Quote Of The Week

"The essence of being human is that one does not seek perfection, that one is sometimes willing to commit sins for the sake of loyalty, that one does not push asceticism to the point where it makes friendly intercourse impossible, and that one is prepared in the end to be defeated and broken up by life, which is the inevitable price of fastening one's love upon other human individuals."

Sleep Well, Valiant Ones

"Soldier, rest! Thy warfare o'er,

Sleep the sleep that knows not breaking,

Dream of battled fields no more.

Days of danger, nights of waking."

From Sir Walter Scott's  The Lady Of The Lake, 1810

45 Revolutions: Death

Death was a black garage-rock band formed by the brothers Bobby, David and Dannis Hackney in Detroit, Michigan in 1971. The band started as an r&b outfit, switching gears after seeing an Alice Cooper show. The group only released one 45 in 1976 on Tryangle Records, the monstrous "Politicians In My Eyes" b/w "Keep On Knockin'," before breaking up in 1977. The band was re-discovered in 2009 when the original 7" record was released on CD by Drag City, leading to reunion shows and the release of other demo material.

Buy: For The Whole World To See (CD reissue)

Dig: This Band Was Punk Before Punk Was Punk

Time Out Of Mind

“The future for me is already a thing of the past."

Quote Of The Week

"One always dies too soon — or too late. And yet one's whole life is complete at that moment, with a line drawn neatly under it, ready for the summing up. You are your life, and nothing else."

Every Picture Tells A Story

Quote Of The Week

"On the mountains of truth you can never climb in vain: either you will reach a point higher up today, or you will be training your powers so that you will be able to climb higher tomorrow." 

Reckoning Force

SHEER TERROR
(Photo by Dave Brown)

In 1989 the hooded sweatshirts and X'ed up hands of the 'youth crew' (or shaved skulls and DM's of the skins) represented the legacy-rich New York hardcore scene to most — but not all. From underneath the pig-piles came a new breed of NYHC groups that believed hardcore should be raw, non-conformist and ugly, and they weren't afraid to step on toes within their own scene in saying so.

Where The Wild Things Are was the sound of the alternative NYHC scene of the late '80s. Bands like the incredibly underrated Life's Blood, and Uppercut, made it clear what they thought of the restrictive and clique-oriented straight-edge scene, while Sheer Terror showered utter contempt on all and injected their lyrics with a black sense of humor and intelligence. Borough homeboys Maximum Penalty and Outburst wore their hip-hop influences on their sleeves, or rather sneakers, while from Yonkers, Breakdown — and offshoot group Raw Deal — kept things simple with an aggressive metal edge which influenced countless lesser bands in the years to come. Norman Bates And The Showerheads were perhaps the ultimate misfits with their long-hair, silly name and grubby metal-punk sound. Rounding things out, token big-name straight-edge group Gorilla Biscuits paid respect to the real roots of hardcore by covering a punk classic by The Buzzcocks with undeniable power and enthusiasm.

To the ears of the alienated — the ones who didn't even fit in with the scene of so-called outsiders at CBGBs — Where The Wild Things Are struck a real chord; this music was a real "reckoning force."

[Original liner-notes by Lee Greenfeld for the aborted Where The Wild Things Are

compilation CD reissue. Enhanced iBook version due out soon via Blackout Records.]

And He Sailed Off Through Night...

Maurice Sendak

Rest In Peace

Fare thee well to the great Brooklynite Maurice Sendak... You eased the pain of early childhood confusion and angst, and helped fuel countless wonderful, escape-filled daydreams.

Quote Of The Week

"The majority is never right. Never, I tell you! That's one of these lies in society that no free and intelligent man can help rebelling against. Who are the people that make up the biggest proportion of the population — the intelligent ones or the fools?"

Turn Illness Into A Weapon

Read: Sartre's preface to Turn Illness Into A Weapon