I always try to check out a band on Amazon.com to see how they sound before I decide to buy their albums. On Amazon, you can write reviews about albums and bands. I have to chuckle cause you can tell when someone is writing a review if they are and old head or a youngster when it comes to hardcore. Here is my logic.
You generally see one kind of review on Amazon for band, I call it “the measuring stick.” Basically, what we see is the reviewer comparing said band to another band, using the latter band as a measuring stick, for example, band XYZ is great, but they sound like a copy of band ABC. When you break it down, there are two types of reviewers. The “old heads” (whom grew up listening to the Hardcore pioneers), and the “youngsters” (whom compare all hardcore against one band).
Ok, so here is my point. I see way to many reviews that compare bands to Hatebreed. I have never owned a Hatebreed album, nor do I intend to. So my questions is, where have all the “old heads” gone?
Right now I am listening to Dodgin’ Bullets “Earn Your Repsect.” (Myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/dodginbulletsx) I dig these guys. They got the hardcore thing down in my opinion. Plus, it never hurts to have guest vocalists like Roger Miret on your album. That lends a bit of street cred to your album.
If I had to compare them to another band, they are a cross between Sheer Terror and the Cro-Mags.
You hit the nail on the head I live and love hardcore for what it really is, a place to go when you feel left out by the world. Unfortunately, alot of younger folk are trying to make this a very exclusive “scene.” Personally I would rather have a friendly kid with glasses and a pocket protector listening to my music than a jerk of a kid with tattoos and a defend hardcore t-shirt. Sometimes I wonder what these people think we are defending hardcore from. We aren’t defending hardcore from outsiders and people who don’t “fit.” This is where they are suposed to come. We are meant to stand up for what we believe in. Not what is the trend.
Being in my thirties I guess I would be “old head”. I still tend to use more current references when discussing hardcore. Hardcore has changed a great deal since MDC, Flipper, RKL, 7seconds and the like sparked the blaze. The newer hardcore is radically diverse in its sound, so when discussing current hardcore I do tend to use more current artists. It allows for an easier illustration. Mind you I do still throw the old in with the new in an attempt to perhaps spark an intrest in the person I am speaking to.