bidhardcore.com

Unity “You Are One” is maybe the first record you could call 2nd-wave Straight Edge. It’s pretty close with the first Youth Of Today E.P. so I’m not entirely sure, but Unity was at least a band before Youth of Today. Unfortunately their original singer died shortly before their 7″ recording and Pat Dubar who was already fronting Uniform Choice was asked to step in for the recording. UC had already produced a demo by that time, but their lp came out after the Unity 7″ which gives things a confusing chronology. It’s kind of weird the band would opt to replace a member like that but I guess you have to remember they were young and just trying to do the right thing. I have no idea how they managed to play such positive music in the wake of that sort of thing, but this record is right up there with 7 seconds in terms of upbeat hopefulness. By the way, aside from Pat Dubar, the record also features other Orange County hardcore staples like Pat Longrie (also of Uniform Choice, and co-founder of the Wishingwell label), and Joe Foster (of Ignite, and I think briefly No For An Answer).

You Are One opens up and shows you everything pretty much in the first 10 seconds - it’s a snappy mix of Minor Threat and 7 Seconds with tuneful guitar riffs and quick snare rolls, colored by lyrics about being young, straight edge, and well basically just those two things. The opening track is Straight On View, have a taste of the lyrics (going from memory here so I apologize if I fuck it up):

Don’t need it/I never will/ That kind of pressure I don’t feel. Don’t want it/ I’m free/ artificial happiness is not for me!

When you’re 17 is there anything that makes you feel better than this? If you’re anything like me (and you’re probably not), then the answer is “no not really”. But this shit’s great. This is how straight edge hardcore is done. The crew backups on the chorus yelling “Straight On View!” it’s a good feeling. Maybe it’s a little bit over the top that the next song is called Positive Mental Attitude, but they really thrash it out pretty fast and that makes it feel a lot better. Just that teenaged anger fit to burst right out of your chest that you want to turn into something good - you can feel it coming right through the speakers.

The next couple cuts have the same kind of perfection in their delivery, but there is kind of a bogus misstep in the song “Love”. Semi-high school poetry about well, you know. It’s also kind of slow, and just all in all goes nowhere. I always skip this track it just stinks. It’s back to the fast and good with “You Are One” after that, and just when you feel like things won’t get bad again, they slap you with some STRAIGHT UP high school poetry. Yes a spoken poem every bit as juvenile as the title, “To Risk” would lead you to assume it is. Who gave this the okay? Absolutely UNBEARABLE. However it’s easy to skip since it’s at the end, and as such, leaves this record’s legacy, largely untarnished.

Note to all of hardcore (for future reference).

• Crucifix - “From Dehumanization…” (Annihilation) spoken intro = good part.
• Unity - “To Risk” spoken outro = bad part.

This is the rare, original Wishingwell pressing FYI. I think there’s only 1,000, with a small amount on blue vinyl. If you just need to own the tunes, Indecision did a repress of this in ‘99 (holy shit that’s so long ago) that’s still easy to come by. Dave Mandel, if you’re reading this, I (and about 10 other people on earth) are still waiting for Pushed Aside on cd (with the comp track).  If it helps, I’ll buy 3 (one for the house, one for the car, one for safe keeping).