Episode 215: 1998

This week on the pod we made Super 7 Playlists for the year 1998. Check the episode here, here, or here, and peep the playlist here or here.

Personally, it was one of my most pivotal years in hardcore. I was playing in a band called Voice of Defiance for the first half of the year. We had put out a 7” in 1997 and played a bunch of parties and shit around the 805. There was literally nowhere to play in Oxnard or Ventura. We made it down to San Diego a couple times, and played up in Morro Bay with Powerhouse and the pre-Carry On band, Persevere.

This is all water under the bridge now, but at the time, we didn’t feel like we were getting any love from the old guard in the area. We also definitely weren’t getting any love from the people who put on bigger punk shows in the area even though we went to basically all those shows. We, as a small unit of friends, realized that we were going to have to build something basically from scratch. We claimed Oxnard Hardcore at the time because we didn’t feel like we were an accepted part of the established Nardcore scene. Ill Repute even may have written a song about us (LOL - sorry Joe).

Then in the summer ‘97, someone booked In My Eyes at a laser tag spot in Oxnard called Lazerstar, and in late ‘97 a band called Stand Your Ground formed. Now there were two hardcore bands from Oxnard and a spot we could do shows at. Shit, that’s almost a scene.

We also had made friends with a group of kids in Ojai. In ‘97, we basically treated the band Ignite like the Grateful Dead and would go to see them anywhere they played around Southern California. I noticed a few of the same dudes at almost every show - these were the original Ojai crew. We quickly became friends.

JP’s family lived on this big plot of land out past Ojai that had a barn and we did three shows at the beginning of 1998.

These shows weren’t big by any means, but there was 50 kids or so showing up to a barn in the middle of nowhere and going nuts to every band. We had a nice tight unit that made up this scene. It was ours.

In ‘98 we did a bunch of shows at Lazerstar that would draw over 100 kids anytime a hardcore band played, basically just by flyering Oxnard High School. The scene was strong.

(^ shoutout Clevo)

On a personal level, there was a bunch of weird shit as you’d expect from someone in their late teens. I left Voice of Defiance for a reason I can’t remember. They left me off the credits for our 2nd 7” that I played on. Touche.

I joined Stand Your Ground playing bass. We put out a 7” and played a handful of shows before we did a member switch and broke up in ‘99.

Anyway, enough about me maaaan. How about my best of ‘98 list?

The best song of 1998 is “Brotherhood” by Death Threat. Perfect hardcore song. Fast part > mid-tempo mosh > fast part > bigger mosh w/sing-a-long. Fuck.

When we talk about The Hard Style, this is it at its best - roots hardcore with just a touch of metal influence, but still 100% HARDCORE.

Now this track is straight up metal (metalcore?) but the way this song comes in is just an onslaught of blazing YOLO that’s made it a favorite of mine since it came out. Blaze is the man and this solo is so nice he played it twice.

Madball’s run of records from 1994-2000 is one of the greatest runs in the history of hardcore music, rivaled only by Poison Idea’s 83-90 run to me. Look My Way is probably the weakest of their 4 LPs in that stretch, but it’s still got songs that body most bands to this day. Dan snagged the title track, Clevo took “Moment of Truth,” and I took “Cut Off.” Bedge likes the Bold 7”.

I love “Cut Off” cuz it’s Madball blatantly living in a post Hatebreed LP world, but taking elements of that and making it their own. The way they flip the bouncy verse riff into a big chugga mosh is brilliant, but what do you expect? It’s Matt Henderson - the greatest American songwriter not named Bob Dylan or Tom Waits.

Here’s an all-timer from Kill Your Idols. My favorite song off this 10” was always “Enjoy the Show” but “Can’t Take It Away” is the track. KYI hooked my band up with 3 Nor Cal shows in the year 2000 when we barely had a 7” out. It was really important to us to get that kind of help when we were just starting out and I’ll never forget it!

D4 is my probably fav band of the last 25 years and this pick would’ve gone higher, but Midwestern Songs is a dartboard record so I could’ve chosen anything off this. This is classic D4. First, the music kicks ass. 2nd, there’s a whole layer under that of great lyrics. That’s what separates the good from the great. What if Discharge had lyrics like the White Caps? Yea, it’s still pretty radical, but you get what I’m saying.

I know not all of you love this band but here’s an undeniable track (and video). It’s sick part stacked upon sick part, all leading to one of the greatest smooth brain mosh parts of all time. Even the stripper metal part rules because its so short and sets up “so pay the fucking price!”

Everyone loves this song, publicly or privately.

Rounding out my list is this classic 25 ta Life song. This song is one of their best, but along with “Make It Work,” it was the end of the classic era of the band. Both those songs dropped the metal aspect and I think it showed Rick he could do a band with sloppos, care less about production, and ride on the name they had made for themselves.

People mock the band now but Keepin It Real and Strength Through Unity are great records, with great production and great playing. Just great, I tell ya!

Both “Where It Begins” and “Make It Work” were on the NY’s Hardest Vol 2 compilation, but I heard “Where It Begins” first on the 25 ta Life split with Morning Again. That Morning Again song remains to this day one of the only metalcore songs I like. Of course, the 25 ta Life song bodies it. 3 chords…no fucking leads.

Onto the honorables…

It hurts not having this AF song on my list. Dan grabbed “Gotta Go” aka The National Anthem of Europe, but “Do or Die” is so ill in its simplicity. I never saw them pre-breakup, but when they got back together in 1997, it was a huge deal. They played the Living Room in Goleta, so a bunch of us from Oxnard went and I also went to one of the nights at the Whiskey in Hollywood. They ruled.

This is AF back together with the Victim in Pain lineup (aka the band who made the best HC album ever) with the same song writing formula…just modernized.

I love how abruptly the mosh part hits in this song. I can only think of one other song that hits so hard out of nowhere. This is an all-time classic track on a great album that walks the line between The Hard Style and metalcore.

Built to Last was one of my favorite bands of the late 90’s. We’d drive down to San Diego just to see them (even wrote about it here). Anyway, this is their best song and it came out in ‘98 on a killer comp.

Lastly, I’ll leave you with three of my favorite hardcore songs ever that came out in ‘98 but aren’t on Spotify.

Hardcore rules. Peace!

- Zack