various artists - This Is Springfield, Not Shelbyville!

Ah, maybe these minstrels will sooth my jangled nerves.

Here's a turn of the century tribute to the Simpsons, featuring a strong nod to "This Is Boston, No L.A." and a grip of Tri-State hardcore and punk bands. My favs? How about Milhouse adapting "Firestorm" with Bart-inspired lyrics? Or Lifes Halt's thrash paean to the state's first Aquacar factory? Maybe it's Black Army Jacket's tribute to Poochy? They all tread a thin line between clever and stupid.

Whoops, wrong reference.

I'm not sure how I managed to miss this record's existence for almost 20 years. Is this just an excuse to post a .gif from Frinkiac? No chance, nerd. Does it fit thematically with yesterday's post? Sure. Is this a cheap ploy to get some more eyeballs and ears to the blog? Probably. Did it work? Who knows?

This blog is over.

Discogs

Click here to download.

LaGrecia - On Parallels

I'm pretty certain I never saw LaGrecia live. If memory serves, the record was cut during the first None More Black break-up, with Jay on guitar/vocals, his ex-bandmate from Bound, Dana, on drums, and Sal from A Days Refrain on bass. It originated as a full-band version of Jay's OnGuard release in 2006, reprising one song from that little-heard session. They only lasted around a year; Jay left the band and restarted NMB.

The music is so much more anthemic than Jay's other projects; I think it's fair to draw a comparison to the songwriting in the Loved Ones or Gaslight Anthem. This is grown-ass, New Jersey punk rock, for when you finally settle down a bit and remember that Foreigner wrote some fucking jams, but you still like to sing along with the Ergs. You just want to holler along, pump your fist, drink a domestic pilsner to "On Parallels".

If you dig this, it's worth noting that Jay put out another record of this ilk under the wonderful moniker of "Former Member" in 2018. It's a little huskier, a little slower, but the songs are super strong, and the recording from Will Yip is on point, as should be expected.

Discogs

Click here to download.

You And I - The Curtain Falls

You hear a record and it immediately makes you think, "Man, I wish I'd have put that out." "The Curtain Falls" is one of those for me.

I have no clue how I never saw You And I play live. Their heyday very neatly coincided with the first big wave of my traveling to shows. They played with a lot of my friends during their lifetime. And yet, even though I bought records of theirs new upon release, I never actually got to see them. Hell, I don't remember them ever playing south of Philadelphia, which I KNOW can't be the case.

So, yeah, it dawns on me I've been listening to this record for over twenty years now. That makes me feel old. Yet there's nothing dated sounding about "The Curtain Falls". This totally fits in with anything getting released on Zegema Beach today. I'll chalk that up not only to a sound that still sounds vital, but also to the outstanding production from Geoff Turner. That's why I think's cool that Repeater Records, who put out those great City of Caterpillar reissues a while back, is releasing a discography double LP in the next several weeks. I really appreciate that this is going to be available again.

Call it screamo, call it skramz, call it hardcore, call it whatever you want to. It still feels honest, sincere to me.

Preorder the discography here.

Click here to download.

The Worst - The Worst Of The Worst

So back around 2001, some amazing soul released ten fan club 7"s of early 80s American hardcore under the label Reagan Era HC. When you've only heard old heads talk about how great YDI or Offenders were, and you suddenly can cop a bunch of their master works at $4 a pop, you don't quibble over the morality of buying bootlegs. You just gobble them up. That's how I heard the Worst for the first time.

Their 1983/4 12" Expect the Worst, a proto-crossover classic, was suddenly available in a conveniently inexpensive format. And I was hyped. Expect the Worst was short/fast/loud...just perfect for what I was looking for. It took me down the road of exploring all the Mutha Records catalog...this really fun suburban New Jersey 80s label that stood as this counterpoint to the super-serious NYHC scene of Agnostic Front, Cro-Mags, and Warzone. I mean, any label that put out Chronic Sick records had to have a good sense of humor.

Flash forward almost 20 years, and I'm making the rounds of local thrift stores. I hit this cache of what seems to be someone's hardcore/grind/emo CD collection. Lots of fun stuff...most of which I already owned. The best finds were the White Cross discography on Grand Theft Auto, a CD version of Propaganda - Russian Bombs Finland, and what you have below: The Worst of The Worst.

So what you get is pretty comprehensive. The Worst of the Worst starts off with their self-titled 1982 7", then crashes into the aforementioned Expect the Worst. THEN you get an unreleased 12" worth of material that was recorded for a 1984 release. The CD is capped off with a portion of a Worst live set from Max's Kansas City in 1979, all with unreleased songs. All told, it's a 29 song, 43 minute banger. Sadly, it's out of print, and currently selling for around $20 online...if you can find one. It's worth finding one. Stuart Schrader wrote a fantastic set of liner notes that serve as a loving history for this band that might otherwise be a footnote in some granddad's remembrance of the "good ol' days".

Yeah, here's the discography. If you like trashy, thrashy 80s hardcore that sounds like it was recorded on a boombox (and, yeah, that's a GOOD stylistic choice), then this is right in your wheelhouse. I picked this up for $3.

Buy it on Discogs

Download