Members of Voorhees are back with a new band that sounds like…Voorhees. Obviously, not as classic as Spilling Blood Without Reason, but good angry 82 era hardcore that will be enjoyed by fans of Voorhees for sure. Cool Devo cover at the end.

Defile
Demo 2010

Fast, angry, hardcore somewhere between midwestern style and power violence. I bet live you can hear a bit of Rorschach in their sound too. I’d like to hear more.

Slowburn
Demo

Members of a variety of NJHC bands including Spirit, Vision, and Floorpunch playing melodic, Turning Point, style hardcore. This isn’t too bad, but it’s not something I would listen to that often. The members of this band have done much better before.

Beware
Demo

Members of Stick Together and a few other PA bands doing pretty bland Chain of Strength style hardcore that has all of the flaws most 1980′s “melodic,” nearing emo, hardcore bands have. The generic 88 styling of Stick Together are way better. I’m shocked by how many people are so into this.

Bloody Hammer
Demo 2010

Moderately generic Oi! trying to sound like all of the classics. This isn’t a bad effort at sounding like Four Skins, one of my favorites, but isn’t something I will listen to much. I don’t dabble too deeply in this genre during modern times, but check this one out if you love this stuff.

Good Times
Demo

This was handed to me on the way out of a show. I’m not sure if this is supposed to be serious, but the music moves between 88 style hardcore to chugga chugga idiot metal. Add in some pretty misogynistic lyrics and this is pretty shitty.

Hatred Surge
Deconstruct LP
Rescued From Life Records

Taking cues from bands like His Hero Is Gone, Neurosis, and Mind Eraser come this LP by Hatred Surge. Brutal hardcore with alternating male/female vocals. This is one of my favorites of the past few years.

Rorschach
Remain Sedate Reissue LP
Gern Blandsten Records

While I like Protestant a lot more than this one, the first Rorschach LP is an essential part of the evolution of post youth crew hardcore in the nineties. The influence of late eighties bands like Breakdown can still be heard from their very early sound, but so can the incoming influence of bands like Bl’ast!, Voi-void, and Die Kreuzen as well. As with Protestant, the resisue is greatly aided by remastered sound.

Miles Davis
Bitches Brew Live CD

I highly doubt this is a legit release, but worth checking out. The liner notes are hilarious though: the writer acts like NO ONE has ever heard live material of Davis from this era. Tape traders have avidly passed around shows from his electronic years from a damn long time. Ignoring that is comical. There are better shows out there.

Young Republicans
Sabatoge Your Cookout 7″
More Than A Witness Records

One of the great holy grails of the tape trading circuit when I was a teenager was the Young Republicans demo. As you probably know, members of, and songs, from this tape moved to New York City and did a slightly more well known band called Youth Of Today. This demo is pretty generic early eighties hardcore that isn’t bad, but doesn’t really stand out. Worth noting is the songs that did move over to Youth of Today and eventually Project X as well, which is an interesting historical note. Just for that, I strongly suggest picking this up.

Waste Management
Get Your Mind Right 7″
Painkiller Records

Wow!!!! Serious SSD worship from this Massachusetts band. The music is more in the vein of early NYHC bands like The Abused or Agnostic Front, but the pleading, sick, Springa style vocals are unbelievable. I hear a little bit of Crucifix too (SSD meets Crucifix? Fuck.). This would have fit in nicely alongside records on XClaim! or Rat Cage. Nice cover of “Fight,” out of nowhere, in the middle of the record too.

New Lows
Self Titled 7″
Lockin Out Records

Somewhere amongst Word As Law era Neurosis and Humanity Is The Devil era Integrity comes The New Lows’ debut single on Lockin Out. this is a style can be fall apart quick because of too much chugga chugga or experimental bullshit, but The New Lows keep it together. My only complaint is a few too many kickbox style mosh parts. That shit is so corny; however, the band can’t be punished for the idiotic way a crowd way react to them.

DropDead/Converge
Split 7″

DropDead did a split with…Converge? Okay. The DropDead side of this split is pretty good, up to their usual good standards. Converge are just not a band who have ever interested me. Post hardcores love that shit.

Wasted Time
Futility 12″
Grave Mistake Records

Wasted Time come back with an excellent followup to their debut 7″, this time heavily soaked in Kings of Punk era Poison Idea and Oi! bands like Blitz and 4-Skins. Wasted Time is able to tread between an authentic old style and more modern production and stylistic values. This is one of the best records of the decade.

Innumerable Forms
Dark Worship 7″
Hell Massacre Records

Justin Detore’s death metal project is exactly as awesome as it sounds. Serious old school death metal which really stands out in a genre I don’t dive too deeply into outside of most of the classics. A lot of the newer Mind Eraser (Justin’s day job) material in somewhat in this vein, or at least heavily influenced by it. Excellent and worth tracking down.

Gasmask Terror
Black Sun Fake Gold LP
Solar Funeral Records

Gasmask Terror are an interesting band whose sound falls somewhere between UK82 and D-Beat styles. I think this LP drags a little bit, but I think I have a general distaste for longer records in this style from most bands outside of the heavyweights like Discharge. This is definitely worth checking out.

Waste Management
Power Abuse 7″
Painkiller Records

Yes!!! Brutal SSD style hardcore from members of Mind Eraser. This record takes the best of early Boston and New York with some seriously raging lyrics (especially “Too Much Unity”). A definite contender for record of the year.

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Full Speed Ahead at their reunion show a few months ago. I didn’t even know this happened until I saw the video on YouTube…

Boston Strangler
Demo

Somewhere between Impact Unit and SSD (aka sounds like Fit For Abuse!) comes Boston Strangler. A quick five track demo of ugly 82 hardcore. More soon?

Gone But Not Forgotten
Seattle Crew Demo

Hey, this is pretty good! Somewhere near Confront and Floorpunch, this demo is good Straight Edge hardcore complete with hooded edgeman on the cover.

Negative Approach
Friends Of No One 7″
Taang Records

What is with the cover? A cartoonish drawing of what a hardcore show apparently looks like really takes away from the overall package here. I’m not surprised there is more unreleased Negative Approach (apparently there is even more), but I am surprised that the final lineup put these songs onto record. Recorded late in the band’s career, this record includes very raw recordings of some of the gnarly live songs they were playing near the end like Kiss Me Kill Me and Genocide. The versions on the Total Recall CD are some of the most incredible, ugly, music ever played (Dave Flynn: They sound like a hyena killing its prey) and these versions aren’t as harsh, but still worth checking out.

Force Fed
Self Titled 7″
Painkiller Records

Fast hardcore in the vein of Infest. I guess the term “power violence” applies here. Great stuff. Worth checking out.

Government Issue
Boycott Stabb Sessions CD
Dischord Records

Continuing Dischord’s series of reissues complete the complete sessions for GI’s Boycott Stabb record. I’ve never been a huge GI fan, alternating between finding them somewhat boring and pretty decent, but this session is good. I like some of the versions of older songs from their seven inches better on this version. This isn’t really essential, but worth picking up if you’re a fan.

Dusted Angel
Self Titled 7″
Corruption Records

Boring rock/stoner rock from former members of Bl’ast!. I need to listen to Power of Expression for the rest of the afternoon after this crap.

Our Gang
Uprising LP
Jack Roy Records

Collection of this late eighties NYHC band’s demos and other recordings. I love their tracks on the New Breed compilation, but a lot of their other material is lacking. The basic premise here is a mixture of Youth of Today and Breakdown, but some tracks work better than others. Their later, more rock/melodic songs are not interesting at all. Members of this band went on to be in Citizens Arrest and Born Against.

True Colors
Consider It Done 7″
Control Records

Not the New York band, but a band from Europe. Decent Gorilla Biscuits style hardcore that gets heavier on the melody as the record goes on. Not really my thing.

Career Suicide
Cherry Beach 7″
Sewercide Records

I have always liked Career Suicide a lot and this record is no exception. Snotty, early eighties style hardcore from Canada that never seems to bore me or let down. I think a few songs on here are covers.

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1. 1.6 Band, Self Titled LP, USA, 1992
2. Acme, Self Titled 7″, Belgium, 1994
3. All Chrome, Flounders Flyers College & Canada LP, USA, 1999
4. Arms Reach, Self Titled 7″, Australia, 1998
5. Assuck, State To State 7″, USA, 1993
6. Aus-Rotten, Fuck Nazi Sympathy, USA, 1994
7. Bastard, Wind Of Pain LP, Japan, 1990
8. Bikini Kill, The Anti-Pleasure Dissertation 7″, USA, 1995
9. Born Against, Industrial Relations Department 7″, USA, 1990
10. Breakdown, Blacklisted LP, USA, 1997
11. Burn, Self Titled 7″, USA, 1990
12. By The Grace Of God, For The Love Of Indie Rock 7″, USA, 1996
13. Charles Bronson, Youth Attack LP, USA, 1997
14. Citizens Arrest, A Light In The Darkness 7″, USA, 1990
15. Chopping Block, Grizzly Fetish 7″, USA, 1991
16. Cop Out, Self Titled 7″, USA, 1993
17. Crossed Out, Self Titled 7″, USA, 1991
18. Crown Of Thornz, Train Yard Blues 12″, USA, 1995
19. Dead Nation, Face The Nation 7″, USA, 1998
20. Deadguy, Work Ethic 7″, USA, 1994
21. Death Side, Bet On The Possibility LP, Japan, 1991
22. Devoid Of Faith, Purpose: Lost 10″, USA, 1999
23. Disclose-Tragedy LP, Japan, 1994
24. Down But Not Out, Demo, USA, 1998
25. DropDead, Self Titled 7″, USA, 1992
26. Electric Wizard, Come My Fanatics LP, England, 1996
27. Endpoint, In A Time Of Hate LP, USA, 1990
28. Eyeball, More Days To Come LP, Germany, 1998
29. Eyehategod, In The Name Of Suffering LP, USA, 1992
30. Face Value, Coming Of Age 7″, USA, 1990
31. Fastbreak, Where It Lies 7″, USA, 1997
32. Fit For Abuse, Mindless Violence 7″, USA, 1995
33. Floor, Dove LP, USA, 1994
34. Floorpunch, Goal Line Stand Demo, USA, 1995
35. Four One One, This Isn’t Me LP, USA, 1991
36. Fu Manchu, The Action Is Go LP, USA, 1997
37. Full Speed Ahead, Demo, USA, 1998
38. Gauze, Kao O Aratte Denaoshite Koi LP, Japan, 1997
39. Get High, Demo, USA, 1996
40. Gordon Solie Mother Fuckers, Chairshot Politics 7″, USA, 1998
41. H-100′s, Distort Cleveland 7″, USA, 1995
42. Hatchetface, Volume Two LP, USA, 1995
43. Haywire, Private Hell LP, USA, 1990
44. Heroin, Paper Bag 7″, USA, 1992
45. His Hero Is Gone, Fifteen Counts Of Arson LP, USA, 1997
46. Huggy Bear, Don’t Die 7″, England, 1993
47. Human Remains, Using Sickness As A Hero CD, USA, 1996
48. The Icemen, Rest In Peace 7″, USA, 1991
49. In My Eyes, Demo, USA, 1997
50. Infest, Mankind 7″, USA, 1991
51. Inmates, Self Titled 7″, USA, 1995
52. Integrity, Humanity Is The Devil 10″, USA, 1996
53. Into Another, Ignaurus LP, USA, 1994
54. Jello Biafra With DOA, Last Screams Of The Missing Neighbors LP, USA/Canada, 1990
55. Judge, The Storm 7″, USA, 1991
56. Kiss It Goodbye, She Loves Me…She Loves Me Not LP, USA, 1997
57. Laughing Hyenas, Crawl 7″, USA, 1992
58. Leeway, Desperate Measures LP, USA, 1991
59. Los Crudos/Spitboy, Split LP, USA, 1994
60. Madball, Dropping Many Suckers 7″, USA, 1992
61. Mainstrike, Times Still Here 7″, Netherlands, 1995
62. Man Is The Bastard, Sum Of The Men 12″, USA, 1992
63. Man Lifting Banner, Ten Inches That Shock The World LP, Netherlands, 1992
64. Mouthpiece, What Was Said LP, USA, 1994
65. Mukilteo Fairies, Closet Check 7″, USA, 1993
66. Neanderthal, Fighting Music 7″, USA, 1990
67. Neurosis, The Word As Law LP, USA, 1990
68. No Comment, Downsided 7″, USA, 1992
69. No Escape, Demo, USA, 1990
70. Out Cold, Self Titled LP, USA, 1994
71. Paintbox, Screaming Shouting Crying LP, Japan, 1999
72. Poison Idea, Feel The Darkness LP, USA, 1990
73. Puncture Wound, Self Titled 7″, USA, 1999
74. Quicksand, Self Titled 7″, USA, 1990
75. Ringworm, Demo, USA, 1991
76. Ripping Corpse, Dreaming With The Dead LP, USA, 1991
77. Rollins Band, The End Of Silence LP, USA, 1992
78. Rorschach, Protestant LP, USA, 1992
79. Rupture, Righteous Fuck 7″, Australia, 1991
80. S.D.S., Scum System Kill 7″, Japan, 1996
81. S.O.D., Speak Swedish Or Die 7″, Sweden, 1990
82. Saint Vitus, Die Healing LP, USA, 1995
83. Septic Death, Theme From Ozobozo LP, USA, 1992
84. Skewbald/Grand Union, Self Titled 7″, USA, 1991
85. Sleater Kinney, Dig Me Out LP, USA, 1997
86. Sleep, Sleep’s Holy Mountain LP, USA, 1993
87. Spazz/Black Army Jacket, Split 7″, USA, 1997
88. Speak 714, The Scum Also Rises 7″, USA, 1999
89. Sportswear, It Runs Deep 7″, Norway, 1998
90. Supertouch, The Earth Is Flat LP, USA, 1990
91. Talk Is Poison, Straight To Hell 7″, USA, 1998
92. Team Dresch, Personal Best LP, USA, 1995
93. True Blue, Demo, Germany, 1998
94. Turning Point, It’s Always Darkest Before The Dawn LP, USA, 1991
95. Verbal Assault, On 12″, USA, 1990
96. Voorhees, Spilling Blood Without Reason LP, England, 1994
97. Warhead, Cry Of Truth LP, Japan, 1991
98. Bllleeeeaaauuurrrrgghhh! – The Record, Compilation 7″, International, 1991
99. Forever, Compilation 7″, USA, 1991
100. Rebuilding, Compilation 7″, USA, 1991

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Playlist
Integrity-Lundgren Crucifixion
97a-Better Off Dead

Terrorizer-Enslaved By Propaganda
Saint Vitus-Born Too Late
Straight Ahead-On Parade

Napalm Death-Instinct Of Survival
Napalm Death-Sacrificed
Napalm Death-Vegetative State

Napalm Death-Changing Colors
Napalm Death-Wars No Fairytale
Napalm Death-Unchallenged Hate

Middle Class-Out Of Vogue
Hostages Of Ayatollah-Amok Bei Aldi
Dead Nation-Ease My Pain
Fit For Abuse-Mindless Violence
Impulse Manslaughter-Nothing

Not So Fast-Wake Up
Midnight-Words In Bold
Stop & Think-Easy Way Out
Olho Seco-Nada
Hatchetface-Prime Crime

Breakdown-Life Of Bullshit
Floorpunch-Stick Together
Youth Of Today-No More
GBH-State Executioner
Gorilla Angreb-Der Skal Drikkes Mere End For

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Playlist
Egghunt-We All Fall Down
Flag Of Democracy-Baby Sitter

Hail Of Rage-The Feeling’s Mutual
God Forgot-Sex Is A Weapon
Neanderthal-Built For Brutality

Outburst-The Hard Way
Raw Deal-Backtrack
Raw Deal-Brightside
Life’s Blood-Counting On
Breakdown-Dissed & Dismissed

Maximum Penalty-Hate
Uppercut-Am I Clear?
Sheer Terror-Not Giving Up

Deadline-No End
Hot Snakes-Suicide Invoice
His Hero Is Gone-Unleash
Chopping Block-213
Honeywell-Mesh Control

108-Scandal

Government Warning-See The Truth
Career Suicide-No Bullshit
Iron Boots-Crashing Down

Get Down-Get Down
Spazz-Mad At The World

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Playlist
Avengers-We Are The One
Ringworm-Blind To Faith

Adolescents-Amoeba

Warzone-As One
Bold-Wise Up
Breakdown-Sick People

Youth Of Today-Together
Sick Of It All-Politics
Side By Side-The Time Is Now

Blitz-Razors In The Night
Articles Of Faith-My Father’s Dreams

Fit For Abuse-Mindless Violence
Fit For Abuse-Hellbent
Iron Age-Coming Down
Negative Trend-Mercenaries
Formaldehyde Junkies-Violence Overdose
Honor Role-Profit Prophets
Crow-Title In Japanese
Right Brigade-Hang Up Your Boots

Raw Power-Fuck Authority
The Stalin-Chicken Farm
The Crucifucks-Annual Report
BGK-Computer Control
Olho Seco-Nada
Inferno-Perfekter Mensch

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Playlist
Cro Mags-It’s The Limit
Rorschach-In The Year Of Our Lord

Black Flag-I’ve Got To Run
Neurosis-Stripped
BGK-Arms Race
Cadgers-Punanen Vaara
Integrity-Darkness
Calvary-Revenant

Adrenalin OD-Trans Am
7 Seconds-In Your Face
Breakdown-Street Fight
All Chrome-Cap Log

Government Warning-Ghost Town
Boris-Woman Of Screen

Voices Forming Weapons-Machine Gun Tongue

Kristin Hersh-Your Dirty Answer

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This record has always been a favorite in Manahawkin. It’s hard for me to describe it without using a lot of cliches about how “hard” it is. Blacklisted & Street Fight are ridiculous. By the time the mosh part hits in Blacklisted you’re probably already worn out. Street Fight is so heavy and often had the dance floor going crazy. Even random townie hardcore kids from Manahawkin loved these songs and would dance especially hard for them.

What It Is & Don’t Give Up are older songs from the New Breed comp. The versions on here are a lot “slicker” but I do like them. Jail of Depression is great and very new school sounding, almost parroting Mike Dijan’s other band at the time Crown of Thornz.

Side B of the vinyl version has some great live versions of the songs from the classic 87 demo. There is some hilarious between song banter as well. This is a classic record by an incredible band who never seemed to get their proper due. Whenever they played New Jersey the only people who seemed to be psyched on them were kids from Manahawkin and a select group of people who have a clue. Everyone else loses out.

March Of The White Trash. Oh my god.

Here’s an mp3 of Street Fight and one of the live version of All I Ask.

Jeff Perlin is now in The Slumlords.

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Justin and I handled most of the questions. When I went to type this up I was pleasantly surprised by how Justin takes over for a good portion of the interview. There are also the usual patented silly questions from John and Justin, this time about the sexual orientation of characters on Scooby Doo. I had this strange fixation about the logo on The Direction Of Things To Come for some reason.

We also got some grief because of John’s comment about Jordan Cooper. Certain parties asked us to edit that out in future pressings (not Jordan; actually, I don’t think I’ve ever even spoken to him now that I think about it) and when we said “uh, no” those parties got really bummed. Oh well. All Ages had just came out and the asinine answers a lot of people give in that book really pissed us off. In the car on the way to the show I had been reading it and was really angry by the time we got to the show. This was the beginning of all three of us really souring on the youth crew and, in general, Straight Edge scene.

Anyhow, Tim Shaw handles this interview on Ensign’s end. This was day two of a big weekend of shows. I had just finished flunking out of my first year of college and to “celebrate” we hit up shows for the next three days. Friday evening was Breakdown/Fastbreak/In My Eyes/Floorpunch/Full Speed Ahead/Ensign. Saturday was Ensign/Automatic/Speak 714/Rain On The Parade and then Sunday was Ten Yard Fight/Speak 714/Fastbreak/Automatic. I busted my hand up really bad on Saturday I remember. Explaining that to my co-workers the next week was, as usual, rather aggravating. It’s pretty funny reading this back and remembering Victory’s brief flirtation with bands like Murphy’s Law and a time when Mackenzie was just the kid from Prospect who I never heard talk.

Bill-I guess we will start this out and ask who is in the band.

Tim-Me, my name is Tim, Nate on bass, Ryan on drums, and our newest member Mackenzie on guitar.

Justin-Tied Down

Bill-X Mob, man

Tim-Prospect…X Prospect X

Bill-Okay so I have three questions and then we can go from there…is Underdog really back together or were you just fucking with us?

Tim-It’s a rumor. I heard it from somebody at Revelation, but I don’t believe any of the rumors anymore. Ryan, if there is a chance a band might get back together, he won’t play the song which I kind of agree with; it’s kind of cheesy

Bill-When you mentioned it last night…people are already posting it on the internet….

Tim-I don’t know you can call Revelation because Ritchie works there, but to be on the safe side we stopped covering it

Bill-Into Another is broken up I think

Justin-Really? That sucks!

Tim-He is running art direction at Revelation

Bill-Okay, now for the internet question: Talk shit, Tim

Tim-I have very mixed feelings about the internet. I think it could be a very useful tool but there are too many little children who want to use it to talk shit and start fights. It is useless right now. The only thing I use it for is to email back and forth with people.

Bill-If it wasn’t for the internet I wouldn’t be doing the compilation I am doing with Craig from Talk Is Cheap Fanzine. I’ve met so many cool people, especially the Australian hardcore kids…they fucking rule, so that’s why I tried hooking you guys up to get you down there

Tim-For that stuff it’s awesome and I think you could go into a chat room and be like “here is the show, it starts at ____” but you get into the chat room and it’s “Tim Shaw was talking shit about this band” and then someone from the band logs on and is like “Yo we are going to show up at the show tonight and beat him up” it’s ridiculous. I don’t think half the shit talking that is said goes on really goes on, I don’t think the bands care that much. If that much shit talking went on in hardcore there would be fights at every show.

Bill-I get the feeling that when people talk shit about me that it’s the same kid over and over again. When I go to shows everybody is always cool but there is always those one or two who give you dumb looks, but I always have this feeling it’s the same few people. It’s not 50,000 people like it’s sometimes made out to be.

Tim-It’s somebody with a grudge. Like I said tonight, if I hear it I talk to the kid to his face because nine out of ten times they’ll deny it.

Bill-They never post under their real name

Tim-Oh no, never, it’s all a big game

Justin-It’s good in theory

Tim-Yeah I think it has good applications but it can’t be used right now

Bill-Jeff Perlin used to post on the Rev Board until a week ago when all these assholes were posting racist shit. I mean, they are probably “joking” or whatever, but Jeff was like, yo, that’s fucked up!

* Various muttering about Breakdown ruling *

Bill-Okay so my third question-What’s up with Ensign stealing the Mariner’s logo?

Tim-Not intentionally.

Bill-Okay. When the record came out I was like “what the fuck?”

Justin-I just thought it looked really glossy

Bill-(still harping on this like it was an important issue) Did Ryan pick it because he is from Seattle?

Tim-Dave Mandel came up with it

Justin-It looks really slick

Bill-Baseballcore

Tim-Yeah that’s gonna be the new thing in hardcore. We took it because it was a compass with the whole direction…

Justin-Do you think Freddie from Scooby Doo is gay?

Tim-I’m not stereotyping people, but I don’t see many people wearing assocs. But, then again, it was the sixties.

Justin-Doesn’t Austin Powers wear one? He is pretty hetro.

Tim-Maybe he is…but then you could say the girl with the glasses would be a lesbian.

Justin-Emo chick

Tim-He was a free spirit

Justin-But he always ended up with the girl

Tim-Yeah he always ended up alone with the girl. He might have been a real femme guy who gets tons of girls

Bill-He could have been a model when he wasn’t solving capers

Justin-Do you think that bands that get back together push the attention away from the good things we have now?

Tim-There is one band in particular, I’m not gonna talk shit, but they come back with ex-members and their first show they are headlining over Floorpunch, over Ensign, over In My Eyes…bands that work really hard in 1998 to be an active part of the hardcore scene.

Justin-I thought Speak 714 was cool because they didn’t headline.

Tim-Yeah when Speak 714 booked their tour they said they didn’t want to headline which is cool. Like certain bands get back together and…

Bill-I’ll talk shit: Better Than A Thousand. They played their first show and headlined.

Tim-I know there is a lot of bands out there that work hard and because Mark Porter isn’t a scene star, Ronny Little, Tim Shaw…the band with the scene star is the band everyone is going to be there to see. It sucks because bands work really hard.

Justin-It’s a given when you have Civ or Ray or someone like that people are going to be psyched.

Tim-I know Ray and Civ have paid their dues but when you start over you gotta start at the bottom.

Bill-It’s a new beginning. A good example of that is Mouthpiece and Hands Tied. Mouthpiece headlined shows and now Hands Tied started from the bottom and is working their way up.

Justin-If Underdog does get back together people will say “oh wow, Ensign is playing!” but in the back of their minds…

Bill-Like the Cro Mags show

Justin-But that’s the Cro Mags!

Tim-Yeah, that’s the Cro Mags. I think the difference is when some former straight edge all star comes back and everyone is like “oh my god, it’s Ray/Dan O or whatever I think there is a big difference between that and the Cro Mags or Breakdown getting back together. It would be cool if say…Lou Kollar had a side band but when it is someone who hasn’t had anything to do with the scene for years they are like “oh wow hardcore is pretty popular now.”

Bill-Bold.

Tim-Yeah, Matt, Ray, what about the bands that are here today?

Bill-How about bands that have always been here like Murphy’s Law?

Justin-Hogan’s Heroes, they’ve been around and now they are on Victory….

Bill-What do you think of the new “old school” Victory Records?

Tim-I think Tony needed some bands. I’m not Victory’s biggest fan, I make no bones about it. Strife are friends of mine but they’re broken up now. Snapcase are friends of mine but I don’t think they are on the label anymore. I think the Hatebreed record is really awesome. You can’t really say anything bad about Tony, he’s just trying to get bands to keep his label alive. They asked us but we turned it down. Too much politics, too much stuff, goes along with it.

Bill-I think, and it goes the same with Equal Vision and Revelation, they go in these cycles of whatever is cool. Victory went from Even Score and Inner Strength and all these horrible bands or even worse stuff like Earth Crisis. It’s just weird they went from Firestorm to signing Murphy’s Law.

Tim-Tony is a businessman, he is just looking out.

John-Jordan Cooper is an asshole.

Bill-I read All Ages in the van today and I was really bummed out by some of the things he said.

Tim-Well he’s done a lot for hardcore. There were a few years there where I thought Revelation was the worst label on the earth. Now I can’t say that because they have In My Eyes. Now we are kind of connected to Indecision which is an exclusive part of Revelation. We might as well be on Revelation. I’m all for labels getting bands, but there was a period of time when the Victory empire…if you weren’t a Victory band no one gave a shit. That’s fucking ridiculous.

Justin-Colored vinyl pisses me off.

Tim-I collect but I’m not obsessive about it. But Ensign is all guilty as anyone else because we did limited presses for Europe. I do it because I think “wow, that’s a cool idea.” If I can get it, I get it, If I can’t, I can’t. You know what though, if you really listen to your records, colored vinyl does not sound as good. It’s a technical fact. My Floorpunch on Gold, it’s unlistenable, but my black one is.

Bill-Well if it’s a remastered you should buy it on CD; Mickey and I were just talking about that.

Tim-I love to collect records but I don’t live a lifestyle where I can shell out $150 for a four song seven inch.

Bill-Have you ever seen that auction Revelation does?

Tim-Yeah, it’s sick.

Bill-I went on there a couple days ago; the first press for Speak Out with no matrix, the gate fold cover, and all that stuff went for $270. That was the first bid, it’s not even like it went up!

Justin-The thing that gets me is sometimes getting the record means more than listening to the record.

Bill-The kids on the trade board just post all their cool records for scene points.

*At this point we bullshit about various New Jersey bands. For some reason I never transcribed this stuff. Somehow we segway into discussing European youth crew kids. *

Bill-European hardcore kids seem to be really obsessed with, well, New Jersey hardcore. They find out you are from New Jersey and you get put up on a pedestal. I guess because Floorpunch, or Ensign, or whoever isn’t there everyday they get so hyped up.

Justin-We take it for granted so much.

John-We do the same with a band like Underdog or Antidote who we haven’t seen.

Tim-Going over there I don’t think there was really a lot of hero worship. As soon as we were done everyone would be upfront asking questions and hanging out. When we finished, if we didn’t play long enough, you fucking bet we heard about it. Every so often a kid will relate me to Sick Of It All, but I’m not Lou or Pete, so…For awhile we played every weekend in New Jersey but after awhile you get sick of us.

Bill-I’m ready for another set right now. Are there still a lot of nazi skinheads in Germany?

Tim-They don’t go to shows over there; it’s always been very political here they came to hardcore shows, got the shit beat out of them and never came back. In Europe it’s purely political.

Justin-Doesn’t it suck now that when Sick Of It All plays they don’t play many old songs?

Tim-They play old songs!? They’ve got so many records now. There isn’t a Sick Of It All record I don’t like.

Justin-(Clearly not convinced) Yeah, I guess…

*At this point we get interrupted a few times by various people. I think the show was wrapping up and they were really trying to get people out of the place.*

Justin-Is there any particular person that song Hold is about?

Tim-Just a general thing. Nate actually wrote the lyrics and I had a long discussion with him about it. When someone else in the band write lyrics I have to sit down and talk to them to see if it is something that I agree with. There is an aspect of that, it’s supposed to be a positive thing to that, says there is always going to be people who walk away, but there is always going to be people who stick with you. It’s a fact of life, it’s not even just a hardcore thing.

Bill-Okay I think we need to shut up now.

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