Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Search - s/t 7"

Here's a damn cool 7" from the early '90s Salt Lake City hardcore scene. Released on Flatline Records in 1991, this self-titled 7" is the only release of Search I'm aware of apart from demo's. It has 2 awesome songs on it and an instrumental track that they should have worked on some more to turn it into a real song, it definitely had enough potential for it. It seems the SLC scene at the time was quite happening, other bands such as Brainstorm (whose 7" I will post someday soon), Iceburn and Reality were also great. Ofcourse SLC also produced some amazing bands later on in the '90s such as Lifeless and Triphammer. Anyways, back to this 7". As I said, awesome stuff. I love this kind of hardcore which is so typically '90s, this band reminds me of Trial By Jury, another band I love and who were also around at that time, tho in another part of the US. Definitely an underrated band, so check it out.

Bassplayer Cache Tolman went on to Iceburn, Rival Schools and a bunch more bands. Drummer Andy Patterson is now a record producer and also plays in Iota. No idea what the rest of the members did afterwards. I would love to hear more Search material, so if anybody can hook me up with demo's or whatever, by all means do!

Search - s/t 7"

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Scream And Be Heard compilation CD

This compilation CD was released in 1997 on Double Down Records out of PA, USA, which makes sense considering the full title of the compilation is 'Scream And Be Heard. Volume 1: Eastern Pennsylvania'. The bands on this compilation are Chine, Dysphoria, XIII PFP, PP&G, Blue Collar Underworld, Chamber and Surrounded. While not all bands on here do it for me, Dysphoria can do no wrong of course (the 3 songs on here also appear on their 'Hope Without Reason' album tho) and Surrounded & Chamber are great as well. The other bands mix styles such as rap, ska, funk, hardcore and metal, with & without the use of trumpets and saxophone, and with varying degrees of success. Gotta love the 90s, both the good and the bad parts of it I suppose... Either way, interesting compilation to re-visit, tho I could definitely stomach bands such as Chine & XIII PFP (somewhat) better back then than I can nowadays... I have their split 7" (also on Double Down Records) to prove it, heh... Anyways, would love to hear more stuff by Chamber, if anybody has some info on them or more of their material, lemme know or leave a comment! I don't know if the label did any follow-up comps dealing with other parts/scenes in PA at the time, would love to get my hands on them if they did.

Scream And Be Heard compilation CD

Saturday, May 7, 2011

Neck

Neck was a band from NYC/Long Island which was formed in 1995. They played a metal/hardcore hybrid somewhat similar to a more straight-forward Candiria, although they didn't really have the jazz & hiphop influences that Candiria did. Either way, Neck had the talent to pull it off, but somehow never really got the recognition they deserved, including by yours truly. I knew Neck from a compilation my old band Disdain was on that also had Neck on it and their tracks didn't do much for me at the time, so I dismissed them. Fast forward to a few years ago where I checked out some more Neck tunes and it totally hit me. This band was awesome. After that moment I managed to get my hands on their first 2 albums which I ripped and uploaded here.

Their self-titled debut album was released in 1998 on Striving For Togetherness Records. In 1999 their second album, 'Should My Fist Eye', was released, this time on Cho'Sin Records. The final track on this album, 'Cinder', was recorded & performed by Drillpress, a band that drummer Larry Hundertmark was in before joining Neck, and they had never managed to release these recordings before. The full discography of Neck includes a 1996 demo, a 7" released in 1997 on Bittersweet Records, a self-released EP called 'Crawl Away' from 1999 and another album called 'Smart Bomb And The Swarm', which was self-released on their own label Lifeless Records in 2005. All of these seem pretty hard to find, so I don't have any of those unfortunately, sorry, but if anybody's willing to part with their copies, hit me up! They also appeared on a bunch of compilations, including the 'Fear No Evil' compilation, on Last Word Records, with among others my own band, Disdain, the 'Over The Edge vol. 3' compilation which I posted here and the 'Disintegrated - A Cure Tribute' compilation on Too Damn Hype. Neck's drummer now goes by the name Razor Tongue as the singer of Nassau Chainsaw, while other members went on to bands such as Car Bomb and Paiste Junkies.

Update: as Mark commented on this post, he has some Neck merch pics. Personally I hadn't seen any Neck merch (possibly because I live in Europe, hah), so my interest was piqued. And for those who are also interested:


Update June 2020: A guy called Hunter Krueger started a blog on Car Bomb which also includes information, photos and downloads of Neck! Awesome stuff, so do check it out if you want: Secrets Within aka Car Bomb Museum.

Neck - self-titled CD
Neck - Should My Fist Eye CD
Neck myspace