No Slam Dancing, No Stage Diving, No Spikes: An Oral History - The Exploited riot

Nowadays you're hearing all kinds of people asking for donations to fund their projects. I had never heard of Kickstarter until a few months ago. Quite frankly, I'm sick of hearing about Kickstarter. Seems like everybody and their grandmother has something that they wanna get done and are asking for donations to go towards their Kickstarter. But this project is one that I can totally get behind.

It's a documentary called No Slam Dancing, No Stage Diving, No Spikes: An Oral History and it's about a club called City Gardens in Trenton, New Jersey. City Gardens is like Trenton's own CBGB's or 9:30 club (the old one, not the current one.) Lots of great bands from all over the place have played there like Youth Of Today, Fugazi, The Dead Kennedy's, Gwar and The Exploited.

The last band is what has prompted me to do this entry. The Exploited. First, I love this band. They are easily one of my favorite European punk bands. Records like "Horror Epics" and "War Now" to even their later stuff like "Beat The Bastards" are solid punk tunes. If you're not familiar with their later material, check it out. It's worth it.

But back to City Gardens. I remember hearing about the riot that took place and involved The Exploited, skinheads, and a band called The Uprise. I've heard it so many times over the years and it never gets old to me. I've heard so many different versions of it that I didn't know what to believe? And then this little diddy popped up on my computer today. Do yourself a favor and read this entry because it's really good. 

One thing that I found hilarious was the fact that the tour manager for the Exploited would let Wattie babysit his kids! That's priceless. Wattie and the band continuing to play while people are giving them the finger and spitting at them is just crazy to me. Dumb fuck skinheads trying to intimidate the band and everybody else that was at the show is just crazy too. 

The book of the same name looks like it's going to be great and if you can donate to their Kickstarter to get the film going, I'm sure they would really appreciate it. According to their site, the book should be released later this year and I am totally going to get my hands on one.

D.C.S.

http://www.citygardensnj.com/Exploited.htm

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/436065921/no-slam-dancing-no-stage-diving-no-spikes-an-oral

 

Imagine this man babysitting your kids. 

 

War Now - EP

The Top 20 New York Hardcore and Metal Albums of All Time - According to the Village Voice

Top 20 lists are always going to get bashed for not having someone/something on it, but this list is just ridiculous. I like some of the bands, but I would never, in a million years, say that they're in the top 20 of hardcore/metal albums of all time. And there are a couple of bands that I've never even heard of! Where's Nuclear Assualt - Handle With Care?! If Twisted Sister is going to be on this list, then why not White Zombie? Here's my take on some of the bands on the list. 

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/music/2013/07/top_20_nyhc_metal_albums_all_time.php

 

Twisted Sister

Life of Agony - River Runs Red is a kick ass rock album, but it doesn't belong on this list at all.
Made Out Of Babies - WHO?!
Riot - Again, WHO?!
Winter - Doom metal makes me want to rip my hair out. Boring.
Brutal Truth - They're ok, but come on! Top 20? Spare me.
Biohazard - Urban Discipline has a couple of good songs, but I've always thought the band was highly overrated. 
Agnostic Front - Cause For Alarm over Victim In Pain? Not in my book. 

D.C.S.

Another chance review

The D.C.S. Team  presents a new segment where we go back and give bands and or albums another chance. Over the years there have been many bands that have put out records that disappointed their fan base for whatever reason. We're going to see if our opinions have changed over the years.

First up is Dag Nasty - Field Day. Now, the D.C.S Team is divided on this one since I've always hated it from day 1. But for some reason, the other half of the team thinks the album is "enjoyable." He might also be the founding member of the Brian Baker fan club. But lets give this record another try and see if it grows on me.

The first track "Trouble Is" could easily be a Fugazi song that didn't make it onto their album "The Argument." And that's not a bad thing because that album is great. The next couple of songs pick up the tempo and are ok, but the lyrics are a bit suspect. "If you doubt it, let me remind you, I'm in love with you." BARF!

"Ambulance song" is downright horrible and "Staring at the rude boys" sounds like it belongs on the "Top Gun" soundtrack and that is terrible. Next few songs are no better and then we get to a Dag Nasty classic from "Can I Say" which is "Under your influence" and I immediately want to drag Brian Baker out into the street to have him tarred and feathered. This album went from terrible to blasphemous. Good job of ruining a great song with those vocals and that horrible breakdown. Ugh!

Overall opinion of this record is that it still blows. But I do like a song or two on here and that is more than what I liked over the years. One thing that the D.C.S. Team can agree on is that we would both recommend Dag Nasty in their glory, which is indisputably "Can I Say?"

D.C.S.

 

Happy 4th of July!

The D.C. Sniper Team would like to wish you all a safe and happy holiday. Now go listen to some Murphy's Law!

D.C.S.

Getting records in the mail never gets old

Night Birds - Maimed For The Masses 7"

I got this record recently and have been listening to it non-stop. It starts out with the title track, Maimed For The Masses and apparently it's a song about Mick Foley the wrestler. It's an interesting idea for a song and I love it. Apparently, Mick Foley himself heard the song and liked it. The band posted a picture of the man with a copy of the 7" and that's pretty cool in my book.

The other tracks on this record are Barred Out, Last Gasp and an instrumental called Boat Trash. The whole record is great, but my personal favorite is Last Gasp. After reading the lyrics, I immediately thought of the actor David Carridine. If you know how he died, then you can see what i'm talking about here. Maybe he was their inspiration for that song. Boat Trash is just another great instrumental by this band. Can they do any wrong? They seem to have the midas touch for pumping out hits.

If I were to describe this band to anybody that had not heard of them before, I would say that they're an up beat surf punk band with plenty of sing alongs and fun/twisted lyrics. This record is nothing short of great and I can only hope that their up coming 12" on Grave Mistake Records called Born To Die In Suburbia is even better. 

Infest - S/T 7"

This record has four songs that were not included on the No Man's Slave LP and I'm giddy about hearing them now. Days Turn Black and Controlled Violence make me want to break things. Crushing guitars with pissed off/urgent vocals. You're Shot is a solid instrumental, but in my opinion, it's a filler song. (Can a song really be considered "filler" when it's short?)

Why Be Something That You're Not (Negative Approach) is a nice cover. Joe Denunzio's vocals on that are better than what John Brannon does for his songs nowadays. My only complaint is that it's only four songs and that there is no download available.

The songs are what you expect from the godfathers of Power Violence. Fast, furious and a kick to the teeth. That's the perfect formula for me. I once read a perfect description about this band and it went something like this - "Infest is a band that you can't listen to while driving. It will only cause road rage." Truer words were never spoken.

If you want to get your hands on this record (and you should) go to eBay and look up eBay user dedicated_to_society(699) to get it directly from the band. Apparently, people were buying them up at the Maryland Deathfest and looking to turn a profit for it online. Don't give $50 bucks to some greedy piece of shit, when you can pay $7 bucks for it from the band. 

D.C.S.

Aaron Straw Benefit

Some magnificent bastard posted a few clips that look and sound great from the Aaron Straw Benefit. My favorite is Wide Awake. I wish there were more clips of them that look and sound as great as this video. Check it out.

D.C.S.

 

Wide Awake

 

 

Unit Pride

 

Unit Pride #2

 

Up Front

 

Within

Bad Brains documentaries

I stumbled onto a documentary video about the band that is great. It's called Bad Brains: A Band In D.C. It's about an hour and forty five minutes of the band then and now and I couldn't get enough of it. Props to the guys that put this together because they delve into just about everything the band has done over the years. The only thing missing was the band doing shows as F.V.K. with John Joseph on vocals. Not one mention of that, which seems odd to me. Anyway, if you're a fan of the band, even if you only like one song, you should check it out. It's fascinating. (By the way, if you only like one song by this band then you might need to have your head examined.)

There is also a trailer for another video called HR - "Finding Joseph I" and it looks interesting. It's a documentary on H.R. but they added some mainstream star power to it by interviewing guys like Sonny Sandoval from P.O.D., Chino Moreno from the Deftones a couple of guys from Living Colour, and a bunch of other guys you may or may not have heard of. Who the fuck thought it would be a good idea to interview those guys? I'm not saying I won't watch it, but it just seems odd to me. Anyway, check  out the trailer to see for yourself.
 

D.C.S.

http://vimeo.com/channels/70392/38030610

Black N Blue Bowl 2013

The D.C. Sniper Team decided to take a road trip to NYC to see the Black N Blue Bowl this year. In case you didn't already know, Judge was getting back together for a couple of shows this past weekend. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see much of the show because of traffic getting into the city. Stupid parades...

We arrive and Black Train Jack is up on stage and one word came to mind, BORING! We took that opportunity to browse the merch tables and let me just say this. BTJ may have cost some bands money. I mean who wants to shop for clothes with shitty music in the background?

After a few more bands go up, Judge is on stage setting up and it was a little hard to see at first, but the line up consisted of Mike (not seen) Porcelly, Sammy, Matt and Charlie from Civ. Why Charlie? No beef with Charlie, but he wasn't in the band?

Anyway, the band is ready to go and the next thing I hear is the Imperial March from Star Wars. That was an odd choice, but whatever. The song ends and they start playing "Take Me Away" and the place goes ape shit. Mike Judge steps onto the stage with "YO" as his greeting and starts singing. Dude hasn't missed a beat. He sounded as good as he ever did. I had no reservations for the rest of the band since they're still active in music, but Judge was the wild card here. I've seen people say that there was some issues with a guitar being out of tune for a couple of songs, but I didn't hear it.

The place was going crazy with dives and sing alongs through out the set. All the straight edge kids lost their minds and flooded the stage during "Fed Up." This old timer wasn't going anywhere near the front of the stage for that stuff. The band belted out the hits and ended the show with NY Crew and having Richie Underdog and Civ doing back ups. I can safely say that I enjoyed the whole thing and can only assume that every one else did too. Check out the video to see for yourself.

D.C.S.

Guilty pleasure...Pissed Jeans

We all have guilty pleasures and this is becoming one of mine. The D.C. Sniper Team was invited to see this band by a mutual friend of ours and we went for the sole purpose of hanging out with said friend. Little did we know that we were walking into a place full of HIPSTERS! The opening bands were forgettable, but Pissed Jeans came onstage and had our attention. Their front man was pretty animated and engaged the crowd with some banter between songs, which is a plus in my book. We weren't feeling the music that night, but I decided to look them up on YouTube recently and found a song I really liked called "False Jessi part 2."  I am totally into this song and I found some other tunes like "Bathroom Laughter" and "Health Plan" that are growing on me too. Maybe all those hipsters know some good music? Just this once...

Here is a funny quote from the other half of the D.C. Sniper team, sent to me via text, since I was running late.

"I'm pretty sure 90% of the people here work at Trader Joes, Whole Foods or the vegan co-op. Don't have to worry about skinheads and the wall of death tonight." Touche my friend.

D.C.S.

R.I.P. Jeff Hanneman

Jeff Hanneman of Slayer passed away yesterday and it's a damn shame. I was introduced to Reign In Blood by a die hard Kiss fan and a mutual friend of ours, who was a straight edge kid, lent me South Of Heaven. Both guys loved the band and both guys had completely different tastes in music. That is part of the greatness of Slayer. Their music was appreciated by all kinds of people. Jeff Hanneman and the rest of the band put together some of the greatest music I've ever had the pleasure of hearing. He will be missed. Here's a couple of videos to enjoy.

D.C.S.