Here is some more Western Mass hardcore for you. As stated in the Outpatients post before this, I mentioned I saw these guys in a basement with G-Man. Wishful thinking blew me away live. Total straight edge youth crew, but a bit more harsh sounding then say youth of today, etc. I'd say Wishful thinking were influenced by lots of straight edge(duh...Minor threat for sure), but mixed in the speed and rawness of other bands from their area(Deep Wound, Siege, Outpatients, etc). After I'd seen them, and got the 7" I tried to turn on the Albany folks I started to meet in the scene. Albany was sorta weird though. A very Straight edge, New York hardcore mentality existed here. If it wasn't from NY, it wasn't of interest to about 80% of the scene. Dudes in Albany who wanted to book, SNFU, Victims Family, Operation Ivy, and bands that weren't "hard" or "straight" had to book Judge, Token Entry, Super Touch, Sick Of It All, YOT, Breakdown, GB, etc. to get kids to come out to shows. It was weird.
Years after seeing these guys, and getting the 7" from my Western Mass connection, I'd met, and become friends with the singer of Wishful thinking. Mark Dargie, one of the nicest guys ever. I think I met him selling his record collection at a show. He's still around, and semi hip to whats going on. Download this...nine ragers on this 7" ep slab.
Sample:
Download ep http://www.mediafire.com/?31mmwoocdd7m06c
I was turned onto these guys by a kid i'd met at Worlds Records in Albany NY maybe around 1989. I'd just moved back to the area from SF, and really hadn't met to many Albany punk/hc people yet. The guy I met wasn't from Albany, he was from Pittsfield Massachusetts(45 mins away). Back then when one saw another person in say a 7 Seconds shirt on or something, you'd approach them and make some conversation(seems like that sorta thing doesn't really happen anymore). At any rate this dude and myself exchanged info, and I ended up going to a couple of shows in Western MA with him. One was in a basement, with a band called Wishful Thinking, and G-Man. This guy introduced me to some of his friends, and a few months later sent me a copy of the outpatients demo, and a Wishful Thinking 7".
I'm pretty sure I still have the demo, but haven't unearthed it yet(or seen it in over a decade). This CD compiles the bands early stuff, including the demo. I love this stuff..raw silly sounding thrashed out punk hardcore.
1. Useless
2. Shot Dead
3. Long In The Tooth
4. Another Empty Nothing
5. What You Deserve
6. Pull The Trigger
7. No Point
8. Watch You Die A Sick Death
9. Hacked To Pieces
10.Falling Apart
11.Faster To Nowhere
12.Last Breath
13.Days Are Numbered
14.Beginning Of The End
This post is Dedicated to Mark Sheehan Who sang for Out Cold. RIP.
Mark passed away this weekend at the young age of 41. He left behind a immense & great history of music. Out Cold played brutally fast thrash/hardcore that through the years never really changed nor "progressed" in the shitty way that a lot of our favorite bands do. Think AC/DC, Slayer and Motorhead to get my point. They pretty much always stayed true to the path, and kept putting out great records that didn't leave their fans going huh??? Out Cold were the same way in that regard. Always thrashing on at one speed ahead.
Out Cold Formed in 1989 out of a Suburban MA. town that was about 30 miles from Boston. I hadn't heard them until maybe around 1994? Once I did, I wrote to them(sending a DOF tape)asking to do a split 7" with my band Devoid Of Faith. I got letter back from them saying that they couldn't because they had so many other things going on.
There really weren't to many bands doing what they were doing then. That time period was pretty stale for fast music. I never got to see Out Cold. Every time I did try or travel, they would cancel. After a while I sorta gave up. My thoughts go out to the people who knew him and were close to him. RIP buddy.
This is another record that I put out early in the Y2K. The record never had a title, but reviewers, etc started calling it Congested because that was the first song on the 7", and this was the bands 2nd ep that was self titled. Last In Line were from Western Massachusetts, and had a pretty big following locally. I quickly became friends with Mikey, and then DJ. A bunch of Albany punk kids had problems with these guys politics, and called them "questionable". I say now what I said then... Whatever. The bands prior releases are much better in my opinion, sounding a lot more raw, and pissed. This is my least fav of all LIL stuff, but it is still cool as hell, and proud to have been a part of it all.
The first time I saw these guys was in a Abandoned Garage/car service station in Massachusetts. They opened for Nine Shocks Terror(who were from Ohio). I went with my Pal Mark Telfian and maybe Devon Cahill? The 75 kids packed in this garage went completely bonkers, just acting like maniacs, throwing whatever was not nailed down. I was stupid enough to bring 4 boxes of 7"s, a crate of LPs and a box of CDs as I was doing my distro back then. Suddenly a full gallon of sugary, blue, gross, sticky bug juice got tossed in the air by a kid with no brain. It landed everywhere in the garage including on all my records. There were like 10 kids trying to dry off my records as the band proceeded to play, and kids were dancing like crazy. For a decade after that you could still find some blue on certain records in my distro. Enjoy...
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