recent record purchases

Compared the majority of reviews in MRR, this shit is Shakespere...

This is all stuff I've aquired over the past month:

Tragedy- Nerve Damage
What more can be said about Tragedy, they're the best band in DIY hardcore. They'll leave a long legacy of followers for years to come, due to their awesome music, and ability to back up their messages. This record is also on Tragey Records, despite 2 of the members having record labels (plus the fact that pretty much any real independant DIY label would kill to release anything by them). This record is a logical progression from Vengeance, but retains the fast punk spirit, crossed with brooding metallic songs. There's even a piano interlude, that somehow isn't even remotely cheesy.


Career Suicide- Attempted Suicide & Anthology of Releases vol. 2
I was lucky enough to catch these boys on their recent tour and get their new LP, which isn't even out yet. You're not going to be disappointed at all, in fact it's their best record yet. The songs are really catchy, not that their other releases aren't. Most bands tend to level off or get worse after their first LP, but someone forgot to inform Career Suicide of this.
Despite having all their records on vinyl, I got the new Anthology Cd. It has the Signals 7", the Invisible Eyes LP, the split LP with Jed Whitey and a few comp tracks and unreleased gems. Perfect for newcomers, or people like me who jsut want all the songs in one place to rip to my iPod.


Deathcycle- s/t
I had been a fan of Deathcycle from the beginning, their 7" and splits were really awesome. This LP takes their metallic crusty political sound a little further. There's definately more metal, which might be attributed to some member changes, but it's still awesome. I haven't seen them in like 2 years, which sucks, but they've always been really good live too. The cover art is really fitting as well.


Toxic Reasons- Independance
Reissue of an unappreciated classic. Toxic Reasons played some British street punk inspired hardcore. It's from the 80's, so yea it sounds great. This has re-recorded versions of the songs from their 7"s and comps, so I was familiar with most of the songs, just not those versions. It's great, more people should get into it.


Criminal Damage- s/t
Pretty much any project involving members of Tragedy (past or present) has been awesome. This is no exception, though certainly not what you'd expect. Sounds like a lot of 80's British punk, mixed with a little early 80's Cali sound. A little bit like waht No Hope For the Kids is doing, definately worth checking out.


Mind Eraser- Glacial Reign
I was reluctant to check out this band, sorry but a Mental and Righteous Jams side-project really doesn't interest me. But after a lot of people telling me it sounds like a powerviolence record, I figured I'd give the first record a chance. This is their second LP, and first with a full lineup. Their first LP was performed by 2 guys. The sound is a lot more crushing than the last one, and sounds a lot more full. Bands like Neanderthal, and Crossed out come to mind. I should also note that they opened up with a Siege cover when they played here last week.


Army of Jesus- Book Bomb & Prosperity . Health . Finance . Wealth
I caught AOJ on their recent summer tour, and picked up these 2 new records. I had gotten the Rats in the Wall 7" last year from them on tour. Unfortunately it seems they've broken up upon returning home. The music is some awesome foreign influenced fast hardcore punk. They covered my favorite Raw Power song when I saw them, so that may give you a band referance to start with. They will be missed


Fucked Up- Litany (Havoc repress)
Aside from a sort of weird artsy vibe, Fucked Up play some rockin' punk jams. "Reset the Ride" is a definate keeper on this short 4 song 7". I always kinda thought it sucked when foreign bands released short 7"s, due to importing a record from Canada a lot of their 7"s wind up costing like $6. If Fucked Up focused on releasing more songs on less records, I'd probably be more into them. Like it or not, however they're one of the best bands going today.


Brain Handle- s/t
I know listing Black Flag as an influence these days is usually poinless, since most of the time they don't sound anything close. This time however, there's definately some Ginn inspired noodling going on in the best possible way. Reminds me of Life Sentence or early Articles of Faith, maybe a little Jerry's Kids. However there's a definate later era Flag thing going on at the same time. 2 fast ragers, 1 slow rager-pretty different, I like it.


Limp Wrist- Want Us Dead
Gimmicks aside, yes Limp Wrist is a little over the top at times. However, they've been able to supliment this with some awesome sounding old school hardcore that's catchy and memorable. So what if the sing alongs are about liking dudes. The songs have a social conciousness toward the gay community, as you would assume.


Brother Inferior- Anthems '94 '97
I found a copy of their LP in a used bin a few months ago, and ever since have been in love with this band. This is their discography, which has the LP some 7"s and split. What you get is 36 tracks of fast political old school hardcore. In today's political climate it's almost a good career move to have politically based songs (look at Green Day), but these songs ooze with sincerity. The vocals remind me of the singer from AFI, (before he got a sex change - seriously, have you seen him lately?) but are much more harsh.

Kanamits- demo (CD-R)
First off, punk bands with girl singers always rule in my opinion. Sound-wise it's really fast stripped down old school punk. Comparisons to Sin 34 and I Object are appropriate, but the music is a hell of a lot more raw. Totally awesome, looking forward to more from them.

American Cheeseburger- demo (cassette tape)
Picked up this when they came through on tour last week. The band's from GA, and feature members from Goat Shanty. What you get is 2 sides worth of fast punk, bordering on powerviolence. I like it a lot, and will be looking forward to more releases by these guys. Yes, they're as awesome as their name would suggest!

Fuck You, Senator!

...a lot of kids don't know what work is. They think work is a four-letter word -Hillary Clinton

Dear Senator Clinton:

My name is Jeff DeSantis, I represent the generation you speak of with no work ethic. My problem with work is not that I feel entitled to a great paying job with no effort, but the fact that I've put forth the effort to no rewards. I went through High School, then to a county college, then to a 4 year state college; I posses a HS diploma, an Associates Degree, and a Bachelors degree. I graduated in 2003, and it took me 2 and a half years to find a job in my field. I wouldn't say I felt I deserved a six figure salary job, but I felt (and still feel) that I was somewhat entitled to a job that would be complimentary to the efforts I had made with my education. I currently have a job, where I am underpaid, that I took in order to gain experience and have it on my resume that I worked full time doing what I went to school for. Jobs don't want people with no work experience, but you can't get experience without a job, so we're all supposed to take low paying jobs in order to get experience. What was college for? I certainly didn't get enough experience to get a job there.

It's not that we expect work or that we think work is something bad, since a child we were told: go to school - go to college - get a job. Now the fact that we have trouble finding jobs, and when we do it's something we don't want to do just so we can pay off our student loans. I bet your daughter didn't go unemployed for 3 months after college because she couldn't find work. I bet she didn't work at a retail job, since her student loan payments were coming up, and she needed money. I'm sure that she found a job right out of college due to her parent's connections. I'm sick of privileged people who've had things handed to them based on who their parents know, turn around and call me lazy because I don't have the same advantages as them.

You say we're lazy, you say we hate work; but we've worked hard and got nowhere, and we see people who just knew the right people have no problems finding their first job within weeks of graduating. I've been through your system, I've done everything we'd been told to get a job, and now when it comes time for the pay off we're thrown scraps. We see no benefit in hard work, and it's not our problem it's the economy and work environment. So, in closing, FUCK YOU SENATOR CLINTON!

Sincerely,

Jeff DeSantis
- Generation Y representative

Reunions are lame

In the past few years there's been a lot of old hardcore or punk bands reuniting. I can't honestly say I care about seeing the majority of them. There are various circumstances for reunions, for a purpose, for fun, or for money. The first two I have no problem with really. It's that last one that's shitty. Bands have done reunions as benefit shows, which is cool because you know the money they make is going to a good cause, and a lot more people than usual will go since it's a special reunion show. Another purpose could be an unreleased record or discography being released, and to celebrate such thing the band gets together and plays another show. I've seen shows where all the members happen to be at the same show, and on the spot decide to play a few songs together. Sometimes these lead to the band burying old arguments and deciding to be a productive band again, like the State and Lifetime recently.

Other bands, especially the straight edge ones, who do reunions don't stand behind all the values their songs once preached. Bands like Youth of Today and Carry On members both stopped being sXe after they broke up, but when they got together sang the same songs. It takes the meaning and passion away from the music, and contributes even more to straight edge looking like a joke. Now the Gorilla Biscuits are doing a reunion tour, after their one time reunion to "save" CBGB's last year. Again, a straight edge band who went on to form bands featured in car commercials. I mean I love the Gorilla Biscuits, and they were one of the first HC bands I got into, but I have no interest in seeing them in a shitty rock club with for like 20-30 bucks. I'd rather see current bands sing Gorilla Biscuits covers, and actually stand behind the lyrics.

"why play for us if your heart's not in it"- Gorilla Biscuits

It's kind of sick that within the hardcore/punk scene it's actually a possibility to do a reunion for the money. People seem to be more concerned that they're seeing the original members doing the old songs again, and aren't concerned with the moral conflict of them singing about things they no longer believe.

I'm doing another show!

Saturday August 5th, 2006

Beneath the Street (record release show)
One Win Choice
the Body Electric (from FL)
Blank Stare (Boston sXe)
Positive Reinforcement (Boston punXXX)
Seasick

@ the THINK TANK House
Lakewood, NJ

6pm
$5

flyer:
http://bleedingedges.net/projects/flyers/bts.jpg

remember when my old band (SNAKEBiTE) was on TV?

the "A Makeover Story" video is now on Youtube.com
PART 1 | PART 2 | PART 3

In case you didn't know, SNAKEBiTE was a punk band who pretended to need a makeover to get on TV. What we got was expensive ugly clothes, free tattoos, dumb haircuts, and a crazy week in NYC.

you can also see a video of us playing live in Atlanta from our Winter 2004 tour (12/27/04)

for more info go to: http://snakebite.bleedingedges.net

there's a few copies of our second 7" still available at Don Giovanni Records
I'd also recommend checking out everything else on there especially the Degenerics, Shape Shifter and the Ergs

I'm in the process of uploading more pictures and flyers to my own site, keep an eye out: http://bleedingedges.net

Still a chance to live my dream

Ever since seeing the Back to the Future trilogy, I've always thought it would be awesome to one day own a Delorean. Not that I'm a car guy in any way, but they're just super awesome. I was watching a show on the History Channel last night, and they were talking about Deloreans. There's apparently a company in America somewhere that bought out all the unused parts from the old Delorean factory when it shut down. For $40,000, you can get a brand new Delorean, made from the original parts. No word yet if they have customizable features, where you can make it go back in time or fly. Regardless, I'd need a flux capacitor in the back seat.