I actually went to shows this week so.... reviews!

Saturday night the Mess played at the Bonehaus up by Bard College with Rising Up Rising Down, Drug Attic and Wolf and Friends. I missed Wolf and Friends because I was setting up my drum stuff. What I did hear was guitar and violin folk punk, decently cool stuff, but I don't know how the songs were. Drug Attic played a really short set, but they alternated between brutally fast and killer slow. The Mess played a bit grody. We had some equipment trouble and had problems hearing each other in the tiny basement room. Rising Up is always great, but I have a feeling they were having trouble hearing each other too, because they weren't as precise as usual. They took requests and played the His Hero is Gone cover. There was some weird interband trouble and drama, but I'm not gonna get too into that. Don't do drinks, kids.

Sunday I went to see our singer Tony's other band Problems play with the Misfits and the Cro-Mags. Because of work and bad roads my ladyfriend and I got there just after Problems finished. We saw some Soul For Sale, and I was not impressed. Annoying faux-commercial pop-punk. Then some cock-metal band played. Didn't even catch a name. The Mags were JJ (and Mackie?) with a scab line-up. They did the job, but JJ got weird and preachy, and I just wasn't in the mood, so we had some smokes and waited for the Misfits to come on.
The Misfits had their good and bad points. Their instruments and stage set up were corny as all hell, with spikes on the drums, skulls on everything, wireless set-ups, and smoke blowing gargoyles. The line-up was Jerry Only and then Dez and Robo from Black Flag. This was Robo's last show and dude was definitely dialing it in. From his underpants. That were pulled up over his bellybutton. I threw change at Dez throughout the set and I'm a jerk, yeah, but it amused me and I hit him at least once. Jerry's Devilock combover was cringeworthy as well, but the set was ridic tight with almost no breaks between songs. The ran through most of the "best of" stuff from the 'Fits catalog and threw in covers of "Thirsty and Miserable" and "Rise Above." In all, pretty fun show, but I had a better time at the diner afterwards.

2 Local Message Boards and some bands you should check out!

Boards:

Hudson Valley Hardcore- A newer board that oughtta see more action!

HV Scene- A little less focuses than HVHC, covers a lot of ground and more older scene heads from about 10 yrs ago.

Bands:

Gilded Age- Raging noisy HC with Hudson River connections. I'm gonna post their new recording when it drops.

Closet Marine/Drug Attic- I guess they've got a name change going on. New recording is posted, noisy/sludgy/fast. Can't wait to play with these peeps tomorrow at the Bonehaus.

The Mess is playing at the Bonehaus tomorrow!

Yeah, playing at the bonehaus for the Bard College kids...

Since I haven't heard from most of the bands I've contacted to post stuff, I'm gonna toss out another bone from my personal archives. This is the first Willbreaker demo, and to date my favorite recording I've ever been on.
The back story goes something like this: About a year after Say You Hate Me broke up, Dave, Jeff and I, (three of the 4 members of the last SYHM line-up) decided to put something together. Dave and Bernie (also a member of the SYHM classic line-up) lived together at the time and as we were loading up stuff to go play on SUNY New Paltz campus for our first practice Bernie says "Can I be in the band too?" So the 4 of us headed over and started to make some noise. Jeff dropped out and Bernie added metal virtuoso and soon to be new-band old-guy Jake to the line-up. Jake's try-out went something like this: Can you make your bass sound like a rocket? VROOOOOOSH. You're in.
I'm rambling. We practiced for a few months and came up with these songs, "Achieve" being an old SYHM song, and then we went to Coney Island and recorded with Don Fury. I thought this demo killed, and I sent it out EVERYWHERE. I sent copies on tour with XfilesX. I gave them out to prominent label dudes at Positive Numbers Fest... I never heard a lick of feedback.
At the recording session, Dave and Don got into a nasty argument about a half second of feedback that started the track. They made up and sat together when we rode the Cyclone. Anyway, here it is, decide for yourself.


Willbreaker- Don Fury Demo