Hardcore Singers

Todd - 7-8-2005 at 12:25 PM

Let me state right upfront that I'm not up on the current crop of good hardcore bands (suggestions welcome), but this is an observation on the difference between the so-so old days and today.

When I first started listening to hardcore there was no internet, no digital technology, and individual music scenes were pretty isolated from each other. You could trade tapes or order 7 inches but things moved very slowly. I used to think that the slow pace sucked but looking back on it I think it preserved some of the characteristics that made each band and scene unique to it's part of the world.

Ian MacKaye didn't sound like Springa, who didn't sound like John Brannon who didn't sound like Bob Mould, yet every one of those bands fit under the hardcore umbrella. One of the things I loved about hardcore was being able to envision the environment that each band came from. When I listened to The Amebix I was transported to cold and rainy squats in the UK, when I listened to The Adolescents I was taken to the West Coast. The great bands were able to infuse their surroundings into their sound, and I just don't hear that anymore.

Now maybe I'm just not listening to the right bands or maybe I'm bitter and cynical and living in the past but I'm just curious to see what other peoples thought are on this. No need to fight or act like idiots, we can do that in other posts. Thanks, Todd.

Thats Life - 7-8-2005 at 12:34 PM

I'm probably too young to comment on this BUUUUTT....

there are too many hardcore bands these days. Granted some scenes have distinct sounds i.e.-NYC, CT but only select bands can stick to that sound without it becoming monotonous.

I feel like hardcore used to have a lot more hometown pride which would inspire kids to not try to sound like other bands and to do their own thing.

newbreedbrian - 7-8-2005 at 01:30 PM

i agree completely todd. those bands were not great because they played hardcore, they were great bands. you could tell them apart. almost every hardcore band i hear now sounds like a million shitty other bands trying to do the exact same thing

Discipline - 7-8-2005 at 01:56 PM

Gotta agree with Todd. Too many sound-a-likes these days. I was actually gonna ask a question in a new thread but I'll do it here instead. Who do you guys think is the best frontman ever in punk/hardcore? I don't mean just vocals, but the whole package. On stage banter, entertaining, etc.

I'm thinking Jimmy Gestapo. Great singer, got some cool lyrics, really funny and entertaining and makes every show a great one. It would be pretty hard to not have fun at a Murphy's Law show. Either Jimmy or Paul Bearer. No explanation needed for that one.

Todd - 7-8-2005 at 02:07 PM

Paul Bearer or H.R. get my vote. Also Kurt from Buzzoven.

clevohardcore - 7-8-2005 at 02:22 PM

I agree with Todd. I will be 29 in september and got into hardcore when I was pretty young around 88 while skating and hanging out with older punkrockers/ skaters. Listening to GBH, DRI, The ACCUSED, BAD BRAINS, CROMAGS and SOIA. Just to name a few. You knew WEST COAST hardcore from EAST COAST. You knew you were listening to a punk band from Europe or a skaterock band from Cali. I miss things like that. And most of those bands played shows and towns with each other. I miss waiting 2 weeks for a cassette or a colored 7" from a band on the left coast. I miss seeing someone you never met from out of town and and realising you have something in common and you show them around. Now it's about REP and seperation and ego's from one to another. I miss seeing someone with a CRO MAGS shirt and saying "whats up" No it's about "Dude that shirt is a repress" or Dude that shirt is an original. He must have bought it on ebay or he's oldschool" EVERY MOTHER FUCKING IS JUDGING THESE DAYS!!!!!!!!!!!

What happened to Hardcore being hardcore? Anyway. Good thread.

clevohardcore - 7-8-2005 at 02:23 PM

Back to the singer thing.....

LESS SCREAM and more ROCK is my thing these days.

Jason the Magnificent - 7-8-2005 at 04:08 PM

It's because hardcore is now the equivalent of high school. Its all about cliques and not about individuality. Its he said she said and I'm tougher than you bullshit. It's a watered down dilluted subculture that has absolutely no hope of EVER being what it once was. If you think it does you're either
A. Fooling yourself
B. Oblivious to the fact that you're doing the exact same thing as everyone else in your specific sub-Genre under the guys of being differen't or underground.

The minute you could buy punk rock at the mall it no longer is punk rock. That does apply to hot topic hardcore kids it applies to everyone. Hardcore is now about fashion (and I'm not talking "fashion-core" because if you think your jersey and dickies or sxe shirt and cammies aren't fashion also, you're pretty damn delusional) and slick advertising and popularity. It's a packaged product from the new hype B9 band to the crusty band....wether its colored vinyl or a xerox covered demo tape you can't polish a turd. It is what it is.

Everything now is about following a formula.

Are there still some great bands playing great music? Sure there are. Theres a TON of new bands I like to listen to, I don't know anything else but hardcore and punk rock and metal and I don't fucking want to. But there isn't a single new band I can think of that holds a candle to any of the old bands and that?s sad because those bands weren't re-writing any books they were taking a page and running the story in their own direction wherever that may have led them. Bottom line is You're lucky as hell in life to find anything at all you can relate to so latch onto it while you can and enjoy the ride.

JawnDiablo - 7-8-2005 at 07:08 PM

Magnificent Jason just said it the best.....thanks

forsaken - 7-8-2005 at 07:32 PM

Growing up as a 15 year old rodent in Australia I didn't give a fuck about which coast a band was from, which members used to be in which bands, which labels etc etc ... I didn't have the internet back then so I had to save my money to buy massivly overpriced repressed, bootlegged, ripped shit from dudes dodgey distros at shows becuase I had no other way of getting stuff. .... I had no clue ... it didnt matter who they were and where they were from or which bands they were copying ... if i was lucky enough to get their music into my tape/cd player then i didn't give a crap, it all ruled. and i think thats the point. how individual can a hardcore band be without being cast out of the inner sanctum of hardcore as an emo band or a metal band? should we just go, 'wow they're good .. i'll listen to that.'

Also, I think kids get stuff too easily now, they can either download it or mommy and daddy will buy it from the mall for them so they then take everything forgranted and can just jump from one bangwagon to another ... it doesn't matter to them ... they think hardcore in expendable.

Anyways I'm off on a tangent, read that all and see if it makes any sense ... it's probably not even relevant to this thread.

Todd - 7-8-2005 at 08:48 PM

I t was way relevant. It's too easy, no longer dangerous, no longer special when any retard jock can go out and 'mosh' every weekend.

Ben-G - 7-9-2005 at 02:45 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Jason the Magnificent[/]

Hardcore is now about fashion (and I'm not talking "fashion-core" because if you think your jersey and dickies or sxe shirt and cammies aren't fashion also, you're pretty damn delusional) and slick advertising and popularity. It's a packaged product from the new hype B9 band to the crusty band....wether its colored vinyl or a xerox covered demo tape you can't polish a turd. It is what it is.

this man speaks the truth

JawnDiablo - 7-9-2005 at 03:39 PM

outside of a few select bands these days, some new some old, i could really give 2 shits about all of the politics of hardcore and whatnot. to be quite honest, ive kinda always been on the outside looking in as far as what is "cool" or in fashion...it was about the music, and after the music lost me, it was all flushed....

Todd - 7-9-2005 at 03:53 PM

Hey Juan, I like how you say 'after the music lost me' because i feel the same way. Sure, I got older and a little bit more bitter but the music became a parody of itself. I still get promo cd's all the time from labels and if i didn't look at the covers there's no way i would be able to tell that they were different bands. Sad.

JawnDiablo - 7-9-2005 at 05:39 PM

yeah, i know what yer sayin with the promos. hell 80% of the bands on bridge 9 sound the same
in 1990 there was no problem telling sheer terror, sick of it all, agnostic front, killing time, slap shot and who ever else apart from each other...it all shared the fundamental element of the genra but all had their own sound to it.
shit that one hatebreed cd i got for xmas a few years back ...all of the songs on it sounded the same...what was it..perseverence...

godabandonedme - 7-9-2005 at 08:09 PM

I think it's no longer personal. You know, like these were "our" bands. Even if most people didn't know each other at a show, it was our thing. It was special because the music/musicans were talking to US. But now, it's everybodys and nothing is personal. Anyone can pick up a cd that you and me so closely related to that we identified with every word said. They can just listen an like the beat for the beat and not the real meaning and not what truly makes hardcore special. I'm blabbering. Everyones a soldier. When I went to the agnostic front show in philly, the line looked like a bunch of soldiers ready to go to war. Same uniform on everyone. Oh well, thats why I still listen to like the same 8 bands and cd's for the last 10 years.

Anyway, as for vocals, always liked Lou Sick of it All Kohler.

Discipline - 7-10-2005 at 12:16 AM

Hardcore isn't about the music anymore, it's about impressing everybody with your clothes and how "hard" you are. Also, it's whoever does the best spin kicks and backflips and cartwheels in the pit. I feel old when I go to shows these days which I think is good, only because I'm old enough to remember when hardcore was the way it used to be. It's also why I don't go to all that many shows anymore.

JawnDiablo - 7-10-2005 at 09:36 AM

I feel old when I go to shows these days which I think is good, only because I'm old enough to remember when hardcore was the way it used to be. It's also why I don't go to all that many shows anymore. ....
couldn't have put it any better my self

soulless - 7-10-2005 at 09:45 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Discipline
Gotta agree with Todd. Too many sound-a-likes these days. I was actually gonna ask a question in a new thread but I'll do it here instead. Who do you guys think is the best frontman ever in punk/hardcore? I don't mean just vocals, but the whole package. On stage banter, entertaining, etc.

I'm thinking Jimmy Gestapo. Great singer, got some cool lyrics, really funny and entertaining and makes every show a great one. It would be pretty hard to not have fun at a Murphy's Law show. Either Jimmy or Paul Bearer. No explanation needed for that one.

definetly jimmy g. the first time i saw murphy's law, i hated the band and was only there to see one of the local opening bands. the local opening bands were lame, and murphy's law were one of the best live bands i've ever seen.

Ungodly - 7-11-2005 at 11:18 AM

Right on with pretty much everything said. I would add that in high school the 80s, punk for me was the anti-clique, and so much more. It taught me how to be myself rather than compromise that to please and be accepted by other people. Now I think high school kids come up with punks and HC kids as just 2 more cliques, with the Animal-Farm-esque development of the same attendant clique behaviors- elitism, social ladders, conformity rather than creativity, etc.

I have noticed that not only owning status symbols like first/test presses and old shirts are so important, but so is using knowlege for one upmanship. I mean, I respect people who know more than I do, but it's not the point and it gets used the same terrible way as record collecting does. And older people who geniunely do know alot don't tend to throw it around or use it to put people down, whereas younger kids who owe it largely to Google do. Plus, having lived in days not long ago at all (i.e., before the current crop of 21-year olds had any clue) when everything in the world wasn't reissued, if you found ANYTHING by certain bands, you were just psyched and you didn't give it a thought.

And also, yes, I used to be able to hear geography in bands. ESPECIALLY California- you can hear the clean sunshine and the simmering angst underneath, just like being there, in all the old bands, but just a few new ones. When Oi Polloi got a gutair player from California, I could hear it before I knew.

BL - 7-11-2005 at 02:17 PM

FUCK IT MAN, IM WORKING ON MY OWN MARTIAL ARTS HERE... HARDCORE KARATE, IM GOING TO HAVE FLYERS FOR IT AT HOT TOPIC... DONT TRY TO BITE ME EITHER I HAVE THAT SHIT COPYRIGHTED... HAHAHAHA

CHEERS
BL

BL - 7-11-2005 at 02:20 PM

ONE OF THE BEST HARDCORE SINGERS... MEAN STEVE CONFRONT YEARS, STILL IS AND ALWAYS WAS ONE OF MY FAVS.

CHEERS
BL

jason kills - 7-11-2005 at 05:43 PM

hardcore has become a joke. simple enough. i remmeber when i got involved, if you ran into someone with a soia shirt or an af shirt, you could sit and talk for hours and hang out and start a band and it would rule.

now, all teh gay politics and blah blah blah ruin it. fuck, madball is coming through and i don't even want to go. by far my favorite band, but b/c of teh people there, i don't even want to step foot into the club. 18 year old hardasses that get an allowance from their parents. kid trhat can live at home, float from job to job and tour b/c they have no responsibilities.

what i'm saying is that it's alot easier to be a "hardcore kid" than it used to be. for the first 3 years i went to shows, i didn't get in the pit. and when i did, i got the shit kicked out of me. i had to earn my place. now, you walk into any mall store or stumble on some online distro, and you can wear all the "hard" shirts.

fuck, i hate fashion kids, but i think i hate normal hardcore kids more. at least those faggy little fucks are nice people that just go out to have a good time and could give a fuck about being tough.

fuck everything.

moron - 7-11-2005 at 05:50 PM

Madball shows are nothing but fun in NYC. Mostly older people show up. Fewer 16-18 year olds from what I can tell.