Signifying Nothing

Raybeez

By admin on Nov. 12, 2011.

A few years ago, I wrote this for Double Cross Webzine. Tim & Gordo ended up never doing anything with it, so I have done some editing and reproduced what I wrote here.

So, my senior year of high school I was working on a new fanzine. This would be my first full length, pretty serious effort, fanzine after a couple of false starts. I really wanted to interview War Zone, so a friend (Dan Skebra?) gave me their voicemail number and I called it up. After leaving a very nervous message, I didn’t hear anything for about a week and crossed them off the list of bands to interview. One day after school I was getting ready for work and my mother hands me the phone. I asked her who it was and she said “Ray.” I figured it was my friend Ray, who I worked with and also went to shows (although his friends were more into pop-punk and bands like 25 Ta Life). Turned out it was another Ray: Raybeez!

He apologized for taking so long to get back to me and asked me about my fanzine. I told him I named it after a Mouthpiece song and we talked about how great Mouthpiece had been (they’d broken up the previous summer). We set up a time to do the interview at an upcoming War Zone show somewhere down the shore. Raybeez promised to keep in touch and I hung up totally psyched.

A few weeks go by the show happens, but do to some circumstances out of our control my friends and I couldn’t make it. I spoke to Raybeez a few days later and he said to not worry about it, we’d catch up soon. He called one more time like a month or so later to see how I was doing. He even remembered I was finishing up high school soon. How fucking cool is that?

School ends and that summer War Zone played at Manville with, I think, Uprise and No Contest. I introduced myself to Raybeez, apologized in person for missing the earlier show, and again he was so cool about it. He asked me what song I wanted to hear and four words snapped to the front of my brain: “Escape From Your Society.” You bet they played it along with a ton of old songs.

I hoped to find him after the show to thank him again, but my ride wanted to take off right away so I didn’t get to see him. About two months later he was dead.

Floorpunch @ Manville 8-3-97

By admin on Sep. 29, 2008.

Destroy Babylon recently posted this video of Floorpunch playing at Manville 8-3-97. You can see me all over this! I don’t remember a ton from this show…Vision also played (really early for some reason…I think they had to leave???) and maybe The Purpose. Someone on the Livewire Board said Fastbreak too but I don’t think they did…they played Manville the next weekend with Hands Tied, In My Eyes, and some others and then the next year with Fit For Abuse (!).

A lot of familiar faces in the crowd. I can see Chris Oliver, Mickey, Matt Molnar, Matt Smith, Joe Oz and tons of others. John Piorkowski pops up at one point so I suppose I went to this show with him.

I definitely go off in this video. I had not seen Floorpunch in months so I was psyched. It’s great how I go flying back to the front at the beginning of It’s The Limit when I realize what song they are covering. There was a scuffle between Little Dave and the drummer of 25 Ta Life at the end of that song. 25 Ta Life headlined, but I remember a mass rush for the exits before they played.

Top 100 Of The Nineties: Voorhees-Spilling Blood Without Reason LP

By admin on Mar. 2, 2006.

Voorhees
Spilling Blood Without Reason LP
AWA Records
1994

Whenever a new issue of Hardware Fanzine came out, I would save up my money and order all the records Dave & Brett said were good.  This turned me on to a lot of cool bands when I was 14-16: Devoid Of Faith, Mainstrike, Heroin, and Rorschach are just a few of them. Voorhees was another one.  I remember the review made me want to hear this record immediately.  Once I got a hold of it I was pretty floored.  Voorhees played million miles an hour hardcore in the vein of Infest and Citizens Arrest with great production and NYHC heaviness.  I remember being really pissed I missed them during their tour in the summer of 1995 w/ 25 Ta Life and Hatebreed (No, really).  I did see them in 1999, and again in 2001 right before they broke up.

Voorhees have a lot of records. Most are excellent.  Check out their discography for more info.  The Smiling At Death CD collects most of their essential stuff.

Here is an mp3 of Pissed.

These songs are posted for sample purposes.  I post them so that people can be turned on to cool music and hopefully return the favor for someone else.  Each mp3 will be up for one week and then will be taken down. please support the bands and labels by buying these records and checking them out when they play your town.  DIY hardcore punk bands deserve your support as an alternative to Clear Channel/MTV/RIAA nonsense. 

If you are the artist or copyright holder for this song and would like it removed please email me and it will be removed in a timely manner.

Weapon X

By admin on Oct. 12, 2005.

Weapon X was a band who only played one show at the Manville Elks Lodge on August 9^th 1997. Members of Weapon X have also been in Ensign, Vision, The Purpose, Black Turns Green, Kurbjaw, A Death In The Family, and some others. Here is the flyer from the show. I remember the week before Floorpunch, Vision, and 25 Ta Life played the same venue. In fact, Manville would be a consistent venue for a few years after this. Sometimes I really miss the place. It was easy to get to (go around the circle, go up six lights, make a left!), the people who ran it seemed to be really cool, and I always knew no matter what show I went to that some of my friends would be around. Anyhow, here are some things I remember from this show-

• Weapon X opened and sounded good. Of course, at the time anything that was not “metal” sounded good to us. Something about body bags and all that stuff you know? They busted out two covers at the end of their set, Insecurity by Turning Point and In My Way by Judge. They sold shirts (with the Calvin edge logo that I think is on the ep too if I remember correctly) and had 200 clear vinyl eps. I got a shirt and an ep. About a year later, in one of my first eBay sales, I sold both for a lot of money.

• In My Eyes and Fastbreak got crazy reactions if I remember correctly. Those early In My Eyes shows were pretty amazing. Fastbreak were still good at this point.

• I remember Justin buying, for both of us, the Time Flies and Count Me Out demos. At the time they were just two more youth crew bands to us, I never would have thought both would get as big as they did.

• This was also the first show with the new lineup (I think?) for Hands Tied. I remember being really excited but not many other people watched them! Despite all the cool shows in the summer of 1997, two big things were missing for most of the summer: Hands Tied and Floorpunch. We went outside to go to the car (for some reason we packed our lunches for this show!?!) and Justin and I overheard a couple “scenesters” openly talking shit about Hands Tied. This bummed me out hard. I wish 26-year-old Bill could go back and let 17-year-old Bill know that he had better be prepared for many bum outs in the next few years.

• Despite the lure of singing along to the words hope is good, don’t do drugs, we skipped Shutdown to go get something to drink down the street at Quick Check. On the way down the street, we saw some workers cleaning up a nasty car accident. This older woman was standing on the curb, so we asked her what happened. We started talking and she, surprisingly, started asking us about “the concert at the lodge.” We made small talk for a few minutes and she seemed to really get where we were coming from. I remember feeling really good about that.

• I do not remember anything special about Ensign’s set. I probably saw them about twenty times that year, so most of it is a bit blurry.

• We did not bother watching Good Riddance. Well, Courtney may have; I know I stayed outside and tracked down Nate for Weapon X interview below.

For a long time this was the only Weapon X interview ever done, but apparently someone in Europe did one a few years later too. Present for this was Nate, myself, Justin, Pete Smith, and Justin’s sister Courtney. This is an amusing interview for me; the comments certain interviewers make in here would seemed ridiculous shortly after. Courtney’s brief cameo near the end of the interview would become a Manahawkin catch phrase for a while after. Sorry Courtney; we were assholes back then, especially me.

Bill-Who is in Weapon X?

Weapon X is Nate Edge on vocals, Chris Youth on bass, Positive Paulie on drums, and Shaun Edge on guitar

Bill-Are you gonna play more shows?

I want to

Bill-I haven’t gone off like that since Redemption 87, and that was the first band of the day!

Awesome

Pete-In My Way did it for me

Bill-Turning Point and Judge covers

It was good people were singing along because I couldn’t remember part of it…

Pete-My day isn’t complete without listening to the Judge 7”

I always mix up verses

Bill-Who from Strength 691 is in Weapon X?

Just me

We bullshit for a couple minutes…eventually the conversation gets into this dick measuring crap about hockey. I was not too into this back then and I really cannot stand it now.

Justin-Ronny Little was saying how the Flyers were going to win it all but they went down.

Pete-The Flyers and Rangers can both go down. Now the Devils on the other hand…

Justin-Yeah

Bill-Here we go again…

I’m all about New Jersey but I’m just not a Devils fan…not really a big sports fan

Bill-With the Turning Point cover a lot of people seemed to not know it or even the Judge cover. What do you think of that?

Doesn’t really bother me… I did Judge because, well…Judge is Judge! The thing with Turning Point is I love Turning Point ever since I first heard them. They’re so awesome; I always wanted to cover them. The closest I came was Strength 691 was going to cover Guidance but we never got around to it.

Bill-Has Ensign been supportive?

Tim pretends to hate it

Justin-That’s so you stay in Ensign!

Bill-You’re like Porcell…in so many bands

I told Tim some of the stuff is four to five years old. I had stuff written for a long time. I really wanted to do vocals for old school straight edge hardcore. I had people but I would get a guitarist and by the time I got bass the guitarist would’ve sold out.

Justin-You have a striking resemblance to Jimmy Gestapo…just a little

It’s the glasses; I have pictures of us hanging out

Justin-Awesome guy

Bill-Jimmy rules

Take them off and you get Civ

Bill-Yeah, wow

Justin-RJ…(Laughs)

Bill-Our friend RJ looks so much like Porcell

Awesome

The conversation turns towards band reunions. Judge and Wide Awake come up; Justin makes some embarrassing comments about loving Wide Awake.

Justin-What do you think about old bands getting back together?

Let’s put it this way…one minute you’re in your face straight edge, supporting the scene, and when the scene went bad they broke up and now their back for the money. I don’t want to name names…

Bill-That’s our job!

That’s what Ressurection on the demo is about

Justin-Never seen the demo

Real small press

Bill-Are all two hundred seven inches clear?

Yeah

Bill-Are you going to do a 2^nd press?

I want it to be like a Schism release…like New York Crew…if someone else wanted to repress it I’d be into it but I’m not going to

Bill-Is Weapon X going to be playing any of the Ensign/Good Riddance tour dates?

No because they’ll all be here and I’ll be on tour

Bill-Be funny if you played to the pop-punk kids…

That’d be awesome; the guys in Redemption 87, when they were out here for that weekend, said Weapon X should fly out, the kids would love it.

Bill-They’re playing their last show tonight

Justin-That’s funny because when Redemption 87 came out here Eric said New Jersey was the best place he’d ever played

Pete-Zoli said the same thing when Ignite came here, he said in California the kids have no energy

Well New Jersey is the best

Pete-When my brother came home from California with Hogan’s Heroes two years ago he said they loved them, especially at Gilman St.

Bill-Did you see Justin’s construction gloves?

Yes they’re awesome. I was going to get a pair but didn’t have time

Bill-You need chains and construction gloves for the whole Judge thing

I think I’m going to go for the whole Underdog thing and get football jerseys

Justin (suddenly peaking up)-Play Frontside Grind!!!

I wanted to do Back To Back

Bill-Play Say It!

Can’t…

Bill-During Ensign’s set Tim was like “you want to hear Say It?” and everyone was like YEAH and then he’d say “nope”

Bill-What happened during Shutdown’s set? We weren’t here…

Stupid shit

Justin-There was some kid raving tonight

Bill-Our whole high school is ravers

Courtney-I’m in the middle school, I’m not a raver

Pete-You could exchange their skate shirts for an Earth Crisis shirt because they already have the pants and shoes, you wouldn’t know the difference

Bill-I can’t tell sometimes

I remember when I started skating everyone was into hardcore

Justin-Token Entry

Bill-Ok, let’s finish up

Thanks for the interview; we had a great time tonight, awesome show

Justin-What do you think is the worst hardcore record ever?

Hmm…gotta think on this one

Bill-New Strife?

Pete-I’d have to go with Billingsgate

Bill-Ray and Porcell…that record just sucks

Yeah that would get my vote definitely. Ok I have to go help load

25 Ta Life

By admin on Jul. 28, 2005.

I did this interview with Rick Healey of the band 25 Ta Life via mail in June of 1996

What are the band members names?

Beto-Guitar

How long have you guys been together?

Rick-Vocals
Harry-Drums
Warren-Bass
Fred-Guitar

25 Ta Life first started in February of 1993 after I went on tour with Agnostic Front. I came back from the tour, Agnostic Front was breaking up, and I wanted to start a band similar to Agnostic Front; a band about the scene, about sticking together, to educate the kids, to motivate people, and get them active doing fanzines, helping each other out, sticking together, spreading flyers, etc. For awhile hardcore was in a pretty much sad state. There wasn’t that many bands in the early nineties. Hardcore got into the bigger clubs, a lot of the bigger labels took over. The scene fell apart, there’s no denying it. Without the kids there scene fell apart and that still holds true today. It’s all about the kids and all of our efforts to keep the scene strong. Once all the kids aren’t involved anymore, we leave it up to these people, the scene’s gonna die. That’s why 25 Ta Life, Commin Correct, Back Ta Basics, I totally support the whole DIY thing.

I have a side band now called Commin Correct. It’s a total DIY band. It will never be on a bigger label. It’s about staying true to the scene and keeping the scene strong. Any profits made go back into the scene, my label, making flyers; all the profits go into the scene. I urge people to do that and keep the scene alive. If we leave it to bigger labels, the scene is going to fall apart. They are only in it to make a profit from the hardcore scene.

Meanwhile, bands like 25 Ta Life and a lot of the new bands are doing it from the heart like Holdstrong from Massachusetts, Cornerstone from Connecticut, Hatebreed from Connecticut, Krutch from Pennsylvania. All these bands are doing it for the love of music. One King Down from Albany. All these kids do it from the heart for the love of music. One For One from New Jersey. They’re doing it for the love of music, that’s it.

25 Ta Life and Back To Basics definitely have a DIY attitude. Would you like to comment on that?

Well I pretty much just commented on that. To me, hardcore is my way of life. It’s things you believe in. For a long time ever since I first got into this music since I went to my first show at the end of 1985, 1986. I had all the records: Victim In Pain, Cause For Alarm, Cro-Mags, DRI, Corrosion of Conformity, stuff I listened to back then since then I was hooked. For awhile there it seemed like the scene fell apart but I still felt it in my heart. It had a tremendous effect on my life, like with drugs. For awhile now I’ve been straight, not that I am Straight Edge but this hardcore scene has guided me and helped me in my life to choose what I want to do and help me get a clear head so I’m able to do this nowadays and basically try to carry the scene and help other kids out and show them the way.

Ya know a lot of people think the scene is about them. But with 25 Ta Life, Back To Basics, Commin Correct, it’s about everybody. It’s about kids singing along. It’s about people getting involved, helping me distro my records. It’s about the family and meeting new people; that’s totally what I’m in this for. A lot of people want to bring up the past issues and things like that but I was younger then and even though I don’t feel bad for anything I did, ya know, bebecause you got to live life to learn about it, to know what it’s about. Make mistakes, not that everybody has to, but for me it was something I needed to do to find out. But I definitely choose a better path in life ya know? I’m definitely out to help people. It’s a good thing to be able to make a change and make yourself become a better person. Like I didn’t have to I could still be walking around like a tough guy, but I don’t care about that no more. It’s like nobody cares about that. You want to go through life and have a good time.

I heard that 25 Ta Life’s album is going to be on Victory. If so, how has your relationship been with them?

As far as the new record goes, we talked to Victory. I like Tony a lot, I respect his effort and what he does to keep the hardcore scene alive. I thought it would be a really good label to be on. I talked to Tony and he seemed really into it. There’s nothing definite, no contract signed. Even if the record doesn’t come out on Victory it won’t hurt 25 Ta Life. I just think Victory has a lot of bands right now and we wouldn’t be the main band that he focuses on. We might shop for something better. We are just going over contracts. But Victory is definitely a label we are considering being on. With Back Ta Basics, Tony carries all my stuff and I carry all the Victory stuff so we have a good relationship ya know? I support him and he supports everything I do.

Regardless, 25 Ta Life is going to have a new record out in early 1997 called Strength Through Unity: The Spirit Remains. Some of the new songs are gonna be Through These Eyes, Back Ta Basics, I Still Believe, and Turning Point. Back Ta Basics is about being involved and taking the scene back. Turning Point is about life, growing up, maturing, and pushing your life in a positive direction. I Still Believe is about how a lot of people bad mouth the scene, saying bands are trying to relive the past. I mean, whatever, it’s something that’s in my heart and I carry on. I still believe whether or not people believe in the message anymore of brotherhood, unity, and helping each other out. Fighting against that isn’t going to help. Help one another out and do the best you can do. Strive for world peace or just to make the world a better place and the hardcore scene a better place. To me it’s not about one band or one specific individual person. It’s for everyone, every kid, every band, every fanzine; there’s room for everybody. If you’re not wanted somewhere else, hardcore to me used to be when I was picked on by the jocks in school or the people who didn’t understand my look bebecause I was like a punk rock kid and earlier on I was into metal and stuff and people ya know looked at me weird or had something to say so I was like a kid who was always fighting for what I believed in and that’s totally what hardcore is. To me, the scene is about accepting and understanding each other. Everybody’s different, but that’s what we have in common and we should spread our message and what we believe. Just look out for each other and keep the scene strong.

What do you think of bands like Shelter, Focused, 108, etc who bring religion into hardcore?

When I was younger I didn’t believe in the whole religion thing, but as time went by in my life I’ve learned to accept other people and their opinions. Who am I to put them down and say that doesn’t belong. I’m not down with having any rules to follow but as far as a band like Shelter, I don’t know, maybe I’m just getting older, but I kinda respect those guys. You know people say their making money and why does he wear this, but you know they are a band with a good message and they’ve been doing it for and stuff and Ray Cappo you know they just do their thing. I totally respect those guys and 108. They are living a positive life so I really respect bands like that.

With 25 Ta Life a lot of people have their differences with us but I mean just accept people for who they are and if you don’t like it, that’s cool. That’s your opinion but respect people for what they do for the scene and for them being there and keeping the scene alive making fliers, etc. Just because I’m not a Krishna doesn’t mean I can’t be down with 108 or Shelter. I’ve played shows with both those bands. I think it’s totally cool. Respect, that’s the whole thing. Same with that big Earth Crisis show last week when they pulled the plug, they were throwing yogurt on the kid and the fighting with the kid who ran through the crowd with the fur coat on. That’s kinda disrespecting Earth Crisis. They are a band that sticks up for the animals, the weaker things in life who can’t defend themselves. I’m not with the whole militant thing, like if somebody is drinking knock the beer out of his hands, because that is there opinion. If I was still drinking beer and some kid tried to knock my beer out of my hands I’d knock his teeth out. I’m not gonna lie. That’s everyone’s individual right to drink a beer, not drink a beer, be vegan, not be vegan, be Krishna, not be Krishna; labels divide things. Respect brings it together regardless. Respect and looking out for each other that’s all I gotta say. Don’t talk shit about bands because what goes around comes around. If you talk shit be able to back up what you say. Don’t be on a computer saying shit where people can’t get to you. Bands who don’t want my help and wanna talk shit, I’m just not gonna play shows with your bands be because I don’t wanna be a part of that scene. I wanna be a part of a scene where people care about the music and are out to have a good time. The fight is against society, against those who put us down for our beliefs.

What do you think of the bands that played the Middlesex show?

Earth Crisis are amazing. I think they have a good message. They are really good guys. I totally support those guys. What happened at the Middlesex show was ridiculous.

Mouthpiece was always a band I really liked. Tim’s a good guy and I’ve always supported his band. They’ve been doing it for awhile so I totally support him.

Battery are really nice guys. Good band from DC.

All three bands are really good and that was a good show besides all the idiocy that happened. But what are you gonna do? Like I said, rise above the ignorance.

Any closing comments?

Thanks for your support Bill. I really appreciate you spreading the word for 25 Ta Life and giving me a chance to show what I’m about. Good with your zine! Peace, HARDCORE LIVES UNITY!