Episode 228: 1999
Killer episode this week on the pod. Check it out here, here, or here and check the playlist here or here.
1999 was a pivotal year for me in hardcore personally. It started out great with Floorpunch coming to California for a 5 show run, starting January 5th, 1999 in San Francisco. Then my band, Stand Your Ground, got to play 3 out of the 4 Southern California shows including this bad boy:
Stand Your Ground broke up in the spring and shows in Oxnard were pretty grim in the summer of 1999. The 97a show was probably the biggest of the summer with about 75 kids. I did a Buried Alive/All Out War/Reach the Sky show that probably only had 30 people attend.
In August, I started putting together a new band that we ended up calling In Control (named after the Stalag 13 12”). We put out our demo and played our first show in October of ‘99. It was the final show at Lazerstar in Oxnard - a laser tag business that had allowed us to do shows in their party room since 1997. There wouldn’t be a place for shows in Ventura County that we could book until the Ojai Women’s Club popped up in early 2001. So in Oxnard, 1999 was both a big end of an era and a new beginning of sorts as well.
But enough about me, maaan. 1999 was a pretty transitional year in hardcore in general too. I covered a lot of it in this post.
Onto the lists…
Let’s dive into my list…
Death Threat “Disgrace” Only The Strong MCMXCIX Victory Records
I took this on the 2000 Super 7 too, but whatevz. There’s a slight difference between the two versions. The Only The Strong version has extendo-mosh after the chorus before the 2nd verse. Those two bars are hacked for the LP version.
The song has an iconic, instantly recognizable intro and then once you’re into the meat of the song, they dance in and out of tempos seamlessly. Simple, perfect lyrics about posers and dat final mosh riff - what more do you want? This is the best of The Hard Style.
Kill Your Idols “Hardcore Circa 1999” KYI/Full Speed Ahead 7” Hell Bent Records
Goddamn, time flies. I love this song. It’s a great time stamp for an interesting and killer time for hardcore - when bands booked their own tours and got in vans and pounded the pavement.
In Spring of 2000, KYI was the first band to bring In Control to Nor Cal. We played Gilman first - to no one of course. The sound man actually told us we were the first band that had ever started on time. Hey, we were young and we wouldn’t make that mistake again.
Actually, one time at a gig in Vermont we had to play first cuz we were the only band that showed up on time. Hey, we were young and we wouldn’t make that mistake again!
We also played Santa Cruz and Grass Valley on that Nor Cal run and those shows were killer. I learned a lot from KYI on how to conduct your band with respect and integrity, and to always have an outstretched hand the the generation coming up right after you.
Back to this song, it contains something that so much of fast hardcore is missing: a catchy ass chorus. Anyone else miss piling on for fast part singalongs?
Mainstrike “Destiny” No Passing Phase Crucial Response Records
I took the LP version that came out in 1999. Above is the superior version that appeared on the Supersoul comp in 2000 cuz that’s the only one on Youtube.
What a perfect roots hardcore song. The dynamics grab you out the gate, then the singer is straight belting it out on the verses. But really what makes this song spectacular is the structure and the drumming. I love when it does the short fast part with no singing between the two mid-tempo choruses and those drum fills are so ill into the tom buildup. It sets up the 2nd chorus perfectly without hitting a hardcore trope that I absolutely hate: repeating verse lyrics.
And speaking of that, for a genre that can be accused of having some tired and generic lyrics…our boy here is getting pretty esoteric. I see you, Roland. Get down, big dog!
Cold As Life “My Own Worst Enemy” Only The Strong MCMXCIX Victory Records
In the 90s Cold As Life was a band whose reputation preceded them. On the West Coast, their music wasn’t easy to find. I just knew this was a band of hard ass dudes who had a song called “Ski mask and a .45” - fuck. I didn’t get Born To Land Hard on CD until the early 2000s, but I got this track on the underrated Only The Strong MCMXCIX comp in ‘99. Even better, I got it for free to review for the 2nd issue of my fanzine Always Try…or maybe it was for the 3rd issue that never came out (doh!).
Anyway, this song was everything I thought the band would be. That heavy ass palm-muted riff with the growl over the top into the slow bounce is so menacing. Then, because they’re a fuckin’ hardcore band, they break into a fast part and the singer sounds like an absolute psychopath. But the best part of the song is the abrupt way they transition from the fast verse to the chorus - one of the stiffest transitions in the history of music. It still hits me like a brick, even on listen #479 today.
Also, it should be noted, the chorus is hard enough that they don’t feel the need to do another mosh part. Verse/chorus/verse/chorus - out! 2 minutes of perfection. No fluff. 100% hardcore.
Turbonegro “Prince of the Rodeo” Apocalypse Dudes Boomba Rec
Let’s talk the greatest songs in the history of rock n’ roll: “It’s So Easy,” “Nice Boys,” anything off the first Retaliate LP. I gotta toss “Prince of the Rodeo” into that winning pile as well.
From the opening salvo of percussion, you know its going to be a rocker. Then they toss that lil sleazer riff on top of that, and add a brief face-melting solo all before going into a call-and-answer verse that bodies most band’s choruses. The guitar work really ties this thing together - the simple vibey lead coming out of the first verse and the 2nd abbreviated face-melter coming out of the 2nd are flame.
The song doesn’t have a traditional chorus. In fact, I’d argue the opening sleazer riff is the de facto chorus. They tuck it in throughout the song and come back to it at the end when the song crescendos into the final singalog and woah sequence. Just straight up Rn’R perfection. This album and Ass Cobra are all-timers.
Hoods “Above This World” The World Is Ours 3-Way Split West Coast Worldwide
The 2nd show that In Control ever played was in Sacramento. It was an oi band called Common Enemy’s last show. They had a bar show after this all ages one, so we ended up headlining to no one. Actually, when we covered the Cro-Mags five dudes ran inside only to exit immediately upon its conclusion.
What action the show lacked was made up for doing an all nighter with Mikey Hood that included a brawl between the Sacto Hardcore kids and the Del Taco staff. It kicked off over some Sprite in a water cup and escalated from there. I will forever have the vision of a dude in a Del Taco uniform, who looked exactly like Freddy Mercury, throwing down with an 1890’s boxing stance burned in my brain.
Anyway, I like most of the Hoods catalog but two of their records I think are fabulous and walk the line perfectly between roots hardcore and a modern, more metallic hardcore sound: the Alone CD and the 3-way split with Dysphoria and Above This World. The songwriting is a perfect combination of skill, creativity, and YOLO.
“Above This World” starts fast, cuz it’s a fuckin’ hardcore song, and then transitions to a quick bounce chorus into a pretty brutal mosh part. I love the little guitar part that comes on the midtempo section after the mosh. On this recording, you can hear it clearly. It’s buried on the Only The Strong ‘99 version, making the split version the superior one and blocking OTS ’99 from having a 3rd song on my list. Then the song breaks fast again, cuz it’s a fuckin’ hardcore song, and hits the short chorus on the back end before wrapping in under 2 minutes. Hell yea.
Skitsystem “Pain Death Hate” Grå Värld / Svarta Tankar Distortion Records
On episode 226 of the pod, we talked HC post-90s Youth Crew and got into Tragedy a bunch and some of the bands that preceded them a bit. You know ‘em: His Hero Is Gone, From Ashes Rise, Deathreat, etc. But one that doesn’t get name checked as much is Sweden’s Skitsystem. Their 1999 album Pain, Death, Hate sounds HUGE. In fact, its one of those albums like Throwdown’s Haymaker where the giant ass recording is one of the reasons I love it so much.
Obviously Skitsystem isn’t a bro band, but this album makes me want to roll down my windows, crank the truck radio to 11, and drive fast as fuck. This song is a fast jammer bookended by midtempo parts and has a real good, memorable chorus. Hell yea.
1999, eh? Sick ass year.
- ZN
Really enjoying the 185! and 1999 what a year! Skitsystem was Legend.