Mouthpiece - "Can't Kill What's Inside: The Complete Discography" Rev: 147

Mouthpiece "Can't Kill What's Inside: The Complete Discography" cover

Finally after years of on and off work and planning, we've actually got a tentative release date of 1/20/2009 for the Mouthpiece discography. Officially tagged as Revelation Records number 147 and titled "Can't Kill What's Inside: The Complete Discography". This is one release that's been a long time coming.

Over the past 9 months, Ed McKirdy and I have been spending countless hours and late, late nights designing and fine tuning the layouts. There was also a considerable amount of time spent trekking off to Gradwell House Studios in South Jersey to re-mix, re-master and clean up the original recordings. The plan was to design a record and cd that drew influences and inspiration from the early Revelation releases, was jam packed with great photos and would ultimately and accurately represent and define what Mouthpiece was all about.

As we draw closer to the release date of the discography, I'll be dedicating a few more entries to Mouthpiece. Hopefully I'll be able to shed a little light on somethings you might not have known or at least will find interesting. Big thanks to Ed McKirdy for all his help and of course Jordan Cooper for pushing this project through. -Tim DCXX


Mouthpiece at The Bank, 1993, NYC, Photo: Glenn Maryansky

Minor Threat Live @ Rollerworks, 1983

After seeing Ian do a Q&A this past Saturday in New Jersey, I thought it was only fitting to post the following videos. We also managed to video tape the Q&A, so look for segments from that to be posted here on DCXX within the next couple of weeks.

As for these videos, it's Minor Threat as a five piece from Flipside video 2, shot at Rollerworks in 1983. I've seen other versions of some of the songs from this show that might be better quality, but I figured I'd go with the full set as opposed to a few songs. It's been awhile since I've seen this and I honestly forgot how incredible it is. Out Of Step... -Tim DCXX

Jon Roa on Ryan Hoffman and Fat Mike

Ryan Hoffman and Alex Pain with Chain at Gilman St.

Jon Roa brings us an old story here that we thought was worth sharing. Stories like this are we we all love hardcore. -Gordo DCXX

1985: Justice League was on tour in Reno, Nevada. The now-incredibly huge NOFX were, at that time, a struggling band that was more of an also-ran about whom not many people thought (this is not a slight but rather a chuckle considering their future). We were both set to play with 7 Seconds in what would be their first hometown show there in seven months. It was a big show. NOFX were opening the show and we all met up in the parking lot in the late AM. To put in bluntly-NOFX were really hungry. They toured and got paid next-to-zilch as they were not a draw.

Being friends for some time, Fat Mike knew that I only needed three more Dickies singles to complete that area of my record collection. Mike approached me about buying some those elusive last three singles for the mere cost of twenty dollars...a bargain even back then. I gave him twenty-five dollars and he took down my address, thanked me and promised to send the records to me "as soon as he got back home in California." I already had his phone number. Not only did I never hear from him again but also he rebuffed my many efforts to contact him. Eventually, I forgot about it because I figured that Justice League made a lot of money compared to them and I was helping out a good person.

Fast forward to late summer 1986. I had already amicably left Justice League (for many reasons but mainly because the direction of the 12" was not at all what I thought it was going to be). Ryan/Justice League were on tour in, I think Seattle (?) and they met up with, guess who...NOFX. At the NOFX merch table, Fat Mike is selling items from his kick ass personal record collection and, now at 30 dollars each, are those damn Dickies seven inches! Well, a bunch of people would later to tell me that Ryan went up to the table, looked at all the goods and calmly picked up the three Dickies records and matter-of-factly told Fat Mike, "These are for ROA, I'll make sure he gets them." Evidently, Fat Mike was speechless and so off guard that he did not try to play it off by saying something like, "Oh yeah, thanks." Mike just looked at Ryan, mouth agape, realizing that he had dutifully paid the piper!

It was none of Ryan's business, really. He made it his business because we had known each other since the fifth grade. Upon his return I got the records but more importantly, I got perspective on how truly kick ass Ryan is. I love that guy.

Post script: Fat Mike is totally cool to me. I am on the "eternal guest list" for NOFX and when I was doing radio interviews/promotion for a book that I wrote in 1995, Fat Mike called the radio station and gave me a congrats phone call. He is a good guy in my book as those records are now in a good place: my house!


Early YOT / Justice League era with Hoffman and Cappo looking on as someone jokingly prepares to scissor in half a cig

Vision - In The Blink Of An Eye cover shot

Vision at Rutgers Scott Hall, New Brunswick NJ, 10/29/1988, Photo: Ken Salerno

I've posted about this show time and time again, easily one of the best shows I have ever seen. In my opinion, Vision were in their prime and at the top of their game at this point. The "Undiscovered" 7" had recently been released and let me tell you, what a great slab of vinyl. To this day, that "Undiscovered" 7" remains my favorite Vision release and one of my favorite hardcore 7"s ever. The crowd at this show on this cold October night in 1988 seemed to share the same sentiments as myself. I remember people singing along to what seemed like every word and the energy was at an all time high.

Following the "Undiscovered" 7" was the "In The Blink Of An Eye" LP on Nemisis Records. Most definitely a more than worthy follow up to a flawless 7". Ken Salerno, who was a friend of the band and shot them countless times captured what was to be the cover shot for the "In The Blink Of An Eye" LP. Going with what I would assume to be the "artsy" route, Vision decided to slice up the photo with big, thick black bars. Although for the time it was different and definitely interesting, it did leave a lot of people yearning to see the original photo in its entirety. With the exception of the 1989 Vision tour shirts, I'm pretty sure this is the first place you can really see what was going on in this classic photo... pure New Jersey Hardcore at its finest.

Hopefully at some point we here at DCXX can push this site into some sort of printed format. When that does happen, we can assure you we'll have this photo printed large and in all its glory. For now hopefully you can at least appreciate it a little more seeing it here, as small as it might be. Of course a huge thank you goes out to Ken Salerno once again for supplying us with the best HC photography anyone could ask for. -Tim DCXX

PS: If anyone happens to have an original Vision 1989 tour shirt and wouldn't mind parting ways with it, get in touch, I've been without one for far too long.

Isaac Golub - A Chorus Of Disapproval

Isaac fronting A Chorus Of Disapproval

Isaac from Chorus / Amendment 18 speaks his piece for DCXX as we pick his brain about how he ended up on the mic as one of the most vocal straight edge front men in hardcore history. -Gordo DCXX

I remember sometime around 1990 hearing A Chorus Of Disapproval for the first time on the Nemesis Records live 7" comp, "East Meets West". The song was called "Just Can't Hate Enough" and I thought it was pretty damn hard. Funny thing is, the first handful of times I heard that track, I thought Isaac was saying, "Pussies going down, I will make you see the light" and thinking... wow, these dudes are freakin' pissed! Turned out the lyrics were "The shit that's going down, I will make you see the light", still pissed, but not AS pissed as I had thought. That was my first introduction to The Chorus.

Early 1991 I remember Rob Fish (Release, Ressurection) coming back from hanging out in Southern California and telling me all about Chorus and how great they were. He brought back the "Truth Gives Wings To Strength" LP and a Chorus "Reinstate Prohibition " hat and I was sold. Those first two songs on that LP, "No Part" and "Addiction To Disease" were incredible. So Straight Edge, so in your face, so hard and gave me an almost SSD feel. In 1990/1991, hearing a straight edge hardcore band like Chorus was rare but greatly appreciated. -Tim DCXX

What are you up to these days musically and otherwise?

Well after A.18 ran its course, I really wanted to take a break from doing the band thing. I wanted to concentrate on trying to be a good father, and be more of a "fan" of music. Sometimes it's hard to see things clearly from the inside so I took a step outside and just enjoyed new bands and played more of the observer, although I do miss writing songs and performing for sure. And of course The Chorus is playing that big fest at The Metro in Chicago with Unbroken and so on in May, so that will be a real fun time. Beyond that, I got married and now I'm just try to do the good husband thing.


Second Chorus show, Zack de la Rocha hangs out on stage, Photo: David "Igby" Sattanni

How did you get into punk and hardcore...and later on, straight edge? What were defining moments you recall with each personal evolution?

I met my long time friend Luigi in 1982 at Wilson Jr. High in Pasadena, CA. We hit it off famously. I would listen to the Rodney on The ROQ radio show and write the names of the bands I liked on my Peechee folder. Luigi saw I had written "Sex Pistols" on my folder and he asked if I was punk. I had no idea at that point but I told him I liked alot of different music. So did he, so we buddied up from that point on. His dad was a famous Spanish actor and his brother was in a real punk rock band, thus I was super impressed so we started our own "punk" band, Short Circuit.

Later on my family moved to Orange County, CA and my exposure to punk rock was blown wide open. Mohawks everywhere, the 52nd Street Punks invaded and laid claim to 52nd St. in Newport Beach. I just quietly hung out and reveled in the smell of Aquanet, leather, and clove cigarettes. It was great. I never felt like the silly haircuts, beers, drugs, or partying lifestyle was for me. But I loved the idea of the unity, and fuck you attitude to narrow-minded factory farmed socialites of the area. I started going to shows at The Cuckoo's Nest and since I lived a block away it was an easy walk. I saw many many great bands there, Fear, Circle Jerks, Black Flag, Suicidal, 7Seconds (The Crew tour), The Vandals, and so on.

But it wasn't until a little known band called Uniform Choice played there that I was really kicked in the balls musically. They were fast, ferocious, in your face pissed, and the singer was very threatening looking and was all over the place with his energy. Now I had heard Minor Threat and was familiar with the term 'Straight Edge' but it didn't hit home until I saw U.C., bought the t-shirt, the demo, and really read the lyrics. I suddenly didn't feel alone in my views regarding drugs, alcohol, and the like. I met Pat the singer and he told me about a bunch of other bands in the OC area that were of the same minds.

From there I got very involved even if from only a fan stand point. I was the first and only kid at my high school to go bic bald, X up, and scowl like the hardcore hard-ass I thought I was. Summer of 1984 was my awakening. I felt like a soldier, I felt like I was on a winning team, I felt like hardcore was my home. Still do.


A young Isaac riding the bus, decked out in a U.C shirt, 1986

What punk/HC bands and records hit you the hardest early on, and what "old" records and bands remain your favorites?

The first record I ever bought with my own money was The Decline of The Western Civilization Soundtrack. It had FEAR, X, Circle Jerks, Black Flag, and all these great punk bands. Since I used my own chore money to buy it, it will always stand as my emotional bond favorite. You have to understand at that early time I was a California Punk/Hardcore loyalist. My fight and struggles were locally based. OC, L.A., and San Diego bands concerned me first and foremost. Records from TSOL, Adolescents, The Crowd, Circle One, Final Conflict, MIA, Uniform Choice/Unity, so on and so forth.

But the first record to really stand me upright and prepare me for my future was Screaming For Change by Uniform Choice. The demo was great and Banks would argue it is heads and tails better than the LP, but that record threw me in head first. Upon hearing the full length and seeing them somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 times, and buying the first LP out of the box at the record store Pat Dubar worked at? Fuck, I get all fired up thinking about it now!!! It was and still is my favorite hardcore record.

The next records to come very close to doing that to me is a close tie between Visual Discrimination 'Step Back And Listen' and No For An Answer 'You Laugh EP'. These records never get old.

What did you do musically before Chorus?

I started my first band in 1982 called Short Circuit, we thought we were punk but we started playing backyard parties and lowered ourselves to doing mostly covers to gain popularity. It was one of my fondest memories but short lived. Then I tried out as singer for a band called Just Because (I think that was the name), it was Joe Foster from Unity on guitar so I was walking into that situation with a hard-on. Joe never called back and I never knew why until 2 or 3 years later when I told the story to Dan O'Mahoney. He said, "Oh that was YOU?" He then went on to tell me that Joe didn't call me back because my name spelled backwards was Caasi (Casey). Referring to Casey Jones from NFAA who sang in that older band prior to me trying out. Joe thought it was a bad omen to pull me in based on that. What a tool!!!

Then I did a band called Idenity with Rob Hayworth who later was later 'stolen' away by NFAA and even later formed Farside. We played no shows and we were not very good...well, Rob was.


An early Chorus promo photo

Tony Erba - Part IV

Coming off the biggest DCXX entry ever, Erba re-loads and fires again, this time with some Face Value memories.

- Gordo DCXX

What type of chaos did Face Value cause over the years? Most memorable shows and why?

Well we tried to turn every show into a party in the pit, we were a feel-good, let's stagedive and trash the hall type band. My problems were usually with the soundman. I started to bring my own mikes to shows after scumbag club owners would charge us $100 for a 'broken mike' when there was a dent in the spit screen. We'd have a well thought-out set list designed to have the crowd frothing like manic idiots by the time we played the set-closer which was always "Coming Of Age" and then I'd just kind of signal for the crowd to take over and they'd rush the stage and there'd be 100 assholes onstage, knockin over amps, diving off PAs,swinging from the lighting tresses, etc. We broke the stage in half at the Empire, destroyed the drywall countless times at the Babylon, etc.

Most memorable shows? So many. We'd play alot of smaller towns that the 'cool' bands would pass up, and do sellout houses the second time we'd come thru, like Conway, AR; Tri-Cities, WA; Rapid City, SD etc. Syracuse was a great town for us. But the best shows were Clevo after we didn't play for 6 months because we weren't getting over, everyone was kissing Integrity's ass and we weren't drawing so we played on the road exclusively for at least 6 months then we booked the Babylon and oversold the fuck out of it and had a SICK reaction, I have a tape of it, we played close to an hour and the crowd heat was so intense, new kids from the West Side full of aggro and mischief, my brother had his crew out in full force, kids were AMPED.


Erba dips back into the crowd for some classic FV mayhem

I also focused on booking the band like an old pro wrestling territory...instead of focusing on just drawing in Cleveland, we'd develop a circuit which consisted of Erie, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Pittsburgh, Louisville, Detroit, Columbus, etc. Easy drives, great kids, great houses, good bands to play with. Ben Frazier and Mike Ski had Erie drawing like crazy. McKaig, DJ and Guav did a great job in Syracuse, Manny ran a tight ship in Pittsburgh, Ian had Columbus humming and we could play those towns 4-6 times a year and draw great each show.

Other memorable shows...first two times we played in Louisville were great. It was us, Integ and Endpoint, 1600 paid in a Lazer Tag arena, kids going berserk, girls actually talking to me, Endpoint were over more with their hometown audience than perhaps any other band I've ever seen before or since, I mean it was fucking COOKING down there. Great band and great friends...Duncan just did some liner notes for the FV reissue. Second time was a slight fall-off in attendance, ONLY about 1200 paid, but that place was out of fucking control. Some rich-kid Hardline band called Limit actually FLEW in to that gig on a private plane owned by the kid's Dad.

Another classic show was in Rockford IL; we rolled up to the gig at a roller rink, there were hundreds of kids in the parking lot, we were stoked. It's getting time to open the doors and the lady running the roller rink decides at the last second that she dosen't want to be 'hardcore show promoter' and cancels the gig. The kids start getting pissed, so this girl calls her Mom who's some sort of city councilwoman and she shows up with a bullhorn and starts grandstanding about "these kids need a place to go! You're keeping these kids out on the streets!!" Coincidentally, as she's standing on a car yelling into her bullhorn, right on cue, a couple of TV camera crews show up to catch this champion of HC kid's rights having her say. At that moment, some dude screeches into the parking lot in a beat-up pickup and yells "Hey man, I own the Cherry Lounge down the street, you can have the show there, and it's FREE!! And $2 well drinks! Yee--haw!" The whole crowd lets out a whoop, and 200 kids book it down to this club, and us, Silence, and the Voodoo Glowskulls proceed to have a wild-ass gig that night.


Flyer for a great Middlesex County College show that unfortunately Face Value never ended up playing, flyer by: Tim DCXX

John Pettibone - Undertow

Undertow, Seattle Straight Edge

We've been itching to get some tidbits from the Seattle hardcore scene up here on DCXX, so we figured what better source than former Undertow frontman, John Pettibone. Try to cut me down, try to break my spirit, but you will not break me down... -DCXX

When/how did you get into HC? What was the Seattle music landscape like at the time?

Around 1984 I would say, and it was from skateboard magazines. Thrasher would have interviews with bands and my favorite skaters would have band stickers on their boards and they were wearing their shirts and that's how I would find out about Suicidal, Black Flag, Negative Approach, AF, Minor Threat etc. My first show was Black Flag in '85. I was lucky to see the tail end of the first era of hardcore. Seattle had a great local punk/hardcore community...tons of bands, great record stores and a local access punk show called Bombshelter videos. The downer was shows were shutdown so fast that touring bands had a hard time coming here. We went across the water to shows in Bremerton at Natasha's Ballroom.

What was your first dabblings with a band and when was this?

Some friends and I started a straight edge band in high school called Point of Honor and we were a bad version of Youth of Today. This was 1987.

What were the first incarnations of Undertow and who was involved?

Undertow came out of the ashes of Refuse and what happened was they kicked their bass player out and asked me to play with no knowledge of how to play. We were all the little side kicks from the dudes in Brotherhood and Refuse would play with them every weekend. I was a senior in high school and the others were 2 years younger, this was '89.
I played bass, Mark guitar, Ryan drums and Joel vocals.

Brotherhood is the band most think of when it comes to Seattle straight edge. Any good Brotherhood stories? Ever see them play? What type of legacy (if any) did they leave behind for Seattle SE kids?

Saw them play a bunch and Ron the vocalist opened me up to so many bands and records. He would tape me a ton of stuff every weekend. He had the best record collection. Brotherhood came out of False Liberty and they put Seattle on the map. They did a couple US tours and were known all over. If it wasn't for Brotherhood there would be no scene here, but only a handful of kids today even know or care, which is sad.


John hanging with the almighty Danzig

On the opposite end of the spectrum, most people would assume that if you were into music in Seattle in the ealy 90s, you had some involvement with Sub Pop/"grunge". Did you ever take any interest in this? What was that time there like?

I always liked the "heavyer" sounding bands like Soundgarden, Melvins, Tad. Saw all of the bands that "broke out" in small clubs and basements. That was a great time for Seattle. The music scene was rich and very diverse. No two bands ever sounded the same.

What were your favorite shows while in Undertow and why?

So many! In Seattle, I could say the best was when we played with The Accused, Poison Idea, Neurosis, Born Against and Rorschach. These were bands I loved and we were able to play with them and become friends. Our first tour was with Jawbreaker down the West Coast and that was awesome. Their first record "Unfun" was just coming out. Playing with Deadguy was huge cause Tim Singer is one of my biggest influences along with Dwid from Integrity who we played with a year before in Chicago. The tour with Unbroken was the best time though...we were brothers and just going for it.


John with Himsa

Favorite bands to play with and good stories from being on the road?

Just named some but others are Heroin, John Henry West, Crud is a Cult, Statue, Bloodlet, Struggle, Clikitat, Antioch Arrow, Lifetime, Channel, His Hero Is Gone, Grief, Final Conflict, so many. It was just awesome to drive across country and lose yourself and make your own rules and meet new people by this common thread.

What are your favorite Undertow songs years later and why?

There all a piece of me at that time and I cherish them.

What are you doing musically today, and where does your time in Undertow fit into that?

Well I was in Himsa for the past 9 years, we just played our last show a month ago. I play in a 2 local bands now called I Am the Thorn and Heiress. Undertow was the biggest and brightest part of my past. Why that band existed is the same reason I am who I am today... still straight edge and still pissed at the world. Days slip....