More Chicago Hardcore..

In 1998, I ended up starting a band with Brian Ryder (ex-Everlast, ex-Yellow Road Priest and he ended up in Trepan Nation after This band), A dude named Mike (He became pretty involved in Animal Rights after he stopped doing bands and for the life of me, I cannot remember his bands), Jody Minnoch (ex-Everlast, ex-Hinckley, and he even toured with Disembodied for a summer but never recorded with them he later ended up singing for TUSK). We only practiced with Mike 2 or 3 times and then We asked Jay Mast to play with us (ex-halfmast, ex-XPlagued with RageX, ex-Extinction and he later did Arma Angelus and Holy Roman Empire). We started writing music that sounded a lot like Damnation AD and even had a bit of a Groundwork influence on one or two songs. After a few practices we asked our friend Neeraj from Extinction (he later did these 2 bands called The Hope Conspiracy and The Suicide File and then later Sweet Cobra and Holy Roman Empire) to play with us. Everything clicked and eventually we decided on the name Sever The Cord. This band is definitely in my top 3 bands I ever played with. Jay was a great songwriter and Neeraj was a great guitarist, Brian was an amazing drummer, Jody was not only a great vocalist but one of the most captivating frontmen I have ever witnessed-so Yeah, a great band. Eventually, Neeraj let us know he was moving to Boston with some dudes from Harvest to start a band-we all know how that turned out. Then I think Jay decided to leave the band due to him having a baby and feeling that the band was taking away from his responsibilities-I also think he lost his job but can't remember.

They re-formed as I was getting ready to leave for the east coast. I also didn't have any musical equipment anymore and I was young and sad so I was hard to be in a band with (probably hard to be friends with). So I was asked if it was ok if they reformed without me, I said yes.


http://www.mediafire.com/?bsn4cmrygyfcxvq


These 3 songs are taken from the split 7" with Suicide Note. While I am not on the recording, these were songs that I had played multiple times and am proud of even if I wasn't on the recording. If you like heavy hardcore with a bit of a rock vibe at times, you know, like Damnation AD, Unbroken, etc,check it out. I think you will like it. I know I do.


yup.

Saginaw hardcore...

I think I was 18 or 19. My band was invited to jump on a show in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The show had a bunch of crust bands from Grand Rapids, a local christian metal band called Bones Of Adam, who, I'm sure were there for comedy relief, Naked Agression and,oh yeah, Hellbender also just sort of jumped on the bill..

Anyways, at that time, my old band was more concerned with "going off" then actually playing. We were going to show these kids we perceived as being out of touch with what was going on in contemporary hardcore/punk what it was all about. Why? Because we were young and arrogant. By the first song, most of the drums were strewn across the stage and a marshall head fell on my head.

Anyways, at that show we met these 2 kids-ben and jim. They had just moved to Grand Rapids from the Bay City/Saginaw area. They were stoked to meet kindred spirits, as were we.

They started coming down to shows in Kalamazoo and we would hang out with them up in Grand Rapids and eventually we ended up doing a split 7" with them.

Bev Clone, in my opinion, could have been huge. Unfortunately, they never were able to put together a tour and broke up after recording a final demo, which was great.

Here is the Bev Clone discography. The first 7" is pretty much just them doing Fugazi Worship, the split 7" material was dark and ugly hardcore, not unlike Union of Uranus. The final demo is a mix of the darker and ugly hardcore of the split 7" and the more chaotic Gravity records bands of the mid 90s.

I will always have fond memories of Tom, ben,Jim,Karl and Scott. Even removing myself from the ties to the band I find myself really digging this band..

Tom and Ben are in a band, that, in ben's words, is a mix of Southern rock and "screamo" (?) Karl and Scott are raising families and jim does Tristeza.
http://www.mediafire.com/?17ca4qnib4zmb5m

...so yeah. Check it!

Thrash Metal Magazine-where it all started..

I think I was 13 years old, may have even been 12. The grocery store in my shithole little town had a magazine called Thrash Metal. Liking metal and wanting to find more bands that sounded like Anthrax and Metallica either me or my little brother bought it. Yes, there were features on metal bands, but what I remember most were features on bands like Agnostic Front and Excel. There was also a small feature on this band called Bl'ast!. All of these bands seemed very intriguing and I was curious what the difference between this "hardcore" music and speed metal was. Anyways, here's Bl'ast's first lp Power of Expression. You probably already have it but if you don't do yourself a favor and get it. They do "damaged" era black flag almost as well as black flag did it, intense jams, occasional long songs, little train that could drumming. You get the deal.

http://www.mediafire.com/?jgmjdnmdgtm

working class jams????

I remember when this compilation dropped the review in MRR was pretty good but they thought the title of the cd was a little stupid-and rightly so. Jawbreaker, Friction and Buzzoven don't necessarily scream working class to me in my mind. But never mind all of that because this is a really good sampler. Very diverse-the allied recordings way. Besides being a gifted graphic designer, John Yates put out some really great records throughout the 90s. We have most subgenres of punk/hardcore represented and, in most cases represented well. We have the fast hardcore (strait up), sludgy metallic hardcore(buzzoven), artsy metallic hardcore (scrog), poppy "emo" (Jawbreaker, Friction,radon), A band that includes an ex-member of Crass (schwartzeneggar) who's song "happy hour" is just terrific, crusty drunkard punk (unamused and Pissed) and I guess sxe hardcore is kinda represented by Nations on Fire, etc.etc. Anyhoo, great cd and I didn't see it anywhere else online so download it if you like any or all of these bands, it's worth a listen. Now it's time for me to get back to preparing a bulgogi tofu recipe.

http://www.mediafire.com/?xka5acz6q9385ss

1990s dance party.

A trip back to yesteryear with the great It's For Life compilation. What we have here is Lifetime before they decided to be a pop punk band, One of my alltime fave edge bands, Ressurection (sic) and a who's who of 90s east and west coast edge bands such as Mouthpiece, Strife, mean season, flagman-you get the idea. My favorite songs on this are the songs "submerged" by Reveal and the Ressurection live version of "why?" but if you're into this style, it's an all around good compilation and a pretty good representation of the era and subgenre when sxe hardcore was in it's early adult years. So check it out (or don't).

http://www.mediafire.com/?5gh6xbjs5hdzpu3

Io

For me personally, the mid 2000's were an incredible time for music in Pittsburgh,PA, for three reasons (bands) 1. Pikadori 2. He Taught Me Lies 3. Io. They were all creating interesting and amazing music with alot of thought and plenty of interesting things to say. I was lucky enough to get to tour with and become closer friends with Pikadori and He Taught Me Lies, Io on the other hand i was only able to see twice and despite them being in the same group of friends, i never got to hang out with them much or become very close friends, despite all that i think their limited discography is one of the finest things to be bestowed upon my ears in the last 10 years or so. What we have here is a mix of frantic mid 90s emotive hardcore (ala bands such as mohinder) and thrash (their drummer jd, was also in crucial unit) with great trade off vocals and personal/political lyrics. (im actually quite terrible at describing things and im certainly not giving them their due credit here)

included in the two links below you'll find their lone full length "The Willow Snag" as well the 4 song demo that predates that (and has earlier/more raw versions of songs to be featured on the full length) as well as the track from the "Go Down Fighting,Come Up Smiling" (which was also re-recorded for the full length) in the other link you'll find their 'final songs' 7" which was recorded right before their last show but remained instrumental until about a year a half later when lyrics were written and recorded and the 7" was released at an Io reunion show in 2005 (in my top 3 best shows ever). Enjoy


the willow snag,demo,comp track
final songs 7"

A Review of "The Willow Snag"

Local Article/Interview with Io from 2002