SPECIAL DISPATCH: HARDCORE IS SOOOOOO BACK
01/31/25 - GOOD SCENE; EVERYONES FAULT w. Kyle
The winds of battle have shifted, the pungent stench of shame and humiliation has drifted closer to the aether. We’ve braved the torrent of pathetic attempts at recreating a forgone time that never existed and hardcore is fucking back...
A groundswell grows evermore under our feet, a new age is coming… hold fast. The ground hog of scene solstice has shown itself with a pos-top and ten yard fight hoodie forecasting 2 more weak attempts at brutal hardcore before the righteous spring melts the frozen hallow ground and you can safely wear A Straight Ahead shirt again and not be accused of a felonious act, they’re making zines, they want Mp3s, everything was right again for a time…
Godskin Peeler / Silver - BLOOD TIES Out now from Streets of Hate and Quality Control FREE OLA
Nah nah nah … dramatics aside it’s a warm gun to see people excited to listen to hardcore bands and dare I say participate in hardcore without a profit incentive at its core. I don’t want to be mistaken as saying this is a revolutionary act, but we’ve had a long and hard one where the lines became blurred and delusions ruled the day. There were no great beasts of corporate rock or windbreaker deathcore felled but a glimpse of a collective enlightenment. Those things can exist and will exist but ..this thing, this thing of ours is actually what hardcore is and it is won’t be defamed, disgraced or used by leaches and rats. ..Or this is all hot air and in my escape from my hovel of productivity I just happened to peer into greatness at the last 2 showings of the Silver / Godskin Peeler tour. Maybe the bar is slung low but going to a hardcore show in Brooklyn and not having some fucking freak with a Go Pro making it about themselves is a sign of good things coming. You had the “kidz” (my 25-35 yo friends.. and also strangers!) slamming … smash beers out of peoples hands .. diving into the bathroom .. just causing a general mayhem for bands that take their influence from Turning Point, In Cold Blood, the Cromags , the Icemen, 108 , etc etc.
These superficial acts aren’t the end of the line of importance but they speak to a feeling in the air that I had that weekend. Despite the world being a crueler and harder place, you’ve gotta find these little pieces to carve out for yourself to show proof that it can’t all be so bad…even when it is yo.
Hardcore is best paired with dining, as far as social activities go.. so in that spirit we marched on the pizza capital of New Haven, Modern Apizza. We forced the Italians to order nearly burnt to a cinder New Haven style apizza and guess what they loved it.. they got the sausage..they got the clams.. they got it all. well either they liked it or they lied to me which would be way uncool to do.. I don’t think they’d do that. We followed up this banquet with what could be considered the best show I’ve ever been to in Connecticut featuring a hardcore band from Italy (I’ve been to at least 3) .
A room packed to the hilt with people who are having a real and honest reaction to hardcore music.. minimal posturing or social jockeying to be found. It’s what they describe as .. the feeling. It’s a well documented enough sensation but if you’re reading this and you don’t know why you do this whole hardcore thing or how it will shape the person you are, think about all the dull fucks from your home town or your college or your job or who can’t even find fucking Italy on a map and you are or could be someone who gets to see hardcore played by real life Italians and chances are you have common ground with these people playing the show, enough of a connection to be considered tangible and specialized to the person that you are. Hardcore is not be discounted into the bin of consumer mono culture, that’s the line .. this is the difference.
The heart of TRVE HC lives in Europe, we all know this.. why else would Agnostic Front play there so much? In an exciting twist of fate and Charity, Almighty Watching will be going international in May for UNFEST along with a couple of other affiliates, family, and general associates.. Look at this line up.. sure plenty of death metal bullshit but its the good stuff. More exciting news on this whole thing later when we’ve got it.. is it more shows..new records...instagram collab posts.. only time will tell.
In an attempt to balance the scales for his crimes against hardcore humanity (ok Let Down isn’t that bad really) RTW has booked an event that despite potentially having hundreds of people at it … seems like it’s going to the rebirth of the rebirth of hardcore pride. It runs the gamut of human hc history with some of the best bands to do it in the last 40 years and a roster of some tried and true new day heroes.
When you see unc in the Cut The Tension 3 sided t shirt attempting to run the Everybody Takes One pit .. don’t say nothing .. or take any pictures .. please. In a world rife with grave robbing and the stripping of copper from the proverbial walls, I’m putting a lot of stock in hardcore these days and to see excitement for a gathering like this gives A good enough feeling to talk about here. Despite the NEGLECT of SCHEME records on this Philly + # type event, I think it’ll stand to cement a good moment we’ve had over the last couple months. Now onto an event that does NOT disgrace the SCHEME HC Corporation … the RETURN of United Blood will feature plenty of good enough bands and a joint Scheme Records / Shining Life table serving up reading material, t shirts, hats, and hell maybe even new records. Also you get to see most of the bands we associate with play one one of the cultural land marks of our modern age of hardcore for the first time. The fest to be followed directly by what I will refer to as the the unsanctioned and unofficial LOC / SCHEME hardcore conference featuring new schemes..old schemes..and 3 of the best to ever get to play hardcore.
If you made it this far you may have noticed this newsletter breaks our general format, In a month of attempting to get one of these out in our standard way of doing things we constantly find road blocks in the way of a lack of time, a lack of important perspective, or just a lack of time between either of us. Despite these excuses for failure we’ve been cooking harder then ever to have new things out into the world, so technically this is us moving in silence. And you know what.. hardcores alot better off the internet and in real life where it belongs.. so we really are doing our part. That being said you can finally get a Square One demo tape today along with .. not much else for now.
That about wraps it for now; Cling to the things that you know work and reject the things that only stand to trip you up. Hardcore isn’t all there is but sometimes its enough. PEACE.
Hell ya dude love the energy! Nothing better than experiencing a weekend of hardcore so good it makes you wanna go home and write a screed.