At The Cost Of An Animal
By admin on Feb. 18, 2009.
A few weeks back, someone asked for stories about how people came to become vegetarians. As many people might know, I stopped eating meat a few years before I got fully involved with hardcore. I often tell a story about refusing to eat for a week because no one believed me (it still seems so strange to me that people think it is WEIRD not to eat meat) and another one about standing up to my parents on one of the, mercifully, few vacations we ever went on.
The seeds of this came a little bit before that. If you’ll remember back to the first Iraq War for a moment in the early nineties. I was only a little sixth grade outcast, but I was already not really feeling the yellow ribbon fever that had taken over the nation. My middle school years were spent getting beat up, spit on, depantsed, and seriously fucked up with in some pretty disturbing ways that I don’t want to go into here. I dug my grave further during sixth grade when I began to vocally talk about not being too psyched on The War.
We would watch briefings every morning (I never figured out why) during first and second period. My biggest problem with the whole situation was that there seemed to be a lot of not only innocents being killed (“collateral damage,” a barbaric term) but holy sites were being destroyed. Now, by sixth grade the whole higher power thing wasn’t really my thing already, I wouldn’t officially refer to myself as an atheist until a year or two later, but it seemed pretty disturbing that the so-called good guys would bomb thousands of years old holy shrines.
I had a guidance counselor I used to talk to while we waited to go into school every morning. We both loved the New York Rangers and would discuss the previous night’s game. Once in awhile I would bring up my concerns about not only innocent humans but innocent landmarks being destroyed. He would listen, eager for a troubled child to open up, and try to walk me through why I would feel this way. Critically thinking about this led me to decide that not only was war the wrong but so was the death and destruction that came with it.
This led me to start thinking about what else was wrong. A television show I watched at the time had a teenage protagonist who became a vegetarian during the show’s run. I thought back to Operation Desert Storm. If bombing countries into oblivion for a non-sustainable (I was also OBSESSED with solar power at this time) energy source (I remember the six am news each morning where they would drearily announce that oil had reach thirty dollars a barrel. Doh.) was wrong, isn’t killing animals when you don’t really have to also wrong? Why do we eat meat? Why does our diet have to have so much collateral damage?
A year later, we moved to southern New Jersey to get away from the hellish nightmare my childhood was becoming. The first day of school, I sat down in period eight and introduced myself to the long haired kid who sat across from me. It turned out, he liked punk rock and was a vegetarian.
Ah ha!
We would talk in class about animal rights and what I would soon come to know as hardcore bands. I didn’t get serious about either until the next year, but all the pieces of the puzzle came together. If it weren’t for a lot of those early bands I heard like M.D.C., Youth Of Today, Gorilla Biscuits, Nausea, etc I wouldn’t have stuck with hardcore probably.
Ten Yard Fight
By admin on Sep. 13, 2005.
I did this one with John Lacroix in the fall of 1996. This was while Anthony was still around; in fact, I believe it may have been a week or two after the Hardcore Pride 7” came out. Originally in What Was Said #1
Who is in the band, and what do they play?
Wrench-Vocals
John-Bass
Chris-Guitar
Anthony-Guitar
Ryan-Drums
What do you have out and coming out?
We did a demo, which we made 700 of and now it’s being repressed on vinyl by SOA Records. We did a 7” called Hardcore Pride on Big Wheel which will now be repressed on Equal Vision Records. We have a split 7” with Fastbreak coming out on Big Wheel and a bunch of compilations.
How did you hook up with Fastbreak to do the 7”?
We are always looking to find bands that play a style like ours and it seems that they were doing the same. I think they are an amazing band. I even interviewed them for my zine, Extent. We played some shows with them and became good friends with them and everybody’s always asking us to do a split 7” and a long time ago we talked about doing one with them.
What do you think of the boycott of Equal Vision because of their Krishna affiliation?
I think it’s outrageous. I’ve known Steve Reddy for awhile now and he’s one of the most sincere people I know. He’s over thirty years old now, he’s still involved and he’s still straight edge and he still loves all the bands he puts out. His business is good, he takes care of all his bands, and he runs a smooth operation. If somebody wants to boycott the label because of his religion that’s as fascist as it comes. If the kids knew everybody’s personal lives in hardcore everybody would be boycotted for some reason. Hardcore kids today seem to want to set the rules for how people in the scene should live and that’s bullshit. Support everybody who’s proven they are sincere by their actions. Steve Reddy and Equal Vision are deserving of as much support as anybody can give.
You played your record release party with Earth Crisis. What do you think of the militant stance a lot of people are taking on things like straight edge and animal liberation. Is anyone in the band vegan or vegetarian?
All of us are vegetarians in the band; some of us are vegan. We haven’t really considered ourselves an animal or vegan band. I, myself, agree with a lot of the things bands like Earth Crisis are saying now and what bands like Vegan Reich said awhile back. But I don’t want people to think that the rest of the band thinks the same as me. I think they generally don’t. I just understand the stance and I don’t always think it’s the best stance, but I let people accomplish things the way they feel is necessary. Some people have accused us of being militant straight edge or being alienating; the truth is that we are understanding and mostly open-minded people and I think a lot of times lyrics can be misinterpreted and twisted around. Basically, I let people think the way they want to think and do things the way they want to do them. If someone’s lyrics or just the way they speak seems harsh, that doesn’t mean they are stupid or violent or anything.
Have you ever played with Slapshot?
Slapshot haven’t played around here in years. We’ve never played with them but we’ve asked and never got a straight answer.
What do you think of the current resurgence of youth crew style hardcore in bands like Cornerstone, Floorpunch, Ten Yard Fight, Hands Tied, Fastbreak, Rancor, etc?
I think it’s great. For a while, you couldn’t see bands like that and people looked down on a band for playing that style. A lot of people forgot what the point was to hardcore in the good ole days. I don’t think it’s really coming back, but now it’s easier for a band to get respected for doing their own thing and that’s awesome.
What do you listen to when you’re not listening to hardcore?
I listen to almost everything; with my zine, I get all kinds of indie stuff. I mostly listen to The Smiths, Morrissey, Lush, Echobelly, and a lot of pop punk and old punk. I even like a little Wu-Tang here and there. I like a lot of stuff that I guess people call emo or even metal. I like The Promise Ring and Earth Crisis and will listen to both interchangeably.
How did you get Ryan from Undertow on drums?
He flew out to go on tour with Shift at the time and Ben was supposed to be leaving for tour with Battery (he played bass for them at the time). But then, he got arrested and was put on house arrest for six months. After the Shift tour Ryan decided he wanted to spend some time in Boston. He lived with Ben and our friend Pete cause their roommate ran off to the Midwest to get married or something. Ben was on house arrest and Ryan really liked the band and we hit it off pretty good so it was just natural. I don’t even remember thinking about it or asking him. We would fuck around a lot and just play at my house and he just started playing and he decided to stay in Boston for a little longer. He ended up going on tour with us and recording twice, so he was pretty much just another member.
What was it like working with Brian at his studio?
It was good. Brian does a good job. We would get pissed off at us a lot for being loud or whatever. I guess it’s hard to work with somebody that you know really well and are friends with. We got into a lot of debates and our views seem to be a lot different than his. There was actually one problem that we had where a stupid argument went way too far, but we all let it go pretty much.
How are your views different from Brian’s?
He just has a different opinion of hardcore.
What compilations are you guys gonna be on?
Right now, we have songs coming out on a Boston compilation by Big Wheel, a compilation that’s coming out with the new issue of Tension Building, and one being put out by Crucial Response in Europe. We are also talking over a few other offers from Supersoul and Blackout. We aren’t doing anymore comps because we are trying to save up songs for our LP.
Any good stories from shows?
We’ve had a couple of fights and that sucks. One time Josh and Tony from Commodity Fanzine brought a bunch of pink footballs and started throwing them at us. It was pretty funny, except I tried to catch one and missed the bass break in Proud to Be Straight.
When did you get into hardcore?
I got into hardcore and actually punk more specifically when I started skating and that was about nine or ten years ago. A few years later, I actually started traveling and going to shows in the city and in Rhode Island, Connecticut, and places like that. I’ve been straight edge for about seven years.
When will the LP be out?
Hopefully just after the new year.
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