DC Hardcore
- Thread starter stelfox
- Start date
bassnation said:
MALFUNCTION!
other tough guy core, besides tons of crappy modern bands who sound more like Pantera than AF (yes, i mean you Hatebreed!) are Wrecking Crew, Madball (who are very stupid, but basically started that whole band as a streetgang thing in HC), Sheer Terror, etc etc...
All I can say (or should that be "What can I say?") is that Dag Nasty ruled my High School years. I went online a couple of years ago and found all their original stuff re-issued on CD. They are by far the best hardcore band ever! If you don't know them, you'd do yourself a big favor to check them out!
And for those of you with kids, make sure to check out Pancake Mountain! Your kids will thank you
And for those of you with kids, make sure to check out Pancake Mountain! Your kids will thank you
matt b
Indexing all opinion
Melchior said:
one of the best SE hardcore 7"s (the one on first strike in the UK), but not the best band. surely that goes to bad brains black flag/ minor threat/...?
Melchior said:
ha! a period of great revelation 7"s (before they moved west, and metal)- inside out, slipknot, burn, YOT, judge, quicksand.
matt b
Indexing all opinion
bassnation said:
i think skrewdriver were an influence on a number of bands, the biggest being AF. but it was more about bad lyrics and stupid behaviour rather than out and out racism.
it seemed most prominent within NYHC / east coast street punk or matal HC bands.
but, i was gauging this from oxford
anyway back to topic: this is still an amazing compilation:
http://www.dischord.com/store?action=showRel&relNumber=32
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it was, as far as i could gather much more concentrated in within the NY scene. AF are a difficult band coz i think they're great, but kinda stupid, too. anyway, this thread wasn't supposed to be about me defending agnostic front, it was about DC hardcore, which was far more in line with my emerging politics at that point and a much greater influence on them, too.
bassnation
the abyss
stelfox said:
was you ever straight edge dave? what did you make of that movement?
at the time i found it to be quite radical but not something i've applied to my own life in any meaningful way (precisely the opposite in fact
. i felt it spilled over into a kind of machismo thing later though with bands like vegan reich taking it to ridicolous extremes.no i was most definitely never straight-edge, though given the hangover i have this morning i'm seeing certain benefits to it (and possibly radical islam, too).
i knew people who tried to be, but usually it consisted of weekdays of being "straight and alert" and then falling off the wagon in spectacular style at weekends.
i think the straight-edge thing was peculiarly american, an extension of shunning the mind-numbing effects of capitalism, being sharp at all times, not letting the man stick it to you, which is pretty macho really.
however it's pretty paradoxical that many of straight-edge's moral standpoints are mirrored by US christian conservatism nowadays.
the strangest point for me is that, in addition to drugs and booze, many straight-edgers now actually advocate sexual abstinence (possibly as a logical conclusion of emo, that emphasis on intensity of emotional connection and experience, therefore eschewing meaningless one-night hook-ups etc), which is conservative america's preferred contraceptive measure and fast becoming a very big, insidious problem for the US and the rest of the world (US government bodies refusing to give aid funding to programs in africa that promote the use of condoms etc, even though this will help stop endemic spread of HIV etc) and there is a quite strong pro-life undercurrent in straight-edge now, too, which we don't even need to talk about.
then again, this shouldn't be surprising. any kind of radicalism is always circular - go far enough to the left and you'll end up meeting with the right eventually.
still, the short answer is no. i always found that movement a bit silly, way too serious and have always enjoyed getting fucked up too much to buy into it.
i knew people who tried to be, but usually it consisted of weekdays of being "straight and alert" and then falling off the wagon in spectacular style at weekends.
i think the straight-edge thing was peculiarly american, an extension of shunning the mind-numbing effects of capitalism, being sharp at all times, not letting the man stick it to you, which is pretty macho really.
however it's pretty paradoxical that many of straight-edge's moral standpoints are mirrored by US christian conservatism nowadays.
the strangest point for me is that, in addition to drugs and booze, many straight-edgers now actually advocate sexual abstinence (possibly as a logical conclusion of emo, that emphasis on intensity of emotional connection and experience, therefore eschewing meaningless one-night hook-ups etc), which is conservative america's preferred contraceptive measure and fast becoming a very big, insidious problem for the US and the rest of the world (US government bodies refusing to give aid funding to programs in africa that promote the use of condoms etc, even though this will help stop endemic spread of HIV etc) and there is a quite strong pro-life undercurrent in straight-edge now, too, which we don't even need to talk about.
then again, this shouldn't be surprising. any kind of radicalism is always circular - go far enough to the left and you'll end up meeting with the right eventually.
still, the short answer is no. i always found that movement a bit silly, way too serious and have always enjoyed getting fucked up too much to buy into it.
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throughsilver
Well-known member
Yeah, there is a lot of slowness out there. I wouldn't personally go for Monkey in that list (they were amazing, but very groove-based and quite hardcore in their guitar attack. That EP was prime Sludge, admittedly).matt b said:
Bongzilla are entertaining enough, Burning Witch were awesome (precursor to Sunn(o))), just more evil). Cavity, Neurosis, Sleep, CORRUPTED, early Swans, Sourvein, Palehorse... there were loads.
I was a tad young for 13 and Fudge Tunnel, but they might count too.
And to make this thread totally circular, I guess the missing link between DCHC and Sludge would be this dude:
Wino: Bridgin' the gap.
Loving this thread! My musical roots, Boston (where I grew up - anyone remember when Jack/choke started showing up at drumnbass parties and maybe -talking about- spinning hardstep dnb?), DC (Bad Brains and Fugazi esp) and NYC..
Though I've got to shout out the West Coast - FEAR - for the absolutely appalling lyrics and great music. I guess they prepared me for dancehall..
OUtside of the Dischod scene there were lots of straightedger who were in no way anticapitalist, they were jocks of the "physically strong, morally straight" variety. Much of the straight edge hardcore scene was quite conservative in a way that any regular rightwinger would recognize. And along with sexual abstinence was often a sincere confusion about women, I think. WHere we fit in to the ethos, or didn't. Being female in the scene was a funny thing. You ran into a lot of "queen bees" who didn't want another woman about, even if we were all 'one of the guys.' Part of the catharsis of Riot Grrrl was a response to that.
I guess I'm still straightedge, except after about 18 or so I lost interest in making speeches or lecturing other people (or getting fussed about what other people do).
Though I've got to shout out the West Coast - FEAR - for the absolutely appalling lyrics and great music. I guess they prepared me for dancehall..
stelfox said:
OUtside of the Dischod scene there were lots of straightedger who were in no way anticapitalist, they were jocks of the "physically strong, morally straight" variety. Much of the straight edge hardcore scene was quite conservative in a way that any regular rightwinger would recognize. And along with sexual abstinence was often a sincere confusion about women, I think. WHere we fit in to the ethos, or didn't. Being female in the scene was a funny thing. You ran into a lot of "queen bees" who didn't want another woman about, even if we were all 'one of the guys.' Part of the catharsis of Riot Grrrl was a response to that.
I guess I'm still straightedge, except after about 18 or so I lost interest in making speeches or lecturing other people (or getting fussed about what other people do).
stelfox said:
Not exactly a new tenant for the Straight Edge scene, Remember this lyric?
I don't smoke
Don't drink
Don't fuck
At least I can fucking think
I can't keep up,
Can't keep up
Can't keep up
Out of step with the world
Cashing in...
I always found straight edge kids to have a zealous, almost religious, kind of attitude about them. As long as they weren't trying to convert me though I would still mosh with them. We could walk together and rock together (oh wait, that's a West Coast Hardcore refernce ... sorry ;-).
yeah, but it's a lot more in line with the prevailing view in the US than it was then, or at least as far as i can see.
straightedge is entirely compatible with it the christian right's attitude to sexual morality, beliefs and political strategies that have taken hold over recent years in a way that they never had before - that's what i meant by "now".
my bad.
i was at work and a bit rushed.
straightedge is entirely compatible with it the christian right's attitude to sexual morality, beliefs and political strategies that have taken hold over recent years in a way that they never had before - that's what i meant by "now".
my bad.
i was at work and a bit rushed.
matt b
Indexing all opinion
thought i'd ressurect this, as dan higgs from lungfish is touring at the moment- he's playing in a crypt in skipton!
which led me to listen to lungfish again for the first time in ages- still sound utterly fantastic. ridiculously underrated.
http://www.dischord.com/tours/danielhiggs
which led me to listen to lungfish again for the first time in ages- still sound utterly fantastic. ridiculously underrated.
http://www.dischord.com/tours/danielhiggs
I saw Higgs play last month and found it pretty awful, to be honest. The record is better. Live, some of the mouth harp and other pseudo droney things are nice, but he's essentially playing half a set of 'songs' that are blatant imitations of persian folk tradition and they sound just terrible, in my opinion - a good example of 'appropriation' that sounds like tedious johnny come lately to middle eastern music kitsch. With cliched, bad cosmic-spiritual 'lyrics.' Great voice though. I'll be seeing him again in a few weeks, as he's playing my town, and will be more than happy to reconsider. I have enormorous respect for Higgs and Lungfish, have his solo album, and was looking forward to seeing him, but. Oh he's also renamed himself as something Indian, I forgot what he said.
I've got a couple of mates who were seriously straight edge, uk based skaters, into the dc scene etc, they had a lot of self righteous stuff to unlearn as they entered the adult world imo. One of their brothers was a racist skin so i guess it was in some way a reaction against that and at the same time having your own set of moral standards.
Diggedy Derek
Stray Dog
I saw Daniel Higgs on Friday and thought it was pretty amazing, actually. Admittedly, he doesn't seem to have many songs, and the mouth harp business is pure novelty, but his songs I thought were incredible. So dry, so stark, with often just two strings, and a terse riff which he kept restating when you least expected it. And that voice, as old as the desert. It was like creeping death, but in a good way.
Haha, I knew that someone on dissensus would say something like this ^. And fair enough. But with all due respect to dd (whose writing I admire), his songs sounded more like someone aping kord bayat's setar playing + hippified lyrics than anything else. That's probably overly harsh on my part and as I said, I'll be happy to take back my words if convinced otherwise when I see him again next month. And yes, as I mentioned above, he has a special voice and apart from the disappointing show I have nothing but respect for Higgs and Lungfiish, listening to necrophones now in fact and enjoying it as always.
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