I have been traveling back down this road for sometime...
I'd say it goes back nearly four years now.
I can't say for sure what started the ball rolling, regardless the facts are this.
At forty one I am back, to living a fully plant based, straight edge lifestyle.
The facts are this... I come from a family with addicts and alcoholics on either side. I've witnessed this first hand from my own mothers lifelong struggle with food addiction. Watching a loved one slowly die each day by the choices they make is difficult. My own struggles with severe anxiety and depression should have sent me down the path of addiction. Somehow, I was able to avoid the pitfalls of youth and took shelter in music and skateboarding. Sure, I had plenty of opportunities to head towards the things I chose to avoid.
For whatever the reason, I just found strength in not staying away from those things. The music scene would give me a group of like minded folks and community to be part of. My teenage years and into my early twenties were particularly rough. Having the support of that scene was sometimes the only sense of family i felt. I have since come to find a spot in my own family, even if I still feel like an outsider most of the time.
What does any of this have to do with bike racing or cycling? Nothing... I guess.
Other than committing to something and seeing it thorough to the end. I spent countless hours over the last few months researching new recipes and reading lots about training and plant based diets.
It really has taken me back to a place in time.
those years in the mid 90's when I flew the VEGAN Straight Edge flag.
It has been part of a walk down the same path and part new beginning.
The experience has been incredibly positive thus far, I hope to keep the PMA as the years move on.
So with all that rambling out of the way...
Monday, July 6, 2015
EPISODE 4 : ‘The R in the Star’
NEWS & BANDS IN THE STUDIO:
Agnostic Front‘s Roger Miret and Vinnie Stigma will be the subject of a an upcoming official full-length documentary titled ‘The Godfathers Of Hardcore‘. A crowdfunding campaign for the feature is currently running via Kickstarter. Ian McFarland is spearheading the doc with production having already begun. McFarland said of the campaign:“Unlike a large number of Kickstarter projects, our production team has already begun filming the movie and have shot a good amount of footage. We need this Kickstarter to help us with getting our film team over to Europe to travel with Agnostic Front at the end of May.” A fall 2016 release date is planned for the feature.
Modern Life Is War will celebrate the tenth anniversary of their sophomore album “Witness” with a new reissue on June 02nd. Deathwish Inc. will be handling the release, which features a new remastering job done by Brad Boatright. New packaging and liner notes have also been assembled. The group will be overseas shortly and follow up those dates with a US run at which they will play “Witness” in its entirety:
Mutoid Man have debuted a new song of theirs titled “Sweet Ivy“. It will appear on “Bleeder“, their new album out June 30th on Sargent House.
Burn‘s May 17th reunion show at the ‘Black N’ Blue Bowl‘ at Webster Hall in New York City, NY will see the group joined by some familiar faces. Joining frontman Chaka Malik (Orange 9mm) and Gavin Van Vlack in the outfit are former bassist Manny Carrero (now of Glassjaw) and current Glassjaw drummer Durjah Lang
Live rehearsals for Poison The Well‘s live return this year have begun and the band have shared the below photo from their first practice since announcing their plans. Look for dates and tour info to be released soon.
Bitter End are offering a stream of “Sting Of Betrayal” from their new album “Illusions Of Dominance“, which itself is out June 30th on Deathwish Inc.
The daily lineups for the 2015 ‘This Is Hardcore Fest‘ have been revealed the Festival dates are July 23-26 in Philadelphia, PA. Some of the bands on this years awesome line-up include: Snapcase, Chokehold , Code Orange, Misfits (“Earth A.D.” in full), Cro-Mags, American Nightmare, Bane, Killing Time, Code Orange, Exploited, H2O (20th anniversary show)Negative Approach
A remastered reissue of Cave In‘s “Creative Eclipses” EP was just released via Hydra Head Records. Available on colored vinyl, it will also feature 3 bonus tracks:
Funeral For A Friend have scheduled a June 15th release date in their native UK for the release of their new live DVD, “Hours – Live At Islington Academy“. As the title reveals, the effort will focus on a full-album performance of the bands 2005 effort, “Hours“. That set took place at the Islington Academy in London, UK back on April 25th, 2014. End Hits Records will be handling the release with CD/DVD,
Agnostic Front have released a music video for their song “A Wise Man“. Matt Henderson
(ex-Madball, etc.) guests on the track. The bands new album “The American Dream Died” is available now.
A new Baroness album is only a few weeks away from being finished according to guitarist Pete Adams. Speaking recently with Noisey, Adams said of the progress: “We’re actually in the studio right now. We are probably three weeks into getting this new record near its completion. And it’s going really well.”When asked of the direction of it, he offered: “Well, I will say this: Not to give too much away, but this record, it’s a rocker. We definitely did a lot of experimenting with “Yellow and Green“, and a lot of ideas that we wanted to just get out. We were on a writing streak that year, so we just absolutely were cranking out songs. We have a new rhythm section now, and it’s the first time we’ve written with the new rhythm section. So we had a little bit of a hump to get over. And once we did everyone was super excited. It’s a rockin’, uptempo record. I’m excited about it. We’re all pretty stoked.”
Noisey have had Judge‘s own Mike Ferraro tell the tale of the influential hardcore band. Through a four episode series titled “There Will Be Quiet – The Story of Judge”
High On Fire have announced a June 23rd release date for their new album “Luminiferous” via eOne Music. The band recorded the effort at GodCity Studios with Converge guitarist Kurt Ballou taking on the production duties.
Ex-Gallows frontman Frank Carter will have the debut release “Rotten” from his latest outfit Frank Carter And The Rattlesnakes in stores on May 04th in his native UK.
A third song from Coliseum‘s new album “Anxiety’s Kiss” has been made available online. The track “Course Correction” went up over at Stereogum today and can also be found below. “Anxiety’s Kiss” will see a May 05th release date on Deathwish Inc.
Baptists have released a demo recording of a song they had originally written for their album 2013 album “Bushcraft“. The song is titled “The Opposite Of Loneliness” and the group said of it: “This is a song that we demoed for Bushcraft, but never ended up recording. In my opinion, it doesn’t even sound like a Baptists song” http://youtu.be/ACjoLhYxkuA
Wisdom In Chains have a new album “The God Rhythm“, due out June 30th on Fast Break! Records.
Faith No More‘s North American touring plans have been bolsted by a new leg of summer dates which will include support from none other than Refused.
Darkest Hour will be bringing their 20th anniversary tour overseas in June with a number of full album performances of their “Undoing Ruin” album. June 12 - June 21
Poison The Well have announced a club show and are due to play the Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn, NY on May 15th with Code Orange. The show will apparently mark their much anticipated live return and serve as a warm-up for their appearance at the 2015 ‘Skate And Surf Festival‘, which takes place May 16th-17th at the Asbury Park Oceanfront in Asbury Park, NJ.
Segment 2: RECORD REVIEWS
Violent Reaction - Marching On
Released 4/23/15
Second full length album for the band (first with a full band)
Originally conceived and executed as a one-man project by Tom Pimlott on the banks of the Mersey River in Liverpool, England, Violent Reaction recorded a demo in 2011, an EP in 2012 and an LP for Painkiller Records in 2013. Soon after, Tom relocated to Leeds to assemble a full band with an end result that finds the lads playing straight edge, hardcore punk with an obvious oi influence. With a lengthy American tour with their brother band The Flex under their belt, Violent Reaction is set to make their Revelation Records debut with "Marching On."
Drowningman - Rock And Roll Killing Machine
Released ?/?/00
First full length for the band
Drowningman was a hardcore punk band from Burlington, Vermont, which was active from 1995 to 2005. Formed in the fall of 1995 by Simon Brody, Denny Donovan, Javin Leonard, Dave Barnett and Todd Tomlinson, the band was heavily influenced by a variety of bands including Deadguy, Unbroken, Shotmaker, Unwound, Sunny Day Real Estate and Promise Ring. This musical amalgamation helped to pioneer the modern metalcore and mathcore musical subgenres. The band was known for revolving membership and frequent record label changes.
Production of the Rock And Roll Killing Machine record began in Washington, D.C. at the Salad Days Studio. A great deal of technical difficulty was encountered; Simon Brody had claimed in interviews the stressed work environment caused the tempo of many of the songs to rush and that record lost some of the previous efforts melodic counterpoint. Still, it was well received, earning a 10/10 in respected extreme music magazine Terrorizer and finding its way into many publications' top ten lists for 2001.
JUDGE - Bringin’ It Down
Released ?/?/89
First full length studio album for the band
The band received lots of criticism due to their militant Straight Edge lyrics, especially from fanzines like San Francisco's Maximum Rock'N'Roll. The militant lyrics were a conscious move on the band's part, as they were sick of seeing bands like Youth Of Today, who in reality had a very positive message, get slagged for being too militant. So they decided to give the nay-sayers exactly what they wanted – the most militant Straight Edge band imaginable. Mike Ferraro has later on admitted that provocation was an important aim for the band. Judge was not just heavy in message, the music had very metal-influenced riffing, but remained close to its hardcore roots, without going all out metal, such as bands like Agnostic Front.
With a new line-up of Sammy Siegler on drums and Matt Pincus on bass, the band proceeded to record their full-length LP Bringin' It Down for Revelation Records at Chung King Studios in New York City. The recording was finished, but the band were so unhappy with the result that they decided to scrap it, after thousands of dollars had been spent on it. Since there had been substantial pre-orders of Bringin' It Down the label printed 110 copies of the rejected recording under its alternate title, Chung King Can Suck It (LP). It was given to people who had pre-ordered the record, and with only 110 copies pressed (all on white vinyl), it is one of the most sought-after hardcore records in existence, going for as much as $3,350.00+ USD on online auction sites such as eBay. Bringin’ It Down was re-record it at Normandy Sound in Rhode Island, where The Cro-Mags had recorded their Best Wishes album.
the majority of the DC hardcore bands were made up of middle/upper class private school educated children of diplomats and other members of the Washington establishment at the time. Many grew up in the Georgetown and Northwest areas of DC, where they developed a sense of social justice by witnessing its injustices first hand - they were rich kids living in a privileged world, a social elite.
Some of the many legendary DC bands:
Minor Threat, Teen Idols, S.O.A., FUGAZI, Bad Brains, Dag Nasty, Swiz, Iron Cross, VOID, The Faith, Youth Brigade, Government Issue, Scream, Marginal Man, Gray matter, EMBRACE, Soul Side, rites Of Spring, Ignition, Worlds Collide, Damnation A.D., Battery, Ashes, Gauge,
Segment 3: Essential DC Hardcore Records from Our collections:
DAG NASTY - Can I Say
Original release 1986 Dischord Records
Re-Released in 2002 on CD - CD contains bonus material
Dag Nasty was a Washington D.C. melodic hardcore band formed in 1985
by guitarist Brian Baker of Minor Threat. Their style of less aggressive, melodic
hardcore was influential to emocore, as well as post-hardcore
Bad Brains is an American hardcore punk band formed in Washington DC in 1977. They are widely regarded as among the pioneers of hardcore punk. Bad Brains developed a fast and intense punk rock sound which came to be labeled "hardcore", and was often played faster and more emphatically than the music of many of their peers. The unique factor of the band's music was the fact that they played more complex rhythms than other hardcore punk bands, also adapting non-punk style guitar riffs and solos into their songs.
The second full-length album by hardcore punk pioneers Bad Brains, released in 1983.
A previous album, Bad Brains, was released in 1982 but only on cassette, therefore
making Rock for Light Bad Brains' first proper album.
Out of Step is the sole studio album by American hardcore punk band Minor Threat. It was released on 45 RPM vinyl in April 1983 through Dischord Records. After a temporary break-up in 1982, Minor Threat entered Inner Ear Studios in January 1983 to record Out of Step. Recording duties were handled by Don Zientara. While the lyrics on their early EPs were an outlet for MacKaye's message, the lyrics on Out of Step deal mainly with friendships and problems associated with them.
As I recently talked about I had yet another knee surgery in December. Thankfully everything has been going great in recovery and rehab. i am building strength in my quads on the bad leg side and have been cleared to resume light training. The downside... It's going to put my seasons start a little behind, I'm hoping it will only put me about 4-5 weeks off the schedule. making my return to racing in late April rather than March. All things considered it doesn't really matter a whole heck of a lot. It's not like my living is made doing this or I have sponsorship obligations. That is one of the upsides of being a DIY type of team. No obligations to anyone except yourself... That can have it's downside though, no obligation makes it easy to blow off race after race if you can make a solid argument against it. I was actually hoping to do the full series this year. In the grand scheme of things making my comeback from injury properly is the bigger priority. I will still get time for plenty of racing, it still kind of makes me a little bummed. Oh well what can ya do? I guess it's part of being an aging non-professional skateboarder and punk rocker. all those things you did to your body as a kid has it's way of catching up to you over the years.
While not a "Classic" Revelation Records band, Sensefield still has Hardcore pedigree. Jonathon Bunch had fronted Reason to Believe prior to Sensefield. The Post-Hardcore sound they produced was pretty refreshing at the time. On of my favorite Sensefield shows was the tour the did with Mineral and Jimmy Eat World. This was way before JEW made it the mainstream radio, I think they were all of 18 at the time. It was a pretty heavy hitting bill in those early 90's. Sensefield will always remind me of the glory day of "Emo" did I just say that? Man I must be getting old.
Hello, to those tens of people that read this blog. k.rider and I have started a podcast that can be found on Mountain Bike Radio. Thanks to Ben we bring to you the Out Of Step podcast. The Out Of Step podcast will feature our two biggest passions. Mountain Biking and music. The details of our first episode can be found in our post below.
If you like what you hear let us know in the comments section. If there is something that you want to hear let us know too. Please support us and all of the podcasts at Mountain Bike Radio. Where else are you going to get real mountain bike content from real people?
Available everywhere on Century Media Records
http://www.sickofitall.com
http://www.centurymedia.com/
Cult Leader ~ Nothing For Us Here
Available everywhere on Deathwish Records
https://www.facebook.com/CultLeaderMusic
http://deathwishinc.com/
Lamb Of God ~ http://www.lamb-of-god.com/
REFUSED ~ http://officialrefused.com/
Agnostic Front ~ http://www.agnosticfront.com/
Will Haven ~ https://www.facebook.com/willhavenband
Mutoid man ~ http://mutoidman.com/
Cult Leader ~ https://www.facebook.com/CultLeaderMusic
Bands on the road:
for more updates and more info visit the bands websites listed below
Converge ~ http://www.convergecult.com/
Ultraman ~ https://www.facebook.com/UltramanSTL
Machine Head ~ http://www.machinehead1.com/
Rhett Miller ~ http://www.rhettmiller.com/
