Walter Schreifels has one of the most enviable resumes in underground rock. While still in his teens in the ‘80s, he became the founder and songwriter for Gorilla Biscuits AND the fifth bassist in Youth of Today. In the ‘90s, he formed the still-extant label Some Records and led the killer post-hardcore unit Quicksand. In the 21st Century, he founded the indie band Rival Schools. The guy seems charmed—he’s been evolving for 30 years, and doing interesting work at every step.

The latest evolution happens to be some pretty sick acid rock, which amused me a bit, given his early associations with straightedge bands. His new band, Dead Heavens, is populated with other lifers who emerged from the hardcore scene of the ‘80s.  Drew Thomas was the drummer for Youth of Today, but wasn’t actually in the band at the same time as Schreifels. Guitarist Paul Kostabi’s band Youth Gone Mad was a transplant from the L.A. scene, and he’d later play in White Zombie. Bassist Nathan Aguilar, of indie bands Census and Cults, may seem like the only member without HXC lifer cred, but even he has a connection: Cults’ singer Madeline Follin once sang for Kostabi’s Youth Gone Mad.

We reached out to Schreifels to ask about his journey from the hippie-hating hardcore scene to a psychedelic band. (I fully realize that hardcore musicians embracing hippie tropes go back to at least 1984, with Meat Puppets II and Hüsker Dü‘s cover of “Eight Miles High,” but whatever, it’s still interesting to me.)

I’m a child of the 70’s, we’re the most psychedelic generation ever, have you ever seen our cartoons? The first movie that made an impact on me was Yellow Submarine. The first record I bought was a 45 of “Eight Miles High” by the Byrds. I love many different styles/genres of music but it’s always been the psych music of 65-69 that’s most inspired me and has informed everything I’ve done. Playing lead guitar with a wah wah is new to me but I feel very at home with it because when you boil it down “psych” is about musical experimentation which is something I’ve always found appealing.

 

 
Makes sense—apart from the bands he was in as a teen, his work has hardly been doctrinaire thrash-and-chant hardcore, and Dead Heavens’ music—all four songs you can get of it—grooves really organically and satisfyingly. There are shades of the late ‘90s stoner rock moment present here every bit as much actual ‘60s psych—really, the debts they owe seem best paid out to the likes of Blue Cheer, Witchfinder General, and the ‘90s Palm Desert scene. The band’s discography is so far constituted in its entirety by a pair of singles, “History in my Hands”/“36 Chambers,” released in February, and “Adderall Highway”/“Hyacinth,” released last month on Jesse Malin’s Velvet Elk label.

DM is pleased to be premiering the video for the band’s second single. “Adderall Highway.” On making the video, Schreifels offered the following:

We had a blast making this video, was all friends with cameras and we played live which is a relief from the weirdness of lip-synching, the projection was done by BA Maile who’m we’d met just a few weeks before but has since become a quasi 5th member of the band. We’re inspired by early Pink Floyd clips and all those old Beat Club videos that are so amazing, basic effects and live sound. We had played our best live show to date just the week before so it was great timing to capture us playing “Adderall Highway,” think I might even like this version even better than the recorded version, that’s not bad to say, is it?

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Jesse Malin on ‘New York Before the War’ and his early days with Heart Attack: a DM interview
Over 35 years later, the first ‘hardcore’ record gets a music video—with tap dancing

 
Released in early January 1979, the debut seven inch EP by Santa Ana, California’s Middle Class is considered by many punk historians to be the first “hardcore” record.

That is to say, it was the earliest release that displays a stylistic shift from what was known at the time as “punk rock” to a shorter-faster-louder style of playing that would come to be associated with the burgeoning hardcore scene. It is certainly ranked among Black Flag’s Nervous Breakdown EP (released late January, 1979) and Bad Brains “Pay to Cum” single (released June of 1980) as the earliest stylistic harbingers of “hardcore.”
 

 
While the Middle Class are certainly less known and regarded than their contemporaries Black Flag and Bad Brains, their importance to the late 70s California punk scene should not be dismissed. Now, more than 35 years after its release, the title track from their Out of Vogue EP may finally get some recognition.

Classic independent LA punk label, Frontier Records, have released a brand new music video for the song. Instead of cobbling together some grainy super 8 or primitive video footage of the band, the bold directorial choice was made to have a middle-aged man tap-dance to the song on a sidewalk.

The dancer in the clip is Rob Zabrecky, who will be known to many of our readers as the singer of the (fucking great) 90s band Possum Dixon.

Zabrecky also happens to be one of the best magicians I’ve ever seen live, in addition to being a vocalist and (exquisite) dancer.

Certainly this is what no one expected, but the aesthetic fits the idea: OUT OF VOGUE.

We don’t need your magazines
We don’t need you fashion show
We don’t need your TV
We don’t want to know

We don’t need we get our fill
It’s esoteric overkill
It’s a shiny new aesthetic
Get us out of vogue

Everything about this performance SCREAMS “out of vogue”:
 

Women in Drag: The address given for their untitled cassette, in Albuquerque, NM 87123. Source: MAXIMUM ROCKNROLL, issue no. 29, October, 1985. Street view date: June, 2014. Sample quote from the review: “Sun-baked punk, thrash, Egypto-crypto-weirdness.”-Tim Yohannan
 
I have always had a bit of a love-hate relationship with Maximum Rocknroll. On the one hand, they were an indispensable and formative resource for awesome writing and great comics (and I may or may not have submitted an EP in desperate hopes of being reviewed by them). On the other hand, their editorial tone could come off a bit snobby, and I kind of agree with Jello Biafra when he said, “If ‘Holiday in Cambodia’ were released today, it would be banned from Maximum Rocknroll for not sounding punk.” Still, my feelings are ultimately fond, and I love that Marc Fischer and alternative archivists Public Collectors have created Hardcore Architecture, a sort of punk rock home tour. From the site:

Hardcore Architecture explores the relationship between the architecture of living spaces and the history of underground American hardcore bands in the 1980s. Band addresses are discovered using contact listings found in demo tape and record reviews published from 1982-89 in the fanzine MAXIMUM ROCKNROLL (MRR). Google Street View is used to capture photos of the homes. Street names and numbers are removed to respect the privacy of people currently living at these addresses.

Two things immediately jumped out at me. First, I am reminded that most of inhabited America is fuck-ugly. Like, suburbia from an Alexander Payne movie kind of ugly. Second, more than centrally located big cities or towns, it appears a lot—if not most—of the rage necessary for the mosh-pit comes out of the suburbs. It makes sense: they have the room and the money for instruments, I can’t say I blame them for their disaffection—that shit is bleak.
 

Honeymoon Killers: The address given for their “Uncut! Uncensored!” cassette in New York, NY 10009. Source: MAXIMUM ROCKNROLL, issue no. 15, July, 1984. Street view date: Oct., 2014. Sample quote from the review: “A screeching pet rock cousin to New York’s current school of avant-noise bands. The difference here is their fondness for trashing 50′s standards. “Who Do You Love” and “Ubangi Stomp” have never been abused quite like this before.”-Jello Biafra
 

Civil Defense: The address given for their “Gun Control” EP, in St. Paul, MN 55119. Address source: MAXIMUM ROCKNROLL, issue no. 16, August, 1984. Street view date: Aug., 2014. Sample quote from the review: “An uneven debut but C.D. have potential.”-Jeff Bale
 
More Hardcore Architecture after the jump…

 
The San Diego band Retox features the Locust’s bassist Justin Pearson on vocals, and shares much of that band’s extremity, dissonance, and whiplash tempos, but in a more straightforwardly hardcore vein. Their new album, Beneath California, will be released next week, but you can stream the whole thing right here on DM.

If The Locust isn’t a helpful reference, you might want to look them up; they’ve been around for over 20 years, and if you’re into any kind of extreme rock, you might find much to enjoy there. Originally exponents of powerviolence—a ‘90s mini-genre that sought to push hardcore to its own nth degree with absurd brevity, lightning-fast drums, and brutal rawness that owes much to grindcore while intentionally steering clear of metal tropes—the Locust eventually augmented that aggression with the unpredictable time signature changes of math rock and the squared-off synth textures of much early ‘80s New Wave. Their stage presentation also diverges wildly from doctrinaire hardcore—they perform in creepy form-fitting insect uniforms. If powerviolence has a DEVO, it’s the Locust.

More after the jump…

 
The yelling is one thing, but what is with that crazy dance?

So long, Hardcore. It’s been nice knowin’ ya!

 
Via reddit

Photo: Glen E. Friedman
 
For many years, our Uncle Chuck was an integral part of the band that truly brought the dark, paranoid rage of hardcore punk to the widest possible audience during the early ‘80s.

Within the milieu of formulaic punk rock, Black Flag were truly strange extraterrestrials coming directly from Planet Anger to you. And you’re a better person for it, so watch, learn and appreciate.
 

 
After the jump: Got it? Now watch Chuck put it into action with the Flag…

 
Radio Soulwax’s ambitious punk mash-up mix is the “Stars on 45” of hardcore.
 

 
Thank you Glen E. Friedman of New York City, NY!

 
There was a time when Nation of Ulysses was the most influential underground rock band in the world. It may not have been for a very long time, and it may have been 20 years ago, before Nirvana took punk aesthetics into the heart of the mainstream, but for a while it seemed like everyone who heard or saw this band just couldn’t shut up about them. It’s not hard to see why Nation of Ulysses drew such cultish adulation - they were always about much more than being a simple band. They had a defined visual aesthetic that drew more from jazz and Soviet art than hardcore. They spoke politics. They worse suits. They described themselves in statements that by today’s standards would spell career suicide for a rock band:

We’re not only a political party, but also a terrorist group. The imperative started with the recognition of the colonialization of youth culture by youth imperialists and the establishment. It was initially formed as a response to that, but now we’ve broadened our breadth to encompass a complete destruction of the American legacy. We understand the workings of oppressions big and small.
...

At the time [they formed] was Ulysses Speaks your primary medium?

Yeah, we were mostly just proliferating literature and bombing buildings, and then we realized the medium of noise not only creates a perfect cover for our organization but it also creates a camouflage for maniacal riotous behavior and provides a context for acting like an idiot and going beyond the structures of everyday behavioral codes. When you see a show, everybody is jumping up and down screaming—if it’s good—and that’s because they’ve been allowed to step outside the boundaries of regular behavior. We want to go one step further. It’s absurd behavior—dancing is incredibly absurd—and we want to take that one step beyond, and that’s why we have so much violence on stage; we’re trying to bring it to the next level. We’re fighting a war there in the room…the room that we took over.

Since you began this mission, have you become more optimistic that you can effectively utilize the facade of populist entertainment to convey the party message?

Yeah…our message is visual, it’s aural, and it’s olfactory. Our message couldn’t be progenitated properly just with sound. We see the whole idea of music as a sound phenomena as really bogus and an idea which has only taken root since the proliferation version of recorded medium, like records. Before then, nobody would have ever thought, “this is only attacking my ears”, because there’s always a visual side to that whole phenomenon. We’re into the true experience, and that’s why the whole idea of music has really aligned us. What we’re wearing on stage and the way we move on stage has just as much to do with the idea that we’re getting across as the sound that we’re putting forth.
...

Have you been able to stir up as much antagonism as you might have hoped for?

Yeah, you know - the old order; people who sense the dissolution and the proliferatrion of new ideas. There’s a Kill Ulysses conspiracy - It’s called the Kill Ulysses National Workers Socialist Party; they’re just trying to destroy us. Rock and Roll is trying to destroy us.

From The New Puritan ReView, 1991 - read the whole interview here.

Still, for all the word-of-mouth hype that surrounded Nation of Ulysses in their brief but dazzling career, for kids like me who lived in the sticks their music was harder to come across than hen’s teeth - another situation that seems impossible by today’s standards. Back in the days when you had to travel to a big city and visit a specialist record shop in the hope of picking up an import 7”, it was easier to find releases by Ulysses’ UK adherents like Huggy Bear than it was the band’s own originals. Thankfully, the hardcore NoU fan base still exists and has been doing a pretty good job of disseminating footage and material on the internet, ensuring the band’s legacy will live on and attract more fans. Sure, Nation of Ulysses weren’t the first punk act to adhere to hardcore left-wing politics, or to have a well defined look and outlook, but no-one did it with this much goddam style: 

Nation of Ulysses “Introduction/Spectra Sonic Sound” live 1991
 

 
OK, so the audio quality in that clip was pretty poor, but it gives you an idea of what their shows were like. Plus, I do love that washed out, third-generation VHS-copy look. Here’s another clip of NoU live from 1991 (minus suits):

Nation of Ulysses “A Comment on Ritual” live 9:30 Club, 1991
 

 
You can now buy the Nation of Ulysses back catalog direct from Dischord.
 
After the jump, even better quality footage of NoU live in DC circa 1991, including a further 30 minutes of that 9:30 Club show above (in color)…

 
This is the first video by Fucked Up to be taken from their current album, the very highly acclaimed David Comes To Life. Sure, Fucked Up may have made some skits to accompany their music before (namely standing around in public places while their music plays in the background), but this is a real music video, with actors, a story, production values, the whole shebang. And as such it’s pretty damn unusual. To say the least. Presumably it ties in with the narrative of the album, which the band have described as being a rock opera. But don’t let that put you off. To quote Richard Metzger:

Two thumbs up. WAY UP.

A thing of intense beauty. And unexpected. Unexpected is hard to do these days!

 
Fucked Up - “Queen Of Hearts”
 

 
Previously on DM:
Listen to Fucked Up’s ‘David Comes To Life’ in full
Fucked Up: The best live band in the world deliver the single of the year?

 
Hardcore heroes Fucked Up’s new album is released today. David Comes To Life is being touted in some quarters as a modern classic, a rock opera romance for the ages set in 80s Thatcherite Britain. So is it that good? You can make your own mind up by listening to it in full at this link. Or, if you like what you have already heard, you can just go ahead and buy it here. There is more info on the album at Davidcomestolife.com.

 
It’s great to see that Berlin’s Atari Teenage Riot—electronic anarchists and creators of the “digital hardcore” sound—are back and in terrific shape. Predictably, what was first slated as a reunion for a few European shows has turned into a full-blown world tour for Alec Empire and Nic Endo, along with new Rioter CX KiDTRONiK.

Throughout the ‘90s, ATR spread sonic fire from the nexus of hard techno, thrash-punk and noise, with their members (including formers Hanin Elias and the late lamented Carl Crack) also releasing solo projects on their own Digital Hardcore Recordings label.

As shown by this stage invasion during their appearance at Zurich’s Fusion Festival from this spring, the Riot seems back on in full force.
 

 
After the jump, relive ATR’s famous 1999 anti-fascist May Day riot in Berlin, with commentary by Empire…