird credit strip on picture - only version I have access to):

founddeadhanging

2009-05-16T23:02:00.000-07:00

i fucking loved Found Dead Hanging. Keith sent me the demo, and i was fucking hooked from the beginning.

i described it to people as a mix between His Hero Is Gone and Creation Is Crucifixion. whatever it is, its brutal, hectic, heavy, and sometimes silly (in a good way).

the mistake had the pleasure of doing our one and only tour with them. i think our introduction to them was Itow throwing a pack of fireworks at them, before he had met any of them.

yeah, they had an AMAZING ep on Black Market Activites, and were on the Hellfest DVD one of the years. but ive decided to upload my introduction to them, their demo. its three songs, and the first and second song are two of my favorites. i once BEGGED keith to play the second song on the demo, in San Diego... we had to sit in their van and listen to MY cd of it so he could remember the lyrics.

one time i had some b33f with Maynard. he dated my friend Beth from AZ, and it ended badly so i took her side. a few months later, i saw him at Ryan Like A Hex's house in Syracuse, where he busted in and asked if anyone wanted to play Star Wars Trivial Pursuit. nobody was amused. around an hour later, my knife went missing, and i last saw it in the proximity of Maynard. of course, i blamed him. about 6 months later i got an email from Ryan saying he found my knife behind a bookshelf. what an asshole i am sometimes.

you can find a few videos of them on youtube and stuff, but lets just focus on the demo for now, ok?

also, be sure to check out Keith's band Architect. they recently played with Disembodied in Minneapolis, and everyone was impressed.

FOUND DEAD HANGING DEMO
http://rapidshare.com/files/233853106/Found_Dead_Hanging.zip

NEON CLAWS

2009-05-16T18:25:00.000-07:00

Neon Claws was a band from Southern California whose existence was unfortunately short lived. Born from the twisted brains and boredom of Jerry Wayne Wolbright and myself, we were a band for less than a year and played 3 shows. It was hard to break from the "ex-members" of curse, but members from Carry The Casket, The Mistake, Graf Orlock, and Hurry Up and Kill Yourself were in the band.

Ill let the music speak for itself.

Here is a video of our first show, at Scruffy's house in Riverside:

and the demo, free of charge.
NEON CLAWS DEMO
http://rapidshare.com/files/233847979/Neon_Claws.zip

Neon Claws were:
Evan
Greg
Jav
Jerry
Kevin

www.myspace.com/neonclaws666

I would tell some stories about Neon Claws, but honestly it was mostly us getting drunk and/or high, making grand plans and never really following through. Dan recorded our demo. we played the last local hardcore show at Showcase Theatre, and Dipiazza's Pizza. Im not sure what the other dudes are doing now. We only really broke up because we couldn't pull it together. It was fun while it lasted.

couple song explanations:
"all messed up with no place to go" and "days that end in "why?" were about the fact that Jerry was in a court-mandated 12-step program and lost his license. i drove him around a lot, and we lived in the same apartment complex, which (un)fortunately for us both had a liquor store IN THE FUCKING PARKING LOT. the line "i'm crawling home" was fucking true. many nights/ early mornings i found myself crawling from his apartment to mine.

"youre treading on me" was about me watching my kid do the pledge of allegiance, and seeing how truly fucking brainwashed we are from a young age. the sample is fucking classic. we watched a lot of "its always sunny"

"gone for good" was about jerry's dad

"divorce" was about not repeating patterns in our families.

i wish we had recorded the songs we wrote after the demo, but i think we left a good mark. could have been more, but fuck it. "that's a hell of a damn grave"

into another live

2009-05-15T20:33:00.000-07:00

im not sure where i got this from, but i am sure that Into Another is one of my favorite bands.

This is a soundboard recording from the Tune Inn, April 15th 1994. It was before SEEMLESS came out, but they play a version of TAIL. songs from all releases are played.

maybe ill upload SOUL CONTROL one of these days. until then:

INTO ANOTHER LIVE 4.15.94

http://rapidshare.com/files/233490966/Live_At_The_Tune_Inn.zip

Re-Issue Re-Package Re-Evaluate The Songs: Unbroken 3x12"

2009-03-31T16:29:00.000-07:00

Finally announced is the triple-gatefold vinyl of all of Unbroken's material.
"A little bird" (who may or may not be in the band) had this to say...

"500 pressed, only to be sold at the Glasshouse show...any extra $ from the sales of this will go to charity. These things cost an arm and a leg to make. Dave Mandel made this all happen, and it was Aram's (Champion/Betrayed) idea. It is Both Albums, all the singles and comps and an unreleased live song from 95. The song was only played at our last two shows in 95. Nobody outside those shows has heard it, as the video was never released from the show this was recorded. Is it the best recording of this song? No, but it is the only one that exists, so we decided it would be cool to have it on this special release. This song was the last one we ever wrote..."

dont sleep on this piece of history. im sure collector scum will be posting it on ebay that very night.

Itow gets Automatic

2009-03-31T09:03:00.000-07:00

got another email from one of the most solid dudes i know, Dave Itow. while on break from ordering his warehouse lackeys around, Dave sent me this little story about the band Automatic.

So living with the owner of Indecision records had its perks. I got all the new releases before they came out. In this case it worked out for everyone's favor. The band Automatic (Matt from Mouthpiece and Ryan Patterson - Black Cross, Coliseum) came out for their first west coast tour and on the way out their singer Matt got real sick. So they had been on the road for a week and not played any shows. They showed up to our house pretty bummed and broke. They were supposed to play Public Storage(what Chain Reaction was called back then) that night and Matt was still laid out on our couch. The think tank was started and we came up with a lot of ideas. Putting out a bowl and asking for charitable contributions was the best they had. We also come up with HC karaoke, cover some old songs and have different kids come up and sing.
Then Mandel came up with the master plan. I had been listening to the Automatic record pretty much none stop for about three weeks. So Mandel suggested I sing. I had never sang for a band before and kinda laughed it off. But if I didn't sing they would yet again not get paid. So I was the dick if I backed out.
Later that night I found myself on stage with mic in hand. Not familiar territory. I told the crowd what was going on and the band started playing. As nervous as I was it was probably the funnest 25 minutes I have ever spent on stage. Only like three other kids new any of the words so there were very few sing alongs. I was told by a few people that I actually did a great job. The band said it was the funnest show they had played together so far.
When we got home that night we were all pretty stoked. We then realized that The first time I ever saw automatic I was singing for them. Kinda odd. They played the next night at Skate street and Matt was pissed that everyone was talking about the night before. Matt was getting kinda pissed. He forced himself up and sang that night, not letting me have the mic all night. I don't think he liked me.
Fuck it.
We had fun, they got paid, and I never saw them again.

Itow getting tickled by Mandel, surrounded by an awesome crew of dudes.

Dead America

2009-03-28T02:39:00.000-07:00

On the topic of DEAD AMERICA (see post below) -- totally forgotten/overlooked anarcho-crust-grind-something band from early to mid-90's Costa Mesa.

Around '93, Jav, myself and a group of like-mindeds hung out at Taco Bell on 17th and Newport Blvd buying cheap burritos, skateboarding, vandalizing things, and doing whatever else one does when they're bored youth looking to "Up The Punx". We started seeing these dudes with dreads, upside down flags, piercings, a lot of black-and-white-band patches. In our 16 year old minds, these dudes were the real deal. As there weren't a lot of punks in the area at the time, we became friends. They gave us their demo and we were stoked. Looking back they were likely the first people I personally knew who were in a band with any sort of release. Over the years, we used to see each other around a lot, particularly at Dystopia-Phobia-Neurosis-Mindrot type shows.

As mentioned, a demo was released around '93 which was on the crust-punk side of things (I think?) At some point they had a member of Phobia. Around '96 (give or take), they released a CD called "Bleed The Human Heart" on Half-Life Records, which I remember being more grind-y? I haven't seen or heard it in years. I'll upload the demo someday. If anyone has that CD get in touch.

I ran into the singer around Costa Mesa for years after -- Mexican restaurants, house parties, Mother's probably. We always recognized each other and made it a point to say hello.

Random fact: One of the members was legally blind.

Maybe Jav can add more?

West Coast Power Violence Poll

2009-03-28T02:20:00.000-07:00

Results of favorite "WEST COAST POWER VIOLENCE" band poll:

Capitalist Casualties - 0%
Crossed Out - 3%
Infest - 48%
Man Is The Bastard - 33%
No Comment - 3%
Spazz - 11%

Had a feeling INFEST would win, and rightfully so. They shred. I voted M.I.T.B.

Almost surprised SPAZZ got more votes than NO COMMENT or CROSSED OUT... maybe due to lack of availability of the latter 2 bands' records?

MAN IS THE BASTARD live at Showcase Theater. Photo by Jav. I suspect this is from the NEUROSIS, M.I.T.B., BLOODLET, DEAD AMERICA show on October 2, 1996 because (1) M.I.T.B. didn't play Showcase often, (2) Jav loves Bloodlet, and (3) I see Christian, the lead singer of Dead America singing along:

fugazi

2009-03-27T09:21:00.001-07:00

the first time i saw Fugazi, i was a sophomore in high school. me, Jake Bolding and Bill Brandon were going to take Bill's dad's car to the Palladium to see them. his dad got mad about something and revoked the use of his car, so we were almost stuck. guess who came to the rescue? my mom. my mom agreed to drive us up there on the condition that we provide her with a ticket to the show. totally fair trade. she sat on the balcony and watched, and told stories of this "circular crowd motion" for years after.
the band played the Palladium either 2 or 3 consecutive nights on this tour. we got the second show, and apparently the night before someone had thrown a shoe at Ian and he was still raw about it.

the next time i saw them was during a two night stint at the Shrine in Hollywood. apparently the academy awards had been there? i dunno. we went two nights in a row, i think with Andy White and Ryan Wallace, maybe Steve Aoki. i remember being amazed that some kid was recording the show on one of those things the kid uses in Home Alone 2. i went both nights.

in 1999 i would see Fugazi 4 times. went to San Diego to see them at the Soma (the old location) with this girl Lindsey. next night drove to Ventura, maybe with Brandan? all i remember about the Ventura show was sitting on the balcony.
a couple of months later i saw them at the Glass House and at the Palace. i dont remember much about either show, except that Bluebird played the palace show. come to think of it.. i dont remember ANY of the bands who opened for Fugazi.

Fugazi was undeniably one of the very best bands ive EVER seen live, and i was just saying the other day that id give almost anything to be able to see them play one more time. the last time they toured, the closest they came to playing here was a high school gym in Yuba City, AZ. i kick myself for not making that 5 hour drive.

photographs lie

2009-03-26T18:14:00.001-07:00

posting old photos since i finally got a scanner

all phots by me unless noted

all over this town photos

for those who fear tomorrow

2009-03-17T14:55:00.001-07:00

just picked up this limited edition INTEGRITY shirt from Hellfish.
Front is a take off on the stupid Obama "hope" shit
back is an awesome quote from Charlie

you can pick one up, alont with a Hellfish / Holy Terror poster and an exclusive BLEEDING THROUGH shirt at

www.hellfishfamily.com

until the ink runs out

2009-03-17T10:01:00.000-07:00

yeah, i was in 18 Visions. its been 8 years since i set foot on stage with them, and people still ask me about it all the time.

i dont mind talking about it. it was a good time in my life.

AJ, over at Path To Misery asked me to talk about Until The Ink runs out. i wrote something about it, which kinda turned into me talking about how i left the band. in it, he says i quit. thats not entirely true.

i hit up Keith about writing for this piece. i said "hey, this kid wants to write something about UTIRO. do you want to write something about it?"

his response- "what kid"

i wrote him back "its just this kid AJ who wants to write about one of his favorite records. you dont have to be a dick about it. nice response"

check out AJ's blog. hes into heavy music, but needs to post about more good bands. ha.

i also sent some cassettes of 18V playing live from 1998 to Justin at XSTUCK IN THE PASTX so keep an eye out for that.

Black Cat Music

2009-03-17T03:00:00.000-07:00

January 2002. My friend D was really into this band Black Cat Music, and as I hung out with her every day, I became a fan as well.

I had just returned home from a winter Throwdown tour which I had ditched out on in NYC to hang out with friends and get drunk. Appropriate as many of Black Cat Music’s songs were written about intoxication and a certain girl who had since moved to NYC (and who I would later go on a what-I-assumed-was-a-date with. Still not sure on that one.).

Regardless, back in California Black Cat Music was playing at the Garage in L.A. and D wanted to go. I’d been there once before for a Snapcase show sometime in the late 90’s (‘97/’98?) Strife may have played as well? We drove up in the pouring rain, walked into the club, and realized we were the ONLY people there. Well, not the only, but the only paying fans. Another band played. We didn’t care. Black Cat Music took the stage and laid into it. They were killing it. Playing their hearts out to literally two people, plus whatever roadies / friends / girlfriends were hanging at the bar. D and I didn’t care so we stood right in the middle of what would have been the pit and enjoyed ourselves. It was raining so hard that water was coming through the roof and falling onto the band as they played. They finished their proposed set and were ready to leave the stage, but we weren’t satisfied. D hadn’t heard her favorite song and, drunk, was adamant about hearing it. For some reason the alcohol didn’t translate into her vocal chords so she asked me to yell it out. Sure, OK. “Wine In A Box” I yelled. The band, obviously surprised, looked at each other and nodded. They played “Wine In A Box” to the two most satisfied people in Los Angeles. Top 5 shows I’ve ever been to for a lot of reasons.

Later that year, I spent a few months in New York City where Black Cat Music was the semi-soundtrack to our lives. We saw the band play at Southpaw in Brooklyn and ended up having a good time with them later that night. I’m told the drummer recently passed away. Weird fact –- before Black Cat Music he played for Hatebreed. Rest In Peace Denny.

M.I.T.B.

2009-03-17T02:17:00.000-07:00

I was lucky enough to see Man Is The Bastard a lot. The first Goleta Fest w/ Enewetak, Disembodied, Endeavour, Guyver One, etc; H.B. Library w/ Mens Recovery Project (and Clikitat Ikatowi?); Showcase w/ Neurosis, Dead America, and Bloodlet; Koos w/ Assuck, Swing Kids, and Still Life. I'll detail these stories later (hopefully with flyers).

For now, I'll discuss my first experience with the legendary M.I.T.B.. I think it was the Fall of '94? Josh (later the drummer for Gehenna) and I drove out to Santa Ana's Koos Cafe in my '67 Mustang to check out M.I.T.B. and Lack Of Interest. At the time I think we just knew them as the band that had a split with Born Against. Man, were we in for a treat. M.I.T.B., as I would later learn quite well, was absolutely crushing. I have no clue what songs they played, but I was impressed enough to become a lifelong fan.

As inferred, M.I.T.B. would quickly become one of my favorite bands, especially live. I hear a lot of talk of crushing live performances, "heavy this" and "heavy that". I can honestly say that Coalesce is probably the only other band that ever held a candle to M.I.T.B. on this level. I've heard stories of Infest shows, and it sounds like a similar experience. Maybe it's a true West Coast Power Violence thing. I don't know.

On the way home, my car broke down at that Chevron next to the 5 freeway entrance. It was pouring rain, so Josh and I took shelter at that donut shop next to the gas station. Some bum came up and tried to sell us an answering machine in a plastic bag. I think we may have actually purchased it out of charitable concern. Eventually, I crawled under my car in the pouring rain, fixed the problem, and we were on our way.

Oh yeah, I remember nothing about the Lack Of Interest set.

Pointless story? Sure. A nice memory for me? Absolutely.

Keith Barney Poll

2009-03-14T01:54:00.000-07:00

The "Favorite Keith Barney Band" poll turned out about as I expected:

Adamantium - 37%
Death By Stereo - 7%
Eighteen Visions - 11%
Throwdown - 44%
Monument To Thieves - 0%

No surprise that the race was tight between Throwdown and Adamantium. I voted Throwdown as they long ago purchased my everlasting devotion in WaWa Peach Iced Tea and by naming a chapter of their DVD after me. Jerks.

Thought 18V might get a few more votes, but then again, it's an un-arguable fact that their best album ("Yesterday Is Time Killed") was made before Keith joined the band. No fault of Heavy K's, just the way life goes.

And while Death By Stereo has lost my attention at this point, the album Keith was on "If Looks Could Kill..." is a beast, even to this day.

Wonder what would happen if I made a poll pitting Eighteen Visions "Yesterday...", Bleeding Through "Dust to Ashes", Throwdown "You Don't Have to Be Blood...", Adamantium "From The Depths..." and Death By Stereo "If Looks..." against each other. Would the results be closer?

And, yes, I know I didn't list xRAINx or N3V3R 3NOUGH as options. I only included bands that released a vinyl record.

My Record Collection - Vol. 1

2009-03-10T01:54:00.000-07:00

I own a lot of records (I'm sure most of the reader's of this blog have this in common with me). And similar to most of you, I have my favorites and most prized, which is not always based solely on monetary value, but usually based on affinity for the band, back-story of acquisition, or perhaps sentimental value.

One of these records is Blackspot's "Check Out The Helmet" 7" on purple vinyl.

"Check Out The Helmet" was one of the first 4 or 5 hardcore records I owned. I picked it up, along with the Function 7", Mean Season 7", NYHC "Way It Is" LP, and YOT's BDTW (Rev pressing), at Lido Skateboards in Newport Beach when they used to sell records in the back. They also played the 2nd hardcore show I ever attended. Needless to say, I've had an affinity and soft-spot for the band ever since.

Come the late 90's, I found myself living in Santa Cruz, CA and hanging out with Blackspot's drummer Sean, who was living there at the time, on a regular basis. We even tried to form a band at one point with Casey Watson of Yaphet Kotto (later Look Back and Laugh, Never Healed, etc.), but my lack of vocal abilities and lackadaisical attitude towards actually writing lyrics probably had a lot to do with the project going nowhere. I think that band eventually became The Anasazi, although I could be totally wrong about that? Anyway, hanging out with Sean on the semi-regular finally afforded me the chance to pick his brain with Blackspot fanboy questions that had been lingering in my brain for half a decade. The most pressing of these questions obviously related to the vinyl discography. As Sean remembered, when the Blackspot 7" was pressed on black, clear, and orange vinyl, the pressing plant decided to screw around and make a few random colors. When the band received the records, they pulled out these random colors for themselves. It amounted to something like 1 on green, 1 on pink, 1 on purple, etc. As an avid Blackspot fan and record collector, these elusive "one-offs" fast became the holy grail for me. But how to get one? The band members owned them all and seemed in no mood to give them up. I filed this information away in the back of my mind and moved on.

Around 2000, Jav called me up with some insane news. He had been shopping at Vinyl Solution and came upon a Blackspot 7" on purple vinyl, which he promptly purchased. I told him that I flat-out did not believe him, knowing very well that Sean wouldn't sell his purple copy. He swore he had one and was would give it to me, as Jav and I have that type of friendship where if I have something I know he'd like more than me, it's his. And vice versa.

Next time I saw Sean I told him of my score, and of course he didn't believe me. "No way, dude" he probably said. He was convinced they removed all the weird colors from the boxes. Obviously, they overlooked this one, which is understandable as it's a light non-opaque purple, which could have been easily confused for a clear pressing. Either way, I now owned one and was stoked.

Of course I had to give Jav something he'd value in return. It so happened that during the Throwdown '99 Summer Tour, we had played a few shows with NYC's legendary 25 Ta Life. One show was in New Jersey and was notable (to us at least) for 25 playing "Strength Through Unity" multiple times during the set along with Warzone's "As One" a couple times as well. This show was also the first time Schieppetti sang for Throwdown, as Keith wasn't feeling well (eventually leading to Sheep doing vocal duties at other shows, then starting Bleeding Through...). The other show was at some total s**thole in Connecticut, possibly with Sworn Enemy? This show is notable for Rick Ta Life breaking out a box of t-shirts from the trunk of his car. Keith and I furiously dug through size XXL after size XXXXL looking for something remotely our size. Keith scored a sweet kelly-green joint, and I grabbed an awesome baby-blue with white ink one. Oh yeah, Throwdown got paid in change that night. Straight-up, a handful of quarters, CHANGE! I'm not joking.

Anyway, I knew Jav was a bigger 25 Ta Life fan than me, so it was that baby-blue 25 shirt that he received in return for the Blackspot 7". A great trade from both sides, if you ask me. I wonder if he still owns it?

adamantium's last show set list

2009-03-09T12:44:00.001-07:00

random flyers

2009-03-09T12:24:00.000-07:00

dave mandel

2009-03-09T12:03:00.001-07:00

I was watching the Throwdown DVD yesterday. there are soooo many good dudes in that video, but one of the funniest and most awesome is also one that i probably know the least out of anyone in that movie. Dave Mandel.

my first introduction to Mandel was from his zine, Indecision. It was a fucking great zine, huge with tons of amazing pictures and interviews with the biggest bands of the day. towards the end of his run publishing Indecision, he started doing mini-zines called CAN'T FORGIVE. they were more personal and i totally related to them, being an angsty-type teenager. i could tell that he was in the "hardcore elite" of the day, being friends with all of the big bands like Strife and stuff.

the first time i ever saw a picture of him was in Christine Doan's zine, STREAMLINE, where there is a pic of this unassuming dude with bleached hair and a letterman's jacket talking on a payphone. then, of course, there was the whole "Mandel can suck it" record...

i remember this concert called BOARD IN SOUTH BAY at Cal State Dominguez Hills, and Sick Of It All was playing. this smaller dude in a Youth Of Today tank top was pushing around the bro-type dudes who were ruining our fun, and someone leaned in and said "thats Dave Mandel"

i dont remember when i finally met Mandel. maybe it was when Throwdown got signed to Indecision. i remember him bringing Taylor Steele (the singer of 4 Walls Falling, not the film maker) over to softcore one night. we somehow became friends, and i remember my kid almost falling in his pool once.

the picture above was taken at Lazerstar, in Oxnard. i think Throwdown, possibly 18 Visions was playing, and there was a photobooth. we went a little picture crazy that night, and this picture is from a series where i made 4 different people jump in with me. i am very proud of this picture. the expression on his face is amazing.

i sent Dave an interview for All Over This Town about 3 months ago, and last i heard from Itow is that he is "working on it" and ill get it soon. should be interesting.

Poll Results -- Victory Records

2009-03-05T17:29:00.001-08:00

Poll results are finished. We asked you, the reader, to vote for your least favorite of these Victory Records bands:

Bloodlet - 9 (21%)
Deadguy - 9 (21%)
Earth Crisis - 7 (16%)
Snapcase - 3 (7%)
Strife - 14 (33%)

Going in, I assumed Strife would win. Perhaps the wholesale sell-out of the band put a bad taste in a lot of mouths (didn't 1 guy stay edge?) Maybe people just don’t like the band; I know I never did.

Leave a comment telling us who you voted for and why.

Useless Facts

2009-03-03T01:12:00.000-08:00

I keep a list of every show I've ever been to. I think a lot of people do. I recommend starting one, as it's helpful when you're 31 and trying to remember something that happened 15 years ago. As I was browsing it trying to jog my memory for stories for this blog, I noticed that I'd been to 2 shows in the same day on a number of occasions. Here's some that caught my eye:

July 22, 1996 -- Disembodied, Endeavour, Enewetak, Collapse @ Stone's Church
July 22, 1996 -- Texas Is The Reason, Gameface @ HB Library

By the time we got to the Library, the show was long sold out. I think we bribed the door-guy with food instead of doing the usual sneak-in by climbing the balcony.

July 25, 1997 -- Ten Yard Fight, Battery @ San Diego Showcase (matinee)
July 25, 1997 -- Rocket From The Crypt @ San Diego Showcase (night show)

I think this was TYF's first West Coast show? Maybe not. Either way, the next day was the West Coast debut of Better Than A Thousand at the Showcase in Corona. We didn't realize how many people were into TYF and thought we'd be the only ones singing/moshing/diving, but Showcase went crazy when they played. We were psyched.

February 2, 2000 -- Farside @ Chain Reaction
February 2, 2000 -- Gehenna @ Showcase

Two of my all time favorite bands. I think Farside only played 2 or 3 shows after this, although the East Coast tour with Fastbreak may have occurred in there sometime?

June 28, 2000 -- Throwdown, Eighteen Visions @ Fireside Bowl (Chicago)
June 28, 2000 -- Jets To Brazil, The Explosion @ Fireside Bowl (Chicago)

The Fireside was almost unbearably filled with cigarette smoke when Jets To Brazil played. This was not the show where the beef with No Warning started. That was on December 29, 2001 when Throwdown, Bleeding Through, and No Warning played together at The Fireside.

November 18, 2001 -- The Mistake @ Chain Reaction
November 18, 2001 -- Limp Wrist @ Koo's

I'm not sure I believe this happened, but it's on the list so I'll list it until I determine otherwise.

January 25, 2002 -- The Grand Elegance @ Orbit Studios
January 25, 2002 -- Innaway @ House Show

The Grand Elegance show was more of a practice with a few people there. It is, however, noteworthy because I drank beers with Rolan Bolan, Marc Bolan's son. I didn't have the cojones to ask about T. Rex.

February 22, 2002 -- The Starvations, The Grand Elegance, Thee Make Out Party @ The San Juan Train Depot
February 22, 2002 -- Innaway @ The Tiki Bar

The Grand Elegance killed it that night. The crowd kept requesting songs off the CDep, but the band just flat-out couldn't remember how to play them, even after several attempts.

June 14, 2007 -- The Hymns @ Detroit
June 14, 2007 -- Japanese Motors @ Avalon

I've probably done some combo of Detroit / Avalon / eVocal shows on the same night a few times. The list needs updating.

April 27, 2008 -- Mean Season, Love Thyne, The Mistake, Crushed On You @ Showcase
April 27, 2008 -- M.I.A. (w/ Jello Biafra singing) @ Detroit

I only made it for a couple Jello Biafra-fronted songs, so this only half counts.

There's probably more, but like I said, the list needs some updating.

Unrelated note: I once saw Blood For Blood, Blood Has Been Shed, and Most Precious Blood play the same show.

The Orphans @ Mr. T's Bowl

2009-03-03T00:34:00.000-08:00

I hadn’t even heard of The Orphans when my friend D asked if I wanted to go see them play around December ‘01. D knew of the band because she worked retail with the singer, Jenny. All she could tell me was they were a “punk” band of some sort – no description of style, sound, scene, whatever. Didn’t really matter, I was game.

The show was at Mr. T’s Bowl in Highland Park. In hindsight, it was probably one of their early shows, as the 1st 7” hadn’t been released yet.

We arrived at Mr. T’s which I remember being some combination of restaurant, bowling alley, and bar, although my memory isn’t real clear on this. The scene showed good potential for an interesting show -– punks, hippies, Hessian types, art schoolers, some greasers. Soon after arrival we met up with a few of D’s all female co-workers who were funny, witty, and purposefully obnoxious in a good way. Another good sign, I thought. As we drank a few beers, I saw Phil from Gods Iron Tooth, who I hadn’t seen in awhile so I went over to say hello. Turned out he was the roadie for this at-the-time unknown-to-me band The Orphans. Yet another promising indicator.

Some stoner-metal type act played first, I think. Maybe a surf-garage band played, too? Don’t really remember. Any memory of these bands was soon to be completely eclipsed.

The Orphans take the stage and immediately begin tearing the place apart. If you saw ‘em, you know what the live show was like. Iggy Pop meets Darby Crash meets The Avengers vibe. Jenny going apeshit, rolling around on the floor, hiking up her dress, licking the mike, being overly obnoxious. Wade, drunk, barely playing the bass – more of just a smashing on the strings with his fist and getting bloody. Dan and Brandon holding the whole thing together.

Again, if you saw The Orphans, you know Wade had a proclivity for a few things: (1) getting bloody; (2) smashing beer bottles on his head; (3) breathing fire. A lot of bands breathe fire. It’s nothing new, but a fun gimmick at times. So Wade fills his mouth with alcohol, covers the bass stock, lights the stock on fire. But, here's the catch. Instead of spitting the alcohol up into the air like every other band I've seen who does this, Wade aims at the audience and spits fire directly in the face of one of the guys from the opening act. Wow. I’m pretty sure his hair caught fire. He may have fallen down. At some point he recovers himself enough to run to the back of the place, presumably to the bathroom to wash off his face. At this point, I’m impressed.

A few songs later, who reappears in the crowd? Fire victim. He immediately rushes the stage, tackles Wade, and starts punching him (or trying to punch him, I couldn’t really tell what was happening). Out of nowhere, Phil appears from the side of the stage and starts destroying Fire Victim. First he gets burned, then beat up. Not this guy’s night, that’s for sure.

I think the show ended at this point. Didn't really matter. I left thoroughly impressed, and with a new favorite band. I would go on to see The Orphans a ton, but nothing was quite like that first night. Well, maybe the time at the Prospector when my same friend D became the victim of Wade’s fire antics and had her hair catch fire. She was too drunk to notice, so I think Jenny put it out while continuing to sing. Classic.

The Orphans "Last Show" flyer:

chris girard's house show

2009-03-02T14:04:00.000-08:00

sometimes there are hardcore shows that are the stuff of legend.

one hazy weekend afternoon in south county, a legendary show happened. anyone in attendance will attest to this. in a mild mannered suburban home, the spectacle of THE MISTAKE and MATOE was unleashed.

ive asked a few people to try to put to words what happened at this show, and i receved this from Austin Cherness, or "Austin without the liprings" or "south county Austin"

chris gerard lived with his mom in a nice house in laguna niguel. he decided to have a show with the mistake and matoe. i think the mistake and matoe kind of always had to play together. this was one of the first shows where matoe werent pirates, and it was pretty much a let down. this was in his garage and it was pretty much all south county kids, with the exception of the mistake and a few friends. this was the begining of the short lived "riot mosh", and man was that fun.

what made riot mosh different from regular moshing? well, riot mosh was more wwf instead of karate. also it was just trying to do the most over the top stuff you could, like elbow drops and baseball slides and body slams and stuff. it was always aimed at friends though, because nobody else really understood it. due to riot mosh, i will forever have a busted shoulder. i messed it up in a wall of death gone wrong, and as it was healing, aria decided it was a good idea and body slam me right on to it.

anyway, the mistake played and it was mayhem in the little garage. i wish i still had pictures, if only to post mikey v's flock of seagulls hair from the show. and i think he had construction gloves on. the mistake usually finished sets with the "where's my foot" song, and its a great pile on part. well, it usually is, but this time was different. a lot of times, there would be 1 or 2 shoes thrown on stage...well, i dont know WHY or HOW this happened, but there was a giant bucket of shoes in the garage just waiting to be thrown. so all of a sudden, the pile on doesnt happen, and it turns into a fucking battlefield of shoes. like literally, at least 20 pairs of shoes being thrown full force at each other in a tiny packed garage. i think jav still has injurys from this.

anyway, it was a great show. probably better than when matoe played at this kids house and we had a bounce house mosh sesh and then people were moshing with sledge hammers and axes.

after the show we went to in n out and greg cuchissi carved slayer in his arm to show how metal he was. i asked him to see and i poured a pack of salt on it. the end.

South County Hardcore part two

2009-02-26T10:26:00.000-08:00

another installment from Aria. this time he delves into the world of the phenomenon known as MATOE

South County Hardcore 2001-2006 ; Part 2
Amateur Hour

When Koos shut down and the internet hit, a lot of stuff changed. Koos was a DIY non profit run by some art kids, and was a completely volunteer driven space. Shows were always $5, and I believe they paid the bands pretty well. The venue itself was on Main St. in downtown Santa Ana, in a 1 bedroom house. There was no stage, and you were always packed in very tight. It was where I saw my first few shows. There was an obvious political bent about the place, but it wasn't shoved down your throat. It was a community center used as an art outlet for a lot of kids who had nowhere else to go, everyone got it. They even let taggers paint the walls in the backyard.

Bands early on like Hurricanrana (some of the Donnybrook guys), Bleeding Through, Wrench, Scars of Tomorrow, and Over My Dead Body would play. It was like we saw the same show every weekend, but it didn't get boring. Looking back now bands like Atreyu and Avenged Sevenfold were also playing there and at some of those shows, before they it the Billboard Hot 100. Its funny to think about how they were never really liked in that scene, and never had much of a following. The South County band that would usually play was Matoe. When people saw Matoe, they weren't really sure if they should laugh or join in. Matoe had a pirate theme, and would be in full pirate costume. The crowd would show up dressed the same, and it became some weird ass cult following kinda thing. Matoe held this gimmick for a good while. They tried dropping it and getting serious about their music (which wasn't bad), but it never got going and the gimmick always held a warm spot in South Counties heart.
Finally around 2003, Matoe was done and was going to call it quits. They decided to one more show by this time with the pirate theme again. By that time the scene had changed. Everyone had cell phones, everyone had the internet, Napster was being used to get hardcore around, and Koos was gone. With Koos gone, Chain Reaction and Showcase became dominated by 4 or 5 band tours leaving little room for the local scene. We had to resort to "pay to play" bars like Hogue Barmichaels in Irvine which became notorious for ripping kids off and having a bad staff. Shit really hit the fan during Matoe's last show, ironically during their last song. Kids were all getting rowdy, and something happened between one of the bouncers and one of the kids and the next thing you knew, someone in the band was getting pushed by one of the club staff people. People jumped on the bouncers back, and It spilled out in the parking lot where it became a stand off between a ton of kids and five big security guards. Eventually the security guards seeing how bad they were out numbered, retreated back into the venue and locked the doors. The show was over. Half the crowd was laughing, and half the crowd that actually got into it with the security guards were pissed off. Then out of nowhere some girl threw a brick through the front door of the place, and needless to say you never really saw a good show there again. A police helicoper was up in the air real quick, and everyone retreated to Taco Loco.
With no places left to play, we resorted to finding non venues. A drummer in one of the local bands had an idea. His dad owned a bee removal pesticide company or something, and he had the keys to the companies storage space in the industrial part of Mission Viejo. Some shows went down there but eventually, the space that came to be known as The Pesticide got shut down. I remember having to have 200 kids disappear from the site one time with 5 minutes notice, because the dad was coming to pick something up from the storage space. Sitting in Taco Bell across the center, with 200 kids, we realized the spot just wasn't going to work out. Still looking for places to put on a show we resorted to approaching some of the Youth Groups of local Churches. We knew that the Churches occasionally put on shows with Christian pop punk bands and some Christian hardcore bands, so if we got one or two Christian bands on the bill, we could just pretend like the whole thing was one big Christian hardcore show. I remembered hearing a story of 18 Visions playing in Capo Beach at some church on a show with Unashamed (a popular Christian hardcore band that was pretty accepted in the mainstream hardcore scene in the late 90's) so we figured it may be worth a shot. This never truly worked. It wasn't so much that the Churches were against the music, but were more worried of what the kids would do once the music started.

South County Hardcore

2009-02-24T16:47:00.000-08:00

i asked Aria Ghafari to write something about St. Edwards to go along with Jon's piece, or maybe about the Hurricane Katrina Benefit show he put on at Saddleback College. What i got was the first installment of Aria's History of South County Hardcore:

South County Hardcore 2001-2006; Part 1

South County to me was anything south of the Irvine Y (where the 5 and 405 meet), all the way down to the end of San Celemente before the development stops for the power plant and Camp Pendleton.

I entered into the scene in the latter part of my sophomore year of high school and left it by the time I transferred out of community college and moved out of Orange County. I went to Dana Hills High School which for the most part was the heart of hardcore and Straight Edge for South County. Today the scene I think in many ways still remains relevant in Dana Point or at least at the high school, although it spread pretty strongly south into San Clemente and inland into Aliso and Mission Viejo starting in 2000.

During the time I was around and from the history lessons given to me from older members of the scene South County was pretty much always the step sister to the greater OC scene, mainly cause we never had a true venue, or a good record store, or any decent touring bands. If South County was known for anything, it was for causing trouble and being annoying on message boards. Steps (a venue before my time) was around in Capo Beach for a very short period in the latter part of the mid 90's. They had some shows (including Blink 182 before they hit KROQ), but to many of us it was just folklore. Underdog Records, in Laguna, was the closest thing we had to a record store, but it didn't really fully serve the local scene as much as say Bionic did for Huntington. Underdog was owned by one of the dudes from the local punk act The Stitches and looking back now we might have been better off hanging around there and listening to more Black Flag, Bad Brains, and Adolescents and less metal. They never held an in-store that I could remember, and the local hardcore scene (which was more metalcore than punk at the time) and the local punk scene never truly got together. Underdog Records closed a couple of years ago along with Bionic. It appears as if the digital age has not been so kind to the business. South County's best contribution to the scene was a late night hippie sea food taco bar in Laguna called Taco Loco. Just around the corner from a Hare Krishna temple and down the block from the famous Laguna Tattoo, Taco Loco served up late night vegan friendly items to Straight Edge kids, all while playing Reggae music and having images of Mushrooms everywhere. Truly a strange site. We had some history, and some bands, and some relevant people come from the area, but for the most part we didn't know what we were doing and it was more than anything a channel for a lot of teen angst in a very rich conservative area.

They say OC is rich and conservative, but to understand where South County was in the big picture, you had to realize that we were in the suburb of the suburb. In the 70's and 80's Huntington Beach, Costa Mesa, Santa Ana, and Garden Grove had grown too big and diverse for many of the middle class families that occupied Richard Nixon's Orange County. Now lazy surfer towns like Dana Point, Capo Beach, and San Clemente were to be built up going inland with cookie cutter pink houses for as far as the eye could see. To avoid an elaborate anthropological explanation, it isn't difficult to see why the kids of South County were so confused and angry. In my opinion, we were simply the latest case study in the long line of Southern California punk and hardcore. We were punks, primarily composed of middle class teens with nothing to do with their free time, with no outside political interest, that were either cut from the football team or just not in the mood to live the life MTV told us to. The decline of western civilization, right?

To say it was all white and upper middle class wouldn't be true though. In the scene there were a lot of kids from broken homes who were poorer and just didn't have the means to keep up with their millionaire class mates. And something that always stands out to me looking back on the kids was no matter where you went in South County, Latino hardcore kids were always prevalent. The neighborhoods of La Zanja, The Village, and Harbor Lane (now notoriously know for the gang injunctions by the OC Sheriffs department) were where a lot of hardcore kids were from and hungout. The crew of Straight Edge kids who came before me, The Lords, along with kids throughout the OC scene picked up on some of the Latino fashion, and started wearing Ben Davis pants and shirts, which were banned from schools in the area. On the other side, the younger Latino kids became enamored with hardcore shirts, shows, and all that came with it. I don't want to paint a picture that there was complete racial harmony in the scene, but for the period I was around, Latinos made up a large part of hardcore diaspora.

Given the fact that we were the only scene that didn't have a venue (the Inland Empire had The Showcase in Corona, Central County had Chain Reaction in Anaheim, and San Diego had The Che Cafe on UCSD's campus), it would be up to us to come up with spots to put on shows. We tried community centers, shitty bars run by sketchy people, churches, one time we even did a show at Traveland USA (a giant RV dealership in Irvine). Anytime we were able to convince someone to let us put on a show, the kids would show up, in hoards...

--
Aria Ghafari

south county VS UnderOath

2009-02-24T13:52:00.000-08:00

Jon Vandenburg is a funny little guy. he sent me this:

in the early 2000s (i cant seem to remember when) i was playing in a band fronted by a man who could convince you to play chicken with semis on your bike if it would benefit him or his cause of the day in some way. actually it didnt even have to benefit anything if he was able to get nachos from albertacos out of it. eventually, he convinced a catholic church to allow him to use their dining hall/old church next door to their multi-million dollar new church which overlooked the ocean and had a fabulous pipe organ. anyway, this dining hall ended up being a perfect venue for shows as far as catholic churches go and the church even supplied staff at the shows to run a snack bar and manage the door. i cant remember every band that got sucked/tricked into playing there, but to name a few...stand and fight/impact, bleeding through, hello goodbye, 12 gauge rage, matoe, antenora, and im forgetting tons of others and most of them are probably friends bands but im not sorry, i just forgot. im pretty sure the mistake boycotted playing there though aria asked every other week (and if they didnt they are softies). but, enough of all that, this story involves the time that Underoath in all of their dark christian glory was booked and played at the church. the show soldout to the point that kids were sneaking in through vents from the top floor and breaking sliding glass windows. im not sure how word got out, but apparently underoath had made some ridiuclous request to the effect that they would play for a $4,000 guarantee. Needless to say needles say more i mean needless to say, kids in attendance at the show heard about it and immediately started heckling the band once they were on stage. i remember seeing a hand written poster/ sign that said 'jesus only requested a last meal, prepare to be crucified'. about two songs into their set somebody stage dove, head walked to the front of the stage and punched the singer in the face. they stopped the song half way through as austin, rouse, and i hurled handfulls of pennies toward the band (always aim for the eyes). the singer started to preach about god and violence but was constantly interrupted by kids asking about god and money thus denouncing the catholic church or any church for that matter. they tried to play a few more songs to please the herd of 14 year old girls who were clearly upset that they weren't able to enjoy the show but the girls were silenced as 12 year old blaine threw a milkshake at them. the p.a. was then broken as the band tried to explain how hard it was to be on tour...you should have seen their tour bus/chartered yacht on wheels. that ended up being the last show at st. edwards church...until aria convinced them again to let him use the top floor of their school located on the other side of the parking lot (which ended up being a pretty sweet venue for the one show that was had there).

LSC

2009-02-24T02:05:00.000-08:00

Speaking of the Lords:

stuck in the past

2009-02-21T13:13:00.001-08:00

there is a new blog around, and its fucking awesome. please do yourself a favor and check it out.

The Mistake Discography

2009-02-16T14:13:00.000-08:00

The Mistake demo was recorded October 16th, 2001. yes, that long ago.
I could fire off for hours about all the crazy shit that went down, but i decided to talk about the recrods. yes, vinyl records.
The Mistake recorded 4 times. for the Demo at Tru One studios in Norwalk, CA
for the "fuck everything up" record at The Distillery in Costa Mesa
for the split with Carry the Casket at Orbit Studios by Paul Miner
and 6 songs with Dan Berienowski (sp) in 2007? 4 of which were released onto the myspace page, 2 have yet to see official release.
Of those 4 sessions, 2 were laid down to vinyl. The "fuck everything up" record had one song that was exclusive to the 7" and one song that was exclusive to the CD, and the CD contained the infamous "live at showcase" recording. The initial session was recorded analog by a dude named Mike McHugh, and The Distillery has laid down such bands as The Aqua Bats, The Black Lips, The Distraction, 16 and fucking Rocket From The Crypt. Alex Tover played drums on that recording and had joined the band the day before. Chris Rouse sang backups. Erick practically BEGGED me to say "fuck you atreyu". i will swear upon everything that it was his idea, and i was against it. i laid those words to tape and the rest is infamy.
The split with CTC was labeled "fuck" or "fuck the mistake" and every song had the word FUCK in the title. Paul Miner came into Orbit Studios and we booked a regular 3 hour practice. we payed paul 100 bucks and he recorded those songs live, then set up a mic in the center of the room and i screamed. no overdubs. the insert to that record is probably one of my favorite layouts ever. we just emailed the lyrics to Cheesegrater, and he blacked out the addresses and printed them out.
the layout for "fuck everything up " was done by Ben Goetting. i just sent him the pic i found in some book about Doc Marten boots and he did the rest. I wanted something that was bright colored because everyone else was doing deathly doom shit, and we wanted to do something different, more "punk". i love the target and i love the purple. we had those shirts for a long time.
this is one of the 15 test presses for "fuck everything up". i made 15 different covers, each with a different old-school punk icon. mine is Jimmy Pursey. i dont even remember what the other ones were. probably The Clash and Capt. Sensible.
these were Vinyl Solution press covers. i wanted to pay homage to some classic records. Dave Mandel did the layouts. Cheesegrater changed the title "How Could Hell Be Any Worse" to "How Could Life Be Any Worse". 50 covers were pressed for each.
this is the generic cover for the split with Carry the Casket. the art for their side was a statue of liberty or some equally awesome stuff. i didnt really pay attention. all of the labels were once again left blank, and we just wrote CTC or MSTK on each side. 500 pressed. 100 were pressed on black and 400 on white.
this is the test press for the split. 8 were pressed, all with this cover.
as noted on the record, 25 were pressed with this cover. i believe we had a show and the "real" covers werent made, so Cheesegrater threw these together with the good ol' rub on letters. i remember giving one to Greg Bacon. i have 2.
another Vinyl Solution press. Cheesegrater was working there at the time, and made 50 of these covers to sell there exclusively.
Mark Mitchell made this cover. Jarvis Cocker giving the two fingered salute. it has a diffrent insert as well. i believe 25 of each of these were made.

Cheesegrater made this 2x7" set to sell at the final show at Showcase Theater. 2o were made. i believe most sold. its both 7"s with a special message from yours truly.
will the mistake record again? maybe. will the mistake ever be forgotten in OC hardcore history? one can only hope.

pretty much, fuck you all.

Cheesegrater EDIT: We had planned, and set in motion, a UK pressing of the "Fuck Everything Up" 7" to be done by our friend Troy. It was to have a song exclusive to that version (thus, you'd have to buy the USA 7", UK 7", and CD to get the entire session). The best part was the layout. I had Ben Goetting switch the colors from purple to a light pink (I think), and change the band name to "THEE MISTAKE" in an homage to Billy Childish (Thee Headcoats, Thee Mighty Caesars, Thee Milkshakes, etc.) For one reason or another, likely my laziness, it was never made.

the Monster Crew - part 1

2009-02-13T16:09:00.000-08:00

a while ago, i sent out a few requests for people to write something about the Monster Crew. only two people wrote me back. i asked Dave Itow to write something, knowing full well that he never got along with those dudes. here is his story:

The Mother's Incident

About '97 I was living at a house in huntington with some dudes. We got a call the MonsterXCrew spit on one of our dudes while he was shopping with his mom at Mother's, and they were still eating in the restaurant. So we gathered up some dudes and we ready to rumble. We knew that they liked weapons and figured if we got to them before they got to their cars they might not have as many on them. So we staked out Mother's and waited for them to leave. As they walked out they noticed us walking toward them in the parking lot. tensions were high to say the least. There were about 20 of them and about the same for us. I only recognized a few of them. Most were the SLC kids. The only ones I noticed were Troy, James, and Matt Webber. So right as we were gonna rush em a cop drives in the parking lot. Either perfect timing or someone figured it out and called. Everything got broken up and we all rush to our cars to follow them. They break up and we all stick together and go after two cars. We pull up along side and Troy flashes a gun. WOW!!! The exact reason we wanted to get them before they got to the cars. We follow them to James house. All their other cars were there already, and standing in the street were about 12 dudes with weapons I couldn't even make up names for. I saw maces, bats, hammers, what looked to be a steel pipe with a carburetor welded to the end, and of course Grocery dividers. The Monster crew weapon of choice. Now the HB dudes were all about fist fighting. We didn't carry weapons, this was a little to much. Obviously they weren't into a fair fight. Especially with the gun flashed at us before. So we continued to drive on. No one needs to die. This was the beginning of a long time feud with many more encounters.

Itow

another person i asked was Matt Orphan. Matt grew up in Irvine and was a part of the later, more "mature" version of Monster Crew. here is what he wrote, unedited and unabridged

The Monster Crew was a phenomenon I avoided for the first few years of my time in the Southern California hardcore scene. I had old friends and acquaintances who'd joined the Monster Crew who I still kept in touch with, and I stood up with them in the midst of a couple confrontations with gutter punks and nazi skins at Disneyland when numbers got large on both sides of the Tomorrowland battlefield, but as a whole, the Crew held straight edge and veganism as its core doctrines and I had zero interest in either belief. Since I didn't consider myself to be the same animal, I respected them for what they were and stayed away from them. Still, their presence was undeniable. Everyone who hung around the hardcore hotspots knew the names of at least 6 or 7 Monster Crew kids off the top of their heads...even if they'd never met any of them. They were household names and people you gave a wide berth to. If nothing else, everyone could agree that life was a lot easier on their good side than it was in their crosshairs.

To most people, this just sounds like a generic description of a group of common bullies terrorizing the weak...exploiting physical intimidation to make up for a lack of personality or redeeming social qualities. The break with that theory is that most of the Monster Crew were genuinely witty, sharp and likeable guys. Yeah, they could be (and were) total assholes to people, but they were total assholes that other people liked to be around. As far as I was concerned, the majority of the people who found themselves victims of the Monster Crew were begging for it in the first place anyway.

Then things changed. I don't know exactly what happened because it was none of my concern at the time, but it seemed that the ranks exploded with a lack of accountability for who was running around claiming Monster Crew and giving out bastardized memberships. Suddenly every 17 year old tool in a basketball jersey attending their 2nd hardcore show decided they were a member. That crashed pretty fast. The market had been flooded with knock-offs and cheap imposters. People moved on and formed new crews. Oh, and Troy went to jail.

When the dust settled, I had a couple major things in common with the remaining members of the Monster Crew. For one, most of them had started drinking. I loved drinking. Up until that point, I'd been the only drunk guy at Taco Loco on Monday nights. And secondly, we both hated the Lords of South County. I joined the Crew.

At this point, Troy was home for several months between his pre-trial hearings and his trial up in Salt Lake. I spent 5 or 6 nights a week with Troy, Jay, Ryan, Josh and Adam, James, Andy, Mike, Nick, Steve, Ryan G., Greg, Logan, Crazy Justin, etc. There was a lot of drinking. And fighting. At one point we literally averaged 3 fights a week for a whole summer. My girlfriend at the time was thrilled. Most of us had very little love for the hardcore scene anymore and made a nuisance of ourselves at shows and regular hangout places. Eventually the hardcore scene had very little love for us either.

There were so many other hardcore crews in Southern California by the year 2000, no one could keep them straight anymore. All of them wanted to build a rep. A lot of them thought that fighting the Monster Crew would be a good way to do that. Unfortunately, by that time, almost all the remaining members had moved away to Salt Lake, San Francisco and New Orleans. That left 2 or 3 of us who ever really went out to common hangouts and ran into hardcore kids. It didn't matter whether we wanted to rep Monster Crew or not anymore. We were pegged with it. People tried to jump Mike and myself somewhat frequently. It never actually worked out. Old members like Jacob and Billy started hanging around more. Logan and Jeff came down from San Francisco here and there, and we began to rely heavily on our younger generation of friends like Chris, Jimmy and Blake to fill out our numbers in public. Brandon S. was with us a lot as well, although he refused any affiliation with the name of the Monster Crew. He was a friend and ally through a lot of rough times nonetheless.

The sense of brotherhood and reliability I experienced with a lot of these guys was like nothing I'd ever felt before. I've been a scrapper since I was a little kid, but when you throw a punch at someone and 11 guys race to get the second punch in for you, it's a strange feeling. I was always polite and respectful to my Monster Crew brothers because I feared each one of them almost as much as I cared about them.

I know I'm talking about all of this in the past tense, but to be honest, my Monster Crew dog tags are sitting on my nightstand next to my bed. My clan tag on Call of Duty is "MC2K" for Monster Crew 2000. And when I hang out with Jacob or Jay of any of the other guys, we're still Monster Crew as far as I'm concerned. There's gotta be somebody out there who still wants to jump one of us. I'm here.

i will post more as more stories and information is received, but this is a fuckin' good start.

Artist's rendering of ME!!!

2009-02-12T18:52:00.000-08:00

I remember this show. it was fucking HOT!!! it was Eighteen Visions, Martyr AD and Poison The Well. the date on the youtube video said 10/21/2001, which makes it about 6 months after i had played bass for PTW on tour. i believe it was Martyr AD's first show here, and as anyone can tell you, the crowd for Martyr AD was fucking frightening. ive only been afraid one other time, during Buried Alive's set at Hellfest 1999.
Anyway, at about 1:40 in this video, at the bottom left of the screen you see someone creep down from the rafters of showcase. this jerk is yours truly. you can see me check the stability of the guitar head, because i was planning to jump off of it. i decide against it and just jump off the drum riser. what a moron.
this video does have some pretty good headwalking though, and is an accurate snapshot of the way show looked around that time.

this video was shot by www.myspace.com/xkeithedgex

Disembodied's only video on the internet

2009-02-12T18:46:00.000-08:00

there are several interesting things about this Disembodied clip. First, the fact that it is, as far as i can tell, the ONLY video of Disembodied on the internet. incredible. secondly, Aaron is not singing. Jody, who originally sang for Everlast and was in Race Traitor at some point, is. Apparently Aaron was nowhere to be found, and they had a tour booked.
As Tara explains..
"Aaron flaked, and we went to see Earth Crisis in Milwaukee and met Jody there when his band played and we were like you should come sing for us and he was like OK and we flew him up here for practice a few times without even knowing him".
He apparently didn't have the best personal hygiene, either. "He stayed at our house for a while and he never took showers and he was uncircumcised and he always bragged about how stinky he was. He was a nice guy but liked being a dirty punk rock kid and it got old FAST"
At this point, the band only had out the Existence in Suicide EP and the Confession 7". On the same tour they played at Aaron Stone's dad's church in Costa Mesa.
Jody was left in Boston at the end of that tour because they just didn't want to be in the band with him anymore. "We finished the tour with Justin singing, Joel playing drums and Mark playing guitar, and that was the end of Jody, except for my yellow Descendants shirt."

Enewetak

2009-02-12T16:36:00.000-08:00

its really crazy to me that the first show i ever played on a real stage was in the band Enewetak, there were 600 people there, it wasnt in my town.. and oh yeah the video is on fucking youtube.

i became friends with Forrest Locke through his fanzine, TOUGH. back then, in like 1996, you didnt IM people or find someone on a message board. you met new people by picking up their zine and writing a letter and sending it in the mail.
He invited me to the fledgling Koo's Cafe in Santa Ana to see his band ENEWETAK play with this band called JURGIS and this band from San Diego called the Bloody Five, a four piece band who donned masks and just kinda fucked around with the audience a lot.
eventually, i became friends with the entire Orange contingent and what would become the RPT Murder Crew. Mike Cheese gave me a sealed test press of the first Enewetak 7", which is now in the possession of Cheesegrater.
Toby, the bass player of Enewetak, was scheduled to head to Europe with his hot girlfriend who was going to be modeling there, and dragging him along for the ride. Forrest knew that i had some skills in guitar, and asked if I'd like to fill in for Toby while he was away. fuck yeah, i did.
i think the year was 1996, and i began practicing with them in a lockout in Orange. The first LP was already out, maybe "Guns, Elvis loved 'em" as well, and writing for the Easy Rider vol. 1 and the split with Unruh were underway.
One weekend we made our way up to Goleta, which is just north of Santa Barbara to play the Goleta Fest engineered by Kent McLard and the Ebbulition/HeartattaCk consortium. Pretty much what i remember of the fest is as follows:
1. we tried to drive my car up there, broke down, had to be towed back to Orange and borrow Jack's brother's car.
2. it was Disembodied's first west coast show.
3. Guyver-1 played on the floor because it was more "punk"
4. the arizona bands drove out in a U-haul type truck, with a couch in the back that everyone just chilled on
5. Man Is The Bastard put on one of the most memorable shows ive ever seen, to this day.

i dont remember actually playing the show. the hat i was wearing is the same hat as in the photo of the profile of this blog. i believe it said "you wear your x, ill wear mine" or something equally offensive. the song we play in that video is "kill 'em all", the first song i ever recorded.

the first time i ever went out of state with a band was to play in Phoenix with Fall Silent and Tho Ko Losi. we were friends with the King Of The Monsters type bands.

i recorded three songs with Enewetak, on the split 7" with Unruh. it was my first time in a recording studio. i dont remember much about that either, other than toby was already back in town and even though i was around for the writing of the Easy Rider sessions, they elected Toby to play on it and it kinda hurt my feelings. at least i got in for some of it, so i shouldnt complain.

eventually Toby came home and i was out, and was asked to be in 18 Visions because they needed a bass player and had seen me in Enewetak. but thats another story.

Inappropriate

2009-02-12T02:37:00.000-08:00

About a week (give or take) after September 11, 2001, The Briefs played an in-store at Vinyl Solution Records in Huntington Beach, where I was working at the time.

As they're known to be fans of early punk, have done a number of covers, and were playing in a punk record store, I was expecting them to treat the crowd to something special. A local music journalist who shall remain nameless had the same thought. Therefore, he continually requested they play The Randoms' classic rager "Let's Get Rid of New York" off their Dangerhouse 7". Highly inappropriate, even by punk standards. At first, the band tried to ignore him and brush off the request, but finally they were forced to admit that they just weren't that punk, and instead they played The Weirdos' "Solitary Confinement". They could've at least played "Neutron Bomb".

The Briefs doing their version of the oft-covered "Jet Boy, Jet Girl":

The Randoms "Let's Get Rid of NY" (audio only):

We Are Electrocution

2009-02-12T02:05:00.000-08:00

Costa Mesa's Tiki Bar sucked. Bad sound, no parking, terrible bands usually. For years, whoever was booking that place totally dropped the ball. Out of the hundreds of local shows I've attended over the years, I'd guess about 6 have been at the Tiki Bar. CKY circa 2000 was fun, as were a few Innaway shows, Smogtown once or twice, and maybe the Angry Samoans (can't remember if it was here or somewhere else).

Somehow, on November 19, 1999, the Tiki Bar actually had a good show. That night, I went to see The Stitches, Smogtown, and Le Shok. All 3 bands, especially The Stitches, were (are) always a roll of the dice to see live depending on what type of intoxicants the members consumed, but on this night I remember things going relatively smooth. As the story goes, things weren't all they appeared.

The following information is strictly hearsay, but I've heard it from a few sources and have come to believe its validity. Supposedly, Le Shok, dissatisfied with the sound, insulted the sound-guy. It must have been pretty harsh because at some point security chased Hot Rod Todd down the street. Instead of running or fighting, Todd simply turned around, pulled out his 'junk' and began brandishing it / waving it at the security guys. I'm not sure if they were insulted, afraid, or weirded-out, but I'm told whatever they felt caused them to turn around and head back to the club.

Here's Le Shok playing "She Prefers Whips" off the "DNA" 7" at Chain Reaction:

jav vs. superfandom

2009-02-11T23:17:00.000-08:00

When John Pettibone and Derek Fudesco ask youy if you want to shoot dice, you say yes.

It was 2001 and I was touring with Poison The Well. The last show of tour was Seattle, I think the Velvet Elvis. We find the club, start unloading, and head in.

Now, as Cheesegrater will tell you, I fucking loved Undertow. And it just so happens that I love Murder City Devils. Guess who was working "security" at the club? The singer and bass player of said bands. I'm not gona lie, I was kinda starstruck. Then, Johnny came up to me. Recognized me or whatever, I don't really remember. He said he and Derek were playing some crazy dice game, and asked if I wanted to join. I don't remember what the game was, but it involved 6 dice.

On a side note, c-low, however you want to spell it, is a popular way to lose your per diem. On this tour I think a particularly heated game went down somewhere in Florida involving Carley Coma, Jeff The Well, Ryan Primak and myself.

Anyway, I had no idea how to play this game, so I watched. The big boys were obviously unimpressed, and I had trouble following how to play.

We played the show, and afterwards I thought "holy fuck, I didn't even show Derek my Murder City tattoo. That would have been the most awkwardly awesome thing EVER!!!". Think about it. Some random hardcore dude pulls his shirt to reveal a tattoo of your band's lyrics. I can't imagine.

To conclude the story, we ate some place after the show with all the other bands, who were continuing the tour through Canada while we went home. The boys were to drop me back in OC on the way back to Florida. I had a veggie burger at the show, which I'm blaming for making me throw up the entire way home. Even in the middle of the night while everyone in the van was asleep, I drove with one hand while using the other hand to hold the soda cup I was throwing up into. I got home after the 24 hour drive, got in the shower, and sharted/ threw up at the same time. Good times.

Adamantium vs. Bad Brains

2009-02-11T09:50:00.000-08:00

have you ever heard that Bad Brains tribute compilation called NEVER GIVE IN: A TRIBUTE TO THE BAD BRAINS? it's pretty awesome. the Moby song on it fucking rules. and it has Ignite, Cave In, Vision Of Disorder, Sepultura, etc.

i always thought it was interesting that Orange County's own Adamantium had a song on it. at the time, we had heard that nobody in Adamantium even liked Bad Brains, and it was Aaron Lisi who engineered the event.
i asked Keith Barney if he wanted to do a piece for www.alloverthistown.com about the recording of the song, and here's how the conversation transpired on AIM:

hiimjav: would you be interested in writing something
short for my blog?
heavykxxx: [AWAY] Just one second...
heavykxxx: about anything or what
hiimjav: About the adamantium song on the badbrains
tribute album
heavykxxx: i'm not really a bad brains fan... but
there were awesome bands on the comp so we picked the
heaviest one we could
heavykxxx: thats not a good story ha
  ----------------------- 5:34 pm -----------------------
hiimjav: Well that's the thing.. The rumor was that nobody
in your band even liked bad brains. I just want to write
more like historical and archival pieces. I'm gonna ask
horowitz rosie and maybe paul miner about it too
heavykxxx: i mean....
heavykxxx: moby was on it
heavykxxx: just had to
  ----------------------- 5:39 pm -----------------------
hiimjav: Lol
hiimjav: And that concludes the interview

i also asked Matt Horwitz to write something, and here is the
myspace message i got back:

We recorded it at the guy from Open Hand's studio. The same
day we recorded 'Virus' for a comp and the another song for
the "as the sun sets" comp(?). Jim Miner did the solo. I haven't
heard it in a long time but does Efrem sing on it too?

so there you have it. the whole story, straight from the
horse's mouth.  totally fucking interesting huh?

One King Down vs. The Hardcore House

2009-02-10T12:49:00.000-08:00

As Cheesegrater previously mentioned, we were "hardcore" and they were "softcore". Anyone who has watched the Throwdown, Bleeding Through, or Indecidion Video Vault dvds, or knows anything about the history of Orange County Hardcore from 1998- present knows that the SOFTCORE house was where bands like Admantium and Throwdown were spawned.
It was a shitty, two bedroom apartment on the border of Costa Mesa and Newport Beach, less than a mile from the beach. Denizens included, but not limited to Tommy Love, Brandon Love, Eric Johnson, Aaron Lisi, Keith Barney, and Dan Sena's records. Many a late night Jenga game and Hatebreed stagedive party went down in the living room, and the door policy was very open.
I crashed on the couch for a while, then moved into an apartment on the other side of town with Jason Shockley and Brandon Chamberlain. We were WAY tougher than them, vegan sxe and ready to tell everyone. We were fucking HARDCORE. We had heard of a house of hc kids in Utah who named their house GREYSKULL and I thought it was fucking awesome to name a house. We named ours the totally fucking original HARDCORE HOUSE becuase we were fucking HARDCORE!!!!
Some of those who hung out at the other house did not share our militant views and decided "those guys are hardcore, we are SOFTCORE".
Their house became legendary, ours... not so much.
There were several incidents of the two houses clashing, including actual physical violence once or twice.

One night Shockley and I went to Koo's Cafe to see a show. I don't remember who else played, but ONE KING DOWN was one of the bands. We were super stoked on this band, becuase they had a really modern sound and sung about straightedge. In between songs, Rob Fuscoe announced on the mic that they were in need of a place to stay that night. Jason and I looked at each other, nodded, and I said "you can stay at our house". Right there. In the middle of the show.
The show ended, we stopped at a supermarket on the way home, got home, stayed up talking for a while, and everyone eventualy went to bed. I had to wake up early for work, and left a group of sleeping strangers on my floor. No big deal.
Got home from work around 6 and immediately Brandon said "dude what the fuck happened to our house?" I was shocked and confused, and he directed me to the kitchen.
At some point, the band decided to make pasta. Not a problem... except they DIDN'T FUCKING CLEAN ANYTHING UP. There was shit everyfuckingwhere. Pasta, sauce, pots, bread... a disaster. And no thank you note or anything. They were the WORST house guests I've had, to this day.

About 2 or 3 years later, 18 Visions was playing in Albany, NY with The August Prophecy. Guess who was at the show? Rob Fuscoe. I walked up to him, said "hey, remember me?" he said no, and I said "do you remember fucking up my kitchen in Orange County?"
His smile dropped, and his hand went up to his head and he said
"Oh my god. I'm so fucking sorry. I'm so ashamed of myself, etc etc"

We laughed and played a game of chess, and every time I've seen him since I reminded him of the time his band fucked up my house.

That's Mighty Childish

2009-02-10T03:08:00.000-08:00

Even the advent of the internet hasn't made keeping track of prolific poet, writer, painter, and garage-legend Billy Childish easy. How does one even attempt to keep up with a guy who's released hundreds of records? You don't, I long ago decided. I try to catch him whenever he's in my town or I'm in his, and have been pretty successful so far.

Saw Billy with his band The Buff Medways at the Dirty Water Club in London, July 2006. Lucky me, as they broke up soon after. Video not shot by me:

Caught Billy Childish and the Chatham Singers a few weeks earlier in Leytonstone, the town where David Beckham grew up. I missed the train back to wherever I was staying, so I opted for a 2 hour bus ride that sucked. Got a picture of me and Mr. Childish, so it was worth it. Show was with Pete Molinari, who shreds. Check it:

You Are The Divine Machine

2009-02-10T00:06:00.000-08:00

Rorschach ceased existing about a year before my time. Doesn't mean I can't be way into them. As such, I've been eye-ing that "You Are The Divine Machine" shirt forever, and finally scored one last week. Check out Casey Watson of Never Healed reppin' his own model:
Needlepack 7" art on the front.

First

2009-02-09T23:40:00.000-08:00

Ditto on Jav's post, plus the following: I was heavy into punk, metal and some crossover when I started hanging out with Jav in earnest circa '93. Slayer, ST, Maiden, Testament, COC, Subhumans (Canadian and UK), Flag (Black, not White), Bad Religion, etc. He'd been to see some HC shows via Newport's legendary O'Flynn sisters and this pro-skater named Quy Nguyen. 411, Blackspot, Mission Impossible... the Workshed Records stable of bands basically. When he introduced me to the 'core, I was blown away. Now, instead of seeing Megadeth once a year at Pacific Ampitheater, I could check out bands once a week. Totally accessible. Plus, it was something to do once the sun went down and you had to leave the beach.

So Jav got me into hardcore and, as much as anyone else, has helped define my experience with it over the last 15+ years. My first viewing of Decline of Western Civilization was at his place on 21st and Orange in Costa Mesa. He gave me a cassette with FYP's "Finish Your Popcorn" on one side, Chorus of Disapproval on the other, that literally changed my life. He was the first person I knew to get a tattoo, and the first I knew to actually be on a vinyl record (Enewetak / Unruh split 7"). His crew of vegan-straightedge toughs was the King George to my group of sleazy, light-hearted surfer dudes' George Washington (or the Hetfield to our Mustaine?). They were 'hardcore', we were 'softcore'. Then he came over to our side. Then they all formed incestuous bands, I released the records, and we went on tour a bunch. When he left 18 Visions, he was ready for something new and so was I. Around 2001/2002 I was teetering on the edge of total HC-dropout. For better or worse (still not sure which), Jav and The Mistake single-handedly saved me from that fate by requiring me to put out their records. They worshipped Left For Dead -- how could I say no?

So that's where we are. I'll post some stories, pictures, videos, links, downloads, whatever I feel like. A lot of it will likely have nothing to do with me or hardcore in particular, but that's what I'm into, so that's what you get. Enjoy.

Jav's first band, 67 Cents (promo photo):

javs intro

2009-02-09T15:32:00.000-08:00

i met Cheesegrater in 8th grade, which i guess was 1991?
this kid Austin Hawkins lived across the street from me, and was into heavy metal and skateboarding, and Cheese and this kid Carmello hung out with him.
in 9th or 10th grade i was in my first band, 67 CENTS and Cheese was our manager or something. we covered Misfits and Function, and played our high school and one show with MONDAY C.O.W.
for a while in highschool, he and i were the only ones actively involved in hardcore. we went to every fucking show and were total outcasts. maybe it was the fact that we wore ties to every show and didnt talk to anyone else.
he went out with one of my ex-girlfriends and i didnt talk to him for a couple years.
he started a record label, and put out some seminal Orange County hardcore records. he has roadied for many bands including Throwdown, Martyr AD, and The Vandals, and has traveled all over the fucking world (i love his corrupt Peruvian police story).
he now lives somewhere in the South Pacific, where he practices law for the US Government (what a sellout). it makes it hard to communicate, and i totally had his phone number memorized before.
speaking of selling out, i sold out straightedge in his house, and he was the sole witness.
i think its amazing that some 16 years down the road, two dudes can still tell stories about hardcore. this blog will feature those stories. we will post videos and talk about the shows, flyers, and if anyone else wants to talk about something, drop us a line at
chaseandjav@gmail.com