All language subtitles for The New York Hardcore Chronicles Film

This is the
New York Hardcore
Chroniclesfilm.

This is not the history
of New York Hardcore.

This film details the
New York Hardcore scene
for what it was...

What it is...

And what it will forever be.

One of the most vital
and influential music scenes
to ever exist.

Its impact is felt worldwide
and its legacy continues on.

Long after many other cities'
Hardcore scenes
have died off.

New York Hardcore
is never-ending.

Forever and always.

New York Hardcore
will never die.

Yeah,
New York Hardcore
will never die.

New York Hardcore
will never die.

This is the
New York Hardcore
Chroniclesfilm.

["Victim In Pain" playing]

♪ People say that I'm insane
Society victim
Just in pain ♪

♪ Society's rules
Have made me cruel ♪

♪ I'm just the opposite,
Ain't no fool ♪

♪ The way I act
Or way I dress ♪

♪ Doesn't make me strong
Or make me best ♪

♪ Soon they'll find
My reasons why ♪

♪ I'm open minded
And not blind ♪

♪ But why am I
Going insane ♪

♪ Why am I the one to blame

♪ Insane

♪ Why am I
The one to fucking blame ♪

[indistinct chatter]

It's another beautiful day
in New York city.
Black and Blue Prod...

on 11th street, 34th avenue.

You know, the old Ritz, it's

a place where hardcore and all amazing acts of all genres have played.

There's so much history in this room and people from all over the world

are here to enjoy
the day's festivities.

It's DIY.
We don't have
any corporate backing,

It's the biggest DIY show
probably, in the country.

["Cleanse" playing]

♪ This is why you curse
The sky above ♪

♪ As above so below it's no

♪ Surprise you never learned
How to float ♪

♪Don't need any answers yes

♪ What you know now
You will soon forget ♪

It's home. It's awesome.
I love that other people come
from other countries and towns.

I don't even live here,
and it's great. I have friends
who come from Canada,

and Australia and Europe
and it's just fucking awesome.

[hardcore music playing]

Hands up! Look up!

You guys are hardcore!

See, the good part is that
New York has a outstanding
long tradition of hardcore

still living here.
I mean, you can see it.
Take a look at all these people.

They're loyal.
They're loyal to the grave.
So that's a great thing.

And, like I said,
I return every year.

We tried to make a percentage
to see how many people
travel from abroad

and I would say that
maybe a fifth would be
an accurate number.

I see a lot of guys
from Belgium, from Holland
or from Germany

that I don't see on a yearly basis, but I'll see them at the Ball.

We're Colombian skinheads,
we're right here

at the Black N' Blue Bowl,
New York City,

where we go hardcore too.
We're so excited. Let's go.

We're gonna watch Madball.

♪ When I say New York
You say Hardcore New York ♪

♪ Hardcore New York

♪ When I say New York
You say Hardcore New York ♪

♪ Hardcore New York ...

[hardcore music playing]

Here we are on the corner
of Avenue and 7th street

right here at
Thompson square park,
right across the street.

The old A-7 club.
This is home.
This is truly...

the real core of the
hardcore movement or
hardcore scene.

Yeah we had our great bog Lucy, our CBGB's, we had our Ritzes and all that stuff,

but this is where
it was happening everyday.

Everyday,
there was a show here,
if there wasn't a show

we made our show with
our boom boxes
and cassette tapes.

Like I said, we were here
all the time. There was only
a handful of bands

that were here all the time.

And those are all
the classic bands
you think about.

Agnostic Front,
Cause for Alarm,

Antidote, Urban Waste,
Murphy's Law, The Psychos.

This was the scene.
This was the core.

And when I'm talking
about the scene,
I'm talking about 30 people.

You know, I'm thinking about

probably when I go in
there again, I haven't been
in these since the end of A-7,

I'm probably going to be
blown away by
the size of everything.

The scene was 30 people.

We weren't wanted around here

even though this was my
father's neighborhood and
I come from this neighborhood.

Now you got people here.
Who knows these people?

You know, like whatever.

We were squatting
in these areas.

You know, this is exactly it. This is what it looked like. All these abandoned buildings.

We were out here living in
either one of these buildings
or in the van

depending on the situation.

It's funny what it is now, and if anybody who's brand new was to walk here today,

they'd be like, "What is this guy talking about? This is nice. This is beautiful.

It's a big change and
I think they used us for
this whole justification.

We were the first ones here.
We had a deal with
the gangs that were here.

Nobody would ever walk
into Avenue B, C or D.

Nobody would ever go that way. But we did.

You know what a neighborhood
defines? People know each other,
you know your neighbors.

You let your kid
go upstairs, go downstairs,

go around on the street.
These people
don't know each other.

It's just the way it was.

This ain't no neighborhood.
I don't know what this is.
I can't even define it.

There goes the neighborhood.

[Roger] The A-7 club was
always to us the true home
of New York Hardcore.

We were active
all the time.

We didn't even need a band
to be playing
to have a scene here.

We all just knew to come
to this corner,
this venue, this club

and just hang out all night,
either here or inside,
if there was a band playing.

Shows didn't even start
till one, two, three
in the morning.

Wow! Wat is going on
down there?
We never knew that existed.

DJ booth here.
Jimmy, the DJ, was it here
or was it over there?

-Yeah, right here.
-The DJ booth.

[Roger] Was it here where
Jimmy would DJ?

-Oh, it was over there.
-It was over there.

And the bar was over here.

-Sup?
-Wow, Todd

How are you? How you doing?

I'm doing great.

[indistinct]

What's this?

Basically, here at the A-7 club
as well as the CBGB's,
but we're at A-7 right now.

We supplied the house backline
for almost every band.

In particular what came to mind
was that every time
we would have a show,

of course, we couldn't
afford a drum skins,
We don't even know what it is.

Who knows what changed?

We knew it would sound good,
it would break
when somebody showed us

we had to get some, so we ran
right around the corner
to Sal's Pizzeria,

and we got two pizza boxes,
cut them out,
taped them together

and used that as drum skins

-forever. You remember that?
-Yeah, yeah.

-A kick drum.
-And nobody gave a fuck.

There were even people
playing in bands...

where The Psycho's
never used a kit drum.

-Never used it.
-Never used it once.

-Never used his foot.
-And it didn't matter

because it's
a cardboard box any way.

The only person who knew
how to play it was this guy.

-12 years old!
-He kept it together.

We didn't know what
we were doing.
Just jumping around

and making noise,
but this guy knew
what he was doing.

For me, 12-13 years old
to join Agnostic Front.

At the time, Agnostic Front
was the biggest band.

The Bad Brains were broken up
and so the Agnostic Front
was the biggest band.

When I got asked to join, it was like I got asked to join fucking Led Zeppelin.

You know,
I was probably
this tall back then.

Yeah, you were like 80 pounds.

[Todd] I would get on the dance floor and I'd go off the dance. I would go off.

Everybody had their own style,
Vinnie had his style.

I remember,
I remember, right here.

He did the circle.
Vinnie would do the circle.

-This was mine.
-That's it.

That was it.

Push people. Push or die.

[hardcore music playing]

[incoherent]

Chicken fight!

We'd go stand at each corner,
come at each other.

Usually the girls would
get on our shoulders.

United blood.
United blood.

We're all united.

["United Blood" playing]

♪ Talk about unity

♪ They talk about conformity

♪ You don't want
To support the scene ♪

♪ Why don't you get the fuck
Away from me ♪

♪ I'm a skin, you're a skin
Who's gonna suffer ♪

♪ Live in sin, where you been
You're all gonna go under ♪

♪ I'm a skin, you're a skin
Who's gonna suffer ♪

♪ Live in sin, where you been
You're all gonna go under ♪

♪ I'm a skin, you're a skin
Who's gonna suffer ♪

♪ Live in sin, where you been
You're all gonna go under ♪

♪ I'm a skin, you're a skin
Who's gonna suffer ♪

♪ Live in sin, where you been
You're all gonna go under ♪

We're all equal,
Blacks, Skins...

Black, White, everyone of us,
break their legs...

Gonna all do this.

♪ Talk about unity

♪ Talk about conformity

♪ You don't want
To support the scene ♪

♪ Why don't you get the fuck
Away from me ♪

♪ I'm a skin, you're a skin
You're gonna suffer... ♪

CBGB's is gone.

[applause]

Whatever.
A-7 was before CBGB's
so this is amazing.

One second, one second,
in this room...

so many new to fit in.
Everyone say "Ray Beez."
One, two, three.

[all] Ray Beez!

Someone's gonna get
their head checked tonight.
Here we go.

No one fucks with us.
You're my family.
Here we go.

["Somebody Gonna Get Their Head
Kicked In Tonight" playing]

♪ Well, now the band is rockin' And everybody's Feelin' alright ♪

♪ Alight

♪ Said, Wednesday evenin' There's sure gonna be a fight ♪

♪ Be a fight

♪ Ah, somebody's gonna get Their head kicked in tonight! ♪

♪ Now the crowd is screamin'
And everybody's shoutin'
For more ♪

♪ More!

♪ Said there's gonna be
A pool of blood
On the dance hall floor ♪

♪ On the floor!

♪ Oh, somebody's gonna get Their head kicked in tonight! ♪

♪ We're gonna rip up the stands Tear down the walls ♪

♪ Smash the place
Really have a ball ♪

♪ All my boys are in distress
And I hope that floor's
A bloody mess ♪

♪ Now the band is rockin'
And everybody's
Feelin' alright! ♪

♪ Alright

♪ Said, Wednesday evening There's sure gonna be a fight ♪

♪ Be a fight

♪ Ah, somebody's gonna get Their head kicked in tonight! ♪

[hardcore music playing]

♪ We're gonna rip up the stands Tear down the walls ♪

♪ Smash the place
Really have a ball ♪

♪ All my boys are in distress
And if you fuck with us ♪

♪ You get punched
In the neck! ♪

♪ Well, now the band is rockin' and everybody's Feelin' alright ♪

♪ Alright

♪ Said, Wednesday evenin' There's sure gonna be a fight ♪

♪ Be a fight

♪ Ah, somebody's gonna
Get their head ♪

♪ Somebody's gonna
Get their head ♪

♪ Somebody's gonna
Get their head
Kicked in tonight! ♪

♪ Tonight, tonight, tonight!

Thank you very much.

Thank you!

Thank you Christ,
thank you Johnny T.
Good night, guys, I love you.

And me, Roger and friends
used to walk
all the way down this fence,

all the way to the corner,
arm in arm,

and we used to sing,

♪ I was a punk
While punk is dead ♪

♪ Now I'm a fucking skinhead

I remember we used to do that
up and down. You do that today,
they'll put you in jail.

It's amazing.
It's the best city I've been to.

It's cool, last night we got to go to New York Hardcore tattoo, got to see Ray Beez's boots,

that was fucking really cool.

I got to listen to
Agnostic Front, Warzone,
Judge.

It's just so god damn cool
to see the streets
that these guys walked on.

Another thing is
the age difference.

At a show like this, you've got kids that are 15 up to grown men, 50-55 years old.

It's cool to see.
It's unifying.

It's like one big
family reunion...

Where you know everybody
and everything.

Yeah.

And you know what's happening
and what''s around you, usually.

But sometimes, if you just
come into it like
it's a new thing to you,

you're probably
gonna get smashed.

[hardcore music playing]

-You know what that is?
-It's our
New York Hardcore logo.

[Cameraman]
You know what that is?

Yeah.
The New York Hardcore logo.

You have no idea
where this symbol came from?

Nah, man.

[Cameraman]
Do you know who created that?

To be honest, would you?
I don't know.

[Cameraman]
Do you know where
that came from?

Originally, no.

[hardcore music playing]

How did the New York Hardcore
symbol come about?

It probably even goes back
to being a Yankees fan.
Sorry, Boston guys.

It is what it is.
But, uh...

it was always that NY, like the
New York symbol, just the
NY letters, New York.

"NY" for New York
were already pretty iconic,

and originally, I don't think
I even intended for it to be
an "X" as much as an acronym.

Like, I did "NY" and then
I did "HC", and I was
coming up with letters,

like NYHC in some type of font,
and then,

the New York Hardcore
going across.

So, I broke the "Hardcore" part
into two words,
"hard" and "core."

At first I was just trying to
come up with some acronym

and I wasn't sure what
I was gonna do. I was just gonna
come up with the letters.

NY. HC, and maybe like

list the letters down vertically
and horizontally put
the "EW" and the "ORK."

Then, I started playing around
with the "X."

because the "X" is just
a very iconic symbol,

and an element, and not just from a straight edge standpoint

and from the fact that
it was put on people's hands
at DC if they were underage.

like the 9.30 club when we went there, but we were also Generation X,

and you can see
this is probably
the very first incarnation.

What if I took an "X"
and did it in
the quadrants of the X.

And then it became,

"Okay, which way
does it make sense?"

So, when I first started out,
I was actually doing H, C and Y.

But, you could see I actually
wrote over it and did
"NY", "HC" here, because...

it was important to me.
We read left to right,

so it was important
it made sense in that regard.

that we would go cross first
and then up and down.

A lot of thought went into it.
It's not like I just had a...
an epiphany.

The scene was
really important to me.

The camaraderie of the scene, it was like an extended family.

Especially because it was
so small. I've always been
a bit of a team player.

So, I wanted something
that was a unifier.

And again here, you could see,

uh, this is like really,
kinda the final incarnation.
Like, all right, we have NYHC.

But here, again,
I was kinda unsure of
which way I wanted it.

So, yeah, that's how
I ended up on that.

So, this is basically
what you arrived at.

This is what I arrived at.
This is the
original piece of paper,

that the New York Hardcore logo
came upon.

It became like
"Support New York Hardcores."

So, it was all about supporting
the bands coming out to shows
and showing your support.

Three words that I would
associate with
the New York Hardcore symbol

are unity, camaraderie,
and history.

Three words that I would
associate with
the New York Hardcore symbol

are truth, real and heartfelt.

Uh, community,
culture and home.

Hardcore, music and a story.

CBGB's, Stigma and fun.

Positive, Agnostic Front,
my life.

[Kevin] It is global.
And again, it's been used
by so many different

aversion of the symbol whether it's just even for a hardcore band, it became just,

"Hey, plug in your city letters,
NJHC or whatever."

and I'm fine with it.
It feels goon in one regard.

It's funny, because for
the longest time,
people didn't even believe me

when I'm like,
"Hey, I'm the guy
that made this."

So, there's the sense of ownership, like, "Hey, I'm the guy that created that."

It's an ego boost.
I'd be lying
if I said it wasn't.

I'm glad. I gotta say I'm happy.
I'd rather see that happen,

than have been so protective of
it that I smothered it and
nothing ever happened with it.

What's up? My name is Davey,
I'm from the Bronx. This is
my 9th Black N' Blue Bowl.

Always a good time.

[shouting]
So tonight, this is your stage.

[growling]

[guy in crowd]
Whoo! Yeah!

[shouting]
The family!

If it wasn't for
New York Hardcore, I don't know
where I would be in my life.

All I know is, it molded
who I am as a person today.

It's more kind of a family
than a movement.
I feel that way.

I'm Laurent,
I'm from Paris, France.
I'm here for the backend crew.

Basically, I'm on the
Punk scene since '77.

[indistinct hardcore singing]

[hardcore music playing]

[indistinct hardcore singing]

[hardcore music playing]

Here we are,
rolling down the highway
in southern Florida.

This is chapter 13,
The Lost Archive.

[hardcore music playing]

We're going to Sandy island,
talk to Randall Underwood,

who was a photographer
back in the day of the first
wave of New York Hardcore,

who took a lot of pictures,
and collected a lot of stuff,

and his stuff's been
in the trunk
for all these years.

We love making
films like these. It's like
an archaeological dig.

We go into his house,
we're gonna dig into his trunk
and see what he has.

"The Lost Archive."

[hardcore music playing]

I save everything.
I don't know why, but
that era was so important to me.

I collected all the fliers,
I took pictures,
I documented, I got stickers.

I just kept it all,
threw it all in a box,

and have just been
holding on to that box
for the right time.

And hopefully,
we're getting close
to that right time.

Yeah, brother.
I'm just trying to
share it now.

You're like a pain in the ass.
You're making me work, dude.

So, is this where
the stuff has lived
for the past few years?

This is the trunk that's
traveled with you everywhere?

This one, that one,
and just some kind of bullshit
that I've been carrying around.

[Randall]
And then I had all...

[Drew]
It's like treasure island
out here.

Well, I had all the records
in boxes too, you know.

"Don't open.
Light sensitive."

You see, I follow rules.

Yeah, see,
if I didn't open it
what would have happened?

Oh, this one's good.
This one's really good.

I wasn't taking pictures
of bands. I was kinda
taking pictures of my friends...

and was trying to get
what they were really like,
hanging out.

So, I was never really
a band photographer.

I was just trying to take
lifestyle pictures,
people hanging out,

in front of A-7 club,
in front of CBGB's,
in front of Apartment X.

There was more stuff going on
in front of Apartment X
than you can imagine.

I think I know why
Randy did this,
was just out of pure love.

None of us were thinking
where is this gonna be
in 10 or 15 years.

If I was thinking that way,
I'd have done a lot
more collecting, myself.

I think he just loved the scene,
he loved the music.
He really loved the music.

This is my nostalgia room.
This is where I keep all of
my stuff, a lot of my photos.

I kept all the fliers to
most of the shows I went to.

They're all the original ones.
I mean, there are some
really great shows here.

Minor Threat, The Mob,
and Urban Waste and CBGB.

Fuckin A, huh?
What about Crucial Truth,
The Mob, and The Circle Jerks.

This one always
cracks me the fuck up.

Beastie Boys, only a dollar.
Look at this,
The Young And The Useless...

free at the Mud Club.
Can't beat that price.

The A-7 shirt,

with their Tony t-shirt,
and this is funny cause it's
got all the bands in the front.

AF, Urban Waste,
Bloodclot, Doughboys,

The Abused, Cavity Creeps,
which I was a part of,

Antidote, The Mob,
Crucial Truth, Kraut.

He probably is not gonna
wanna let me over there
cause he knows

I'm gonna be ripping
t-shirts off the walls
and pictures.

And, I think he is, like a lot
of collectors, has a little bit
of that hoarder mentality.

He's not gonna let go
of anything that easily.

I'm surprised he
let you scan stuff.

I'm sure he was right
over your back as you're taking
or putting stuff on the screen

and he's getting all nervous.

I'm sure. [laughing]

I started taking
photography classes
when I was in high school.

My cousin gave me a camera...

I started bringing the camera to A-7 club and taking pictures

and then, once
the earlier bands were trying
to start to put record out

They were asking, "Hey can you do some pictures for us, some publicity photos,

some record stuff."
And uh...

the rest is history.
I kind of documented an era.

Funny enough,
I remember this show.

This was a typical Sunday
in the life of
a bunch of hardcore kids.

We were all
hanging around CBGB's. There was
some kind of matinee going on.

I don't remember exactly
which bands were playing.

There were probably
20 kids there, maybe less.

And we were like,
"Yeah, we'll get up
on stage and play."

Today, everybody has an iphone.
You could keep taking pictures,
taking pictures taking pictures.

Me, I had 36 shots
in a roll of film.

And every one had to count, so I tried to make them count.

I had to be little more
careful with my photography.

I had to frame every shot
the way I wanted it.

You had to put a little bit
more TLC into them.

This is Mark Ryan,
he was in a band called
Death Before Dishonor.

That is Rob Kabula,
they're sitting in front
of Apartment X.

There was a few people
coming around
with the pictures.

If you had someone
from theDaily News come up,
you'd be like,

"What the fuck is this person
taking a picture of us for?"

But, just to walk up to a
crowd of kids,
that's what we basically were,

sitting on the sidewalk
smoking a joint, or
somebody's almost passed out,

just flipping them the bird,
to take a picture,
that was Randy.

Lot of fun, um...
Billy Kreinze,
this was a kid from Nutley...

Uh, he was pretty much
at every show.

He lost his virginity in a car.

right below 2 plus 2 club.
I'll never forget that.

And we and Barrymore guarded him
cos who knows, he might have
got the car jacked.

Like I said to you earlier,
I don't even remember
Randy taking pictures.

And I think in some way
that's kinda cool

cause that's really why
he's captured so many
great moments.

But now that we're talking,
I do remember Randall
having that camera around.

but I just didn't
pay attention to it, but...

obviously, now that we look
at all the work that he did,
Randy was

that scene was
really important to him.

Maybe we should commandeer
his stuff. We'll get a whole
bunch of people down here and

raid his garage, and just say,
"Oh, this is property
of New York now.

You do not own this."

Anything you'd like to add
as far as this stuff goes,
or what it meant to you,

or where it's heading
or anything like that.

No, I just enjoy the pictures,
you know.
Every picture tells a story.

Graffiti and what became of it
in the world
is because of New York city.

[hardcore music playing]

Every night we used to go home, me and my friends, we'd go to the A-7 club downtown

or the Ratcage and hang out.
And we'd take the train
back to Astoria,

and we'd get to the back train
and we'd kick out
every single window.

But I mean every one.
Everything we'd hang,
kick every single window out.

ripped down every single
of the advertisements
that they used to have

put it in the
middle of the train,

and then at Hoyt avenue, which is where me and my friends lived, Astoria boulevard,

we'd light it on fire,
and we'd run out and
watch the train drive by

with no windows
in the back on fire.

All the time.
Almost every night.

And I think about that now
and say, "That would be the
headline of the New York post."

Like, that would be
a full blown terrorist attack
on a train.

And it was a bit of
a lawless sort of world then.

Nobody gave a fuck
about the subway system.

Nobody gave a damn!
Lunatics went into
the subway system.

When you got on a subway train
back then, you couldn't even see
one clear spot on the walls.

Every inch of the train inside

was covered with either
spray paint or magic markers.

[Danny] I found the wall of the world, it was trains, it was art.

I was like holy shit!

Me and my brother were like
"What the fuck?" We're little
kids and we're on a train."

Back in the day,
the '70s and early '80s,
New York was crazy.

New York was kind of
in a fiscal crisis and what not.

And the fact that they
really didn't care so much
about the subway system

we thought that we were
making it look better.

Graffiti was my first drug.
It was like a high.

I mean, I went into a place,
bombed a train,

and anyone could
come out there
and attack me.

I could get hit by a bat,
I could get stabbed up

or I could find someone
and whack their shit.

Or a cop could lock me up,
or a cop could beat e up
and then lock me up.

I know Dr. Revolt
from the Home Cuisine.

He used to come down
to Coney Island High,
you know what I mean?

All these dudes know
about Punk Rock and Hardcore.

Beastie Boys, everyone, Natz,
Gavin from Absolution.

He's an old graffiti writer. He used to write on his wrist.

Graffiti was like the
world's sickest game with
the most contestants ever.

Sacha Jenkins, who was
the biggest hip hop journalist
in the world,

got me, him, and Chaka
from Absolution, brought me
to my first show in 1987.

And they were Hardcore kids.

From Woodside Project
to Astoria, Hardcore kids.

Like minded kids
are going to be interested
in like minded things.

So, the extremities of Hardcore,
the extremities of hip hop,

those two things go hand in hand
with the extremities of
what graffiti has to offer.

At that time in New York,
graffiti was rally hitting...

getting some real currency
in street culture,

where writers were
starting to become known.

People were starting to
respect the art and it had
hit this initial wave where,

you know, I was like,
there was some
glory to graffiti.

Graffiti transcended everything.
The common denominator was the
can of spray paint or marker.

It didn't matter if you were Black, White, Chinese, Jewish, polka dot, green, striped.

Anything.
If you knew the underground
language of graffiti,

I hung out in neighborhoods,
where if I didn't know that

I wouldn't be hanging out
in that neighborhood safely,
let's say.

You know, all of this shit
is language, not just bands,
it's like

it's like the iconography of
Antidote, or Urban Waste
or Agnostic Front.

It is very particular and has
a very specific feel that is
an extension of the band,

and what they transmit
and what they're about.

And the same thing with writing,
you're dealing with signatures.

You know,
graffiti started
with signatures.

and it evolved from that.
And what could
be more personal,

what could be more of
a direct reflection of who
you are, than your signature?

And so, Punk, Hardcore, Hip hop,
all very direct forms
of communication.

The graffiti appealed
to a lot of people so

you could like Metal and be
into graffiti, you could like
Hip hop and be into graffiti,

you could like Hardcore
and be into graffiti,

and then also use the graffiti
as the artwork for your band.

Murphy's Law used
Uncle Al's cartoons although
he wasn't a graffiti writer,

those cartoons are
kind of graffiti style.

And then, the album that
they did, Back With A Bong,
it has graffiti logo on it.

I think...
same time
I'd have seen a flier,

and be like,
"Oh, those are
interesting curved letters."

but it wouldn't have had the same currency as when you're in New York and taking the train.

You're seeing that and saying, "Wow, okay, so that cool piece I'm seeing on the train

right, and those cool tags
that I'm seeing
all over the subways,

that is part of
this Hardcore thing, too.

Maybe I can come.
Maybe I'm Black, White,
Puerto Rican, whatever,

or maybe I don't like Rock
or something,
or maybe I don't skate,

or maybe I'm a
street kind of dude or whatever,

This is okay.
If they're down with graffiti,
they're down with me.

Anybody could do it.

You didn't have to be
or look a certain way or listen
to a certain kind of music.

But it meant the same thing.
Get your message across.

To me, it's part of
the whole
New York Hardcore movement.

The New York Hardcore movement East Coast is into graffiti tags and everything.

I love it. My first EP of
Crown Of Thorns
is train yard blues.

Definitely...

graffiti and Hardcore,
I added like 30 percent,

graffiti or little
more than that.

But definitely,
Hardcore is a
melting part of music.

and art, and graffiti,
and violence
and other things too.

We never thought about it.
It was always our thing.

When we first started with
the band, we went "All right the
band's here. Let's cop a tag."

And we'd cop a Madball tag,
it just came secondhand,
it was the way--

It was in our DNA.
That's how we were made.

["Down By Law" playing]

♪ You ratted on your boy

♪ Something you never do

♪ Now his life is over
And yours is too ♪

That was never thought about
from the tags on the record.

We'd just sit around and say,
"We're gonna do graffiti."

And we're like
"No, we do graf,
it's not even a matter."

Somebody's gonna bomb
or put a sticker up
to this day.

We're grown ass men, we can't
take our people anywhere without
somebody getting bombed.

There was no facebook
or social media back then,
so this is how we got know.

I think we spray painted
our names on the
5th United bridge, one time.

We had our "Antidote" tag
up there and a lot of people
used to see it.

So, it was
like free advertising.

Do it yourself. We need a logo.
I draw. I do graffiti.

So it all went into itself
because it was
out of necessity.

I think the part that
came across for "Burn"

was less overtly like
the "Burn" logo,
or any of that stuff.

And more that we were
out bombing "Burn."

And being in videograph
at that time when
not everybody were graffitied.

Well basically,
if we go from '86 to '89,

all the fliers are graffiti. All the straight edge bands of Connecticut are all graffiti.

Up front, the white kids
were Connecticut.

People always considered
graffiti to be
Black urban art.

which to a degree it is,
but some of your best,
most artistic writers

were Caucasian.

Definitely not just about
hip hop culture, even though,
when you think of graffiti,

you immediately go,
"Oh, hip hop culture."

And yeah it goes hand in hand,
but Hardcore was in the mix
of that, for sure.

Queens always had a connection to Hardcore, but you had a story of Queens,

But Queens had
its classic style
and own elements to it.

But then, we went into
the more gritty part of Queens.
That's where we came into play.

DMS was a big time
graffiti crew and we started
as a graffiti crew.

We had different
ethnic backgrounds.

We had Albanians, Muslims,
Puerto Ricans, Dominicans,
Black, Chinese,

Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese,
we had Filipinos,
we had Mulattoes.

Black and White, you know,
we had it all. No one can ever
take that away from us.

And that's still pretty much
our make up these days.

You know what I mean?
It's still multi-ethnic,
multi-cultural.

Something that
I'm extremely proud of.

[Sacha] We basically started
getting bigger and bigger,
and then,

and once, I started doing music as I did graffiti.

I started bombing
on the road.

What's consistent
at the venues,
there's a backstage area.

and there's a bathroom, and there's natural extensions of the venue that

in between sound checks
or you're there early,
guys are catching tags.

If you wrote over someone that was a sign of disrespect.

So, there's a code
to this whole world.

Say what you like about graffiti
writers, there's a level
of dedication that goes into it.

When someone
disrupts that dedication,

you're upset and gonna
wanna do something and that
leads to "Beef."

Beef was awesome.
Beef was amazing.

It could roll out in
so many different ways.

At one point,
it was one thing after another
revolving around graffiti.

It was so new, so fresh,
so unpredictable.

You couldn't control it.
You could pull up
into your own show

and smile and
get a cold beer, a hi five,

and all of a sudden you realize
that someone's gonna hit you
on the head with a stick.

You paint something
or write something, someone goes
over you and crosses you out.

That is a direct message.
Graffiti writing is a
language of direct message.

I write my name here,
you just crossed me out.
You're attacking me.

My signature is an
extension of who I am.

It's the purest representation
outside of a photograph
of who I am or what I'm about.

You're smearing that.
You're going over that.

Ghost one day, MQ over Ghost,
Ghost over MQ,
then MQ back over Ghost,

and Ghost back over MQ,
then MQ over Ghost,
then JA over MQ...

It's all good, you know...
It's all...

a part of the equation.

All types of things happen
while you're doing something.

And definitely
if you stick to it,
it makes you happy.

I love graffiti, so don't...
don't fuck with that.

Good times are
a part of life and

if you can enjoy
what you have...

Do it.

Back in the day...

it wasn't any big thing--
it was a big thing,
but it wasn't uncommon to have

someone calling your house
and harassing your family.

And it was really funny,
and a lot of times
it would go...

it would go toe to toe...
it would happen
a couple of times...

For toe to toe beefs,
I can't say anyone
has outdone Ezec.

Cos Ezec is just toe to toe.
He's like, "Let's meet here,
let's do this."

My thing was,
I'm a graffiti writer,

but every group
had a guy who brawled.

I did both.
At that point of time,
I loved it.

I loves it. They'd be like,
"Oh, that guy is crazy.

He's like a ninja.
He fucked up three guys."

I'd say, "All right, come here."
The guy'll be like 10 years old,
I don't deserve him."

In less than five minutes
it'll be over.
I made my name like that.

I'd be going to high school
and doing graffiti.

And the name would pop up.
And if my boys' name
would pop up,

I would have to defend that.
Just on principle.

If people were whispering
and went "MQ",
I'd be like "What's up with MQ?"

That's my boy. Here I am,
a little 17, a little wiry kid
going, "Wwassup?"

DMS, yeah that's my crew.
What's up?

You had to step up.
That was my family.
That was my extended family.

You know, that's my ext--
that's my fam.

It all started as a friendship
when we were kids. We were
writing graffiti as kids,

but the music
brought us together,
and gave us a form,

to go tell the world how
much we're doing in our world.

I'm proud to be a part
of something that
started before me,

that I got involved in,
that I'm still involved in,

and that I still love
just as much as when
I first started doing it.

There's not that many things
that we do as adults
that we love to do

that we started doing as kids.

New York city
is the city I want to stay in.

It's like, I have to go home
on Monday and it's like...

"fucking hell."
[laughing]

New York city is the city
that I want to stay in, too.

-All right, thank you.
-Thank you.

Well, I come
from Berlin, Germany,

and it's very interesting that
something like the
Black N' Blue Bowl

survived for so many years, without little input basically.

That means a lot
of local bands,

small bands who normally
couldn't make it,

make a festival and get people from all over the world flying in here.

That was in the old days.
New York was always interesting.

And Black N' Blue keeps
the whole thing from
back in the days happen.

["I Wanna See
A Street Fight" playing]

♪ I don't care who's wrong
Or who's right ♪

♪ I just wanna see
A street fight ♪

[hardcore music playing]

♪ Walking down the street
With my Big Mac ♪

♪ Out of nowhere
Someone gets whacked ♪

♪ I don't care if you're
White or black ♪

♪ Start the violence.
Fuck the facts ♪

♪ I don't care who's wrong
Or who's right ♪

♪ I just wanna see
A street fight ♪

Hardcore musically called
for that element of metal.

[guitar riff]

That had the power, because

the soul behind Hardcore
was so demanding of
something ferocious

so it had to gel.

[drums playing]

[hardcore music playing]

I think that, um...

the crossover bands prevented
the Hardcore scene
from further stagnation.

It was an interesting time.
People had to figure out
who they were all over again.

And some people left it behind
and some people went into
this pure Hardcore mode,

and there's people who
just embraced the crossover.

It's music. There's great bands,
there's shit bands,

there's people who are being
honest about this shit,
people who are faking it.

And I'm gonna like
what I like and that's it.

Any sort of innovation
is just important
for the scene,

because you're bringing in
new influences and it keeps
the music fresh and exciting.

I think that purist music
is great but when...

but when it's done year after
year after year,
it's more of a homage

and a form of nostalgia
or a tribute
to the good old days,

than doing something
that's really innovative
and fresh

and exciting and inspiring.

"Kill Em All" was an album
where every motherfucka I knew
said to themselves,

"Oh, I wish I could fucking
write a song and do vocals
over that riff."

You know, we'd do
something with that.

And I think a lot of people
tried to make that happen.

And that's why
Metal and Hardcore
came together.

You know, I got to give credit
to all the Metal heads who first
started coming around because

it wasn't the most welcome place
for them back then.

If you came to a Hardcore show
with long hair and a bunch of
Metal bands of your jacket,

you know you might
have some issues.

Props to those kids
who made the transition.

And then bands that really
made a big difference
from the Metal world

who started infiltrating,
if you will, and started making
a lot of friends on the scene,

were bands like Carnivore,
Nuclear Assault.

Well, basically the first person
who turned me onto New York
Hardcore was Scott,

cause he got me
into Agnostic Front.

Simultaneously getting me into stuff like Discharge, and aggressive English Hardcore,

I found it very appealing
because at that time,

Thrash Metal was starting
to get big, and I was
really getting into all that.

We were all searching
for something more intense.

We loved Slayer and
stuff like that.

But, when I found out
there was this other
parallel scene of music,

right under my nose
at CBGB's,

I had to go check it out.

I just think that whole energy
of New York Hardcore,

the attitude of
New York Hardcore, is what
people were attracted to.

It wasn't necessarily the bands,
as much it was
the energy of the fans.

As far as New York goes,

and I always thought
Agnostic Front was gonna be big,
thought Leeway was gonna be big,

but the Cro-Mags, to me,
were the super special band
who had the sound,

that without trying
to be a Metal band,

could appeal to Metal kids,
could appeal to kids
who like edgy music,

without having to
cater to anyone,
and just be who they are.

For Biohazard,
Cro-Mags were a huge influence.

It's obvious, and
Harley and John, to Perez
directed our fucking videos.

... such an interesting
combination of personalities

that, looking back now,
it makes sense that they're
not together anymore.

When they came out,

"Age Of Quarrel" was such a
massive record
in the Hardcore scene.

And they toured with Motorhead, they toured with so many different Metal bands.

It was like, at the time,
we didn't realize the
business side of things,

but we kinda did
the same thing.

Our first tour was with Kreator,
and next US tour was Exploited.

Another tour
with Sick Of It All,
another tour with Slayer.

And it's like we had our feet in different things.

But, Cro-Mags, when they
came out withBest Wishes,

they took the Metal side of it to a new level.

And that was a fucking
major crossover record.

And had such a big,
fucking impact on the scene.

You keep talking about
Best Wishesas
a crossover album,

but I think, more than anything, Age Of Quarrel
was
the first crossover album.

Because it had that--
I mean... world peace.

[playing metal tune]

That's more of a
Motorhead type of riff,

than...

an AF riff, or
a Negative Approach riff,
or whatever.

It's way more in that pocket.

You have riffs in Malfunction.

[playing metal tune]

That definitely has
a little more
"Sabbath, bloody Sabbath" in it

than most of you
probably realized before.

I mean you take the
beginning of "We gotta know."

[playing metal tune]

[mouthing tunes]

There ain't no
Hardcore bands that ever...
[mouthing tunes]

[metal music playing]

What that is,
is just a fucking fusion
type of thing.

Big open cords
with all kinds of...

[mouthing tunes]

Like it's just a fucking
Lenny White type of beginning.

So...

that's what set
the Cro-Mags apart.

We took influences
from other music sources
and made it our own.

[Kirk] I can hear the anger.
I can hear the aggression.

coupled with such artistic
fucking musicianship.

And it really fucking hit me
for what it was.

It was...
To me it sounded like
the streets of New York.

The streets of New York
that I had never seen
or been a part of.

But, it felt like the streets
of New York to me.
And you know, to me,

just, a fucking innocent guy
just hearing that

and getting that impression
was really, really huge
and powerful.

[Alex]
The first Cause For Alarm,
I tried to be Hardcore.

I tried to play loud,
and fast and angry.

To throw cord progressions
together
that seemed different to me.

that seemed unused,
that just seems angry.

That just seemed different
and that's what I did.

And went for that fast and
furious, and different,
unconventional style.

But, by the time Agnostic Front Cause For Alarm
came along,
that had passed.

I didn't need to do that again.
That's not what I wanted to do.

It was the first, even though
I was trying to make that first
7-inch angry, it was natural.

I was doing what was natural.

What was natural when we
did Cause For Alarm,
was a little bit different.

It was more Metal.
It was more Rock influenced.

Whatever you think of
Cause For Alarm as an album,

it was by far their biggest album. And it reached the most people.

But there's people who were
the big victim in pain you know,
supporters like myself,

who heard Cause For Alarm
and were like
"What the fuck is this?"

I broke their record.
I heard Cause For Alarm,

I was waiting and
waiting for it, and I broke it.

You know, because I'm like,
"Why would they do this?"

What are they
inspired by here, right?

For Cause For Alarm,
I said wow,
this is really ballsy...

putting me on this record.
I wasn't well known,
I was a Metal drummer,

and you're looking
to create this sound,
let's roll with it.

You know, that was the thing
about them and it was
a Hardcore thing.

They were very regimented or
formatted in their approach
to doing things.

It was like buy a CD or pants,
but that was
the Hardcore attitude.

It was like--
you know...

To actually be able to
harness some of that talent

and put it on a record
was a miracle in itself.

["Kingpin" playing]

♪ All hail the kingpin,
The one with soul,
Who's in control... ♪

I think expectations
were set higher for us

because once we started
getting recognized around
'85, '86 I think,

most bands realized
that we need to practice more

We need to do this.
The game is going up
two more steps.

You know the Crumbsuckers in
a very similar way, when they
were around with another singer,

with Dave,
and they were great.

And then Dave leaves the band
and Chris Notaro comes in
as the vocalist,

and now they have
two guitar players and
they have this sound,

and they didn't sound
like everybody else.

And I don't even know
how conscious the Crumbsuckers
were of their sound.

I don't think they were thinking
about like, "Let's combine
Metal and Hardcore."

I don't think they thought
about it for a second.

They just were
what they were,

and then their first album
comes out and you're like
"Holy shit."

The arrangements
that they were doing...

That was the first thing
that jumped out at me,
the fact that they were

not doing
two minute arrangements.

First, chorus, first, chorus,
fuck you...

♪ Trapped
By your godly divineness ♪

♪ Trapped
And there's no escape ♪

♪ Trapped
Shall I call you
Your highness ♪

♪ Trapped
And I can't get away ♪

[guitar solo playing]

♪ Why am I always
Stuck for words ♪

♪ Pressure's on
And I'm all clammed up ♪

What I loved about
the Crumbsuckers is not
only their great songs,

but they had
that Hardcore mentality,
that Metal mentality,

they had the musicianship
to play both types of genres
convincingly.

And they're from New York.

And, I remember first seeing
them at CBGB's going,

"Oh, my god.
These guys are
fucking great!

This is the future of music!"

We were just doing something
a bit different from what
the other bands were doing.

But we were part of the scene. We were the suburban guys.

The Long Island crew
that used to go
and hang out

and eventually play shows
in New York city,

But we always considered
ourselves to be a Hardcore band
from day one.

The "We gotta know" video was
one of the biggest

things to happen
in that crossover.

Because up until that video,

the world outside of A-7

and CBGB's and whatever other
rat-hole fucking clubs
spread out across America,

no one outside a Hardcore show had seen a mosh pit.

Nobody had ever seen stage diving or crowd surfing,

or bands with no shirts on
covered in tattoos
and shaved heads.

Nobody had seen
no shit like that.

So, when that video actually
made it onto Headbangers Ball

and started getting
some rotation,

that's when you started having all these Metal heads

going "What the fuck
is this shit?"

["We Gotta Know" playing]

♪ Strugglin' in the streets
Just trying to survive ♪

♪ Searchin' for the truth
Is just keepin' us alive ♪

♪ Gotta break these shackles
Gotta break these chains ♪

♪ Said the only way we'll do it Is if we use our brains ♪

♪ Said there's gotta be
Some meaning
To the purpose of life ♪

♪ I know there must be more Than the struggle and strife ♪

♪ 'Cause I'm looking for The answers and I need a clue ♪

♪ 'Cause my mind's so disturbed Now what do I do? ♪

♪ What do I do?
What do I do? ♪

♪ This planet's turnin'
Into a hell ♪

♪ And I figured out that things Don't really look too well ♪

♪ Reactions coming they're
Already starting to show ♪

♪ But the question is
Who'll go with the flow... ♪

Born out of that
in the late '80s,
were bands that were

they were young enough guys that
they weren't really around for
the stuff that came before

and they were influenced
by bands SOD as much as
Overkill, you know...

who have nothing to do with
Hardcore but were just a
semi-aggressive metal band...

but, were influenced
by Nuclear Assault,

were influenced
by Cause for Alarm,
Agnostic Front.

Candiria was influenced by
the earlier crossover bands like

Agnostic Front,
Cro-Mags, Leeway,

and, uh, we being also
influenced by bands like

yes, in King Crimson and being
interested in time signatures...

and taking it
a little bit further.

I really feel like the band is more of a second generation crossover band.

Yeah, we were influenced by it
but we also wanted to
take it a step further,

in the same way the
crossover bands wanted to take
Hardcore a step further.

So, we're taking it as far
as we can. And that's
a musician's job, in my opinion,

is to take it further.

So, you have bands,
you have Biohazard,
you have Marauder,

there are various other bands
around New York but I think
Biohazard is the best example.

They propelled out of that
crossover thing that
was happening and

they took it to the next level,
involving themselves with

metal-rap thing,
that was ballsy.

Talk about combining genres
and stuff like that.

They opened the doors for
all these other bands
as a crossover band.

The crossover tag
came after the fact.

You know, usually things,
as they happen, nobody knows
what's happening at the time,

it's just happening,
it's part of reality.

And after the fact, it was like,
"Oh, you guys kinda mixed this."

I remember hearing
the first time about rap-core,
and we're like "What rap-core?"

Isn't that Limp Bizkit,
that's what they do.

So...

we always kept our heads down
and forged forward.

We did what we did.
No apologies, no regrets.

Their sound and their look and their attitude, was something that was very appealing,

and really took the best
elements of what the whole
crossover thing had become.

And they became a band,
and a force really,

because they also took
their thing around the world.

And with it, they took Hardcore around the world and they took Metal around the world.

And they represented
both really well.

So, when they had to
talk about Hardcore bands
in an interview,

they could talk about it from an educated point of view.

When they're on MTV
talking about fitting in
with Metal bands,

they just did, you know.

They came from the same place as a band like Overkill, but they weren't that kind of band.

When I say, "Hey, I was
a New York Hardcore kid,

that joined these
heavy metal guys,

to do a record, and it
became this crossover thing.
That's "crossover."

Crossover to me was
the application
of the attitude...

very real,
very go-fuck-yourself,

this is just who I am,
and that's it.

And the New York Hardcore
movement was always about
very real, organic,

kind of like
take-it-or-leave-it
New York attitude.

It became everything
that New York was.

A very
take-it-or-leave-it
cold attitude.

he crossover thing,
there were impostors
and phonies,

fucking people who exploited it
and there's people who
did it with passion,

and did it from the heart...

and created something
that people still dig.

And a lot of these bands
still play, and a lot of bands
still influenced by these bands.

And you hear big, huge bands
come out of the wood work,

"We would never
have been a band
if it wasn't for that band."

And some of those
are crossover bands.

It just blows me away
that Cause For Alarmhas

a place in Hardcore history,
and um...

and not just Hardcore history,
in Metal history, I mean

it gets brought up,
and acknowledged.

When I was asked to do
the Cause For Alarmreunion,

for Black N' Blue,
I was blown away that I'd be

offered an opportunity to be
on stage with guy
I consider to be brothers.

And have an opportunity
to have our family
come see us play.

That was really
very important to me.

[hardcore song playing]

Before Pre-Hardcore,
PH, NYPH,

we still had the residuals
of the earlier Punk generation.

So, there was this great sense of openness and experimentation and come one-come all,

no matter how weird
and fucked up you are.

There's room for everybody.

Male, female, trans,
Black, White, Chinese,
we don't care.

The weirder, the better.
So we got the benefit of that,
I think.

And that was the one
awesome thing we took from
the earlier Punk generation.

That's what I loved about it.
It felt so free.

[hardcore music playing]

Women, I think,
initially, in the beginning
stages of the scene,

I really did not feel
such a big separation between
men and women.

And the bands that I first saw,

there were girls in it,
like Killer Instinct,
or No Thanks.

I looked at them and said,
"Wow, these are girls,
they're cool women."

And they're doing this
and there was no formula.

We're Blood.

[hardcore song playing]

[incoherent hardcore singing]

Blood, it was pretty much
the best time in my life.

I remember when they were getting the band together.

And it was Minoe,
Lorie and Nancy Mohawk.

And we were outside
Great Gildersleeves,

and we were sitting
on the sidewalk,
and they came up and said,

"Yo, wanna be the singer
in our band? We're getting
this all-girls thing."

And I looked at them
going, "Me?"

And they're like,
"Yeah, we like you.
You're tough out in the pit."

And I'm like--
So, I was just honored
and thrilled. It was great.

But women were involved.
Girls were involved.
They were part of the scene.

It was all inclusive.
It wasn't like, "Women
are over there, you know.

Men are over here."

It was beautiful.

And we had inspiration
from some really,
really great bands

that were in town,
like the Bad Brains.

You've got these Black guys
playing shit like you've
never heard in your life!

And that makes you feel like,
"I can do this."

To be like them, you better
practice. You're gonna be
woodshedding for a while.

But, it was inspiring.

PMS asked me to join
the band and
it was wonderful.

I loved being in an
all-girl band. It was
a camaraderie, like I said,

with like-minded females.
We had such a great time.

We were friends.
Not only were we band mates,
but we hung out together.

I guess our senses of humor
were similar, our
political views were similar.

An all-girls Hardcore band
was unique. Absolutely!

Because you had girls in bands,
but to be all-girls,
that was, yeah...

Back in the day, a lot of girls
were even more scarier,

and more badass and
hardcore than the dudes.

You fuck with the girls,
they will jump on you,
and not just one.

There will be a gaggle,
and they will, you know,

beat the shit out of you.

So, no,
certain girls were not
to be fucked with.

It's the same as
any social group.

There's bullies,
there's nice people,
there's all kinds.

You know, we had the
whole range of people.

I wouldn't say just
girls were bullies.
There were guy bullies, too.

["Shatter The Sky" playing]

There's a lot of days
where I would tell you
to your face,

"Fuck this, I hate this.
This is crazy. I don't know
why I do this to myself."

Or why we put ourselves
through this chaos, sometimes.

But, when you play a show,
and someone else,
it could just be one person,

or it could be 20 people.
Someone knows the
words to your songs,

and is jumping on stage
and wants to be
a part of it,

or you look down at that floor
where you see people
wearing your t-shirt,

shouting your words,
just losing their minds
to your music,

that's the pay off,
right there.

Yeah, and nobody believes
you're a hardcore band.

When we first started,
and we were looking to hook up
with promoters and other bands,

"Oh, my god, you're in a Hardcore band." Yeah, I'm in a fucking hardcore band.

And we got put in a lot of
shows where we were
way out of our element.

We'd clear the rooms or
people would lose
their fucking minds.

I'm gonna say
violence definitely
changed the scene.

It was almost like...
in a school you have
a new class that come in,

and each class is different.

So, I would say
you had the 76-80,

and you had the 80-85,
then you had the 85-89--

you had these little groups.

And the later '80s group was
a little more violent and
against each other.

For us,
it wasn't against each other,
it was against the world.

It became really violent
and stupid. People would
start wearing spikes,

and who the fuck
wants to get killed

by some moron who has to prove
that his dick is bigger
than somebody else's.

Hardcore back in the day
till now, definitely the sound,

has changed.
There's more of a brotherhood
in Hardcore now,

or womanhood,
or any kind of group thing
that pertains women.

I think I enjoy Hardcore
just as much as any guy
out there, if not more, cause...

I've always felt this music
always helped you rise above

any kind of discord
that you're feeling to life.

Any kind of tragedy, anything
that made you feel like you were
put down in this world.

It helped you to
overcome all of that.

It's a lot larger than
it used to be, so I think it's
little bit harder for the girls

The numbers of guys grew,
and I think the numbers of girls
didn't really grow as much.

When I think of
the women that I hang out
with at the scene,

we're equal to me. Equal.

I don't give a fuck,
I don't give a shit
how big you are,

how strong you are,
I'm just as strong as you,
probably.

And I'm even to
the men on this scene.

I don't see myself as
being anywhere
at the bottom.

Let's be honest here.
If...

we girls in the Hardcore scene
were attracted to
what they call "female energy"

we'd be down at the opera.
We'd be doing ballet.

or doing the disco,
or going the Blondie route
with its kickass backing band,

and have this incredible,
powerful, positive female force
in front of the band.

I think there's this
intrinsic maleness to Hardcore.

[Marlo] My advice to any female coming into the scene, trying to be in a band

of any kind, Hardcore,
Metal, Punk,

would be to have
skin as thick as armor.

Why? Because people are
gonna judge you harder
than anybody else

People are gonna criticize you.
People are gonna have good
things and bad things to say.

And if you can't push it off,
it's going to
affect you negatively.

It's something that girls
should just remember that

It's a family, so...

And they're not
gonna get hurt, like they're not
gonna get hurt.

Don't stop yourself from
enjoying it or going because you
think you're gonna get hurt.

You're not gonna get hurt.
It's gonna be fine.
You're gonna be fine.

I got you. Don't worry.
I'll handle all these guys.

I'll protect you.
It's fine.

And that's because
I've done it
for so many years.

You just gotta be open minded,
and come hang out,
and see if you like it or not.

I don't know if
that's something inspirational
for women to hear,

but it's inviting
and that really helps.

I feel privileged
just to be a female in it,
you know.

If there's not as many of us,
I feel privileged to be in it.

I'm just grateful
that it's still going.

Hardcore is still alive
and kicking thanks to
Black N' Blue Productions,

All that stuff,
and they're keeping it alive
and it's relevant.

I'm just so happy
that it's still going on.

If you're a girl today, looking
at the Hardcore scene and
going, "That's a lot of guys"

and you just wanna
pick up an instrument and play,
just do it.

Because that's what
changes things.

It changes the music scene,
it changes the world,
it changes you as a person.

Do what's in your heart.
Don't listen to critics.

Don't scrutinize yourself
in the mirror,

don't agonize over what other
people are doing and
compare yourself to another.

Do what is in your heart
and soul. Follow it,
and that will set you free.

And that's what
makes innovators. That's what
makes scene game changers.

And we need more of that.

To me, you have to give credit
to West Coast bands as well,

Black Flag was never really
my thing and I didn't take
anything away from them.

But, to me Hardcore and New York
are synonymous.

There's no Hardcore
without New York, and uh...

in my lifetime,
there's no New York
without Hardcore.

New York Hardcore is life, man.
Support Hardcore.
Support your local community.

Support your scene.
And if you're in a young band,
if you're starting out,

make the music
that you wanna make.

Stop worrying about how
this band sounds,
how that band sounds, all right.

We tried that,
it didn't work out for us.

You stay true to yourself,
you be honest with yourself.

Doesn't matter what you write, be real about it.

Put your feelings, put your
emotions. Cause once you
put your feelings out there,

you family, the New York
Hardcore community is
gonna get right back to you.

That's how we do it.

["New York Crew" playing]

♪ I want it back again
The spirit that we once had ♪

♪ Showing all these new hards They're not so fuckin' bad... ♪

♪ You and your crew
Would have never... ♪

By the time we got to New York,
there was this whole tone like,

Hardcore is over.
Crossover was getting big,

Agnostic Front's Cause for Alarm
album came out.

Anthrax started
hanging out at CBGB's.

There was thing whole thing
of "Metal was coming in."

And Hardcore wasn't
cool any more.

I was interested in Hardcore.
I wanted to hear Minor Threat.

I wanted to hear
Negative Approach.

I didn't want to hear
a Metal version of that.

We were falling into it too. Death Before Dishonor was starting to write Metal riffs.

We even did Iron Maiden's
"Run To The Hills"
as a cover

We had a second guitar player
who was purely
from a Metal background.

Never heard of a
Punk Rock fucking band ever.

And it was ridiculous.

Like, we played,
and he's playing with
his teeth and shit,

He's got this
electronic ray gun
that makes a noise

and he's putting it
up to his pick ups, and shit.

Fucking ridiculous, man.

I remember playing drums
and just wished
it'd be over now.

I never wanted to get
off stage more than
I did that day.

Once that gig was over,
I cut out.

I just went back home
and stopped going to shows.

I really felt that
I betrayed the scene that...

got me through
my young years, and shit.

And I disrespected it.

And I hated myself for it.

And I stayed away from music,
stayed away from New York,

stayed away from bands,
totally.

I loved the real
simple Hardcore.
It was my favorite thing.

I loved noisy, loud,
really brutal.

So, when everything started
going crossover,

Agnostic, and The Crumbsuckers,
and stuff like that,

I just said, you know what,
"The world needs someone to
just represent Hardcore."

Negative Approach broke up,
Minor Threat broke up,
all these bands broke up,

Urban Waste broke up,
The Abused broke up.

I was like, you know what,
let's just send a message
of straight edge.

Which is like a very...
will contribute
to the community.

Whether people like it or not,
it's a good thing,

and let's just sing that
and write good, classic
Hardcore songs.

We wanted to keep Hardcore
in its very genuine,
purest form.

When I first saw
Youth Of Today--

Or, no, my friend, her had
the 7-inch of Youth Of Today...

At this kind of moment,
and it just looked
super powerful, like it had this

black and white image,
with black, white, red,
which is so powerful.

And it's all
handmade-looking.

The songs were all slogans

and the music was
absolutely primitive sounding

like AF was to me,
or Negative Approach was.

It was hitting every single
musical cue that I wanted
and every message that...

I mean, "Off my back,
get off my back, your
expectations are too much."

Like, get the fuck off my back.

Like, that really spoke to me
more than talking about

acid rain or the kind
of subjects that Metal bands
were talking about.

Like, I didn't give a shit
about that.

For me,
it was a game changer.

First, aesthetically you saw the
seven inch and that
grainy black and white

almost like a TV out of focus
and a raised face...

it just was strong.

And that was such a
Punk aesthetic.

That simple,
I-did-this-myself in
fucking school, you know,

with a copy machine.

Here was a band, basically
preaching universal tolerance.

And you know, definitely...

putting aside things
that are destructive
to one's self worth, to society.

And definitely taking
strong stances towards
racism, sexism,

and peer pressure to
drink and do drugs,
and all that stuff.

It was Mark Ryan, the singer
for Death Before Dishonor,
he called me up on day

and he's like,
"Let's go check out
this band."

And I was like I don't go
to shows any more, man,
you know that.

And he's like,
"No, man,
these guys play Hardcore

the way we first
fell in love with it."

And so, he talked me into it
and we go out
and see Youth Of Today.

And they play...

[indistinct hardcore
song playing]

And it is...
it's like fucking Hardcore
the way when I first--

It was almost like

seeing that first Agnostic Front
show again.

It was like pure music.
No bullshit.

Maybe I missed Minor Threat,
but maybe
this is my "Minor Threat"

We may have alienated
some of the older people,

some of the more
crossover people

but all these new kids,
they loved it too,
because they loved Hardcore.

And it's funny,
cause you know,

that whole research of Hardcore
started hitting at fan like,

Sick Of It All,
Gorilla Biscuits, Warzone,

The New York scene
really grew out of that.
People wanted Hardcore.

They wanted to
listen to Hardcore,
they wanted to play Hardcore.

["Hold Your Ground" playing]

♪ A step apart, I don't fit In with my peers ♪

♪ But I don't give a shit

♪ Laughed at in the streets
Of my town ♪

♪ Their laughter hurts,
But I'll hold my ground... ♪

You know, a little while later,
Ray and Purcell

wound up moving
to New York.

And that's where I meet them.

And, their drummer
and bass player had quit.

And so, they asked me
to try out for drums.

I was playing in Death Before--
which now became Supertouch,
and I said "Yeah, I'll try out."

And I wound up getting the gig,
and going on tour with them.

I was playing this...

Hardcore which was
pure again.

And, it definitely breathed life
into what I thought
I had helped kill.

what I thought I had...
helped kill.

Truthfully, those very
beginning days, were to me
very special, cause...

there was something
about just being naive,

and just trying,
and everything we wanted
was right there.

The dreams that we reached for
seemed to be
at the tips of our hands.

That 1987 touring
break down the walls.

It felt very special.
It felt like magic.

The good things about it
far outweighed anything
that way maybe...

spinning the wrong way.

New York city was not
a positive place, whatsoever.
I mean...

you go into CBGB's,
there's people literally--

I mean, people wouldn't even
be shooting up
in the bathroom.

They'd be shooting up like that in the stairwell of going into the bathroom.

I never saw someone
shooting up heroin. I never saw
someone sniffing glue before.

And so,
just that drug element,

it brought a lot of violence,
it just brought a lot of...
like, it was very dark scene.

In New York, Straight edge
wasn't really like a...
I mean, you were there...

It wasn't gonna make you
the fucking cool kid
on the block

if you knew
Straight edge in New York.

I think people were just
sick of it and said, "Hey,
look, check it out.

Here's something new.
Here's something a
little bit brighter."

And it's also very,
very powerful.

It was like
a lifestyle choice.

So, that was
really fucking cool.

It was basically,
"Put the booze
and the drugs down,

Be aware, Seize the day.
Live your life, kinda thing."

I mean, that's powerful stuff.

And the scene that
grew up around us
was amazing.

I was just determined that that's what I was. I was fixed and that's my identity.

I don't do drugs.
I'm not interested in it.

I've got
better things to do
with my life.

And so, there was a backlash,
but I think it was too late
and had taken hold,

and I think the thing
that really turned it out
was raisability to organize

and to bring people in,
which I think is
best illustrated

in the two compilations
that Revelation Records
put out.

And the Warzone record,
that was a
game changer because

it was like,
"Holy shit,
we can all do this now."

And they were like
"Fuck, yeah."

Cause they were on the
ground floor, They had Cappo,
he was an inside man.

And it wasn't like later on,
when record companies
came around.

And everybody was like,
I don't know about that guy.
I don't know about this company.

And fuck that,
everybody had to get kinda...

I don't know fact,
I don't know profile,
that's not cool.

This was out guy doing it,
so it was cool.
It was very DIY.

Revelation Records, even back then when Jordan and Ray were creating that label,

it absolutely felt like a way
to put a logo on this thing,

and get the message out
all over the world.

As just as
important Revelation was,

I think Don Fury's
Demo Demo Studios
was equally important,

because we had
this guy in Little Italy,

who understood and created
the sound of
New York Hardcore,

with United Blood, and Victim of Pain, Gorilla Biscuit record. He did so much.

When you got the
New York Hardcore excitement
recorded at Don Fury's.

put out in Revelation,
it was just a perfect little mix
and everybody wanted that mix.

When I was in Youth Of Today,
we would get to catch
so much shit,

like, we couldn't be part
of this fucking scene because

there's no room for
do-gooders like you guys.

Like, all Ray was trying to do
was put out all these
positive ideas how we can

fucking live together,
work together,

and we can all fucking prosper,
we can all have the same goal.

You know, and we don't have to
do the "Live fast, die young"
thing anymore.

It leads to nowhere.
And, we caught hell for it.

And it was perplexing.

So, we had a tour booked
around the country and
Black Flag had done it.

but it wasn't like
Black Flag created
this whole awesome system.

It was teenagers
on a rotary phone
making deals with Legion halls.

You never knew whether the person was legit and if the show would actually happen.

And what the pay would be.
There would be one or
two things on the tour

that would be like,
"We're gonna get
500 bucks, dude! Holy shit!"

That would anchor
your whole tour.

But we were basically shoplifting across the country

like, the van broke down
and working in junkyards
to pay for it.

Staying in people's houses,
always. Never at a hotel.

We were just losing weight
and we weren't drinking.

We weren't even eating meat.
We were dying.

You know, the whole idea
of Judge was born

in the back of the
Youth Of Today van as
it was broke down in Florida.

Sleeping in the van in the
middle of a junkyard
to watch the equipment,

I'm just reliving
all these moments.

I came up with
all these words which became

the "New York Crew" song,
you know.

And I just came up with this
whole framework of this band
that wasn't gonna

let people do this to us
any more. We weren't gonna
be doormats.

Because we're being cool
and nice, doesn't give you
the right to walk on us.

Mike was just like,
"You know what, we're gonna
say it even louder."

And we're gonna say it
with a little bit of,

"You don't like it?
Screw you."

And that was sort of
the attitude with Judge.

You know, the scene
needed what was coming next
instead of the

"Let me explain myself.
I want to be friends with
everybody" Straight edge.

It was the
"Go fuck yourself" Straight edge

and I'm not apologizing.
You guys can suck it.
This is what it is.

and this is, you know,
it was hardlined.

It's funny, he ended up fronting
the band that is
maybe now considered

the most Straight edge band.

There was Project X
which was kind of
this side project

which was almost
a caricature deliberately.

But Judge is considered--
they're it. They're the
most Straight edge band.

and wow, when I first heard it, I was like, "This is unbelievable.

This is powerful,
powerful stuff."

Wow, Mike. Who the fuck!

♪ I'll live and learn
And love it ♪

♪ I'm not afraid
To change myself ♪

♪ It's our time
To get things right ♪

♪ Our problems will crow
If we turn and run ♪

♪ It's time
To get things done ♪

There was something happening
and people wanted
to be a part of it.

And we went on the '87 tour
around the country,

and every night that we played,
you could feel it like "Pooh."

People's mind's getting blown,
like, "I'm gonna start a band,
I'm gonna write a fanzine,

I'm not gonna drink any more.
I'm gonna change my wardrobe."
You could just feel it.

You could hear those
thoughts popping off
in people's minds.

This one...
This is one of
our first singles.

It's called
"Can't Close My Eyes."

["Can't Close My Eyes" playing]

[incoherent hardcore singing]

And then, all of a sudden,
it became, "I'm Straight edge,
I'm Straight edge."

And me and Purcell
were sort of jockey looking.

We looked more like
Abercrombie and Fitch
than we looked like

fishnets, or whatever,
and t-shirts and
stuff like that.

We were just more jockey-looking
than punk-looking.

That's the fashion side of it,
and also the idea

of the proselytizing idea of

Straight edge and Youth Of Today
which was basically
"Join the movement."

So, if you're gonna join
the movement,
how do you identify that?

And the t-shirts that came out
with slogans and
all that kind of stuff,

made it powerful
joining the crew.

We wanted to
differentiate ourselves.

Every revolution
has a uniform t it.

So, we just wanted to
separate ourselves

from that kind of older thing
which was more nihilistic,

and it was moving
in a different direction
that we wanted.

We'd say, "Hey, we're into
something different.

We're gonna dress different,
we're gonna look different."

It made it a lot more
inviting to people
than it would be to say,

"Agnostic Front is playing.
Hey, this looks
like a great show.

Jesus Christ is getting
chainsawed in half."

This is gonna be cool.
I'm from this little town.
I'm not afraid to go to that.

You know what I mean?

which--
Something's lost, to be honest.

Bu, that's what
was happening.

It was incredible when
you think about it,
and in that era.

Warzone, Youth Of Today,
Underdog, Judge, Bold.

Sick Of It All, Crackdown...

I can just think of 30 bands
who were active
in the scene at the time.

and it was this
incredible bubble
in history that

I'm not even sure
can be recreated
in that city now

because it's just
a different city.

And then,
it just became the culture.

Almost like Youth Of Today
and those bands,
they created a culture...

of Straight edge,
a fashion of Straight edge.

A look of Straight edge, the haircuts... the appropriate haircuts of Straight edge.

That particular subculture
did give rise to a lot of

elitism...
and a lot of cliqueness

and all these factions
all over the country of these
very exclusionary kids.

Um, and I hated that.
Always hated it, you know,
from the get-go.

And the Straight edge kids
in a sad way

they just isolated themselves
from everything else...

and they became a bubble
within the scene.

So, they weren't interested in
going to bands-- other bands
that weren't Straight edge.

And so, in one sense they
cheated themselves out of
a lot of good music,

but in another sense they just
wanted-- they didn't wanna hear

like, really dark stuff,
negative stuff, violent stuff.

They wanted just positive,
uplifting music.

From our perspective it was...
It became a victim
of its own success.

which by 19-- by '88, like,
all these Revelation records
had come out,

so the look was already
established and you'd go
to all these towns

and all the bands kinda
started to sound,
based on the same,

you know, start up kit.

And everyone had the
same clothes on, and
it became very safe and boring.

And then, it got fucking shitty
because it became brands.

where it was Nike,
Champion, um...

I think eventually,
even Tommy Hilfiger and shit
started coming into things.

And that was
very Rap to me, too,

where you identified your scene
by whatever fucking stupid label
you wore on your shirt.

It did kill itself, to me,
because people started
getting really arrogant

about the Straight edge thing.

It became I like me,
and I hate you
cause you're not.

And, to me, that isn't
where I wanted to go
with my life,

so I felt like, "Okay,
we're all Straight edge,
we're all this, we're all that.

Big deal. Big deal!"

And it just became buffoonery,
you know what I mean?

And I wasn't--
I felt like I had
higher callings in my life.

And I quit the band
at its biggest success.

I mean,We're Not In This Alone was the biggest success we ever had.

And I realized,
there is no level
of material success

that will actually
give me what I want.

And that's sort of why I quit.
It wasn't cause I didn't like
the music. I loved the music.

or me, there was
great symbolism in the

Tompkins Square riots in '88,
because

that felt like a big crescendo and end to a lot of stuff.

Not just that scene, whatever. Nothing really died, but it was a real turning point

where that last
bastion of subculture

in the Lower East Side was really becoming gentrified.

The writing was
on the wall.

The scene was dissipating
and moving in all directions.

And all of us guys who were
in that scene or
the vast majority of us,

we did go
and explore other genres.
I certainly did.

Walter did his band and
I did mine,
and other guys did theirs.

And even Ray and Purcell,
they went and did the
Ray and Purcell record, which

which was
not at all a Hardcore record.

And Ray went and did Shelter.

And I think a lot of people
sort of became

disillusioned for a time,
but it never became...

That flame still
definitely burned.
No one ever declared it dead.

And it certainly isn't.

The Straight edge thing
is alive and well

in various incarnations
all over the world.

It gave me the confidence,
that you know what,

I'm not gonna stop here,
that I'm 22.
I'm gonna go on.

I'm gonna keep on
doing my own thing

whether the mainstream
recognizes it or not.

It's important to me and
I understand
that it's important.

And a lot of people from
the Hardcore scene
did the same thing.

And a lot of really interesting people went on artistically and professionally,

and did some really cool things
that weren't necessarily
part of the mainstream culture,

but really made waves
in their own way
just doing their own thing.

It's so cool.
A lot of people
had that same experience.

And go, try to-- yeah,
put them a little closer--

[baby crying]

[man 1] Jojo...

Jojo... Jojo...

[man 2] Look right here, babe.

[baby continues crying]

Yeah, this is a unique

a unique movement,
a unique

way of life, to be Hardcore.

You could be anything else,
you could listen
to anything else

but do you live that way?
We actually live this way.

If you think about
what's gone on

with the whole term of
gentrification of Manhattan,
New York city, Brooklyn,

Williamsburg, hipster attack,
or whatever...

It's definitely hard to shine
cause they're suffocating
a lot of the real art

and creativity
in New York city.

Thank god we were able to
put the sign
because it definitely

is very, what's the word,
indigenous to the neighborhood.

There are a lot of
authentic things
still happening downtown,

but it's definitely one of
the staples that
people know about.

It's like a King Kong on
the Empire State building.

He's still there hanging on,
you know.

He may be getting shot at,
they're trying to kill him,
but still there.

["Step Down" playing]

♪ In the underground

♪ Integrity lies within

♪ In the underground

♪ Image doesn't
Mean a thing... ♪

Hi, my name's Craig Setari.
Everybody calls me Craigerhead.

I'm extremely grateful
for my Hardcore life.

I really feel like I'm blessed.
Everyday I wake up,
and I'm so happy.

And I know that sounds like
I'm reading off a cue card,
but I'm not.

He had only two passions
in his life at that time.

He loved the music.
He loved to play.

And he loved boxing.

Years ago, 20 year ago,
everybody was in a van,
everybody was in a rider,

a U-Haul truck... Everybody was
sleeping on people's floors
after shows and stuff like that.

So, you had to have
a real Hardcore mentality.

And I think boxing and
combat sports in general,
obviously require that intensity

that hardcore, crazy attitude.

You got to have that.
You got to have that.

So, I think that's the tie-in.

I got to do what I wanted to do for a living, for my entire life,

and the only reason
I got to do it is cause I did,

and it just happened.
I have a lot of luck on my side.
I have good karma.

I feel like I'm not a rich man but I'm a happy man.

I own this
beautiful farm, here.

I mean, I'm pretty happy.

I get to blast on stage,
go all over the world,
have total excitement,

Come back here and chill,
and just look at the animals
and breathe the fresh air.

Agnostic Front was,
in my opinion,
the first New York Hardcore band

to really branch out
and do big tours and
become like a...

band that really reached far
beyond the East Coast
and the Tristate area.

I remember them going on tour
and playing at
the Olympic Auditorium in LA.

and seeing photos from it, and
seeing a video clip and I was,
I really, I couldn't believe it.

Wow, New York Hardcore,
my bands.
The bands that I'm with.

They're playing these
big shows out in LA

and it was really a big deal.
It was waving a flag
for New York.

It was a really
thrilling thing.

When I joined Agnostic Front,
I had some experience
up to that point.

I had toured all over America, and done shows but I hadn't actually lived

in a car for years at a time.

The kind of music
was very confusing, yes.

But it was mostly
scary, scary, scary.

He was very young and he was
already going on the road
with older people, older guys...

and doing I don't know what.

Joining AF, basically,
I got my boots.
You know what I mean?

Vinnie always likes to say
I brought the sneaker
into Agnostic Front,

but I certainly was issued
a pair of boots
when I joined them.

It was like boot camp, y'know. I went in a boy and came out a man.

In some ways it really helped
and in some ways
it really disturbed me.

There's that
half broken twisted gene,

it's a commonality that
draws everyone
to the Hardcore scene.

It seems like, you know.
At least in the early days,
it did.

I think dysfunction
had a lot to do with them

and with what shaped
a lot of early Hardcore.

And I think it's
a very important element that

the music needs to
constantly draw from to...

to remain kinda relevant.

There was a lot of adventure.
There was good times
and adventure.

And I really learned that no matter what position I'm in,

no matter what's going on
around me, I could keep
my head and I could function.

I could really
handle anything.

They were definitely the band
that branched out nationwide,
and did a lot of stuff.

Later on, Sick Of It All became the band that took Hardcore to every corner of the globe.

You know, every small spot
in the world, the Fiji Islands,

you don't think
anyone's playing there.

But, all these bands,
we piggybacked
off each other,

and we took the
whole thing worldwide.

We had done our
first year tour in '92.

And AF and Cro-Mags
had been there before us.

It was a really good tour,
but it was very hard.

And Richie, our original bass
player, said "You know,
if that's the life"

uh... I think it really
turned Richie off that we
worked so damn hard,

and got not much pay...

which, you know,
we weren't in this
for the money.

And around that time,
after '93, AF was gonna

break up and
go on a hiatus.

And we were like,
"Damn, Richie's leaving
and AF's breaking up."

And we just thought of Craig,
cause he's always been there.

Not just growing up,
but when we went
to do our first album...

Craig came up with us,
and we recorded the album
in three days.

He even wrote lines of lyrics
on a couple of songs
on our first album.

So, it was natural.
We called him up and said, "You
want to be on Sick Of It All?"

And he goes "yeah."
And he told us, "I remember
going on a European tour,

and had your two
first albums on cassette,

and I would just
listen to them on the van."

And Vinnie would be like,
"Traitor. You're a traitor!"

I think they've always
stood their ground
as being the flag bearers

of the New York Hardcore.

And they were kinda
like a second wave band,

of that whole thing,
if I could say that.

Our band, Biohazard,
wasn't really a part of
that whole thing.

We were in Brooklyn,
it was kinda like
a separate thing.

I mean, Sick Of It All and us,
I don't know if there was
a rivalry there,

I don't know if
they felt a rivalry.

I didn't feel a rivalry there.
I was a fan.

But, I remember when we started
playing shows with them,
they were very Hardcore.

They were all about New York Hardcore and all that.

I mean, we were just psyched
when he joined the band.

One of my favorite things is
that first tour we did when
he came right off the AF tour,

and we went to our first show.
I believe the first one
was Pittsburgh...

and it's an old club
that's closed down now.

And, Biohazard had
just played and killed it.

And Craig looks at me, and Pete
and all and goes, "We gotta
fucking bring it tonight!"

And the first song, Craig runs
and jumps off the drum monitor
while playing "Clobberin' Time"

into the crowd,
and that just set it off.

That's our whole career
started right there again.

We totally understand each other
and it goes beyond
the band that we've been in

for the last 20 odd years.

It goes beyond that to when
we were in
Rest In Pieces together.

It goes to we were in
Straight Ahead together.

We've been musicians together
in three different bands,

going back so long that I even
know what it's like to be a
frontman standing next to Craig.

He understands
where I come from musically

and I understand where he comes from musically.

What's unique about
Sick Of It All is that we
understood our place in music.

We didn't think we're in
a popularity game thinking,
"Oh, we're gonna be this...

big band and
let's change like this."

Whatever trends came
didn't really matter.
We just did our thing.

There was never-- The fantasy
never went along with it.
It just was what it was.

[hardcore music playing]

Yeah, he's the journeyman. He's played with every legendary New York Hardcore band,

and he's done it at a level
that's better than
anybody else.

Cause he's the best
at what he does. He has
the most amazing base sound.

He's like a
modern day Darryl Jenifer,
or something.

He's that monster
on the bass.

Yeah, who the hell knew that
now it would still be going,
and going strong,

as a worldwide phenomenon,
meaning Hardcore music.

I had no idea. I mean, all I wanted was to play CB's when I was a kid.

But, I'm really grateful for
the way things turned out,
cause there was nothing

I wanted to be, growing up
as a kid, more than just
be a guy who played music.

I always wanted to be a musician but I didn't want all the fantasy.

and I didn't feel comfortable with all the self-glorification that goes with it.

Hardcore lasting this long,
it's almost like

makes me smile thinking
that the good guy kinda

persevered and came out of it.

"The good guy" meaning
music like Hardcore
that isn't really pretentious.

["Road Less Traveled" playing]

♪ Born to walk
On the road less traveled ♪

♪ We did not choose this

♪ Passion drove us to it

♪ Hardcore is our life now

♪ Born to walk
On the road less traveled ♪

♪ Were we right we will see
But you know our philosophy ♪

♪ "Be a doctor, PHDs, All that shit is not for me" ♪

Is Hardcore dead?

No way.
No fucking way, bro.

Fuck, no. No way.

No. No way.

-No.
-No!

-No.
-No, it's not dead.

-Never.
-Are you kidding me?

No, it's not dead at all.

Most definitely not.

Never died.

Nah, not even close, man.

[scoffing] I hate that.

No. maybe you died.

Or the love for it, or the love
that you used to have for it
died for some reason.

Hardcore will never die.
I mean, it's a cliche, but

it's got too good of a name,

like, "Hardcore"
is so powerful.

You listen to all your different
kinds of music, and you think
you're onto the cool thing,

and then,
you see some sketchy dude
near the bathroom going,

"Hey, kid.
I got what you really want."

No. Hardcore...
You know when people say
stuff like this is dead...

It's dead to them,
or to mainstream media.

It may have been flowing
and going to pockets
where it's kinda

very subculture and
very underground,

and then maybe it'll have
another boom some day
like it did in the '90s,

where it blew up,
but it's never gonna go away.
You can't kill it.

Yeah!
That shit Hardcore lives.

Hell, no!
Hardcore won't die until I die.

So I'm gonna get
as much as possible.

It's just right there.

But it continues and
it does its thing
and people fall off.

and they come back in.
But no, it's not.

Hardcore, that little scene down
on Avenue A we had, has
influenced mainstream culture

more than fucking
just about anything and
people don't even realize it.

We were the kindling
and then everybody's gonna
throw a log on the fire.

As long as there's that spark,
nah, this shit...

you know, multiply, don't die.

It's still growing,
it'll still keep going.

It'll be different people,
different scene,
different faces,

but, it's not dead.

If they called John Bellushi,
no fucking way.

Hardcore brings a lot of people
together, and I think
that's what it's all about.

After the music,
it brings together

goof friends, good vibes
and a good show.

It's a common denominator.

Yeah, and that's something
that no one will ever
want to let go of.

Hardcore is alive and well,
kicking around in
everybody's mind.

It's no longer just in a club.
It's an ideology.

It's a way of life
and it's an approach.

Maybe what you knew
Hardcore to be at one point,

it isn't that way anymore.
But, so what?

You know, again, we're supposed
to be mad at the kids
that came after us

and how they've embraced it
or what it sounds like.

You know, it sounds little
different now, it looks
little different now. Whatever.

But, if the band
has that spirit,

and that passion,
and it comes from the heart,
and they're doing it right,

and they're also bringing
something to the table.

How could Hardcore
ever be dead?

Fuck no, it's not dead.
Why would we be here?

We're about to go play
A-7 right over there.

This shit ain't dead.
You're out of your mind.

There's no way
Hardcore is dead.

There's no way, cause
we're doing this interview
right now, you know what I mean.

I was born in 1994,
and Hardcore is not dead at all.

I'm still young and
I got a lot of years left,
and there's a lot of...

handfuls and handfuls of bands I can name right now that would prove otherwise.

Anyone that says that
is fucked up,
because it's not dead.

There's no way.
I won't let it die.

People that say
the scene's dead
and this and that,

yeah, you went away, and had
your 2.3 fucking family members
and your cars

and whatever,
and you gave up and
turned your back on it.

But, not everybody did.

There's still guys like Roger
and Jimmy, and all these
fucking guys, you, me,

and a portion of people,
Sick Of It All's
30 year anniversary.

I love being part
of this family. I love you.
I love all my friends.

And I love that we're all
still here, and happy.

And that you're
making a movie about it.

Is it dead?
You're making a
fucking movie about it!

It's not dead.
People are writing
books about it.

There's symposiums on it
and fucking conventions,
you know.

People are making
a living off it. It's not dead.

If you're making
a living off of something,
it's not dead.

Far from it.
So, get with it.

Join it. Join us.
Join us!

[mock laughing]

I think it's culture
and language,
you know what I mean?

And I think as long as people
are fluent in the language,

and are interested
in speaking the language,

they're gonna show up to
see Gorilla Biscuits, they're
gonna show up to see Antidote,

they're gonna show up
to see Absolution or Burn,

or The Wilding Incident,
I think there's
an energy inside of it.

It might be dead to
a certain extent, like,
as a grown man I might not

go on a Vegetarian's Paradise
with Straight edge kids
from Connecticut,

in my old age.

But, are there kids
that are doing that right now?
Probably.

And I hope they are. I hope
they're using the platform of
Hardcore to express themselves.

For me, Hardcore is in my soul.
And New York Hardcore
lives forever.

And for me, it's not
whether or not
you're a part of it,

or living vicariously
through it.

The fact is, I was there,
I've seen it, and it's eternal.

["Victim In Pain" playing]

♪ People say that I'm insane
Society victim just in pain ♪

♪ Society's rules
Have made me cruel ♪

♪ I'm just the opposite,
Ain't no fool ♪

♪ The way I act
Or way I dress ♪

♪ Doesn't make me strong
Or make me best ♪

♪ Soon they'll find
My reasons why ♪

♪ I'm open minded
And not blind ♪

♪ But why am I going insane

♪ Why am I the one to blame

♪ Open your eyes,
Don't tell me lies ♪

♪ I'll be the one
To live and rise ♪

♪ I'll think for myself
And I'm sure to find ♪

♪ That society's rules
Won't change my mind ♪

♪ But why am I going insane

♪ Why am I the one to blame

♪ Insane

♪ Why am I the one
To fuckin blame ♪

["Hardcore Lives" playing]