Nov 16, 2005

DISEMBODIED "existence in suicide"

Picking a first post has kind of been hard for me. Where to start? What to pop my cherry with on this mofo? Perusing all of my old hardcore & punk CDs is like walking down memory lane for me. I've been fortunate enough to see and let alone meet a ton of awesome bands over the years. Many people don't realize that before Surprise Attack started putting out records it was a fanzine. Boy did I talk a lot of shit in that mag. Looking back I can't believe some of the crap that spewed from my mouth. It's quite humorous to me still to this day as most of the opinions on the scene and music in general are pretty much exactly the same. I'm a weird mix contempt, bitterness and a hopeful / optimistic view on hardcore.

All of the time I would write bands about doing interviews and after they would agree to do it I would send them questions. Many times the bands would flake out and never get things back to me. One issue I think over 10 bands totally flaked. One of those bands was Minneapolis hardcore / metal band Disembodied.

The year was 1996. A pen pal (yes this is pre-internerd if you can believe it) had sent me their debut CD to check out. Immediately I fell in love with it. At the time this style of hardcore wasn't as overdone. Tuning this low and going for a slow sludgy apocalyptic feel mixed with traditional hardcore was a bit more fresh at the time. The pessimistic attitude & lyrics from vocalist Aaron was right up my alley and the delivery was amazing. I knew I had to interview them because I was always interested in featuring more obscure bands. Once the band had agreed to do the interview I sent them a list of questions. A few weeks pass by then a few months... nothing. I wrote the band asking what was up but got no response. Finally the aforementioned pen pal told me that the band didn't want to be in a "HARDLINE" fanzine. This made my blood boil as I was not a member of the Hardline movement. I was so worked up thinking that the band would just jump to an inaccurate conclusion like that without at least manning up and asking me personally. So in the true style of my zine I contacted them giving them a piece of mind. I can't recall anything specifically as it was around 10 years ago now but I’m sure it had lots of swearing in it and derogatory remarks because well, that's how I roll.

Several months later my band at the time was set to play the infamous Cleveland hardcore fest (the much talked about One Life Crew "riot"). I'm standing at a urinal taking care of business and a husky guy walks up and asks if I'm EMS. So I responded with a "Yeah, who are you?." Turns out he's the drummer of Disembodied and he was looking for me. Immediately I'm like "Oh man, here we go. Time to back up all the shit I talked to these guys" (even though he probably would have demolished me). He goes on to tell me how they got my mail and were all confused as to why this kid in PA would write a letter so pissed off at them. It turns out that the band didn't even really know the kid who was speaking on their behalf and that they got the questions but someone was probably just too lazy to finish it. We then washed up, shook hands, and I went and met the rest of the band who over the following years became some of my great friends. My band went on to tour with Disembodied in 1999 and then went on tour with their newer band Martyr A.D. While I was filling in for Stretch Arm Strong I once again got to tour with the revamped Martyr A.D. as always having a fucking blast with all of the guys and girl from Mpls. So in one sense I'm glad I wrote that juvenile letter to them because otherwise I would never have had the opportunity to meet such fun loving people and talented musicians who unfortunately always seem to run into bad luck with their bands.


l to r: Chris Bazan (now in The AKAs), me with some seriously nappy hair, Tara (bass) who broke her ankle on tour, & her now husband Joel (guitar), Sept 1999.

These 5 songs are from Disembodied's first CD "Existence in Suicide" released on Furface Records. It was recorded in Feb of 1995. From what I remember I think only 1,000 of these were pressed. Hearing it today still gives me the same feelings it did 10 years ago. I'm just glad I didn't have to wind up fighting their drummer Justin because he was a fucking maniac and would have destroyed me!!!


1. "Scorn"
2. "Shattered"
3. "Asura"
4. "Invisible"
5. "Existence"

12 comments:

MIKEMEANSWAR said...

Off to a great start, EMS.

An Attitude Exhumed said...

Awesome. Keep this shit live!!!!

Carter said...

Great first selection. Good luck.

Anonymous said...

shit man, i read an interview to you made by artie from milhouse/indecision and released in an spanish hardcore fanzine like 6-7 years ago...i really liked it and i hope you keep doing this shit...

EMS / COREGASM said...

thanx for props guys... also DESINTEGRADO, i dont think that interview was with me as i dont remember ever meeting that guy. might have been one of the other guys??? not too sure! thanx for checking this out!

Anonymous said...

sometimes i have a lossy memory, i have found the fanzine and the interview it's made by adele of I stand Alone Zine, in my zine there is actually an interview to yuppicide made by artie milhouse, and i somehow mistook it

:)))

EMS / COREGASM said...

oh yeah, def ISA. great zine and Adele rules. Such an awesome person!

Tre Till Death said...

Haha. You said "HUSKY GUY"

Mike T said...

im glad you washed your hands before shaking... glad to see you use proper hygine.

Mike T said...

that was me EMS.

Anonymous said...

The El'n'Gee will rise again. Only this time it won't be a cocaine shithole where all the money went into the bar and you plugged your amp into the wall at 2:30 on a Sunday afternoon for ten kids dressed like Earth Crisis and a couple of old Metalheads so drunk they actually think the band on stage that sounds just like Black Sabbath actually IS Black Sabbath. All I need is the cash and to track down Ryan from Crossthread so we can get Die My Will back together and have a show where Bryan Fair AND the dude that recorded vocals on 'Somber Eyes to the Sky' rip it with Shadows Fall AND Overcast. We'll all beat the shit out of One-Shoe Lou and shoot hoops with 7000 Dying Rats after the show.
And, Uh...nice fuckin' blog and shit.
UNITY

JVK said...

i met and hung out with Justin at the fireside in chicago and bought Existence in Suicide from him... to this day they are my favorite all time.
EMS, we met up in michigan at a xdicplex show back in 96 or so... some friends and i put on shows and ran a now defunct record label back then.
Thanks for the mp3's its been years since i heard this album.