Thursday, September 25, 2008

Unbroken Owns Your Soul




Like all good things, they come to an end.

This was the end of Unbroken. I was able to see the first "last" Unbroken show that year and damn it, it was a memorable experience. One of the top show experiences of my life. I have a few very choice photos that I must find... One of kids going nuts with Dave wearing an awesome Undertow shirt and a very cool shot of Eric Allen rocking the hell out of kids at the Tune Inn in New Haven.

Anyway, things are busy here still. I think sometime in the middle of October I can resume posting in a somewhat normal fashion. For next I have three awesome things to show you guys. Black Kites, Damezumari and another blast from the past. Lets see if I can actually pull it off.. I want to give the first two the proper credit as they are active and touring bands with great styles...

That is all.


------


Psych.


Someone mentioned Fall on Proverb and since its such a fucking awesome 7" here you go. Going away for the weekend. Will talk to you all on sunday or monday. I think we should all meet up in Chicago for the reunion show to end all reunion shows. I know reunion shows smack of velveeta cheesiness, but seriously... does this line up sound anything less than bad ass?

Disembodied
Unbroken
Undertow
Mouthpiece
Coalesce
108
Trial

I didnt think so. Does anyone else think Outspoken should play this show? Lets all write to them and threaten them with bodily harm if they do not play this show. Of course Im kidding... about the bodily harm part.

Hey, heres Fall on Proverb! Tear shit up! Wow, that was a Vogelism...


39 Comments:

Blogger Davy Train said...

"There are 3 words I will say: "I don't care"." A spine chilling end to side A.

Thanks Blend for sharing this great 7" with the world. Definitely in the all-time top ten of 7"s for me. Don't forget the 'And/Fall On Proverb' 7"....and the shitty Lost & Found release just like the Cornerstone record.

You were a lucky boy being able to see the last show. I was really close to buying a ticket to the USA for the 98' reunion/memorial gig... but chickened at the last minute. Heard they playing with Disembodied and Trial in Chicago. Bet they will be interesting, seeing the band as old men in their 30's like us!!!!!!

5:34 PM  
Blogger Ape Mummy said...

A brutally awesome 7". I wish it hadn't taken me so long after it came out to really appreciate it. On a nerdy note, the liner notes to It's Getting Tougher... call this the Crushed on You 7".

7:23 PM  
Blogger H. said...

excellent !!!

9:29 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

i see a siege track on your last fm!

10:26 PM  
Blogger Stephen said...

One of my favorite hardcore bands that I never got to see. Needless to say, I'm psyched for the reunion and even more psyched I don't have to travel for it.

11:11 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

That show in Chicago is set to take place in April of '09. So far its Unbroken, Disembodied, Trial are definites. Rumored to also be playing is 108 as well as Undertow. Christ almighty, road trip.

9:05 AM  
Blogger Dan said...

Best hardcore band of all time.

9:24 AM  
Blogger blend77 said...

wow... i seriously may have to travel to chicago to relive 1995 all over again.

someone recently told me unbroken were the worst hardcore band from the US... WHAT! i couldnt take it seriously.

i didnt think this 7" had a name at all... i just called it Circa 77 for two obvious reasons. one being the cover. the other being the association with my name, blend77... being the year i was born.

i should post the back cover... its says "unbroken circa now" and has a photo of them playing some show.

i think the cover photo is the Sex Pistols. correct?

maybe i should post Fall on Proverb.

you know what sucks though? I had this 7" and Life. Love. Regret. LP and I sold them both back around '95.... damn it.

10:57 AM  
Blogger xtimmyx said...

this is the last thing i heard about the show in Chicago... "Greg just told me 108, Coalesce and Mouthpiece have been added."

11:19 AM  
Blogger blend77 said...

WHAT!!!!!

Dudes... Zen and the Art of Face Punching Readers... I am coming to Chicago in April of 09.... I want to hang with you. We will mosh like it is 1995.

Fuck. this is awesome...

11:58 AM  
Blogger Mickey Nolan said...

The reason that Chicago show is happening:

myspace.com/90shardcore

108 was the first band confirmed. Guilt, Chamberlain and several others are possibilities.

Looking forward to the book far more than the show.

2:48 PM  
Blogger Davy Train said...

The 'And/Fall on Proverb' 7" looks sweet in black, mine was white. I am not much of a record collector geek so don't know which came first. Just glad t have the bloody wax, never really card about pressings. I hope you all have a great trip to Chicago next year..... wish the pond between these continents wasn't so big!!!

Have been checking out the progress of the book for a while, looking forward to it. Hopefully there will be some stuff on the great Euro bands of the 90's.

5:15 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

through many years of solid research, i've come to the conclusion that "absentee debate" is pretty much the best hardcore song ever written. i could probably write a thesis about it.

that is all.
brendan

12:35 AM  
Blogger diego poloni said...

damezumari is one of the very few current emo bands i really care about.

...and i don't need to say anything about unbroken. everything's said on this 7".

2:01 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

God Damn! That reunion show is gonna be sick! I'm looking forward to the book as well. The era of music that all those bands represent means so much to so many people. It certainly changed my life (politically, socially, you name it) and Unbroken played a huge part in that. I remember the show that Tim mentioned in this post, and the look of alarm/fear that crossed the singer's face when the band hit its first chord, and a virtual sea of kids rushed the stage to sing along. Fucking amazing! I think that that kind of spirit informed so much of this era of hardcore. It's a shame how disconnected so many of the people I know from that time feel about the hardcore scene these days, myself included. oh well...

Sean M.

ps-Brendan, what's your email address, man? We need to catch up!

10:56 AM  
Blogger Jeff Chord said...

Yo duders...I will be moshing at this show.

Tim, myspace me your number I think I have a place to stay for people if you need it.

7:47 PM  
Blogger Stephen said...

there has been no formal announcement on the confirmation of these bands FYI:

Undertow
Mouthpiece
Coalesce
108

7:49 PM  
Blogger sweet baby jaysus said...

i think i may have to catch a flight up there as well for that, bro-down in chi-town. i have a couple places to stay that would also have room for more if need be. now i have to keep my fingers crossed i won't be on tour....

8:34 PM  
Blogger sweet baby jaysus said...

just out of curiosity, how many of you are on the vlv board? and if so, what's your name?
tim keeps popping up talking on and on about rain, well not so much talking about them, but just saying their name over and over again. it makes me laugh. in a jolly way. like if santa claus was told a dirty limerick. yeah. so who else is on it?

5:04 PM  
Blogger sweet baby jaysus said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

5:04 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

yo sean---

machine_rhythm@yahoo.com it has been too long. blame my reclusive nature.

that is all.
brendan

11:54 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

oh, and most people from the mid-late 90's era of hardcore are disillusioned with the hardcore of today for a good reason. 98% of it sucks shit.

that is all.
brendan

1:43 PM  
Blogger blend77 said...

oh, look at that.. connections on Zen... i know both of those guys from college in case anyone cared... both awesome dudes..

jeff, i will get in contact, are you feeling any better?

who is on VLV... i know Pixiesfanyo is... he runs Last Train To Cool... a good site... i u se it to buy way too many records... i just bought Policy of 3 and Chino Horde... haha!!

i will get some stuff up this week. i got something good for you guys..

1:45 PM  
Blogger blend77 said...

haha! brendan, way to go... there is definitely some good stuff... see my future posts to arrive hopefully this week... but then you will see why the old stuff rules so much as i post two things that are guaranteed to make people wish it was the mid 90's again...

1:48 PM  
Blogger sweet baby jaysus said...

here's a conversation that happened the other night after i finished my set at the beck/mgmt after party.

random dude: "why do you look so emo"
me: "i don't know, maybe because i grew up in the hardcore scene of the mid-nineties."
rd: "well, i like new order."
me: "cool."
rd: "i just thought i needed to call you out."
me: "well, you're the one wearing a cardigan dude and i've dressed the same for fifteen years. sorry"

so apparently i look "emo" and i long for a return to the mid-nineties daily. do your best, tim.

2:02 PM  
Blogger luciferyellow said...

Brendan, I totally agree, 98% of current HC sucks ass! However, the problem is we always compare that to the music of the period that influenced us most (well, at least I do...). My point is, I got disillusioned with hardcore as a genre by the time that most of you guys got really into it. I am sure guys older than me who still saw Minor Threat live frown upon most of the 2nd-3rd wave HC bands that I grew up with. That's just just the way musical taste develops (individually and culturally). When Rock'n'Roll first came out that was the devil's music, now those are golden oldies. Anyway, there are still 2% of nuggets to be discovered - and I am fully relying on Tim to dig those up for me ;-)

Cetero censeo, Bad Brains, best HC band ever! (righting my top hat and putting my monocle back in...)

3:37 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Brendan [and everyone else :)],
I couldn't agree more about the current state of the hardcore scene, especially in terms of music: 98% of it can eat a bag of dicks. Also, one thing that I loved about the scene of the mid/late-'90s was its clear connection to politics. At times the politics were able to trancend the music itself, and that's one reason that it continues to be of such relevance, and to be so influential. I miss that overt political connection. Although there are plenty of bands out there that are still trying to effect change, it seems like the scene as a whole has largely become devoid of political relevance.

Ha! that's what you get, sucka!!!
Sean M.

4:16 PM  
Blogger sweet baby jaysus said...

sure, a good deal of current hardcore sucks, but let's not forget there were shitty bands back in the day that filled the pages of mrr and hac as well. i find the time period to be one of the most vital in the shaping of who i am as a person today, but the bands we hold dear to our hearts now, at the time a lot of people could have cared less about. almost as if it were too far ahead of its time that it would take nearly a decade for it to be fully understood and appreciated by the masses (whatever number that might entail, i'm guessing somewhere between five and ten thousand people). there is vital music with a message still active within the hardcore community, you just have to dig like you did back in the day.
it's the passion vs. the fashion,
i talked about it awhile back on my blog, but when i moved back to oklahoma a few months ago i happened to see drowning with our anchors out of san francisco, and it was like a complete wave of nostalgia just rushed over me. it was like watching policy of three crossed with still life, but completely original if you catch my drift, and between the few songs they played they spoke out on what the songs were about and how they were a means to communicate an overall message. i had been away from any form of local hardcore scene for awhile and that show drew me back in full force. i think the current state of hardcore can only be made better by giving back the energy and love it gave us and trying to keep this culture we have been a part of and struggled with for so long alive and relevant. let the kids know they don't have to look like idiots, that they don't have to follow the trends, that they can write zines and book shows and create something that they can say is theirs. i don't know, i'm old, but no longer jaded, it's weird, i know.

4:39 PM  
Blogger luciferyellow said...

Well, I agree. And it may even be 3 good percent. But it's hard to tell when you are not that involved anymore.
Jaysus, just out of curiosity, what do you do? You said you finished your "set" at the Beck afterparty
Prestidigitation?
Face painting?
DJing?

5:07 PM  
Blogger sweet baby jaysus said...

djing, i typically spin records for about five hours straight while people dance and crowd around me, sometimes they unplug shit accidently while dancing, or spill their drinks on the equipment, that one is my favorite.

5:14 PM  
Blogger luciferyellow said...

So do you have any New Order?

5:20 PM  
Blogger sweet baby jaysus said...

i do, but i kind of refuse to play anything from the eighties, it's a long story of actually being alive through them and having to listen to the same goddamn music throughout the nineties well into the the present everytime a dj in my town spun records. i get people dancing, but i throw in shit from all over the spectrum so they never really know what's coming. it's basically watching me make a five hour mixtape with no pauses.

5:25 PM  
Blogger blend77 said...

that sounds awesome jay. i bet its fun.

i have to agree with Sven's sentiment as i think a lot of music holds its power to any specific individual due to its nostalgic weight. for Brendan, Jay, Sean and a number of others, the early to mid 90's is when we were old enough to truly absorb music in its fullness and this happened to be hardcore for all of us. For you Sven, and Phil it was a few years earlier.

I definitely hear stuff today that sounds identical to things i loved in the 90's, but due to its lack of nostalgic significance it just doesnt do it for me. But there are plenty of sounds from those days that I continue to find more love for. Generally things related to stuff even earlier than the 90's. The Revolution Summer sound for instance..

But there are tons of people just a few years younger that love Saetia and Orchid and that crop of bands and they just do it for me the same way.

Of course, I do agree that there are about 2% of things that are very worth hearing and I am going to do my damn best to bring those to your ears.

7:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

i would probably be listening to that 98% of hardcore if not for the internet and blogs. it feels weird when i first started listening to hardcore i was listening to all that neo-metal/core. then i downloaded a bunch of black flag and not until i watched american hardcore i discovered this whole underground scene through bands that have been dead for 20 years. i still barely listen to any new music. it seems that the only some what reasonable hardcore that comes out anymore is either really pissed or very thoughtful.


that's my two cents.

10:49 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I hadn't listened to these EP's in forever, and they're much better than I recall from back in the day, but... I still gotta say, nothing tops "Life. Love. Regret." That shit's just a total classic. "D4" is by far their best song, that shit just makes you wanna destroy everything on the planet. Absolute mastery on every level.

The compilation recording of "Blanket" (now playing) is complete annihilation, too. God damn, that era of metallic hardcore was soooooo fucking great.

10:31 AM  
Blogger blend77 said...

I agree with you Andrew. Life.Love.Regret. is one of my most favorite hardcore records of all time. D4, Razor (before the cheesy solo) and Blanket are tops. As are End of A Lifetime and In The Name of Progression.

I am also a huge fan of Absentee Debate.

But man! that LP makes me move! Would you possibly go to see them in Chicago next year? I know reunions are hokey, but seeing Unbroken in 95 was one of the best shows ever and I have never been to Chicago.

it would be cool to meet up with people.

12:12 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I want 1134 on this show, and I want it now.

5:08 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks! I used to have this, but I have no idea what happened to it... well, maybe I still have it. Fall on Proverb... dang, I forgot how good this song is.

Jeez, that reunion show looks crazy. I was never too into any of those bands, though. I saw Trial once (and have the Foundation 7"), and that was pretty fun. I felt a little out of the loop, though. It seemed like I was the only one who didn't know all the lyrics to all the songs. In fact, the singer had a sore throat, so one of their friends sang the entire set. And he did it perfectly. The regular singer would jump in for the sing-a-longs.

10:00 PM  
Blogger andrew said...

Hey, I was at the first "last show" too -- you mean the one at the Che Cafe in 1995, right? I think Julia played too. Not sure if anyone would remember, but I was the one who ran into the mosh pit naked except for a knit beanie on my head. I was trying to liven things up a bit, to celebrate what was (and still is) one of my favorite hardcore bands of all time. I thought it was fucking lame that all these kids showed up dressed in suits and moped around, saying "This is like a funeral, man." Anyway, I'm pretty sure Steven got angry with me for my antics, and thought I was making fun of them. Not true at all. That guy was cool, but he seemed to lose his sense of humor after a while. I don't know what he's like now. Probably a very good guy...Rob Moran is one of the nicest human beings I've ever had the chance to spend time with, and Eric was such a sweet and wonderful person as well.

Anyway, thanks for posting these!

-Omaha Andrew

1:20 PM  

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