Sunday, November 1, 2009

Poll results for favorite track off of Brotherhood's - "No Tolernence" EP


Brotherhood… not a band that's been talked about much here on DCXX, so what better time to start than now? Hopefully at some point we'll track down some members for something more substantial, but we'll kick it off here with a few random memories.


Brotherhood - Seattle Straight Edge, Photo courtesy of: Brotherhood

- For some reason I remember ordering the Brotherhood 7" directly from Ron, their singer. I think there was some sort of hold up on shipping it, maybe something about Ron waiting on a shipment of 7"s from Skate Edge Records. I remember Ron writing me and apologizing for the hold up and then soon after receiving the actual 7". About a week later I received another copy of the 7", only this time from Kiersten, Ron's then girlfriend who helped him with mail order. I guess there were a few mix ups and some how or another I ended up with 2 copies of the 7". No Tolerance… No Complaints.

- Brotherhood toured with The Accused in 1989 and played a show in Philadelphia on that tour. A few days before the show I remember getting a post card flyer in the mail and up until that point I had no idea the show was even happening. I scrambled trying to figure out how I could get to the show, but ultimately never succeeded in securing a ride. Unfortunately 1989 was pre-driver license days for me and like many out of town shows, if no ride was secured, no show was attended. Total bummer. I do know that Greg, the bassist of Release, went and scored himself a royal blue Brotherhood "Fuck Racism" shirt which I saw him wear quite a bit. That shirt and those maroon suede Pumas were often Greg's outfit of choice.


- In July of 1989 Ron Guardipee (Brotherhood singer) and his friend Brian (Pea Body) made a trip out to the east coast. Off hand I don't recall why they were out here, but I do know that they ended up at the Bold / Gorilla Biscuits show at City Gardens here in Trenton. The weekend of that show Ron and Brian crashed at my friend Tony's house and we all spent that weekend hanging out. I remember getting one of those SSD "Kids Will Have Their Say" Ex-Claim boots from Brian and a weird one-off screened Inside Out shirt from Ron. I also remember Ron introducing all of us Jersey kids to putting Parmesan cheese on our pizza. We've never looked back.

- During that weekend of hanging out with Ron and Brian, we all took a ride into Princeton. Of course we went to the Princeton Record Exchange (which everyone should do when visiting Princeton), but we also engaged in some straight edge shenanigans. Ron walked up to a couple of dudes, one which was smoking a cigarette and asked if he could bum a smoke. The dude happily pulled out his pack and handed Ron a cig, which Ron immediately snapped in half and dropped on the side walk. Ron says, "Oh damn man… sorry, can I get another?" The dude reluctantly pulls out another, which again Ron takes with his fingers, snaps in half and drops on the sidewalk. Ciggy dude was bummed and considering Ron was a bit of a menacing looking fella, nothing was said and ciggy dude walks away with his head hanging low. Ron says something about Straight Edge Revenge, we all laughed and that was that.


A Brotherhood sing along with Greg leaving his guitar behind and joining in on the fun, Photo courtesy of: Brotherhood

- Later on, the same night as the Princeton incident, we were driving around my town and pulled up on a high school party crowd that was gathering in front of someone's house. We saw a girl that went to our high school and Ron yells, "Stop the car!" We stop, Ron rolls down the window and says, "Hey, are you the singer for Hateful Youth?" The girl looks at Ron like he's crazy and says, "Hateful Youth… I don't know what you're talking about, sorry." Ron says, "You can't fool me, you're the singer for Hateful Youth, you're fucking awesome!" The girl shakes her head and walks away. We later find out that Hateful Youth was a band that Ron sung for. From there on that girl that went to our high school was always referred to as "Hateful Youth chick."

- A couple of years after first meeting Ron, I ended up in Seattle with my band Mouthpiece. We were doing some shows with Seattle's Undertow and of course we ended up hanging out with Ron. I remember going out to eat with Ron and a couple of the Undertow guys and Ron telling me and the Undertow guys that the torch had been passed to us and bands like Mouthpiece and Undertow were the future of straight edge hardcore. I was stoked to hear that considering I was a definite Brotherhood fan and had a lot of respect for Ron. After eating Ron drove me to the Seattle overlook where the cover shot for the Brotherhood "Words Run As Thick A Blood" photo was taken. I was stoked to say the least, unfortunately I had no camera to capture the moment.


Brotherhood - "Words Run As Thick As Blood" Seattle overlook shot


An outtake shot from the
"Words Run As Thick As Blood" cover shoot

As for the 7", classic east coast style straight edge hardcore played by a band from Seattle with a singer that sounded as close to Springa from SSD as you could get. I loved the entire 7", but my vote for favorite track went to "The Deal". Why… because of these lyrics:

Litter our streets, with your poison
No concern, for the deadly consequence

We are coming on strong
The deal, you'll pay a price

Step on whatevers in your way
Push and shove, selfish heart
And you will pay

This pain, that you've caused
Like our attack, it's coming back

-Tim DCXX


Greg Anderson with Brotherhood way before his Southern Lord/Sunn O)) days, Photo courtesy of: Brotherhood

The Deal - 82
Til' Death Do Us Part - 63
No Tolerance - 21
Won't Turn Our Backs - 12
Courage - 7
Gain - 5


Here's a video of Ron's post-Brotherhood band, Resolution doing a cover of Brotherhood's "Breaking The Ice". In this video Ron's friend Brian (as previously mentioned) is accompanying him on stage with Resolution. This was filmed by Cedar Bristol at Washington Hall, 12-2-1989 Seattle Washington.

11 comments:

Jim Pitts said...

Greg from Brotherhood is readily available for interviews. Although he is now a "stoner metal guitar god" he doesn't mind talking about his youth at all.
I still have the False Liberty demo I bought from Greg in '86 at New Method.....such great stuff!

Dave Brown said...

I am psyched Greg became a "stoner metal dude" (hahaha) Let's not forget GOATSNAKE and ENGINE KID.
It seems like a million days since Brotherhood were around.

Visiting the photo spot for the lp is as important as visiting the Space Needle.

Anonymous said...

is greg still edge? i'm guessing not.

ERIC SXE said...

Fuck yeah...Brotherhood. Definitely one of my faves. I met Ron once at a Gilman St. Record Swap. Kiersten was there too. They were both really nice and Ron was stoked that I was into his band. I bought some vinyl from them and hung for a bit. When the LP came out Ron sent me a copy on GREEN and I was super stoked to say the least. Great band and I'm still listening to that LP regularly. It never gets old. FYI..Nate Mendel who is in Foo Fighters was the bassist on their recordings. Awesome! Thanks Tim for doing this. Til Death Do Us Part is my fave from the EP. XXX

Murdoch XXX said...

So great to see some Brotherhood content on here, one of the best straight edge bands to ever exist in my opinion. Can't wait to see more on 'em. Keep up the good work, Double Cross is great!

xjustinx said...

Every great once in a while, Ron goes on a posting tear at nwhardcore.com, and my favorite story of all time is the one he told about a show in So Cal in which he knocked out the nerd from Vegan Reich.

Anonymous said...

underrated EP.........HARD!

great stuff tim and gordo!!!!!!!!!

Chris from San Berdoo said...

"knocked out the nerd," "edge shenanigans" - fuckin bullies that ruined the scene back then. You guys were just the same as the skins - always lookin for some excuse to pick on people smaller than yourselves. "Be positive, or I'll kick yer ass!"

Beginning of the end when jocks co-opted the one positive thing out there for kids that didn't fit in...

Anonymous said...

i have to agree with "chris" above. wow, sXe guy walked up to a guy and bummed cigarettes and broke them in front of him! straight edge revenge!

this kind of cliquey foolishness ruined hardcore and soured me on it long, long ago.

T. Ross said...

When I moved from D.C. to Portland for college in 1989, I knew Brotherhood was up in Seattle, so I assumed there was some kind of Northwst SE scene.

Alas, when I flyered in Portland to try and put a band together, the only people who contacted me were metal dudes who had zero interest is the SE part of SEHC. After a few months in town, I realized Portland was such a non-SE town that it was hopeless.

Sal said...

I've had a doubt that I was hoping someone could help me out with... some ten years ago I heard that members or a member of Brotherhood was later in the Foo Fighters... now, granted this seems like a silly enough rumor and at the time I didn't take it seriously but upon stumbling across this post I had to think about it. Anyhow it would be pretty funny it were true.