‘The Best of Rev’
“Our first mini zine in an new ongoing series features our favorite 6 releases from the first 24 put out by the label. Includes little anecdotes and write up of each release.
Perfect zine for an envelope and stamp shipment! Perfect for keeping in your wallet! Perfect for any hardcore lover!”
It was originally released in Chiller Than Most fanzine, issue 4. Artworks by Andrew Monserrate.
STAND PROUD Live – WNYU:
http://www28.zippyshare.com/v/92pqCaCm/file.html
CTM – What are your memories of this classic radio program?
Andrew Monserrate – I started listening to Crucial Chaos, WNYU 89.1 in the mid 80’s every Thursday night. It’s what really turned me on to “ALL” Hardcore Punk. I mean, usually in the Lower East side scene people listened to the same “IN” stuff “Murphy’s Law, AF, Cro Mags, … Bad Brains and all the local skin head bands.
Listening to Spermicides mixes really shaped my taste for all underground music… I still have cassettes from the mixes of the stuff she played, then the live bands that played afterward. Her mixes included all Hardcore music from all over the country and world, she would mix a Poland band, with the Ramones song, then a rare GBH song, with a local band that put out one basement demo and then broke up, then a Warzone song, A Circle Jerks song, Gang Green song, then another foreign German song etc etc etc… it was incredible. Each cassette (Thursday show) took on a life of it’s own, like a greatest hits album, every song fit perfect and were great because of the songs that came before & after them. I had four or five friends I made copies for and we would listen to them over and over again, even giving each cassette a name. What made every show of hers great and it came out on the cassettes were her announcements of upcoming shows and news about bands… I can still her voice.
CTM – Stand Proud live on WNYU:
Andrew Monserrate – Stand Proud was a band from Woodside NY. We meet in 86-87. I’ve played guitar in a few Hardcore bands in the mid 80’s but always as a sit in Guitarist. I was introduced to this younger band, Stand Proud from my friends in Warzone. They had some great songs, and I was allowed to write a bunch of songs, so it was really cool shit. We played CBGBs twice and a few other shows and were building a little following. But I’ll never forget… Tommy the Singer for SP, called me and said we had a gig to play Crucial like 6 days away… I Freaked a bit, mainly because I didn’t think we were tight enough as a band… we rehearsed everyday leading up to that show. But I remember that day like it was yesterday… I was actually working as a construction worker and asked the boss if I could leave early because… I was playing live on the radio… We showed up to the building there on Broadway, with our equipment and it took a few elevator rides to get our gear up there. It was very surreal for me, and I must say, I was very nervous, because we had to sit there for the entire first half hour of the show of her playing her mix… Then it was time for us to get ready to go on… Spermicide came on the air made a bunch of announcements.. but there was a problem… there were about 30 of our fans in the studio, and about 50 more in the lobby trying to get up… she announced on the air to the fans to stop trying to come up and the guards were told not to let anymore people up… so this little studio was packed with fans sitting all around the amps and floors… it was crazy… Spermicide said in all her years she never saw anything like that. So anyways.. we start our set and play way to fast, to our standards, because of nerves… but we got through most of it pretty tight, until I broke a string… and of course I don’t have a back up, so I had to play with a missing g-string for the last few songs… but over all it was a great time… to actually play on the station, I loved so much, it was so surreal.
This interview was originally published in Learn To Listen fanzine, issue 1. Please click images to view full size.
RJ pic by moshaholic.
Pics by Robin Graubard, KT Tobin, Peter LeVasseur, Ray’s Candy Store.
If there wasn’t a show, every hardcore/punk/skinhead kid would hang out at the park on Avenue A at Tompkins Square Park or drink egg creams at Ray’s Candy Store. Surprisingly, there are no eggs or cream in this fountain drink favourite. It’s actually made with chocolate syrup, milk, and club soda. The key to the perfect egg cream is the ratio of syrup to milk. Ray’s Candy Store is a deli located at 113 Avenue A. Ray Alvarez has operated Ray’s Candy Store since 1974, he truly loves serving his customers and making them happy with delicious food as he has done for over 40 years. This tiny little place sells everything except candy. You will find hot dogs, ice cream, sugar-coated beignets, chicken fingers, fries, milk shakes, fried bananas and fried oreos. (Yes, fried oreos!) Hand written signs are everywhere, photos, newspapers cover the walls, colorful and cluttered.
Ray was born on January 1 (his birth name was Asghar Ghahraman), 1933 in Iran and moved to New York in 1964, where he worked for another decade as a dishwasher in New York until he purchased the candy store for 30.000 in 1974. In his first hours in Manhattan, after acquiring a coat, he stumbled upon a YMCA that offered room and board for homeless people. When he worked as a waiter at New Jersey’s Short Hills Country Club, he made good with the manager, who took Alvarez with him to many other well-paying jobs. On the notorious night of August 6, 1988, while the police battled protesters in what came to be known as the Tompkins Square Park Riot, Ray’s Candy Store remained open, per Ray, “because all the combatants were my customers.” The police and East Village residents clashed after Parks began enforcing the park’s closing hours, in effect barring homeless from camping in the park.
– Tompkins Square Park is the place where I ate my first fried oreo, and it was amazing.
– Tompkins Square Park is the place where Agnostic Front, the Beastie Boys, Death Before Dishonor, Antidote, Murphy’s Law, the Psychos, the Abused, Cause For Alarm, the Undead, Heart Attack and a few other bands were always hanging out between shows in the early 80s. The dangerous East Village of the early 80s bore little resemblance to today’s tourist zone, it was the center of the lower New York drug scene. Tompkins Square Park served as home turf to vicious Puerto Rican street gangs. There were so many drugs, there were rapes in the park and the cops didn’t want to deal with it. There were some really tough guys there, and there were fights all the time.
– Tompkins Square Park is the place where Alex Kinon (Agnostic Front, Skinhead Youth, Cause For Alarm) was shot, and Vinnie Stigma responded by rushing toward the gunfire, armed with only an improvised shield in the form of a garbage-can lid.
– Tompkins Square Park is the place where Breakdown, Supertouch, Reagen Youth, Absolution played their legendary sets on the old bandshell six days after the riot.
– Tompkins Square Park is the place where Irate (Tommy Carroll – Straight Ahead), Sergio Vega- Collapse/Quicksand, Jerry Williams – 171A, Eric “EK” Komst – Warzone) played this post-riot show in 1988 and they killed it. Irate only played two shows and never had the chance to properly develop their songs.
– Tompkins Square Park is the place where Hare Krishnas started a food program and did a music festival called “Rock Against Maya” in 1982. Cause For Alarm, Murphy’s Law, Frontline, Antidote, The Mob, Kraut, Reagan Youth, Mode of Ignorance were on the bill.
– The park underwent a large renovation in the 1990s and the bandshell was removed, so I didn’t get a chance to take a photo about the infamous stage.
– Tompkins Square Park is the place where Black N’ Blue Productions in association with The New York Hardcore Chronicles did the Dr. Know benefit show in 2016 and organized the Raybeez tribute gig in 2017.
– Tompkins Square Park is across the street, a little ways down from the Pyramid club. At one of the Pyramid gigs Raybeez wanted to take some photos with all the kids at the show in Tompkins Square Park so there were maybe 40 or 50 kids crossing Avenue A to the park, blocking traffic and the cops showed up and told them to go back into the club.
(This article was originally released in Chiller Than Most fanzine, issue 5.)
Jeremy Stith (Fury) interview was originally published in Chiller Than Most fanzine, issue 3 (2014). Pictures by Sophia Juliette, Farrah Skeiky, Spencer Chamberlain, Angela Owens, Dan Rawe.
Chiller Than Most – Let’s start with how Fury came together? What was the inspiration for the band, who is in it, and what are the goals? What was your motivation to start this band?
Jeremy – FURY is Madison Woodward and Alfredo Gutierrez on lead and rhythm guitar, Jerrod Stith slappin that bass, and Big Al Samayoa on drums. We started out of the blue last year when Madison had sent me some song ideas for our other band Pocketknife. He had a few days off work, so he was just writing stuff on his guitar, and for fun was just writing these Battery/late Turning Point-esque riffs. He was fuckin on one and just wrote a handful songs that day and threw out the idea of maybe we should start a band with em and that I should sing. The thought of being a frontman never crossed my mind so I laughed it off and thought nothing would come of it. Big Al had just moved in with Madison and liked the riffs he wrote and my brother Jerrod was learning bass so Madi had a band, and shortly after I was somehow hoodwinked into fronting the band, I can’t exactly remember how but here I am. Our goal is to rock. Our motivation is from these mofos playing in bands who are undeservedly eating all the pie and to show people how real rockers do things.
Chiller Than Most – You guys split your time between lots of bands. Are there ever any problems because people are doing too many other things or giving their creativity to other bands?
Jeremy – There aren’t many problems at all with all of our different bands because everyone in all the bands are friends and hang out on a regular basis. It’s pretty encouraging actually, we all try to make steps forward and push each other. We all share lockout spaces for practice and we take our bands seriously but not ourselves and that goes a long way as well. There aren’t overbearing egos and stuff like that, and we are all just hang and sometimes in the middle of everything, we play music. We are all fans of each others bands too. I met a lot of my good friends in our little scene over here from going to see their bands or vice versa, as a fan. Everyone out here works a lot so there isn’t as much time as we’d like for bands, but we all make it work somehow, some way.
Chiller Than Most – Fury. The name of the band seems to a have definite message, also present in the song of the same name. What does this name mean to you and how is it applied to your own life?
Jeremy – “Fury” fits the music, it’s is simple and to the point. The greeks coined it as a spirit of punishment and greek goddesses would unleash tortured stings of conscience to the weak or guilty. I like looking at it that way. I don’t agree with a lot of how the “hardcore scene” is ran nowadays and Fury to me is a my pent up anger and annoyance to those people gumming up the works for the actual genuine people that are around. We have gotten a lot of gruff for the name but none of those nasayers have taken time to even comment on the songs, which I doubt they even have even listened to. Haters will hate until they need you and can gain something, and to those people I say step off and kick rocks.
Chiller Than Most – Could you explain the lyrics of the song called “Play (BAB)”?
Jeremy – Play (BAB) is just about where my head was at when we started the band. California is filled with people doing exactly what they’re told so they can keep up with the status quo and if you step out of line, you are punished or looked down upon. Everyone is shitting their pants in fear of tomorrow and think that their bank accounts and retirement plans are real and will make them happy when deep down, they just want to be free. I just want to be with my friends and play, just like we did when we were kids at recess or stuff like that, and that’s what FURY is to me, play.
Chiller Than Most – Some folks think that “West Coast bands don’t have good mosh parts…”. What are ya doin’ at the Moshers Delight Records? I am just kidding. Your demo was released on tape format at MDR. Are you satisfied with the results and how have been the reactions so far?
Jeremy – People need to get their thick skulls out of their asses thats for sure. We love Moshers Delight and were all fans of those bands before we even started. We are more than satisfied with how it all came out. I look up to Zizzack and John and the whole DC/Newton House/East Coast crew, so I felt immense validation and joy when they dug our stuff. The reactions have been overwhelming. They’ve allowed us to be heard to a much wider audience than ever imagined, and we couldn’t be more grateful for the opportunity. We wanted to come out of left field and I think we’ve done well so far in that goal.
Chiller Than Most – I heard that you are going to release a live set tape at Fineprint Records. What are your future plans? What’s up next for Fury, as far as tours, shows, records.
Jeremy – We released a cassette tape with our friends at Fineprint Records (Placentia, CA) from a set we played in Fresno with Title Fight back in April. We got asked to play that show out of nowhere and we packed our van with 12 of our friends and just did the damn thing. The sound guy recorded our set for us on the soundboard and there are still have some copies left on their website, along with other fine records and tapes from some of California’s best kept secrets. As far as future stuff goes for us, we just got done recording a 5-song 7″ for BBB Records that should be out by November. We will be going on a 6 week tour with our friends Soul Search around that same time, and Forced Order, Skinfather, and Violent Situation will be playing scattered dates as well. It’s our own little California Takeover.
Chiller Than Most – Tell me something about the Munoz Gym. It seems interesting in videos. What does it feel like to play in a boxing ring?
Jeremy – Munoz Gym is in central California in a town called Bakersfield, and it is a training gym for boxing during the day, and at night it’s a punk venue. It is my favorite venue ever. A group of us went and saw Milk Music and Iceage play there awhile ago and we’ve been hooked on that spot ever since. Bakersfield also has the best record store called Going Underground Records, and they got a good thing going out there. It is surreal to play in a boxing ring. I played soccer most of my life and the only other sport I fully respected was boxing, and would have loved to have boxed growing up but my skin wasn’t thick enough I guess. One of my favorite films is this one called The Set Up and I felt like Stoker Thompson at that first show, I was in way over my head but I kept going and fighting. We used a line from that flick as the intro to the demo as well, so it all came around full circle in the end.
Chiller Than Most – The Beyond demo has always been a Top 5 NYHC demo to me and “No Longer At Ease” is one of my favourite LPs. Every time when we are on a long trip in the car with my good friend, we listen to this unique record. Good to see that you covered them. How did the idea come to play the song called “Vitality”? What is your fave Beyond release and why? I feel like Beyond is a somewhat underrated band. Why do you think that is?
Jeremy – Beyond is definitely in that group of bands that we all really admire. They are a huge influence and inspiration to us. Vitality is just a perfect song, its original and short and to the point. Is there a better drummer than Alan Cage? I listen to No Longer At Ease the most so thats probably my favorite. Had they released something on Rev or did a big tour, then they would probably be up in the upper-eschalon of nyhc bands from that era. Had they not fizzled out though, then we wouldnt have a lot of great bands like Burn or Quicksand, so it is what it is. We all get to enjoy and listen to Effort/Ancient Head whenever we please, so we are all in debt to those guys for their fine work at the end of the day.
Chiller Than Most – Let’s say I gave you a hardcore time machine. It’s the end of the 80’s and you are about to take a road trip to the Anthrax club in Connecticut. Who are joining you on the ride and who are playing the show?
Jeremy – My car only has 4 seats so it would be filled with my brother, my friends Berti and Cole, and Scud (RIP). The lineup would be more NY than CT too with Bad Brains, Insight (on tour), Supertouch, Ramones, and Talking Heads and it would have THE VIBE baby.
Chiller Than Most – A lot of people that are involved in reunited bands no longer participate in hardcore on a spectator level anymore. I think it’s funny that people celebrate their own (rightfully) legendary recordings from the 80’s for years meanwhile they have no connection to the scene at all anymore. What do you think about this? Would you say it’s important for hardcore kids to do more than just be audience members?
Jeremy – I’m pretty indifferent about reunions because like life, things aren’t so simple and black & white. Sure people bag on YOT, supertouch, breakdown or even Judge now with how they are just doing the circuits and making their rounds, but we’ll never know all the details behind all that stuff. They might taking advantage of an opportunity for a nice & easy paycheck, but they also might be taking advantage of an opportunity to play songs that mean(t) a lot to them with people who mean(t) a lot to them for an audience whose lives were all changed by those songs. They are just like us working dumb jobs day to day, but for 20 minutes they get rock with their old friends, so fuck anyone who thinks they deserve to shit on their parade. I don’t get where people’s entitlement comes from nowadays, but if you think Mike Judge owes you something than you need to think about your silly life. Maybe those keyboard jockeys should get off their leather asses and write something comparable to New York Crew or The Earth Is Flat first before they run their mouths. Ive seen some reunions that blow and Ive seen some that inspired me more than any contemporary band could have done (Medicine, Quicksand, Sugar, COS, etc come to mind). As far as kids being audience members rather than more active members of the scene, Im also pretty indifferent. You get what you put in, but it’s all time and place and I can see how you need some luck to make a good scene. Sometimes you live in the lower east side in 87 or you live in Pigsknuckle, Arkansas in 1997, its just the luck of the draw.
Chiller Than Most – Let’s talk about California hardcore. Please choose a frontman from California who left an impression on you. Why did you choose him?
Jeremy – The person who left the biggest impression on me in the past few years is Justin from New Brigade. He is straight up and no bullshit. Ive had many friends in bands inspire me but Justin was a guy I looked up to from afar at first for awhile before I even talked to him. When he has a mic, there is no one around who can touch him, and he’s no different away from the mic. If it wasn’t for him, I wouldnt have the balls to be a frontman. I can see peoples flaws when they play, but with him, its impossible. He is style and he is hardcore. I seen him mosh hard as a mofo in a bar to Creatures and also stand up front n center just vibing to Fugue, there’s just no one around like him.
Chiller Than Most – If you could release a california hardcore compilation with six bands, which bands would be on it? What would you have named this compilation?
Jeremy – My California flavored comp would feature Discrepancy, Strike Fast, Enough Said, Disapproval, Forced Order, and a one off reunion song from What Life Is. The comp would be called The Dance Of Days. I would beg Mike Hartsfield to release it on New Age, and then when I get denied, I would then beg Fineprint Records to put it out.
Chiller Than Most – Many people in the hardcore scene consider the Ash Return demo and the Scarred For Life record to be Ignite’s best work. What do you think about that? I think a lot of hardcore kids love to hate a band as soon as they get any hype. What do you think about Ignite?
Jeremy – I havent listened to Ignite since I saw them play at one of the first hardcore shows I ever went to (Comeback Kid, Killing The Dream, First Blood, and Ignite at chain reaction) and I don’t have an opinion on them to be honest. But Ignition, now thats a fuckin band.
Chiller Than Most – Pushed Aside was a pretty straight forward, pissed-off hardcore from Southern California. MDR describes your band super pissed-off. What kind of themes do you write about? Do you feel there is a similarity between Fury and Pushed Aside?
Jeremy – I just write what I’m feeling. Some songs are about people who push you in a corner, some songs are about how you can see right through someones shit and they should get off their high horse and come back down to reality, some songs are about my fight with myself and trying to figure out who I am by questioning how or why I do what I do. The new record has a particular theme as well. It’s all fallen empires and how its time for the old guard to step aside and let the real rockers take over. As far as Pushed Aside, I can see the similarity to our two bands, we are from the same area and deal(t) with the same conservative up-tight cultures.
Chiller Than Most – Who is the most underrated band in California’s hardcore history?
Jeremy – Most underrated band in California hardcore for me is Against The Wall. I am learning more and more all the time now about hardcore in Orange County and they stick out the most to me. I’m sure by the time this gets out that people will have heard about this next band, but DISCREPANCY from out here is some sick ass shit for those folks into ochc. Most people who are in my position would say I’m a hardcore novice but those guys in that from that band know their shit better than anyone and it is just another encouraging band to have around. The 2nd most underrated California hardcore band is What Life Is (RIP).
Chiller Than Most – Do you like the Solitude “I hear silence” demo?
Jeremy – I had never heard it until you asked so I checked it out. My first impression was Davey Havok definitely stole some crooner screams from this demo. Mike Hartsfield is in it and that is a comforting and unsurprising name to see on any Southern California band’s release. I found out they recorded this in Riverside, so shouts to Baker’s and Scott Aukerman.
Chiller Than Most – Have you heard about the upcoming movie called “Fury”? It will be an American action-drama war film about World War II directed and written by David Ayer. A battle-hardened army sergeant named Wardaddy (Brad Pitt) commands a Sherman tank called “Fury” and its five-man crew on a deadly mission behind enemy lines. What are your favourite World War 2 movies?
Jeremy – We heard about Fury shortly after we named the band, and I have to say it’s a better movie to share a name with compared to our friends Placentia, Enough Said. Basterds was last good WWII flick I have seen. Can’t go wrong with Saving Private Ryan. Das Boot is the best one I ever saw.
Chiller Than Most – Thanks for your time dude, I really appreciate it. Last words?
Jeremy – Keep Rockin In The Free World.
Stop And Think interview was originally published in Quick To Judge fanzine, issue 2. Please click images to view full size.
FS interview was originally published in Edgegazer fanzine, issue 1. Picture by future-breed. Please click images to view full size.
DJ Spermicide (Marlene Goldman) interview was originally released in Chiller Than Most fanzine, issue 4. (You can read the first part of the interview here: Part I.)
CTM – Please tell me a bit about the early history of Crucial Chaos. When did you join the station? How did you start your radio program? How was the first broadcast? Who was the first guest/band in the studio?
DJ Spermicide – I was a journalism major and went up to the newspaper to see about joining. It looked dreadfully boring and across the hall was the radio station, which looked a lot more fun, so I decided to pursue that instead. When I joined the radio station there was nothing in the way of a punk or hardcore show. I joined the radio station as a volunteer in 1985. To get a time slot back then you had to start on the AM station, which was only broadcast to the NYU dorms. You had to make tapes of yourself as air checks for the program director to review. I wanted to host the New Afternoon Show, but it was faster to get on FM if you had a specialty show. I proposed Crucial Chaos and since there was a void at the station, I was given the Thursday night time slot for the show. My first broadcast was hectic and nerve wracking, but it was a lot of fun. Murphy’s Law came up to the show and brought pizza and beer and their then new album release, which we had played on the New Afternoon Show, as well. Green vinyl, I remember, so it was hard to see where to cue up the songs.
CTM – Why did you choose this name for the radio program?
DJ Spermicide – Back then the word Chaos was being used a lot by bands as was the word Crucial. I thought the two words together would perfectly describe the idea of the show—crucial to a music scene that didn’t have a radio voice in NYC at the time and chaos because I knew playing one-minute or shorter songs would be just that.
CTM – Freddy Alva told me that your sidekick on air was Johnny Stiff, an old school Punk Rock dude who’d been around since the beginning and booked some legendary shows. He was famous for being cranky to people calling in to the show. Please tell me about him!
DJ Spermicide – Stiff! He was just as you are describing, a cranky old-school punk rock guy who had booked shows and drove vans for bands and had tons of contacts in the scene. When I first started Chaos I went down to the CBs hardcore matinee every Sunday with promotional flyers about who was going to be on the air the next week and when the show was, etc… Stiff had heard about the show and asked if I needed any help answering phones, putting away records and all that. I really did need tons of help on those fronts and once he started getting involved he was key in getting a lot of the bands to come up for interviews and live sets. He was also good at helping keep order in the studio when there were a dozen kids or whatever cramming in the tiny space.
CTM – As far as I know it was an important concept that you had a kind of anti-mainstream, outsider mentality, the “if you’ve heard it somewhere else, you won’t hear it here” stance that keeps noncommercial stations around. What was your approach to putting together a setlist, a radio show? How did you choose the bands that are playing?
DJ Spermicide – I really wanted it to be a mix of old-school punk, which I still love, and the new hardcore music, not just New York, but of course helping local bands as much as possible. I used to get to the studio early and pull out which records I wanted to play, along with some local cassettes. Those were always a challenge since the quality was often pretty poor. I would go to Venus Records day of my show and Some Records on a regular basis and try to find what was brand new, plus Stiff would sometimes come up with new releases to play. But I really wanted to keep that generational component, mixing 70s and 80s punk in with the hardcore music. I tried to vary the bands played so it wasn’t the same show every week. We also took a lot of requests from listeners. Phones were always ringing off the hook.
CTM – I read somewhere that the main DJ area was pretty typical looking for a college radio station, and a large window separated that from the small room where the bands played. How should we imagine the wall of the studio? Posters, tags, stickers, graffiti on the wall?
DJ Spermicide – The studio was used for all the shows, so there were stickers and posters, but not just punk and hardcore. No graffiti on the walls since it was on university property. The radio station office had file cabinets covered in stickers. Both the studio and room for live bands were pretty small. I had to put people’s names on a sign-in list with the security guard downstairs. There were always extra guests that needed to be signed in. Fortunately the guard was really nice and sometimes asleep.
CTM – What was your unique calling card – whether that’s a catchphrase, intro, or style?
DJ Spermicide – Hmmmm. I suppose just the name I used on the show, Spermicide, with all variations of nicknames. I don’t know that I had a style except trying to keep order amidst the chaos.
CTM – Some Records was one of the catalyst for the hardcore movement too. This record store (operated by Duane) was a great place to hang out, it was a great meeting place for hardcore bands and folks, fanzine editors and people that would help launch that second wave of New York hardcore. Duane was like a big brother to every hardcore kid who stepped into his store, kids heard every record before it came out. If I am not mistaken Some Records was one of the sponsors of Crucial Chaos for a while. Could you talk about this, and would you mind sharing some memories about Some Records?
DJ Spermicide – Some Records was one of the sponsors. There was always a small scene down at the store though I didn’t hang out there as much as some of the kids. I got a lot of 7-inch records there from smaller, local bands for the show.
CTM – It was really interesting that Outburst put the word out that they were looking for a bass player on Crucial Chaos. Turns out Mike Welles just happened to be home that night listening to Crucial Chaos make the announcement and he responded. They rehearsed a handful of songs at his place one night, then they tore up his kitchen and he was pretty much in the band after that. Would you mind sharing some funny stories about the radio sessions? Please tell me some backstage secrets, funny stories about the radio sessions!
There are some shows that are truly iconic. 01 The Warzone interview was really funny with the hyper active Raybeez and ‘zone guys. Interviewed the same day as Youth Of Today, both bands were promoting records they were about to release: “Break Down The Walls” for Youth Of Today and the “Lower East Side Crew” EP for Warzone. What about some of the personalities or characters in the scene at the time, like Raybeez? What are your memories of this interview? Do you still have that orange Lower East Side crew tee?
DJ Spermicide – That was definitely a memorable night. I didn’t think Warzone was going to make it on time, but they did. Ray Cappo was pretty easy going compared to a lot of the personalities I had on Chaos. Raybeez was always a great person to be around, so much positive energy. Not sure I have that t-shirt, but sadly did find recently the Raybeez memorial show t-shirt from CBs. I happened to be in town that weekend for that after I had moved away. The biggest challenge for interviews with some of the big talkers was keeping them on track talking about their music and getting to play tracks without running out of time.
CTM – 02 Supertouch played live on St. Patricks Day (03.17.1988.), the same day Murphy’s Law did a radioset. This live set has inspired an entire genre of bands playing hardcore today. Some of the tracks like “Strugglin’ To Communicate” and “A Death In the Family” were never recorded outside of the WNYU Studio. Any memories from this session?
DJ Spermicide – I do remember it sounding great. I didn’t realize that was the only time those were recorded. There was a record label at one point interested in putting out some of the live sets on vinyl and calling it the Sperm Sessions. I gave them the material, but it never happened, unfortunately. Looks like a lot of the live sets are up on Youtube or other sites, which is great.
CTM – 03 What are your memories of the Straight Ahead interview? They were known as a straight edge band, but the members labeled their band as a “unity band” in your Crucial Chaos interview. How did you interpret this response?
DJ Spermicide – I knew those guys pretty well. At the time there were so many micro-labels dividing the hardcore scene—skinhead, straight edge, peace punks. I think some of the divisions were causing schism in the scene, so the term unity band was in my opinion meant to distance Straight Ahead from all that. I also think some bands were taking the labels too seriously and all the rigid restrictions implied by being straight edge would be hard to uphold.
CTM – 04 One famous radio event was the Born Against versus Sick Of It All debate in 1990. How did/do you feel about the bands releasing records on larger labels? What are your memories about this debate?
DJ Spermicide – Ahhhh. The Debate. Yes, I remember that well. I remember it was more like being a referee than an interviewer, especially with the size of the studio and everyone crammed in there. I think I was on the other side of the glass if I remember correctly. I really didn’t really have a problem with bands signing to larger labels if the music stayed the same, which was the case with Sick of It All. Back then there was a fine line of bands just trying to get more exposure and bands selling out. Look how that all turned out. Sick of It All is still touring like crazy and bringing the NYHC scene to the world. I just saw their 30th anniversary show. They somehow found a way to make the music their life’s work without having to tone down their sound or make it more generic. Seems like such an ancient problem. Now the only way bands make money is from touring and selling their merch at shows.
CTM – What was your toughest interview and why? What were your funniest interviews and why?
DJ Spermicide – The toughest ones were always with the young bands just coming out who sometimes didn’t have much to say. I would mostly try to promote their shows in that case. Funniest, probably some of the characters like Murphy’s Law, Raybeez, oh and the Nihilistics who I was just trying to make sure didn’t curse on-air the whole interview. I had GBH up live once. They were pretty hilarious to be around.
CTM – I feel that most of your interviews are classics too, there are some choice quotes in there. Did you listen to your own shows after they aired? “White power, black power, yellow power….take a shower!”, “Everybody mosh it up, break everything in your house!”, “Public Enemy is just as bad as Skrewdriver.” What are some of your favourites?
DJ Spermicide – Sometimes I listened to the shows. Been so long I would have to listen back.
CTM – Bands were incredibly exciting to play on the radio. Why didn’t these bands like Youth Of Today (only interview), BOLD, Raw Deal, Straight Ahead (only interview) etc. play a live set in the studio?
DJ Spermicide – I’m sure we asked at least some of those bands to play but it wasn’t always easy to coordinate. Also, at the beginning, we weren’t really set up that well for the live sets. But once that became a popular part of the show our amazing sound engineer got the sets to sound great.
CTM – Why did you quit WNYU? I heard that you went and lived in Australia…
DJ Spermicide – A few reasons. Yes, I left to live in Australia for a year, but also there was a rule that to be on the radio station you had to be enrolled as a student. I had been in grad school, but my time was running out and it was expensive to keep registering for even a credit or two just to stay at the station. I hosted a few guest shows after I got back from Australia in ’91 and ’92 but moved to San Francisco in 1993. The first time I ever spoke on KUSF, which was just to announce some ticket giveaway at around midnight on someone else’s show, someone called and recognized my voice—said he had taped my interview with the Adolescents. Then I kept having New York transplants calling to ask if it was me and I ended up using the name Spermicide since there were a lot of listeners who already knew me from my WNYU days.
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