OFF!

OFF! at the 6th Street Warehouse, Photo: Sean Peterson

I've been catching word here and there about Keith Morris's (Black Flag / Circle Jerks) latest band, OFF!, but hadn't actually heard a note until today, and I gotta say, I'm pretty damn impressed. Classic, early Black Flag style, Southern California hardcore, played hard, loud and dirty.

Keith's joined by Bassist, Steve McDonald (Redd Kross), drummer, Mario Rubalcaba (411, Clikatat Ikatowi, Rocket From The Crypt, Hot Snakes) and guitarist, Dimitri Coats. It looks like OFF! will be releasing their first EP, tomorrow, October 12th, which will include a limited edition Raymond Pettibon poster. Cool stuff, so lay into the videos and check the links for more details. -Tim DCXX

http://www.myspace.com/off

http://www.facebook.com/offband

Strife Storming The East Coast 2010

New Rival Schools song and video

Supertouch - Doin' It Live...

Supertouch at The Safari Club, Washington DC, Photo courtesy of: John White

Coming off of last night's Supertouch poll wrap up, Tom Farkas dropped us a line with a cool thing he had written about Supertouch, and specifically their WNYU recording. Pretty cool stuff, and a fitting time for it as well, as this legendary recording is apparently coming out sometime soon on vinyl. Thanks Tom. "Climbin' Aboard!!!" -Gordo DCXX

In the late 1980's New York hardcore scene very few bands commanded more respect than Supertouch. Mark Ryan, Supertouch's singer, was an old school legend and had been the singer for Death Before Dishonor in the last great era of NYHC. This gave them a pedigree right out of the gate. Supertouch's rhythm section was as tight as they come - they weren't some kids trying to keep it together, they were a rock solid machine. Jon Bivano's guitar playing was powerful, creative and reminiscent of classic rock greats, and yet, still as aggressive as any other CBGB matinee regulars.

If there was ONE problem with Supertouch, it was that they didn't have any recordings. Serious devotees of the scene knew all of their songs from going to countless shows but, aside from the occasional blown out crowd recording, no one had access to their music. Most NYHC bands progressed from demo tape, to a compilation track, to a seven inch, and maybe, if they were top notch, a full length. Supertouch could have gone straight to the full-length and pleased the whole scene.


Joe and Mark with Supertouch, Photo: Eric Fennell

When the first Revelation Records compilation 'Together' came out, Supertouch had the track 'Searching For The Light' on the B-side and it was an instant classic. The recording was weak, but the track shined right through. Hopes were high, if Supertouch had gone into a recording studio, maybe we would be hearing some more from them soon. But all we had was that one track, and a head full of memories of all of their other great songs.

So when the second Revelation Records compilation, 'The Way It Is', hit the shelves, there was a chance that we might get some more Supertouch material to devour. And we did, sort of. It was yet another version of 'Searching For The Light'. True fans needed more than this to satisfy them.

That satisfaction came in the form of radio waves. Supertouch played a live set on WNYU. Every NYHC kid had this tape. This was as close as we would get to a full length Supertouch record for quite some time. That live radio set got played countless times, traded, dubbed, lost and found. It was the definitive recording of those songs, at that time.

When Supertouch finally did release a full length LP, 'The Earth Is Flat', it had all different, newer songs on it, leaving that WNYU tape as the time capsule for a bygone era. All of us who saw Supertouch live back when they were doing those earlier songs will always hold onto that radio recording near and dear. The audio may be rough and live and the vocals may waiver, but it's Supertouch LIVE, which is how we remember them. Maybe that's for the best after all.


Joe with Supertouch, Photo: Eric Fennell

Supertouch poll wrap up

Supertouch at the Marquee, NYC, Gorilla Biscuits Last Show, 1992, Photo: Adam Tanner

Supertouch are one of those bands that I've always had a lot of great memories of seeing at their live shows. Going all the way back to the first time I saw them, which was either late '89 or early '90 at Rutgers University, to their first show at Middlesex County College in 1990 with Burn and Gridlock. Those pre-"The Earth Is Flat" days, when all they had out was "Searching For The Light" and the "What Did We Learn" 7" were great. The shows were smaller, but the crowd response was always strong and you would have 50 die-hards singing along to every word. Of course the set would always finish with "Searching" and pile-ons seemed to happen on cue. Good times for sure.

After those few 1989-1990 Supertouch shows that I caught, the band went on a hiatus and nothing was heard from them for quite awhile. Eventually studio tapes started leaking out from "The Earth Is Flat." I remember hearing it for the first time and being pretty damn confused. Not that the "What Did We Learn" 7" was traditional hardcore, but it was in the ballpark. On the other hand, this "Earth Is Flat" material was like nothing I had heard before. It's hard to put into words exactly what I was thinking at the time because it's been so long, but like I said, I was confused to say the least. As confused as I was, I did not give up on it and kept that tape in rotation that entire summer. Within a couple of weeks I bought "The Earth Is Flat" hook, line and sinker and never looked back. It might have taken me two weeks to "get it", but I did and it's forever stuck with me.


Supertouch at the Safari Club, Washington DC, Photo courtesy of: John White

Once "The Earth Is Flat" was actually released by Revelation, the band got back together and started playing again. The first show back that I remember was at the Marquee in NYC, it was the last Gorilla Biscuits show in 1992 if I remember correctly. I'm pretty sure "The Earth Is Flat" had been out for about a year or so and at that point it had really sunk in for everyone, it did for me at least. I was so psyched to see Supertouch on a big stage, with a huge crowd and all this great material behind them. I can assure you, they shredded the Marquee that night. I was a little burnt on GB at that point and to me, Supertouch stole the show. They were tight and on the money and delivered to a manic crowd that had waited patiently for a year or two to see them hit the stage again. I remember doing a ton of stage dives that night and trying my damnedest to avoid getting clobbered by the menacing NYC dance floor. Somehow I made it out alive and had the time of my life doing it. When all was said and done, that Supertouch set would be one of my favorite show memories ever.

Over the next couple of years I saw Supertouch quite a few more times. Two that stick out would be another Middlesex show, and the last show I remember seeing them at was a garage show in New Brunswick at the Bouncing Souls house. No matter if it was 50 people or 900, Supertouch always brought it. Luckily, over the past few years Supertouch have played a few surprise shows and I've managed to get myself to two of them. Sounds like Europe will now get their chance to "Get Down" and that's a good thing.


Supertouch at Middlesex County College, Photo: Pete Reilly

As for the poll, I could have gone either way. I really love both the 7" and LP equally and to be completely honest, I'm not even sure which I actually voted for. Both represent different eras of the band to me, but both bring about positives from each side. Obviously "The Earth Is Flat" went home with the win and I can understand that, it is a full LP's worth of material, but in the end, there are no losers here. -Tim DCXX

Supertouch - "The Earth Is Flat" LP - 148
Supertouch - "What Did We Learn" 7" - 85


Supertouch at the Marquee, NYC, yours truly with some stage dive action, 1992, Photo: Traci McMahon

Tim Pryce - Powerhouse part II

The is the continuation of our interview with Tim Pryce, the guitarist for Miami, Florida's late 80's hardcore band, Powerhouse. Read on and more importantly, if you haven't heard Powerhouse, search the demo or New Age 7" down now! -Tim DCXX

Any memories from recording the Powerhouse demo? How do you remember it being perceived locally and nationally at the time?

The demo was made with a really cool drummer named Mario. He was into a little more metal than we were, but he was a great drummer. I think I played both the bass and the guitars on the demo. Back then we just wanted to have something to share with everyone we were writing to. Before the internet, everyone would just order demos straight from the bands - and we wanted to be a part of that, to show that we had a really cool, growing HC scene in Miami. Personally, I made so many great friends from then – a lot of them (like you, Timmie!) I still talk to a lot. Sometimes I just can’t believe it’s been over 20 years…



Any favorite or stand out shows you remember playing during that demo era of Powerhouse? Did you feel a solid momentum behind the band at this point?

Oh yeah! We had a blast playing shows and meeting touring bands! We played The Cameo Theater, and pretty much every other venue we could at the time. We got to play with Up Front, Release, SNFU, The Accused, even Quicksand! We wanted to tour really badly. In fact, Mike Hartsfield had a US tour booked for us with his band Against The Wall – but a lot of the members were too young to pull it off. We were pretty poor and didn’t even have a crappy van to go in…


Tim Pryce (Powerhouse) and Tony Downs (The Believers) hanging with Insted and crew in 1988, Photo courtesy of: Tim Pryce



As Powerhouse was coming up, I recall hearing about other Florida bands like The Believers and Awake! What can you tell us about those bands and what other bands of that era stood out?

The Believers were a really great band from West Palm Beach. They were much more musical than we were – I mean, they could PLAY! I still talk to Dain and keep up with Tony. Those were great guys. Awake were from Tampa (I believe). We played with them a bit, but we talked a lot – they were also really good! There also was Beyond Reason (featuring the great Jason Lederman) and a few others that were really good as well. 



One thing I do recall hearing a lot about in regards to the late 80's early 90's Florida HC scene was the influx of nazi skinheads. Was this a serious problem at the time or was it just over magnified? What can you tell us about it?

The skinhead scene in South Florida (Miami & Ft. Lauderdale) was completely non-racist. There may have been a few of those kids in WPB, but it was a problem in other cities in Florida. Those guys would come down to our shows sometimes just to have all-out war with us. Not too fun…but we held it down. That was a big part of what we stood for with Powerhouse. It meant a lot to us (still does, of course). What sucked about that whole “rivalry” was that touring bands came through, not knowing where the audiences happened to be from, and just thought our scene was crazy violent. It was bad, but the people who lived in our scene were stand-up cool people. It was hard at times trying to convince people from out of town of that…

John Joseph - Cro-Mags

JJ with the Cro-Mags at Teatro Novedades, Photo: Jorge Luis

Here's some highlights from an interview with JJ done by Fredrik from "Nettverk for dyrs frihet" when the Cro-Mags were recently in Europe. Check the full interview here:

http://www.dyrsfrihet.no/zine

-Gordo DCXX

You know, we are looking to release something next year. We always just roll with the punches. We want to release something with this line-up. My philosophy is: "I don't talk about shit; I just do it." When it's getting ready to come out you will hear about it.

H.R. actually personally had a hand taking me to all the vegetarian places. He personally showed me around in New York, took me to Angelica Kitchen, Vegetarian Paradise. That really helped my life in a big way. The family that surrounded the Bad Brains in the early eighties was very special. We felt like a real family, almost sadhu-like.

H.R....was very much like a sadhu, like a sage, a very wise person, very knowledgeable, very humble. Seeing somebody act like that was inspiring to me. There was no ego. There was no: "You should do this because I tell you to do it". H.R. was on a different trip: "You should do this because Jah wants you to do it". That was the difference, he was a very humble man, very knowledgeable and so was the whole crew.


Cro-Mags at the BNB Bowl, 2010, Photo: Stress

Nobody likes people that have egos and act like rock stars. The Bad Brains were the exact opposite and they were the baddest motherfuckers ever and they were the humblest, so that should tell you something.

Me, this is my thing: I don't drink, I don't take drugs. [A random dude sitting next to us during the interview puts his beer down]. Hah, he put his beer down! I don't paint X's on my hands and I don't preach to people...and that was my problem with all the vegan straight edge. A lot of them in the States were a bunch of assholes that thought they were better than everybody else. They talked down to people; they were up here, and you are down there. That's all bullshit. Those dudes are all eating fucking McDonald's and shooting heroin now! You can't be a fucking dick like that.

You got to help people out of compassion. That's why I wrote the book. I've gotten five hundred e-mails at least, saying: "Dude, the book makes so much sense. I've gotten off all the processed food. I gave up meat. I'm starting to work out again." That to me means everything. Money means shit. But if I can help someone…and every person you make vegetarian/vegan saves a thousand animals. That is the greatest work ever!


A Cro-Magnum sing along at BNB Bowl 2010, Photo: Future Breed

Whatever it takes to wake the male population up. No one has ever written a book like this that got in the face of the men from whom I was told that vegans and vegetarians look like skinny little pussies. That's why I threw it back in their face.

Even before Best Wishes I was working on those songs with Harley and I left just before it was recorded. That's why we still play Crush The Demoniac, because I wrote it. So like I said last night: "The Cro-Mags and what it stands for is bigger than any individual, it's about the message of the fucking band". And back in the day, everybody that came together made that band. If you would have taken out Mackie, Parris, Harley or me, there would have been no Cro-Mags. I mean Doug didn't write anything, and he came in right before the record. He gets no credit. He didn't write any of the songs. He just played guitar on the record. This guy [points at Mackie], me, Harley and Parris were responsible for the Age of Quarrel, the demo and even part of Best Wishes. So if you are going to remove anyone of those from the equation there would be no Cro-Mags.

That's where we differ. Those dudes [referring to Harley and Parris] tries to act like they were the Cro-Mags and nobody else mattered. I don't say that. I say everybody was an integral part of that band at that time. But the reason we are out doing it is because we kept the PMA. We kept the Positive Mental Attitude. If those dudes want to talk shit and do all this other stuff and whatever and write shit on the internet, be my fucking guest. But doing shows like this is what it's all about. We tried to get it together with Harley, and it just created more problems then what it was worth. So fuck it.


Cro-Mags at CBGB, NYC, Photo: Carl Gunhouse

Cro-Mags fans, it's all about being a seeker of the truth. You got to get to the bottom and the truth of everything. That's why we're still out doing what we do and I chant everyday. Still to this day, people ask me "Are you still into Krishna?" What do you think? It's like some fad, "I was into rave music and parachute pants and platforms and now I'm not"? It's a life-long process, where we all have to purify ourselves. So read Prabhupada's books every day and chant. You don't need these bogus gurus; that's what I got to say. It's a cult. They turned it into a cult. You are not allowed to question what they do. They are untouchable. Bullshit. I want to know everything they do. And anyone who wants to know, you can know!

The members of The Beatles were great sadhus in their last life. The Beatles, the biggest fucking band ever...hey were so affected by Prabhupada, because at first they served another "guru" Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, but then they found out he was banging all the female disciples. Then they looked at Prabhupada and he slept on the floor, he cooked for everybody, he served everybody. Humility. They knew that Prabhupada was a real sadhu, a really special person and acknowledged that whatever his mission is we need to help.

Did you see the tribute concert they did for George Harrison? Tom Petty got up and he said in front of every major music star and celebrity in the world in this theatre and he goes: "Right now I want you to do something that would make George very happy. Are you ready?" And the audience say "Yeah". Tom Petty continues: "Everybody say: Hare Krishna" and the whole audience said "Hare Krishna". George was an amazing, amazing person.



It's not about materialism. You can have all the money in the world and guess what? You can't stop death from coming. When it's your time no amount of money is gonna stop death.

That's why at forty-eight years old… Motherfuckers say: "How long are you going to keep doing this?" What do you mean? When I don't feel it in my heart anymore. But I hope to be playing until it's time to leave the world because I believe what I'm saying on stage. The lyrics are based on Prabhupadas teachings and what I've been through in my life. So how can I ever turn away from that and be like: "I don't believe in this anymore"? Then kill me. That's what I say, because then my life is over.

The Bad Brains and all these bands that I was listening to were trying to make me aware and conscious. That's what needs to come back into the music. Not: "I can dance like this and have tattoos and do this and do that". Because those are the people who are not going to stay with it. So when you ask: "How long are you going to keep doing this?" Why should I stop? I didn't get into it to make money. If that was the case I would have left a long time ago. It's not about money. It's about: "I feel it in my heart". You can't fake what we do. That’s real shit; I'm not bragging. If I go on stage and I don't feel it in my heart, then it's over.


JJ brings it with the Cro-Mags at Super Rock, Photo: Sebastian Delacruz

Hopefully we will get this new album going. One thing is for sure, we would rather not do it than to do something half-assed. So we don't talk; we will just do it and put it out. Then we will be back man.

You should ask Craig "Ahead" a few questions now. The man is a fucking legend, but humble like I said.

Craig "Ahead": Playing with Sick Of It All is the first priority; it's my band. But I love the Cro-Mags, they are my friends. They ask me to play, which is an honor, so I do play. So whenever I have the time and when Sick Of It All is not touring I play with the Cro-Mags, whenever possible. Because I enjoy it very much: great music with a great and important message. The traveling with Cro-Mags is very fun but also includes good conversations. We talk about many things that make me feel very much like a grown man. It's man talk of good topics between men. It's not nonsense talk about bullshit.

John Joseph: May I ask a question? How long have you been a vegetarian Craig?

Craig "Ahead": Between two and three years. I've not had a drink in eight.


Craig, JJ and Mackie with the Cro-Mags, Photo: Susanhek.com