Double Negative — Double Negative

• Artist: Double Negative
• Title: Double Negative
• Year: 2007
• Format: Vinyl 12 in.
• Rating (1-10): 8
• Owner: Tracy
• Acquired: 2007 – Got it from singer KC at a show.
• Keeper: Yes

There’s been more hardcore punk in my life this past week than usual, at least for over 20 years. I got to see, and meet, Double Negative at a show last week. Like many hardcore shows it was at a place not really intended for live music. In this case it was Gourmet Perks, a coffee house just down the street from my place. It was a fun show with a small but enthusiastic crowd of “hardcore” fans.

I also happened to finally see the movie American Hardcore in its entirety this weekend. The film is about the birth and evolution of hardcore punk in the years between 1979 and 1986. I was really involved in that scene and found the movie very interesting. If you weren’t, I’m not sure you would agree. To quote from one interview in the film, “normal people didn’t like this music, and we liked it that way.”

This is definitely a good hardcore album, and to be honest it certainly sounds better than most of the music from the original scene. It’s really on an altogether higher level. My favorite song is probably “Stop Growing.”

Seeing Double Negative live last week and playing the album a lot since then, along with watching American Hardcore has made me think quite a bit about what punk was, and is. Maybe it’s just because I’m older, but I can’t help wondering what is it all about now, this hardcore punk scene? In the movie a couple guys from Flipper make a point of saying “punk is dead, it’s over.” Well, after seeing last week’s show and listening to this record there’s no way I can agree with that. It may not be the D-I-Y music revolution it was decades ago, that can only happen once. But the spirit, attitude and principles of hardcore punk live on with new, younger fans and bands like Double Negative.

Double Negative
American Hardcore

Double Negative at Gourmet Perks in Asheville

New music for the new week… Double Negative from Raleigh, NC is triple hardcore and they’re playing at Gourmet Perks here in Asheville tomorrow night! That’s Tuesday, September 25, uh… 2007. This music ain’t for everybody, but if you like hardcore you’ll love this. I love it, though somehow it makes me feel old and young again at the same time. Check out the Double Negative page at MySpace for some tunes and more info.

Chickenfight!

Marginal Man — Identity

• Artist: Marginal Man
• Title: Identity
• Year: 1984
• Format: Vinyl 12 in.
• Rating (1-10): 6
• Owner: Mary
• Acquired: 1984 -At a show
• Keeper: Yes

Marginal Man was pretty inventive on Identity while still sounding like hardcore. I like the music and the playing, the sound is great too, but, and I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings, the vocals just don’t do it for me. It sounds like I’m singing or something. Anyhow, Mary got it at a show and we’re keeping it for nostalgia if nothing else.

Dischord No. 13

Egg Hunt — Me and You

• Artist: Egghunt
• Title: Me and You
• Year: 1986
• Format: Vinyl 7 in.
• Rating (1-10): 9
• Owner: Tracy
• Acquired: 1986 – Bought it when I worked at Mother’s Records in Hampton, VA
• Keeper: Yes

I’ve always loved this record. Egghunt was a too short-lived project by Ian MacKaye and Jeff Nelson, both from Minor Threat. “Me and You” has an excellent groove and a really big sound. The vocals/spoken words are intentionally on the verge of being completely inaudible. The flipside, “We All Fall Down” is very different but just as good. It’s rocked out in a melodic hardcore way. This really is an excellent record. Too bad there weren’t more.

Etched in the run off margins:

Side 1 – TOMAS IS INCENSED
Side 2 – LE CTEL TOMBE

You can get the full scoop on Egghunt at Wikipedia.

Various Artists — Alive and Kicking

Various Artists -- Alive and Kicking

• Artist: Various Artists
• Title: Alive and Kicking
• Year: 1985
• Format: Vinyl 7 in.
• Rating (1-10): 7
• Owner: Mary
• Acquired: 1985 – “Probably at a show…”
• Keeper: Yes

OK, that was a pathetically long lay off. Work gets in the way. We’re back with some more DC hardcore. Alive and Kicking is a six song, six artist 7 inch in cool milky clear vinyl. The bands are United Mutation, Gray Matter, Beefeater, Mission Impossible, Cereal Killer, and Marginal Man. I like pretty much all of it. Some of it is straight-up hardcore and some songs, like Beefeater’s “Wars in Space” with someone playing “out” on sax, are more art-edge punk.

And, no, this wasn’t put out by Dischord. It was released by WGNS Recordings and Metrozine. Mary thinks she got it at a show, but says she knew so many of the people in the bands that she may have bought it from one of the guys.

Various Artists — Flex Your Head

• Artist: Various Artists
• Title: Flex Your Head
• Year: 1982
• Format: Vinyl 12 in.
• Rating (1-10): 8
• Owner: Mary Earle
• Acquired: 1982 – Some record store in Rockville, MD

This is going to be a mega post, keep scrolling. This is supposed to be about the label Dischord‘s no. 7 release called Flex Your Head. And it is. But I have a couple related stories and graphics to share.

Is this music special? That depends. If you weren’t really interested, or old enough, when it was new, probably not. If you were there and into the scene then yes, absolutely. There was something exciting about punk and hardcore, the shows at any place people could gather, no matter how unlikely, and the whole by-the-kids-for-the-kids vibe that I haven’t seen again in the last twenty years. I know, that sounds like an old geezer talking. But has there been another truly grassroots music scene like that? Tell me.

My wife, Mary Earle, was on the scene at the D.C. shows way back when. She’s seen most of the bands on this compilation more times than she can remember. She’s still the most punk rock woman I’ve ever met. And I mean that in the best way. She does it her way and doesn’t care what people think. And I mean that in the best way too. She’s not cocky, just independent and above putting on airs, and the most naturally honest person I know. Punk rock.

Mary took this picture of Sab Grey, the singer of Iron Cross. They are on side two of Flex Your Head. Keep scrolling…

This is a flyer Mary saved. It’s from around the same time. Most of the bands listed are also on this record, except for Scream and Gang Green. I never saw Scream in D.C. but I did get to see them in London, believe it or not. Anyhow, click this flyer to get a bigger image, print it out and pretend you were there.

Anecdote time… Mary and some friends were hanging out one evening when John Stabb, singer of Goverment Issue, coined the term “Beef Edge” in a surrealistic, or maybe just sarcastic response to Straight Edge. Continuing the surreal sarcastic theme they collectively came up with a Beef Edge logo: The Black Flag bars logo with a cow’s head on one end and a tail on the other. Mary even made it into a t-shirt that her friend Mike Ryan wore. I like the logo concept so much I’m tempted to get some more shirts made now.

Back to the record… Eleven bands and 33 songs on a single LP. If you don’t like a song, at least you know it will be over soon. My favorite bands are Minor Threat and State of Alert. Everyone knows about Minor Threat. SOA had Henry Garfield on vocals, later known as Henry Rollins. The album included a photocopied set of pages for each band. I’ve included a handful of them below the album jacket pics. Check out Henry and Ian Mackaye in the bottom corner of The Teen Idles page.

These were good times. Kids, it’s time to start another the do-it-yourself music scene.

Etched in the run out margins:
Side 1 — From nothin’ to nowhere
Side 2 — Don’t let it go to your head

Bad Brains — Quickness

• Artist: Bad Brains
• Title: Quickness
• Year: 1989
• Format: Vinyl 12 in.
• Rating (1-10): 8
• Owner: Tracy
• Acquired: 1989 – At our store RIP Records in Norfolk, VA

Ah… back again to greatest band ever, Bad Brains. I know a lot of people were excited to know “Quickness” was coming out. It’s very solid record, if not as mind blowing as “I Against I.” Apparently, it was their best-selling album. Recorded in between break ups of the original band members, like a lot of their stuff, to me it feels like something is missing. There’s more hip hop, more metal, and even some reggae again, but something seems off. Maybe it’s just me. All that said, overall it is a great album. Every time I hear “With the Quickness” I want to stage dive off the couch, only the kids aren’t big enough to catch me, yet.

Bad Brains — I Against I

• Artist: Bad Brains
• Title: I Against I
• Year: 1986
• Format: Vinyl 12 in.
• Rating (1-10): 10
• Owner: Tracy
• Acquired: 1986 – Bought it when I worked at Mother’s Records in Hampton, VA.
• Keeper: Yes

The Greatest Album by the Greatest Band Ever!

“I Against I.” Bad Brains.

That is all.

(Third image is back of lyric sheet.)

Bad Brains — Rock For Light

• Artist: Bad Brains
• Title: Rock For Light
• Year: 1983
• Format: Vinyl 12 in.
• Rating (1-10): 10
• Owner: Tracy
• Acquired: Not sure.
• Keeper: Yes

Again, my favorite band ever, Bad Brains. This “Rock For Light” album has always confused me. A lot of the songs are re-recorded versions of stuff from their earlier self-titled release on ROIR Records. At the time ROIR Records was actually a cassette-only label. I used to have that “record” on cassette, but now I can’t find it. For some reason “Rock For Light” is mostly made up of songs from that cassette and the rare “I and I Survive” EP I’ve already posted.

Bad Brains — there has never been, and never will be another band like them. “Rock For Light” at Wikipedia.

Dag Nasty — Wig Out at Denkos

• Artist: Dag Nasty
• Title: Wig Out at Denkos
• Year: 1987
• Format: Vinyl 12 in.
• Rating (1-10): 5
• Owner: Tracy
• Acquired: 1987 – Probably bought it when I was working at Mother’s Records in Hampton, VA.
• Keeper: No

When these Dag Nasty records came out I remember most everyone I hung with liking them. I guess I did too, then, but now they just bore me. “Wig Out at Denkos” is less enjoyable than their first record, “Can I Say.” It sounds like the death of hardcore, or maybe hardcore dying, painfully, as it moves on to an afterlife filled with guitar solos and even an acoustic ballad. If you can’t really sing, stick to screaming.

Dischord No. 26.