I wrote an article on my top ten hardcore bands a while ago. I took that article offline because I was a bit dissatisfied with it- both the list and the writing. So I’ve decided to rewrite it, but as two articles. The first, the one you are reading right now, is about classic American hardcore. The type of stuff covered in the film of the same name. These bands whet my appetite for fast songs, shaved heads, bad attitudes, and hate hate hate. When you’re fifteen years old in 1994 the subtle beauty of The Clash doesn’t really appeal to you. Especially when half the bands on the radio sound like sub par Stiff Little Fingers. Add to that the idiotic peacocking that was de riguer in Boston punk rock around the time I was sniffing around and it’s easy to understand why I buried myself in the most stripped down, maladjusted rock and roll bands this side of Mayhem. I had bad hair, bad skin, a bad wardrobe, and bad taste in music. Where else was I going to go but hardcore?
Oh yeah, and for the last time- real hardcore bands don’t sound like Pantera.
10 – Youth of Today
YOT pioneered playing to a hall full of jocks in dorky looking athletic gear. Their lyrics were utterly retarded. They had the most generic name in hardcore. Their singer is a Hare Krishna with the intelligence of a cave dweller. They represented the point when over-amphetamined misfits lost their turf to suburban honkies. They also rocked like all get out. There are no shortage of reasons to slag off YOT. None of it changes the fact that they were an amazing hardcore band. When Ray Cappo growls into a mic, he’s unmistakeable. When every kid from the Lower East Side suburban Connecticut back him up, there’s musical magic being made.
Crucial Album: We’re Not In This Alone. Rocks hard and has silly lyrics.
9 – Negative FX
Why bother listening to Slapshot? That one song they play over and over again was already played over and over again twenty seven times by Jack “Choke” Kelly’s first band, Negative FX. NFX pioneered the faster than fast, balls out, no bullshit style of hardcore that later became the cornerstone of powerviolence. The video above shows a classic Negative FX moment, and a classic moment in American hardcore. Opening for the grotesquely overrated Mission of Burma, Negative FX and their unruly suburban fans horrify the Museum School art fags in attendance. Everything you need to know about the band is summed up in Choke yelling “We’re not gonna stop, fuck you!”
Crucial Album: Negative FX. Is there any other?
8 – SS Decontrol
SS Decontrol was the ugly, sadistic, hateful mutant twin of Minor Threat. A lot of hardcore bands (DYS and the aforementioned Minor Threat, for example) could really play, but were limited by the context of genre. SSD couldn’t play worth a shit. Even after they sold out, they sounded like a totally tuneless version of the J. Geils Band. Still, the band created a number of tropes that continue in hardcore to this day. Correct me if I’m wrong, but weren’t SSD the first band to do “chug-chug-chug-chug” style guitar riffs. My favorite (apocryphal) SSD story: When they loaded up their van for their first tour Al Barille informed the band “no one is having any fun on this tour.” SSD. Classy guys.
Crucial Album: The Kids Will Have Their Say
The essential “skinhead hardcore” band (fuck Iron Cross) Negative Approach were from Detroit and it shows. They sound exactly like what The Stooges would have sounded like if The Stooges were trying to be Black Flag instead of James Brown. Intense as fuck (especially because their front man was a hardcore junkie) NA presaged the powerviolence which would drop on the late-80s like a bomb. Currently on tour in a reformed version, but don’t you dare.
Crucial Album: Total Recall. It has everything and clocks in at a whopping 51 minutes.
6 – Void
Void was an odd bird in hardcore. They considered themselves a straight up metal band. They wrote the template for sloppy, noisy hardcore that was later rewritten by bands like Rorschach and Born Against. For a metal band, they didn’t play very well. For a hardcore band, they dressed a little too much like Sigue Sigue Sputnik. Regardless of how one categorizes Void, they wrote stellar anthems for frustrated youth. If there was one band that encapsulated everything I hated about quotidian fifteen year old life, it was Void.
Crucial Album: The split with The Faith. And The Faith side ain’t half bad, either.
5 – Minor Threat
Ian MacKaye is the Woodie Guthrie of hardcore. A sunny side up version of SS Decontrol, Minor Threat was easily the most musically talented band in hardcore after Bad Brains. Their ability to actually play their instruments never got in the way of churning out fury at a thousand miles an hour. An articulate expression of teenage frustration, Minor Threat was juvenile and adolescent without every being stupid or trite. The first time I heard Minor Threat I remember thinking “This is what I’ve been looking for!” And for what it’s worth, I don’t think they ever meant to make straight edge the gold standard in pseudo-religious pretention.
Crucial Album: Complete Discography. When a band’s total output is 26 songs in 47 minutes you listen to their whole damn catalog.
4 – Poison Idea
If aliens landed here from Planet X and wanted to know what punk rock sounded like, I would play them Poison Idea. This was the band that never gave a shit about the scene, or doing good, or anything other than rocking the fuck out, fucking groupies, and scoring really good H. One look at the band confirms that the second was out of the question, while the third was an obsession. At one point Poison Idea weighed in at over 1300 pounds. Starting out as a run of the mill hardcore band, they soon hired a more pro sounding lead guitarist and started wearing their influences (see also: Motorhead) on their sleeve with no shame. Had Poison Idea formed ten years later you would never have heard the name “Kurt Cobain.”
Crucial Album: Feel The Darkness. Released in 1990 (!) it’s not only one of the best hardcore records of all time, it’s also one of the best rock records ever, period.
3 – Cro-Mags
The Cro-Mags were an enigma. They recorded a good demo, one classic record, and then a bunch of utter shit. They brought the sublimely idiotic religion of Krishna Consciousness into hardcore. Most of the garbage that has come out of New York for the last twenty years worships at the altar of the Cro-Mags. Still, it’s impossible to deny that Age of Quarrel is essential hardcore listening. The band could do anything after that and still occupy this spot on the list. The album is that good. It stands as the clearest expression of the NYHC ethos, now and forever.
Crucial Album: Did you read the last paragraph, jerky?
2 – D.R.I.
Punk rock has the Sex Pistols. Hardcore has D.R.I. Even the next two bands on the list, as amazing as they were, never did anything quite as ear(th)-shattering as D.R.I. The Houston, TX based four-piece was, along with the Neos (who sucked), pretty much the first band to actually figure out how to play fast. Not uptempo. Not 1-2-3-4. But fast fast faster than fast. Their first two albums have 55 songs between the two of them and clock in at a collective 60 minutes. I often wonder what would have happened to hardcore without D.R.I. Nothing good, that’s for damn sure. And don’t you dare rip on their crossover thrash days. TRUE FACT: When I was the manager of a Hot Topic many moons ago Spike Cassidy came into the store and put me on the guest list for their show that night.
Crucial Album: Dirty Rotten LP or Dealing With It. Take your pick. They’re pretty interchangeable.
1 – Black Flag
Black Flag wasn’t a band. Black Flag was a mobile assault unit that stood against everything good and decent in the world. What the Motherfuckers were to the 1960s, Black Flag was to the 1980s. I can’t think of any other musical group subject to such intense police surveillance, except for N.W.A. Standing on this side of the historical divide, the band are hardly any less threatening. They quickly descended into idiotic misogynist jokes with no punchline and typical rock star antics. But who cares? Along with Steely Dan, Black Flag was one of very few bands that never made a bad record.
Crucial Album: Damaged. Yes, Virginia, Henry Rollins really was the best BF singer.
0 – Bad Brains
Not just any band of religious nut job homophobes who play shitty reggae (and this is coming from a guy who loves reggae) make the top of my Old Guy Hardcore list. Only (The) Bad Brains. Hardcore would never have happened if four jazz musicians had been able to stand still and impress fusion audiences with their cool. Fortunately for us Bad Brains couldn’t stand still and never have. PROTIP: Anyone wondering where Bad Brains got their signature sound from should start with their favorite band, Return to Forever.
I came to know with now dismay
That in this world we all must pay
Pay to write, pay to play
Pay to cum, pay to fight
Crucial Album: Bad Brains. It’s pretty much all downhill from there.
Posts
While I appreciate your article, I must comment on the grammar skills utilized in its formation. The skills I speak of pertain to the ideas of singular and plural nouns and the corresponding following verb tenses. Allow to to preface the fact that “band” is a singular entity and “bands” is a plural entity. What this means in simple form is that the word “band” would be followed by “is” or “was”. The word “bands” would be followed by “were” or are”.
I noticed your flawed obedience right from the beginning with the following: The Clash don’t really appeal to you. I argue it should be, The Clash doesn’t really appeal to you.
If you’re not a believer yet, try this one. Minor Threat were easily the most musically talented band… Should be: Minor Threat WAS easily the most musically talented band. Band=was Bands=were was band, were bands – Get it?
SS Decontrol are the ugly, sadistic, hateful mutant twin of Minor Threat. Are the twin or IS THE TWIN? Now you are about to prove me correct. (I would play them Poison Idea. This was the band that) You should say – This were the band, if you wanted to stick with your mutant grammar.
Anyway, I have vented. I did enjoy your article and appreciated your use of the serial comma.
Thank you.
| November 4, 2009 @ 9:21 pm
I believe you and appreciate the proofreading. Sometimes I take lots of time on these. Sometimes I just shovel them out the door. This was one that got shoveled out the door… not that that’s any excuse. I’ll make the recommended changes. Thanks again for the proofreading and the praise.
| November 4, 2009 @ 9:41 pm
Ah yes, the collective noun and its vagaries . . . Of course you’re right. Such slips derive from a simple enough mental mix-up: a band, although a single entity, is composed of more than person so we often treat of it as a plural. Confusing when and where it takes a singular or plural verb form is a normal error. Here’s a quick guide.
http://www.chompchomp.com/terms/collectivenoun.htm
| November 5, 2009 @ 3:21 am
Upon rising and having coffee, I feel like a douche for even writing my comment. The collective noun thing is something that has bothered me for awhile now; it’s misuse (in my eyes) seemingly came out of nowhere. Breaking point was reached.
The link Theo left, was helpful and showed that I am right only about half the time. I learned something.
I would like to say “my bad” for even making such comments on a cool article about a great genre. I should have vented on an article about country music. Your tact used in replying to my comment is very commendable.
Long days and pleasant nights.
Craig
| November 5, 2009 @ 7:42 am
Wow. Great Article. After reading Craig’s comment though, my asshole puckered up so tight it became a black hole of rage. This only lasted for a few moments, though. After which I blinked twice and actually laughed out loud. I recalled when I was an English major, long ago. Then I recalled when I took those computer programming classes, even longer ago. I then remembered the professors for both subjects. They were small men who mumbled to themselves. Also they dressed strangely and wore their hair in a certain style peculiar to their breed. In the places they were not bald their hair seemed to stand out strait in random patches as if it had been pulled out by two great fists. Then my mind leaped out towards fantasy. I saw the English professors clearly now, reading articles like this and writing responses like Craig’s. I saw them mumbling and pulling, faces contorted in anguish, crying out to world that could not understand their passion, their obsession. Swastika’s danced in their eye’s as they threw Hillbillies, black kids from television, and little fat boy l33t speak bastards into hot ovens. Then I wondered just in what manner Craig might wear his hair. I know that since I gave up on such things, my hair has grown long and full and though an oaken brown it some times shines with little flecks of gold.
| November 5, 2009 @ 11:18 pm
It’s good that you realize how uncalled for that was, Craig. Down right ridiculous, I’d say. Just because you slave over your every word, doesn’t mean you should expect anyone else to. Hardcore people find other fountains of pride, and they never have anything to do with our grammar.
| November 6, 2009 @ 9:40 am
Great overveiw, and I apriciate the tendancy to more obscure bands than the ones who made it mainstream.There’s definitely a few I need to checkout. Still though, no Dead Kennedeys, no Circle Jerks? I saw the Circle Jerks in 2005 and they were still ripping it up, though I couldn’t say the same for the DK’s.
Sorry to interupt this thread on grammar with my question about punk rock by the way.
| November 6, 2009 @ 10:21 am