Poll results for favorite Project X song

Slam and Kid Hard with Project X at the Ritz, Superbowl of Hardcore, January 30, 1988, Photo: B.J. Papas

Obviously "Straight Edge Revenge" took the crown, but this is another one of those polls where there really is no wrong answer. In my opinion, every song on the PX 7" is fuckin' awesome, start to finish. Simple, solid, powerful, raging, grab you by your throat and throw you through a brick fuckin' wall delivery. Pretty much the perfect straight edge hardcore recording. Nothing was over thought, it was simply done and delivered.

Yeah I know... the band was never really intended to be taken too seriously. I can roll with that. Thing is, at the time that record came out, just like the Judge EP, the scene needed a band like PX to ruffle people's feathers. For every person who was burnt out, annoyed, disgusted and bent out of shape with what Straight Edge had turned into by the late 80's, PX came along and helped put an exclamation point on all of it, and I loved them for it.

To me it was just fun. I never took it too literally, never wanted to unleash my own Straight Edge Revenge on anyone. Never wanted to seek out any Dance Floor Justice. I just took it as a cool and fun little package deal (Schism #7 / PX EP) with 5 awesome songs, some in your face, over the top Straight Edge lyrics and that was that. As a matter of fact, I'm still waiting on that "Edge Of Quarrel" LP. -Tim DCXX


Kid Hard with the X shaved into the back of his head, N.D. with the Unit Pride shirt, Photo: B.J. Papas

Straight Edge Revenge - 159
Dance Floor Justice - 83
Shutdown - 44
Where It Ends - 31
Cross Me - 15

Brian Walsby on Scared Straight

To this day, people will come up to me and gush about Scared Straight. It was the first real band I ever played drums in, and I was only in the band for two occasions, and if you total them both up it wasn't even a whole year.

The way I met the other guys was by drawing stuff for them, and it wasn't until later that they realized that I could play drums. One thing lead to another and at the end of 1984 I was invited to join. We had a lot of fun, played with a lot of bands, did sort of an aborted tour of the country in the summer of 1985 and again later at the end of the year I was brought back in for a winter tour where we played with NOF-X, who beleive it or not, stunk. Never in my wildest dreams would I have guessed that those guys would have gone on to be where they are at. Seriously.

Our name instantly tagged us as being straight edge, which most of us were...by default. I couldn't have imagined ever drinking a beer in the same way that I couldn't imagine getting a chance to get laid on tour, so...straight edge by default! We all liked all of those bands though...we lived near Stalag 13 and of course the rest of the Nardcore bands and we knew the guys in Justice League and Uniform Choice and of course Minor Threat was huge to us. But I know that none of us were really down on people for drinking or doing whatever they wanted to do. We rarely encountered speed freaks or junkies in our safe suburban town so there wasn't really a lot to rail against to be honest. In fact, we sort of snickered at people that took it all so seriously. And as much as I loved Uniform Choice it seemed kind of funny how directly they took Minor Threat's thing, especially when that album came out. We were more into bands like COC and Bl'ast! and wished that we could harness some of that power.



By the time I had re-located to the east coast, it was 1986 and that is when I noticed that I started to lose interest in most of what was called "hardcore" at the time. In fact, I will always remember how bands like Youth Of Today came about...they came and played in Raleigh around this time and they were nice guys. I used to write to Porcell. Now, if you know anything about my books, then you will know that I was TOTALLY NOT INTO what they were doing, but it has to be said that I can't deny the influence of what they did. When they played it was like watching a cartoon version of hardcore, but it was very entertaining. They thought that Woody of COC was forty years old (because of his facial hair) and told him so. They played a cover of SSD's "Glue" that I sang along to. And the funniest thing of all was that they knew the Scared Straight song "Life" and had me play it with them at their soundcheck. And after that they asked me to join their band. To the best of my memory this was what really happened.

I think I sheepsihly said no thank you.

Having said all of that, if a Scared Straight one off was ever going to ever happen on this planet, I would hope to be involved. I could play that stuff much better as an old man.

Kenny Ahrens - Urban Waste

Kenny Ahrens and his friend Lynn Murchy during the A7 days, Photo: De Graham

At some point during the mid-1990's Shelter ended up crashing at our place while on one of their many tours. For some reason or another Cappo had a suitcase with him that had a stack of random old records from his personal collection in it. One of those records was his copy of the Antidote "Thou Shalt Not Kill" EP, which I ended up buying from him. Another one of those records was the Urban Waste EP.

The following morning, while packing up and getting ready to leave, Cappo walked over to the suitcase with the records in it and pulled out the Urban Waste EP. He asked me if I had ever it. I told him I had definitely heard of them and heard at least one song, but never the entire EP. He handed it to me and said, "It's yours, this is one of the greatest New York Hardcore EP's and you should own it". I was stoked to say the least and graciously thanked him.

Later that day after I got home, I put the Urban Waste EP on my record player and right from the first track, "Police Brutality", I knew exactly why Cappo said this was one of the greatest New York Hardcore EP's ever. Perfect shredding vocals over raw, hard hitting, classic New York style hardcore. Definitely up there with the likes of the Antidote, Abused, Agnostic Front and Cause For Alarm EP's.

Here Urban Waste frontman, Kenny Ahrens shares some of his favorite show memories. -Tim DCXX



Bad brains when they came to NYC in 1980. Also, all the D.C. bands including Government Issue and Minor Threat, they were always my favorites. So many more to mention...but the scene was about unity and friends back then, not fame & money. So we were all in it to help each other. "Good things never seem to last" ...someone commercializes it and gets greedy or pretentious about fame or some other bullshit, then you end up with mostly a bunch of assholes. I hope my cool friends never die. - Kenny Waste


Kenny moshing with the white t-shirt on, John Watson with the mohawk, Photo courtesy of UW

Dan O'Mahony Part VI

Dan O with No For An Answer at CBGB's, Photo: Jeff Ladd

Dan O delivers the 6th installment of his ongoing killer piece with us. - Gordo DCXX

What can you tell us about the influence Apocalypse Now and Pink Floyd's The Wall have had on you? (Billy Rubin wanted us to ask Dan this):

Didn't see that one coming, but film is huge with me, and in the 80s those two along with the Godfather were in regular rotation. Rather than run on and on let's just say Apocalypse Now just seems like an intensely dark expose on seeing and moving beyond institutional formalities and bullshit regardless of the consequences. The Wall is kind of the same thing along with providing a rather glamorous look at the allure in going fascist. Did I just say that?

Can you elaborate on how Youth of Today ended up spending months at your house? What memories do you have from this? (Billy again).

Put simply, they asked. That said, the whole affair was supposed to last the couple of weeks they imagined it would take to finalize the Break Down The Walls deal, and get it mastered. Hardcore being what it was, every step of the way took 5 to 10 times longer than it should've, and they basically became Pamela O'Mahony's 5 new sons. They were good friends, lousy houseguests. They left the front door open with the house completely empty at least 5 different times. I'd get home, my dog would be missing, the TV and stereo would be on, food would be sitting out all over my room...good stuff.

As you've probably heard I had a pretty serious temper back then, my best response to that shit had to be the time I took all of the Taco Bell they'd left strung all over my room out of its wrappers and put it in Porcell's guitar case under his Les Paul and then buckled it shut. Trust me...he wasn't gonna do anything about it.

I'm hoping you realize the tone of this is an amused one, not some tough guy nonsense. This was a great time in life and one of those things that couldn't have occurred in any other era. You'd get stuff going on in my garage and back yard like full on gloved boxing matches between any combination of say me, Mike Judge, Pat Longrie, whoever...and no I don't remember who beat who! As the months wore on annoyances would grow and guys would drift off one by one, either to stay with one of the Sloth Crew guys or to return to New York until eventually I think it was just Ray, Ritchie, or Porcell who was left, I'm not sure which.


Three Legged Race alternate shot, Photo courtesy of: Dan O

What can you tell us about tackling Billy Rubin at a show and then watching him go into a seizure? (Billy of course wanted this asked).

Ah... you can count on Billy to keep this a heady socio-political discourse can't ya? Just kidding, this was another classic. In the 80s a lot of the best shows took place in Long Beach at a club called Fender's Ballroom, a tense and violent hotbed for legitimate gang activity...the natural sight for a couple of goofy shaven headed OC kids to get all World Wrestling!

I don't remember what show it was, and why we were acting the fool like this before the opening band, but yes, I tackled Billy and then stood over him, jumped up and bomb dropped on top of him. When I rolled off Billy had this kind of rhythmic convulsion going, it looked hilarious and was in keeping with his sense of humour...but he wouldn't stop. Ambulance, paramedics, short term memory loss, a ride to the hospital, Billy giving my address to the EMT he was so spun around! You know, standard OCHC, Dan and Billy stuff.

What can you tell us about Hardcore Grafix? Was that a friend that simply ran a printing company?

It was exactly that, kind of a garage/back yard operation that happened at the right time and place.


Voicebox era Chuck Treece and Dan O'Mahoney, Photo courtesy of: Dan O

What about Voicebox?

Chuck Treece and I met during his stint in Underdog (Richie being one of my favorite east coast connections) and got to know each other during his prolonged stay with Josh Stanton and his family in '89. Chuck's musical ability was undeniable, he regularly recorded songs for skate videos and such entirely by himself. He also possessed that rarity amongst our generation, a working relationship w/the Bad Brains. The chance to work with him was tempting to say the least.

Musical direction was entirely up to him, I was in a learning position on all fronts but lyrical content and layout, which I reserved for myself. The Silence Lies e.p. is an admittedly strange record and I alternate between loving it and cringing when I hear it. We wrote maybe 5 songs, recorded 2, and promoted the record by drafting Steve Insted and Sterling Wilson to play our one and only show opening up for H.R. at the Country Club in Reseda. Chuck and his involvemnt with professional skateboarding is actually how I met Mario Rubalcaba later of 411.

Tell us also about God Forgot.

This e.p. was a one off with Kevin Murphy recording all of the music, and me handling the vocals and production. Kevin hates the way it turned out, I think it's a brave record. The entire record deals with the aftermath of child sexual abuse, its effect on later relationships, etc. The stark, heavy, taxing sound seems perfect to me given the subject matter.

I hear tales of Kevin's confusion regarding its release, I don't remember anything covert or even cryptic at any point, but we were living 450 miles apart in a pre-cellphone era, so I guess communication could have been lacking compared to our work together in 411. I may have been a bit lazy in terms of keeping him updated on its day to day progress, regrettable indeed. That said, Kevin is a remarkable talent, very fun to play and travel with, and I'd work with him again in a second.

What was the full story behind the 1994 NFAA European Tour, as well as any ties with Lost & Found?

Five years after the break up of No For An Answer, European booking agents M.A.D. floated the idea to Gavin and me of doing a European tour. It took some debate as the potential to be misunderstood was great. By the mid 90s this was a band led by adults living on their own, with deceased parents etc., financial risk was very real, jobs would be put on hold, rent would be at risk and so forth. That being acknowledged, the notion that people thought we were trying to get rich was a laughable but real concern as bands traveling abroad tend to be paid and treated better than they are at home.

From our standpoint Gavin and I considered it a chance to explore whether or not we were interested in playing together again. We got that out of our system, had an amazing time, met people who would remain a part of our lives for years to come, developed a greater respect and understanding of Europe than we could have imagined, came home with barely enough to pay the bills, and wouldn't trade it for anything.

Lost and Found Records? We planned releasing a 7" of new material with them and in fact accepted a meager recording advance from them at roughly the same time we determined they were responsible for thousands of NFAA bootlegs. Who would return that check to somebody ripping you off for thousands? I would and will swindle someone who robs me six ways from Sunday and smile while doing it. They continued to release shoddy unlicensed material of our work and have never managed to show up in my presence during any of my multiple trips to Europe.


Another Three Legged Race alternate shot, Photo courtesy of: Dan O

Tim Owen - Axtion Packed / Jade Tree Records

Swiz - No Punches Pulled discography on Jade Tree Records

It may be cliche but I would have to say my favorite punk/hardcore show memory would be from my first. It was Swiz and Dag Nasty at the old 9:30 Club on F street in 1987. I believe the date of the show was November 11, 1987. Mike Mcternan from Damnation used to have the flyer on his bedroom wall. There was nothing like the old 9:30 club, I saw some great shows there. Part of the reason this show also had a lot of meaning for me was Jason Farrell from Swiz used to work at the Sunshine House in Bethesda, MD where I lived and worked on my skateboards. Sunshine House was a hangout spot for myself and other skater friends in high school and Jason was a great skater and someone I always looked up to. I would have never thought years later I would have started a record label (Jade Tree) and ended up putting out Swiz records and working with Jason. I had always loved Swiz so it meant a lot that Jason gave me that opportunity.


Jason Farrell of Swiz in 2005 with a Smith Vert

More from the Revelation files

One used and two unused photos from Rev:16, Shelter's Perfection of Desire LP, Photo: Tim DCXX


Original promo photos from GB, Judge and BOLD, Photo: Tim DCXX


Original Judge Bringin It Down lyric sheet mechanicals, Photo: Tim DCXX


A random photo I found in the Rev files with someone (maybe Howie?) with three X's shaved into the back of their head and apparently colored in with a blue marker. If anyone knows who this is, please comment, Photo: Tim DCXX


Not sure how many people will think this is as cool as I think it is, but what we have here is the original Letratone stars that went on to be used in a number of the classic early Rev layouts (Together 7" comp, The Way It Is LP comp, etc.), Photo: Tim DCXX

Journeyman

Jeff, Chris, Dale, Tony and Roger of Journeyman

Anyone remember Journeyman? Early 1990's ex-Release meets ex-Up Front to bring you some heavy and polished very metal tinged HC with great live shows and a damn good demo. I came across this promo pic and had to post it. Have a safe holiday weekend. -Tim DCXX