Marco - The Icemen Part III

Carl fronts The Icemen in DC while big Adam helps a photographer get the right angle, Photo: Ken Salerno


What are some memorable Icemen shows that stick out as your best as you recall them? Any particular places you liked playing? Who were people you recall always coming out and supporting you?

I wanted to reach as many people as possible so the bigger the better. The two Super Bowls at the Ritz on 11th St. in '89 and at the old Studio 54 in '92 were decent sized crowds but the circumstances at those gigs what with countless bands being rushed on and off stage, sharing equipment, no sound check, etc. are not conducive to a good performance, and by our nature I think we were a little more susceptible to that than most, so those were actually terrible performances by us.

Some others decent sized shows that I recall were at City Gardens in NJ and The Marquee in NYC. One show in particular was at L'amour in Brooklyn with Type O Negative. I was striving to incorporate a wider variety of listeners into our audience, and that was great example. The show was packed with all sorts, hardcore, metalheads, even goth, you name it. I think we had been on a mini road trip and had played somewhere else the night before, I had a crazy fever like 101 or something and under those stage lights man I was just delirious but we rocked that night. That's one of my most memorable shows, we had a video of it too but Mack lost it somehow.

Of course I must mention CBGB's, that was home for us and was always fun. It was also a place where we could count on supporters coming out. There were many but I certainly remember the DMS guys like Minus, Al and Sob, and I also recall a few bands at the time giving us some serious support.

Who was Gary Lee, where did he come from, and how did things work out for him to do vocals on those '93 tracks? Why didn't anything materialize from this? His voice is definitely much different from Carl - was he what you were looking for, and how do you feel about his voice?

Good question, in a way he's part mystery to us as well. As with so many others we met on the lower east side, he was of course in a band, "Yin vs Yang" and he knew well who The Icemen were. Spoke a few times over drinks, and we decided to bring him into our studio to record some test vocals over our current tracks. What little people have heard on our myspace page were simple dry first runs, no rehearsing, just come in cold and give it a shot. Never went beyond with it as he was an unpredictable wildman and another factor was that as time went on we were free to move in new musical directions and not worry about wether it would be Icemen or not.

We were so fed up with "scenes" and disgusted with how what had taken years to create was now being degraded, violated, degraded, dragged through the mud. The idea of playing music once again without the shackles of what was expected of us to musically conform by so many listeners who had become narrow minded was emancipating. Gary's voice was a step in the right direction in that he actually was attempting to go for some melody, albeit with a cookie monster voice, but melodies in verse and chorus were evident.

We lost touch and heard a while back that he had actually passed away, if true then very sad to hear. My brother Gabby has been performing again with Harley who apparently mentioned he could find out more info so we shall see, not optimistic on that though, Gary was hard street.


Mackie does his thing like only Mackie can do, Photo: Ken Salerno

You did all of the Icemen artwork, making incredible t-shirts and flyers. What was your inspiration for this look and vibe? What had your education/training been in art/design? What Icemen artwork are you most proud of?

I had an overall vision for the band which in addition to music and lyrics included visual elements as well. Sad that we never achieved exploring video and ironic as I've had a career in film since 2001. I always enjoyed dark vibe and wanted us to have consistent theme, you would know when you saw The Icemen visuals. Was fortunate that my father is an amazing artist and I was blessed to have art materials all around me to play with from birth.

Mentioned that I met Mack at high school of arts, I was actually an art major. At the time one had to choose between art and music, difficult but that was the choice I made. By the time I was 17 I was already getting some professional jobs as as a free lance illustrator. Also had a spec with Marvel for Epic magazine developing my own swords and sorcery strip but I never completely followed through and that didn't pan out. I've always been a big fan of that fantasy genre.

What Icemen art am I most proud of? I like that our "Ghost" mascot is recognized, I also am fond of my "Bat Fade." They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery then I would say more than a few bands out there are evidence. A few bands took our Ghost and used it on their demos and flyers but man, that Bat Fade keeps turning up more and more. At the end of the day I am honored that apparently the art is memorable.

Would an Icemen reunion ever happen?

Wow, that's a tough one. Noah and I speak on a regular basis, he's like a brother, Mack not as often, nothing but good though and we did have a long talk in May. There's been bumps in the long winding road but at the end of the day, Noah, Mack and I go way back and I think that ancient bond will always be there. We have a few surprises not yet ready to disclose but at the moment reunion is not in the cue.

For The Icemen there would be many obstacles, not the least of which is our independent lives and careers don't leave much room for that. Just as big, finding a desirable singer to compliment the original three of us? If history is any indication, easier said than done. The bright side is that communication and networking in this cyber world is leaps and bounds what we had at our disposal back in those early dark ages so crazy as it is, it just might work. I savor discoveries in life and so too, enjoy a little mystery in the future.


Noah jams hard at City Gardens, Photo: Ken Salerno

Favorite Early Revelation Poster Results

New York City Hardcore - "The Way It Is" - 112
Judge - "Bringin' It Down" - 74
BOLD - "Speak Out" - 57
Gorilla Biscuits - "Start Today" - 35

Andrew Kline - Strife

Andrew takes on the crowd at Middlesex County College, Edison NJ

This is part of an ongoing piece where we asked various people from bands over the years what they recall as the most memorable show they ever played (or attended, if they were never in a band), and why. What is posted here is only a sliver of what is to come, so be sure to check back. -DCXX

The most memorable show I ever played...that is a tough one. Strife did so many shows over the years and they all stood out on their own for some reason or another.

Off the top of my head, 2 different shows come to mind...the first show was a huge show that we played at Middlesex College in 1992 or 1993. It was huge, and had a great lineup that included sick bands like Mouthpiece, Outspoken, 4 Walls Falling, Ressurection, Flagman, and more! I was in 11th or 12th grade at the time (16 or 17), and this was our first time we ever played on the East Coast. Every band that played was great, we knew that we had something to prove at the show. The "It's For Life" and "Only The Strong" Comps had just came out, and the 1000 or so people that were there had high expectations for this new Straight Edge band from California.

Needless to say, from the first note we played the crowd went crazy! Highlights from that show include an asian stage diving girl with a football helmet, and our friend Scott Viscome (who we did not yet know) getting completely knocked out during "Am I The Only One." I remember stopping in the middle of that song, so he could get some help... He woke back up in a minute or so and started yelling at us to keep playing the song! I'm sure it is on video somewhere (Cue the YouTube video Tim...)


Rick and Chad at Middlesex County College, Edison NJ

We met someone friends on the trip that have proven to last a lifetime, and that is the real reason I will never forget that show. On a side note... The night before that show was the first time that Rick Rodney ever shaved his head completely bald!

The second show that comes to mind was a show that we did with Sepultura in Checkeslovakia in 1997. This show was the epitome of a rock show...it was at a huge soccer stadium (Kiss played there the next night), and over 20,000 people were there. Sepultura was at their peak, and they received a gold record earlier that day for their album "Roots." The whole tour was great...there was amazing catering at every show, we got to travel in a huge bus, and we got to see Sepulutra every night. We opened the show, and I just remember a sea of people going crazy the entire set! It was such a fun show, and just so crazy to see that many people moving in unison to our music. We made so many long lasting friendships on that trip as well.

Those are just two out of many unforgettable shows that we have played.


Chad bringing a little bit of Southern California to Edison New Jersey

Fanzine Spotlight: Good & Plenty

It's time again for another Fanzine Spotlight and this time around the spotlight shines on a fanzine called Good & Plenty. Good & Plenty came out of the Chicago area, Zion Illinois to be exact and was done by a guy named Gabe Rodriguez, with some help from a few friends that seemed to come and go.

The first issue of Good & Plenty that ever ended up in my mailbox was issue 3, which was released in September of 1989. That particular issue contained interviews with: Gorilla Biscuits, Insted, Brotherhood, Bold and Judge, so you can see it packed quite a wallop with one hell of a lineup. Along with those interviews came pages upon pages of cool artwork, good photos and some of the best ads of the day. Layout wise issue 3 was fairly standard for the time, but it was the the content in whole that helped make G&P stand out.

Issue 4 of Good & Plenty was released in January of 1990 and had interviews with: Refuse, Even Score, Inner Strength, Up Front and 7 Seconds. What was starting to become very apparent with G&P was the quality of photos that popped up in issue 4. Where as issue 3 was more or less photos taken at local shows by the editor or his friends, issue 4 we started seeing great photos of some of the best bands taken all over the country by what appeared to be some serious photographers. Interviews and show reviews still had a place in issue 4, but photo page after photo page was what really dominated the zine. There were definitely some stand out photos of Gorilla Biscuits, Youth Of Today, Judge, Beyond, Bold, Bad Brains, Insted, No For An Answer, Turning Point and Release among many, many more.



Issue 5 was released in May of 1990 and had interviews with: Carry Nation, Vision, Turning Point, Billingsgate and Say No More. The first noticeable change from the earlier issues to issue 5 was the nice glossy, two color, card stock cover and back. Again, cool interviews and good photos to go along with those interviews, but the spread after spread of great random band photos stole the show. It was obvious that Gabe had a good thing going with photographers from all over the country and even into Europe. Sick Cali photos of Against The Wall, Carry Nation, Something To Say, Judge, Outspoken, Pushed Aside, End To End, Freewill, Inside Out and Insted just to name a few. So many memorable photos in general as well. GB in Europe with Civ wearing the PX longsleeve, Integrity with a young and shaved up Tony Brummel up front singing along, Judge "Where It Went" video shoot show pics from City Gardens, Project X in Clevo, Verbal Assault at the Living Room in Rhode Island... I could go on and on.

Issue 6 of Good & Plenty was released in the winter of 1990 into 1991 and had interviews with: Quicksand, Integrity, Sacred Reich and a mock Chain Of Strength interview calling them "Chain Gang". Apparently Gabe, the editor had some sort of bad dealing with Ryan from Chain regarding an ad, so he decided to pull some sort of fake tabloid style interview. Kinda stupid if you ask me, this sort of thing didn't seem to be necessary, but that's neither here nor there. Back to the zine... issue 6 started showing signs of some legitimately nice and interesting layouts. The Integrity interview specifically was pretty impressive for the time. Lots of cool Integ photos, nice use of various record artwork for backgrounds and the interview its self was pretty damn riveting for the time. For me, this was one of the first Integrity interviews that really started to push their legendary reputation. Again, aside from the interviews, tons of great photos. A few particularly impressive shots of early "Screaming For Change" era Uniform Choice, that I've never seen before or since. Issue 6, like issue 5, had the glossy card stock, 2 color cover and ended up being the last issue of Good & Plenty that I'd ever see.



When I think of Good & Plenty, of course the stand out element was all those incredible photos, but something else that I give it credit for is bridging the gap between the late 80's to early 90's hardcore scene. When most of the great fanzines of the late 80's had folded, Good & Plenty was a symbol of what was left. You had coverage of all those classic bands of the late 80's, but you also had coverage of all the newer surging bands entering the 1990's. On one page you might be introduced to Billingsgate or Quicksand and then the next you're seeing mind blowing Gorilla Biscuits and Youth Of Today photos. Most definitely a classic in its own right. -Tim DCXX

DCXX Post 200: Gus Pena - The Youth Of Today "No More" video filming

Beyond sing along at The Anthrax, the night of the "No More" filming. Notice Steve Reddy (Equal Vision Records) with the X'ed fist in the air. Photo: Boiling Point

Here's another re-print from Impact Fanzine issue two. Gus talked about all sorts of different stuff when I interviewed him, but here's some info about what lead up to the filming for the Youth Of Today 'No More' live footage at The Anthrax in June 1988. If you have ever seen that footage, you know it is awesome. Bodies flying everywhere, Steve Reddy stage diving in an SSD shirt, Tom Kennedy getting his nose smashed in by Porcell, even Vic DiCara is going off. So, that show being what it was, we figured that having a little more info about it can't hurt.

-Gordo DCXX

We did this mini-tour with GB/Beyond, and it led up to the first time that GB ever headlined The Anthrax with YOT, for the YOT No More filming. But, it wasn't really a YOT show, it was a big GB show and YOT just happened to be doing the "No More" filming too, and they only played "No More," maybe they played one other. Walter was furious because he didn't think that people would remember it as the first time GB headlined, but that they would remember it as the YOT video show.

So this is the day of the show, somehow we were eating ice cream somewhere and it came to a head with someone getting hit with a spoonful of ice cream. Then that turned into more ice cream, chocolate syrup, various food, and even dirt all getting thrown at everyone. This is before the show, and we were covered in all sorts of shit. We were like, "What the hell are we gonna do?" Here we had this show in a few hours, and we're sitting in New Haven covered in this shit.

So there's this girl that we had known from years back that lived in New Haven, and I said, "I know! Becky Tupper lives in New Haven!" Porcell says, "You're right! I know where she lives! Let's go!" So we go to her Mother's house and all of us were just covered in dirt and all this crap, only really wearing shorts. At that time I would just do stuff to make Arthur laugh, so I was just a complete nut, just like walking around barefoot the whole weekend and doing weird stuff. So Becky sees this, and she's just like, "Oh my God, ok, one at a time and Gus, you can't even come on the porch, just stay there."


Walter stage diving for Beyond, the night of the "No More" filming. Notice the striped shirt and shorts. Photo: Boiling Point

So we had to take showers and change and all this. So then we went to that show. So if you ever notice that video, Walter is wearing the weirdest outfit, he's wearing like pajamas, plaid shorts and a striped shirt, because all of his regular clothes got ruined. I think the other guys must have borrowed other shirts or actually gotten brand new t-shirts at the show. So getting there that day was the fun part.

The show and the No More fliming was interesting. I was a kid, so I would just time my stage dives perfectly. Like when that first bass line would open up I would do these floating, sprawled out stage dives. I remember I did that a couple of times and some of the timing was perfect, so Ray came to me between a couple of the takes and was like, "Do that again! Do that again!" It was basically like, "Hurl your body from the stage!" And that was not a hard thing to ask me to do. Ok sure, why not? It was just known that I was gonna go nuts.

Feedback Friday: BOLD

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

This particular photo has always meant a lot to me. Back when Tony and I were doing Common Sense Fanzine, Ken Salerno used to hook us up with a constant flow of great photos (as Ken still does now with DCXX). A week or so following any big show, Tony could expect a nice package in his mailbox from Ken. After the BOLD, Gorilla Biscuits, Crucial Youth show at City Gardens (July 9th 1989), just like clockwork, Tony received a pile of BOLD and GB photos in the mail. The morning Tony got those photos, he immediately got on the phone and gave me a call. He told me there were some sick photos from the show and one of the best, which was of BOLD, even had me in it. Now being a 15 year old kid, super psyched on hardcore and loving the hell out of BOLD and Gorilla Biscuits, to see yourself in the crowd in a photo for one of those bands was comparable to getting a cameo in your favorite TV show. Imagine it's 1982 and you end up in a episode of The Dukes of Hazard... yeah, that's kinda what it felt like, at least for me at 15. So anyway, I hop on my skateboard, cruise over to Tony's and lay into these photos. Just as Tony said, they were amazing, mind blowing to put it bluntly. This particular photo of BOLD right off the bat knocked me on my ass. The way that Ken was able to capture the moment was, as cliche as it sounds, really special. Matt with both of his arms stretched out over the crowd, giving a larger than life sing along... just sick.

A few months later I get my monthly subscription copy of Thrasher Magazine in the mail. Paging through it I stumble upon what photo but this exact BOLD photo of Ken Salernos. Wow, my favorite magazine now has a photo of one of my favorite bands and I'm in the freakin' photo! Again, I was psyched and that moment seeing that photo in Thrasher is one I will never forget.

All these years later, I contributed a bunch of photos to BOLD and Revelation for the release of the discography. I remember showing Matt my copy of the Salerno shot that ended up in Thrasher and he obviously was pretty psyched on the photo himself. Once I heard the photo was going to end up on the cover of the discog, again I was excited to see it come to fruition.

So there you have it, another classic photo for Feedback Friday. Obviously this photo probably won't mean as much to a lot of others as it does to me, but with that being said, it's still a pretty heavy and defining photograph of a great band that was truly at the top of their game when this photo was taken. As Feedback Friday goes, let the comments roll. -Tim DCXX



As a bonus to posting this photo, I thought it might be fun and somewhat interesting to highlight and identify some of the people that made up the crowd for this classic photo. Some you may know, some you may not.

1. Jeremy, singer of Stand Up
2. Me (Tim), brace faced, Chicago Bulls hat wearing, both arms in the sky praising the mighty BOLD
3. Brian Schwinn, guitarist from Intensity
4. Travis Shirk, singer of Transmission / Conviction
5. Geoff Dagastino of TDT Screenprinting, climbing the crowd
6. Dan Hornecker, guitarist from Ressurection, Mouthpiece, Hands Tied
7. Jim Hogan, local Trenton kid and friends with Mouthpiece
8. Kelly Houston, local Trenton kid and friends with Mouthpiece
9. Kevin Craig, NJ tattoo artist, responsible for 3 of my 4 tattoos
10. Jay Laughlin, guitarist of Turning Point
11. Gentleman Jim, bass player of Crucial Youth / City Gardens bouncer
12. Darren Walters, Hi Impact Record / Jade Tree Records
13. Nick Greif, bass player of Turning Point

Chris Daily - Smorgasbord Cycles

You may be wondering, "Smorgasbord Cycles?" A little off-shoot of the record label and zine, Chris Daily gives us some info on the bicycle frame company he started in the mid nineties. We thought it was a cool little bit of info that probably few know about. The Schism Skateboards story is next week…

-Gordo DCXX

Somewhere in 1991 I stumbled onto mountain biking. A few friends got into it and as soon as I saw it and the stuff they were riding it brought back all sorts of memories from my youth riding and racing BMX. By this time I was working in design engineering and always loved designing, making, building, and fixing things. I was pretty mechanically inclined which was surprising because my Dad can't fix a damn thing.

Smorgasbord Cycles was initially done as a fake bike shop set up with a bike part distributor so I could scam parts to feed my habit at wholesale. I'd have to say this was about 1994. I went to the level of even photographing an existing bike shop and claiming it was mine because one distributor required that and a listing in the yellow pages, which I also did for a one month period until my account was set up. I met a local guy that built his own bike frame by hand, then I read a book or two on bike set up and fit and decided I could make a frame for my self just as easy.


An authentic full suspension Smorgasbord Cycle

I designed a hard tail mountain bike, ordered some tubing, machined all the parts myself and had a welder weld it all together. I rode the bike for a few weeks and a bunch of people kept asking me to build them one…so I designed a production frame jig, had it made and started making frames in my garage after going to a few tool auctions and buying a lathe, Bridgeport mill and a welder. By that point I had a full service machine shop set up in the garage behind my house.

Why Smorgasbord Cycles as a name? At the time I was still doing Smorgasbord Records, I thought it had a nice ring to it and that way I was at least able to keep up with the packages that were coming to my apartment with the name "Smorgasbord" on them. I started out with two other guys and they did not care about a name, I don't even think it was an option, I just set up the account in that name for the distributor, not even thinking about actually building bike frames at the time.

As for those guys, the first guy got shelled about 5 months into the venture, the second guy I ended up buying out after about 2 years working together. I tend to really be pushy once a ball gets rolling and move forward with 110% of effort. They had other ideas, so it just worked out best to go forward solo.


The Smorgasbord Cycles Crew, Chris in the middle with the black shirt

As I was going thru the process to actually start making bikes for other people I noticed an ad in a magazine called DIRT RAG for a bike company named SPOOKY Cycles and in the ad was the Minor Threat OUT OF STEP sheep. It blew my mind and I called the number and spoke with the owner. Turns out he was a hardcore kid from up in Carmel, NY who went to the Anthrax and high school with the UP FRONT guys. He helped me with all sorts of legal and bike fabricating info during that time in the process of incorporating and start-up.

Spooky was a lot bigger then Smorgasbord, they produced thousands of bikes. The owner is still one of my best friends. Their sales manager was a R.I. hardcore skinhead, used to go to a ton of shows back in the mid 80s. English Nick (YDL) actually raced downhill on TEAM Spooky as well.

I am bad with dates and time periods, but up until mid 1999 I made about 250 frames. Bike frames for all genres of cycling: MTB, Cyclo-Cross, Road, Downhill, BMX, Single Speed. It was not a huge money maker but I also did not lose money.


A page from the Smorgasbord Cycles catalog

I was getting a little disenchanted with the tough USA hand built bike market in 1999, since the big bike companies (TREK, Cannondale, etc.) can all produce really good bikes that don't cost much. I was small potatoes in the frame market and the one man show struggle was a tough aspect of my life at the time. It seemed more like a job than something I really enjoyed doing. In 1999 I was selling my house and losing my shop so it was a perfect time to step away and close down.

Shirt designs...I never thought about doing a mock up of the Smorgasbord SXE shirts, but when I went to visit Spooky Cycles in NY they had a shirt with the SMOR fist on it...and were selling a bunch of them! Guav from Syracuse drew the warrior flower logo for the Smorgasbord bike company.

Highlights:
Exhibited at the international InterBIKE industry trade show for 2 years
Sold bike frames all over the country and 3 in Europe
Expo'd at 10 national level race events
Sponsored a full race team with co-sponsors and trailer
Built test bikes for Major mass market Bike Company
Had clothing line that sold in Japan
Self-taught myself how to actually design and fabricate bike frames


Chris competing on his Smorgasbord Cycle