To walk the night...

Samhain - Live at The Ritz, NYC, 7/14/1986

Samhain - "Halloween II" at Stardust Ballroom 1984

Tis the season for...

New Breed re-issue info from Freddy Alva

- We are planning a record release party in the middle of November in Brooklyn, where we'll also screen New Breed: The Documentary (That's a 'lil film I've been putting together with my friend John Woods).

- The documentary features interviews with: Djinji Brown, Dave Stein, Gavin Van Vlack, Bill Wilson, Carl Porcaro & 8 others plus footage/pics of bands on the comp.

- The "Wild Style" alternate cover ltd to 200 copies will be available only via mail-order.

- The 4 extra songs on the Lp version are by All For One & Life's Blood live tunes w/Sean Murphy singing @CBGB's.

- Revelation Records & Phantasm Imports will be carrying the comp for distribution.

Nerve Agents / Redemption 87

Every once in awhile a certain band that I hadn't thought about in a long time, will pop back into my head and I'm reminded of just how incredible they were. For what ever reason, today, I started thinking back on two of Eric Ozenne's former bands, Redemption 87 and The Nerve Agents. I ended up stumbling upon this cool video of The Nerve Agents live at The Troubadour in Hollywood, CA and thought I'd share it here on DCXX. I also found this video below of Redemption 87 from their Gilman Street reunion in 2004. Although the quality isn't all that great, I still thought the video was worth posting. If you haven't heard either of these bands, do yourself a favor and dig them up. -Tim DCXX

Fugazi - Full Disclosure

Edge Day 2000 : The Last Show Of In My Eyes

EDGE DAY 2000: The Last Show Of In My Eyes from Revelation Records on Vimeo.

This is what we could salvage of the documentary "EDGE DAY 2000: The Last Show Of In My Eyes." Hope you enjoy it! Here are some words from In My Eyes' guitarist, Anthony Pappalardo:

For the entire existence of In My Eyes there were always three words used to describe us that made us cringe: Youth Crew Revival. Most 'zines that were covering Snapcase and Chamberlain would mention we were "great at being a Youth Crew Revival band" and it drove me fucking insane. The Youth Crew was Youth of Today's crew, not a style of music and certainly not relevant to a band formed in 1997. We all loved Youth of Today but we weren't setting out to revive anything. That phrase always made me think of a bunch of kids in varsity jackets standing over a drawing of the Step Forwards record dude with wires hooked up to him like Weird Science. Suddenly he rises out of the pages of Boiling Point and He's Alive... the Youth Crew had been revived! Let's all pose in the street a la We're Not In This Alone and bleach our hair!

In My Eyes accomplished infinitely less than many of the bands that were our peers in Boston. From Bane and American Nightmare to Converge, Isis, Jejune and Piebald; we'd toured less, played less and never committed to the band full time but it didn't mean it wasn't our lives or that we weren't happy with what we had left behind. We weren't able to be a "full time band" and that made things fun. We had an outlet to pour ourselves into every weekend and it made even the smallest show special.

We didn't revive the Youth Crew, we lived our crew. Some of us listened to Juvenile, while some listened to Stereolab. We could be found wasting our money on sneakers, jackets, unhealthy vegetarian food, gambling or video games. We combed the streets of Boston looking for fun, records and girls… girls were the hardest to come by. In My Eyes was our way of avoiding the September to June College Malaise that defines Boston.

Initially we were a handful of kids crammed into the first floor of a poorly insulated Mission Hill apartment with a Subway table in the vinyl floored kitchen. By the end of the band our friends inhabited about 43% of the neighborhood, formed twenty thousand bands and record labels and we all found time to hang out on each other's porches and stoops no matter what was going on.

In My Eyes was convinced to play a final show, as the band had run it's course. We were exhausted, broke, and all facing different directions while still being best friends. Matt Galle, Tim Mailloux and Ray Lemonie aka DHU were responsible for most of the all ages punk and hardcore shows in Boston at the time and they wouldn't let us go out with a whimper. They booked an all ages, $5.00 show in Haverhill, MA, where Ten Yard Fight had once played as well as 108, about 7 years prior. Haverhill was about ten miles from where I grew up. I spent my teen years there in coffee shops, grinding and sliding the curbs in the town's parking garage. It was part of the Merrimack Valley, an area responsible for Cave-In, Piebald, Converge, Ten Yard Fight and other notable bands. It was nice to end where I started.

The show wasn't going to take place in Boston so we could have an all ages show with no barriers, without giving a cent to club owners that hated us the other 364 days of the calendar year.

DHU asked me who I'd wanted on the bill; I remember asking if American Nightmare could play... they didn't and I'm not sure why but Wes sang the ending of Through The Motions which is part of this documentary. In viewing the video again I realized how much this song aspired to be a Moondog song though it's mid-paced tempo was modeled after Inside Out.



I'm not sure why my memory is so sharp for some things and so vague for others but I'll run down the last time In My Eyes played together:

• A few weeks prior we played a last show in Riverside County in California at the Showcase Theater. I liberated a pair of gold Air Max 97s from Niketown as an homage to Civ's obnoxious creepers at the last GB shows.

• As In My Eyes was fading out, a lot of us noticed the focus on NYHC folk-lore and generally being "hard" in hardcore 2000. We purposely chose to cover A Time We'll Remember and Bottled Violence, two songs without mosh parts that are as energetic as any songs recorded to keep an emphasis on stage dives and sing-alongs... things we saw as the core of the band.

• Friends from all over the world came, a lot of our friends hadn't been to a show in years or ever, some of them liked Limp Bizkit and others, House music. It was rad to have such a mix of personalities and backgrounds there in one place.

• The show was $5.00; I'm not sure how many people paid but I know for a fact that no one I knew was asked for even a dollar. Clevo mentions there being 500+ kids there, I'm sure at least 200 were on the "guest list." I have no idea how many kids were actually there but it felt like at least 501.

• The palm tree background was pretty calming, and later, Jeff and I joked about starting a new band, "Veggie Burger in Paradise", a Leisure Core band inspired by the backdrop.

• We all knew Sweet Pete was tight with Porcell but didn't believe he'd really show up to sing Straight Edge Revenge. It kind of blew me away how kids didn't give him a little room to do his thing, I always thought he was pretty incredible on stage and would have liked to see him have a little more space.

• There was one In My Eyes song we all thought sucked so we didn't play it but I'm not sure 11 years later what it was, maybe it was Overlooked.

• Dudes ripping down the ceiling cost us $400.00, which is 80 paid customers. I might start a Kickstarter to recoup the costs retroactively.

• There were a lot of humans there not wearing shirts... I'm pretty sure 11 years later they'd keep their "Hanes Beefy Tees" on.

• None of us could even get near our amps to look at our tuners due to the amount of Edgemin on stage, we gave up and tuned by ear. Al Quint once complained that we were always out of tune because we "jumped around so much", I'm surprised how in-tune we actually sounded.

As for the actual documentary you're viewing now, it was supposed to be this multi-angle, multi-camera, semi-mega production packed with ephemera, interviews and insight. Instead, it sat somewhere for years until a short sample tape and an invoice arrived in my mail box years later. There was a lot of confusion about what really happened with the movie, I wanted to work with the editor and really make this different but instead the film crew disappeared and we all forgot about this until Larry Ransom found this 30 minute cut.

I wish I didn't swing my arms around as much when I talked but I'm happy with this slice of In My Eyes and I hope everyone enjoys it.

Thank you to DHU for booking the show, everyone who came out as well as Shark Attack, The Killing Flame, Mouthpiece, Fastbreak, Bane and Ten Yard Fight who played for next to nothing to be a part of the day.

I never went to my senior prom and spent 15 minutes at my college graduation because In My Eyes had a show booked at a shed in a New Jersey backyard with Ensign which I played with a 100+ degree fever but I had this day no matter how bad my memories of it actually is.

Despite this show being an endpoint for In My Eyes, I see many of the people on that stage weekly, monthly and at weddings and other celebrations to this day. We share tweets, texts, emails, Facebook wars and other social media connections and we all agree it was a great time that continues into our (gasp) adult lives.

Thank you.
-Anthony Pappalardo 10.17.2011

Ressurection - I Am Not : The Discography

Jacob Bannon, frontman for Converge and one of the two kingpins at Deathwish Records, contacted me a couple weeks ago and asked if I'd be down to post something on DCXX regarding some Ressurection merch that they had just recently put up in their online store. I of course obliged, but wanted to make the entry a little something more than just an advertisement for merch. I started thinking back to a few years ago, when the idea for the Ressurection discography first came together and Rob reached out to me for a written contribution to possibly be included in the discography. Years later the discog finally came out (this past August), but no written contributions were included, so when thinking about putting together this entry for the new Ressurection shirts, I remembered that I still had this unused piece I had written on Ressurection.

If you haven't gotten a chance to pick up the discography, titled, "I Am Not: The Discography", do yourself a favor and definitely grab it. The re-mixing/re-mastering of those songs drastically helped the sound of what I always knew were great songs, but suffered from lack luster recordings. As you can see, Deathwish also did a great job of bringing back some classic Ressurection shirt designs, many of which used the original films that Geoff at TDT screen printing had archived from their first runs.

Ressurection Deathwish store

So here it, my thoughts on Ressurection, originally intended to be included in the discography. -Tim DCXX



Growing up and going to hardcore shows in the mid to late 80's was pretty special. There were so many great bands with so many inspiring things to say and it all completely took me by storm. As the early 90's moved in, many of the bands that I loved started falling apart, changing their sound, along with their ideals, show attendance began to see a significant drop. These early days of the 1990's really showed you who was in for the long haul and who was simply a casual show goer.

I had met Rob while he was doing Release and they were easily one of my favorite New Jersey bands from the late 80's. Rob was never afraid to speak his mind and straight edge was a flag that he was never shy about waving. Because of Rob's relentlessness and non-compromising attitude, I respected him a lot.



Not long after the demise of Release, Rob started talking about putting together a new band. I remember he had the name Ressurection in mind and there was never any doubt what that name represented. Given the circumstances of the hardcore scene at that time, old ideas rising again seemed too good to be true. Not long after I also clearly remember Rob playing me their first recorded track, "Melting Away". At first listen, it reminded me of a noisy, straight edge version of BL'AST! and I loved it. It was really nothing at all like anything else that was happening in the scene at that time. I loved everything about that song, the lyrics, the music, the almost eerie sound of the recording, it all just seemed to come together perfectly.

As this was all happening, I was doing a band called Mouthpiece and we had a show coming up with California's Insted at a club in Reading PA, called the Unisound. We had told Rob that Ressurection should come to this show and after our set, they should hop up on stage, use our equipment and play "Melting Away". With little hesitation, Ressurection took us up on our offer and introduced themselves that night. Rob picked up the mic and said, "We're Ressurection, a straight edge band from new Jersey and if you don't like it, there's the door... this songs called Melting Away". From the start of the guitar feedback, the few of us that knew the song went absolutely insane as did the band on stage. I knew from that point on, we were entering a new era. There was no need to cry about what was gone and missing from the scene, because what we had building in front of us was something just as special and inspiring as what graced us through the 80's.

Verbal Assault - More Than Music

It's more than music

More than a new dance

More than fashion

More than a posed stance
It's more than music

It's something to live life with

Beyond cheap slogans

An act of love, an attempt to give
We have seen a lot of kids drift away

And now they're gone

But new blood and old ideals

Help keep our vision strong
It's more than music

It's our life

Last In My Eyes show / Edge Day 2000 trailer

EDGE DAY 2000: The Last Show Of In My Eyes - Trailer from Revelation Records on Vimeo.

Rescued from a box in the garage, salvaged from a VHS tape, dusted off and uploaded for the first time ever...

Here's a trailer for the never before seen documentary of In My Eyes' last show ever in October 2000.

The full video will be available to watch for free this Monday here on DCXX and also on Revelation's Vimeo page, October 17th to celebrate National Edge Day!

Revelation Records on Vimeo

Cro-Mags - Live at The Roxy, Hollywood CA, 2011

The Heels - "Undisputed"

The Heels, Photo: Blow The Scene

Every once in awhile, we like to give a little attention to a newer, up and coming type band and this time around the spotlight goes to Philadelphia's, The Heels. Although The Heels aren't really a new band and have actually been kicking around since 2006, they just finally got around to releasing their 16 song debut, entitled, "Undisputed". The Heels also aren't new to the scene in terms of the members that make up the band, frontman, Mike McManus and guitarist, Dan McGinnis got their starts in Philadelphia's own, the Pagan Babies. Sonically, I don't think The Heels are too far off from what Mike and Dan were doing with the Pagan Babies. Pretty straight forward, usually fast, energetic hardcore with a dose of punk thrown in. Mike just sent me the CD last week and it's been in constant rotation since I got it. I've been a big fan of the Pagan Babies forever, so a new band with Mike singing and Dan on guitar wasn't a hard sell for me.

Check out the following links for more info on The Heels and try to pick up their new CD, "Undisputed", when you get a chance. - Tim DCXX

The Heels on ReverbNation
The Heels on Facebook
www.cdbaby.com/cd/theheels1


Mike McManus with the rest of the Pagan Babies at City Gardens, Trenton NJ, Photo: Ken Salerno

The Fire Still Burns...

Token Entry at City Gardens, Trenton, NJ, Photo: Ken Salerno

Youth Brigade poll wrap up

It's not the first time and we'll try to not let it happen again, but it looks like we ran the same poll that we ran last year and it had the same results. California's Youth Brigade beat out the D.C. Youth Brigade by 42 votes. I guess considering we've been doing this site now for over 3 years, some material can and will end up getting covered more than once. Like I said, it happens, our bad. -Tim DCXX

Check last year's poll results wrap up if you missed it:
2010 Youth Brigade poll wrap up

McRad

McRAD from OBEY CLOTHING on Vimeo.

After getting their start opening for Minor Threat, McRad rose to fame in the skateboard world after being featured in Stacey Peralta and Cr Stecyk's 1988 movie Public Domain. The leader of McRad, Chuck Treece along with Ray Barbee and CR Stecyk tell the story of the band and its place in skateboard history. Documented by Eric Pritchard.

True Til Def - October 22, 2011

Mark Of The Squealer

Leeway at City Gardens, Trenton NJ, Photo: Ken Salerno