Original subtitles

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]