In a scene full of posers, where even the Real Hardcore bands seem fake, we have decided to take things to the next level and vanguard the new movement of Real Real Hardcore™®. And yeah, I know we have the same initials as All Time Low, IDGAF.
Here is our debut song, calling out all of the fakes and posers in the scene. If you like what you hear, go give us a like on Facebook. <3
With all of the gloomy music that exists within the scene nowadays, sometimes it’s easy to forget that there are still some people out there making feel-good party music, T. MILLS being one of them. You can add this track to Save Parker’s summer jams list. What happened to his gauges though? Where are you hiding, T. Mills gauges?
RIP T. Mills’ gaugues
It’s crazy to think that some members of Fight Fair are still playing music (wouldn’t they all be like 40 by now? I mean, Settle The Score EP came out 14 years ago) but here is this new vid from Chris of Fight Fair’s band “The Boys After” (also featuring the drummer from This Time Next Year). I think the song is pretty tight, and it’s cool to see the grassy field video is still alive.
Fronz, that’s cool and all, but when will you ever acknowledge my pop punk cover of About That Life??? I even named my hardcore band after u guys, plz acknowledge me Fronz.
True story: Fronz hooked up with the vocalist of my deathcore band’s girlfriend in like 2010. She cheated on him with Fronz lulz. Then the dude from my band went on Facebook and posted a bunch of angry status updates about it. Lmao. Priceless. Ever since then, I have had nothing but respect for the dude (Fronz, that is).
one of the many inspirational messages from Fronz
Is Old Again really about that life? Do they have what it takes to stand out amongst the thousands of other tr00 pop punk/soon-to-be soft grunge bands that all practically sound the same? Is Fronz pop punk?
the “Co.” stands for core
It has pretty much been established that Sarge is the master of coining faux-genres. One of my newer favorites, that he invented early this year, is HOLLISTERCORE. This label is for those bands that, you know, don’t quite have the super-saccharin-level of poppiness that most Neon Pop bands do, but definitely aren’t punxxx enough to be considered pop punk. I mean, basically it is pop rock, yes. But pop rock is such a vague term. Maroon 5 could be considered pop rock. So from now on, this stuff is known as HOLLISTERCORE and I will assign the following bands to their rightful genre.
Words cannot express how much I love The Best Week Ever! The reason for this being that I love (old) We Are The In Crowd, and this is practically the same thing. They’re even from the same city. I’ll even go out on a limb and say that the girl is almost as cute as Taylor Jardine. The singerbro was actually in WATIC for a brief period and he was also vocalist for risecore legends THAT’S OUTRAGEOUS, and like 40 other bands.
I’m not quite sure where Miles From Home fits in the Neon Pop/Hollistercore spectrum. On one hand, they do have synth throughout the whole song, but the dude is actually playing the synth on a keyboard. I feel like tr00 Neon Pop bands would just program their synth parts on a computer. Plus the singer’s voice is like 20 pitches lower than the average Neon Pop vocalist. Regardless, this song is a jam.
This is the PERFECT Hollistercore song. I really dig the piano in the pre-chorus, and that Hollistercore breakdown at 2 minutes = UR MOSHING. I feel like these guys didn’t make it big in the Hollistercore scene because they’re too awkward looking, as this video repeatedly shows us over and over again with the same pictures.
The Summer Soundtrack bring a little southern twang to the Hollistercore sound. The opening riff might make you think you’re listening to a country pop song but then the singer comes in sounding Hollister as fuck. They actually kind of remind me of the Maine, before they started sucking.
fuckin sellouts
I feel like some of these Hollistercore bands would have been more successful if they didn’t release music videos because this song is a banger, but the singer reminds me of the kid who Miley and Lilly were friends with on Hannah Montana, and the guitarist’s swag is all off with his tie and purple guitar, plus the drummer looks like he’s 12. My favorite part is at 2:40 when the girl jumps into the pool and the dude gets knocked off of his floatie.
Now we’re getting into some DEEP CUTS. These guys totally have the Hollistercore aesthetic down and wouldn’t look that out of place in a Hollister store itself. I love how the music video goes all glitchy during the glitchy vocal parts. Kind of advanced IMO. Also mirin the chorus lasers. So catchy. I guess the singer’s sister was the only girl available to appear in the music video though?
Catch Me If You Can was sooo good. The singer was probably attractive enough to make it. Too bad they’ll go mostly unknown. The girl in the video is actually the girl from the first band I posted on here (LACEY CAROLINE <3). Of course a kissing scene is carefully woven into plot of this video. I’m pretty jealous of him, not gonna front, even though he’s wearing a soccer jacket. Stream their discography here for more of that hot Hollistercore fire.
This band had a really weird name. They ended up changing it to “Party Like Summer” (good call). Too bad they released their best material under the weird name. This video has some lulzy moments. LOL @ the guitarist’s dance thing at 1:50. Usually I love catchy synth parts that come out of nowhere but what the fuck is up with that high pitched synth sound at 2:32? It sounds like they played it on a dog whistle.
Did u not know any of the bands on this list due to ur poor pedestrian taste? Is it safe to say that Hollistercore is one of the best genres? Or are you the type of clueless poser who can’t tell the difference between Hollistercore and Americaneaglecore?
Run For Cover’s Modern Baseball has quickly risen to the top of teen bloggers’ playlists across the nation within the last year, but according to these recent pictures that have surfaced on the internet, the singer may be leading a double life and isn’t as tr00 as we were led to believe…
Ok, there must be some logical explanation for this… maybe Melissa is just a fan and they wanted to have their pictures taken with him? I mean, I saw a picture of her wearing a Man Overboard hoodie, so maybe she’s into that type of music? He seems like a nice guy who would take pictures with any fans, even if they made music that is trite, soulless and lacking substance… oh, god, wait… he’s wearing a Millionaires shirt. This may be worse than I thought…
Well, that’s pretty… pop punk? Does the pizza lose credibility when it’s being fed to you by the Millionaires?
Is he hover-handing Allison’s thighs?
Lol!
He wasn’t wearing that costume in the Your Graduation video…
Will these findings jeopardize Modern Baseball’s career? Is this a ploy for Melissa to gain more credibility in within the tumblr/pop punk community? Could this mean a potential Modern Baseball/Millionaires collaboration is in the making?
Two of my favorite artists – Abandoned By Bears and Taylor Swift have finally united! And don’t come at me with stupid comments like “lol didn’t this song come out like 2 years ago, why are they just covering it now” because we all know songs like this are timeless. Or maybe it just took that long for it to hit Swedish airwaves, idk.
xATLx is quickly becoming one of the most controversial and talked about bands in hardcore. For this song we have decided to call out Mat Kerekes (or as we call him, “Mat Carkeys”) from Citizen for our own personal reasons. You can watch the lyric video below after the jump.
Be sure to check us out on Facebook and Bandcamp. Stay hardcore.
Needless to say, I was very stoked upon discovering this band. But then I came to find that they’re not so much a band and more-so a mexican guy in knee socks.
Is this a sign? Was ADTR’s sound not meant to be wignorized? Should I just keep my mouth shut in fear that this dude might roll up on me like his socks did to his lower legs?
Nevertheless, this sound intrigues me. Check out A Hard Knock Life on Facebook and hopefully he will come closer to making this a real band so we can disrespect our surroundings with wiggerish arm movements.
Back when I was an ignorant teenager, I was unsure of what the word “grindcore” actually meant. I always assumed that grindcore = scene grind and that’s it. You know the saying “ignorance is bliss”? Well this would be a perfect example of that saying having truth to it because once I discovered what “real” grindcore was, needless to say, I was not impressed. But this post isn’t about that so don’t worry. This post is about Fake Grindcore AKA scene grind, the only type of grind as far as I’m concerned.
Daughters wasn’t scene grind by any means but they were the most important progenitors of the scene grind sound so that’s why I’m including them first. Their songs were scattered and made little sense. Their fanbase consisted mainly of weird kids who would fear that awkward moment when the cute preppy girl who sits behind them in class asks them what they’re listening to and hones in by snagging an earbud.
Kissyface Fashion Faux~Pas had the scene grind sound down pat. Basically, taking the Daughters formula of spastic organized noise and adding some weird synth breakdowns. I remember seeing them live and the singer made an awkward speech at the end of their set. I don’t really remember what he was saying but I know he was rambling.
I’m not quite sure if Arsonists Get All The Girls were a scene grind band as much as they were a strange/experimental deathcore band but this is probably the only opportunity I’ll have to talk about them. 3:43 is one of my all time favorite synth parts in any song and those “synth drops” during the breakdown at the end are so sickkkk.
The Irish Front was another band that was kinda deathcore, especially in their earlier stuff, and I included them in my west coast deathcore post, but their later material is totally top tier scene grind. This video is a time capsule of the late 2000′s and it’s making me wish I could go back. Not sure if the drummer is wearing shutter shades ironically or not but does it really matter?
Okay, now we’re getting into some TROO scene grind. The opening riff/breakdown in this song makes me want to spin-kick a million innocents in the face. These bands tried to be as unpredictable and random as possible and a prime example of this would be little before 2 minute mark when it sounds like they’re building up to a really intense part and then they go into this soft melodic part for the next minute and a half.
The Crinn’s music was so fucking weird and disjointed that it made Daughters songs sound like well-structured top 40 hits. They are practically unlistenable in my opinion but a lot of kids ate them up for that exact reason. Come to think of it, they weren’t even really scene, but neither are half these bands probably so fuck it.
I don’t think I could possibly come up with a better example of scene grind than Dance Club Massacre. I even remember some IMN bashing them with a comment like “ugh, the members of this bands probably don’t even care about real grindcore”. You know you’re scene when you’ve garnered IMN disapproval.
I’m pretty sure WCWBT was just one guy and a drum machine and didn’t play any shows (cybergrind?), but I remember them gaining a decent following online. It makes sense cause this was back when scene kids just wanted to listen to the most br00tal/chaotic shit that they could get their hands on.
When I said I couldn’t find a better example of scene grind than Dance Club Massacre, I lied. See You Next Tuesday is the perfect example. They were the kings of scene grind IMO. My old deathcore band played our first show with them in the basement of a church in like 2007. We were embarrassingly bad. They killed it though.
I don’t even know if Psyopus had many scene kids in their fanbase as much as just kids who were weird enough to listen to their music. For some reason, the opening riff of this song ALWAYS gets stuck in my head. I don’t get it, it’s like the least catchiest thing ever. The total antithesis of a Cody Simpson song.
This post wouldn’t be complete without some DEEP CUTS courtesy of Canada. These guys were more proto-grind if anything, in the same vein as Daughters. I’m not even sure if “scene” was even a thing yet when this was released. Some dude lent me their CD like 10 years ago and I pretended to like it.
The Number Twelve Looks Like You were one of the first bands to do the whole scene grind thing. They took proto-scene grind sound and added br00tality and V-necks to it. Adding scene elements to any genre is pretty much guaranteed to make it better.
And now I’ll finish with what is probably the most successful scene grind band. This band was pretty popular in the late 2000′s and apparently they managed to survive past that era and still play shows to decent sized crowds. I don’t know what it is about them that made them so much more popular than all the other scene grind bands. Is it cause they had a bish on vox? Or maybe a catchier band name? I may never know.
What are your favorite scene grind bands? Are you one of those weirdos who actually considers this your favorite genre? Could a revival of this genre happen if they can possibly find a way to make it sound even weirder than it already does?
The whole ‘beardos wearing scene apparel’ aesthetic is so bizarre and will probably never be seen again.
Okay, so it was pretty much the general consensus (read: everyone) that the last Four Year Strong album SUCKED. To make matters worse, they released some whiny song along with a statement berating the people who lost interest in their band (that tends to happen when your band starts to suck, bros) and dedicating it to their REAL fans who have been there since the very beginning (LOL! They’ve been a band since 2001 and probably like 99.8% of their fans didn’t become aware of them until Rise or Die Trying came out, which was in 2007).
Despite all this fuckery, they are back and have released an EP that is kinda sweet.
The first song on the EP is the best IMO, and dat opening riff goes HARD. It is somewhat reminiscent of their older stuff but unfortunately I don’t think they’ll ever be as poppy as they were in their Rise or Die Trying era (who would’ve thought that a band selling out would = them getting less poppy?).
I’m a bit “eh” on this song. It’s not bad but it’s not great. The pre-chorus riff at 0:38 is pretty cool and the heavy part at 0:57 sounds like major key nu-metal (could this be early signs of a new genre in the works?).
This is definitely the most “punk” song on the EP and I dig it a lot. I kinda get A Wilhelm Scream vibes from it at times. It’s really sick in the chorus when it gets all heavy and EZ.
This is a solid pop punk song. I’m surprised they’re playing to crowds that big tbh. Or maybe they’re just waiting for The Story So Far to come on.
SO EZ. I love this. There are a good mix of poppy parts and heavy parts and it finishes the EP off nicely.
So it’s pretty clear that Four Year Strong are never going back to their synth leads, ultra-poppy Fall Out Boy style vocals and “stop everything that’s going on in the song right now and play a metalcore breakdown” sound but I think this is a pretty solid return after their atrocious dad rock album. What do U think?
One of SYWH’s most beloved pop icons Anthony Evans (AKA METROSEXUAL MUSCLES) is BACK! But now he’s performing under a new moniker… ANTHONY JAMES. This time he has relocated to everyone’s favorite state NEW JERSEY to continue pushing towards his dreams. The glory days of him playing in School Boy Humor and supporting Artist Vs Poet in a 2 week mini-tour are long behind him now, but still he persists to accomplish his goal of becoming (in his own words) “as big as Justin Bieber!”.
NEW NAME, NEW TUNES, NEW CRIB. AE WORLD 2.0
This infectious track shows that AE world (now AJ world) is still on his A-game. It’s about a girl that he likes but he doesn’t know why he likes her cause she’s got that special something that makes all the metrosexuals go cray. Looks like he’s still diesel as fuck too, Alex Bigman told me that he lost to him in an arm wrestling competition once (srs).
AJ world is on his club banger shit for this one! The hook on this is hot and the rap part is even better. Wtf is up with that arm pit hair at 0:37 though Anthony? I thought you shaved them shits clean? Still respect the god tier aesthetics tho.
In this, Anthony shows off his hot new crib. Shout-outs to Joyce for letting Anthony live in your basement! The decor is to die for!
How is he able to crank out this many quality music videos? Anthony James is quickly becoming the LIL B of the pop world. This song is about how he’s gonna take some girl to the TOP OF THE WORLD (AKA Joyce’s basement).
This video lets you take a sneak peak into the exciting world of AJ WORLD. Anthony introduces us to Joyce, the head bitch in charge, during one of their business meetings.
AJ even got his aunt reppin
For a deeper look into AJ WORLD, go follow Anthony on twitter. This boy is gonna blow up soon.
It seems like whenever there is a discussion about post-hardcore/metalcore bands that incorporate electronics into their sound, it always ends up with some dogmatic music aficionado saying something along the lines of “ugh, if you want to listen to a band that actually does that style WELL unlike ___________ (insert scene band here), then listen to ENTER SHIKARI”. I guess this makes them the first “tr00 trancecore” band. Now that Attack Attack are gone, and Abandon All Ships have recently called it quits, this also means that they’re the only first generation trancecore band that’s still alive. Why do the good die young? Why must only the tr00 survive?
Anyway, leading back to the question of this post: Do they have more than 1 good song?? It seems to me that “Sorry You’re Not A Winner” is their big “hit”, sort of like what “One Last Breath” is to Abandon All Ships or what “Stick Stickly” is to Attack Attack. The only difference is that if you browse through Attack Attack’s or Abandon All Ships’ catalogs, you’ll find that they have lots of other good songs. They’re not one hit wonders. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said about Enter Shakira.
The video is pretty cool too I guess. They’re all hot and sweaty and jam packed into a small space so it gives off the vibe that the music has a lot of “meaning” to it. It’s pretty neat how the whole crowd knows when to clap, not sure if they rehearsed that part or whatever. And it’s nice that Coconut Head from Ned’s Declassified School Survival Guide found something to do after his acting career fell through.
I think the biggest challenge for any (initially) successful band is to “transcend eras”. What I mean by this is a band being just as popular/relevant in the year 500 AM (After MySpace) as they were in the year 500 BT (Before Tumblr). All Time Low, A Day To Remember, Bring Me The Horizon are some of the standout examples of this. But with every success story, comes about 100 other tragic tales of dispirited band bros and broken dreamz, including the dudes in MYCHILDREN MYBRIDE. I’m assuming that they’ll probably break up within a couple of weeks of me writing this, so consider this post a full retrospective of their career.
Their first album is their best work in my opinion. It was produced by Joey Stugis, which added a RISECORE flair to their otherwise ATTHEGATESCORE sound. I don’t know exactly what the video is supposed to mean but if I were to take a guess based on the Mosh 4 Christ lyrics about him worrying that he’s losing his faith, the white straitjacket version of him is supposed to represent his faithful side and the black straitjacket with eyeliner version of him is supposed to represent his faithless side. The straitjackets on both ends probably represent his “insanity” for ever questioning the existence of god in the first place. Check out the crazy special effects @ 1:55 when the white straitjacket him’s face catches fire for no apparent reason.
Matthew Hasting was one of the most fangirled metalcore vocalists in the MySpace era IIRC. I remember hearing Kiki Kannibal namedrop him in a Stickam live stream like it was just yesterday. I guess the tattoo policy for lead vocalists is “start with the hands and work your way up”.
Their second album was basically their first album repeated, just less memorable. I don’t think they went back to Stugis for this one so what could explain why it doesn’t pack the same punch that the first one does. MCMB make everyone who has done the water bucket challenge look like pussies in this video. I like when the vocalist starts doing the windmill. Moshing 4 Christ in your own music video, very advanced.
I wonder how many times she has bragged about this IRL.
Their third album realistically didn’t deviate much from the first two albums (save the “evil” spoken word part at the beginning) but they started trying to gain tr00 cred by using black metal imagery like playing in a forest and having artwork like this…
So kvlt!
To build hype for the album, the band released what is probably the most embarrassing marketing ploy I have yet to see, an “interactive music video”. “Choose wisely on your path and you will continue your journey, but a myriad of decisions lie around each corner that will decide your fate.” This is where you can see their views really started to fizzle out.
What’s probably more entertaining than all of their music is their extreme image changes throughout the course of their career.
My guess is that this is from 2004-2005, around when they released “Having The Heart For War” (their actual first album, don’t look for it, it sucks). This picture is so stereotypically MySpace that it almost seems like some sort of parody ala NOFX. Unfortunately for them, those ain’t no wigs.
I’m thinking this is from around 2007-2008. This picture I hold especially dear to my heart because it represents the era when scene and gangster collided. Three tipped to the side new era hats with the sticker still intact in one promo pic? They don’t make em like they used to.
This pic is obviously from their last album, which is why they’re all dressed like fake real metal kids. So depressing. Why do they look so angry?
Thus concludes the epic tale of MCMB. Now all that’s left is droopy earlobes and status updates that will probably get less than 100 likes…
Be on the lookout for the sequel “Back To Cali”, coming soon to a theater near u.
It seems like when it comes to “twinkly” emo (or tr00 emo or whatever u wanna call it), kids seem to stick to the “obvious” bands such as the pioneers themselves, American Foosball, and a few up and coming bands like The World Is a TL;DR and Dad. I find these bands pretty lackluster myself and even if some of them have some okay songs, they’re ruined by poor production value.
This song might have been good if it had decent recording quality. These dudes need to hit up Joey Sturgis or Cameron Mizell.
Fortunately, Chunk DID go to Joey Sturgis for their last album and they took a stab at the whole tr00 emo thing to show their versatility with this often overlooked track…
I actually like this song a lot. I read in an interview that they want more credibility and don’t want to be seen as a “joke band” anymore so I wouldn’t be surprised if they went in this sort of direction for their next album. I wouldn’t even be mad at that at all since they do the style so well. Much better than the obvious bands in that genre at least.
Dj0nt (the genre formally known as djent) is the typical path that the average br00tal kid took after growing out of his deathcore phase. Many questions have been raised about the genre – is it true core music? Or is it “the M word”? What are the best bands in the scene? Which ones are passable? I’m going to attempt to answer some of these questions. Get your 9 strings out…
BORN OF OSIRIS
These guys would be a good candidate if it was 2007, back when they had more than one breakdown per song and didn’t break out into a guitar solo every 15 seconds. Let’s be real, they’re hardly a core band anymore. Their fanbase is occupied by so many metalheads nowadays that if you went to one of their shows, you’d probably see more ponytails than spending a day at the races. With that said, I do respect them for being the founding fathers of dj0nt but I have to exclude them from the competition.
VEIL OF MAYA
Same story as above. ^ They used to be core, now they’re metal. They think they’re so advanced with their “diminished sweeps” and “tapping techniques”. Lol. The only thing that’s diminishing is y’alls female fanbase, & the only thing you’re tapping is your guitar strings.
AFTER THE BURIAL
After The Burial brings the mosh big time. You can tell that they really care about the art of the breakdown and are dedicated to preserving it so it can survive throughout future generations. They are not afraid to experiment with the breakdown and take it places that it’s never been before. An example would be this sick EZdj0nt breakdown at the beginning of their song “Pennyweight”…
The tuning in this song is double drop C#, which makes it the lowest tuned major key breakdown (to my knowledge) ever made. That’s almost an octave lower than most #ezcrab songs!
After The Burial gets technical here by using the mathematical constant Pi, and incorporating it into this complex breakdown pattern where the kick drum corresponds to each number as the figure progressed. This is pretty impressive considering they have no asian members in the band.
ATB gets in touch with their african side on this fun funky track. I like to call this song “funk dj0nt”. It really makes you wanna get up and dance to the rhythm. Play that funky music dj0nt boys.
This song is what I like to call “emo dj0nt”. ATB proves that you can get in touch with your feelings and get your dj0nt on at the same time with this emotional little diddy.
NORTHLANE
Northlane is a progressive metalcore band from Australia. They go pretty hard. Their song titles make it sound like they really know a lot about science, but let’s be real, if that were actually the case then they would be obtaining PhD’s, not playing in a band.
This song is pretty sweet. The breakdown at 2:17 is heavy as fuck. I haven’t heard bass drops that intense since I saw Woe, Is Me live!
Upon looking through some of their merch, it seems as if they are trying to target the soft grunge market, which made me have to subtract a few points from them. I just can’t get down with that. I don’t condone anything that attracts tumblr girls.
soft dj0nt
VOLUMES
Volumes need no introduction. They are one of the hottest dj0nt bands on the scene at the moment! Let’s take a glimpse at some of their catalog…
This song is somewhat of a dj0nt hit single. How did they make a dj0nt song into a hit? Only Volumes could do that. If you ever see them live, the crowd goes nuts for this song, it’s all bros throwing down, just watch this video.
Here is another sick song from that album. It’s just a non-stop barrage of sick breakdowns.
This is one of my favorite tracks from the new album. It’s so heavy all the way through. Hmm… are you noticing a pattern here?
With lyrics like this, they are destined to scare AWAY the tumblr SJW crowd, ensuring that they’ll have a Fuccboi-free™ fanbase.
So yeah, I think it’s pretty clear that Volumes is by far the best dj0nt band. Instead of incorporating “shredding” and all of that silly nonsense that should only belong in tr00 metal (AKA nothing that I would ever personally listen to or associate myself with), they focus on heaviness and grooves. So many bands underestimate the importance of the grooves.
Should dj0nt be considered core music or metal? What are your favorite dj0nt bands? Do you do the dj0nt?
Dictionary.com defines evolution as “any process of formation or growth; development”. We see evolution EVERYWHERE. Not just in plants and animals, but in art too. Do you ever think to yourself, “where did all the awesome scene music that I enjoy today come from? What are its origins? What was music like before the breakdown?“ Well, believe it or not, it actually came from hardcore punk from the 80′s. I know what you’re probably thinking: “there was hardcore music in the 80′s?” Or maybe if you’re aware of this ancient form of hardcore, you might be confused as to how such a brainless primitive style of music could evolve into something so ravishing and beautiful. Let me show you how. But in order to do so, we have to go back to the very start. Ladies and gentleman, I present to you: an inclusive account of the evolution of hardcore.
1978 – The Beginning of “Hardcore”
Don’t let the album title mislead you, there are no breakdowns.
So this marks the beginning of hardcore. I put hardcore in quotations because I’m not really sure why Black Flag is even considered hardcore, despite being regarded as the seminal pioneers of the genre. I mean, they’ve never even used the fast beat, which is supposed to be the basis for all of these primordial hardcore bands. Even Asking Alexandria have used the fast beat. That makes them more hardcore than Black Flag. BF just sort chugs along (no, not the good type of chug) at a neanderthalic pace, much like the proconsul primate seen on the far left of the evolution chart above. Actually, since they’re more like proto-hardcore, I would relate them more to the aegyptopithecus zeuxis.
I think they reunited last year, but just a small-type gig, for friends and family and stuff. I heard their kids came to see them play after they got babysitters to watch over their kids (BF’s grand-kids) while they were away at the concert. But that’s not to say to say that BF doesn’t have any non-blood related fans. A few BFF’s (Black Flag Fans) have assembled this weird blog in which they have photoshopped BF shirts onto hundreds of celebrities. It’s like they have some sort of strange fantasy that involves important people acknowledging or caring about their niche little thing.
Lol, Simon Cowell wearing a BF shirt… yeah right. BF’s singer would get roasted so devastatingly bad during an American Idol try-out that he leave the room crying.
That awkward moment when the dude wearing a Nickelback shirt is more believable.
Kim Kardashian repping Black Flag? Not likely. Maybe if the shirt said “Black Dick”.
Well, Christopher Walken is like 70, so this one is possible.
Apart from these obsessive BFF’s fan page, I did some research on their singer and found out he’s a whiny old man…
Can you believe a senior citizen is acting like this? He’s displaying the maturity of a little kid! Everybody’s poking at him? Who does he think he is? The pillsbury doughboy?
Why did they get an 8 year old to interview him? Could he not handle an intellectually stimulating conversation had by two adults? They had to get someone who’s more on his level?
1981 – Hardcore Gets Fast
Not sure why it took 3 years to come to this development but this marks when hardcore discovered the fast beat. Minor Threat were the first band to incorporate the fast beat into their music. Much like a baby’s first words, it’s cute… but it’s not very impressive. Music aside, Minor Threat were known more for the popularization of two important hardcore ethos, the “Do It By Yourself” mentality and the “Straight Edge” lifestyle, both of which would become inapplicable in the near future.
Don’t let their PC white boy demeanor mislead you, Minor Treat has been met with some controversy. Apparently they caught heat for the lyrics of their song “Guilty of Being White” for being perceived as racist. I didn’t check many of their other songs but I think lyrically that must be their best one and it’s actually really relevant today considering how oppressed straight white cisgender males are today all over dumb blogs on the internet. Minor Treat only lasted a couple years I think because they thought the music they were making was crappy so they broke up and started another band.
Check out how rude their singer is. The lady is asking him a bunch of valid questions and he just ignores her like she doesn’t even exist! Things that Ian Mackaye is “too cool” for: drugs, alcohol, professional record distributors and show promoters, interviews.
Are people sure he doesn’t do drugs? He seems pretty drugged out to me here, rambling about all this incoherent nonsense. Hippies on acid could probably come up with better jargon.
1984 – Hardcore Gets a Little Bit Less Shitty
This is where you can tell production value gets a little bit better. They maybe even went to a studio I think. I’ll admit, when someone first showed me this album, I would’ve thought it was from maybe like 1986, not 1984. But let’s be honest, it’s still pretty fucking crappy. Their song “Not Just Boys Fun” served as a white knight anthem at the time, pioneering a new sub-genre of hardcore known as “fedoracore”.
“UGH, fuck all these ignorant ass jocks who pay money to come see us play and disrespect all of the non-existent women at our shows.”
Channing Tatum repping the fedoracore aesthetic.
1989 – Hardcore Becomes (Somewhat) Listenable
Gorilla Biscuits paid homage to the idea of “evolving hardcore” on the cover of their album “Start Today”. Unfortunately they were far from the homo sapien stage of evolution.
Now, don’t get it twisted, I said listenable, not good. Right now we are approaching the ardipithecus ramidus stage. A new style of hardcore emerged in the late 80′s called “The Youth Crew”, which was a small circle of bands who had the idea of taking the energy of hardcore and mixing it with the musical sensibilities of a good genre. Most bands who attempted this did not have such great results but one band that kind of had the right idea was “Gorilla Biscuits”. I’m not sure why they named themselves after a street drug when they were a straight edge band. That’s like starting a vegan hardcore band called “Filet Mignon”.
One of the members of the youth crew… post-youth.
1995 – Hardcore Gets Heavy
While bands like Gorilla Biscuits focused on adding melody to hardcore, bands like Earth Crisis added heaviness. Now, these guys were straight edge and vegan, so you can imagine how preachy their lyrics are. I’m not sure if they were atheism-pushers, but I wouldn’t put it past them. While I do respect Earth Crisis for being heavier than their ancestors before them, they are pretty boring and super dated. I would liken Earth Crisis to the homo habilis stage of evolution. They were very primitive and used stone tools such as the ones on their album cover, but until they start gaining the nutritional benefits found only through eating meat, they will not be able to evolve to the next stage.
1999 – The Dawning of Fake Hardcore and the Fashioncore Revolution
We are now approaching the modern era. Songwriting is becoming better, production is becoming crisper, musicianship is becoming tighter, breakdowns are becoming more plentiful. To represent this era, I have chosen a very advanced track by Poison The Well in which they use the “scream verse, sing chorus” song structure that is found in almost all modern Scenecore. Meanwhile, a band called Eighteen Visions was pioneering a new aesthetic in hardcore that would soon be known as “fashioncore” and served as a progenitor of forthcoming scene fashion.
Eighteen Visions sporting their fashioncore look.
Jonny OC, the vocalist of popular ignorant mosh-turned srscore band Liferuiner was a huge fan of the fashioncore scene during its heyday.
2004 – Emotional Hardcore
In the mid 2000′s, bands started innovating a new genre of HC called “emotional hardcore”. They usually sung about depressing stuff like slitting their wrists and applying eyeliner. I’m not going to bash it too hard though because it is the closest related ancestor to Scenecore. I guess that would mean it is what the homo erectus is to the homo sapien. I would say that Underoath is the single most important and influential band to the Scenecore genre. They stuck out from the rest of their peers with a certain flair that the other bands lacked. They are like the caveman who discovered fire. When I’m older, I want to start a Scenecore museum, and when I do, Underoath will be the first band that will be inducted into it.
2007 – Early Scenecore
Early Scenecore (also sometimes referred to as “Classical Scenecore”) was pioneered by bands such as A Skylit Drive, Escape The Fate, Alesana, Blessthefall, and Drop Dead, Gorgeous. These bands paved the way for every Rise Records band with a $40,000 recording contract and a 3 year life expectancy. Homo sapiens are thought to be divided into two subspecies: homo sapiens neanderthalensis and homo sapien sapiens (otherwise known as anatomically modern humans). Think of this stuff as the neanderthalensis and modern Scenecore as the latter.
Beau Bokan from Blessthefall rocking a Minor Threat shirt in AP Magazine. Not sure why he is wearing it but at least it’s good promo for MT. Not that a band that’s been broken up for 40 years needs promo. I wonder how he got it? Was there an old folks home next to the Goodwill where he picked it up?
2010 – Modern Scenecore
The modern era of Scenecore was vanguarded by crabcore innovators Attack Attack (RIP) and scene heavyweights such as We Came As Romans, I See Stars, and Asking Alexandria. Modern Scenecore is defined by ballsier breakdowns, catchier choruses and pro-er production. Laced brilliantly with state of the art synthesizers and vocal processing, modern Scenecore can best be described as “the cutting edge”. I remember this era so fondly and the feeling of excitement and curiosity that I experienced upon hearing some of these bands for the first time which will probably not be replicated ever again in my life. This is the Homo sapien sapien. This is the modern human. This is what fundamentalist Christians think God skipped all of the other subordinate steps to get to. It is truly the cream of the crop, the crim de la crim… or is it?
2014 – Progressive Scenecore
Issues is a band that is pushing the boundaries of what we know as Scenecore, paving the way for all future innovation to come. You’re probably thinking – but where can the genre go from here, after such an advanced band like Issues has set the bar so high? Is this it? Is this the pinnacle? Well, if you asked me in 2010 if I thought there would be a Scenecore band with a scratch DJ, a seasoned R&B singer, and 1.5 black members, I would probably say no. Yet here we are. The point I’m trying to make is that evolution is an ever-progressing development that cannot be stopped and we should feel privileged to be living in such an exciting era, thanks to bands like Issues, who continue to expand the horizons of such an already vast scenery. The sky is the limit, my friends, the sky is the limit.
Oh, and for all the nerds who are going to be like “this stuff doesn’t have anything to do with hardcore” or “this isn’t what hardcore evolved into”. Let’s take a look at the top tag of the most popular currently active Scenecore bands on last.fm. What you’re about to find out might shock you…
I rest my case…
Rare fossil discovered by a modern day scene kid.
Where do you see the future of the Scenecore genre heading? Are you a creationist and just skip to 2010 to pretend that all of the anatomically and musically inferior stuff never happened? Will there ever be a band that is more advanced than Issues?
If you’ve ever been a part of any music scene, you’ve probably known that one guy who some would identify as a “poser”. Actually, there’s a good chance you’ve known a bunch of them. Perhaps you even were one and maybe you still are (s0 many options!). You know, those kids who are super into whatever is trendy at the time, until it becomes too trendy so they move on to the next lesser trendy thing, which in turn becomes the more trendy thing due to everyone migrating at the same time (sort of like when a toilet overflows, soon enough there will be more shit-water on the floor than there is in the bowl). Then all of a sudden, when they turn 18-22ish*, (*age differs greatly depending on the poser, some prehistoric posers linger for longer) they magically stop caring about music and stop going to shows, once they are able to find popularity through some other type of medium, and successfully manage to escape whichever dark domain of the alternative music world that they were trapped in.
I’m guessing metal in this case means Asking Alexandria.
“Posers” are usually seen as the enemy in the eyes of any “ELITE MUSIC FAN”. I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard one of these elites go on a rant about how much they hate posers and how they’re “ruining the scene”. In worse cases, sometimes bands do it. Well, if you identify as one of said people who hates posers, I’m sorry to break it to you, but these posers are a vital component to the music scene and could possibly be more important than you…
5 Seconds of Summer member flaunting his OG crabcore cred.
First off, let’s talk about merch. If you really are the real music fan that you claim to be, then you won’t feel the need to prove to anyone how into (insert band) or (insert genre) you are. The poser feels the complete opposite. They feel the need to validate themselves. So they dress the part. You bought one of your favorite band’s shirts? That’s cool. The poser just ordered their entire merch catalog. He is contributing in a very important way by financially supporting the band. In the perfect world seen through the eyes of a “real music fan”, all of a band’s support would come from their fan’s undying love and appreciation for the music. Sorry bros, it doesn’t work like that. Gear costs money. Recording costs money. Gas to fuel their tanks so they can make it to the next show costs money, which brings me to my next point…
Chart exaggerated slightly for effect.
See, these posers account for a certain number of attendees at a show. As much as some people don’t want to admit it, music is a business, and supply and demand is the name of the game here. Every person who pays at the door (poser or not) is helping contribute to make this show happen. For all you die-hard true fans, does being around these “posers” really lessen the experience of going to see a band you like? Let’s say you’re seeing one of your favorite bands, is it really going to bother you that much that the dude next to you is lip syncing to lyrics that he doesn’t know? Or maybe he doesn’t care much for the music and just really enjoys moshing and stage-diving? He’s probably having more fun than you are. He’s part of the reason why you even get to see the band play in the first place.
In an elitist’s ideal world, none of these posers would come to shows and it would only be people who are all about the music and super passionate and crap, but that’s just not realistic. I’ve witnessed promoters cancel shows because next to no one bought tickets. Why wouldn’t they? They have to pay the venue and the bands and that money has to come from somewhere. I saw a band play in the basement of a record store and me and my friend were the only people that showed up and paid at the door. This band came from Winnipeg. That’s a 24 hour drive. They drove 24 hours to play to two people. Please, if you are one of those people who fantasize about this magical land without posers, trust me, dis ain’t what you want.
So next time you come across a poser, give him a high five, or even try to become his friend. From my experience, these types of people are a lot better adjusted socially than the ones who are super into the music. If you’re awkward, it always helps to have some normal friends. If the music you’re into is trendy with a poser-ridden fanbase, be thankful for it. Consider it a compliment that people even think the type of music you listen to is cool enough for them to want to be a part of it. Hope that it stays that way for as long as possible, because sometimes you don’t know what you have until it’s gone.
Have you had any funny or memorable experiences with posers? Do you find that posers are usually a lot more chill than the ppl who are “rly into the music”? Do you think that elitists ranting about posers is more cringe-worthy than anything any poser has said or done?
Let that be a lesson to all young aspiring stage-divers: NEVER STAGE DIVE DURING AN ORGCORE BAND’S SET. THEY ARE OLD MEN WHO DON’T UNDERSTAND THE LIFESTYLES OF THE YOUTH. THEY HAVE THE SAME SET OF VALUES AS YOUR PARENTS. They are probably used to telling their kids similar things. Don’t cuss! Clean your room! No eating in the living room! Don’t mix molly with coke! Please kids, just SAY NO to orgcore, for christ’s sakes!
(not actually from the Bronx or Harlem)
Many tears were shed tonight by Canada’s trancecore youth as Abandon All Ships played their farewell show in their hometown of Toronto. But they’re not out of the music game just yet because lead vocalist Angelo has just debuted his new band.
I’m admiring the “street” aesthetic with the brick wall and graffiti font. The parental advisory sticker is so 1999 rap metal which makes sense because I’m hearing some Limp Bizkit influences with the DJ scratching. Were those added in by Pauly D? I’m not sure if he plans on making this a full band or if he’s just going to keep it a solo project so he can try and collect the money he lost during the last Abandon All Ships tour through iTunes downloads but either way, I’m looking forward to hearing more.
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What do u think of Angelo’s new project? Do u think it will take off or will it somehow manage to be even less popular than Abandon All Ships’ last album? Is it not too late for him to hop on the nu-core trend or should he just try to hide the fact that he’s Canadian like he’s probably already doing so he can join The New Wave of American Hard Rock as soon as possible?