Seasons greetings n beatings from Scheme………
SCHEME REPORT:
First off, as the year closes we just want to say thanks for the support for the past couple months...shout outs to those that are forever down. Stay tuned for more Scheme material in the new year (RESTRAINING ORDER tour zine, some new tapes, the North Eazt Hardcore '21 yearbook and much more...)
As we've been saying on the streets, the ALMIGHTY WATCHING 7" is coming out on January 2nd, 2022. Here is the deal: the record is going up digitally and we're dropping preorders for the full press of the 7", available on transparent green and black vinyl:
Butttttt if you're trying to get a physical copy of the record early, we ran a shitload of extra test presses that'll act as our pre-press for it, limited to 40. They'll be available at AW's next couple of shows (TERROR in CT, RESTRAINING ORDER in ATL and FYA Fest), so act fast if you want to acquire.
If you are still trying to grab a copy of the first installment of our newsletter zine, we only have a couple of copies left so grab one this week...if not, have fun trying to find one at record stores throughout the eastern seaboard market that Kyle can shill the leftovers too.
Finally, after months of discussions between lawyers and contracts, we were finally able to ink and sign a deal with a new artist while eating shitty chik'n parm sandwiches at the Triple B showcase weekend. It'll be unveiled at FYA Fest with some tapes, posters and other promotional swag.
SCENE REPORT:
Triple B showcase weekend was a success..some quick notes: PILLARS OF IVORY set left us speechless - it was one for the books and truly incredible, people parking and then immediately running inside to get busy for GRIDIRON while the M line passed by, the fake plant at Market Hotel getting its ass beat for hours on end, INTERNAL BLEEDING shout outs and so much more…overall, a pretty solid weekend.
Every band and their uncle will be on tour to FYA in the next week or so…..catch em if they’re in your area. ALMIGHTY WATCHING is driving a car and will be playing a gig in ATL with RESTRAINING ORDER / WORN / SPY and some other bands:
KYLE’s PLAYLIST:
SPLIT LIP - For The Love of the Wounded
CATHERINE WHEEL - Chrome Violators
ONE WAY SYSTEM
LSD AND THE SEARCH FOR GOD
DESPIZE/DEKLINATION Split
SUN KIL MOON
Quit Your Band While You Still Can Podcast
ALBIN’s PLAYLIST:
Capital Punishment comp
NO SOULS SAVED - Promo
D0PE CELLAR
BOLDY JAMES / THE ALCHEMIST - Super Tecmo Bo
RED HOUSE PAINTERS - Songs For A Blue Guitar
PUERTO RICO FLOWERS - 7
THE MOVIELIFE - Forty Hour Train
END OF YEARZ:
Ohhhh it’s been a wonderful year…
Has it? Time is the miasma in which we bleed eternally, virus’s come and go and our resolve and commitment to the scene remains the same. To turn down the funny business for a second, hardcore is my rock. It’s how I relate to the world and how the world relates to me, one of my only trusted metrics is how many good records I heard, or more importantly how many records I got to work on be it musically or visually. I’m not in this business for the glorious rub and tug of the people at large. I do it for the friends and fans who really get what it’s all about so if that was you…thanks for tolerating me or at the very least keeping me around. Now I’ll put my brain through the ringer and try to squeeze out some things this year that weren’t soaked in pain, sorrow and misfortune, as a way to express some gratitude for being alive and more importantly prove to myself that there’s a reason for sticking around this ever weakening subculture or cry baby’s and morons.
- Kyle
IN EFFECT Book
I can safely say this is a work of art and I’ve only opened the box it came in once but believe me in 2022 it will be read front to back while sitting in my newly refurbished 60s gunlock chair, possibly under a nice lamp I’ve yet to acquire. Cop here via the good people at Shining Life.
CHUBBY AND THE GANG - The Muts Nuts B side
Loud fast rules, those are the rules. Is it pub rock, is it punk rock, I really don’t know what either of those things are but side 2 of CATG LP 2 was something to marvel at. A collection of swooning and crooning tracks that can make even the most stoic skin quiver. Side A is also good.
WRECKAGE
A band who’s youth would otherwise be squandered by a pandemic continues to persevere. Playing straight up hardcore and being from Connecticut easily makes you the best band in a sea of (well respected) emo, pop punk, metal core, beat down, power violence bands. Hopefully more to come from Scheme and WRECKAGE or whoever we sell the rights to and wreckage.
Scheme
We’re not much BUT we’re something. We might not be an Everyman operation but more of a for any man thing, we’re gunna do what we think is good for hardcore and good for ourselves. Year one brought us a few tapes, a fake record and seven months of resin built up on the AW bowl which will finally come to fruition a week from now and than probably another 6 months after that. Without getting poetic, we hope you like what we’ve done and if you do there will be more of the same and other stuff that fits that mold. If you didn’t like it .. jump ship now because there’s no fixing it.
Diablo 2 Remastered
500 hours in with no plans of stopping. The only way out is a body bag at this point. Get in touch if you’re trying to play on the ladder in January…
Writing this after reading Kyle diatribes, so I'll keep my thoughts short and sweet...2021 sucked. There were very few things in my life that went great, but hopefully some foundations were laid for a better tomorrow. Here's to 2022!
- Albin
RESTRAINING ORDER
To me, RESTRAINING ORDER is what hardcore is all about,. It's no frills and played by people who truly love ALL aspects of hardcore - while a dootdatdootdat peer might stick their nose up and be a snob, we got Pat dancin with his back to the stage to DIVISION OF MIND or throwing kicks to LAID 2 REST, like a real hardcore kid. Shit, you even got two ex members of MERAUDER in da mix for tours. It's the type of vibe that I feel me and Kyle embrace for Scheme....like yeah yeah, MENTAL ABUSE is awesome and lets nerd out about em.....but also, how fuckin sick is the MINDSET (NYC) 7"…….
After a quick thought, RESTRAINING ORDER has probably been the band I've seen the most in the post-pandemic hardcore scene and I wouldn't have it any other way. S/o to em recording a song with no hesitation for a cockamamie idea that ended up being the first quasi release for Scheme.
North Eazt Takeover Fanzine #1
This is basically the prelude to Scheme in a sense........it's a joint zine that Lumpy (Daze), Alex (Streets of Hate), Kyle and myself that we dropped in the midst of 'rona. I recently re-read it and it's pretty alright to halfway decent at times, covering couple different sides of hardcore with our own interview styles.
The four of us talk about hardcore and shit almost everyday so it's cool to have something phyiscal to look back and laugh at. Me and Kyle wanted to keep the grind going which ultimately led to us starting this very newsletter / Scheme and here we are six months or so later. We should probably do anotha ish of this shit for next year.........It's done been sold out for a minute so you can peep the first issue here.
One Piece
Aight, it’s not hardcore but it’s dope trust me…..starting and catching up on the entire series was an undertaking during Covid but I grinded out 1000+ chapters and dare I say…this shit might be perfect. Can’t wait for the conclusion of Wano and see how the end game of the series begins to play out……Jinbe #1
FRANK151 DMS Issue:
While browsing the internet, you ever find something fuckin dope and then completely forget about it for a couple years and then wonder how you can find it again? This zine is a prime example. Every couple years when I find it again, I think to myself, "damn, I shoulda saved that link." Well guess what: I'm still not gonna save it so instead I'll just throw it in here for y'all to read and view as well:
Here we got a clean n glossy mag with interviews and writeups, all conducted by members of DMS. I don't think any of em have ever done fanzines so this might be the closest you'll get to Jere from DMIZE writing and interviewing people. Standouts for me are the Rico, MQ and Ezec interviews...I know both of us constantly say "yo, if you got a copy of X, sell it me,” but this is one I've been trying to get for years without paying an arm and a leg and a car payment combined...bang thy line.
COMBINED EFFORT DISCOGRAPHY:
You ever been to Albany, NY? A more brutal landscape outside of the eastern bloc doesn’t exist. Brutalist government buildings blot out the sun over a formerly bustling metropolis…woah you couldn’t make up a better place for one of the illest record labels in the late 80s to exist.
When you think of Albany and hardcore I hope you think of guys with drywall installer goatees, beat red faces and celtic cross tattoos going hammer to STIGMATA but if you’re more nuanced than that you’ll think of YOUTH OF TODAY in VFWS, CRANIAL ABUSE and Steve Reddy / Dave Stein’s Combined Effort.
Bolstering only six releases with not an ounce of slack among them (it’s the best BORN AGAINST song o.k!!!) I’m gonna do my best to bestow you the reader with my insights on each of those six releases in chronological order
CER01 - Albany Style Hardcore 7” Comp
Realizing now that CE released not one but two 7” comps has officially made them the greatest hardcore label of all time. Wow, who does that. Alright so Albany Style features NO OUTLET, WOLFPACK, FIT FOR AN ABUSE and CRANIAL ABUSE…lots of abuse! WOLFPACK features Steve Reddy of Equal Vision and then Combined Effort and in conjunction with Dave Stein. The real stand out of this smattering of late 80s Albacore is CRANIAL ABUSE, a band that would go onto become STIGMATA while still being a hard ass band themselves, but in the classical hardcore sense - not the Nike sweat band way.
CER02 - LIFE’S BLOOD - Defiance 7”
One of, if not hands down the absolute greatest New York hardcore 7”s outside of the high council of AF/ANTIDOTE/CFA/ABUSED/URBAN WASTE. A true against the grain NYHC band that talked shit, went to college and a singer who eventually became a cop. The 7” itself has an iconic logo and the even more iconic “pay no more than $3.00” badge and best of all hand written notes on the dust jackets of the first press (sell me one and I’ll pay you at least 10x more than $3.00) and some pretty darn good hardcore songs taking influence from AF and English stuff in the same way NEGATIVE APPROACH would have been a few years earlier .
CER03 - ABSOLUTION - Absolution 7”
Depending who you ask ABSOLUTION is either legendary or the band before BURN. I’ll say that both are true, the second part just being a factoid and not an insult. While I don’t think this 7” captures the bands electrocutional energy, it is the thing you’re most likely to see in your endless browsing of the internet. ABSOLUTION was made up of Gavin Van Vlack of a lot of bands and all around guitar god of hardcore music, Djini Brown a prolific graffiti writer and musician and son of Jazz legend (or so I’m told) Marian Brown and the coolest looking bass player of all time Alan Peters (who also played on Liberty and Justice). I’m not gunna say it sounds like A + B because I’ll be wrong and chastised for it, but they sounded like they were creating art that just happened to fit the mold of hardcore music.
CER04 BEYOND - No Longer At Ease 12”
The only 12” release from the label and a pretty good one off. Fledgling metallic riffs and some pretty harsh vocals make for one urgent sounding record, listen to Save Ourselves and not hear where hardcore was going for the next 7-8 years in those riffs. Also worth mentioning Vic Dacara pre INSIDE OUT and Alan Cage on da drums, also also worth mentioning they used Papyrus and Aachen for their font choices for the album layout so it’s obviously very good.
CER05 - Murders Among Us 7” comp
Alright love 7” comps, boring fact about myself that I bring up a lot to everyone’s dismay. One day we will do a 7” comp and we'll sell tens of copies but I’ll feel good about it surely. Ok so general love of comps but this is at worst my 2nd favorite 7” comp on any given day of the week. I say that while only musically loving half the comp. I like the LIFE’S BLOOD / ABSOLUTION songs so much that the B side could have ENSIGN and GOOD CLEAN FUN and I’d say the same. NAUSEA and BORN AGAINST are so very far from those other mentioned unmentionables, so draw no unfair comparison or conclusion. But yeah incredible showing from every band, It’s fair to wager that these are the best LIFE’S BLOOD and ABSOLUTION songs…both being formally recorded for this record and being released after they were both dead and gone (PUN). Coupled with old world art and a collaged insert of unique art for each band you’ve really got something that at least 100 people must like and you’ve got a $10 record that withstands the test of time.
CER06 SUPERTOUCH - What Did We Learn 7”
SUPERTOUCH exists as two bands for me, you got this stuff and then you’ve got the LP. The 7” is for the kid not afraid to dance up front and pile on the stage and pour their heart out at the gig and the LP is for the cig smokers with undeniable levels of swag who want to pour their heart out in a dark uncrowded room. Both are actually really cool but the 7” is unmistakably hardcore music, not to say the 12” isn’t but standing on a beach at dusk is a hard sell for the hard headed scene. What did we learn shines an introspective lens on the self and the scene not uncommon in the time period but they did it with such a confidence and lack of care of what people would think of playing rock riffs in hardcore songs.
CER0? BORN AGAINST - Eulogy 7”
A Combined Effort release in the sense that they printed it on the jacket but that’s only the beginning of the funny business. I’ll start with the obvious good things about it…the songs themselves (one original and one X cover) and the fact that it came with a zine (Sam McPheters Dear Jesus #37). This isn’t as much of a Combined Effort release as it is a total and utter spite move towards former CEO Steve Reddy by Sam McPheters. The song implies that Steve killed himself by devoting himself to Krishna, from the perspective of his former hard-cohorts..pretty cool. You can read an interview with Steve here where he basically says he barely knew the antagonist Sam, in that case this goes from brazen to pathetic. Either way we’re left with beef immortalized on a 45 RPM record and that’s what the scenes all about. (If you’re reading this and have a copy of the dear Jesus anthology scan it or sell me it…or if you know Sam McPheters tell him to print more and don’t show him where I implied he was pathetic)