Rain On The Parade
By admin on Mar. 2, 2006.
This is the interview I did with Rain On The Parade in April of 1997. Originally in What Was Said Fanzine.
1. Okay, who is in the band and all that crap?
My name is Ronnie and I sing. DII plays one guitar. Justin plays the other. Matt jumps around with his bass. Chris just joined the band. He plays drums.
2. Have you guys gotten any shit for the lyrics to Body Bag?
You know, with the way all this metal slop has taken over hardcore in the past few years, you’d think we’d catch some slack for writing a song like Body Bag. You’d think somebody would stand up and say, “hey fuck you man! You’re talking about me, aren’t you?” Well, the record is coming up on it’s first anniversary and I’ve never once talked to anybody, or gotten a letter from anybody about that song, unless it’s along the lines of “it’s a funny song,” or that they think I’m hitting the nail right on the head. I think the reason I don’t hear from any of these kids who like all of the shitty bands on Victory’s payroll comes down to one thing. Deep down inside, they know how lame that music is. They know it’s not hardcore. They’re just having a hard time coming to grips with the fact that they belong on the couch banging heads with Beavis and Butthead instead of being at a hardcore show. I’ve got some news for you kids-it’s not too late to come back. Just head on down to your local record exchange with your Victory collection in hand and trade that useless slop in for some good old tyme hardcore. Then write a letter to Tony Brummel and tell him that if he wants to push his label as a “hardcore” label maybe he should put out some hardcore bands Victory Style. Who the fuck are you trying to kid?
3.Where do you think the hardcore scene is going right now?
I think hardcore is back on the upswing. There are a lot of good bands out there right now, and I’m sure a lot will follow. It seems I am seeing more bands like Floorpunch and less like Autumn. To me, that is a welcome change. It just amazes me how hardcore could get so untracked. I mean what were a lot of these kids thinking when they started their bands? How did the guys in Earth Crisis arrive at the conclusion that they were a hardcore band? I know that Karl has been around for a while, and he knows the difference between Slayer and Minor Threat. Their sound falls next to Slayer, so how can anybody in that band say they were a hardcore band? If you want to play metal, play fucking metal, but don’t slap the name “hardcore” on it and pretend so you can sell a shit load of records. I think one thing that Earth Crisis and Victory Records both know is that if the descriptor “metal” had been hung on Earth Crisis, a lot of hardcore kids wouldn’t have given them a chance. They lied and a lot of kids took the bait. If any of the aforementioned bands have a problem with my line of thought, that’s just fine by me, because I’m pretty damn offended by their version of “hardcore.”
4.What do you think of the “PC”ing of the hardcore scene?
Actually, I think a lot of that is starting to die down. I’ve heard the word “faggot” being tossed around quite a bit lately. I mean, for PC kids the only word more offensive is the “N” word. Does that mean the scene is suddenly turning into a sea of homophobia? No, I don’t think so. Kids are calling each other names. Nobody is running around New Hope saying it. I think a lot of kids just like to push the envelope and say what’s forbidden. When I was in fourth grade, all we did was run around and call each other “fag.” I didn’t know what it meant. It was just a funny word, and my parents got upset if it came out of my mouth, so that made it pretty cool. I think that’s what is starting to happen now. PC is cool when it applies to the situation. It just gets tiring when you’re not really doing anything terrible but some Buddy Holly look-alike in five dollar duds is always in your face anyway. Some of those kids need to calm down.
5.Any thoughts on all the big reunions coming up like Agnostic Front, Bold, Up Front, etc?
I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t totally stoked for the Black Flag reunion tour to roll into Philadelphia. They broke up just as I was starting to get into hardcore, and they are definitely one of the bands I wish I had the chance to see. Now, because Ginn is running out of money, I’ll get the chance and I’m real happy about that. I think bands like Black Flag and Agnostic Front should be able to do reunions just because they were such prolific bands. I think it’s good for kids to see these bands doing it the way it used to be done. Bold and Upfront are kind of a different story for me. Maybe it’s because I’ve seen both several times. I don’t know. They were good bands, I guess, but why not just do new bands in the vien of Up Front and Bold, instead of rehashing? I see Black Flag and Agnostic Front as timeless music, where Bold and Up Front were just another generation of straight edge. Don’t get me wrong, they were both good bands, but they were easily replaced.
6.When did you get into hardcore?
I got my first dose of hardcore in a ninth grade remedial reading class. Mark Cozgrove gave me my first taste of Suicidal Tendencies and I’ve been hooked ever since. I guess that was around May 1986. I didn’t get to my first show until a year later when I had friends that could drive to Trenton. Agnostic Front, Underdog, Mcrad, and Timmy and The Dub Warriors. I remember it well.
7.Are you doing anything for the last Hardware?
Definitely. I want to be there when Hardware takes its last breath. Originally, I had a Circle Storm interview, along with a column set up for the next issue; but Brett told me that the deadline was for June, so I’ve decided to use the material for another zine, just because it would be outdated by the end of the summer when I guess the last Hardware is supposed to come out. I’m not sure what I want to do for the last issue. Whatever I do, I want it to be absolutely awesome. I really want to help Hardware go out with a bang! Dave and Brett, thanks for taking me on board. I don’t think all of the zines in this scene can fill your shoes. This is just a huge loss. Hardware will be missed.
8.What are the future plans for Rain On The Parade?
We’ve got a bunch of shows coming up throughout New Jersey and Pennsylvania. We’d really like to play outside of the area, but we apparently don’t have those kinds of contacts yet. If anybody out there is interested in having us play their area, please drop us a line. What else? We’re recording our album at the end of the month (March). It’s going to have fourteen songs on it, and hopefully we’ll have it out in time to tour it this summer. We plan on heading out west for a couple of weeks during the summer, hitting California, Washington, and Arizona, to name a few off the top of my head. We’d also like to tour the east coast for a couple of weeks as well. Like I said, we just need to establish some out of state contacts. We also have tracks coming out on compilation records. We’ll be on the compilation that will come with the new issue of Tension Building. Also, we’ll be on the Growing Stronger compilation and the sampler CD that comes with the next issue of Extent Fanzine. I think I covered it all.
9.Have you been in any other bands?
Chris used to drum for Ensign. Justin used to sing in a band called Disregard. DII, Matt, and I had all dicked around in small local bands before, but nothing that was memorable. Before Rain On The Parade my claim to fame was that I used to do Fuck You Fanzine.
10.What is the history of Fuck You Fanzine?
That was a time in my life when I was absolutely disgusted with just about everything in the scene. A lot of good bands broke up, and a lot of bad bands took their place. Metal was starting to creep into things. The kids playing their guitars started caring more about playing intricate, skilled music rather than jumping around playing the simple three chord music that I grew up on. The scene was just turning into something completely different and I didn’t like it one bit. To make matters worse straight edge kids were turning into real pricks. At that point (1992) I had been straight edge for six years and I couldn’t remember a time when all my brothers were so snobbish, petty, and just flat out retarded. I was all tourqed up, but I was pretty much the only person I knew who felt this way about how things were turning out. One night, I was watching a movie called Pump Up The Volume which is about this guy (Christian Slater) who runs a pirate radio station and basically pisses off all of the right people with his broadcasts. Nobody knew who he was, which drove them all more crazy. That really stuck with me. I liked the idea of being this kind of voice coming out of nowhere, hitting as many nerves as possible. So I sat down behind my trusty Macintosh one night and whipped out a four page zine that made fun of a few people and praised a few others. I had originally signed my real name on it, but my girlfriend at the time had told me that it was so bitter that she would have thought somebody else had written it if she hadn’t seen my name. So I kind of took that to heart and decided to choose a pseudonym. I settled on Chuck U. Farley, The Sargent of Straight Edge. Chuck U. Farley because that’s the name that Slater’s character in Pump Up The Volume used to register his post office box. The Sargent of Straight Edge because I saw myself as the guy who was going to kick the scene’s ass back into shape. So I finished the zine and sent it out to any band or zine whose existence just really stuck in my crw, and then I sat back and waited to see what happened. A week later, just about everybody I had sent the zines out to had written me back. The responses ranged from “what’s your fucking problem?” to “I’m going to kill you!” That, coupled with the mail I got from write ups in fanzine reviews, made me want to do more. The more mail I got, the nastier the zines got; I was pissing off everybody that I thought was killing hardcore and I kind of got off on that. So I was always thinking about what I was going to do for the next one. The shit hit the fan when I endorsed an idea called “moderation” which basically said you can still be straight edge if you drink a beer (and only ONE beer) because hey, in moderate amounts, beer is just a beverage. Just about everybody who read that wrote to me to tell me that now they were certain I was an idiot. That whole theme pretty much overshadowed the zine until its demise after issue seven. I wrote a farewell letter explaining why I was ending the zine and why I had decided to hand over my x’s and try out the party thing. As lame as it sounds, I was so at odds with straight edge kids at that time that I just questioned why I was doing the whole straight edge thing anymore. I know you’re supposed to do it for yourself, but I literally hated 95% of the kids that were around at the time, and I think I just started grabbing beers to separate myself from those kids. Of course, looking back now, that was probably the most idiotic movie I’ve made in my life. It seemed like the right thing to do at the time, but in hindsight, I really blew it. It took me a couple years to realize that.
11.Hypothetically, who do you think would win in a fight: Earth Crisis or Vegan Reich?
Most definitely Earth Crisis. As much as I don’t like that band, at least they played out. They get up on that stage and say what they mean and take a certain amount of abuse for it. Especially in New Jersey. It’s not like they don’t deserve all of the shit they put up with, because they do. I just think it takes a certain amount of balls to get up on that stage, like they did at Chatam, knowing full well that while half the kids in attendance were there to see them the other half were there to see them fall. Vegan Reich wouldn’t even play out because Sean was afraid he’d get his ass kicked. He just hid behind his records.
12.What bands today do you think are really doing something good?
Bands like Hands Tied, Purpose, Rancor, Over The Line and Atari have been rocking my world lately. Youngblood is a brand new band that I think is going to take a lot of people by surprise. Then there is the cast of usual players who got things rolling again like Floorpunch and 97a. There’s so many great bands nowadays and not just because the whole hardcore revival thing has caught on fire. I don’t consider any of these bands “rehash” like some assholes would like you to believe. People are just playing hardcore again. There wasn’t a whole lot about hardcore that was “hardcore” from like 1991 to 1995, if you know what I mean. Sure, there were some bands, but a good band like Mouthpiece was far and few between during those lean years. I like the way things are turning out and I think things are heading in a good direction.
13.What do you think of hardcore getting attention in the mainstream press like MTV, CNN, etc?
Hardcore is just too underground for your average Rage Against The Machine jock to find. “Normal” kids read magazines, not fanzines. They buy stuff on CD not records. They go to concerts, not shows. They don’t get it and they never will. I don’t think the occasional feature on MTV or CNN is going to change that anytime soon. These kids just don’t get it. Rage Against The Machine has a lot of good things to say, but the only words these kids hear is fuck you I won’t do what you tell me. Hardcore kids are evolved. Many of them care. Many of them act. Many of them are open to new ideas and new ways of thinking. A lot of “normal” kids just spin their wheels all their lives. They don’t fit our mold. I don’t think there is anything to worry about. If this scene survived Victory Records it can survive anything.
14.Will there be another issue of Unsportsmanlike Conduct?
There will be another column of Unsportsmanlike Conduct that will be included in the final issue of Hardware this summer. I’m not sure whether that column will leave the pages of that zine though. I’ve been telling a lot of people that I’ll help them with contributions for their zines but I may just end up doing one of my own. I went to a couple of shows this weekend and didn’t come home with any zines. Anytime that happens I get bummed because I love zines. There just aren’t enough out there right now. Unsportsmanlike Conduct sounds like a good working title. Or maybe I’ll just start doing Fuck You Fanzine again.
15.On Sunday you seemed very baffled by positive and negative atoms. What are you going to school for?
I go to Kutztown University where I am a telecommunications major. I also have a minor in speech. Yeah, I kind of blew that joke as far as my terminology went. I think I meant “ions” but I’m not sure. I heard that joke in my Biology class where I am currently riding in the valley of C & D land. I’ve never been too good with either science or math. One thing a lot of people throw in my face is the whole don’t mix an acid with a fucking base/because it will blow up right in your face part of Body Bag. I’ve had people tell me that they would neutralize each other. Recently, when I was in the studio laying down some vocal tracks I asked Pete the engineer about that one. Before he brought his studio, he was an engineer for NASA. He’s had intense schooling and the guy is just brilliant. So I asked him about that one. He told me there are several cases where mixing an acid and a base would cause an explosion, so I was relived. I thought I had pulled a real boner there for awhile.
16.What do you listen to when you’re not listening to hardcore?
Outside of hardcore my favorite music is probably the kind of stuff I grew up on. ACDC’s Back In Black, all the Van Halen records with David Lee Roth singing, and early Cheap Trick stuff. All of that stuff was kind of hard for its time. When I was in 6th grade I used to come home from school when my parents weren’t home from work yet and pull out the tennis racket and jump around my room pretending I was in ACDC. I always played the rhythm. I never wanted to be the lead guy tied down with all of the finger work. I just wanted to play the chords and jump around. I still listen to that stuff when the mood hits me. I found The Beatles a few years ago. I also dig Weezer and Social Distortion as well.
Top 100 Of The Nineties: By The Grace Of God-For The Love Of Indie Rock 7″
By admin on Mar. 2, 2006.
By The Grace Of God
For The Love Of Indie Rock 7”
Victory Records
1996
I remember Victory sending out a newsletter sometime in 1996, probably the summer, about their new releases. The usual garbage like Snapcase and Earth Crisis had new releases, the One Life Crew controversy was covered, and there was an announcement about a new band called By The Grace Of God. This band was supposed to have members of Endpoint and apparently had recently played their first show, playing three songs and a Judge cover. At the time of course crap like Snapcase was huge, real hardcore bands like Devoid Of Faith and Floorpunch were starting to gain momentum, so hearing dudes from Endpoint were doing a band that covered Judge was a good thing.
I got the 7” shortly after. I was pretty floored by it. It sounded, by the time period’s standards, pretty “modern” but was still hardcore and a definite return to the older Endpoint style. Throw in a cover of fucking Plastic Bomb on the CD and I knew this band was good.
I saw them live twice. One at Manville Elks Lodge with the scab version of Deadguy & C.R.. The other time was of course at the infamous show in Yardley PA. I actually missed the whole thing! Our friends in the band Rad opened the show but then Saves The Day was playing so I walked down to the Wawa at the end of the street. By the time I had come back everything had happened. Whoops.
By The Grace Of God would go on to record another record for Victory and then one more record on a smaller label. Members of this band have gone on to be in Black Cross, Good Riddance, and Elliot.
Here is an mp3 of Fissures.
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.
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Uprise
By admin on Nov. 7, 2005.
I interviewed Uprise at Fieldsboro on
Interview is with Matt, Steve, and Greg. I added some pictures to my Flickr archive.
Who’s in the band?
Matt-Okay, I’m Matt, the vocalist, Steve on drums, Frank Pooch on guitar, Drug Free Mike Z on guitar, Greg Rise on bass.
So you got a demo and a 7” coming out?
Matt-Originally in September of 1995 we released the Bustin Out Of Morris County demo which had four songs on it. It doesn’t say it on the demo, I just call it that.
That’s awesome.
Matt-If you heard it, you probably wouldn’t like us anymore
Steve-We didn’t know what we were doing, we just wanted to get something out
Matt-Only Steve knew what he was doing. Nothing against the other kids in the band.
Hardware said it was the first generic demo they’d heard in a while.
Matt-Just kick us while we’re down don’t you…just kidding
Well now, I know you’re good
Matt-Now we’ve gotten a lot better, a couple guitar player changes, basically it’s been me, Steve, and Greg the whole time. Mike joined the band in March maybe and with him we recorded the Positive Youth On The Rise demo which has six songs on it, three of which will be on the 7”
On Orphaned
Matt-On Orphaned Records
Cool
Steve-It should be out early February
Matt-Yeah, early February
So what’s
Matt-In north
That’s when I lived there
Steve-A lot of sincere, dedicated kids
I used to live in
Matt-That’s where our guitarist is from
Yeah!
(At this point, some girl talks to Matt for a couple minutes)
Lots of girls dancing tonight
Matt-Yeah, it was cool
I was dancing and there were like girls all around me. It was cool.
Matt-Cool
That’s what I want; more girls, not just for the sake of more girls…
Matt-It’s like the 7 Seconds song Not Just Boys Fun, hardcore is for everybody
I notice with the new school kids the girls just stand in the back and hold their boyfriends bags. Fuck that.
Matt-People shouldn’t be coat racks. They should go to shows to have fun.
Greg-They all just bring book bags to shows to show off their vegan patches.
Yeah what’s up with all the Earth Crisis patches?
Matt-They suck anyway. But we won’t talk about that…
(We go on to talk about crappy Victory bands. Anyway.)
So the 7” is coming out?
Matt-Yep, six songs, three new
What do you think of the whole metal thing?
Matt-Metal
Sucks
Matt-Yeah, we’re a hardcore band. What do you think, Steve?
Steve-Well, some metal is good…
Matt-He likes some bad bands
Steve-The only thing I have to say is everyone should be open minded
Metal’s metal, hardcore’s hardcore
Steve-People shouldn’t be like “this doesn’t belong here”
Matt-I think it sucks. We take our influences from hardcore bands, not metal bands. All my favorite bands are not hardcore bands by any means but I’m not coming to band practice saying “let’s put a little piano” and shit, you know what I mean?
My favorite musician is John Coltrane
Matt-It’s good to be a talented musician because then you can put your talents into hardcore
TAPE ENDS…SWITCH IT OVER
Matt-Okay, Greg, what were you saying?
Greg-I was saying Matt curses too much
Matt-Sorry about that
Greg-He needs to work on his cursing problem…we apologize for Matt’s cursing problem
Matt-What’s wrong with that? I have the mouth of a trucker
Who gives a fuck
Matt-Exactly
Who gives a shit
Matt-Who gives a fucking shit. I get a little excited when we play, what the fuck?
The bands are excited tonight. That’s good because I see a lot of bands and I want to start dancing but they aren’t moving so I’m not moving
Matt-If the band doesn’t like what their playing how can you?
Closing comments?
Matt-Look for our record coming out on Orphaned Records. Six songs. Basically support all the
Greg-People should appreciate what we have because others don’t have shows.
Matt-Hope everything’s good.
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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 9th 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-
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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 2nd 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
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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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