New York Hardcore™
aka me babbling about records that define a city for me...
As the kids like to say, let us Set It Off…
I love the cliché, “opinions are like assholes” it speaks volumes to me. While most people don’t walk around showing their assholes off, most music writers are more than happy to demonstrate the full breadth of their sometimes shit filled thoughts on a myriad of subjects. Recently, I stumbled across the metal mag Revolver presenting an article spelling out the five best NYHC records of all time, according to their readers. Look, I know pubs do this for a very specific reason, and that is to drive engagement. People who read it they have their own opinions, get mad, quote tweet it, ramble about it on Facebook and the more we plebes argue and fight about it, more people click the link, advertisers pay more money blah blah blah… meanwhile, like a brown trout floating in the kiddie pool, there it sits - Biohazard’s Urban Discipline. It’s not even a hardcore record (regardless of Rick Ta Life moshing on the Brooklyn Bridge in that one video), for fuck’s sake. And then I realized, they got me!
Look, I can go on and on about my hatred for that record and band but, instead, I’ve decided that I’m going to channel my inner Ray of Today (from Youth of Today, a band from Connecticut also known as a Connecticut hardcore band) and be positive and talk about what I do like… so behold! The best New York Hardcore™ records of all time, according to me. This list is correct and definitive.
BEHOLD!
First, Five Albums…
AGNOSTIC FRONT - Victim In Pain LP
Duh - like FUCKING DUH!!! If you don’t like this record or prefer the later releases over this you don’t like hardcore. It’s fine you don’t like hardcore. It’s ok, go be a cop or get into Modest Mouse or Drug Church or something. This record is perfect. This record is the musical equivalent of all the art in the Louvre, all the finest wines in Bordeaux and every Ansel Adams photography put together - sheer perfection.
MENTAL ABUSE - Streets of Filth LP
First of all, yes they are from New Jersey but New Jersey is more New York than Connecticut is New York. Everyone knows this - I mean they put clams on pizza in Connecticut. This record is raw, it is primal, its fucking filthy and one of the Psychos is in it. Decidedly on the punk side of the punks/skin divide, it’s got songs like “Jock Sex” and “Sock Woman” and talks about stabbing people. Absolutely ruling.
CRO MAGS - Age of Quarrel LP
Yes, yes the demo is better - it is rawer, gnarlier, and is missing the 80s metal production but the songs - THE FUCKING SONGS. Perfect riffs, precision musicianship, and lyrics painting a desperate vision of the world they lived in. Sam McPheeters aka Sam Tate-LaBianca of such rocknroll bands like MENS RECOVERY PROJECT, WRANGLER BRUTES, etc, once quipped that this record fundamentally summarizes life in the 80s in Ronald Reagan’s America and I couldn’t agree more.
NAUSEA - Extinction LP
If there is a better blueprint to “crust” punk I don’t know what it would be - bulldozer riffs, metallic guitar leads, snarling vocals, and a lyrical approach driven towards uplifting the lower elements of society while pointing a gnarled finger at the wearing of the boot persistently stomping on our collective faces. I even like the reggae bit.
KRAUT - An Adjustment to Society LP
For me, KRAUT is the bridge between NYC punk and proto hardcore (like the STIMULATORS) and the more caveman, primitive thrashing noise that would come. Tuneful and dare I say “rocking” in its approach it still kicks into high gear hinting at the velocity to come while still leaning a bit into the more artsy side of things. It is a perfect listen from start to finish.
Then, Five Seven Inches…
MADBALL - Ball of Destruction EP
Easily a top ten, all time USHC record. Is it more or less just a covers record? Sure, but does it get more perfect than this? I mean “Smell The Bacon” or “Colossal Man” are worth the price admission alone. It’s eight songs in less than six minutes without being mindless thrash - there is a muscularity to it without descending into macho nonsense. Just outstanding.
ANTIDOTE - Thou Shall Not Kill EP
Probably the most mature song writing, musically, of all the early NYHC records - ripping thrash collapsing into grooving mosh breakdowns that set the standard for how such things are done. The vocals are this snarling yawp layered over buzzsaw guitars, and lock stepped drumming from what feels like a human metronome. Sure, there is a sketchy, anti-immigrant song thrown into the mix, but like the lyrics of a lot of gangster rap of the time, they are a reflection of the world they lived in.
HEART ATTACK - God Is Dead EP
Arguably the first NYHC record - like KRAUT, there is enough of that 70s punk rock swagger to make it one of those bridge records but when it blasts into “God Is Dead” it is an all go, no slow ripper. Sure Jesse Malin is an alt-country rocker these days but the whole HEART ATTACK discography is hardcore punk gold.
LIFES BLOOD - Defiance EP
Sure the singer went on to be a cop, but this is my pick for the hardest New York record of the late 80. It is a vicious inditement of the state of the scene, with a punch in the jaw pointed at all poseurs. A youth enrage, for all my life.
CITIZENS ARREST - A Light In The Darkness EP
My affection for this record knows no bounds. While most of NYHC was moving towards a grooved out, slowed down, or more metallic sound bands like Citizens Arrest drank deep from the well of early USHC like Negative FX or Agnostic Front and melded it with a range of international influences like Sweden’s No Security or Italy’s Wretched. An absolutely savage record.
So that’s that…
Am I missing records? Sure but we’re keeping this to the essentials, yeah? Is it weird there isn’t a record from the last… 30ish years? Certainly. Despite the long drought of truly impactful bands and records it could be argued the current crop of bands like Warthog, Haram, Flower, 80HD, etc are stepping up and stepping to continue the legacy.
So, yeah, for at least, this is my current definitive list - feel free to tell me I’m wrong. I mean, you are probably wrong as well, but so it goes…