The day the music (Anthrax) died

Cool guys, right?

From 1987-1990, the years from 8^th grade until my junior year of high school, I certainly did not look “Cool.” Thankfully, there was a band that looked as ridiculous as I did. That band was Anthrax. I didn’t have the personality or good looks to pull off the traditional metal look, but with their goofy attitude and Surfline Original Jams, Anthrax really made me feel like I was one of them. Hell, in 9^th grade, I even wrote them an honest to goodness fan letter (that went unanswered, of course). They liked TMNT and Judge Dredd and as an added bonus, as a fledgling guitar player, Anthrax’s simple-yet-effective riffs were relatively easy to figure out, whereas I couldn’t even touch a Metallica or Slayer song; my fondness for them grew with each chug-chugalug of the open E string. 

The author, Christmas 1989 wearing a Sacred Reich shirt

I saw them in their peak of popularity in 1991 and though my tastes were heading towards more extreme music at that time, I still thought very highly of the band and of the thrash metal scene I had invested my interest in for the 4 years prior. Then something happened, something strange and unthinkable; Heavy Metal died. I think I recognized that bands were releasing subpar follow up records in the post Metallica Black Album world, but I was not prepared for the alternative rock boom. I was equally not prepared for Anthrax firing vocalist Joey Belladonna and replacing him with the guy from Armored Saint, whose voice I think straight up sucks (to this day). The Sound of White Noise sounded like they were trying to play the alternative rock game and I hate every fucking minute of it. Post 1993, I ignored Anthrax’s new material mostly, but still jammed Among the Living and State of Euphoria regularly.

Then it happened, the very moment Anthrax turned a corner for me that I couldn’t ignore; I went to see them with the newly reformed “Misfits” in Rochester, NY in May of ’96. They mostly stuck to Bush era songs- stuff I didn’t know or like. Then they threw out a bone to the old school fan, the intro to Among the Living kicked in and my friend John and I started moshing like crazy- “Duh-nuh-nuh-na-chug-chug-chug-chug-chug-chug-chug-chug.” I was so pumped. This is what I wanted- this riff, this moment. 16 year old me had taken control of my 21 year old body, I was metal thrashing mad. Then an open chord was struck and held for a long period of time. There would be no group chant of “Disease! Disease! Spreading the disease!” instead, guitarist Scott Ian yelled into his back up mic, “last chance to mosh- BRING THAAAAAA NOISE!” and fucking mumble mouth Armored Saint guy and Ian slaughtered Public Enemy’s crossover hit. Nail meet coffin. DONE.

I was further insulted a few years later when I was sent a bunch of promo cassettes from the quickly disbanded “Ignition Records” containing the Anthrax single Piss N Vinegar which is fucking Locomotive Breath by Jethro Tull, yes really, they stole the riff and vocal melody from a Tull song, fucking heathens.  Anthrax was so set adrift at that point that they had no fucking idea.

I’m mostly a grown up now, I mean, I’m a dad in my 40’; so I have satellite radio. I hear new Anthrax songs from time to time from their most recent effort, I don’t like it, but fuck; I’m so glad they got rid of fucking mumble mouth John Bush and got Joey Belladonna back.

No Reason XXX Part II- The End

Though we had the CD on our final tour it wasn't until No Reason broke up that the vinyl version of our LP came out. I still think the songs are good, but boy oh boy do I hate the recording. The 7" and second demo are much, much better. Good thing FIVE of those nine songs made it to the LP. "Paper Hero" from the LP is one of my favorite songs I have ever written, it's too bad the recording turned out how it did. Paper Hero was named after a great episode of Robotech that my brother and I loved growing up. The subject matter (first verse) was about a friend of ours who had recently stopped hanging out/ being straight edge, the second verse was about a girl I really liked who, of course, thought I was a dork. Eventually, I stopped writing songs about girls in my late 30's. I'm trying to track down the tape we did BEFORE going to Trackmasters that we tracked live at Watchmen studios as pre production. I think Eric still has that DAT, if he does, I'm going to transfer it and check it out to see if it is as good as I remember.

We were originally slated to record in the small room at the original Salad days studio in Boston with Brian McTernan. When I called to get directions the week before we were leaving, Brian informed me the studio had flooded and that the recording couldn't happen on the dates we had booked. This led to my utter panic. We had a summer tour booked and needed our LP done so the cd would be out in time! Our drummer Blake very much shared that sentiment. Glenn, our fifth member at the time, suggested we go to Trackmaster, a local studio where the Goo Goo Dolls had recorded a Boy Named Goo. That record had gone platinum so I figured that meant we would get a platinum level recording, right? WRONG. Glenn really struggled matching some of the rhythm guitar I played and with some of his leads. I just think, though he had fun and live brought great energy, the style we played wasn't something he could play. Also, I don't really recall Glenn being in a band with two guitarists aside from evergreen and that was at least 5 years prior. I remember that there is a lead in one song he worked on for HOURS trying to nail. Literally hours, I walked in the booth and made a suggestion about taking a break or something along those lines and he said "one more fucking word and I'm walking out of here." He quit the band two weeks later.

It's a real shame how the LP turned out as a whole, because Blake and Eric played so well on it. The energy level is just perfect but the production values paired with my brother's sick/ asthma attack attempt at singing brought it down. Also, Mark, the engineer, didn't help. "Oh, so you guys are a hardcore band? Like SNFU, right?" Yeah, Mark, EXACTLY like that.

No Reason xxx.

No Reason xxx was a band that formed right on the heels on Halfmast's breakup in 1996. The idea was to still be a fast "youth crew" style straight edge band like Halfmast, but with a more updated and sometimes more "punk" sound. No Reason xxx was a fun band to be in and to write songs for. The Original Line up was My brother and I, the Ellman brothers and our cousin Abe. Abe played on the demo then moved before our first show, leaving us a four piece with Eric Ellman moving from guitar to bass. 

At our first show, Immigrant Sun records was talking to Chris Colohan, who was in Left For Dead at the time and asked us to do a split with them. We, of course, said yes; but shortly after, Left For Dead kind of fell apart. This was good because it gave us the opportunity to do a 7" with Immigrant Sun records, which people to this day still tell me they love. Ebullition Records refused to carry the record in their distro citing that it promoted violence against women. We used the Gator stuff because it was supposed to represent a loss of innocence for us and the world of skateboarding and because there was "No Reason" for him to do what he did. But I guess we never explained that to good old Kent McClard, but it made for a cool looking record sleeve.

Our local shows were ALWAYS incredible with kids singing along and having a good time. We played a lot of shows in the 1 1/2- 2 years we were together. On top of great local shows, we had some good shows on weekends we spent out of town in Chicago and Toronto. We broke up after playing a few shows at home after recording an LP we weren't happy with and losing our asses on a terrible tour that was plagued with cancellations. However, A good show we played in Toronto is shown here, though I think the date is a year off. We cover "Ready To Fight" by Negative Approach at the end, which I had zero recollection of until seeing this vid.

This story isn't about At The Gates.

Last August, I ventured up to Toronto by myself to go see one of my favorite 90's Swedish death metal bands, At The Gates. The plan was to rage at the ATG show, then after a brief 5 hour nap, drive to This Is hardcore Fest in Philly to catch 7 Seconds, Judge, Killing Time, Negative Approach, Slapshot and a myriad of other classic and contemporary hardcore bands. It didn't go as planned.

After the ATG show (they were really, I mean REALLY good), I went to a Pakistani/ Indian take out place to eat, which was convenient as it was a block from the Phoenix Theatre, where the show was held AND on the way to where my car was parked. While I was ordering, the guy behind the counter was so unbelievably rude, I walked out mid order. Undeterred, I did what my friends and I always did after we went to shows in Canada growing up; I went to get a falafel, which was cold and terrible. I cannot remember the name of the place, though it was across the street from a park and the neighborhood seemed pretty shitty, but it was on my way towards the expressway and again, convenient. I was looking at the photos I had taken at the show on my iPhone, as I had the cellular data turned off so I could not look at instagram or whatever. After a little while, I threw out my 1/2 eaten dinner and started to drive home. At some point after I left, I realized I did NOT have my phone. I turned around, retrace my steps and anxiety and hilarity ensues as it does not turn up, nor does anyone at the kabob shop give a fuck about my plight. Also, the woman who was trying to bum a cigarette inside the kabob shop while I was eating, who was still hanging around outside when I returned, denied any knowledge and denied stealing my phone off the table. It sucked and killed the rest of my plans for Philly the next day, as an AT&T employee who was working his last day did not activate my 5 year old back up phone properly and required THREE trips back to AT&T to get it up and running.

I had much better pics than this, as I was right upfront for the majority of the gig, I lifted this from an online review.

For the next 2 weeks I was going crazy using an old flip phone and then and really early Android Motorola phone that were the only old phones that were laying around.I Know I sound like a privileged brat and it's probably pretty unbecoming of someone in his 40's but it SUCKED. I've only had iPhones since 2009 and going back to a flip phone felt like I had gone back to sending smoke signals or something. My Mother was up for an upgrade and she was gracious enough to give me her 4s, as I could not afford to drop $400 on a new phone at the time. While I was waiting to meet her at the AT&T store after work about a week later, I heard a familiar song BLASTING from a Mini Cooper stopped at the red light at the intersection in front of the AT&T plaza. I mean this dude was listening to the song LOUD, like piss off your roommates/ parents kind of loud. The song was We All Fall Down by Egghunt, the last song you'd ever expect bumping from anyone's car. Suddenly, all my problems melted away at the absurdity of what I had just witnessed; a great song at a time and place where I would have never expected it. It's funny how music can turn around a mood.

Thirteen years ago...

My old band, The Control, did a 4 show in 3 days weekend. This first being in Pittsburgh on a Friday (which bands cancelled the show AFTER showing up), then Saturday we played a matinee with 9 Shocks Terror in Western Massachusett and a Evening show in CT. I forget where the 4th show was but it was at a weird upstairs legion hall. Today was the first time I saw the video of that show.

Anyway, our set has some lull thanks to a broken string but man, Kevin was a great front man and we played pretty well considering we drove straight through the night to get there. But the real story is the insanity that went on during 9 Shocks set. Fire crackers, a burning couch. a dive out the window to return to the pit on a bicycle; it was mayhem. Here's some brief video proof:

On another note, I was a much better guitar player back then I think, stylistically speaking. 

Burn

I only saw Burn once and they were incredible; during their set I saw some of the most aggressive dancing I have ever witnessed at a hardcore show. Unfortunately, I've never seen a video of that show BUT I saw this vid for the first time recently and wanted to put it on my blog because Burn rules.

Here's another vid of them recording the record that some don't recognize or like, but I do.

Photo Evidence of a great reunion era Misfits gig

Remember that awesome Misfits reunion show in Toronto I posted about two weeks ago? I'm sure anyone who read that and knows how far the band and brand has fallen might be skeptical; but I had discovered photographic evidence! I stumbled across a flickr account with a few pics from the gig; it looks like a classic show. Thanks Shawn Merrill, whoever you are. STILL I wish there was video of that set.

Misfit May 10,1996 in Toronto