New Breed Comp

New Breed Documentary in Yonkers

We are less than two weeks away from the New Breed Documentary screening at Alamo Drafthouse Yonkers, aka the most exciting Westchester hardcore event since Killing Time at the Haunt in 2008. Speaking of which, Carl Porcaro will be cohosting the Q&A following the documentary, along with myself and Mike McAuley.

Tickets are available on the Aalamo Drafthouse website.

In the 30 days leading up to the documentary, I am also posting New Breed content on instagram.com/iquestionnotmedia with the hashtag #dailybreed. Tune in for Bad Trip Fun Crew Fridays etc.

With all this New Breed stuff, there hasn’t been much time for Serve ‘Em a Sentence, but check back soon for the debut of the Eat Side Story series, one of the first of the recurring features named after Maximum Penalty songs.

Confusion interview with Mike Scondotto, 2006

Below is a Confusion interview that was originally slated for my first zine Double Rabies. Thank you Mike Scondotto for doing this interview in 2006, and apologies it never made it into one of my paper zines. Mike currently plays in The Last Stand and is featured in the New Breed Documentary. This interview was conducted before I did successfully see Confusion at Popeye’s in 2007.

tasteofhate

First off, I’m not sure if all Double Rabies readers are familiar with the history of Confusion, so if you could provide a little history and a timeline of the band.

Confusion started in the summer of 1990 in Brooklyn NY. The band had actually played a total of one show without me on bass, the very first one, which was in a backyard in New Jersey. It was August of 1990 and the lineup was Lament, Merauder, Patterns, Social Decay, Dmize and Confusion opened up! I think (not totally sure) Sub Zero played too, but I could be wrong on that one. I was at the show, because all of my friends were playing and went down with my brother and the guys in Lament. Brooklyn formed its own scene in 1990 with all of the bands mentioned as well as Nobody’s Perfect, Life Of Agony, Judgment Day NYC, Darkside NYC and Social Disorder. By the fall of 1990, CB’s had stopped doing hardcore and Brooklyn got things rolling. Confusion’s last show was in December of 1994 @ Lamour in Brooklyn opening up for Deicide, who we had already played with the year before, we were big fans to say the least.

I know that Confusion was supposed to play a reunion show last May, but the date was given to Hatebreed or something. What happened with that situation?

Yeah, unfortunately, I myself had nothing to do with the booking of that show and as you can see it fell apart and CB’s gave the date away. It was an odd show for Confusion, it was with a lot of traditional HC bands and I don’t think it would have been a good fit.

Are you guys planning to reschedule the reunion any time soon?

Yes, but it may not happen until 2007. Me and Mike Fried (vocalist) have decided to finally get the ball rolling on the long overdue Confusion discography and we will be putting it out on Satan Wears Suspenders Records, a label recently started by Rich from Everyday Dollars/Darkside NYC. Confusion and Darkside played a lot of shows together and had a similar style mixing Hardcore and Death Metal, although in the end, Confusion went 100% Metal by the time we broke up.

I read that Confusion played one show in 2003 as a benefit for late member Frank Collins. Did you decide to reunite in 2006 for a similar situation, or were you going to play just for fun?

That show in Jan. 2003 at CBGB’s was amazing, Rich Darkside and myself booked all of the bands and the show was sold out. We raised a lot of money for Frank’s Mom, she was there and so was everyone from the old Brooklyn scene, you would have loved it Becky! The reason to do it in 2006 was pretty much for fun and also to let newer fans see the band at least for one time. Actually, I was only going to play bass on a song or two and sing a song or two at the 2006 show, as there was going to be a real bassist playing… I haven’t played in years and I remember my fingers killing me after the CB’s show.

Would you consider Confusion to be more of a hardcore band or a metal band? What do you think about those whiny purists who think that hardcore should only sound like it did in 1982 and that there is no place for metal in hardcore?

Confusion started as a hardcore band, went on to mix death metal with hardcore and then went full death metal. The ultimate “crossover” kind of bands in a way, we even had a big thrash element on our 7″ as well. I see nothing wrong with a metallic sound in a hardcore band, as long as it’s done right. The problem is that there are now full-on METAL bands claiming hardcore merely because they have tattoos and short hair and that’s not cool at all. I love hardcore and I love metal, yet I hate almost all of today’s “metalcore” bands. If I want to hear hardcore I put on Negative Approach, Ignite, Gorilla Biscuits, Youth of Today, Sick of it All etc. When I want to hear metal my tastes are for bands like Darkthrone, Absu, Slayer, Satyricon, Enslaved and Dismember.

I really like the version of Taste of Hate that is currently on your Myspace page, from your set on WNYU. Was that song originally on one of the demos?

Yes, the song “Taste of Hate” is on the first demo from 1990 called “Four the Force.” Why we went on to name our 7” “Taste of Hate” in 1992 … I have no idea anymore! Ha! That’s one of Confusion’s first songs ever actually. I had to learn it when I auditioned.

Since the 7” was released on a label out of France and is pretty hard to find these days, would you guys consider re-releasing it, or releasing a Confusion discography?

Only 1000 of the “Taste of Hate” 7″s were made in 1992 by the singer of Kickback on his label in France so yes, it is very hard to find. However there will be a CD discography in 2007 like I mentioned. It will have the two demos, the 7″ and rare live stuff like the WNYU set etc.

I have always been intrigued by some of the lyrics to Distorted Visions, but I could never figure out all the words. What is the song about, and would you mind posting the full lyrics?

Mike Fried wrote all of Confusion’s lyrics and to be honest I had no clue where he got some of his phrasings and ideas from. I asked him back then and his specific answer was “all of my lyrics are abstract”. While I can’t give you all of the DV lyrics I can give you some phrasings “… zeros lined up to the right, blinded by too many points of light… many times you’ve tried to break away damned in hell is what they’ll say. Don’t judge its cover by the book, it’s time for you to take another look…” “you cannot run around with this view of society”. Bizarre huh?

How did Distorted Visions end up on the East Coast Assault comp? Considering that many comps are vehicles to promote newer bands, what was idea behind a comp like East Coast Assault that featured a bunch of already established bands?

In fall 1992, Confusion and Darkside NYC took a little road trip to Philly to play with Dare to Defy and Starkweather in a basement, where the owner of Too Damn Hype Records lived. His name was Met and he was the drummer of Dare to Defy. We were asked to be on the impending comp that night, along with Darkside. The comp came out in the Spring/Summer of 1993 and the only “established” bands on that entire thing at the point were Life of Agony who were already signed to Roadrunner and Only Living Witness who were signed to Century Media. None of the bands on that comp were big outside of their own areas before that comp came out. Merauder, Overcast and Converge were all small bands still at that time.

While I’ve got you in an interview, can I ask a little bit about Direct Approach … I love those two Direct Approach songs on the New Breed Comp, so I was very sad to find out that DR did not record anything else. Was Direct Approach more of a side project type deal, and did you guys play any shows? How did you end up on the New Breed Comp?

Wow, I think it is amazing that Direct Approach is even in your vocabulary! Let’s see I had just turned 15 and was in the small band in Sheepshead Bay Brooklyn called Direct Approach. We would practice in our drummer James’s basement on East 12th Street and Ave Z. The rest of the band had Ray on vocals (a skinhead) and “Karate” Chris Bozeth on guitar, (another skinhead). Me and James were the 2 straightedge kids. Ray knew Chaka (Burn) and this other dude Freddy Alva pretty well and they were putting a cassette comp. together and somehow, Direct Approach, a bunch of 15-17 year olds from Brooklyn who never played ONE SHOW live, got on this landmark compilation! Ha! I never even got a copy of the damn thing, but I did get the European bootleg CD version that came out 10 years ago and that was pretty sweet. After we broke up in Sept 88′, I started Close Call with John from Candiria. The guitarist Chris started a band called Merauder, later moved away to upstate NY in 1991/1992 and then formed a band called All Out War. You can definitely hear a similar sound in early Merauder and early AOW and Chris is that connection. Crazy huh??? 100% true.

I know that you now play in Inhuman, but did the other members of Confusion go on to other bands as well?

The first thing I did post Confusion was play bass in a short lived Grindcore band called Hiroshima 22 from Brooklyn. They actually did a 7″ after I had quit. By the spring of 1995 I had started Inhuman. As far as the other members of Confusion go, I was the only one who seriously did music after the band broke up. Now however, Mike Freid is doing a new band with Dennis on drums, Dennis played for Confusion for the 2003 reunion show. The original and only Confusion drummer Ralph is MIA. We think he is living in the Midwest somewhere. Guitarist Mike Price (91-93) plays in bands in NJ, but not hardcore or death metal. Guitarist Pete Mellucci (93-94) moved to Arizona years ago and is good friends with the guys in North Side Kings and I think played on one of their recordings.

Anything else you would like to discuss?

I’d just like to thank you Becky for the interest in the band. Although the band is dead and gone, there will be at least one show and a CD for the Confusion fans to look forward to. I’d also like to plus my band Inhuman, we will have a new CD out in 2007 as well. Check us out here: www.myspace.com/inhuman if you like hardcore with a dark edge. Cheers!

As You Were Before: Maximum Penalty update and Life & Times Review Redux

Maximum Penalty tore it up at St. Vitus last night. (Thank you to Freddy Alva for another enjoyable New-Breed based event: a combined New Breed Documentary screening and then live sets from While We Wait, Maximum Penalty, and Beyond.) The MP set was so good that I realized afterwards, almost heretically, that there was nothing Beyond could do to top it. (Besides play Seasons again, and again no one danced, what the FUCK. Now I see why they didn’t play it at the Superbowl or that Grand Victory show.) One of the best parts of the MP set, besides my husband dancing like it was 1997, was the announcement that they may soon be releasing new material. Between MP and the Wilding Incident, Jimmy is responsible for so much good shit right now. Today in my post-show glow, “my ears are ringing, I’m still singing,” Anti-Heros style, I decided to repost my review of Maximum Penalty – Life & Times that I wrote for Lifers in 2009. A lot has changed since then, both in hardcore and my own life, but the greatness of this album hasn’t dimmed one bit. If you told me that any other classic NYHC band played a recent set where half the material came from their “new” record I’d likely be disappointed, but for MP last night it was just right. I’ll even forgive them for somehow lopping off the mosh part from Coming Home. Now if only they’d play Could You Love Me to match that new heart shaped vinyl out now on Reaper.

As always, I am firmly against this thing turning into a blog/reposting stuff that is still available elsewhere, but the Lifers site has been down for a few years now so this review is fair game.

Also I’ve learned my lesson about bringing a goddamn purse to a Maximum Penalty show. This is why I always had my backpack at the Pyramid.

MP In Effect: Life & Times on the LES

(Originally posted on the Lifers site in October 2009)

When I dug this out of my email, my original message to Tremblay was signed “can’t wait to hang this weekend!” Which I realize referred to the mess of the weekend that was Fall Brawl 2009 and the ensuing multinational hotel antics.

For more than a year and a half, I couldn’t wait to hear the new Maximum Penalty album. These guys built up a lot of anticipation by giving out promo CD’s starting in April 2008 at the BNB Bowl day after show. From the quality of the promo songs I knew the whole album wouldn’t be a dud, but had no idea that it would end up being 15 songs, many of which are just as good as the promo tracks. The new record will not disappoint MP fans and it may reel in a few new ones as well. In the early reviews I’ve seen, many are calling it the album of the year. So far, I absolutely agree. The only potential challenge could come from the 570: the new Wisdom in Chains record is coming out later this year, and i haven’t heard the new Strength for a Reason yet, although it’s supposed to be fabulous. But as of now, I have to go with MP.

Life & Times is 15 songs and over 42 minutes of new material. Style wise it’s close to the classic MP sound, featuring Jimmy Williams’ inimitable vocals and plenty of hard hitting riffs. Gang vocals are a new addition here; these were absent on their earlier albums, but give an extra punch to tunes like Life & Times and Fight My Way Back. This is MP for 2009 and beyond: a collection of superb tunes in the vein of their classic sound, but with a new twist.

Not only do these new songs exemplify their trademark style, but the songwriting itself is stellar. It’s not like they just churned out a bunch of tracks without inspiration or flavor, as some veteran bands have done. Instead, this is a great addition to the existing MP catalog. It’s close enough to their previous material to please diehard listeners, but also different enough to keep things interesting, and to make those previously unfamiliar with MP take note. The album coming out on Reaper Records will hopefully expose them to the younger generation as well. Kids who are familiar with the likes of Forfeit or Naysayer but not yet with MP will hopefully see it advertised and check it out.

I already knew this was going to be a great album based on the 4 song promo that they started giving away at shows in spring 2008. Most MP fans are already familiar with the promo material, as it was available for over a year and a half, both at shows and online. The songs must have gone up online in February or March, since I mentioned my first impressions in the MP section of I Question Not Me #1, which came out in late March of that year. I didn’t immediately like all 4 songs: my analysis was “I especially enjoyed Life & Times and wasn’t quite as keen on slower jams like Tribulations” and that I had lukewarm hopes for the rest of the album. Over the rest of that spring, lukewarm turned into dying to hear the whole thing. Threat Assessment may have eventually eclipsed L&T as my favorite promo track, and I remember having a great time the first time I saw them play it live (at that Skarhead show where the rappers were supposed to be upstairs and the hardcore bands downstairs, but everything ended up being mixed together). Truth & Consequence was the next to grow on me, and soon I liked Tribulations too. I listened to this thing non-stop in my last week of living in New Jersey in May 2008. I recently realized that I’ve lived in three apartments since then (2 in Mount Vernon and now the Bronx) and have fond listening memories at all three dwellings. How many records have you had to wait for through three different apartments? Luckily this one was worth it.

While Life & Times and Threat Assessment had early hit potential, the real sleeper was Truth & Consequence. Riff wise it’s not on par with those other two, and I think the band realized that, by sticking it as the 11th song rather than in a more obvious spot. But it makes up for any deficiencies with lyrical insight and a banging mosh part at the end. I’m not even 100% sure that the lyrics are about the state of hardcore but if they are, it’s a succinct and powerful statement of disillusionment with the modern HC scene:

“It was there, I swear, that spirit in our eyes gave me reason to move. It meant something, to you nothing, throw me a line ’cause I’ve found myself caught out here. Bring yourself to those days, to a time when our thoughts became one and the same. To me something, to you nothing, I’ll turn away ’cause I’ve had enough of what I’ve seen.”

While this doesn’t necessarily speak for how I feel about hardcore in 2009, it’s a pretty good analysis of how a lot of people I know feel about modern hardcore.

As good as the promo songs might be, they are by no means the only great songs on the album. I’ve seen them play Paper Bullets at least twice (and snuck a look at the set list because I wasn’t sure what it was), but I always assumed that it was an older song that I didn’t know, perhaps from Uncle Sham, which is the only MP album that I don’t own. (Somehow between my boyfriend and I, we ended up with three copies of Superlife, 2 copies of Independent, and 2 copies of the demos/ESS, which were both mine, since I temporarily lost the first one.) Since it’s obviously a stellar tune, I’m not sure why they decided to leave it off the promo. Maybe because there are too many good songs on this thing to pare down into a 4 song preview.

Life & Times, Paper Bullets and Fight My Way Back are an exemplary first three tracks. Much like how Independent has a strong front three, and then a fourth song that is a notch down, the same is true here. (In a strange coincidence, both fourth songs start with ellipses: …So God Help Me and …And The Walls. That’s almost as good as Token Entry opening two of their three albums with Revelation and Revolution.) But the fifth and sixth tracks are more hits: Threat Assessment and By All Means. Myself, the 9th track, also fucking rules. Between this one and the beginning of (As You Were Before) there are some great guitar leads on this record. And while Myself is mostly full of catchy melody, there’s a great mosh part at the end, as is also true for By All Means.

While at 15 songs it could be shorter, there are no bad songs on this album, and out of those 15 are 7 or 8 great ones. When you think about some long awaited albums that are 10-11 songs and only have 2 or 3 hits, this is far and away in another league. Also, there has to be some supporting songs here and there. An album like From Beneath the Streets is great from start to finish but songs like Over You or Forbidden Zone to balance out the standouts like Antidote or The Edge.

Although a friend slipped me a burned copy at Breakdown a few weeks before the official release, I also preordered the LP/longsleeve package. Overall I like the layout and how prominently the lyrics are featured. I’m always vexed when a release comes without lyrics, or without ALL the lyrics. The poster is fucking classy and a nice departure from all that intricately googly Deathwish style artwork that I thoroughly loathe. It depicts the band standing on a rooftop in front of an urban skyline and is a perfect complement to the grit and authenticity of the album. The shirt design is cool but the colors looked better in pictures, and mine almost looks like they forgot a layer of print. But that hasn’t stopped me from wearing it frequently.

[2016 editor’s note: my cats ate the sleeves of this lovely longsleeve sometime around 2011. So much for wearing it frequently. Possibly being resurrected as a tanktop any day now.]

The 12″ itself features a handsome red and black combo, and I like that it comes with a download card, as most Reaper releases seem to. (In fact I think the only records I’ve purchased that have come with download cards are Reaper exclusives; then I tried to remember the last time I bought a record that wasn’t on Reaper.)

I’m sure that by the end of the year, I’ll have even more to say about Life & Times. I’ve been listening nonstop for the last few weeks, but these are still my initial impressions. This is a long and complex album; there are many layers and so much going on that I notice something new with every listen, like the echoey part in What Goes Around. (Attn: Stefan P and other open and notorious fans of echoey parts.) For both veteran fans of Maximum Penalty, and newcomers that are interested in the best kinds of NYHC, I suggest you pick up your own copy ASAP. This record is far from “slipping through the cracks of this world, never to be accepted;” instead, it should be heralded as a modern classic.

March 30 – April 14: An Exciting Few Weeks for New York Hardcore

The next few weeks are a historic time for NYHC, with both Borrowed Time and the Abductors coming to the city for the first time, plus the premiere of the New Breed Documentary. I’ve been waiting for Borrowed Time to make their way down here for 10 years, and the Abductors for half as long. And all things New Breed – well, you know how I feel about that if you read IQNM #3. Details below on all three events:

Wednesday, March 30: New Breed Documentary screening

The first showing this Wednesday at Nitehawk is sold out, but tickets just went up for the April 2 screening, and the Philly showing has been announced for April 10. For more information, check their site. I also highly recommend following Freddy Alva on Instagram at @freddyalva_nyc.

If you too are an enthusiast of all things New Breed, there are still limited copies of I Question Not Me #3 for sale, which contains both a New Breed map and crossword puzzle. I’ll have a few copies with me on Wednesday, and a possible reprint coming soon.

Sunday, April 3: Borrowed Time at the Grand Victory

The Grand Victory is one of my favorite hardcore venues right now, though often it’s a bit too small for the shows being booked there. I think I’ve been to five shows there and two of them were sold out. I am kind of curious what is going to happen during a Borrowed Time set there since there’s not a lot of room to dance, but it should be a good opportunity for NYC to check them out up close.
Borrowed Time plays well-constructed, metal-influenced hardcore in the vein of Stigmata, Merauder and Ringworm, and although they’ve undergone some lineup changes over the past few years, they’ve stayed close to the sound that immediately grabbed me on 2006’s No Escape from This Life. It seems like a million years ago that I was doing a phone interview with Brendan from my parents’ speakerphone in summer 2006 and we were discussing a possible New York show, like them getting added to Merauder/Outburst at CB’s (which was already one of the greatest lineups start to finish that I’ve ever seen, even without BT.) They’ve gradually been making their way further south, and I met them halfway in Albany when they opened for Biohazard last March, but this Sunday will be their first show in NYC. It’s a 2 PM show and it looks like BT is in the middle of the lineup.

Sunday, April 3 – Sunday Matinee at the Grand Victory

2 PM, all ages

Examine
Truth in Needles
Borrowed Time
Spanish People in Custody
Close to the Edge
Held Hostage

I did my first interview with Borrowed Time for Double Rabies #6, which is sold out, but 7 years later I did another one for SWNK.

Thursday, April 14: The Abductors at Lucky 13

The Abductors are another band I’ve been waiting to see in NYC or lower Westchester, though in this case only since 2010, and I’m psyched that they are coming to town without me having to book them myself! When the Abductors started playing in 2010, their combined age was approximately 150. For a few years they played catchy punk rock in relative obscurity, but some lineup changes and a slightly harder shift in sound are finally getting them their due. (My favorite tune, Spontaneous Combustion, reminds me of 88-93 era Cold as Life.) Check them out on Bandcamp.

A Thursday night show in South Brooklyn would ordinarily be a tough sell, but I wouldn’t miss the Abductors in NYC, and it will also be my first visit to the new Lucky 13. Local stalwarts Carnage Krew headline a lineup that also features Truth in Needles, Pus (touring with the Abductors), the Wurst and Reefer Buddha.