Trial By Fire - Ringing In The Dawn

Trial By Fire was one of those hardcore bands that came out of the Wilson Center scene in WDC around the turn of the new millenium. Kevin from Majority Rule played bass; Jason, who was the only non-Kane brother to play in Turbine (who did a split with M.J.), sang and played guitar. Colin and Mike were DC hardcore kids who'd round out the lineup. They go on to do more things: Mike would play drums in the Loved Ones and Dark Blue after heading up to Philly; Colin would help start Cloak/Dagger with his brother Aaron, Matt from Majority Rule, and Colin K. and Jason from Count Me Out. They played fast, political songs of a type that paired well with the likes of Strike Anywhere and Propaghandi. It was whip smart and danceable so of course I loved it.

It was, of course, a "big" deal when they ended up recording with Brian McTernan at Salad Days and releasing what'd be their only record on Jade Tree. They'd burnt fast and bright since their demo had come out the year before; now they'd essentially be filling the same spot as the beloved but disbanded Kid Dynamite on Jade Tree's roster. But they didn't last very long. If memory serves (and it's fading fast), they would themselves break up within a year.

And that's the way it's gone for most of punk immemorial. You get a few years, play some shows, put out a demo and hopefully a record, and you split up. Maybe you get lucky and someone remembers you 15 or 20 or 30 years later and says, "you should check this out." So here's your Sunday wake up call.

Discogs

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Sweetbelly Freakdown - self-titled

Sweetbelly Freakdown, live at CBGB's, 1997 (photo by Mark Beemer)

"HELP ME OBI-WAN, CAN YOU HELP ME?" If you want my attention, there are very few better way to grab it than by making a Star Wars reference in a song titled "Pleas to the Action Figure".

Swiz had been broken up for nearly six years when Sweetbelly Freakdown got together in 1996. I remember wondering why they didn't just reunite Swiz when the four ex-members joined forces; it turns out they decided to go with a minimal, almost primal sound for their single and LP. The nine songs on their self-titled record just buzz. It's very out of step with a lot of their contemporaries. I remember only really seeing them on bills with metallic hardcore bands; maybe I saw them with 454 Big Block and Hatebreed?

I see a lot of comparisons to the Rollins Band and the later Black Flag records. To that, I say...maybe? I don't hear the metal or Grateful Dead influence present in those records. And as much as I love ol' Hank, Shawn Brown doesn't present like a poet so much as a method actor in his vocals. The Jason Farrell artwork here is also one of my favorite of his record covers; it certainly lays the groundwork for his Damnation A.D. and At The Drive-In illustrations. This is yet another release that I wouldn't mind reissuing and remastering, should I end up with a spare million spacebux to spend on a label.

Discogs

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J Church - The Precession Of Simulacra • The Map Preceeds The Territory

I kinda miss the days when I knew all the punk rock inside baseball bullshit: who'd signed who, who got dropped, etc., etc. I loved being a smart mark about the behind the scenes moving and shaking. I get reminders now of far my finger is from the pulse of things. For example: did YOU know Epitaph now owns the Jade Tree back catalog? I did not; now I do. I suppose that's why you've been able to get all those pretty-looking reissues recently.

And why mention this? Well, Jade Tree was the big label up the interstate that put out records like the one you're about to listen to. This J Church 10" was my first exposure to the label, as well as my first exposure to one of the all-time great pop-punk trios. Lance Hahn had the brain of an anarchist, the heart of a romantic, and the pipes of a barroom belter. They were such an incredible singles band; their throwaway B-sides and comp tracks are better than most other bands' Side 1, Track 1's. This came out the same year as "Hello Bastards", the first Damnation A.D. LP, and the only Walleye 12". Bands from Dillinger 4 to Joyce Manor and Dogleg owe J Church a debt of influence for making smart, adult pop punk. I feel like, had Lance not died in 2007, they still would have been playing out, probably trekking out to Gainesville for the Fest once every few years and showing the kids how its done.

I thought of this because: 1) I've been listening to that new Dogleg record a lot, and there's much about it that reminds me of J Church, and 2) John Yates did the cover design for this. I've been following him closely on Instagram, and it reminded me of this 25 year old slab o' wax, which still sounds super fresh to me.

Discogs

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Swiz - With Ramsey [First Demo]

The musical through line that starts with Swiz is pretty remarkable to me. Setting aside Shawn Brown's tenure as Dag Nasty's first vocalist (my favorite era, BTW), you go:

Swiz --> Bluetip --> Sweetbelly Freakdown --> Jesuseater --> Retisonic --> Red Hare

...plus various roots like 108, Battery, Garden Variety, Severin, Shudder to Think. That's a hell of a nice family tree. You could stretch this out even further, if you care to include all the outstanding design work Jason Farrell has done since the late 80s. For the purposes of this piece, I won't. But I WOULD visit a retrospective of his.

I digress.

Back in the halcyon days of 2004, in between Pedro the Lion and From Ashes Rise releases, Jade Tree Records very quietly posted Swiz's first demo, titled here as "With Ramsey". As the story goes, the band initially played out as a quintet, with Ramsey Metcalf joining Jason Farrell on guitar. However, before Swiz cut their first 7", "Down", Metcalf had left the band, leaving us with the familiar late 80s four-piece hardcore band we all know and love.

I'm rather surprised this isn't available on someone's Bandcamp or blog, or that it hasn't been released as a physical artifact. "Lie" sounds a lot fuller on this demo, compared to the versions that would later appear on both "Down" and "Hell Yes I Cheated". I don't hear any difference between this version of "Taste" and the one on Swiz's self-titled 12". You also get four songs that never appeared anywhere else. All in all, this sounds like a natural progression from "Can I Say"-era Dag Nasty; perhaps a little more hardcore than Dag. Check for yourself. And maybe we'll get a nice lil' 10" of this one day.

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