bidhardcore.com

It was the best of times…it was the blurst of times. It was 2002, or actually it was 2001, which soon became 2002 when I first heard this weird dude Greg from Cape Cod had a new band with Justin from Down But Not Out, and 2 other guys I didn’t know. I could have never guessed the number of times I would end up seeing this band over the next 3 years, but I thought their name, Mental, was really cool.

I got the first tape they did from Greg at a show and when I took it home I was pretty sure it was recorded on a boombox. “I think they’d be good if they recorded in a studio, but I can’t hear any of the songs on this“. The titles were stuff like “Fuck Responsibility” and “High School Sucks” which seemed cool considering how over-serious most hardcore bands were at the time. So in the spring of 2002 when I heard they were going to the local Dead Air Studios, I was eager to see how things would turn out.

I rode out with some friends on night in May ‘02 to do the crew backup vocals on Mental’s first studio recorded demo (affectionately known as demo 2).  When we got there, they were finishing up guitar tracks. I recall thinking it would be a late night because they hadn’t even started the vocals yet, one of the many times in my life I’ve been so very wrong. Greg laid the vocals down for 9 songs in probably 40 minutes. Mostly first takes as I remember it, and he sounded great. Brash, angry, youthful and confident. The tunes sounded great too. I was shocked actually, at how awesome it sounded for such a young band. I knew this would be a new favorite. It sounded a lot like old New York hardcore bands, maybe with some other stuff thrown in, or perhaps just the hindsight the 90’s provided. I’ve never quite put my finger on it, but it sort of always reminded me of the first Sick Of It All 7″. Maybe with some Straight Ahead and Token Entry too. It didn’t really sound like one thing or a particular band to me, I just thought it was good, and at the time it pretty much stood alone. Logos for straight edge hardcore bands had got really scratchy and lyrics quite serious and wordy. When Mental came along they had big cartoon letters and seemed like they were having fun on their recordings (even moreso live). It kind of just took an unnecessary chip off the shoulder of Hardcore for a little while, without ever being too jokey or goofy. It’s not really easy to walk that line, and it was sort of how I knew they were something special. A breath of fresh (”fresh”) air.

I went to the recording for their 7″ later that year, again at Dead Air and I remember being at least a little surprised how much more they had their shit together already. They did 11 songs in a day I think. There might have been an extra half day to finish up vocals and do the mix, but I still remember being in awe at how fast the band had moved, even though they were releasing a 7″ they had enough material laid down to make a 12″. All of my bands up to that point had struggled just to get demos together. After demanding that someone yell “bust!” prior to a breakdown in one song, it was put on me to be the one to do it, although I think someone from the band could have done it better.

Once their 7″ came out it seemed like things never stopped for Mental. The record came out in the winter of 2003, but by summer 2003 they’d recorded a demo of the absurd side project Dumptruck, and another E.P. to be out by the year’s end. Tours and endlessly colorful t-shirts followed, as well as a couple more records. The first time I saw the whole USA from the window of a van was with Mental, lifting guitar cabinets and drums on a nightly basis. I guess it’s weird to write about stuff that is so recent, but it was good times, even when it wasn’t good times, and I still play these tapes (and 7″) pretty often.