lets find a dissensus best hardcore record list
- Thread starter matt b
- Start date
padraig (u.s.)
a monkey that will go ape
it just depends on how much you want to nitpick. to me it's hardcore if you think you're playing hardcore for the most part. same thing w/rap, to an extent - like hearing possibly apocryphal stories about DJ Shadow moving his CDs from Electronica to the Hip Hop section in records stores.
or you could bust out "post-hardcore", admittedly, a rather naff term, though not as bad as "metalcore" or the abominable "math rock". to me most of those Hydra Head/Relapse/etc. style bands fit into a lineage that starts with hardcore vets breaking free of hardcore's boundaries; Minor Threat/Faith to Rites of Spring/Embrace to Fugazi, Gorilla Biscuits to Quicksand, Christ On Parade/Neurosis' 1st two albums to later Neurosis, Born Against to Men's Recovery Project, etc. hence post-hardcore (though if you consider all the weirder SST bands plus stuff like The Big Boys, Big Black, Naked Raygun, etc. there's always been that thread running through h/c).
This is my first time reading Dissenus in ages, really glad I've found this thread... Being an early 20something, my tastes tend to skew towards post-80s hXc, particularly the melodic hardcore coming from the east coast US in the 90s and the Youth Crew revival stuff led by In My Eyes from around 97 onwards. It annoys me that a lot of the recent coverage of the scene (kickstarted by the Blush book) completely leaves this more recent stuff out, particularly given how influential mid-90s bands like Lifetime and In My Eyes are on so many bands currently playing.
In terms of personal favourites...
Refused - Shape of Punk To Come. Can't believe this thread has come 5 pages and no one's trotted out arguably the most influential hardcore record of the past 10-15 years. Techno bits, breakbeats - they even covered the Prodigy's Voodoo People on an earlier EP.
Lifetime - Jersey's Best Dancers.
In My Eyes - Nothing to Hide
Modern Life is War - Witness
Black Flag- Damaged
Kid Dynamite - Shorter, Faster Louder
Bad Brains - I Against I
On another note, I promote and DJ a punk/hardcore club night in Newcastle and am really enthused by the amount of great records coming out to an increasingly awesome response. Top 5 of the year so far...
Have Heart - Songs to Scream at the Sun
Blacklisted - Heavier than Heaven, Lonelier than God
Verse - Aggression
Cancer Bats - Hail Destroyer
Ceremony - Still Nothing Moves You
In terms of personal favourites...
Refused - Shape of Punk To Come. Can't believe this thread has come 5 pages and no one's trotted out arguably the most influential hardcore record of the past 10-15 years. Techno bits, breakbeats - they even covered the Prodigy's Voodoo People on an earlier EP.
Lifetime - Jersey's Best Dancers.
In My Eyes - Nothing to Hide
Modern Life is War - Witness
Black Flag- Damaged
Kid Dynamite - Shorter, Faster Louder
Bad Brains - I Against I
On another note, I promote and DJ a punk/hardcore club night in Newcastle and am really enthused by the amount of great records coming out to an increasingly awesome response. Top 5 of the year so far...
Have Heart - Songs to Scream at the Sun
Blacklisted - Heavier than Heaven, Lonelier than God
Verse - Aggression
Cancer Bats - Hail Destroyer
Ceremony - Still Nothing Moves You
bassbeyondreason
Chtonic Fatigue Syndrome
That Cancer Bats record is some of the worst shit I ever heard. Basically Atreyu-type shit.
padraig (u.s.)
a monkey that will go ape
I'm, ah, w/Vimothy on this one. Not to pull one of those "I used to love that record when I was 15", but, yeah. Plus the more eclectic, techno-ish bits of that record work a lot better when you don't actually to listen to a lot of real techno, as I do nowadays. Shape of Punk to Come kinda functions as a token electronic music-ish for punks & hardcore kids who don't really listen to electronic music (in the same the token punk rock hip hop albums are like the 1st Dead Prez LP/Blackstar/maybe The Coup/etc.). Nothing wrong w/that of course, and all respect to Refused for being one of the only HC bands of the last 15 yrs or so to try and do something innovative with hardcore. Not so much on the International Noise Conspiracy, though.
padraig (u.s.)
a monkey that will go ape
A few weeks ago I was travelling around New England w/a buddy. He has this old Grief shirt that he wears pretty much every day and I was fairly shocked by how often hella rando old hardcore guys or crusty stoner dudes would walk up to us and be all like "Grief!! Yeah, man..." They were pretty good, I guess. More of an Eyehategod dude myself...
I'm still pretty big on that whole crusty/doom metal axis; Corrupted, EHG, Souls At Zero-era Neurosis, Christdriver, of course Asbestos Death/Sleep (!!!). For me they came after Nausea and then Amebix/Axegrinder, kind of a bridge to more eclectic/experimental stuff (postrock, kraut, and so on to more electronic music) via the latter Neurosis, Isis, Godflesh/Jesu kinda post-rockish stuff. I remember for a couple of months I was listening to the Jerusalem LP like once or twice a day.
BTW, did anyone bring up Amebix yet. Not really "hardcore" unless your definition is pretty broad, but still my favorite gtr band ever. Like Motorhead on steroids. I heard they're getting back together and I don't know whether to cringe or get excited.
padraig (u.s.)
a monkey that will go ape
psychedelia? never really thought of it that way, though it does kinda make sense in a kind bleary wash of drug noise kinda way. kinda like "Acid Trax" for crusty punks, hey? Amebix were too dark for smiling face Acid House but I bet they would've gotten on just fine w/that whole acid tekno/free party sound that came around a few yrs later. have your ever heard their early stuff, basically everything pre-Arise! It's also really good, but different, very heavily influenced by Killing Joke.
I dunno how up on that scene you are but if you're into Amebix then there's a bunch of that like metallic/crust (re: Motorhead//Discharge, whereas Nausea is on like a Slayer//Crass tip) stuff; Axegrinder (self-described as "anarcho-metal"), Sacrilege (but only the 1st LP), Bolt Thrower's first, Concrete Sox, Hellbastard/krusher, plus the originators, Antisect. You Brits were doing it up right in the 80s...
sodiumnightlife
Sweet Virginia
Any books worth reading about hardcore? I'm feeling like reading a music book this weekend.