A Record a Week: Majority Rule - Interviews With David Frost

SIDE 1.

THE SIN IN GREY

AT 3 AM

BURIAL SUIT

SIDE 2.

XOXO 

PROGRESS OF ELIMINATION (Written by Andy Overton)

ENDINGS

KILL THE CHEAT

This record was part of the beginning of the hardcore/screamo era for me and it also indirectly made me a great friend. I got into a bunch of bands from the VA/Baltimore/D.C. area all at the same time. Pg. 99, Darkest Hour, The Exploder and these guys. I noticed that they were touring up near the border and sent them an email to see if they wanted to play the bar I was booking at the time. As luck would have it, they were into the idea and came on through. Attending that show was a guy who was a friend of the band from Baltimore just happened to be visiting his friend up in London, ON and they came out to the show. We became online friends and I could never expect how hospitable he has been when I have gone to visit him in Baltimore. He even has appeared on here in this story. 

But I digress. This albums starts and ends hard and fast (it has one of my favourite endings of any style album). There is only a brief blast of feedback before the aural assault begins. It was the beginning of an era of a certain sound on recordings out of that area and with good reason. Recorded at Salad Days studio, the mix of everything was perfect for the sound and easily replicated in a live setting.The record blends punk, emo and hardcore together in an abrasive way that is less 'punk hardcore' and less Poison the Well-style hardcore/emo and more like the wonderful blend that a band like Converge creates. I can't really explain what it is that works for me about this band. While I never much got into the 'tough guy' type of hardcore and had long left behind the 'emotional' kind as well. Whatever it is that fueled the scene that these guys were in, I was into it. This record was a great nostalgic listen and a throwback to a whirlwind few years for me.

A Record a Week: Crimson Curse - Both Feet in the Grave

SIDE 1.
BOTH FEET IN THE GRAVE
RADIATION BLUE
VELVET FLESH DESIGN
SWEET BABY JESUS
RAT ROMANCE
I LINER
BLACK DYE NO. 15
PSYCHO 75
GOLDFISH

SIDE 2.
SILK SCREENED BUGS (no music)

This album falls smack in the middle between original hardcore punk sound and the sound of the west coast hardcore/screamo of the late 90s and early 2000's. The band is centred around the Locust's Justin Pearson and his attempt to revive love for hardcore/punk at the time. This band was also an early project of Jesse Keeler from DFA (1979) and Femme Fatale.

One of Pearson's short-lived projects, this album is abrasive and in-your-face. If anyone can inject a sense of excitement into a dull hardcore scene, it's him. He has a league of loyal followers that will listen to the Locust through all of their changes and anything else that he gives a shot at. Rightfully so, as many of the projects have mostly been top acts in their respective genres.

This record takes me back to when I would buy records on a recommendation and by the time they arrived in the mail and I could listen to the band; be excited about the band, they would break up and move on to a new project, starting the process all over again. It was a good listen back, but probably not my favourite of the many revisits I will have over the course of these listens.