BLACK SS / SICK FIX WEEKEND TOUR DIARY

Day 1 -
One thing about my band is that we just cannot be on time. It's scientifically impossible. Show tonight is in a basement in nj with a 6pm start time... We didn't leave Syracuse till after 1. So just as sure as the sun will set this evening, bss will be late yet again. Providing transportation is our good pal biff from I object/brown sugar. Anyone that knows him will tell you he's one of the most crucial fellas on this planet.. So I'm very excited to have him with us this weekend. His iPod has also made the journey with us. Interesting mix. From bold and impact unit to dead kennedys to some bullshit that may have been led zepplin or some other
Marijuana music.

I've been in the back of the van watching don't be a menace to south central... On my phone. After a short nap I rocked the newer af record. Man that shit is good.
Gas is ridiculous. I don't really go anywhere so maybe I was a little oblivious, but we have burnt through about 100$ since cuse an still have an hour to go. Hope the shows are good.
(after show)
Yup, show was good. Show was in a basement by the rutgers college area. Seems like this piece of nj is inhabited only by dudes that tan and lift weights, wear gold chains, and drive mercedes. I commonly refer to these types as d-bags. As to not offend my good friend buckles I'll hold off on calling them guidos. Another thing I'd like to point out is no basketball court was in sight. Disturbing.
First band up was shitfit I think. 3 dudes in 1 band. Pa kinda sucked but they were decent. Not much banter in between songs which is sometimes ok in my book. The bass player had a big beard that reminded me that even at 31, I could never make that happen. Shit. Next up was draize. Pretty good band with fast parts And the crushing slow parts. Kids seemed real into them. Sick fix destroyed the place next. Fucking pa system kept me from the max wig out, but that band is so good. They played some new stuff that was incredible. Definetly still one of my favorite bands.
Black ss closed out the night.. Doing what we do.
After the show the fun really began... That is if you count eating fun (I do). We headed out to the grease trucks. Wow. What can I say? I had the fat Philly. This beauty had it all... Gyro, cheese steak, mozz sticks, fries,chicken tenders and hot sauce all on a delicious roll. Me and chuck were so pumped we were making plans to buy our second sandwich after only 1 bite. After getting it down though, we both figured it'd be best not to. I hope they are open for breakfast. The vegans even have their choice of fat sandwiches. What a beautiful way to end the night. We headed to our friends spacious home for a good nights sleep and to get ready for the party that is Albany.





Day 2.

After throwing pennies at mr biff to wake him up we hit the road and went looking for the grease trucks again. On the way I ran into tj maxx to get sunglasses and some new headphones. Both were pretty "urban" if you will.
Thankfully one of the grease trucks were open so I got the fat bitch this time. Biff and buckles finished up their jar of veganase on their sandwiches. Those guys love that stuff. They used a bacteria ridden knife to spread it all over their shit. I'll miss those fat sandwiches.
Show in Albany was pretty cool. Local band reptar was awesome. Young straight edge folks who kept it fast and furious. Sick fix killed it yet again. Early mic problems kinda gave their set a slow start but it quickly started being the steamroller that I love and the mosh began. Bss played next then the almighty face value took the stage. They played a bunch of songs off the first ep. which I'm most familiar with. Seemed like the place kinda cleared out before they began which was a bummer. I wasn't really expecting a mob scene, but thought they deserved a little more then what they got. Erba seemed cool with it and was the true showman we all expected. After the show we loaded up, dealt with the Albany druggers, hit up our favorite diner, and finally hit the sack... All right!




Day number fuckin 3

NYC today... Very exciting. After an exhilarating ride into Brooklyn care of biff (and shirtless Sunday!) we met up with our Syracuse buds andy and jon. me and buckles left the crew behind and ventured in the big city. luckily for us it started to pour while we stomped through the streets in search of delicious food, nerdy comic shit, and of course wild entertainment. First things first... The damn food. After Taking hundreds of unnecessary steps we finally found our destination.. Vegetarian paradise 2. Buckles had tasty chicken and I destroyed a crab cake and veggies with beef. Paradise indeed.
After the feast we hit up some comic store. I dont really care for the colorful hand drawn books, so i checked out the bootleg dvds and toys. Nothing good so we split and headed to times square to people watch. We saw some great ones this day.. a handsome black man dressed in a little girls tutu, crown and face full of badly applied makeup... 2 crazies shooting fake lightening bolts at each other and acting like their force fields were being damaged, and of course random a-hole tourists who enjoy staring up at the big buildings, not watching where they walk...and in turn running right into me. I think this happened about 200 times. We then took the L train to brooklyn for the show.
I very much enjoy my iphone. Part of that enjoyment is the maps function. If only we had used it. Once again, me and buckles took about 10,000 steps too many walking around in circles. Fucking brooklyn. Showtime was at 7pm and I think we finally made our way there about 7:15. First band was on and the rest of the band was AWOL (get it?). After my angry phone call to them about not having shit set up, we met up and set up the precious merchandi$e. As we loaded in I was listening to agnostic front trying to imagine being in one of their music videos as I walked the streets of NYC.(At this point, Id like to point out that we had very little band money and a whole lot of expenses ahead of us. The turnout (which id say was 1/4 syracuse transplants) was less then stellar so Id have to turn into crazy danny and offer those hot deals on the merch. While my charm didnt really bring in the big bucks, our syracuse pals bought up our wares and we ended up with just enough to cover the weekend...thanks!)
So that first band... I only caught like 2 songs but they were rough. I remember telling someone that I hope it gets better. Well folks, it did not. Next band was bad. The band after that was bad. The band after that....yup, bad. In fact the band before Sick Fix had me searching for a anvil that I could toss up in the air so that I may run under it. You know how nirvana had those annoying moments of feedback and nonsensical screaming? Well this bands whole set was that. They prob played for 25 minutes but it felt like forever. Mentally and physically drained I helped sick fix set up and tried to get stoked on the show again. After they rang out that first note I woke back up and got back into the swing of things. That band needs to get a full length out asap. Everything they do is awesome. Hard as nails, fast as fuck, straight edge, and songs that mean something. Bands cant seem to escape the bullshit american nightmare style of lyric writing. Maybe its the age thing, but if youre that depressed maybe you should start listening to crap like the cure and blend yourself into that scene....fucking winers.
Anyways, SICK FIX = the damn best.
We set up after that storm of hate and edge, and whipped through our set. Kids seemed to be into it. Chuck said kids in NY are too cool to dance, so there ya go. After our set some dude brought us some free food from the health food store he works at. I was a bit apprehensive because I had a feeling it was old shit that was getting tossed anyways, but I was starving so down it went. Id like to thank that man, my colon has never felt so cleaned out from the chicken and peppers thing I ate. Yikes.
I dont remember much about the ride home other then buckles freeaking out about running out of gas since no gas stations were open. Fucking NJ.
We finally arrived home at 630am on monday and I decided to go to bed instead of right into work.
So thanks to mike, buckles, chuck and biff for making the weekend awesome. Lets do it again sometime!

ATTITUDE and PRISONER demos...

Here are 2 Syracuse demos that people may not have. More to come!




ATTITUDE- the ill faced method demo
grab it here...

RED RANGER - vocals
DAN K - guitar
MIKE X - drums
TOMCORE - bass

Before the US tours and larger label records, ATTITUDE started out as a reaction to the style of hardcore that Syracuse was producing. It was almost everyones (except Ranger) first band, and we just wanted to play fast traditional hardcore with a little mosh. None of the bands out at that time in Syracuse really did anything for us so we figured we should just do it ourselves. Although not very good, we were really pumped on it at the time and we accomplished what we set out to do. If anyone has a copy with the speech at the beginning hit me up!
Lyrics can be found here



PRISONER demo
grab it here..


I had tomcore, who played bass in PRISONER, send me some info on the band---
Band:
Travis Hance - Guitar
Tony Bonejack - Drums
Tomcore - Bass
Charles Hickey - Vocals

Formed in 2004 I think, its a bit hazy back then. Chuck, Travis, and Tony had been jamming out some songs for a while with the intention of Chuck playing bass and someone else singing. Whoever that was fell through so the duties fell to Charles. They were then in need of a bassist, which is where I come in. Chuck played me the songs in my car one night outside of the infamous Cosmo's diner, and I instantly fell in love. I was in a band that gave me basically no creative outlet and loved the different sound, kind of mix between old DC and NYHC, real raw sounding with a harder edge. With me filling in the line-up, we quickly finished up a good set of songs. We recorded for free in Ogdensburg, NY at Ed the Dill's house, which may be Travis's cousin, I can't remember. Holy rough, we weren't able to punch in and with me barely knowing the songs I didn't help write, it definitely took some time. Chuck also was feeling sick that day and I remember his voice going fairly quick due to the lack of punch ins. We play our first of maybe 4 tops shows at the first ever New Blood Fest at the WCC. The only things I can remember are Travis being ignorantly loud and Charles wearing a flannel shirt looking hard and reminding me of Mike Judge. Mike Delaney has this set of video tape so you know no one will ever see it. I think maybe 6 to 8 months after this we called it a day. Travis, Tony and I went on to start My Way, and Charles continued to be the voice box of locals Black SS, AWOL, Black Mast, and We the People.

DAGGERS RULE - THE INTERVIEW

This quality chat was with punk rock pat and was published in COMBAT #1. Check them out here on the space.
Enjoy....



Well daggers rule isn't an active band anymore, but what was the most stable line-up? Edge status?
Probably our most stable Line Up was Mikey on Drums, Joe Mama on Bass and Devon on Guitar. We played some really good gigs with that lineup, including a ripping 2 shows in one day fun fest that included the gig you put on with Outbreak and Stand Accused in Auburn (you know, the one where I probably got the venue shut down by going through the wall during Outbreaks cover of “Right Brigade”?), and a metal show at the Half Penny with the last season, where they showed slasher flicks on tv monitors while we were playing. Good lineup. Nobody that has played in any lineup of Daggers Rule is still straight edge, except for one lone wolf, and that would be Patrick Michael Wilding, esquire.

As far as music goes, what did daggers rule put out?
We put out two different sessions out as self released demos. “Gnar-b-Que” from our second session ended up on the Assault City comp. on Reaper. Our 7” on Barbarossa records compiles the entirety of the first demo with two extra tracks from the Jocko session.

Pat you've been into syracuse hardcore longer then me, what would you say was the best local band over the years? Also, syracuse had a somewhat explosion of bands from 03 and on, how does that compare to say the mid 90s?
I’ve given this a shit ton of thought over the past day or so, and it is an incredibly difficult call, so I’m going to give you a half assed answer, because picking one is just too damn difficult. As far as the band that had the biggest impact on “the scene” (not to mention me, as a lad) as it were, and put Syracuse on the map, I mean duh, Earth Crisis. Live, they were a force to be reckoned with, had important things to say and were genuinely enraged about the injustices around them, and were certainly not afraid of letting you know. As far my personal favorite band overall, I’d probably pick the Funeral if I had a gun to my head. They had something for everyone. Heavy as fuck, fast, metal level musicianship, but still very much a hardcore band, one of the best live presences I’ve ever seen in a band as a collective whole, great conscious and progressive lyrics, pissed as fuck, AND they covered Infest, His Hero is Gone and Agnostic Front. How can you fuck with that? Black SS is my fave 315 band that’s still around though. To address the second part of your question Dan, I’d actually say that there are a lot of parallels between Syracuse hardcore in 1992-93 and ten years later. In the early 90’s a new sound was emerging, and a lot of the old Syracuse punks and Skins were going the way of the Buffalo, or getting into the whole E chug big pants vibe. The death metal scene was dying a slow agonizing death, the gurgles of which can still be heard today. There was a whole crop of younger bands, Framework (Pre ExC) Infusion, Flakjacket, Bonejack, Uprising (Later Green Rage), Soulstice and of course Earth Crisis. A lot of those bands only had demo’s out and there would still be a ton of kids flipping out for them. It was an awe inspiring if not a little scary time to start going to shows. None of these bands were doing anything purely original music wise but they were combining a few pre existing genre’s in some pretty innovative ways, and it was cool to hear a sound unique to the region developing. A lot of early 90’s Syracuse hardcore brings to mind Burn, Late era Turning Point and Inside Out with a shredded out almost speed metal guitar approach. Integrity’s those who fear tomorrow was a huge influence too. The Syracuse bands slowed down those influences a notch, and helped emphasize their lyrical focus, which were of the militant Vegan/SxE variety. Flakjacket and Infusion were definitely the black sheep, due to Flakjacket having skinheads in the band and sounding more like Breakdown than anything else and Infusion having a very prenounced Slayer influence. Both band’s were not exclusively SxE, back then, that was a bigger deal then it is now. Now fast forward 10 years later. The Syracuse scene, had gone through a lot of phases. John McKaig the promoter who put us on the map has all but completely retired except for the occasional new years day show. Hellfest was massive, and although it was good for Syracuse in the sense that it brought a lot of people up to the area to see bands, employed scenester’s like me to build stages, and I’m sure, got a whole new crop of younger kids into hardcore, metal, commercial emo etc., but in my eyes it had strayed a billion miles off the course of what hardcore had begun as in that town. Venues, had continued to be a problem, the Lost Horizon, our CBGB’s, had all but closed it’s doors completely with only the occasional show going on. There were a few venues for the bigger bands like Bane and such, but they were too big for a Grassroots, intimate hardcore show. The Planet 505 was a good mid sized venue, but it’s tenure as a venue did not last too long. Thankfully, there was the Westcott. The Westcott community center had been gaining momentum since the mid 90’s when guys like Ryan Hex, Keith Allen, Grant Johnson and Bob Swift started booking shows there. By 2003, a lot of the “older guy’s” along with some fresh faces started forming bands and playing shows. The Funeral, AWOL, Another Breath, We The People, Attitude, Hit the Lights, Whiteout, Walk the Line, John Waynes Severed Head (holding it down for the Punks), Ed Gein ( already been around for a few years and weren’t hardcore in musical style, but certainly were in ethics and spirit) and my two bands. There was a good amount of activity bubbling up, as well a lot of younger kids like Megz and Pauly Edge going to shows, booking shows, and publishing zines. After the planet closed it’s doors more and more of the focus of the scene was around the Westcott and there was a pretty big influx of kids aged 14 – 20 that came out of the woodwork to support it. Towards the end of the 90’s, there were a lot of bands I didn’t “Get” or particularly enjoy musically playing shows at the lost and Hungry Charlies. I’m not going to name any names, but the whole “Hard Guy” thug fantasy stuff was not what I was feeling at the time. I actually like a lot more of that stuff now, hahaha. The Westcott was always a good alternative where you could see bands like Monster X, Voorhees, The Pissed Officer’s etc, with like 20 other people. Also the rebirth of fast punk style hardcore began there as well with Set in Motion and Eternal Youth gigging there very frequently. Keith in Hell booked a lot of metal there too, which was something different at the time. By 2003 though, the Westcott was pretty much on par with the other venues in terms of attendance and crowd participation. There was bunch of new bands who were doing there own take on Hardcore Punk music, and were all friends, as well really awesome well known bands that drew lot’s of kids from all over Upstate started to play. The Rambo, Tear it Up, and No Time Left gigs there were milestones. It was definitely a new era. So where hardcore in 93 was a bunch of kids reinventing a preexisting sound and subculture by playing music on their own terms so was the Birth of ACHC in 2003. People can say what want about bands rehashing 80’s style hardcore, but AWOL, Black SS, The Funeral, The Promise and Daggers Rule and the rest of our colleagues where all taking different influences and doing something different with it, because Metalcore was getting stale. There’s my novel. Christ that’s long and convoluted. I hope it makes sense.

Are there any unreleased songs recorded or non?
Well, both demos had extremely limited runs, but yeah all the recorded material is out there. There is an alternate version of “Never Deny” that we recorded for our second demo with Jocko that never saw a proper release or Vinyl though. Hopefully somebody can use it for a comp. or something someday because I prefer it to the older version. It sounds a lot more like The Bruiser’s kicking the dogshit out of The Accused, which was the sound that was initially intended.

Explain "you just bought it!" for the folks at home and why has it become legendary to 315 hardcore ?
So DR’s playing one of the first (maybe the very first?) Unholy gigs with Dead Hearts and Plan 607 (I hope I got their name right) The latter were a bunch of older dudes that played heavily Misfits influenced punk with a metal tinge to it. Great bunch of guys, but I didn’t really know them too well as they played the Syracuse bar circuit almost exclusively, and rarely played all ages shows. Not knocking that, I just didn’t really know these guys. One of them was my old roommates Boss at a restaurant at Carousel mall, I think. Anyhoozle, in Joe Mama’s heyday in DR he always had to borrow bass gear from fools. I think he’s got some massive shit now for Architect, but back then he was what you would term a “Borrower”. So to play the Unholy show, the Bassist from Planet 505 from outer space lends him this massive tower of bass cabbage. I think Devon may have negotiated the lend, as he knew those guys too. I think. So we’re flipping out, I’m summoning hell with my throat muscles and jumping 12 feet in the air, Devon’s playing guitar, Mikey’s playing drums, and Joe Mamma isn’t so much playing bass as he was reliving those glory day’s of the late 90’s when guys in “Noise Core” (Deadguy, Coalesce, Early Dillinger) bands would attack the crowd with their instruments, by well, attacking the crowd with his instrument. It’s cool. At first, I was against it. It just didn’t make any sense, and I am a positive man. Over time though, I realized that Dagger’s Rule was a culmination of a lot of people, personalities and musical influences that didn’t make any sense, so whatevs. Life’s a garden, dig it. SO…in the midst of the THC soaked Hessian maelstrom that was Joe Mamma’s stage act, I notice that the young mans instrument cable is very taut. Slapping my forehead in dismay I rush to the ride side of the floor in a vain attempt to prevent the ugly inevitability about to take place. All for naught, I’m afraid. I could make an inappropriate 911 joke here, but since my name isn’t Choke, nor am I in that abortion of band called “Leftover Crack” I will not, that would be in poor, poor taste. Let’s just say that cab went down like Rosie O’donnel at the Lilith Fair. With a thud, the megalithic amp fell face first, and for about 10-15 secs. Joe didn’t notice, he was still raging. It was then that the bassist from Plan of Attack 77 runs over and points to his fallen gear and yells “YOU JUST BOUGHT IT!!!”. That yell echoed through the canyons of time. The first man to climb out of the primordial ooze heard it. Caligula heard it when he was banging a horse. Reginald Denny heard it when he was getting his ass handed to him by rioters. Rollins heard it when he sang “Clocked In” with Black Flag the very first time in NYC. This sentence is eternal. This was to become a catch phrase that would make “Where’s the beef?” look like “Don’t tase me bro!”. Braaains wrote a song about it, and people recited those words endlessly and with reckless abandon. When my other band at the time Hand of Glory went on tour with I Object, we must have yelled “YOU JUST BOUGHT IT!!!” at least 800 times per person, and at least 250 times all in unison. Ted AB incorporated it into his stage banter at a show we played with Another Breath on that tour which caused the crowd at the “Pirates Cove” in Allentown Pa, to explode into 7 person circle pit. The proprietors of the establishment were not pleased with our display of joy, and lectured us in a very Kent McClard circa 1992 manner. I would just like to take this opportunity to say fuck them. I’d also like to say “YOU JUST BOUGHT IT!!!” Thanks for the gas money, dweebs.

I remember the night you guys recorded the first demo at more sound... Tell me about that night and what you remember most.
To be honest man, I don’t remember that much. I remember recording the gang vocals for “Pissing out the Poison” with a bunch of people that aren’t edge anymore, and the unfinished 1st floor of Moresound having piles of shit everywhere, and keeping the weird sniff at the beginning of “Do not taunt happy fun ball”. I remember Greg Pier being fucking rad as shit, that’s what I remember.

airwalks with lace protectors, slide rails, tail guards, everslicks... What was the one thing skating back in the day could of done without?
Lace Guards – Ineffective, but pretty cool looking.
Rails – Protected sick Jim Phillips and Pushead graphics. Necessary.
Bridgebolts – I still use them
Everslicks – Fast sliding, good stuff.
Tail Guards – Okay we can ditch these. I need to maximize my ollies.


My favorite skate apparel from back then was my black pants with the red vision down the leg and my crucial skate rags jacket.. How about yours?
Ok, peep this shit. I would rock a pair of Ratbones sweat pants, or Limpies (there were like Skidz but thicker, for skaters), my black denim jacket with Anthrax logo on the back and fingerless studded leather gloves. I skated several different Natas decks over the years.

So tell me about the new 7" that just came out.
Joshua T. Smith put it out. It’s the first release on his label Barbarossa. Josh rules, and I’m really flattered that he wanted to release our demo stuff on vinyl. The artwork is by none other than the immortal Mike Tommyrot. He play’s the gits in your band, you know him. Tattooist extraordinaire, keen edged old punker, artist for everyone from the Boils to Path of Resistance. It looks like an old Santa Cruz graphic, but considerably gorier. Perfect. As of late, I’ve grown really tired of “Party Thrash” type bands with skating themes, and I’m glad we only wrote one skate song. I think that Mike really did that style justice for the art though. The colored vinyl looks wonderful as well.
You guys are playing a reunion show in late december in syracuse. Is this going to be the final dr show?
Nope. Our "last show” was a total farce so we decided that since we have a record out, we should play a record release. We’re currently holding conferences to determine whether or not we want to go out for a weekend. I think us calling it a day might have been a bit hasty. It’s a fun band to play in, and I don’t see the issue with playing the occasional gig for yucks. There seems to be a fair amount of kids that want to see us now. I wish they were there when we played with Have Heart and there was no one there because my 5 friends went to go get burritos, but you know, I’ll take four years later. S’cool.

Sum daggers rule up in 5 words.
You really just bought it.

Name your top 5 bands not named BOLD...(hahaha)
Man, you gotta let this bold thing go. Hahahaha.
The Accused
Husker Du
Saint Vitus
Sheer Terror
New Model Army

These are subject to change at any time.

CRUCIAL CAVE - pt II

Its 87 degrees out right now and I just got done mowing my lawn...enough outside for today. Thankfully I have Arnold Palmers half and half and my Mcmahon USWA heel run dvd. But before all that its part 2 of the cave!

WRESTLING FIGURES:


Yup, its that rebirth of HC comp poster that alot of people had hanging on their wall around 99 or so.... or at least should of been. Notable things from this picture... a stack of unsold COMBAT HARDCORE FANZINES, boxes and boxes of unsold HIT THE LIGHTS 7"s (quick shout out to REVHQ.COM for selling these to unsuspecting fans of the other HTL), an NWA yearbook program from the 80's, empty cd cases (the whereabouts of these cd's are a mystery to this guy), and of course the start of my wrestling fig collection. These are actually the final set of figs I bought and the ILL expansion of another wall was being felt. And no, that is not the hammer of justice....its the hammer of HATE.

AHHH yes... the elliptical machine. Took me about 3 hours to put that together about a year ago...for the 45 minutes of use Ive given it. Anyways this picture shows a bulk of my collection.






MORE MORE MORE...I guess you get the hint by now. In this picture a vital VHS wrestling collection once owned by SYRACUSE HARDCORE SCENESTER joshua smith. He was stoked to part with it and I was equally as stoked to take it from him. Id also like to make it known I dont wear those masks while Im alone watching said tapes.

So there ya have it... the cave in all its glory. Now I can get back to being grumpy and talking about hardcore.....

THE CRUCIAL CAVE....part 1

Although I was planning on talking about overproduced HC vs the dirty, unpolished variety Ive decided to spotlight the hidden gem of north syracuse.. the crucial cave. The crucial cave was the recording house for such syracuse hardcore classics such as the HIT THE LIGHTS demo and the 1st BLACK SS demo. Dan Johnson of BLOOD RUNS BLACK, THE LAST SEASON and UNHOLY fame took care of recording duties (between smoke and pizza breaks) and HALO 1 was the video game of choice while people were doing there shit down in the cave.
These days the CAVE houses an impressive figure collection, if i do say so myself. Im getting to the point these days where I want to simplify my life a bit and thus Ive decided to disband my collection via ebay. But before I do, I present the CRUCIAL CAVE in all its nerdery!!

THE ROCKY WALL:





Although I was a little late in the game on ROCKY figures, I was able to obtain all but series one (I did get the MEAT and ADRIAN) figures. I love ALL the ROCKY movies and these figures by JAKKS are pretty crucial. I especially like the battle damage figures. After they released the ROCKY BALBOA figures JAKKS decided to further empty my pockets by releasing 2 series of BEST OF's. A 3rd was planned but they decided to discontinue, allowing me to get the hook up on alot of figures at half off. I was also able to get the ROCKY 6 pack which Ill probably never part with as its my favorite piece of the collection. Did I mention Im almost 31? Moving on...

MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE COMMEMORATIVE RE-ISSUES:



Although not very rare (you can still get these pretty cheap on ebay), these fuckers are a lot of fun to look at. MOTU was my favorite cartoon growing up and luckily always came in on our tv on saturday mornings. No cable tv in my household, no no no... you want clarity? Move the antenna. Thats how we rolled growing up. Watching WWF superstars at noon on channel 9 was always a gamble...but of course it was the gamble I was willing to take. ANYWAYS, he-man was my jam back in the day and I still remember my mom taking me to KMART on grant blvd in auburn on my birthday to get some figures. I pretty much had them all and can still remember the smell of MOSS MAN stinking up my shit.

So on a random WALMART trip back in 2000 I hit up the toy isle and much to my suprise they reissued all the classics. I quickly sent my girlfriend to get a cart as I guarded the treasure I had just stumbled upon. This was a bad week for me as I had just gotten laid off from my job and really wasnt into looking for another so this brought instant happiness to a relatively gloomy ass week. So armed with that info, how was I to pay for these classics? I did what most unemployed fellas did at the time..I PUT THEM ON LAYAWAY. Yes I did. It took about 2 months but they were eventually mine! Sick. I later found the skeletor/panthor at FLYING TURTLE. Although this collection is far from complete, they are really an ill and exciting part of the cave.

PART 2 will dive in to the wrestling figure heaven that I have amassed.

QUICK SHOUTS: N SYRACUSE BASKETBALL KREW, BUCKLES NEW RIDE, OREO-SPIT SANDWICHES AND GTA 4. ITS HUUUUUUUUGE...
XXX

UNITED BLOOD AND THE OBSERVATIONS FROM THE MERCH TABLE...

Me and my crew (pk and tomcore 9 mile) made the trip to Richmond VA for the UB fest this year. I was going to write out a little journal about the trip, but it was your average long ass drive(listening to hardcore and comedy records and talking about M4L shit). So INSTED, ill just talk about my time at the REAPER merch table where my ass was parked for almost the whole 2 days.
We had a pretty crucial spot in the venue. Right above the stage and in an uncramped area. It was nice having the bands play right behind me so I could just turn around and watch while still helping out. The only time it sucked was when CRIME IN STEREO played. That emotional hc/rock thing they do made me want to take the mighty leap out the second floor window onto the broken glass and garbage filled alley below. But other then that, most of the bands were great. My only gripe is that alot of these bands are starting to sound the same. Mid paced, lots of slow mosh parts....I was just begging for a straight up hardcore band to play (thanks STEP FORWARD). Highlights of the fest were local RVA band NAYSAYER (who sound a whole lot like BREAKDOWN), THE WRONG SIDE, STEP FORWARD, MIND ERASER, TRAPPED UNDER ICE (who had the craziest reaction out of all the bands.), and BITTER END.
These two days had a massive amount of stage dives. Im surprised noone died.Kids really didnt give a fuck. They were just tossing themselves everywhere. It was pretty incredible to see. If someone could start constructing a stage for the WCC, I would love you long time. Stagedives add so much to a show...more than any side to side(no dummy, not SIDE BY SIDE), or bruce lee maneuvers ever could.
Although FREE POSTERS seemed to be the most desired merchandise, it was cool to see kids so stoked on the REAPER offerings. Syracuse is really lucky to have such a rad label from here and that it lets people know that syracuse HC is still alive.
I just we had a fuckin stage.

I'd be pretty fuckin bummed...

seeing YOT in this environment.Oh, you thought I meant the stage? Nah, im talking about the sellouts.

Great CHAIN OF STRENGTH interview....

from the old BAREBONES HC blog. check it

Cool shit I ran across today....

I was a real big ENVY fan back in the mid 90's and I found this pic on a board I read. Everything but the 7" pre-release.....which i just happen to have. Awesome.

BLACK FLAG 1982 DEMOS
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=2YMEVJAZ

FLIPSIDE #1 - http://www.mrbalihai.com/goof/Flipside/Navigation.html

Check out SEEKER ... as much as I FUCKING HATE myspace, been finding a shit ton of good hardcore lately.

THE EDGE OF QUARREL movie is finally out on DVD. If youve never seen it, its basically a punk vs straightedge flick in black and white with some sketchy acting. Kinda cool for a laugh though. You can grab it and view some of it at EXCURSION RECORDS.

Heres some random shit..

Im thinking these should be passed out black ss shows. Those albany druggers could really use them.


Buffalo hardcore legend LARRY RANSOM made this little documentary on one of my favorite hardcore bands, THE FIRST STEP. It came out pretty awesome and watching that live footage gets me so stoked on hardcore.

A few syracuse HC tidbits I forgot....

BARBAROSSA RECORDS is putting out a 7" by local hc act CULTURE SHOCK. Their record release show is saturday at the allen street house, so get there and check that shit out. Work is fucking it up for me but Im definetly stoked to get that 7" and support that awesome label.

Another record release will be on FRIDAY also at 560 allen st for ELECTION DAY. This will be the demo on 7" format. Again, I wont be able to attend but I look forward to getting that record ASAP.

I read today that the "315 IN RUINS FEST" was cancelled. Im still really not clear as to why, but I guess a few of the HC bands dropped off for another, but that still left plenty of the bar bands and atreyu loving jokesters to play. Sucks for the organizers. A show like that should of been promoted to the battle of the band type ZumieZ/hot topic folks anyways.

Not really HC related, but the toy store FLYING TURTLE out here in gorgeous north syracuse is closing its doors soon, so c'mon out and buy some shit and give pat a little support, he definetly deserves it. (p.s. the wrestling figure section still has some classics superstars and some of those ill rocky lego looking figs)

A FEW REVIEWS:
LIKE WOLVES: Benstrux is my boy. Crucial character to say the least. When I found out he was doing a new band I expected straight up thrash. So needless to say I was a little surprised that the music was a little more involved. Shits still real fast just more intricate guitar work. Usually that turns me off because Im more of a bare bones HC dude but Im diggin this. Hopefully they post lyrics soon as Id love to read them. Dude seems real pissed.

BLAKE INCARCERATED - What the fuck, found these guys on the 315 board so I figured id give them a listen. At first I thought LIFETIME, then I started thinking shit like LAGWAGON. I normally dont listen to shit like this but its not bad at all. Dudes voice gets a little annoying and girl lyrics should be left to MILO but pretty decent. I wouldnt want to see them live (or anyone else in this genre of music) because Id probably wanna off myself, but its cool music to chill too.

TABERNACKLE - Heavy band from RI thats making me kind of nervous. I keep hearing bands bringing back that mid 90s sound. I wish they would stop.

ABILITY - SIIIIICK bass tone. This band kicks ass. Members of VIOLATION, who also rule. Lyrics are your run of the mill (Im definetly not one to talk) but the dudes voice is snotty and awesome. Hopefully they come out to the superior coast soon.

BANDS SEND ME YOUR LINKS FOR REVIEW! HITTHELIGHTS AT GMAIL.COM

FORFEIT INTERVIEW FROM COMBAT #1

As requested, here is this goldmine with XTOMDOMX of FORFEIT...

Who is in the band, who does what and how'd ya get together?
Me on bass now, Wildcat (Brian) on guitar, Steve Baby in vocals and Ben
Shaw on drums. Ben and I used to jam out in his room and then steve baby
jumped in on vocals and Wildcat recently joined.

What bands was everyone in previously and what did you learn from them?
Ben and I were in Normandy and we learned nothing, Steve Baby was in
Earthquake and he probably learned how to function for three weeks only
eating beef jerkey and beer. Wildcat used to be in In Love and War and
he learned how stressful it can be to not have everyone pull their own
weight

Is forfeit going to tour? And if so what are your goals as a band?
Yeah we're leaving December 28th for a three week tour with Attitude and
we plan on touring all Summer too. Our goal as a band is to just tour
and have as much fun as possible.

What's the edge situation in forfeit?
Just me and Wildcat! Holdin' it down!

Give me 3 bands that give motivate, inspire or just plain get you through the day.
Three bands that really inspire me are Blacklisted, Judge and Earth
Crisis

What is your workout schedule these days?
On day 1's I do shoulders and legs, day 2's I do chest and triceps and
day 3's I do back and biceps. Then I rotate that as hard/easy days so
I'm able to rest. On day 7's I rest.

Hard or heavy?
HARD

what do you think of syracuse hardcore at the moment. Picking up
steam or losing ground?
I'd say it's picking up because Reaper is bringing back the hard sound
that Syracuse used to be known for. It lost a little bit of ground
because of My Way breaking up though!

What's the deal with the ep coming out on reaper records?
I'm so excited. We're recording five songs and hopefully they'll all fit
on the 7". It's going to be called "Visions"

Why do the internet fanboys hate nike?
Who knows! They always have to hate on how hard we mosh, the shoes we
wear, and Madball!

I really dislike "internetworking"....

but unfortunately I feel paper zines in todays HC world are a dying breed.

COMBAT started as such but after asking about 40 people at a local syracuse show to cough up $2... or $1 and getting dissed, I had to face the reality that times are changing and its an internet world now. Fucking sucks.

I hate myspace and all that bullshit. Messageboards can be ok, but even then noone has to stand behind what they say. Bands and labels cant even put a record out without it being downloaded before it even hits the distros. But thats HC 2008 .....and we gotta deal.

Hopefully COMBAT will return to paper in the future, but for now Im going to keep it in this blog. Im looking into usb turntables so hopefully I can start including some lost gems that I have chilling down in my basement amongst my wrestling and rocky figure collection.

Some syracuse HC news:

BLACK SS (my band) is currently writing for our new 7" that will be out on REAPER RECORDS. I believe that the 7" will also include a digital download card so you can put the songs on your mp3 player. Also coming out soon is the BLACK SS discography, also on REAPER. It will include all the demos, splits, the third party 7", Foreign Object LP and a live radio set from WERS in Boston. Tommyrot is drawing the cover as we speak, so that should be cool,

Speaking of REAPER, I saw the CRO-MAGS lp art work and its fucking awesome. Alpha Omega was always an iffy record for me. Some of the songs are really really hard but others were just kind of goofy (CRO MAGS RAP). But im really proud of my friends Patrick and DJ for documenting it on vinyl and giving it a proper release.

FORFEIT 7" just dropped on REAPER too. Im sure most of you have it, but if not stop fucking posing. The record release show was killer and I was really stoked to see such a great reaction for them.

BORN TO EXPIRE is a new local band that just posted a demo on their myspace http://www.myspace.com/borntoexpire315 .... Although I was a little bummed they dont sound like the almighty LEEWAY, I think over time theyll be a really good band. Im just glad their influences dont include crap like converge or with honor. This band is just straight up HARDcore.

EARTH CRISIS is playing shows again I guess.

FETCH THE PLIERS webcast is a new punk hc radio show on westcott radio. I havent listened since Im at work during its play time, but its named after an INFEST song... and that deserves a plug. http://www.myspace.com/fetchthepliersradio

ELECTION DAY demo 7" is coming out on a new label called secret jams (which has a pretty dope logo, i think). Ive never really heard this band recorded, but I saw them live and kids seemed pretty into them and I was pretty into the DAG NASTY cover. http://www.myspace.com/secretjams

LIFE OF CRIME has some new shit recorded. Not me really my cup of tea, but it might be yours dawg. http://www.myspace.com/lifeofcrime315

The 315hardcore.com messageboard has a section that the elder dudes have been posting old syracuse bands music in. To be honest I personally think alot of it is really bad, but its cool to see it available for you youngsters to grab and to learn a little bit of history while youre at it.

The VAN HALEN tour is over, and so is this first post on the COMBAT blog. Send your hate, straight ahead bootlegs or whatever else you have to HITTHELIGHTS AT GMAIL.COM