• Artist: Double Negative
• Title: Double Negative
• Year: 2007
• Format: Vinyl 12 in.
• Rating (1-10): 8
• Owner: Tracy
• Acquired: 2007 – Got it from singer KC at a show.
• Keeper: Yes

There’s been more hardcore punk in my life this past week than usual, at least for over 20 years. I got to see, and meet, Double Negative at a show last week. Like many hardcore shows it was at a place not really intended for live music. In this case it was Gourmet Perks, a coffee house just down the street from my place. It was a fun show with a small but enthusiastic crowd of “hardcore” fans.

I also happened to finally see the movie American Hardcore in its entirety this weekend. The film is about the birth and evolution of hardcore punk in the years between 1979 and 1986. I was really involved in that scene and found the movie very interesting. If you weren’t, I’m not sure you would agree. To quote from one interview in the film, “normal people didn’t like this music, and we liked it that way.”

This is definitely a good hardcore album, and to be honest it certainly sounds better than most of the music from the original scene. It’s really on an altogether higher level. My favorite song is probably “Stop Growing.”

Seeing Double Negative live last week and playing the album a lot since then, along with watching American Hardcore has made me think quite a bit about what punk was, and is. Maybe it’s just because I’m older, but I can’t help wondering what is it all about now, this hardcore punk scene? In the movie a couple guys from Flipper make a point of saying “punk is dead, it’s over.” Well, after seeing last week’s show and listening to this record there’s no way I can agree with that. It may not be the D-I-Y music revolution it was decades ago, that can only happen once. But the spirit, attitude and principles of hardcore punk live on with new, younger fans and bands like Double Negative.

Double Negative
American Hardcore

New music for the new week… Double Negative from Raleigh, NC is triple hardcore and they’re playing at Gourmet Perks here in Asheville tomorrow night! That’s Tuesday, September 25, uh… 2007. This music ain’t for everybody, but if you like hardcore you’ll love this. I love it, though somehow it makes me feel old and young again at the same time. Check out the Double Negative page at MySpace for some tunes and more info.

Chickenfight!

• Artist: Marginal Man
• Title: Identity
• Year: 1984
• Format: Vinyl 12 in.
• Rating (1-10): 6
• Owner: Mary
• Acquired: 1984 -At a show
• Keeper: Yes

Marginal Man was pretty inventive on Identity while still sounding like hardcore. I like the music and the playing, the sound is great too, but, and I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings, the vocals just don’t do it for me. It sounds like I’m singing or something. Anyhow, Mary got it at a show and we’re keeping it for nostalgia if nothing else.

Dischord No. 13

• Artist: Egghunt
• Title: Me and You
• Year: 1986
• Format: Vinyl 7 in.
• Rating (1-10): 9
• Owner: Tracy
• Acquired: 1986 – Bought it when I worked at Mother’s Records in Hampton, VA
• Keeper: Yes

I’ve always loved this record. Egghunt was a too short-lived project by Ian MacKaye and Jeff Nelson, both from Minor Threat. “Me and You” has an excellent groove and a really big sound. The vocals/spoken words are intentionally on the verge of being completely inaudible. The flipside, “We All Fall Down” is very different but just as good. It’s rocked out in a melodic hardcore way. This really is an excellent record. Too bad there weren’t more.

Etched in the run off margins:

Side 1 – TOMAS IS INCENSED
Side 2 – LE CTEL TOMBE

You can get the full scoop on Egghunt at Wikipedia.

Various Artists -- Alive and Kicking

• Artist: Various Artists
• Title: Alive and Kicking
• Year: 1985
• Format: Vinyl 7 in.
• Rating (1-10): 7
• Owner: Mary
• Acquired: 1985 – “Probably at a show…”
• Keeper: Yes

OK, that was a pathetically long lay off. Work gets in the way. We’re back with some more DC hardcore. Alive and Kicking is a six song, six artist 7 inch in cool milky clear vinyl. The bands are United Mutation, Gray Matter, Beefeater, Mission Impossible, Cereal Killer, and Marginal Man. I like pretty much all of it. Some of it is straight-up hardcore and some songs, like Beefeater’s “Wars in Space” with someone playing “out” on sax, are more art-edge punk.

And, no, this wasn’t put out by Dischord. It was released by WGNS Recordings and Metrozine. Mary thinks she got it at a show, but says she knew so many of the people in the bands that she may have bought it from one of the guys.