bidhardcore.com
hardcore records on ebay — aggregated and examined
Porcell says:
When Mike played drums for Youth of Today, he was a very reserved, quiet guy. You could’ve never pictured him in a million years singing for a band because we’d go on tour and he’d literally say maybe a few words a day. He didn’t seem angry then but there were a few instances on that tour where the “Mike Judge” of years to come reared his head. Once when YOT were playing a show with Uniform Choice, I think it was Detroit, there was a fight in the pit during UC between two skinheads. Mike actually walked over to try to break it up when the girlfriend of one of the guys fighting told him to mind his own business, pushed him and then slapped him FULL FORCE right across the face. Mike’s hands instantly flew up to punch her but then he stopped himself because, well, she was a girl. But he was in a rage. He just stood there, with a big red slap mark across his knotted face, breathing like a snake, just wanting so bad to haul off on that skinbird but somehow he was restraining himself. But there he was in the middle of the pit, teeth clenched, fists in the air, looking like a time bomb that would go off if somebody breathed heavy. The two guys instantly got scared and stopped fighting, and the one dude made a quick exit with his squawking foul-mouthed girlfriend in tow. I remember thinking “Damn, Mike’s actually a pretty intimidating guy.” Little did I know.
Another entry in the XClaim saga - DYS “Brotherhood” used to be my favorite, although now I consider it to be a bit of a lesser entry. Still it has a special place in my heart and the first few songs are all stone cold ‘82-core classics.
Open Up starts it out with a classic mid-paced bass part and Dave Smally’s distinct teenaged voice cracking. For those keeping score, this is his best vocal performance ever (by far). The song rails against hardcore and punk dropouts (irony!) in a truly fist pumping manner. Next comes, what in my opinion is the unquestionably best DYS song, More Than A Fashion. This track opens with the classic DYS stompy mosh part which is utilized in a few of their songs, but is best displayed here. It’s an in your face straight edge anthem ripping at the seams from all the youthful energy coursing through the band before they explode into a fast part that repeats the lines “Straight Mind/Razor’s Edge…”. It also contains the straight edge lyrics that I relate to more than any other:
“It’s a way of life that says I don’t need
Hangovers, freak-outs or expensive weed
Rather buy a record any day
My mind is here, not far away”
I mean really - that pretty much breaks down my world view here people. Next comes Circle Storm, which is a pretty great anti-racism thrash number. Perfect use of gang-vocals on this one. After that you get City To City, another alltime great, with the heaviest riff on the album and a pounding beat that gives the toms a workout. A great mosh track, you can’t go wrong with this. Closing out side A is The Girl’s Got Limits, which is kind of an inept AC/DC style jam. It’s pretty good but kind of kills the vibe a little bit especially right after a song that proclaims “We’re Serious and We Won’t Go Away”.
Side B starts with the title track which has a similar construction to Circle Storm. Great powerful throbbing hardcore thrashing. Of course it’s a song about your brothers/friends, etc. Obviously this combined with the last song makes it sort of obvious these aren’t the most socially progressive young boys, but what do you people want? The next 3 tracks, Yellow, Stand Proud, and Insurance Risk are all good jams, but are kind of the less notable jams on this album. Even if they’re not all as good as More Than A Fashion though, they’re still pretty good, and better than the filler tracks on The Kids Will Have Their say. Anyway, things close out with Escape, which for some reason (I’ve never quite known why) opens with some King Arther based sample. Anyone know what that’s about? Anyway this is the archetypal Boston dirge. Lots of cheap echo on the vocals, a grinding two-note guitar riff - it’s pretty good but it also ends with the lines “Crawl into the blackness/scream into my mind”. I can’t really do much with that.
Anyway that’s all 15 minutes of Brotherhood, encapsulated. These days it just doesn’t compare to the precision and power of My America or Is This My World, or just the out and out low-brow idiocy of the Negative FX lp (honorary X-Claim release). Not sure what else to say about this one really. I still need a copy actually.
Quick one today - file under “late 80’s sxe cult favorites”.
End To End’s lone 7″ is sort of remembered as being the only other release on Foundation Records, a label better known for the release of Chain Of Strength’s “What Holds Us Apart” debacle. I think I like the End To End record better, but as you should know, I love the first Chain 7″, and hate the second. Unlike “What Holds Us Apart”, End To End deliver 3 tracks of raw and ragged sxe/HC, and then tack on an unnecessary cover of an SSD song from a live show. Aside from the live cover song though this thing’s great. I wish they’d recorded a demo or something else.
I believe End To End were originally known as Addiction (classic example of a t-shirt band), and they were fronted by former Justice League vocalist Roa. Honestly I’m sure if you search the Internet there’s a good summary of their history, I don’t really feel like digging up all the details of a band w/ one single, but at some point they did a name change and out popped this 7″. Reminds me a bit of Unit Pride but much more angry and less melodic. None for All is a fast thrasher with powerful gang backups, lasting about a minute. Stake Your Faith kicks out a good mosh riff and then digs back into the speed. Actually both of these tracks sound a bit like they could have been on the first Chain of Strength 7″. Stake Your Faith has a great choppy stop start section though that I don’t think Chain would have thought to come up with. Reminds me a little of Pushed Aside or Headfirst which are sort of in the same vein (late 80’s cult sxe). The last original song, Too Bad, fades up with a simplified variation on the main riff to Malfunction and then finds itself in more stop start territory. Again a little like something Pushed Aside or Headfirst coulda cooked up. Weak lyrical moment (imo): the song opens with the line “Fuck You”. It just sounds bad. But still - this is a good song.
Anyway, this was a one time pressing of 1000 or 1500, and I think I’ve heard of some on grey vinyl but I could totally be imagining that. Appealing to the readers here to sort me out on the pressing info. Anyway if you don’t wanna drop the $20-30 for one of these, there’s a nice CD reish on the reliable Indecision records.
Oh P.S. check out my year end wrap up sentence fragments over at Radio Silence book dot com, and if you haven’t peeped it out yet, throw the book on your Xmas list.
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).
The year I moved to Boston was the same year that a big 90’s Straight Edge band from Boston, Ten Yard Fight, played their last show in the city. At that show someone declared today (October 17) National Edge Day. Actually it was my friend Pete who declared it, and the next year the band he was in (In My Eyes) played their last show to repeat the celebration from the year before. Ever since then, there’s been some sort of celebration of… well Straight Edge Hardcore by most of my friends in this city. It usually involves ice cream, crucial records, hooded sweatshirts… To outsiders I understand it makes no sense, but fuck ‘em, some of the most fun times in my life have been spent on those days. I guess it proves nothings better than good friends, and knowing that you’re better than everyone who drinks beer for fun (duh). I was going to post a variety of pictures of classic SE records, but as it turned out they’re all of the NY/CT variety. Boston only had like 4 or 5 notable Straight Edge bands until the 90’s though so I don’t exactly have a lot to work with. Happy Edge Day to all, and to all a good mosh.
For sale by Nate Wilson of True Punk Metal blog, is a personal favorite later 80’s SXE style 7″ - Headfirst “Back In Control”. This thing is seriously a 10/10 in my book, not even a rap intro can ruin it. I have a certain love for Dan O’s Workshed label, and this is definitely my favorite release on it. Heavy production, catchy as hell riffs, and a good singer make it the whole package. The first track is a standard HC jam for ‘89 in the USA. A little bit of Judge (lp) and NFAA (lp) influence but they have their own sound that I can’t quite put my finger on. Maybe it will come to me later. Maybe some Quicksand or Burn too because when it gets to the breakdown things start to groove a bit, but not too much (this is only 1990 folks). Track 2 is kind of an anti Straight Edge song, but I can let that slide because it has a great intro. I used to riff on this one a lot at practice in my slightly younger days. The main part of the song holds it down pretty well too with a catchy metallic breakdown.
On the flipside things start off rocky (not rockin) with the aforementioned rappy part. Despite it being there this isn’t an early wigger-core release, which is emphasized by the terrible and rigid delivery in this part. Once the guitars come in it’s not quite as bad, but this is definitely my least favorite of the four songs. The title track closes things out, with a slow almost stoner rock riff. You can tell this one’s supposed to be the big show stopper, and the thickly saturated guitar tone actually helps that along quite a bit. I wish Headfirst had kept up making slowburning hardcore crushers like the best moments on this 7″, but sadly they veered into post-hc territory on their next release, an lp that I want nothing to do with, and while their preceding demo is alright, it doesn’t really have the balls out power of this 7″.
This 7″ does break my rule of Raw/Simple is the best kind of sxe-core, but I can’t help but play air guitar whenever I hear it.
This is a clear copy of the record which seems to be the rarest. There’s also purple vinyl which I see a little more often, and black which is the most common. Honestly, if you’re into late 80’s sxe style HC and you don’t know this one, get on it.
SLAPSHOT - Back On The Map
The city of Boston is well known in the Hardcore lexicon as having raised a certain Hardcore aesthetic in its early days. The original “Boston Crew”, principally composed of SS Decontrol, DYS (that’s Department Of Youth Services), and Negative FX, took up the Straight Edge mantle originated in DC with the kind of machismo and general townie bravado that helps to make the state of Massachusetts all that it is. Dudes who wore sleeveless black t-shirts, enjoyed red meat, weight lifting, brawling, and their Camaros (that’s pronounced “CAHHH” in Beantown), were at the center of this clique, and while they got along reasonably well with the other upstart bands of the day (Jerry’s Kids, FU’s, Gang Green), there’s always been something that set these three apart in some way. They dismantled the UK82 sounds bands like GBH, Blitz, Discharge, and injected their own ineptitude and unabashed Americaness into the reconfiguration creating the template for the Boston sound. They played the most violent shows. When they went to NY they were known to incite bloodbaths of violence on the dance-floor. But then everything went wrong (as you probably know). The townie in the members of the crew triumphed, and DYS and SSD made terrible rock albums that don’t even come close to the local legacies they sought to join (Aerosmith, etc.). Negative Fx for their part shattered relatively quickly, with only a few shows and demo recordings logged on the books, eventually having one of their demos released as an LP on Taang records.
By ‘84 Boston’s luster had faded somewhat, though there were still plenty of good bands. Jack “Choke” Kelly, of Negative Fx, attempted to start a new band, Last Rights, but all they could manage was one powerhouse single and a notorious show. Undeterred though Kelly put together another band, Slapshot, and for all the shit they did after the 80’s, their first few records are gloriously reactionary, hooligan oriented, muscle-core. If anything it’s more confrontational, more macho, and more violent than SS Decontrol. The songs are heavier, with a mid-paced Oi feel, but still very American too.
Back On The Map was the first Slapshot record, a 7 song mini-lp and features a one time contribution of DYS 4-stringer, John Anastas. Though he may not have realized it at the time, you can kind of view Back On The Map as a better interpretation of what DYS and SSD tried to become, that is, hardcore bands that ‘rock(ed)’. The riffs and songs are simple and repetitive. Drummer Mark Mckaye (no relation to Ian) plays with the kind of efficiency and spareness that AC/DC’s Phil Rudd is known for, and other than the rudimentary solos, guitarist Steve Risteen uses a similar approach in his guitar playing. Only what’s needed, nothing flashy, just lean and HARD. Choke’s barking vocals are probably what make Slapshot most recognizable to the ears of others, moving up and down the scale and mixing the style of British Oi bands with the out of control insanity of SSD’s Springa. This dude was just born to yell over recordings of abrasive guitar and drums arrangements. As for the band’s output after the year 1990 - let’s just pretend it didn’t happen.
Only the first run of this thing actually comes with an inner sleeve and it’s quite hard to find. Looks like the Taang mailorder list of the day is in there too, and on the whole this copy looks quite clean.
Crippled Youth - Join The Fight. The original little kid novelty band. Of course later they became Bold which you either love or hate, but Join The Fight is kind of hard to not enjoy. Pretty much these little guys sound like they owned 3 records, 7 Seconds - Skins Brains Guts, DYS - Brotherhood, and Youth of Today - Can’t Close My Eyes. Speaking of which, did you see this copy of Can’t Close My Eyes on orange vinyl w/ the Batman stamp? If not, just click.
The best song, Can’t You See (sometimes known as I’m Straight), sounds like they’re going for a DYS type song. I think I like it more because it has a more serious vibe, and less of the fun/7 Seconds feel that the rest of the record has. That’s not to say that the fun songs aren’t a good listen too. Walk Tall, Walk Straight is probably the best of them with an end piece that has a little bit of groove to it (relatively). After that comes the well known Positive Scene where numerous prepubescent voices chant “It’s a Positive Positive Positive Scene”. Per square inch I feel like this might be the youth core record with the most backups ever. In Not Just Talk, they take over the entire chorus, in K-Town Mosh Crew the entire song. I feel like most of the spoof straight edge stuff like Crucial Youth and Straight Youth were based a good bit on this particular record, which would probably be falling into self parody if it wasn’t so determined to be serious.
At any rate there’s 3 official pressings of Join The Fight, each supposed to be out of 500 copies. The first press is all black vinyl, the second is on clear, and the 3rd is on black again. Some of the 2nd and 3rd press are have a BOLD stamp added to the sleeve because by that time they’d changed their name. In addition, some of each pressing have a guide ruler visible on the sleeve. Originally these were not supposed to be used, but when they ran out of good sleeves, the label started using them anyway. There’s also a bootleg via Germany from 1991 that has an obviously xeroxed cover, and different (yellow) labels.
As for that Youth of Today on orange w/ the Batman stamp, only 100 made folks. I think the last one went over $500. These were made only for trading for action figures and other records by Jordan and Cappo so they don’t pop up all that often.
Uniform Choice - Screaming For Change + green vinyl
I love Uniform Choice. Unabashedly. Some serious HC scholarly type may laugh, but in my world this is the finest of the 2nd wave of Straight Edge Hc. Use Your Head is the perfect post Minor Threat positive moshing song. It would be absolutely impossible to make improvements. The rush and speed of the main riff that comes in at the first guitar break. The build-up in the middle. The skank beat and tunefulness of those 4-muted power chords. Pat Dubar’s youthful off key shouting. People scoff at this record like it has some kind of cheese factor, but find me a band that doesn’t have a cheese factor - in any genre. In other words, if you’re too good for Uniform Choice: fuck off. Don’t tell me about the spoken poem tacked on the end. It’s real easy to hit the stop button on my turn table before that crap comes on. Don’t tell me about the lyrics stolen from a greeting card poem. It’s still a good song. Don’t tell me about the lyrical theft from Skewbald. They mined the Dischord sound pretty excessively, and I’m sure the “over-it already” crowd in our nations capitol had a good laugh at best, and an annoyed groan at worst when they heard this one, but seriously - Beefeater - shut it the hell down.
As much as this DOES sound like Minor Threat though (and it really, really does), it has its differences, and honestly, who else are you going to rip off in ‘85 if you’re Straight Edge? But back to the differences… for one: the raging solos, and let me tell you, early on this record was a big reason I wanted to play guitar solos. The way I saw it, all the greats had them: Bad Brains, Warzone, Cro Mags… UC. Pat Longrie tears up quick little 4-measure shred fests in a bunch of the song. The technique is simple, but it breaks up the sound of a lot of these songs and gives them something a little extra. The songs tend to be a bit longer than your average Minor Threat number too, and a few work slower and midpaced tempos which helps the overall pacing of the lp. The guitar sound is a lot thicker too. I’m guessing it’s a few layers of JCM-800 but really cranked the hell up. It sounds a lot more full and “huge” than Minor Threat, I actually think it’s one of the best straight edge guitar sounds ever, and while I’m at it, the drums are basically perfect. Every few seconds there’s a snare roll, and while it may not get them any awards from skill, the snare sounds awesome and snappy and it helps to inject a lot of the energy that the songs have. Top to bottom it’s just 12 perfect tuneful hardcore songs. I’ll put it up against whatever you got.
Green vinyl there’s probably 300-500 press. Get it while the getting is good.
For my money Floorpunch’s “Fast Times At The Jersey Shore”is everything I ask for in an lp by a pure straight edge hardcore band. Over the years (I know people say this all the time but - I can’t believe its been 10 years!) I’ve heard some people kind of dismiss this lp as being maybe too long (it’s only 20 minutes!), or that it’s too after the fact. But from my point of view, and maybe it’s a little rose colored, this has all the good aspects of the band’s demo and 7″, as well as bringing just enough new things to the table.
Right off the bat, the first track, Washed Up At 18, comes with a riff faster than almost anything they’d done before, and I think a lot of people remember this album as the fast Floorpunch record. Maybe that’s part of what I like about it, that they incorporate more Straight Ahead and Youth of Today style speed into the mix. I think FP sounds pretty great playing songs designed to drop their payloads in the quickest way possible, leaner than some of the tracks they’d done in the past. About a third of them clock in at under a minute. The rest are a little longer, usually around a minute and a half, all of them are stacked with maximum mosh-part potential. Playing this thing back now, some of the tracks are a tad more tuneful and anthemic than maybe their other stuff had too, and maybe some people are put off by that, but I say - what’s not to like about songs like Shotsie or What’s Right.
A lot of straight edge bands at the time started trying to incorporate more complex and melodic parts into their songs. Actually I feel like the first In My Eyes lp (no diss on them; still a fav.) made a big wave of imitators, all far inferior, that tried to use similar arrangements, but with usually tepid results. Looking back to the time period (which was when I was first taking an interest in these type of bands) it seems like by the time the Floorpunch lp was released, no one else was content to play meat and potatoes type Straight Edge HC like the Judge 7″, SOIA 7″, early War Zone, et. al. It’s kind of a bummer because who the hell wants to listen to like some bargain bin band copying Fastbreak. At any rate it leaves FP kind of standing alone as the only band from the ‘96 explosion besides Ten Yard Fight that stuck it out to the end without trying to be anything other than a straight forward hardcore band. They’re also, (along with the aforementioned In My Eyes) probably the only band of the style and era who had a drummer who really ripped. Nothing worse than a weak drummer, and I love the chops on this lp. Makes cool use of the double kick pedal in fills too.
There’s like… 100 copies of this LP on white I think? Most went out to friends if I have my info right. Start to finish, this one’s all aces for the 90’s, or any era.
