Photo borrowed without permission from 1000knives.com.
Monday, November 26, 2012
EXTREME COROLLARY: Worn Through the Layer of Separation: Harvest East Coast Apocalypse Tour 2012
Admittedly, this is quite a stretch, as to my knowledge no members of Harvest, past or present, have been practicing Christians while playing in the band, but they are a 1990s-era hardcore band, and I do remember hearing reliable stories about them having been courted by Tooth and Nail, and I also remember them playing shows with the occasional Christian hardcore band, but mostly they're really nice guys and worth seeing if you're into the heaviness. The picture below is sure to seal the deal one way or the other.
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Tooth and Nail Records catalog, circa 1995 or thereabouts
...click on the above to enlarge...
They say hindsight is 20/20, though I'm not sure if that's still the case when viewed through a sardonic lens. Much of what I then devoured seems laughable now, while some of it still holds up nicely. I suppose there's a life lesson in there somewhere, and I'd love to examine it, but there's just too much to unpack here.
1) Wish for Eden - Pet the Fish - Oh, the nineties...a time when "abrasive rock" was a phrase that could sell records. And sure, I suppose that's what they played, a sort of testosterone-infused dude rock that could just as easily have come from Palm Desert as Seattle. Overall, none of it was very cerebral or memorable, especially the lyrics, but it was cool enough at the time.
Lots of weird 90s dude mosh action in this clip, which is otherwise pretty shitty as far as camera work is concerned.
2) Focused - Bow - "California doesn't fear this band but we do!" - A statement like that begs for further explanation on both counts, and harkens back to the cryptic statement about Huntington Beach record labels in the Helpless Amongst Friends liner notes. Anybody with any insider knowledge about any of this weirdness is encouraged to speak up. BUT I WAS RIGHT ABOUT THEY HYPHEN! "Hard-core." Why does that bother me so much? Is it because I'm an aging fan of hardcore? Is it because I'm an English teacher? Does it bother anybody else? Also, Focused didn't sound like the Crucified, Rollins Band, or Snapcase, which, holy Jesus, is not spelled "Snap Case." For more on this record, check out my riveting exploration of the early Christian hardcore scene.
3) Starflyer 59 - s/t - I love early Starflyer, though in my opinion the best thing they ever recorded was the Gold album and that Goodbyes Are Sad 7" that I never should have sold. But that's not what we're here to talk about - we're here instead to talk about how "melodic noise pop" seems an odd descriptor for this album, though I suppose it was melodic, noisy, and a rock record. And while Starflyer didn't sound just like the Pixies, for example, the reference kind of makes sense, sonically speaking. Anyway, I'll gush more about them later on. In the meantime, enjoy the following, even if the vocals maybe grate on you a little bit.
"Next Time Around" is the B-side from the Goodbyes Are Sad 7", which has minimal relevance here.
4) The Crucified - s/t - This is a reissue of their debut album. I'm not sure where Pantera comes into play, nor will say that this really is one of the best records ever made. I will say this, though -- however good Anthrax, or Hirax, or whatever thrash band you want to talk about may have been, they weren't as good as the Crucified was at their best (though for me, that's on their later album, Pillars of Humanity). For the sake of credibility, I'll offer that it pains me to say so, given how boneheaded many of Mark Salomon's lyrics were. We're going to have to take Pillars... apart at some point.
Fifth member? Jesus, pictured at left.
5) V/A - Helpless Amongst Friends - Everything about this description bothers me. I discuss the album itself here. What I forgot to mention, however, is the implications of the title and the artwork, which seem to suggest a life of eternal damnation in hell. Yikes.
6) Unashamed - Silence - They were heavy, but were they that heavy? Extremely heavy? I don't know. Anyway, those comparisons mostly work, especially as Unashamed existed at a time in the mid-nineties when bands were combining metal and hardcore in a very different way than that of the crossover thrash of a decade or so earlier. Slayer would become an important part of that formula for hardcore bands, Christian and secular alike, as the nineties progressed. I talk about this album in greater depth here.
7) Blenderhead - Prime Candidate for Burnout - So much of this catalog is a remembrance of my high school years. I had a full page ad for this record (from Heaven's Metal?) hanging in my locker one year. I still love the record cover as pop-art. And I still think the music is some of the most interesting that Tooth and Nail ever put out. Not sure what corporate pharmaceutical companies have to do with anything, but whatever. This is extra angry, and, I suppose, in its way, a punk record, and, if I'm fair, super hard to describe. Somebody on YouTube said they sound like Suicidal Tendencies. That person was wrong.
8) The Crucified - Take Up Your Cross/Nailed - Early Crucified, less polished. Not altogether like 7 Seconds or Minor Threat, necessarily, but same ballpark. Definitely not like the Descendents, which is even more misspelled here: "Decedents" ??? Anyway, this is also a reissue.
9) Plankeye - Spill - I can't remember the exact circumstances of this purchase, but looking back from the future I sincerely hope that it wasn't the description of "groovy power pop" that swayed me to buy this record.
Slap bass, rhyming couplets, misappropriated revolutionary rhetoric. What the hell was I thinking?
10) Sometime Sunday - Stone - This is one of a few records in this catalog that I never owned, though I wonder if a long-term borrowing situation from JH counts. Sometime Sunday sounded like Alice in Chains, which is to say that it was overwrought bluesy grunge from the Pacific Northwest. I remember some kind of controversy around them, though, as a result of this album... I think maybe somebody said the shit word during some conversations excerpted in a hidden track, blowing the delicate minds of listeners everywhere. What's weird is that the profanity became a distraction from the real transgression - the terrible cover art.
This is damn near unlistenable.
11) Chatterbox - Despite - I couldn't tell you a thing about Nine Inch Nails/Ministry/Al Jourgenson/Wax Trax except what I learned later on, years removed from the zenith of the industrial scene, but for some reason or another, there was kind of a vibrant Christian industrial scene that thrived for some time. This particular project featured Jeff Bellew, bassist for the Crucifed, and Scott Albert of Circle of Dust (and a million other projects). They made music that was pretty riff-intensive, driving, and, well, look, am I supposed to feel bad in 2012 that I don't really feel like I know how to talk about industrial music?
12) The Blamed - 21 - I used to love this album, named, if memory serves, for the 21 hours in which it was recorded. It was pretty much just simple, fun punk rock. It was not, in any sense of the word, a thrash record, despite what the ad copy says. I also find it telling that Tooth and Nail compared the Blamed to the Crucified and Crashdog. Those are apt enough comparisons, I suppose, especially the latter, but it suggests to me now that the label didn't then have a handle on what was going on in the larger punk scene, just the Christian one.
Weirdly, this was all I could really find of this album online.
13) Joy Electric - Fairy Tale Melodies - I believe I received this as a Christmas gift from JR2, which seems fitting, given the candy canes. It says it was Bliss Records' first release, an imprint that I don't think anybody ever heard anything about ever again. It also says it's recommended if you like (RIYL) Erasure, Dee-Lite [sic], and New Order. I suppose that's different than actually sounding like those acts, which is good, as Joy Electric really didn't (well, okay, maybe New Order), but I suppose fans of those bands would enjoy Joy Electric well enough. Really, though, all I want to do now is listen to "Groove is in the Heart." JR2 and I were remembering today a story about an older burly weirdo in high school yelling at us to "turn off that video game music!" I saw Joy Electric live a few times and left nonplussed; Ronnie Martin's vocals were rarely in tune.
I mean, what the hell, right? Why not?
14) Starflyer 59 - She's the Queen - This EP, like most early Starflyer material, has absolutely stood the test of time. It features weird electro and fifties lounge versions of existing songs, as well as new songs drenched in guitar. Here's the thing, though. Ever since getting into Starflyer and reading ad copy like this, I've never felt I had a good understanding of what the hell shoegazer was supposed to be. Other bands I've heard since that share that label seem to use a lot of weird drum machine tracks that I could never quite get into, but maybe that's just me. I will say, however, that Dinosaur Jr., Buddy Holly, and lounge music actually seem like pretty good points of reference for this particular EP.
15) MxPx - Pokinatcha - "21 tracks that freaking rule!" Look, we don't need to fancy it up with terms like "melodic punk rock," MxPx were and are and will always be, seemingly, a pop-punk band. I don't know that they ever really sounded like the Offspring, but I suppose they do more here than they ever would again. Rancid and Green Day seem like fair enough comparisons. I remember hearing about some kid somewhere who had made a tape of Green Day songs and the MxPx songs that aped them. I guess the punchline is all of the internet accusations suggesting Green Day of stealing riffs (and damn near entire songs) from others (most notably Dillinger Four). The clear moral here is that we all could probably stand to listen to a little bit more Dillinger Four, but way back when, before I had discovered those hometown heroes of mine (or Bracket, NOFX, or Propagandhi for that matter), MxPx was something to get excited about, and this record is probably their most raw and energetic, if somewhat vapid.
I chose this song both because I am not a nice person, and also because if I had recorded something this asinine, I would fully expect it to be thrown in my face at every opportunity.
16) Havalina Rail Co. - s/t - I've never quite understood what the hell "Hold on to your wigs and keys!" was supposed to mean, but I do know this: this was neither a swing nor a jazz record. It was really cool and creative, but as the nerdy high school jazz band kid walking around with a Dizzy Gillespie t-shirt on, I found these labels to be incredibly misleading. Looking back now, I suppose the inclusion of folk and pirate music - as well as the invocation of both Neil Young and Tom Waits - should have been suitable clues. This band remained really cool and creative throughout their career.
Many thanks to Chris White for the scans. Keep 'em coming, folks!
Friday, October 5, 2012
Learning Curves: Christian Hardcore Parts VI...Helpless Amongst Friends
Buoyed by the popularity of the Focused and Unashamed records, Tooth and Nail slapped together a compilation called Helpless Amongst Friends as a way of showcasing the burgeoning Spirit Filled Hardcore scene. The effect on my young mind was dizzying. Tooth and Nail had been an exciting label - JR2 and I were talking the other day about how there was kind of the OK Soda effect going on - the marketing was cool, we thought they got us, so we bought it all and didn't always stop to consider whether the soda tasted good or not. So I was automatically excited by this comp right away, and then here were all of these bands I had never heard of, young bands, from all over the country. I pored over the photos, seeing kids as young as me playing shows in churches, gymnasiums, and wherever else they could.
Essentially, the same hardcore punk epiphany experience some kid might have had somewhere in America over a decade earlier with the release of Flex Your Head, only most of these bands were still together by the time it came out.
I wish I still had a physical copy, because there was a lot going on in those liner notes, including Brandon Ebel waxing defensively about the Christian hardcore bands and how (and I'm paraphrasing from memory here) no Huntington Beach record label was going to shut them down. Which Huntington Beach record label he was referring to was totally unclear, and what I didn't know at the time was that there were scads of hardcore labels with an HB address to choose from. Always a fan of a good scandal, I've wondered about this story ever since. I believe this is also one of the more prominent places wherein Tooth and Nail spelled hardcore with a hyphen, so there's that.
What was interesting about this compilation was that it was intended to be (and is remembered as) the Tooth and Nail hardcore comp, yet has a number of bands that maybe don't fit the bill stylistically. We'll get to that, as I suppose the best way to go about tackling something like this is to go systematically through the track list.
1) Bloodshed - So-Called - At first, due to the recording quality and chugga nature of this song, coupled with the pictures in the sleeve that suggest this is the youngest band on the compilation (and I'm relying on a very faulty memory here, as I haven't seen said pictures in well over a decade), it would be easy to write off Bloodshed's effort here as amateurish formulaic hardcore. There's certainly plenty of that to be had on this album, but a closer listen reveals that Bloodshed knew what they were doing, showcasing complex rhythms and Snapcase-esque guitar harmonics. As the band progressed, their sound landed on the more emotive end of the hardcore spectrum. *This track's entry was once far more eloquent before having been lost forever due to bad robots.
2) Focused - Reign Forever - Speaking of bands that would travel in a more emotive direction, Focused is back with what would become their trademark work, "Reign Forever," a song that previewed the sweater-pounding work that would appear on The Hope that Lies Within while reworking "Forever,"one of the more memorable tracks off of their debut, Bow. This time it's got a powerful introduction that serves as an affirming manifesto of faith, before launching into the song proper, which is both recorded and played better this time around. Thankfully the problems with the drumming and the vocals that plagued the first record seem to have been worked out, leaving listeners with a solid mid-nineties jam that's almost eight minutes long. In my opinion, with the exception maybe of "My Blood" from The Hope that Lies Within, this is Focused at their best.
3) Mend - Token - This is terrible, and it isn't really hardcore, but rather some kind of weird take on bluesy grunge rock that would probably be popular with fans of Helmet or Tool, but only if they were super-duper high. *This track's entry was once far more eloquent before having been lost forever due to bad robots.
4) Mr. Bishop's Fist - You're Stolen - Bass distortion is a wonderful thing. Mr. Bishop's Fist were a three-piece from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, of all places, and featured a young Jonathan Ford (who would later go on to be in a bunch of bands, including Roadside Monument, Unwed Sailor, and Pedro the Lion, among others). What's great about this song is how noisy it is, and how it doesn't really seem to care about following any sort of hardcore rules, as evidenced by the weird Threadbare-esque free jazz intro. What follows is heavy, pissed, and irreverent, you know, in the way you might expect a Christian hardcore band to be. Below is a rough video exemplar for those who might be curious.
5) Clay - Maggots - Clay had a pretty large regional following in the midwest, hailing as they did from Illinois, I believe. Jim from Clay would later go on to form Veranderung (discussed elsewhere, and stylistically much different). Clay played a brand of hardcore not entirely unlike Mr. Bishop's Fist in that they were kind of doing their own thing, and there was a lot of noise and a lot of anger, but I think ultimately for me they didn't do it quite as well and were a bit more forgettable. All the same, Boot to Head Records later put out a three-way split with Clay, No Innocent Victim (NIV) and Overcome.
6) Crawlspace - Stench - I remember seeing Crawlspace demos floating around way back when, and think maybe my roommate had one... I also seem to remember that dudes from this band went on to do something far more interesting and well-received, but I can't for the life of me think of what it is. Geez, great blog this is. Anyway, this is mid-tempo hardcore with some serious hessian elements. The vocal delivery at times sounds like Mark Salomon from the Crucified, at other times sounding more like that douchey guy in that shitty band on your local hard rock station. Go figure.
7) Time and Again - Satan - "He is my enemy! / He is my enemy!" This is so bad. It's like what you might come up with if you'd heard exactly three hardcore songs and decided to start a hardcore band. Oh, and if you never practiced. I can't believe this got released, it's so sloppy. These guys really don't like Satan.
8) The Blamed - For You - I think it's safe to say that The Blamed were never really a hardcore band. Their first record, 21, was pretty straightforward old school punk, before personnel shifts yielded a slower, more pensive punk rock sound on Frail. "For You" is pretty emblematic of that shift, and while it's decent in a sort of Offspring/Bad Religion/Punk Goes Lollapalooza kind of a way, it seems kind of out of place on this compilation. Below is the Blamed at Cornerstone 2012, with "For You" featured partway through.
9) Blenderhead - Cesspool - I feel similarly about this Blenderhead song, except for how I feel like it is incredible. I've never really known how to describe these guys - Punk rock? Post-hardcore? - and luckily it doesn't matter. You'd think, nearly two decades later, I'd have some kind of reference point, but it's tough. I think the closest I can get is the all too obscure .30-06, a band nobody's heard of, unfortunately (hey JH, can we do some revisionist history on those guys and make them Christian so we can cover them?) So, to recap, Blenderhead was a wonderful band, well-deserving of all kinds of blog ink, though I'm not sure what this song is doing on this compilation, other than filling it out, especially as it is also taken from their full-length, Prime Candidate for Burnout. Here it is below.
10) No Innocent Victim (NIV) - Won't Back Down - Oh, wow, I didn't know Sick of it All was a Christian band.
11) Unashamed - Down South - So much energy, so much shredding, but it's weird...with Focused, Unsashamed was basically one of Tooth and Nail's two flagship hardcore bands at this point, and this is the kind of production they get? I wonder what this could have sounded like if it wasn't all awash in a bunch of cymbals and distortion buzz. This, by the way, was the Christian hardcore anthem for unity in the community - "God make us one!"
12) Centerpoint - United We Stand - What's kind of awesome about this song is that Centerpoint is using their platform to speak out for social justice, in this case tackling racial equality. I always thought Christian hardcore bands could have done more of that, instead of singing exclusively about their faith, but now I sound like one of these lefty Sojourners types. Anyway, this could be better. These guys were from Southern California and I get the sense that they were fairly important in that early Spirit Filled scene, but this just isn't all that good.
13) Never Alone - Lost - The internet seems to think that maybe this is Jeff Jacquay from Unashamed's old band. I don't know. I do know that it's not good, and that it feels like filler.
14) Strongarm - Count the Cost - I suppose we could have already spent some time talking about South Florida's own Strongarm, since their 1993 demo had made enough waves that I remember listening to a friend's copy over and over again all the way up in Minnesota. Things happened fast for those guys, so the chronology is a little blurry, but I think it goes like this... first the demo, then the comp track, then the Division 7", then the Trials 7", then the Atonement full-length? Does that seem right? Anyway, it doesn't matter. What matters is that Strongarm was really, really good, and only got better. The songwriting was super interesting, the playing superb, and everything was really high energy. More than any band before them, these guys really knew what they were doing, and only got better as time went on. While other South Florida bands like Shai Hulud (who shared members, oddly enough) got more attention, Strongarm was always the very best of those bands. All that and no description of the song - weird timings, mosh parts, build ups, sing-alongs, it's all there, and it's all awesome. This is easily the best song on this album. Here is a terribly shot video of Strongarm playing it live. I think I used to know the guy in the rasta hat.
15) Payable on Death (P.O.D.) - Coming Back - I guess P.O.D. was Jesus' answer to Rage Against the Machine, only not as good. I could never get into these guys. "He's comin' back! He's comin' back for me and you!" Yikes. Here it is, as featured on their album, which they went ahead and titled Snuff the Punk:
16) Outnumbered - Truth - This basically sounds just like the Blamed song from earlier, before going into a lame-o predictable hardcore direction. Would anybody really have cared if the record had ended with Strongarm? These guys were from Huntington Beach, surprise, surprise, and had connections to a bunch of other bands, which maybe means I should give them a pass, but I just can't.
So, there you have it. Lots of clunkers, but some real gems, too, and isn't that the way compilations go? Am I the only one who remembers Indecision Records' Guilty By Association comp? That thing wasn't Christian, but had some real stinkers on it, too. I do think this comp and the other releases that came out at the time might have led some Christian kids with no ties whatsoever to the hardcore scene to think they knew a thing or two more than they did, but as these kids were likely teenagers anyway, they were bound to think that about something or other, right?
* * * * * * * * *
1) Bloodshed - So-Called - At first, due to the recording quality and chugga nature of this song, coupled with the pictures in the sleeve that suggest this is the youngest band on the compilation (and I'm relying on a very faulty memory here, as I haven't seen said pictures in well over a decade), it would be easy to write off Bloodshed's effort here as amateurish formulaic hardcore. There's certainly plenty of that to be had on this album, but a closer listen reveals that Bloodshed knew what they were doing, showcasing complex rhythms and Snapcase-esque guitar harmonics. As the band progressed, their sound landed on the more emotive end of the hardcore spectrum. *This track's entry was once far more eloquent before having been lost forever due to bad robots.
2) Focused - Reign Forever - Speaking of bands that would travel in a more emotive direction, Focused is back with what would become their trademark work, "Reign Forever," a song that previewed the sweater-pounding work that would appear on The Hope that Lies Within while reworking "Forever,"one of the more memorable tracks off of their debut, Bow. This time it's got a powerful introduction that serves as an affirming manifesto of faith, before launching into the song proper, which is both recorded and played better this time around. Thankfully the problems with the drumming and the vocals that plagued the first record seem to have been worked out, leaving listeners with a solid mid-nineties jam that's almost eight minutes long. In my opinion, with the exception maybe of "My Blood" from The Hope that Lies Within, this is Focused at their best.
3) Mend - Token - This is terrible, and it isn't really hardcore, but rather some kind of weird take on bluesy grunge rock that would probably be popular with fans of Helmet or Tool, but only if they were super-duper high. *This track's entry was once far more eloquent before having been lost forever due to bad robots.
4) Mr. Bishop's Fist - You're Stolen - Bass distortion is a wonderful thing. Mr. Bishop's Fist were a three-piece from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, of all places, and featured a young Jonathan Ford (who would later go on to be in a bunch of bands, including Roadside Monument, Unwed Sailor, and Pedro the Lion, among others). What's great about this song is how noisy it is, and how it doesn't really seem to care about following any sort of hardcore rules, as evidenced by the weird Threadbare-esque free jazz intro. What follows is heavy, pissed, and irreverent, you know, in the way you might expect a Christian hardcore band to be. Below is a rough video exemplar for those who might be curious.
5) Clay - Maggots - Clay had a pretty large regional following in the midwest, hailing as they did from Illinois, I believe. Jim from Clay would later go on to form Veranderung (discussed elsewhere, and stylistically much different). Clay played a brand of hardcore not entirely unlike Mr. Bishop's Fist in that they were kind of doing their own thing, and there was a lot of noise and a lot of anger, but I think ultimately for me they didn't do it quite as well and were a bit more forgettable. All the same, Boot to Head Records later put out a three-way split with Clay, No Innocent Victim (NIV) and Overcome.
6) Crawlspace - Stench - I remember seeing Crawlspace demos floating around way back when, and think maybe my roommate had one... I also seem to remember that dudes from this band went on to do something far more interesting and well-received, but I can't for the life of me think of what it is. Geez, great blog this is. Anyway, this is mid-tempo hardcore with some serious hessian elements. The vocal delivery at times sounds like Mark Salomon from the Crucified, at other times sounding more like that douchey guy in that shitty band on your local hard rock station. Go figure.
7) Time and Again - Satan - "He is my enemy! / He is my enemy!" This is so bad. It's like what you might come up with if you'd heard exactly three hardcore songs and decided to start a hardcore band. Oh, and if you never practiced. I can't believe this got released, it's so sloppy. These guys really don't like Satan.
8) The Blamed - For You - I think it's safe to say that The Blamed were never really a hardcore band. Their first record, 21, was pretty straightforward old school punk, before personnel shifts yielded a slower, more pensive punk rock sound on Frail. "For You" is pretty emblematic of that shift, and while it's decent in a sort of Offspring/Bad Religion/Punk Goes Lollapalooza kind of a way, it seems kind of out of place on this compilation. Below is the Blamed at Cornerstone 2012, with "For You" featured partway through.
9) Blenderhead - Cesspool - I feel similarly about this Blenderhead song, except for how I feel like it is incredible. I've never really known how to describe these guys - Punk rock? Post-hardcore? - and luckily it doesn't matter. You'd think, nearly two decades later, I'd have some kind of reference point, but it's tough. I think the closest I can get is the all too obscure .30-06, a band nobody's heard of, unfortunately (hey JH, can we do some revisionist history on those guys and make them Christian so we can cover them?) So, to recap, Blenderhead was a wonderful band, well-deserving of all kinds of blog ink, though I'm not sure what this song is doing on this compilation, other than filling it out, especially as it is also taken from their full-length, Prime Candidate for Burnout. Here it is below.
10) No Innocent Victim (NIV) - Won't Back Down - Oh, wow, I didn't know Sick of it All was a Christian band.
11) Unashamed - Down South - So much energy, so much shredding, but it's weird...with Focused, Unsashamed was basically one of Tooth and Nail's two flagship hardcore bands at this point, and this is the kind of production they get? I wonder what this could have sounded like if it wasn't all awash in a bunch of cymbals and distortion buzz. This, by the way, was the Christian hardcore anthem for unity in the community - "God make us one!"
12) Centerpoint - United We Stand - What's kind of awesome about this song is that Centerpoint is using their platform to speak out for social justice, in this case tackling racial equality. I always thought Christian hardcore bands could have done more of that, instead of singing exclusively about their faith, but now I sound like one of these lefty Sojourners types. Anyway, this could be better. These guys were from Southern California and I get the sense that they were fairly important in that early Spirit Filled scene, but this just isn't all that good.
13) Never Alone - Lost - The internet seems to think that maybe this is Jeff Jacquay from Unashamed's old band. I don't know. I do know that it's not good, and that it feels like filler.
14) Strongarm - Count the Cost - I suppose we could have already spent some time talking about South Florida's own Strongarm, since their 1993 demo had made enough waves that I remember listening to a friend's copy over and over again all the way up in Minnesota. Things happened fast for those guys, so the chronology is a little blurry, but I think it goes like this... first the demo, then the comp track, then the Division 7", then the Trials 7", then the Atonement full-length? Does that seem right? Anyway, it doesn't matter. What matters is that Strongarm was really, really good, and only got better. The songwriting was super interesting, the playing superb, and everything was really high energy. More than any band before them, these guys really knew what they were doing, and only got better as time went on. While other South Florida bands like Shai Hulud (who shared members, oddly enough) got more attention, Strongarm was always the very best of those bands. All that and no description of the song - weird timings, mosh parts, build ups, sing-alongs, it's all there, and it's all awesome. This is easily the best song on this album. Here is a terribly shot video of Strongarm playing it live. I think I used to know the guy in the rasta hat.
15) Payable on Death (P.O.D.) - Coming Back - I guess P.O.D. was Jesus' answer to Rage Against the Machine, only not as good. I could never get into these guys. "He's comin' back! He's comin' back for me and you!" Yikes. Here it is, as featured on their album, which they went ahead and titled Snuff the Punk:
16) Outnumbered - Truth - This basically sounds just like the Blamed song from earlier, before going into a lame-o predictable hardcore direction. Would anybody really have cared if the record had ended with Strongarm? These guys were from Huntington Beach, surprise, surprise, and had connections to a bunch of other bands, which maybe means I should give them a pass, but I just can't.
So, there you have it. Lots of clunkers, but some real gems, too, and isn't that the way compilations go? Am I the only one who remembers Indecision Records' Guilty By Association comp? That thing wasn't Christian, but had some real stinkers on it, too. I do think this comp and the other releases that came out at the time might have led some Christian kids with no ties whatsoever to the hardcore scene to think they knew a thing or two more than they did, but as these kids were likely teenagers anyway, they were bound to think that about something or other, right?
* * * * * * * * *
Stay tuned! Up next in this ongoing walk down Christian hardcore memory lane...Six Feet Deep! Strongarm! Sophomore releases from Spirit Filled Hardcore Heroes Unashamed and Focused! Overcome! Zao! Your requests!
And seriously, the deeper in I get into this rabbit hole, the more bands there are, and the harder it is to get everything straight. Anyone with any idea of a timeline on this stuff is encouraged to get in touch. Anyone who might be able to get me in touch with any surviving members should consider their encouragement doubled.
Monday, September 24, 2012
buc buc buc - T-Bone - Lyrical Assassin
Man, fall is a busy time of year. Which means you'll have to wait a bit on that second installment of the Christian Hardcore magnum opus I'm working on, and also for some of these other characters to squeeze out some time for some posts, but in the meantime, I've got a little treat for you.
It turns out that a good friend of mine loves this blog, despite being, as near as I can tell, neither Christian, nor a connoisseur of 1990s Christian alternative music. I think for her it is more anthropological. This same friend and I were arguing the other day (right after she gave me shit about the lack of regular posts) about which of us had the deeper knowledge of 1990s hip-hop, each demurring to the other's expertise.
And so, Peterson, this one's for you. I maintain that I still have giant holes in my knowledge of 90s hip-hop, but I do know about T-Bone, and even saw him once. I think you were at Cypress Hill that night.
Discussion Questions:
1) How about that crew?! I'm guessing they're from Victory Outreach or some other such place, looking all thugged out and talking about shooting demons.
2) JR2, there's some bright orange pants in the breakin' scenes - didn't you used to own those same ones?
3) The word biggity has fallen out of use. Please discuss, using at least one example from the song.
4) JCTV.
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Learning curves - Christian Hardcore parts I-V.
As always with these histories, there is a risk of errors and omissions. I welcome your comments and corrections.
I.
I have started and restarted this post a few times now, spending countless hours thinking, writing, and researching (listening to old records, watching YouTube videos, etc.).
The challenge is this: I became very active in the hardcore scene in the late 1990s and early 2000s. I played in bands, I put on shows, I volunteered at DIY showspaces and at a collectively-run punk rock record store. Much like my exposure to Christianity (and its concomitant music scene), my involvement in the hardcore scene was an important and formative time in my life, and I came into that scene via the Christian hardcore bands that I was introduced to in the mid-1990s.
So I'm grateful for those bands and their influence, and for opening my eyes to the larger scene (and in this case, the word scene doesn't really do justice to what was going on in the world of hardcore punk - a world that challenged the political order, gender roles, our race and class system, and even diet), but it was that very exposure that cast a light on the limits of the Christian hardcore scene.
Mostly. Or so I thought. Or, the truth is, after all of this writing and thinking and listening, I have no fucking clue.
I was prepared to write a really scathing critique of the Christian hardcore scene and how they got it really wrong in a lot of cases, and while there's room for some of that honesty, I also need to be honest about the fact that, in most cases, they weren't too far off the mark of what their "secular" counterparts were doing. Maybe the problem is that they culled, initially, from a very small pool of influences, and when many later bands visited that pool, the only additions to it had been the early Christian bands themselves. The natural result of this is going to be a recycling of sounds and ideas, but this happens all the time, and is how regional (and other) scenes and sounds develop, and is usually not that terrible of a thing.
II.
And so in sticking with the decision to approach this with a degree of honesty, I might as well acknowledge what the real challenge is. Hardcore punk expanded my worldview tremendously, and while for years I embraced new ideas and ways of thinking, folding them into my ever-developing faith, it was at times a challenge (though I was loathe to admit this to myself at the time).
In the end, challenges to my faith proved to be too much, and then one day, I didn't believe anymore, and realized I hadn't for quite some time. The framework was still there, and I still liked thinking theoretically within it (when Scripture says this, it can be interpreted this social justice-y way), but the faith was gone. I hadn't prayed in some time, or read the Bible, and I didn't feel like either was missing. My faith, my spirituality, my connection (or need of one) to Something Beyond was gone, and has been ever since, and while I respect religious belief in others and feel that there is a wealth of beauty in it, it's something I can't get at. Moreover, I feel absolutely at peace with this.
Of course, hardcore punk music didn't do this to me, and it is likely an end I would have found for myself anyway. In a recent conversation, JH said that I "burned hot and bright," and maybe there was nothing left, so maybe it's no wonder my anxious, ADD personality couldn't sustain that kind of zeal for more than the dozen years that I gave to it.
And it was that very zeal that drew me to hardcore. Who in their late teens or early twenties doesn't appreciate a very strident, cut and dry worldview? I definitely did. Which is how I came to be a straightedge evangelical vegan Christian with anarchist leanings, in no particular order. It looks goofy now, and I'm sure it was to many then, but it obviously made a certain sense to me.
Even as hardcore was diverse and pushing boundaries of what the status quo could be, it did provide a sort of moral framework with which to take on the world, and sometimes that produced some narrow thinking. Despite all contradictions, then, it isn't too hard to see where a bunch of evangelical Christians were able to carve out a place for themselves within this scene.
I was one of these, some years after the Christian hardcore scene had become more established, and in the years since losing my faith I've often reflected on this and other evangelical pursuits I was involved with, mostly wondering why I didn't just leave people alone. This is likely the source of my disdain for much the Christian hardcore scene; ultimately I find that sort of evangelism disrespectful, and I suppose I want to alternately purge it from my memory or castigate myself for it.
Here is why this is silly of me: For starters, our band wasn't even all that evangelical, aside from being a Christian band that sang about our faith. I'm not sure our goal was to save souls, as much as to stake out a space for ourselves. Secondly, in researching old hardcore, I came across this video from 7 Generations, a vegan straightedge band from the early 2000s, including a minute and a half of preaching about veganism, including the emotional appeal and "you don't have to believe me, you can go home and look it up for yourself, find it out for yourself" I came to associate with altar calls as a young teen. Basically, it's as or more obnoxious than anything I remember any Christian hardcore band doing (but don't think I won't highlight the notable exceptions).
So I'm starting over, being nicer, and remembering a really fun time in music, and with the (decidedly non-Christian) Gorilla Biscuits in my ear: Too bad you can't see / all the good things that I see.
III.
Given hardcore punk's long history, it should be a challenge to write about Christian hardcore music while staying within the strict confines of a blog which is bound by blood oath to covering ONLY the years 1990 to 1999.
But it's not.
It's easy, and that's a shame.
In 1993, hardcore, like me, was fifteen years old (The Middle Class and Black Flag both released pioneering EPs in 1978, but Santa Ana's The Middle Class came first), and had a long history, though you'd never know it, listening to Christian music. There were always punk bands, to be sure, but listening to Christian music, excluding the Crucified, it was as if Focused were the first hardcore band.
There was no reference within the Christian scene, musical or otherwise, to the first wave of hardcore typified by bands like Minor Threat, Bad Brains, and the Dead Kennedys, and it was as if the youth crew hardcore of the late 1980s as played by the Gorilla Biscuits, Youth of Today, and Bold had never even happened.
You have the Crucified, mentioned elsewhere and really deserving of some serious coverage of their own at some point. They were a crossover thrash band, which means they had one foot in the metal camp and another in the hardcore punk camp, though I think for a lot of people they were either another metal band that they liked or another punk band that they liked, and so many people missed the connection to hardcore. Fair enough. At a certain point, Adam and I were saying to each other recently, pinpointing a genre gets kind of silly.
But for the sake of argument, let's at least say that the Crucified had ties to hardcore, a la Anthrax, Suicidal Tendencies, Hirax, et al. They were a band until 1993 their first time around, but their final full length, Pillars of Humanity, was released in 1991.
IV.
And then, in 1993, a fledgling Tooth and Nail Records released Bow, the debut from Southern California's Focused.
Let's be fair. When Tooth and Nail burst onto the scene, I was excited. I bought Focused's first record and loved it. But I didn't know the first thing about hardcore. A portable black and white television looks like a miracle to someone stumbling out of the woods, completely unfamiliar with technology, but it's no 3-D Blu-Ray, right? See Plato for more on this phenomenon.
In the band's defense, there was a lot of plodding mid-tempo hardcore being played at that point, and Focused (maybe with a different singer and/or a drummer who could effectively play fast parts) might have been able to hang in there with the likes of Outspoken, Strife, or the rest of the New Age, Conversion, Revelation, or Victory rosters (indeed, if I'm not mistaken, they played shows with many of these bands). Not only that, but next time you're tempted, like i was, to hate on the first Focused record, go back and listen to Chorus of Disapproval. They were stylistically a little different, but from roughly the same era, and kids today still go crazy for that shit, even though it's not very good.
But there was also a lot of interesting hardcore music being created to which the Christian scene was tone-deaf: Kent McClard's Ebullition records was in full swing, releasing emotive hardcore and post-hardcore bands like Fuel, Moss Icon, Julia, and Portraits of Past. Bloodlink was doing similar work on the East Coast (with plenty of overlap). Integrity were just starting to rage, Los Crudos were blazing trails in Chicago, and a million other bands were doing incredibly interesting things within the scope of hardcore.
The early Christian "spirit-filled hardcore" bands seemed more apt to follow in the footsteps of the more straightforward straightedge bands -- bands that, while in many ways awesome, were maybe not as interested in creativity or pushing the boundaries of the genre.
If this is harsh, let it be harsh. There are people who don't know the first thing about hardcore who make the early Christian hardcore bands sound like they were pioneers. They weren't. They were vying to participate in a flourishing scene, to be sure, and in many cases were surprisingly successful (getting on to bills, etc.), and that's great, but to ignore the hard work of their contemporaries and forebears is, at best, a bit short-sighted.
Anyway, here is Focused at their best during this era:
Like a sword / two-sided / the sharpened edge ... but if it's two-sided, aren't both sides sharp?
V.
Next came Unashamed. The guitars were dirtier, shredded harder, the energy was higher, with more of a slowed-down New York hardcore approach (though they, like Focused, were from Southern California). The drumming, though, was the worst thing ever, and pretty much ruins the record, which otherwise might have been pretty great.
Unashamed were, I think, better than Focused, but didn't seem like it at the time because of the awful drumming and poor recording quality. Thankfully, someone had the good idea to tack three live songs on at the end of Silence, their debut album, which showcased some of the band's raw energy. On one of the songs, singer Jeff Jacquay says, "you know, we're not doing this for any other reason than to get the word of God out. It's not about money, it's not about fame, it's about what we found true in our lives and that's Jesus Christ. We don't mean to throw it down your throat, but we're trying to help you because we love you." This was in a song that began with "Nevermind those scientists / with their crooked lies," presumably a reference to evolution or the Big Bang theory or global warming or some other craziness.
It seems that Unashamed's mission was to evangelize, an undertaking that can alternately be viewed as the natural product of youthful zeal or arrogant and disrespectful, depending on the vantage point of the onlooker.
At this point, the Christian hardcore scene remained largely isolated, partially due the (understandably) insular nature of these bands, partially because Tooth and Nail hadn't really yet broken out of the Christian bookstore distribution circuit, and largely because many hardcore kids had suspicions about Christianity. In an interview, Jacquay said "I think that there was an overall acceptance of Tooth and Nail within the hardcore scene," something that's just patently untrue. He goes on to report that "Sure, there were some who dispised [sic] Tooth and Nail but that came from a hated [sic] of all things with ties to any religion. I think Equal Vision was in the same boat. But generally everything was cool."
Equal Vision Records was founded by Youth of Today/Shelter/Better than a Thousand frontman, hardcore god, and Hare Krishna devotee Ray Cappo. Initially the label released solely Krishna hardcore, diversifying their roster in the mid-nineties, and even if they hadn't, there are two major differences from the Tooth and Nail scenario: 1) While many in the hardcore community might have thought Ray Cappo's conversion to Hare Krishna an odd move, they still respected him because he was Ray Cappo. 2) Unlike Christianity, Krishna was kind of an unknown quantity at the time, and as such was often met with less skeptical eyes.
No videos on the YouTubes of Unashamed during this era. Sorry, dudes.
**********
Next up: Helpless Amongst Friends, Strongarm, Six Feet Deep, Overcome, and more
I.
I have started and restarted this post a few times now, spending countless hours thinking, writing, and researching (listening to old records, watching YouTube videos, etc.).
The challenge is this: I became very active in the hardcore scene in the late 1990s and early 2000s. I played in bands, I put on shows, I volunteered at DIY showspaces and at a collectively-run punk rock record store. Much like my exposure to Christianity (and its concomitant music scene), my involvement in the hardcore scene was an important and formative time in my life, and I came into that scene via the Christian hardcore bands that I was introduced to in the mid-1990s.
So I'm grateful for those bands and their influence, and for opening my eyes to the larger scene (and in this case, the word scene doesn't really do justice to what was going on in the world of hardcore punk - a world that challenged the political order, gender roles, our race and class system, and even diet), but it was that very exposure that cast a light on the limits of the Christian hardcore scene.
Mostly. Or so I thought. Or, the truth is, after all of this writing and thinking and listening, I have no fucking clue.
I was prepared to write a really scathing critique of the Christian hardcore scene and how they got it really wrong in a lot of cases, and while there's room for some of that honesty, I also need to be honest about the fact that, in most cases, they weren't too far off the mark of what their "secular" counterparts were doing. Maybe the problem is that they culled, initially, from a very small pool of influences, and when many later bands visited that pool, the only additions to it had been the early Christian bands themselves. The natural result of this is going to be a recycling of sounds and ideas, but this happens all the time, and is how regional (and other) scenes and sounds develop, and is usually not that terrible of a thing.
II.
And so in sticking with the decision to approach this with a degree of honesty, I might as well acknowledge what the real challenge is. Hardcore punk expanded my worldview tremendously, and while for years I embraced new ideas and ways of thinking, folding them into my ever-developing faith, it was at times a challenge (though I was loathe to admit this to myself at the time).
In the end, challenges to my faith proved to be too much, and then one day, I didn't believe anymore, and realized I hadn't for quite some time. The framework was still there, and I still liked thinking theoretically within it (when Scripture says this, it can be interpreted this social justice-y way), but the faith was gone. I hadn't prayed in some time, or read the Bible, and I didn't feel like either was missing. My faith, my spirituality, my connection (or need of one) to Something Beyond was gone, and has been ever since, and while I respect religious belief in others and feel that there is a wealth of beauty in it, it's something I can't get at. Moreover, I feel absolutely at peace with this.
Of course, hardcore punk music didn't do this to me, and it is likely an end I would have found for myself anyway. In a recent conversation, JH said that I "burned hot and bright," and maybe there was nothing left, so maybe it's no wonder my anxious, ADD personality couldn't sustain that kind of zeal for more than the dozen years that I gave to it.
And it was that very zeal that drew me to hardcore. Who in their late teens or early twenties doesn't appreciate a very strident, cut and dry worldview? I definitely did. Which is how I came to be a straightedge evangelical vegan Christian with anarchist leanings, in no particular order. It looks goofy now, and I'm sure it was to many then, but it obviously made a certain sense to me.
Even as hardcore was diverse and pushing boundaries of what the status quo could be, it did provide a sort of moral framework with which to take on the world, and sometimes that produced some narrow thinking. Despite all contradictions, then, it isn't too hard to see where a bunch of evangelical Christians were able to carve out a place for themselves within this scene.
I was one of these, some years after the Christian hardcore scene had become more established, and in the years since losing my faith I've often reflected on this and other evangelical pursuits I was involved with, mostly wondering why I didn't just leave people alone. This is likely the source of my disdain for much the Christian hardcore scene; ultimately I find that sort of evangelism disrespectful, and I suppose I want to alternately purge it from my memory or castigate myself for it.
Here is why this is silly of me: For starters, our band wasn't even all that evangelical, aside from being a Christian band that sang about our faith. I'm not sure our goal was to save souls, as much as to stake out a space for ourselves. Secondly, in researching old hardcore, I came across this video from 7 Generations, a vegan straightedge band from the early 2000s, including a minute and a half of preaching about veganism, including the emotional appeal and "you don't have to believe me, you can go home and look it up for yourself, find it out for yourself" I came to associate with altar calls as a young teen. Basically, it's as or more obnoxious than anything I remember any Christian hardcore band doing (but don't think I won't highlight the notable exceptions).
So I'm starting over, being nicer, and remembering a really fun time in music, and with the (decidedly non-Christian) Gorilla Biscuits in my ear: Too bad you can't see / all the good things that I see.
III.
Given hardcore punk's long history, it should be a challenge to write about Christian hardcore music while staying within the strict confines of a blog which is bound by blood oath to covering ONLY the years 1990 to 1999.
But it's not.
It's easy, and that's a shame.
In 1993, hardcore, like me, was fifteen years old (The Middle Class and Black Flag both released pioneering EPs in 1978, but Santa Ana's The Middle Class came first), and had a long history, though you'd never know it, listening to Christian music. There were always punk bands, to be sure, but listening to Christian music, excluding the Crucified, it was as if Focused were the first hardcore band.
There was no reference within the Christian scene, musical or otherwise, to the first wave of hardcore typified by bands like Minor Threat, Bad Brains, and the Dead Kennedys, and it was as if the youth crew hardcore of the late 1980s as played by the Gorilla Biscuits, Youth of Today, and Bold had never even happened.
You have the Crucified, mentioned elsewhere and really deserving of some serious coverage of their own at some point. They were a crossover thrash band, which means they had one foot in the metal camp and another in the hardcore punk camp, though I think for a lot of people they were either another metal band that they liked or another punk band that they liked, and so many people missed the connection to hardcore. Fair enough. At a certain point, Adam and I were saying to each other recently, pinpointing a genre gets kind of silly.
But for the sake of argument, let's at least say that the Crucified had ties to hardcore, a la Anthrax, Suicidal Tendencies, Hirax, et al. They were a band until 1993 their first time around, but their final full length, Pillars of Humanity, was released in 1991.
IV.
And then, in 1993, a fledgling Tooth and Nail Records released Bow, the debut from Southern California's Focused.
Let's be fair. When Tooth and Nail burst onto the scene, I was excited. I bought Focused's first record and loved it. But I didn't know the first thing about hardcore. A portable black and white television looks like a miracle to someone stumbling out of the woods, completely unfamiliar with technology, but it's no 3-D Blu-Ray, right? See Plato for more on this phenomenon.
In the band's defense, there was a lot of plodding mid-tempo hardcore being played at that point, and Focused (maybe with a different singer and/or a drummer who could effectively play fast parts) might have been able to hang in there with the likes of Outspoken, Strife, or the rest of the New Age, Conversion, Revelation, or Victory rosters (indeed, if I'm not mistaken, they played shows with many of these bands). Not only that, but next time you're tempted, like i was, to hate on the first Focused record, go back and listen to Chorus of Disapproval. They were stylistically a little different, but from roughly the same era, and kids today still go crazy for that shit, even though it's not very good.
But there was also a lot of interesting hardcore music being created to which the Christian scene was tone-deaf: Kent McClard's Ebullition records was in full swing, releasing emotive hardcore and post-hardcore bands like Fuel, Moss Icon, Julia, and Portraits of Past. Bloodlink was doing similar work on the East Coast (with plenty of overlap). Integrity were just starting to rage, Los Crudos were blazing trails in Chicago, and a million other bands were doing incredibly interesting things within the scope of hardcore.
The early Christian "spirit-filled hardcore" bands seemed more apt to follow in the footsteps of the more straightforward straightedge bands -- bands that, while in many ways awesome, were maybe not as interested in creativity or pushing the boundaries of the genre.
If this is harsh, let it be harsh. There are people who don't know the first thing about hardcore who make the early Christian hardcore bands sound like they were pioneers. They weren't. They were vying to participate in a flourishing scene, to be sure, and in many cases were surprisingly successful (getting on to bills, etc.), and that's great, but to ignore the hard work of their contemporaries and forebears is, at best, a bit short-sighted.
Anyway, here is Focused at their best during this era:
Like a sword / two-sided / the sharpened edge ... but if it's two-sided, aren't both sides sharp?
V.
Next came Unashamed. The guitars were dirtier, shredded harder, the energy was higher, with more of a slowed-down New York hardcore approach (though they, like Focused, were from Southern California). The drumming, though, was the worst thing ever, and pretty much ruins the record, which otherwise might have been pretty great.
Unashamed were, I think, better than Focused, but didn't seem like it at the time because of the awful drumming and poor recording quality. Thankfully, someone had the good idea to tack three live songs on at the end of Silence, their debut album, which showcased some of the band's raw energy. On one of the songs, singer Jeff Jacquay says, "you know, we're not doing this for any other reason than to get the word of God out. It's not about money, it's not about fame, it's about what we found true in our lives and that's Jesus Christ. We don't mean to throw it down your throat, but we're trying to help you because we love you." This was in a song that began with "Nevermind those scientists / with their crooked lies," presumably a reference to evolution or the Big Bang theory or global warming or some other craziness.
It seems that Unashamed's mission was to evangelize, an undertaking that can alternately be viewed as the natural product of youthful zeal or arrogant and disrespectful, depending on the vantage point of the onlooker.
At this point, the Christian hardcore scene remained largely isolated, partially due the (understandably) insular nature of these bands, partially because Tooth and Nail hadn't really yet broken out of the Christian bookstore distribution circuit, and largely because many hardcore kids had suspicions about Christianity. In an interview, Jacquay said "I think that there was an overall acceptance of Tooth and Nail within the hardcore scene," something that's just patently untrue. He goes on to report that "Sure, there were some who dispised [sic] Tooth and Nail but that came from a hated [sic] of all things with ties to any religion. I think Equal Vision was in the same boat. But generally everything was cool."
Equal Vision Records was founded by Youth of Today/Shelter/Better than a Thousand frontman, hardcore god, and Hare Krishna devotee Ray Cappo. Initially the label released solely Krishna hardcore, diversifying their roster in the mid-nineties, and even if they hadn't, there are two major differences from the Tooth and Nail scenario: 1) While many in the hardcore community might have thought Ray Cappo's conversion to Hare Krishna an odd move, they still respected him because he was Ray Cappo. 2) Unlike Christianity, Krishna was kind of an unknown quantity at the time, and as such was often met with less skeptical eyes.
No videos on the YouTubes of Unashamed during this era. Sorry, dudes.
**********
Next up: Helpless Amongst Friends, Strongarm, Six Feet Deep, Overcome, and more
Saturday, August 18, 2012
Boot to Head Records Ad, circa 1998 or so featuring VERANDERUNG.
Thanks to Kyle for sending this over. Lots of good stuff here. I suppose Boot to Head would fall under the category of SubSubSub, inasmuch as they were putting out obscure hardcore and punk records in a Christian market in relative obscurity (as compared to Tooth and Nail, for example). I was surprised to learn that, at least according to the website, they're still "keeping on."
I had all but the Shorthanded record, once upon a time, but the real gem here, as far as I'm concerned, is Veranderung (German for "change"). How many Christian crustcore bands can you name? How many times do you think Christian bands have ever been compared to the mighty Los Crudos? Who ever thought the word Assuck would make it into an ad for a Christian record? The hardcore scene of the nineties was diverse, but you wouldn't necessarily know it listening to Christian bands (the topic of a long-form piece I'm working on for this very blog) which is why this record was so refreshing.
Veranderung was pretty much Jim from Clay playing short brutal songs that I think he maybe recorded as a solo studio project, later adding a live band. Maybe I'm biased because I hung out with Jim a bunch one year at Cornerstone and he and I were pen pals for a time, but this record is still in my collection so many years later, and at this point, that's really saying something.
Look for more on Blaster and Ceasefire at a later date, and maybe Boot to Head while we're at it, but in the meantime, keep these scans coming! Oh, and you can listen to a track from the Veranderung 7" here. If anybody's got a link to the whole record, please say so in the comments section below.
Sunday, August 12, 2012
Genesis
I had always liked music. From as early as I can remember I would go to sleep listening to the radio. When I was very young, it was a small silver AM/FM radio that I would keep next to my bed. I can still vividly remember how the chorus for Goodbye Yellow Brick Road would give me goosebumps (it still does). Music affected me, it comforted me.
I didn't grow up in a religious home. Non-practicing Catholics probably summarizes it best. I was confirmed, went through Catechism, but that was the extent of my religious upbringing. I'm sure it helped develop some sort of ethics for me, but honestly, all I remember is watching a few film strips and sitting in the back of the class, trying to get pencils to stick in the ceiling.
In high school I met a pastor's kid. We hit it off, he invited me to church. At first, I felt out of place at church. Not because of any of the people there, but just because the whole act of "church" was so foreign to me. I slowly felt more relaxed, but I was doing this all without the comfort of my parents being by my side. I was always a little nervous. Even as my comfort grew, and even as I started to enjoy my time at the church, I still felt like I stuck out like a sore thumb. At the time I was really into metal. Metallica, Megadeth, Sepultura... I definitely had found a genre that I grabbed on to. I figured my new friends would eventually have a little talk with me about my musical choices but that never happened. Instead, I was introduced to new music I was never aware of.
It started with the Christian metal bands. Living Sacrifice's first album had just come out. I was floored. I was never really a big Slayer guy, but that self-titled album was a better version of anything I had heard from Slayer. It was great. I wanted more. Then it was Mortification, then it was Believer (still a favorite to this day). The metal bands slowly gave way to other bands in the Christian scene. Then Tooth & Nail showed up and helped usher me towards shoegazer and indie rock.
The 90's was a golden age in both the Christian music scene and the secular one. And while no one was coaxing me to stick with the Christian bands, it's where I focused a sizable amount of attention. The easy explanation was because of the people I was hanging out with, but I think it was more than that. The Christian scene was dealing with real issues and real emotions. It wasn't all sunshine and rainbows. Looking back, some of those bands were actually pretty bleak. For a brooding teen, what more could you ask for? You were given the emotional struggle we all felt at that age, but sprinkled with hope and purpose.
The morning I first talked to DL about possibly starting something chronicling our musical choices as teens, it was born out of a sense of nostalgia. But the more I thought about it since, there really was a wealth of great music from that era that largely went unnoticed simply because it was Christian. Most of the people that will stumble across this blog will probably do so out of the same nostalgic feelings, but maybe there will be those music loving souls that will have their eyes opened to a scene that silently passed them by.
Personally knowing the guys involved in this project, I can comfortably say that we were serious about music. Age and life slowly shift priorities and the passion with which we once searched for new music has waned but that doesn't diminish the impact music had on us. So we plan on giving you a cliff notes version -- a best of, if you will. You'll recognize some, but I have a feeling we'll surprise you with some of the gems we unearth from our personal collections (we listened to some weird crap).
I mean... just wait until Adam and I start talking about Saviour Machine...
Thursday, August 9, 2012
"Call the Fire Department!" - The Unusual Genius of Breakfast with Amy
Blonde Vinyl Records was a revelation to me as a young teen. There were plenty of Christian record labels with which I was familiar, some even with alternative imprints, but Blonde Vinyl seemed the zaniest and the furthest afield. This is likely because it was run by the incredibly creative, prolific, and beautifully misanthropic Michael Knott. More on him at a later date.
After three short years, Blonde Vinyl had to shut its doors forever in 1993, which many have speculated was the fault not of the label but of shaky distribution deals in the Christian bookstore circuit. A sophomore in high school, I remember being fairly saddened by this news, even going so far as to try to explain to my friends (to no avail) the importance of this record label. I would miss that zaniness and irreverence.
Perhaps no band demonstrated these qualities more than Breakfast with Amy. There were elements of surf rock, some Violent Femmes worship, psychedelia of all sorts (some songs incorporating a sitar and sounding like some of that weirdo British folk), 70's glam androgyny, some weirdness that reminded my wife of Iggy Pop, other songs that sounded very much like contemporaries Jane's Addiction, and a whole lot of samples, snoring, and other sounds that played right into my love of all things Monty Python. Oh, and some Sonic Youth.
Sadly I don't have any of their records anymore. How does that happen? YouTube only has a small sampling, but it's enough to give you an idea. For a band that always seemed content to exist on the fringes, Breakfast with Amy also enjoys a colorful but tiny presence on the edges of the internet.
I never did find out what their name meant, and this is a band that maybe wouldn't make it back into regular heavy rotation even if I could find all of their old records, but I'll always appreciate them for embracing the bizarre, for championing a creative spirit that asked, whether anyone was listening or not, "why can't it be like this?"
_____________________________________________________
Chris Colbert from Breakfast with Amy on someone else's website talking about the band, dadaism, and subsequent projects.
Here is "Mermelstein and the Disappearing Sink." Again, no idea what the title means, but I love all of the stilted Christian social jargon, and the music reminds me of Circus Lupus or Nation of Ulysses, two DC bands playing at roughly the same time:
But then there's this, "Fashion Gal" from 1991's Tuck in Your Love Gift (I think I know what that means, but I wish I didn't). There are elements of Nirvana here, I don't care what anybody says:
If you can find a song from the Vonnegut-titled Everything Was Beautiful And Nothing Hurt that still endures, please post the link below in the comments. I couldn't. - DL
* It should be noted that Breakfast with Amy were a band about which one could write volumes. The above is not intended to be anything more than a remembrance by way of surface exploration, and/or an introduction. Thank you for your understanding.
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Crowdsourcing
We're putting out the call. If you have any old catalogs or advertisements, particularly those that contain "recommended if you like" (RIYL) suggestions based on "secular" counterparts, we'd love to have those scans come our way. They'll help make this blog more awesome, and specifically aid a crazy giant project we're working on. Thanks!
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
My formative relationship with "christian music" Part 2
Looking back, the exposure to alternative, independent music, via christian alternative, independent music was the most defining season of my adolescent life. My experiences in that sub-subculture helped shape my worldview, values and ethics.
I had already done a musical one-eighty towards pop music upon entering junior high, now, having discovered alternative christian music, I did another one-eighty, and concluded that, because of the sheer number of christian bands, I could easily be musically satisfied exclusively by that subculture. I don't remember whether my youth pastor explicitly blessed or condemned christian rock music, and I don't remember feeling any pressure not to listen to "secular music" from my parents, but I've always felt confident to make my own decisions anyway.
In 1993, Tooth & Nail Records appeared and started putting out records from the southern California, and later, Seattle christian music scenes and the sounds of heavenly hardcore and distortion reached my ears and my christian bookstore's shelves. As their catalog quickly expanded, many of their CDs came with a fold-out merch catalog which included thumbnail images of all their current releases with tag lines like, if you like Smashing Pumpkins or Helmet, you'll like this Tooth & Nail band. For me, and I think, for many thousands of evangelical-raised kids around the U.S., Tooth & Nail Records was the gateway drug for secular music. In the fall of 1993, I started high school, 10th grade. This was another transformative year for me: I started listening to secular music again.
My high school years were, generally, full of positive experiences. Many of them were related to music: listening to it, buying it, endlessly discussing it, frequently going to see bands live (many times in nearby cities or states), helping set up local shows, playing in short-lived punk bands. Two and a half junior high schools fed my high school, so my sophomore year was really a new beginning for me. There were many like-minded kids who were also into alternative music. The problem was, almost none of them knew about all the cool christian bands I'd been listening to for the past year and a half. I'd say, "You haven't heard of Mortal?!" And they'd say, "You haven't heard of Ministry?!" I'd say, "You haven't heard of LSU ?!" And they'd say, "You haven't heard of All?!" I came into high school and soon realized I was really quite (punk, metal, alternative) musically preliterate. I made friends who were in punk bands. It was great. I bought a crappy car from my great aunt and started going to local shows at small all-ages venues in the Fox Cities. Shows set up and run by 16 year old kids. Looking back, I was extremely fortunate to have such an active music scene in my relatively small hometown.
For awhile, I was living in two mutually exclusive musical worlds: christian music, with all my youth group friends, and just...music, with my high school friends. I don't know how long the distinction between music and christian music stayed in my brain. I remember that in the alternative christian scene there was quite a debate raging about the difference or lack of difference between a christian band, and christians in a band. It's a subtle point, and a ridiculous point to the uninitiated, but it was a real struggle for even the emerging alternative christian music community. I guess at some point during that school year, it really didn't matter to me any more. Luxury was awesome. Nirvana was awesome. Roadside Monument and Jawbox both blew my mind when I saw them live for the first time in 1994. Good music was just good music. Good art was just good art. I continued and continue to appreciate good music, whether made by people who publicly identify themselves as christians through interviews or lyrics, or not. It really isn't something I consider when listening or seeing a band live. But that was a big mental shift for me when I was 16.
What the whole gamut of the explosion of ideas that was the alternative music scene of the early 90s taught me was that music was a community. It was a pre-internet, do-it-yourself world where anyone, even you, a 16 year old kid, if you had the will, could get a couple bands together, rent a space, find a sound guy with a PA, cut and paste together a flyer, stick it up all over town and hand it out at school, and gosh darn it, if 150 local teenagers didn't show up at the VFW on a Friday night. Local, punk, DIY music. What a great alternative to drugs, drinking and trouble making. That's what it was for me anyway. I had grown up hearing Just Say No at school, at home, and especially at church. I was able to do that because, firstly, I really wasn't that interested (primarily because I saw it as a waste of money and it was illegal, for my age), but more so because I was involved in a musical community for whom that wasn't a high value. It wasn't the christian music scene, or even straight edge ideals that kept me off that path. It was the community. I'm not saying that kids in my local music scene or national christian music scene didn't use drugs, of course they did, but they were both subcultures that valued the art and the community around the art far greater than any high. Creating and experiencing new music, that was the real high. Music is transcendent, that's a given. It taps into something we can't articulate. It's primal. It's physical. It's natural and real. It is truly one of the few things that brings people, of all types, together. That was and still is the attraction for me.
**************************************
Some of the alternative christian music from the 90s still holds up for me. Some of it doesn't. There were christians who just made great music. Period. And there were plenty who didn't. There's much more to say, and I'm sure the contributors to the blog will be exploring it all.
I had already done a musical one-eighty towards pop music upon entering junior high, now, having discovered alternative christian music, I did another one-eighty, and concluded that, because of the sheer number of christian bands, I could easily be musically satisfied exclusively by that subculture. I don't remember whether my youth pastor explicitly blessed or condemned christian rock music, and I don't remember feeling any pressure not to listen to "secular music" from my parents, but I've always felt confident to make my own decisions anyway.
In 1993, Tooth & Nail Records appeared and started putting out records from the southern California, and later, Seattle christian music scenes and the sounds of heavenly hardcore and distortion reached my ears and my christian bookstore's shelves. As their catalog quickly expanded, many of their CDs came with a fold-out merch catalog which included thumbnail images of all their current releases with tag lines like, if you like Smashing Pumpkins or Helmet, you'll like this Tooth & Nail band. For me, and I think, for many thousands of evangelical-raised kids around the U.S., Tooth & Nail Records was the gateway drug for secular music. In the fall of 1993, I started high school, 10th grade. This was another transformative year for me: I started listening to secular music again.
My high school years were, generally, full of positive experiences. Many of them were related to music: listening to it, buying it, endlessly discussing it, frequently going to see bands live (many times in nearby cities or states), helping set up local shows, playing in short-lived punk bands. Two and a half junior high schools fed my high school, so my sophomore year was really a new beginning for me. There were many like-minded kids who were also into alternative music. The problem was, almost none of them knew about all the cool christian bands I'd been listening to for the past year and a half. I'd say, "You haven't heard of Mortal?!" And they'd say, "You haven't heard of Ministry?!" I'd say, "You haven't heard of LSU ?!" And they'd say, "You haven't heard of All?!" I came into high school and soon realized I was really quite (punk, metal, alternative) musically preliterate. I made friends who were in punk bands. It was great. I bought a crappy car from my great aunt and started going to local shows at small all-ages venues in the Fox Cities. Shows set up and run by 16 year old kids. Looking back, I was extremely fortunate to have such an active music scene in my relatively small hometown.
For awhile, I was living in two mutually exclusive musical worlds: christian music, with all my youth group friends, and just...music, with my high school friends. I don't know how long the distinction between music and christian music stayed in my brain. I remember that in the alternative christian scene there was quite a debate raging about the difference or lack of difference between a christian band, and christians in a band. It's a subtle point, and a ridiculous point to the uninitiated, but it was a real struggle for even the emerging alternative christian music community. I guess at some point during that school year, it really didn't matter to me any more. Luxury was awesome. Nirvana was awesome. Roadside Monument and Jawbox both blew my mind when I saw them live for the first time in 1994. Good music was just good music. Good art was just good art. I continued and continue to appreciate good music, whether made by people who publicly identify themselves as christians through interviews or lyrics, or not. It really isn't something I consider when listening or seeing a band live. But that was a big mental shift for me when I was 16.
What the whole gamut of the explosion of ideas that was the alternative music scene of the early 90s taught me was that music was a community. It was a pre-internet, do-it-yourself world where anyone, even you, a 16 year old kid, if you had the will, could get a couple bands together, rent a space, find a sound guy with a PA, cut and paste together a flyer, stick it up all over town and hand it out at school, and gosh darn it, if 150 local teenagers didn't show up at the VFW on a Friday night. Local, punk, DIY music. What a great alternative to drugs, drinking and trouble making. That's what it was for me anyway. I had grown up hearing Just Say No at school, at home, and especially at church. I was able to do that because, firstly, I really wasn't that interested (primarily because I saw it as a waste of money and it was illegal, for my age), but more so because I was involved in a musical community for whom that wasn't a high value. It wasn't the christian music scene, or even straight edge ideals that kept me off that path. It was the community. I'm not saying that kids in my local music scene or national christian music scene didn't use drugs, of course they did, but they were both subcultures that valued the art and the community around the art far greater than any high. Creating and experiencing new music, that was the real high. Music is transcendent, that's a given. It taps into something we can't articulate. It's primal. It's physical. It's natural and real. It is truly one of the few things that brings people, of all types, together. That was and still is the attraction for me.
**************************************
Some of the alternative christian music from the 90s still holds up for me. Some of it doesn't. There were christians who just made great music. Period. And there were plenty who didn't. There's much more to say, and I'm sure the contributors to the blog will be exploring it all.
My formative relationship with "christian music" Part 1
In 1994, when I was 15, I remember telling my friend, while we were listening to Weezer's first record, "I don't think I'll spend any money on secular music when there's so much good christian music out there." This was probably the apex of my narrow thinking about and loyalty to christian music. I changed my mind that very summer when I discovered the burgeoning post-hardcore and emo bands/genres. More on this another time.
Growing up, I was exposed to basically three types of music at home: children's music, church music/popular christian music, and 'the oldies'. If you had talked to me when I was 11, I knew every word and note of The Beach Boys Endless Summer record, but not a single The Police song; sung happily along with The Imperials Sail On while washing dishes with my brother and sister, but only knew one Michael Jackson song (Beat It); was familiar with just about every single song from Disney animated movies, but had never even heard of U2.
My first independent foray into christian rock was in 1990. I was 12, almost 13. I rode my bike over to my local christianconvenience store bookstore and bought, with my own money, my first christian rock tape. I cannot remember the band or record, although I can still see the cover image in my mind: two men, twins or maybe brothers, in their late 30s, long permed brown hair with big bangs, wearing loose black tank tops revealing plenty of chest hair, one holding a guitar, the other a bass. It was a holdover of 80s hair-metal. The music was mediocre at best. I can't remember a single song today, although maybe if I heard them again, it'd feel familiar, comfortable, laughable.
I started 7th grade, junior high, in 1990 and like most kids, was trying to find my place; acceptance into a group or clique was paramount and the phrase 'peer pressure' was an understatement. This was a pre-internet world, and the fads of my locality were king. Very quickly, I abandoned listening to christian music, other than at church and youth group, and jumped on the popular culture bandwagon. Wearing headphones in bed, I listened to Casey Kasem's top 40 countdown on Sunday nights, staying up too late, feeling bleary on Monday morning. I started buying pop rap; Young MC, MC Hammer, Marky Mark & The Funky Bunch, enjoying everything from love ballads, like Extreme's More than Words, to a crazy mix of rock bands like Spin Doctors and Scorpions--whatever the radio offered. I got my first drum set in 1991, and learned the basics of coordinating my limbs by drumming along to these songs in my basement, wearing headphones listening to mix tapes. I stayed on the pop music wagon until 1992.
In the summer of 1992 I was 14, and via church youth group friends, was introduced to two bands that simultaneously shattered and expanded my musical understanding and palate: Mortal, and The Crucified. I also heard whispers about a glorious music festival called Cornerstone, where I could see these bands play live. I instantly felt a connection to the music, the style, even the ethos. I couldn't get enough of this harder-sounding music. And they were christians! It was a double win: good music, good message. They weren't singing about chasing girls, but about chasing God (whatever that meant). Even if my parents disliked the music, they could read the lyrics and give their blessing, which, thankfully, they did. Almost overnight, I stopped shopping at the mall, and started shopping at my local thrift stores. I quit my cross-country running team mid-season and bought a skateboard. I turned off the radio. I started buying lots of christian alternative/punk/industrial/goth music with money I'd earned from babysitting and copied friends' tapes. The following summer I attended my first show and made my first pilgrimage to Cornerstone music festival. I had begun a lifelong journey.
Looking back, the exposure to alternative, independent music, via christian alternative, independent music was the most defining season of my adolescent life. My experiences in that sub-subculture helped shape my worldview, values and ethics.
Stay tuned for Part 2.
Growing up, I was exposed to basically three types of music at home: children's music, church music/popular christian music, and 'the oldies'. If you had talked to me when I was 11, I knew every word and note of The Beach Boys Endless Summer record, but not a single The Police song; sung happily along with The Imperials Sail On while washing dishes with my brother and sister, but only knew one Michael Jackson song (Beat It); was familiar with just about every single song from Disney animated movies, but had never even heard of U2.
My first independent foray into christian rock was in 1990. I was 12, almost 13. I rode my bike over to my local christian
I started 7th grade, junior high, in 1990 and like most kids, was trying to find my place; acceptance into a group or clique was paramount and the phrase 'peer pressure' was an understatement. This was a pre-internet world, and the fads of my locality were king. Very quickly, I abandoned listening to christian music, other than at church and youth group, and jumped on the popular culture bandwagon. Wearing headphones in bed, I listened to Casey Kasem's top 40 countdown on Sunday nights, staying up too late, feeling bleary on Monday morning. I started buying pop rap; Young MC, MC Hammer, Marky Mark & The Funky Bunch, enjoying everything from love ballads, like Extreme's More than Words, to a crazy mix of rock bands like Spin Doctors and Scorpions--whatever the radio offered. I got my first drum set in 1991, and learned the basics of coordinating my limbs by drumming along to these songs in my basement, wearing headphones listening to mix tapes. I stayed on the pop music wagon until 1992.
In the summer of 1992 I was 14, and via church youth group friends, was introduced to two bands that simultaneously shattered and expanded my musical understanding and palate: Mortal, and The Crucified. I also heard whispers about a glorious music festival called Cornerstone, where I could see these bands play live. I instantly felt a connection to the music, the style, even the ethos. I couldn't get enough of this harder-sounding music. And they were christians! It was a double win: good music, good message. They weren't singing about chasing girls, but about chasing God (whatever that meant). Even if my parents disliked the music, they could read the lyrics and give their blessing, which, thankfully, they did. Almost overnight, I stopped shopping at the mall, and started shopping at my local thrift stores. I quit my cross-country running team mid-season and bought a skateboard. I turned off the radio. I started buying lots of christian alternative/punk/industrial/goth music with money I'd earned from babysitting and copied friends' tapes. The following summer I attended my first show and made my first pilgrimage to Cornerstone music festival. I had begun a lifelong journey.
Looking back, the exposure to alternative, independent music, via christian alternative, independent music was the most defining season of my adolescent life. My experiences in that sub-subculture helped shape my worldview, values and ethics.
Stay tuned for Part 2.
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