Fanzine Spotlight: Good & Plenty

It's time again for another Fanzine Spotlight and this time around the spotlight shines on a fanzine called Good & Plenty. Good & Plenty came out of the Chicago area, Zion Illinois to be exact and was done by a guy named Gabe Rodriguez, with some help from a few friends that seemed to come and go.

The first issue of Good & Plenty that ever ended up in my mailbox was issue 3, which was released in September of 1989. That particular issue contained interviews with: Gorilla Biscuits, Insted, Brotherhood, Bold and Judge, so you can see it packed quite a wallop with one hell of a lineup. Along with those interviews came pages upon pages of cool artwork, good photos and some of the best ads of the day. Layout wise issue 3 was fairly standard for the time, but it was the the content in whole that helped make G&P stand out.

Issue 4 of Good & Plenty was released in January of 1990 and had interviews with: Refuse, Even Score, Inner Strength, Up Front and 7 Seconds. What was starting to become very apparent with G&P was the quality of photos that popped up in issue 4. Where as issue 3 was more or less photos taken at local shows by the editor or his friends, issue 4 we started seeing great photos of some of the best bands taken all over the country by what appeared to be some serious photographers. Interviews and show reviews still had a place in issue 4, but photo page after photo page was what really dominated the zine. There were definitely some stand out photos of Gorilla Biscuits, Youth Of Today, Judge, Beyond, Bold, Bad Brains, Insted, No For An Answer, Turning Point and Release among many, many more.



Issue 5 was released in May of 1990 and had interviews with: Carry Nation, Vision, Turning Point, Billingsgate and Say No More. The first noticeable change from the earlier issues to issue 5 was the nice glossy, two color, card stock cover and back. Again, cool interviews and good photos to go along with those interviews, but the spread after spread of great random band photos stole the show. It was obvious that Gabe had a good thing going with photographers from all over the country and even into Europe. Sick Cali photos of Against The Wall, Carry Nation, Something To Say, Judge, Outspoken, Pushed Aside, End To End, Freewill, Inside Out and Insted just to name a few. So many memorable photos in general as well. GB in Europe with Civ wearing the PX longsleeve, Integrity with a young and shaved up Tony Brummel up front singing along, Judge "Where It Went" video shoot show pics from City Gardens, Project X in Clevo, Verbal Assault at the Living Room in Rhode Island... I could go on and on.

Issue 6 of Good & Plenty was released in the winter of 1990 into 1991 and had interviews with: Quicksand, Integrity, Sacred Reich and a mock Chain Of Strength interview calling them "Chain Gang". Apparently Gabe, the editor had some sort of bad dealing with Ryan from Chain regarding an ad, so he decided to pull some sort of fake tabloid style interview. Kinda stupid if you ask me, this sort of thing didn't seem to be necessary, but that's neither here nor there. Back to the zine... issue 6 started showing signs of some legitimately nice and interesting layouts. The Integrity interview specifically was pretty impressive for the time. Lots of cool Integ photos, nice use of various record artwork for backgrounds and the interview its self was pretty damn riveting for the time. For me, this was one of the first Integrity interviews that really started to push their legendary reputation. Again, aside from the interviews, tons of great photos. A few particularly impressive shots of early "Screaming For Change" era Uniform Choice, that I've never seen before or since. Issue 6, like issue 5, had the glossy card stock, 2 color cover and ended up being the last issue of Good & Plenty that I'd ever see.



When I think of Good & Plenty, of course the stand out element was all those incredible photos, but something else that I give it credit for is bridging the gap between the late 80's to early 90's hardcore scene. When most of the great fanzines of the late 80's had folded, Good & Plenty was a symbol of what was left. You had coverage of all those classic bands of the late 80's, but you also had coverage of all the newer surging bands entering the 1990's. On one page you might be introduced to Billingsgate or Quicksand and then the next you're seeing mind blowing Gorilla Biscuits and Youth Of Today photos. Most definitely a classic in its own right. -Tim DCXX

DCXX Post 200: Gus Pena - The Youth Of Today "No More" video filming

Beyond sing along at The Anthrax, the night of the "No More" filming. Notice Steve Reddy (Equal Vision Records) with the X'ed fist in the air. Photo: Boiling Point

Here's another re-print from Impact Fanzine issue two. Gus talked about all sorts of different stuff when I interviewed him, but here's some info about what lead up to the filming for the Youth Of Today 'No More' live footage at The Anthrax in June 1988. If you have ever seen that footage, you know it is awesome. Bodies flying everywhere, Steve Reddy stage diving in an SSD shirt, Tom Kennedy getting his nose smashed in by Porcell, even Vic DiCara is going off. So, that show being what it was, we figured that having a little more info about it can't hurt.

-Gordo DCXX

We did this mini-tour with GB/Beyond, and it led up to the first time that GB ever headlined The Anthrax with YOT, for the YOT No More filming. But, it wasn't really a YOT show, it was a big GB show and YOT just happened to be doing the "No More" filming too, and they only played "No More," maybe they played one other. Walter was furious because he didn't think that people would remember it as the first time GB headlined, but that they would remember it as the YOT video show.

So this is the day of the show, somehow we were eating ice cream somewhere and it came to a head with someone getting hit with a spoonful of ice cream. Then that turned into more ice cream, chocolate syrup, various food, and even dirt all getting thrown at everyone. This is before the show, and we were covered in all sorts of shit. We were like, "What the hell are we gonna do?" Here we had this show in a few hours, and we're sitting in New Haven covered in this shit.

So there's this girl that we had known from years back that lived in New Haven, and I said, "I know! Becky Tupper lives in New Haven!" Porcell says, "You're right! I know where she lives! Let's go!" So we go to her Mother's house and all of us were just covered in dirt and all this crap, only really wearing shorts. At that time I would just do stuff to make Arthur laugh, so I was just a complete nut, just like walking around barefoot the whole weekend and doing weird stuff. So Becky sees this, and she's just like, "Oh my God, ok, one at a time and Gus, you can't even come on the porch, just stay there."


Walter stage diving for Beyond, the night of the "No More" filming. Notice the striped shirt and shorts. Photo: Boiling Point

So we had to take showers and change and all this. So then we went to that show. So if you ever notice that video, Walter is wearing the weirdest outfit, he's wearing like pajamas, plaid shorts and a striped shirt, because all of his regular clothes got ruined. I think the other guys must have borrowed other shirts or actually gotten brand new t-shirts at the show. So getting there that day was the fun part.

The show and the No More fliming was interesting. I was a kid, so I would just time my stage dives perfectly. Like when that first bass line would open up I would do these floating, sprawled out stage dives. I remember I did that a couple of times and some of the timing was perfect, so Ray came to me between a couple of the takes and was like, "Do that again! Do that again!" It was basically like, "Hurl your body from the stage!" And that was not a hard thing to ask me to do. Ok sure, why not? It was just known that I was gonna go nuts.

Feedback Friday: BOLD

BOLD at City Gardens, Trenton NJ, Photo: Ken Salerno

This particular photo has always meant a lot to me. Back when Tony and I were doing Common Sense Fanzine, Ken Salerno used to hook us up with a constant flow of great photos (as Ken still does now with DCXX). A week or so following any big show, Tony could expect a nice package in his mailbox from Ken. After the BOLD, Gorilla Biscuits, Crucial Youth show at City Gardens (July 9th 1989), just like clockwork, Tony received a pile of BOLD and GB photos in the mail. The morning Tony got those photos, he immediately got on the phone and gave me a call. He told me there were some sick photos from the show and one of the best, which was of BOLD, even had me in it. Now being a 15 year old kid, super psyched on hardcore and loving the hell out of BOLD and Gorilla Biscuits, to see yourself in the crowd in a photo for one of those bands was comparable to getting a cameo in your favorite TV show. Imagine it's 1982 and you end up in a episode of The Dukes of Hazard... yeah, that's kinda what it felt like, at least for me at 15. So anyway, I hop on my skateboard, cruise over to Tony's and lay into these photos. Just as Tony said, they were amazing, mind blowing to put it bluntly. This particular photo of BOLD right off the bat knocked me on my ass. The way that Ken was able to capture the moment was, as cliche as it sounds, really special. Matt with both of his arms stretched out over the crowd, giving a larger than life sing along... just sick.

A few months later I get my monthly subscription copy of Thrasher Magazine in the mail. Paging through it I stumble upon what photo but this exact BOLD photo of Ken Salernos. Wow, my favorite magazine now has a photo of one of my favorite bands and I'm in the freakin' photo! Again, I was psyched and that moment seeing that photo in Thrasher is one I will never forget.

All these years later, I contributed a bunch of photos to BOLD and Revelation for the release of the discography. I remember showing Matt my copy of the Salerno shot that ended up in Thrasher and he obviously was pretty psyched on the photo himself. Once I heard the photo was going to end up on the cover of the discog, again I was excited to see it come to fruition.

So there you have it, another classic photo for Feedback Friday. Obviously this photo probably won't mean as much to a lot of others as it does to me, but with that being said, it's still a pretty heavy and defining photograph of a great band that was truly at the top of their game when this photo was taken. As Feedback Friday goes, let the comments roll. -Tim DCXX



As a bonus to posting this photo, I thought it might be fun and somewhat interesting to highlight and identify some of the people that made up the crowd for this classic photo. Some you may know, some you may not.

1. Jeremy, singer of Stand Up
2. Me (Tim), brace faced, Chicago Bulls hat wearing, both arms in the sky praising the mighty BOLD
3. Brian Schwinn, guitarist from Intensity
4. Travis Shirk, singer of Transmission / Conviction
5. Geoff Dagastino of TDT Screenprinting, climbing the crowd
6. Dan Hornecker, guitarist from Ressurection, Mouthpiece, Hands Tied
7. Jim Hogan, local Trenton kid and friends with Mouthpiece
8. Kelly Houston, local Trenton kid and friends with Mouthpiece
9. Kevin Craig, NJ tattoo artist, responsible for 3 of my 4 tattoos
10. Jay Laughlin, guitarist of Turning Point
11. Gentleman Jim, bass player of Crucial Youth / City Gardens bouncer
12. Darren Walters, Hi Impact Record / Jade Tree Records
13. Nick Greif, bass player of Turning Point

Chris Daily - Smorgasbord Cycles

You may be wondering, "Smorgasbord Cycles?" A little off-shoot of the record label and zine, Chris Daily gives us some info on the bicycle frame company he started in the mid nineties. We thought it was a cool little bit of info that probably few know about. The Schism Skateboards story is next week…

-Gordo DCXX

Somewhere in 1991 I stumbled onto mountain biking. A few friends got into it and as soon as I saw it and the stuff they were riding it brought back all sorts of memories from my youth riding and racing BMX. By this time I was working in design engineering and always loved designing, making, building, and fixing things. I was pretty mechanically inclined which was surprising because my Dad can't fix a damn thing.

Smorgasbord Cycles was initially done as a fake bike shop set up with a bike part distributor so I could scam parts to feed my habit at wholesale. I'd have to say this was about 1994. I went to the level of even photographing an existing bike shop and claiming it was mine because one distributor required that and a listing in the yellow pages, which I also did for a one month period until my account was set up. I met a local guy that built his own bike frame by hand, then I read a book or two on bike set up and fit and decided I could make a frame for my self just as easy.


An authentic full suspension Smorgasbord Cycle

I designed a hard tail mountain bike, ordered some tubing, machined all the parts myself and had a welder weld it all together. I rode the bike for a few weeks and a bunch of people kept asking me to build them one…so I designed a production frame jig, had it made and started making frames in my garage after going to a few tool auctions and buying a lathe, Bridgeport mill and a welder. By that point I had a full service machine shop set up in the garage behind my house.

Why Smorgasbord Cycles as a name? At the time I was still doing Smorgasbord Records, I thought it had a nice ring to it and that way I was at least able to keep up with the packages that were coming to my apartment with the name "Smorgasbord" on them. I started out with two other guys and they did not care about a name, I don't even think it was an option, I just set up the account in that name for the distributor, not even thinking about actually building bike frames at the time.

As for those guys, the first guy got shelled about 5 months into the venture, the second guy I ended up buying out after about 2 years working together. I tend to really be pushy once a ball gets rolling and move forward with 110% of effort. They had other ideas, so it just worked out best to go forward solo.


The Smorgasbord Cycles Crew, Chris in the middle with the black shirt

As I was going thru the process to actually start making bikes for other people I noticed an ad in a magazine called DIRT RAG for a bike company named SPOOKY Cycles and in the ad was the Minor Threat OUT OF STEP sheep. It blew my mind and I called the number and spoke with the owner. Turns out he was a hardcore kid from up in Carmel, NY who went to the Anthrax and high school with the UP FRONT guys. He helped me with all sorts of legal and bike fabricating info during that time in the process of incorporating and start-up.

Spooky was a lot bigger then Smorgasbord, they produced thousands of bikes. The owner is still one of my best friends. Their sales manager was a R.I. hardcore skinhead, used to go to a ton of shows back in the mid 80s. English Nick (YDL) actually raced downhill on TEAM Spooky as well.

I am bad with dates and time periods, but up until mid 1999 I made about 250 frames. Bike frames for all genres of cycling: MTB, Cyclo-Cross, Road, Downhill, BMX, Single Speed. It was not a huge money maker but I also did not lose money.


A page from the Smorgasbord Cycles catalog

I was getting a little disenchanted with the tough USA hand built bike market in 1999, since the big bike companies (TREK, Cannondale, etc.) can all produce really good bikes that don't cost much. I was small potatoes in the frame market and the one man show struggle was a tough aspect of my life at the time. It seemed more like a job than something I really enjoyed doing. In 1999 I was selling my house and losing my shop so it was a perfect time to step away and close down.

Shirt designs...I never thought about doing a mock up of the Smorgasbord SXE shirts, but when I went to visit Spooky Cycles in NY they had a shirt with the SMOR fist on it...and were selling a bunch of them! Guav from Syracuse drew the warrior flower logo for the Smorgasbord bike company.

Highlights:
Exhibited at the international InterBIKE industry trade show for 2 years
Sold bike frames all over the country and 3 in Europe
Expo'd at 10 national level race events
Sponsored a full race team with co-sponsors and trailer
Built test bikes for Major mass market Bike Company
Had clothing line that sold in Japan
Self-taught myself how to actually design and fabricate bike frames


Chris competing on his Smorgasbord Cycle

Evolution of The Stance

The faceless image to the right was the one that appeared in BP issue 1, alongside the BOLD interview.

Going all the way back to Boiling Point issue one, in the layout of the BOLD interview was an image of a faceless dude in a stance. For some reason or another, that image always clicked with me and right off the bat I thought it was a very cool and iconic type image. I wasn't sure if the image had anything to do with BOLD, or if the Boiling Point guys just saw it as fitting for that particular layout, but never the less, from that point forward I associated that image with BOLD.


The classic Side By Side 7" cover.

Fast forward down the line and the Side By Side - "You're Only Young Once" 7" is released on Revelation Records. On the cover of that 7" are three faceless figures, all in a stance. Again, I instantly loved that cover. So simple, so clean and so powerful. It said so much without even showing much. There was a clear urban hip hop feel to these three dudes in a stance, but still I hadn't made any connection. Honestly, thinking back, I'm not so sure I even made any connections to the image I had seen earlier in the layout of the BOLD interview in Boiling Point issue one.


LL Cool J - "Radio", where the stance began.

At some point in the mid 90's I'm on the phone with my friend Ed McKirdy who at that point was working in Southern California for New Age / Conversion Records. Some how or another Ed's brings up how Dennis Remsing (Conversion Records / Outspoken) had mentioned that the Side By Side guys on the cover of the 7" had actually come from a photograph of LL Cool J that was on his debut release, "Radio". How that had never come together for me earlier, I have no idea. Considering how big of a fan I was of both Side By Side and LL Cool J, especially that "Radio" record, it just shocked me that I had never noticed the blatant similarities.

Eventually I had pieced it together that Alex Brown (Schism, Side By Side, PX, GB), while going to art school in NYC, had probably came up with the idea to outline the photo of LL Cool J and tweak it into a hip hop influenced straight edge hardcore looking dude of the time. Without talking to Alex about it, I can't be exactly sure of all the details, but I think it's fairly obvious where the image originated from, how it was originally used and finally where it ended up.

We've been hoping to pull Alex Brown into the pages of Double Cross at some point, so hopefully if and when that happens, we'll get the bottom of this. For now, check out the images I've compiled. -Tim DCXX


A great flyer designed by Alex Brown, with more detail added to the ordinarily faceless figures.

The Straight Edge commercial

Better Than A Thousand at The Wetlands, NYC, Photo: Traci McMahon

If you type "Straight Edge" in on YouTube, one of the first things that pops up, and has for quite some time, is the cringe-worthy "Straight Edge Commercial." There are basically two versions of this, each featuring iconic and not-so-iconic SE figures reciting the lyrics to Minor Threat's classic tune as the song and other HC songs play in the background, while a pre-pubescent young edgeman gets very righteous with you. I'm sure you've seen it (and if not, well, it is below). It's like the preview for an after school special smashing into a trailer for an MTV reality show...fast paced and faux-dramatic, but leaves you realizing you can't get back the past minute of your life which you just wasted.

There are actually two versions of this classic commercial, one focuses on one young straight edge dude from New Jersey named Bob, who talks about why he is straight edge and his crew, etc. The other version features an equally young yet even more baby-faced straight edge kid standing hard in a white Wide Awake t-shirt. And that's me.

I'll preface this story by saying that if I knew back in 1997 when I was asked to appear in this that it would years later result in a running joke amongst my friends and probably most straight edge dudes in general, I probably would have given a UC-style "no thanks" and moved on. But at the time I had no idea, and well...it exists, it's odd, and I figured the back-story might be interesting. It also could have ended up much worse, but I figured I'd at least talk about how it even ended up. Here goes.

In April 1997, Better Than A Thousand, WarZone, Floorpunch (one of the best times I saw them), and In My Eyes (their first tri-state show) played the Wetlands in NYC. I had just turned 15, but looked like I was barely 12. I went to the show with Ryan Dougherty (yo!), and I remember sitting in his car as we came out of the Holland Tunnel and almost instantly seeing HC kids all over. We were there pretty early and a lot of people were just hanging out on the side street, so we did the same.


Floorpunch at Chatham Church, NJ, Photo: Traci McMahon

Matt Summers and Matt Smith saw me and said "Yo Gordo there are these dudes here filming some commercial on straight edge, they need a young kid who actually knows about it, we said you'd be perfect." At the time I guess I was seen as the "little" kid who had his head in the game more than any other little kids. Plus I was a psycho when it came to shirts and records and just straight edge hardcore in general. Anyways, I felt a bit like a poser since Porcell was standing like three feet away as this was all going down, but it sounded fun, and before I knew it there was a boom mic over my head and this little film crew was asking me about The Teen Idles.

The crew was from Washington Square Films and they were basically two grown up punk dudes (plus camera guys) in their late 30s (I think their names were Jeff and Mark) that had known about straight edge in the eighties. They seemed very grown up and professional, yet still somewhat "hip." They asked me a bunch of basic questions about straight edge and why I was straight edge, and explained that they were being hired by the Partnership For A Drug-Free America to do an annual campaign for the Partnership about young people saying no to drugs. Kinda like the egg in the frying pan/"this is your brain on drugs" concept, but actually effective. Since they knew about straight edge growing up, they thought this would be a cool angle. They definitely were in the loop enough for me to realize they wouldn't do some exploitational/sensational thing, and they even seemed to have a good time just hanging out at the show.

Anyways, after a bunch of questions and talking, they seemed happy with what they got from me, and asked me if I wanted to be in the actual commerical. They told me that there would be two different commercials - one with me, and one with another kid from New Jersey named Bob (whom I didn't know). They said that as the real young kids, we would be the focal point of our respective commercials while they mixed in live footage and other people talking, along with the lyrics to "Straight Edge." It sounded kinda cool.

They said they were a little dissapointed because this kid Bob didn't really have any records or fanzines or anything they could use in the commerical. Well, Summers was standing right there and said to them "this little fucker has a lot of records and zines, go to his house and film!" Looking back, Summers kinda served as my agent that day. Summers, if you are reading this: I owe you a cut of what I got. Anyways, they wanted to know if they could drive out to my house, I said yes, and they said they'd see me next week. After that, I went inside and got destroyed during Floorpunch.

The following week, Jeff and Mark showed up in a van with all sorts of equipment. My parents thought it sounded safe enough and let those guys load all their shit into the house. The plan was to kinda film me in "my element," which was a typical obsessive compulsive hardcore kid bedroom meticulously covered in all sorts of paraphernalia. They started getting some lighting set up but pretty quickly seemed bummed on the situation. That, and they probably felt a little creepy filming a young boy in his bedroom? Whatever it was, they basically said they didn't think they were gonna capture what they needed in the setting, and wanted to know if there was a record store we could go to to film. Locally, there wasn't anything good, but I told them that Double Decker (the first original location) in Allentown might be cool. They told me to bring a box of straight edge records, and off we went.

We got to Double Decker, and I'm sure that Jamie, the owner, thought it was the absolute cheesiest idea in the world, but he said it was ok with him (if you know Jamie you can imagine this - if you don't, think critical/snide HC kid turned record store owner). The original Double Decker location was cramped and dark. So we ended up shooting outside, and these outdoor shots are what appear in the commercial - mostly me walking and reading a copy of Hardware that was at Double Decker. It was getting dark, and they still realized they needed more indoor footage with records and stuff in the shots.


In My Eyes at Coney Island High, NYC, Photo: Traci McMahon

As we drove home they asked me if I could come into Hoboken the next week to a spot called Black Cat Records, which they described as a very cool atmosphere. Dan Horner (Over The Line guitarist) said he would drive me, and I'm pretty sure he thought he was gonna be in the commerical. I let him keep thinking that to confirm my ride, and told Jeff and Mark I'd see them then.

This whole time I remember not really telling any of my friends at school, because the whole thing sounded pretty fucking goofy the more I thought about it. Secretly I figured it could be awesome, but I knew there was potential for absolute weirdness. Regardless, that next Thursday, Horner was driving me to Black Cat at something like 7am with a big box of straight edge records, zines, and shirts in tow.

We were driving around trying to find the joint, and we start to drive down this street that is kinda blocked off with orange cones and caution tape and stuff. I look closer and see that a sidewalk is blocked off and there are people running around with equipment. I'm wondering what the hell is going on, and then I realize this is the film crew outside of Black Cat. They are here for me? What the hell? We park, and when we walk up there is a legitimate film crew, craft services, production assistants, make-up, the whole nine. I think they even had those movie set chairs. Whatever they were, I'm sitting there and people are walking to work while trying to catch a glimpse of my dumb ass sitting there in a Wide Awake shirt. They must have thought I was the next Corky Romano or something. It was surreal.

The record store ended up being a let down, it was mostly overpriced punk cds and cheesy licensed-type punk shirts, typical trendy city fare. It took a while to get set up, but what was cool was that I got to cover this one whole wall with my records. I remember covering up Johnny Thunders, Ramones, and Generation X cds with SSD, Minor Threat, and Youth Of Today LPs...it was like, "yeah, that stuff is cool, but not today!" I recall being embarrased as a cute girl put make-up on me, meanwhile I think Horner still expected a lead role, and they basically told him to stand in the back and read something (you can actually see him - an indecipherable figure - standing behind me in the commercial). I think he was pretty bummed.

For hours on end Jeff and Mark asked me a lot of the same questions we had been through before, except we did it over and over and over. Due to the fact that I wasn't and still am not some grandiose and high falutin' straight edge type, I think a lot of my answers were kinda low-key for what they wanted. It also got to the point where they started to basically tell me, "say this," and a lot of what they wanted me to say was kinda cheesy and "canned." Of course, it seemed like these were the parts that made it into the commercial. I'd love to see the outtakes, I'm sure at one point I say, "I'm straight edge because you know, I can't be smokin' and boozin' and still truly love JUDGE."

At one point they took us to lunch and we saw Tim Singer walking around looking really angry, that was kinda cool. Finally after asking me the same questions 600 times they got what they needed, filmed me and my records, and told me they'd call me with news. Never once did the camera even go near Horner and I think he was even annoyed they didn't give him more gas money.


Porcell with Shelter at The Stone Pony, NJ, Photo: Traci McMahon

A couple weeks later Jeff called me and said I was welcome to come into NYC, as they would be filming Ray, Porcell, Dave Stein, Ken Olden, and a bunch of other people who are in the commercial. I forget why, but I couldn't go. I also remember thinking that if they didn't need me, I would feel a little silly walking in and just sitting around like some little wanna-be child actor or something. My heart also sank a little as I had no idea how what I said came out, and the idea that some of these people were supporting roles to my lead seemed really odd.

I did see Ray and Porcell a few months later though and they seemed to think the whole thing was pretty cool and said they were psyched to see the finished product, so that was reassuring. The other funny thing was that very soon after we filmed my part, I heard that the other kid Bob stopped being straight edge like a week after they filmed him. I don't even know if he stayed in hardcore or what.

About a year went by, and all I ever heard from Jeff is that there were some approval issues from the Partnership. Long story short, it turns out that the Partnership For A Drug Free America is basically created and funded by big business including Phillip Morris, Anhesier-Busch, etc. They saw the commerical and said, "Cool, the idea of this little nerd not doing crack, PCP, ecstacy, mushrooms, marijuana...we like. But just cut out the part saying he doesn't drink or smoke cigarettes." Well, Jeff and Mark weren't having that. They told the Partnership that it was no drug, no drinking, no cigs, and they wouldn't change it. The Partnership said they would need some time to decide. I was pretty shocked it could go down like this, but it was cool to see these dudes had taken a stand.

About another year went by, and out of the blue Jeff calls me to let me know that ultimately the Partnership said to edit it or they wouldn't show it. Mark and Jeff said "fuck you" and kept the tapes. He said this was a major move because the Partnership was going to air the shit out of this commerical as its campaign centerpiece, and there was even talk of a Superbowl slot (I found this hard to believe and still do, but that's what he said). Nonetheless, he said they jerked him and Mark around and ultimately he and Mark were happy with what they created and would not change it. He said he would send me a finished copy of all versions.

A couple weeks later I got the video in the mail, and made sure nobody was around when I watched it. I had no idea what I was about to see. Over two years had passed, and I definitely didn't look like I did when I was 15. My initial feeling watching it is pretty much what it is now: semi-embarrasing but kinda funny and somewhat well executed. The fact that they zoom straight into my retina in the first two seconds is a tad unsettling, but at least they don't totally butcher me.

I thought Bob's version was kinda goofy, but I'm not sure mine was/is any better. Slowly the video got out, my friends had fucking heart attacks from laughter, friends that didn't know anything about straight edge had even bigger heart attacks. It was and still is a good laugh if nothing else. A few years back when I was in law school, friends showed friends who showed friends and it was a pretty good on-going giggle.

Most people today wouldn't even recognize that it is me, and I typically don't point it out. But if you were wondering who the hell is telling you about pure living at an extreme close up angle...well now you know. - Gordo DCXX

Facing The Music with: Ajay ENUF

Ajay ENUF brings us more memories about one of New Jersey's hardest. Face the music...

-DCXX

We travelled all over to see hardcore bands play. We regularly went to CB's, The Pyramid, The Anthrax, City Gardens, Pizazz, Wally's Place, Oliver J's, all over. How could I forget L'amour's! That huge club that used to be on 13th between Lafayette and 3rd avenue, all of those places rocked the house, I can't even begin to go through the plethora of shows that I saw at all of those places. A high point for me was when we opened for Sick Of It All and Raw Deal at Wally's. That was a great but daunting task.

CB's though was the place where I would go almost every Sunday for the shows. I saw Warzone, Agnostic Front (somehow ended up in their video too), Sick Of It All, Raw Deal, Absolution, Underdog, Token Entry, Gorilla Biscuits, Rest In Pieces, Outburst, Breakdown, Murphy's Law, The Icemen, Youth Of Today, Collapse, Quicksand, Krakdown, Straight Ahead, Slapshot, Side By Side, Maximum Penalty and of course the Cro-Mags. So many other bands too, I don't even remember. That was from 1987-1992.

My favorite shows though by far, were Cro-Mags, Sick Of It All, Raw Deal, Absolution and Breakdown. Those shows were out of control, the energy was insane. I remember that I passed out at a show, I think it was the Cro-Mags at CB's. There were like 8 million people inside, it was hot as hell and I was dancing like a fool, then all of a sudden, I wake up next door at the other place that CB's was trying to make into like a cafe or something. That was a dope day!

The crew I used to chill with was deep. All kinds of people, like skaters, hip hop kids, martial arts kids, drug dealers, krishna conscious people, rudeboys, everything. Guys like Sequoiah, Gilles, Olu, Krishna Kenny, Black Brian, Fern, Bill Spector, Hugh Gran, Chris and Darren Emilio, John Hawkeye, Gavin Van Vlack, Djinji Brown, Rich Taglierri, Jeff, Pete Sanchez, Steve Morovsky, Fred Blitsky, Chip Iaturo, Dale Jiminez, Ari Katz, Mikey Frat, Dan Cav, Steve Mean, Gary Ludwig, Andy White, Rick Perna, Eric Miller, Paulie Pietsch, 2 Hips, Jay Hall, Mark Suarez, Eli Gessner, Rodney Smith, Bruno Musso...too many people to remember. The ones that I am still in touch with now are Gavin, Hugh, Bill, Andy, Paulie and of course Dan.

So how did Enuf start?

Well I put a flier out in 1987 saying that I wanted to start a straight edge band. Andy white was the first to answer. We later picked up Dale, Ari and a guy named Rich Seymour. We had our first real rehearsal, after a couple of times in Andy's basement, at the recording studio above Cheap Thrills Records in New Brunswick. We ended up letting Rich Seymour go, because he ended up just not being a good match for the group. We picked up Pete Sanchez on bass and Chip Iaturo on second guitar. That was short lived as Pete left the band because he couldn't shake the thirst for alcohol. Andy played bass for a little while and Chip played guitar.

We played for a while and then I think around 1989 we just started to grow apart a little. Ari went on tour with Up Front, I was disenchanted with being the front man and wanted to do other things, a lot of stuff just started happening. I moved to Newark. I had moved out of my Dad's house and I was trying to get some semblance of an act together. I still went to shows, but not as often. I started working as a bike messenger, that was it.

The best show that we played by far was Scott Hall at Rutgers University in 1988. We played with Life's Blood, Vision and Bold. The place was just insane. I honestly have to say though, because I was out in the crowd for all of the other bands, that the crowd was bananas when we went on. We ripped it and you could just feel the energy. I was so amped and we just were out for blood that night. We killed everybody! Arrrggghhhh! Don't get mad anybody, it's the truth!

The music we were making was evolving, the songs and the band started to come into their own. Our live shows were a whirlwind of energy, we were unstoppable. We tried to make that come out in our recordings. People always say that they loved our band. I'm glad we were able to touch people. The music started to get harder, especially Andy's guitar riffs, I started to get "my own voice," not some facsimile of another band's lead singer. We started touring, having more productive practices, we could have been the original "killswitch!" Hahaha!

It's too bad things went the way they did, maybe it just wasn't meant to be. We had a great time while it lasted and I wouldn't trade that time period for anything.


Ajay being restrained by Charles from Rorschach, Photo: Ken Salerno