Inside Out - "Undertone" live at City Gardens, Trenton, NJ 1990

Riot on the Dancefloor

Greetings all.

Just wanted to let you know that we launched the official website for the upcoming film "Riot on the Dancefloor: The Life and Times of Randy Now and City Gardens".

Thanks for taking the time to check it out. If you are interested in being involved in this project, feel free to contact me. - Steven DiLodovic

www.citygardensfilm.com

Merry XXX-Mas from DCXX

SANTA CLAUS: The Man, The Myth, The Slam Dancer.

Robb Nunzio - Antidote

Nunzio with Antidote at the Gallery East Reunion Show 8/29/10, Photo: Return To The Pit

Antidote guitarist Nunzio delivers some NYHC history to us and gives the inside scoop on the origins of the legendary ANTIDOTE. Much thanks to him, and plenty more to come. Be sure to make it out to Antidote's show with DYS at Bowery Electric, in NYC on January 2nd! -Gordo DCXX

I grew up in Hell`s Kitchen NY across the street from the old MSGarden on 50th St. and 9th Ave. My earliest musical influences were the Beatles / Jackson 5 / 3 Dog Night/ The Who`s Tommy/ Elvis Presley / and Snoopy and his friends the Royal Guardsmen was an early favorite when I was a kid. I read Archie comics, collected Hot Wheels cars and went to Yankee and Rangers games with my Uncle. Then as a preteen, I ran wild in the streets of the westside and created havoc with my friends like most born and bred city kids wind up doing.

I started getting in trouble and my grandma fell ill so we moved over the bridge to Queens. That's when I got bored and picked up the guitar at around 14. My musical tastes also broadened as I was listening to Kiss / ACDC/ Black Sabbath etc. Then I found the Ramones Rocket To Russia and the first Clash album and Never Mind The Bollocks and started teaching myself those songs on the guitar. Getting heavily into early punk shaped my adult life from that point on. And it is still some of my favorite music to this day. What better way was there at the time for bored / confused and growing teens to express themselves in those days?



Before I started Antidote, I had started several bands after graduating high school. Those bands were formed with friends from Jackson Heights mainly. The Lust Scabs and Vas Deferens were the 2 bands I did where I started to try out the early songs I had written. After those bands I had a better idea of what a group should consist of and I wanted to form a more professional type of group that could play in the New York club scene which at that time was Max's Kansas City, CBGB, Hurrah, the Mudd Club, Danceteria, Irving Plaza and the Peppermint Lounge. Remember, this was BEFORE the NY Hardcore scene happened.

Antidote was formed after I had met the guys in the Bad Brains. I saw them open for the Clash at Bonds and knew that I had to meet them. One of the guys in Vas Deferens lived downtown and knew they rehearsed at 171 A on Avenue A. So I went down there and booked us a block of rehearsal time. The guy who ran the place was Jerry Williams, and we got along well enough so that he let me hang around the place while he was recording their infamous ROIR cassette. So I got to know H.R. and Dr. Know as friends and they kind of took me under their wing so to speak.

They were playing at Trudy Heller's on 6th Ave. one weekend, and they invited us to get onstage after they played and do some songs, and that's what we did. Tommy Victor was in the audience and approached me after the show with some feedback. I liked what he was saying and my girlfriend at the time who played bass for a group named Neon Leon knew him and told me he was a very talented dude. I wound up sharing an apartment with him on First Avenue and 1st Street and we immersed ourselves in music.


Original Antidote lineup at CBGB, NYC, Photo courtesy of: Nunzio

Tom taught me a lot of shit and knew everyone on the downtown music scene because he was in a few bands. Arthur Googy was a good friend of mine from Jackson Hgts. Him and I and a couple other people were the only 'punks' in the hood at that time and he was having time off from the Misfits, so I got him to play with me and Tom and that was the earliest lineup of Antidote.

The songs we played then were a mixture of hardcore, punk, and British Oi type shit and some Ska thrown in. We did songs that I wrote and songs that Tom wrote and a couple of collabarations. When Tom split the band and Googy and I moved on and got another bass player, I wrote a whole new batch of songs strictly in the hardcore vein. I was listening to mostly HC shit like Black Flag, the Circle Jerks, Fear, the Descendants, Minor Threat and lots of British shit like GBH and the Business, the 4 Skins and any kickass Oi shit.

But my old Punk and early Metal influences like Sabbath and KISS were still inside my head so that's why Thou Shalt Not Kill sounds the way it sounds...

Double Cross future project fund raiser

Gordo and I have been talking about some future projects here at Double Cross and I thought if selling off a few of my extra records could help fund the projects, I might as well do it. Both of these records are up on eBay right now and the auctions end 12/23/2010. Check them out if you're interested, thanks. -Tim DCXX

Double Cross eBay Auctions

Mouthpiece - 1st 7" Middlesex cover
I originally created and printed a small handful of these covers for a Mouthpiece show at Middlesex County College sometime around 1992. The idea was to create a limited cover to help sell the remaining copies that we had left over of our first 7".



After all these years, I've managed to hold on to the original paste-up artwork and just recently printed up 6 more covers. 1 of these re-printed covers went to a long time friend of the band that desperately wanted one for his collection. The other 5 copies went into my own collection and I used them for some extra copies of the 2nd pressing that I still had.

What you have here is one of those 2nd pressing out of my personal collection, with the limited re-printed Middlesex cover. I have no reason to own all 6 copies, so I thought I'd put one up on eBay for any collectors that might be interested.



Hands Tied - 1998 Euro tour limited PX cover pressing
For our 1998 European tour, we had 300 orange vinyl 7"s pressed and I created and printed these limited edition Project X style covers to go with them.

I held on to the last 4 copies (#297-300) of this Euro tour orange vinyl pressing and just recently dug up the original paste-up layouts and printed 4 more covers to go along with my personal copies. I stamped all 4 of my personal copies with a Double Cross stamp, to differentiate these re-printed covers from the originals (the originals were printed on an off-white paper, these are just white).

Again, I have no reason to own all 4 copies, so I'm putting one up on eBay for any collectors that might be interested.

Frontier Records poll wrap up with Lisa Fancher

Our buddy Ben Merlis got Lisa Fancher of Frontier Records fame to deliver her answers to the Frontier Records poll. Big thanks to both of them! -Gordo DCXX

I guess it shouldn't be a big surprise that Suicidal Tendencies won the Double Cross poll since it is a classic LP and definitely the most well-known Frontier Records release. But I don't really consider it one of the early ones myself, that period to me was 1980 to 1982 before diverging with Choir Invisible, Christian Death or the Salvation Army. Picking a favorite of those four would be impossible for me but Frontier probably wouldn't have continued if I didn't release "Group Sex."



The first release -- Flyboys -- didn't sell well enough for me to recoup the funds, but the Circle Jerks was something of a local blockbuster.

The Adolescents "Blue" album followed close on its heels in the first half 1981. We recorded TSOL and China White in the same week in summer in the same studio in Manhattan Beach. Both releases concluded 1981... Suicidal was released in mid-1983 when I finally came to terms that I was going to run a record label for a living!



I can't tell you how proud I am that people still love these four records after all these years. - Lisa Fancher

Suicidal Tendencies - Suicidal Tendencies - 163
Circle Jerks - Group Sex - 123
Adolescents - Adolescents - 95
T.S.O.L. - Dance With Me - 22

DYS goes City To City

Citizens Arrest live at the Knitting Factory, NYC, 12/17/2010

Sue Cosby's basement finds

Sick Of It All at CBGB, NYC, Photo courtesy of: Sue Cosby

Inward Monitor Fanzine co-editor, Sue Cosby, did a little digging through some twenty plus year old boxes in her basement and uncovered these gems. I thought it would make for a nice little DCXX entry, so I asked Sue if I could share them here, which she gladly obliged. Big thanks to Sue and I hope you enjoy these. -Tim DCXX


Absolution at CBGB, NYC, Photo courtesy of: Sue Cosby


Turning Point set list circa 1988


A freshly inked Adam Thompson from Device, Photo courtesy of: Sue Cosby


H.R. and the Bad Brains at City Gardens, Trenton, NJ, Photo courtesy of: Sue Cosby




Bear, Steve and Rich from Insted on tour, hanging with some East Coast locals, Photo courtesy of: Sue Cosby


Jon Inward Monitor, Steve Insted and Billy get some gas, Photo courtesy of: Sue Cosby




Kevinsted faces the CB's crowd, Photo courtesy of: Sue Cosby


Billy and Steve Insted, hangin' tough, Photo courtesy of: Sue Cosby

Some early Mouthpiece flyers

New Cro-Mags / Harley's War track

Harley Flanagan posted this new Cro-Mags / Harley's War track on his Facebook page and said he'll be releasing something new in 2011. Pretty solid track, thought I'd share it. -Tim DCXX

Negative Approach poll wrap up

The plan was to have "Why Be Something That You're Not" Detroit Hardcore book editor, Tony Rettman, wrap up this Negative Approach poll, but Tony's knee deep in multiple projects right now and didn't want to keep us waiting any longer, so I'll take a stab at it.

As you can see, "Tied Down" took the crown, but only by a mere 14 votes. I know plenty of people that are extreme in their opinions about these two releases, but personally I think both are flawless in their own way.



The 7" is a perfect example of raw, no frills, grab-you-by-the-throat-hardcore. Had I never heard "Tied Down", and only heard the 7", I'd think that there was no way Negative Approach could out do themselves. I mean, let's face it, "Ready To Fight" might be one of the greatest hardcore songs ever written… period.

Then you hear "Tied Down" and you realize, the unthinkable has been done. Negative Approach took that same grab you by the throat sound, gave it an ever so slight polish and delivered what could very well be one of the heaviest hardcore albums of all time.



I can still remember sitting on my bedroom floor, spinning the "Tied Down" vinyl for the first time and hearing the track, "Evacuate" and wondering how a human being could even sound like that. This may sound ridiculous, but while listening to this album, I felt invincible. I felt like I could stomp holes in my concrete basement floor, break my head through walls and tell every wannabe bad ass, dusted out, metal head that I went to Jr. High with that they had no idea what "heavy" music really was. You know the metal head that thought he was totally bitchin' with his "Bonded By Blood" Exodus shirt? Well that shit was pure panty waste in the wake of "Tied Down" or anything Negative Approach ever did.

So yeah, I've got nothing but love for the Negative Approach 7", but "Tied Down" ultimately is the release that brought it all home for me. Every song demolishes, and almost 30 years later, it's still one of the greatest hardcore albums ever made. - Tim DCXX

Negative Approach - "Tied Down" - 164
Negative Approach - 7" - 150

Youth Of Today in Brazil, 12/5/2010

People will say what they're going to say about Youth Of Today and their reunions, but one thing I'm going to say is, man… I wish I was there for this one. Look at this crowd and look at that energy, people are having the time of their lives.

Thanks to Iran from Brazil for sending me the link to this video. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we get at least one more dose of this in the US. Take A Stand 2010... -Tim DCXX

Supertouch "Lost My Way" 7" pre-orders available now

www.reaper-records.com

Youth Of Today covering "Minor Threat" in Buenos Aires, Argentina 12/4/2010

Gorilla Biscuits in the Nickel City

Gorilla Biscuits at the Pipe Dragon, Buffalo NY, Spring 88, Photo: Geoffrey Nicholson


Stage dives make this dude feel more alive, Photo: Geoffrey Nicholson


Civ, Walter and Alex with GB doing it Buffalo style, Photo: Geoffrey Nicholson

Eerie Von limited-edition prints at Generation Records

In true holiday season form, the legacy of Lodi, New Jersey is the gift that keeps on giving! As the final act of Misery Obscura, Eerie Von’s highly-acclaimed retrospective photography collective, Generation Records and Von again team up to release a series of limited-edition photographic prints.

Approved by Von himself, each image is available in a strictly limited, numbered and signed edition. From the live set and basement to the studio and fast food joints, this final series of images truly captures the legend of both the music itself and the personalities behind it.

These fine-art prints will be sold on a first-come, first-serve basis so be one of the few with a piece of punk and hard rock history with these limited-edition prints.

To buy prints, please go to Generation's online store they are available now.
www.generationrecords.com

Jon Field memories

The Gilman St. San Francisco trip, left to right: Jay Weller, Chris Daily and Jon Field, Photo courtesy of: Jon

Jon Field has been a fixture of the east coast hardcore scene for the past 25 years and came up in the mid 80s while seeing shows all over the northeast and playing guitar in Up Front. Tim and I had been meaning to get him on DCXX for a while, and after a night in his hometown of Richmond while shooting the shit over dinner, it really hit us that Jon not only saw tons of awesome stuff and still loves hardcore, but he actually has a great memory for it too. It's always a bummer when you talk to someone who saw awesome bands play over the years, but they have zero recollection of anything substantial.

So, enjoy Jon's memories and the visuals to go along with them. Much more soon, thanks Jon. -Gordo DCXX



What was the best show you ever saw at CB's? Any stand out stories that are still vivid 25 years later?

My main memories of CB's are related to the club itself: The broken floorboards in the pit with 100 year old nails sticking up; carrying my birth certificate so I could prove to Hilly's wife I was 16; the bathroom with one toilet that you had to step up to, with no stall, so that people coming down the stairs could see you taking a shit; the AMAZING sound system, that to this day I can pick out in any live recording from the club; hanging out on the street while the homeless men upstairs heckled us and threw things at us; that feeling I got every time I went of good music, Sunday afternoons, excitement, camaraderie, danger and friends, that still comes back to me whenever I see a video; how the walls literally oozed sweat, cigarette smoke, graffiti and old flyers.

As for shows, a lot are a blur, but a good amount really stand out to me. I'll go with the first three that pop into my head...

The first was when I saw Straight Ahead at the Band Together show in July of '86. My friend Mike and I got in, Steve and Jeff Up Front did not. Normally we would have just left and hung out with them, but it was Straight Ahead! I was blown away. I still remember standing off to the right side of the stage with my walkman so I could record the show. My friends and I wore that tape out. At one point Craig says that people say they (Straight Ahead) are young and just going through a phase, but that they mean everything they're saying, and the girl next to me says "Awww, he's so CUTE." That always makes me laugh when I listen to that recording. Then a fight broke out at the end of their set outside and the whole place cleared out. This was also the show where Rest in Pieces played and Armand wore a Skrewdriver shirt and short 70s gyn shorts. Warzone, Ludichrist and Ed Gein's Car were a few other bands that played that day. With all those great bands, I was amazed that there only were about 75 people in the club at any given time.

Another one that stand out is GI in 1986. They played for close to 3 hours, to about 25 people. My friends and I loved it, the rest of the crowd looked like they were about to fall asleep. They played almost every song they had.



In February of '87 Dag Nasty, Verbal Assault, Bold and Death Before Dishonor played. I remember the rumor being that Dag Nasty had changed and weren't going to play any fast songs. They opened up with a slightly different/slower version of Under Your Infuence. But when they went straight from that into Can I Say the place erupted. At the end of their set, Peter starts doing the chorus and talking part from What Now. The crowd starts doing it with him and he stops them, telling them Dave Smalley's story is totally different. He ends it with "We both walked right by and you didn't say a word. But I looked you right in the eye and said...12XU!" As they broke into the song the place erupted again. This was back before they recorded this song, and before they played it on a fairly regular basis. I have the soundboard of this show and put it in circulation on the web about 10 years ago. The 12XU part still gives me chills, like it did that Sunday afternoon in 1987.

All of the bands that day were amazing. The flyer from that show is still one of my all-time favorites, and I managed to grab the giant Bold set list that was written on the back of two duct-taped-together flyers from that show, two more reasons this show stands out to me. Then, following the CBs matinee, we went to The Ritz to see Ziggy Marley & The Melody Makers...long day.


Bold setlist is from the back of the Dag Nasty/Bold/DBD/Verbal Assault flyer

Tell us about some of the other venues of the NYHC scene in the mid and late 80s - Pyramid, Ritz, L'amour, Irving Plaza, etc. What are memorable bands you remember playing, and what can you recall about these non-CB's NYC venues?

Unfortunately, I never made it to the Pyramid Club. Shows there were always Saturday matinees, and I had to work at Sears all day every Saturday. The Pyramid only did about 6 months of shows in the late 80s, and it sounds ridiculous now, but bands like Youth Of Today, Side By Side, GB, etc. played all the time. I figured no big deal, I'd see them at The Anthrax or CB's. After the fact I wished I had gone to at least a few shows there.

The Ritz was great because it really helped introduce my friends and I to hardcore. We started going to shows at the 11th Street location as metalheads in '85, and ended as SE kids in '88 or so when it moved to the old Studio 54. I saw some great shows at the original Ritz (now Webster Hall), and a handful at the new location in the late 80s and early 90s. I think the best thing about the Rock Hotel at The Ritz shows from '85 to '87 was the variety. Where else could you see the Cro Mags open for SOD or Dark Angel, the Bad Brains open for Slayer, MDC open for Celtic Frost or Youth Of Today open for Discharge?

The first Ritz was an old art deco concert hall, and typical of the mid 80s, there was an odd mixture of punks, metalheads, skinheads, and a lot of mohawks and leather jackets. They rarely had bouncers for the Rock Hotel shows, and if they did it was people like Raybeez, so stagediving off the 5 foot tall stage was prevalent. I remember one guy breaking his neck at a Cro Mags show, and frequently seeing pools of blood on the floor in the bathroom. The best was that they still had an old guy in the men's bathroom selling aftershave/cologne and providing hot towels at the first shows I went to there. Like it was the 1950s and we were at a Frank Sinatra concert or something.



As far as bands that stand out? In addition to the ones I mentioned above, Descendents, Raven, Flipper, Slayer, Motorhead, Firehose, Wendy O Williams, SNFU, DRI, Circle Jerks, Project X, Dag Nasty, Raw Deal, GBH and many more. I remember Warzone coming out with a fog machine, and they used so much dry ice that you couldn't see your hand in front of your face in the pit. I first heard Rise And Fall from Leeway at The Ritz. The bass beginning fooled me and when the guitars kick in quick in the beginning I literally jumped off my feet it surprised me so much. Doggy Style came out in grass skirts and dayglo green body paint and got most of the dance floor (hundreds of people) to do the doggy style hop.

For the earliest shows I was still in metalhead mode, and would stay crushed up against the stage for the whole show. My chest/ribs would hurt for days afterwards. I remember being incredibly psyched to see the Descendents for the first time in 1986. They always put a screen down in between bands (which could last a LONG time) and showed weird videos a la Night Flight on USA. They also would show videos of bands from earlier in the night, and I've always wondered what happened to all that great footage. The promoter Chris Williamson may have had a sketchy reputation, but he put on some of the best shows I've ever seen.

Irving Plaza, Lismar Lounge and L'amour were other places in NYC that I saw shows at back then. A very large PA speaker fell on some guy at a Meatmen/Die Kreuzen show at Irving Plaza. This was War of the Superbikes era Meatmen, they put on a great show.


WNYU pic is Roger Up Front, Ian Keeler (RIP) and Grant Unit Pride, with various Unit Pride and Up Front guys in the background. I'm on the far right behind Grant. This was taken outside of the WNYU building the night Unit Pride and Up Front played on Crucial Chaos, Photo courtesy of: Jon Field

WNYU's Crucial Chaos, while not a traditional "venue," was someplace a lot of hardcore bands played in the late 80s/early90s, and I was lucky enough to play there three times with Up Front. The main DJ area was pretty typical looking for a college radio station, and a large window separated that from the small room where the bands played. While it was a little cramped in the room, the main issue was how hard it was to hear the songs over the wall of noise. Still, it was incredibly exciting to play on the radio. I remember leaving a cassette tape in my bedroom stereo and teaching my Mom how to start the recording when we played.

Even though L'amour in Brooklyn wasn't a typical NYHC venue, my friends and I were introduced to hardcore there through bands like Suicidal Tendencies, Crumbsuckers, DRI and Corrosion of Conformity in 1985, along with great metal bands like Slayer, SOD, Nuclear Assault, Anthrax, Overkill and more. And even though they weren't in NYC, we went to/played some good shows at places like The Pipeline in Newark, NJ, and the Rite Track Inn on Long Island and Streets in New Rochelle, NY.



What is a memorable Up Front show from The Anthrax? Why did The Anthrax always prove to be great for Up Front?

As individuals we went to hundreds of shows there, so most importantly we had tons of friends at The Anthrax. I'm sure a lot of kids in hardcore are lucky to have a hometown club to go to or play at, but of all the clubs I've gone to, The Anthrax was the most unique in that respect (except maybe for Gilman St). There's a few reasons for that: Brian and Shaun being so supportive of the hardcore scene, especially the local scene, and the fact that for the most part, it was an all punk and hardcore club. So shows for us were like a big party. Lots of pile-ups and sing alongs, lots of inside jokes, just a great time.

As for most memorable.....that's a tough one. I can narrow it down to a few. Our show with Youth Of Today and Warzone in the Fall of '87 was our first really big show. We had only been a band for less than a year, and it was packed when we played. Plus, I brought a few of my non-hardcore friends, and I'll never forget their reactions. I'm still good friends with one of them, and to this day we joke about it.


Steve with Up Front at The Anthrax, first show with Youth Of Today, Photo courtesy of: Jon Field

A fight broke out during our set, and the two people fighting fell to the ground at the feet of my friends. I could see the fear on their faces from on stage, I'll never forget it. You have to remember, this was back in the days of Duran Duran and Madonna. So anything with a distorted guitar that wasn't Bon Jovi or Def Leppard was completely out there. One of my friends talked in amazement for months that people had their noses pierced, he couldn't believe it.

The Aaron Straw benefit is another that sticks out. We were at the end of a tour with Unit Pride, and about to go out again for another month long tour. Sadly, I think the violence at that show may have been the beginning of the end for The Anthrax, but even with that, it was an amazing show. Great bands, great cause, and I got to see Wide Awake for the first time in a while. I remember being inside while all the bands were loading in, and Jeff Up Front and I wondered if anyone was in the parking lot. As we rounded the corner and approached the front doors we couldn't believe the line we saw. I never saw that many people waiting to get into a show at The Anthrax before or after that day.

Another one would be when we played with Project X, Judge and Pressure Release in 1988. I broke a string and ended up with Porcell's Les Paul. The crowd was insane, and I was scared to death someone was going to run into me and damage his guitar. Then we played Deliverance after only 1 or 2 practices and butchered it. Towards the end of our set Jeff bashed Steve in the head with his bass guitar tuning pegs, and friends rushed Steve out the back door to the hospital to get stitches without telling us. After 5 minutes of confusion while we looked for Steve, Chris Daily attempted to sing Foolhearted, then we ended the set. So not the best show, but definitely memorable.


Crowd outside The Anthrax for the Aaron Straw benefit, Photo courtesy of: Jon Field