NEWSLETTER 017
03/16/22 SCOTT MAGRATH II
We’re taking our state mandated break from Elden Ring to bring you the freshest of updates from Scheme and part two of our interview with Scott Magrath…
SCHEME REPORT:
The ALMIGHTY WATCHING Doubtless 7”s are assembled and shipping out now. If you ordered more than one record it’s in the mail, If you got a single record it'll be out this week. Check your mailboxes and let us know what you think of the finished goodz. If you haven’t ordered one, what the hell is wrong with you and why are you even reading this? We’re hitting up distros, stores, etc. throughout the US of A and internationally but if you run one or want to see Scheme shit in your local spot - tell them to hit us up or give us their info so we can touch base. The Scheme empire must grow.
Next up on the docket: SEARCH FOR PURPOSE Unseen / Casting Shadows tape and Eternal Emotion (Repurposed) 12” will be going up online for preordering and streaming next Wednesday, 03/23. There will only be 200 of the 12” pressed total, so if you’re trying to cop, keep your eyes peeled around that time. For our Euro heads: MerchPit in Germany will be taking preorders of the record concurrently with ours so hit them up when the time comes. These songs are awesome and we’re stoked to show em to the hardcore populace. Here is a lil sneak peak of the artwork:
SCENE REPORT:
This Sunday, 03/20, we got the DEAD LAST first show / record release / whatever you wanna call it extravaganza on Long Island with RESTRAINING ORDER, STANDSTILL, C4, ALMIGHTY WATCHING, OFF THE TRACKS and WAREHOUSE at the Massapequa VFW. This is a good showcase of what we here at Scheme Holdings LLC cosign as generally pretty dope hardcore in current dayz. The past couple shows at this spot have been great for Long Island: after years of strictly shows at dark ass bars ranging from professional to shithole setups, it is nice to attend a hardcore show in a relatively DIY setting. Will the rest of DEAD LAST remember the songs they haven’t practiced in over a year? Come to the show and find out.
*Special Request: OFF THE TRACKS is coming a long way to play the show so if you could bring a bottle of vegetable oil for their van it would be greatly appreciated.*
The following weekend, 03/26, the inaugural From Within showcase is taking place in ye olde Philadelphia featuring ALMIGHTY WATCHING, SEED OF PAIN, SIMULAKRA, SHACKLED, MAGNITUDE, WORN and the last ECOSTRIKE set.
Originally we were just going to shout out In Effect Fanzine for the awesome SILENT MAJORITY interview that he conducted with Tommy but the new quasi incarnation of Wreck-Age Records (not to be confused with Scheme recording artists Wreckage™) dropped preorders for their reissue and remastered version of their seminal LP, Life of a Spectator, that has been in the works for awhile. Listen…..for our Long Island readership, you already know the deal but to everyone else: without ball washing, this is straight up one of the greatest unspoken hardcore records of the 90s and changed the game in so many ways. It’s truly a desert island record for one of us, if not both of us. Shout outs to GRASPER for doing a quick lil hand style of ALMIGHTY WATCHING that was used in the layout of the record. Maybe we’ll do an interview with him ourselves at some point. Grab a copy here:
PRAISE did an interview with the Where It Went podcast discussing their upcoming record on Revelation that was pretty insightful…can’t wait to hear the record in full, especially the HUSKER DU cover.
Keeping up with the podcast tip, Damian from FUCKED UP did a dope interview with Mr. Chubby himself from CHUBBY AND THE GANG on Turned Out A Punk: the best podcast for nerding out about hardcore and punk. Good discussions about the New Wave of British Hardcore and more importantly: talks of seeing BULLDOZE and Rucktion Records.
Be sure to cop the new issue of Gratitude Fanzine via AJ McGuirre...one of us was able to acquire it at the COLD WORLD show a couple weeks ago and the other is waiting for his copy to arrive in the mail to peep.
Finally, our boy Darren Nanos of too many endeavors to list is doing a new radio show / podcast / whatever you want to call it called UP IN THE LOCKER ROOM where he's going to have bands do some live sets and bring back the spirit of WNYU, WERS, WFMU, etc. of yesteryear in his studio...first up he's got ILLUSION on deck and we're stoked to listen and see what else he comes up with. Check it out wherever you listen to ya podcasts.
KYLE’s PLAYLIST:
SCAPEGOAT
JUSTICE
SIDE BY SIDE
STARKWEATHER
WICCA…
SILENT MAJORITY - Life Of A Spectator
LIFETIME - Background
METHOD OF DOUBT - Staring at Patterns
ALBIN’s PLAYLIST:
MANIAC side of their new split 7”
Adult contemporary trap artist PUSHA T
LIVE IT DOWN - The Last Judgment
CAREER SUICIDE - Attempted Suicide
SADE - Lovers Rock
THE CHISEL - Retaliation
STAGES IN FAITH
LIFETIME - Self Titled
STIFF LITTLE FINGERS
Part two of our interview with the homie Scott at Maggot Stomp, you can read the previous part in the last installment of the newsletter here.
You eventually moved to California....how shortly after did you start Takeover Records? What made you want to start the label? What labels influenced you at the time, be it past or present?
I moved out to California in September of 2000. According to Discogs, Takeover started in 2002.
When I moved out here I was broke af. I went to a free show at Headline Records with CARRY ON and maybe FIELDS OF FIRE, I was standing in the back wearing a FLOORPUNCH shirt and this dude came up to me and was just like, “you’re not from around here are you? No one here like FLOORPUNCH except for me and my friends”. That dude was Todd Jones and I became good friends with him and a bunch of other dudes from the crew. When CARRY ON broke up, Nick and Corey started PIECE BY PIECE and me and my buddy Jeff decided to put out a 7” for them. We came up with the name at a Simi Valley bowling alley. We were throwing around names and I think Jeff said “The Big Takeover” and I said we should just shorten it to Takeover Records.
I think I was just influenced by other hardcore labels then like Teamwork, B9, Youngblood etc..
Looking back on Takeover...do you have any regrets with the label or do you still stand by the catalog? Do you ever have the desire to put out straight up hardcore records again? Who is worse to deal with for mail order: metal or hardcore kids?
I had no idea what I was doing back then, I still don’t really know what I’m doing if we’re being honest. I was living paycheck to paycheck and just going to shows all the time, I had no business spending money on pressing records. But overall between Takeover Records and Old Guard I think I put out some cool stuff and met some good folks along the way. But I have zero desire to put out a strictly HC record right now. There’s enough cool HC labels out there right now, there’s no need for me to get involved.
I’ve always been terrible at mail order. Straight up I just suck at shipping stuff. I’m much better now because it’s gotten a billion times easier with the internet. But I think kids now are just punishers because they can email, DM IG, message you on Facebook, hit you up on twitter etc. to find out where their order is.
Graphic design: what led you to it and when did you start making art? When did you decide to start trying to pursue it fulltime as a gig? What were some of the record covers / flyers / iconography that stood out to you from hardcore / metal? You've done some notable stuff ranging from the NAILS, IRON AGE, TWITCHING TONGUES....do you have any personal favorites?
Back in CT I was working at a Pronto Printers copy shop typesetting business cards. One of my best friends was working at EVR and he asked me to design a couple cassette sampler sleeves and a CD sampler. Up until then I had done some flyers and a couple of zines. I had never touched Photoshop but we had Photoshop 2.0 or some shit at the copy shop so I sat there on my off time and figured out how to use it. When I got to California I somehow weaseled my way into working at a design shop and have been faking my way through it for the last 20+ years.
But growing up I loved artists like Ed Repka, Derek Riggs, Wes Benscoter, Pushead, Sean Taggart etc.,, my buddy Steve Karp from YUPPICIDE/100 DEMONS used to draw the coolest flyers.
Maggot Stomp...what made you want to start putting out releases for death metal bands? Do you still view the label as a hobby or do you ever want to take it full time? What are some of your favorite releases you've put out? What are some current bands in the scene that aren't on Maggot Stomp that you are down with?
The quick story is is that I got sick of hearing my buddy Larry telling me that he wanted to start a death metal label, and when I’d tell him to just do it he’d give me that he “didn’t know how”, so I just showed him. And here we are.
As for taking it full time, I live in Southern California, death metal does not make enough money to cover my coffee habit, never mind my mortgage.
A few favorites are the MORTAL WOUND stuff, the new 200 STAB WOUNDS, the THAETAS full length, the Nick Herrmann and the VOMIT FORTHERS 12”s.
Some of the newer death metal bands I fuck with are MUTILATRED, STABBING, SNUFFED ON SIGHT, CORPSE PILE, WHARFLURCH, INTRINSIC MALIFIENCE and DELIQUESCE to name a few.
You have clear nods to hardcore with some of the Maggot Stomp merch...what do you think about the type of death metal fan that thinks hardcore has no place in metal? What bands do you feel like truly bridged the two genres and did it best?
I don’t think about them at all. Pretentious bullshit has zero place in death metal or any underground form of music.
The first two bands that come to mind are INTERNAL BLEEDING and OBITUARY. When I first heard IB it felt like I found the missing link between NYHC and DM. There was crossover that was HC and thrash but that DM-crossover hit so much heavier. And without OBITUARY have pretty much influenced most heavy hardcore bands. And DYING FETUS, this really needs zero explanation.
Some of the "bigger" bands on the label have left and are moving up to straight up metal majors...are you showing these bands to these labels in the hopes of them getting picked up or do you feel like your roster is getting sniped?
Nah, I’m straight getting sniped. Some of these assholes owe me huge finder fees. It’s cool for the bands I suppose, but going back to your question about taking the label full time, it’s next to impossible to grow the label further the way I’m doing things, especially with shitty labels throwing around the amount of money they are.
Express in your own words how much it sucks to press a vinyl record in 2022...Do you feel like you've had to pivot how you rollout and release a record? How are you adapting?
You can bang a chick tonight without your jimmy hat on and be a new father changing shit smeared diapers faster than you can get a record pressed. It’s made me rethink the amount of records that I want to press, attention span these days with kids is piss poor, so keeping them engaged for a whole year until LPs show up is tough. I wasn’t pressing an absurd amount of records any how but it’s still lame having to wait a year for shit to get done.
Any final words you want to say? Who's getting shout outs and who's getting no thanx? Why is Farside - The Monroe Doctrine the best Revelation records release?
I just want to say thanks to you guys for doing zines and shit and having fun with it. Shout outs to big Nick H., Justin from CCA for guiding my dumbass, Cole for killing my merch and shout out to DEATH THREAT. No thanks to kid’s who cry about shipping prices.
I fucking love REV069. I mean what Rev record is better? Start Today might be the only Rev release that’s gotten more play. GAMEFACE - Every Last Time is up there. Ignaurus too.
Hard-Core