Raw Deal founded by Carl Porcaro, Rich McLoughlin, and Anthony Drago, all formerly of classic NYHC band Breakdown. Drago and Carl really liked the movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger, it’s just the name they came up with. The message of the band was really clear and simple. Their lyrics were kind of realistic, it’s not like they’re positive or negative. It was all about just reality. Don’t live in a fantasy world and be blind to everything around you.
The band’s first show was at the CBGB’s, it was a matinee gig with Sick Of It All, Krakdown, and Absolution on January 24th, 1988. Their first concert at CB’s was unreal, because everyone wanted to see Anthony Comunale’s (ex-Gilligan’s Revenge/Token Entry) return to the stage. “This ain’t Breakdown and it ain’t Token Entry either. This is Raw Deal!”
Raw Deal played the first “Super Bowl of Hardcore” at the Ritz at the beginning of 1988, which was around the same time that they recorded and started distributing their first demo with the help of the legendary Some Records. The demo cassette has become a cult classic and it hasn’t lost any of its power and energy in the decades that have passed since it was first released. They recorded everything live with one take at the Loft studio.
They only played as Raw Deal for about a year and a half. During that time, the band played several times at the Anthrax club in CT, the Right Track Inn (Freeport, NY) and the CBGB’s with Sick Of It All, Krakdown, Maximum Penalty, Warzone and Sheer Terror, furthermore the band was featured on the New Breed compilation tape and the “Where The Wild Things Are…” compilation too.
In 1989 Raw Deal changed their name to Killing Time and ended up signing on with In-Effect Records. (Pic by Bill Wilson)
Brightside record rips from start to finish. Anthony Comunale’s vocal range is impressive and their songs are heavy as fuck, include some seriously awesome riffs. RIP Rich McLoughlin of Breakdown/Raw Deal/Killing Time. NYHC legend.
This Killing Time interview is originally published in Not For The Weak fanzine (amazingly hilarious ‘zine out of New Jersey), I hope you will find it interesting! Please click images to view full size.
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.)
WNYU’s Crucial Chaos (WNYU-FM (89.1 FM) is a college radio station owned and operated by New York University) was really popular in the ’80s and the radio show left a huge impact on the hardcore scene. It was so influential that kids would run to Some Records to buy the records that were played the night before on air. A lot of musicians mentioned how important it was for them to play on Crucial Chaos. In those years every hardcore kid in NYC would tape the whole show to catch up on new releases, listen for gig announcements, ticket giveaways, interviews, not to mention the live sets that everyone anxiously waited for and hit the record button. Crucial Chaos (hosted by DJ Spermicide) has had many classic NYHC bands on air such as Supertouch, Breakdown, Our Gang, Underdog, Token Entry, Warzone, Fit of Anger, Beyond etc.
DJ Spermicide (Marlene): “Some Records for a while was one of the sponsors of Crucial Chaos, meaning they would give us records in exchange for an air mention. It was a great place for smaller bands to get noticed and for everyone to mingle.” (New york Hardcore 1986-1993, by David Koenig)
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