If you are just tuning in, here’s the deal: I’m putting
together a book on the late 90s/early 00s wave of thrashcore bands. Thrash
revival. Y2K thrash. Whatever name you want to give it. My main activity over
the past two years (and especially this year) has been collecting interviews
for an oral history of the time period. I’ve done more than 100 interviews with
people from more than a dozen different countries. I’m also counting on the
book being highly visual as well, my hopes in capturing some of the incredible
art and photography of the era. Consider yourself up to speed…
What the hell’s been going on? After a month of not much, I
wanted to check-in with all the moshers out there about the state of this
project. Well, we’re moving into Phase II. If Phase I was interviews, Phase II
is doing something with all that content. I guess Phase III could be considered
layout and design. Phase IV is publication. All of that should be easy, right? All
that’s left is the doing. And where is a pile of blankets that I could hide
under?
Let’s re-cap. Undoubtedly 2016 has been a success. I gave
myself through the summer to do interviews and, with some exceptions, I
achieved what I committed to doing. In January, I sat down with my old buddy
Matt Molnar to talk about Dead Nation and the enormous contribution he made to
the style on the east coast. I could go on and on about the Dead End LP and the
following Painless EP, but I’m pretty sure you are already aware of their
value. At the time, my interview with Matt was the longest one I had done, just
over 3 hours. Later that winter, 138 from DS-13 (and ETA and Bruce Banner) and
I sat down on opposite sides of the globe over Skype (both in the midst of a
blizzard) and hashed out his experiences and perspective. I also pulled a
triple-header of separate interviews with three members of Vitamin X all in one
day. I made trips to Philly to link up with members of RAMBO; to Bethlehem,
Pennsylvania to talk with Brad from The Gatecrashers, and finally to fucking
Barcelona to meet with members of E-150. All the while, I kept a steady stream
of mostly international interviews going. Summer saw things picking up steam
when none other than DS-13 found their way to American shores for a week long
blast of shows. I caught three and managed some great in-person interviews with
the guys. As far as players from North America, I had some great conversations
with the incomparable Tony Erba of Nine Shocks Terror and Gordon Solie
Motherfuckers (to name only a few); a Skype chat with Max Ward (625, What
Happens Next, Scholastic Deth) all the way in Japan; an evening hangout in
Montclair, New Jersey with Jon Collins of Dead Alive/Manic Ride Records; and a
record-breaking 3.5 hour interview with Nate Wilson of Gloom Records and Das
Oath (and so much more). A personal favorite of mine was speaking with Félix
Reyes from Lifes Halt. And speaking of Lifes Halt, I also spoke with John
Westbrook, Noel Sullivan and the elusive Ernesto Torres from this legendary band.
That was a fucking summer! And it wasn’t over…
In August, I leveraged the company I work for having an
office in San Francisco and roadie duties for Government Flu’s west coast tour
for an opportunity to spend a few days in the Bay Area interviewing folks. Not
only did I score 11 interviews, a suitcase full of art, flyers and photos from
Ernesto, and an incredible late night photo review with Robert Collins (What
Happens Next), I also hit interview 100 with the amazing Karoline Collins and,
and, and shattered my previous record with a six hour long hang out that yielded
4+ hours of content with the man of many talents (seen and unseen), Craigums
(What Happens Next).*
So where does this leave things? Welp – Phase II will
commence shortly with the massive, MASSIVE transcription of nearly 200 hours of
audio content. Anyone know any good (read, cheap) transcription services? Seriously. This one detail is probably the
most daunting and frightening of all. After that, it’s time to build the
narrative of the book. This will go hand in hand with weekly interviews with a
random assortment of important folks I left out, plus some email interviews
here and there.
Now speaking of interviews, I also mentioned that there were
some major omissions. I’ve only just cracked open interviewing people in Japan.
The contribution of the Japanese scene to the era I’m covering cannot be
overstated. My hope is to devote an entire month to collecting interviews this
winter. Ditto Brazil. Aside from that, my goal is to capture additional interviews
with people from Limp Wrist, Municipal Waste, Nine Shocks Terror, Deadfall,
Spazm 151, Betercore, Point of Few, The Horror, Hero Dishonest, Dead Stop and a
few others. If I called your name, get in touch, please!
That’s where we stand as of October 11, 2016. Thanks to all
the people that gave me their time and shared their stories with me. And thanks,
as always, to you for reading, paying attention, encouraging me and kicking my
ass into gear. More soon…
*I must confess that jet lag made this entire experience
somewhat surreal, I stayed focused for the entire session, but when I wasn’t
rambling about odd coincidences and similarities between Craig and I, I was
marveling at how the light in his living room made him look like a completely
different human being. Thanks to him and his family’s hospitality, I was able
to stumble into their extra bedroom to crash when I eventually turned into a
fucking pumpkin.
