EP 251: Al Barile (SS Decontrol)
Classic episode this week on the pod with a return to our origins - a long ass interview. Check out the episode here, here, or here and check the playlist here or here. Al Barile is a legend and he was super generous with his time. I did my best to get in as much as possible so I hope you dig it!
When I was a teen I used to love browsing the used CD sections looking for $1 to $5 scores. I got Faster & Louder Hardcore Punk, Vol 1. for maybe $2 at Salzers in Ventura, CA when I was 16 or so. I knew the first four bands but I dunno if I knew anything beyond that at the time. The song that hooked me was right in the middle of the CD, “Get It Away” by SSD. I was familiar with the idea that some old school hardcore bands had dub reggae parts, and loved ROIR, but the reggae jams on ROIR were separate (and I didn’t like them). This song was different though. It started out dubby but then broke into the most intense, raging mid-tempo song with a rabid maniac yelling over the top of it. What in the actual fuck was this and where can I get more of it?!
Eventually I got the Power compilation CD at Taang’s store in Hollywood. It started with “Glue.” Goddamn, what a song. It then proceeded to take me on a cruel, unpredictable shuffle between some of the best and worst songs I’d ever heard. Eventually I dubbed all the Get It Away tracks down to cassette, found a bootleg LP of The Kids Will Have Their Say, and signed Power to Roadside Records.
I need SSD in my life. One time I remember driving a Penske truck back from Texas with AH from Take Offense and we both got the urge to jam Get It Away. The problem was, it wasn’t on Spotify and the only place we could pull it up on my phone was YouTube. So we were forced to roll up the windows, shut off the AC and bake while we squinted our ears to listen to the 11 1/2-minute video playing from a cell phone sitting on the dash since the aux wouldn’t grab Youtube for whatever reason. We didn’t even make it to the Buzzcocks cover before my phone overheated and shut down. DOH!
Trust Records put together a cool little SSD mini-docu:
Grab those reissues and get at Al for DIY SSD merch.
- ZN
I’ve read the MRR review of get it away before but never realized that Pushead wrote it.
Nice job getting Al to come out of his shell. He’s an interesting dude.
On route 1 north of Boston, there was a rock by the side of the highway that had SSD painted on it. In the 90s it got repainted with a Gage logo, which got repainted with an SSD, and back and forth for years.