GATEKEEPER "1994 Demo" Cass

In the early 90s the Hardline movement was flourishing. Vegan Straight Edge was at an all time high, and boy did a lot of people get annoyed with them. Regardless of me not necessarily adhering to many of their "guidelines" I did however enjoy a lot of the bands from those days. Even if most of them pretty much flaked out and turned into what most of their lyrics were about.

Syracuse hardcore was no stranger to the Veg-Edge movement. Around the same time Earth Crisis was starting out there was another band with some of the same members called Framework. Framework was more melodic vocally and musically but backed by the same ideals. Vocalist Shane Durgee had a very distinct vocal style. Framework made a decent mark over their span with 2 7"s and a CD.

It seemed like vocalist Shane went through a string of bands after Framework that just didn't seem to stick. Many of them would produce a demo and not go much further than that. Gatekeeper was no exception. I'm sure they probably played a few local shows but other than that I don't know if people outside of the 'Cuse would have heard of them. I believe that the guitarist Dave was also in Green Rage who had a 7" out on Shane's label. You can hear a lot of similarities between the 2 bands musically. The drums are a little rough in spots as it seems like he can't quite pull off his beats as heard in the beginning of track 3. Regardless this was a decent demo for the time and continued the Syracuse Vegan Straight Edge legacy. This demo was recorded June 1st 1994 at Penguin Studios.


1. "Filth"
2. "One Million Incisions"
3. "The Flames of Salvation"
4. "Vigilante"

NEW SCHOOL "Strategy Rhyme 1991" Cass

WARNING: This post contains white people rapping and playing slap bass. You were warned.

The year was 1991, the band was called NEW SCHOOL, the demo tape is called "Strategy Rhyme 1991". They had no shame in their game. New School came out hard and had fun while doing it. The couple times I saw this band the show turned into a huge party of people just freaking out, bouncing around, and having a good, unpretentious time.

If you couldn't stomach the Dog Eat Dog post, or the Mucky Pup post, or perhaps any of the music I prefer, maybe you should eat a bowl of dicks and get out of my blog! But seriously folks... NEW SCHOOL is not for everyone, but at the age when I saw them, the positive vibe the crowd had, and the groups energetic live show, the memory of this band just stands out in my mind.

According to their contact address they were from Forest Hills, NY, wherever that may be. I believe they had another demo tape but other than that I don't know. Enjoy the Strategy Rhyme, you'll be pumpin your fist in no time. Play that funky music white boy.


1. "Mark My Words"
2. "Grungy Groove"
3. "White Collar Fool"
4. "Strategy Rhyme"

v/a THIS TOWN WE OWN an Albany, NY Compilation

In the early '90s one of my favorite records stores was It's Only Rock And Roll located in Lemoyne, PA. I would go there and buy just about anything that I had somewhat heard of, or the band thanked other good bands I liked, or hell even if the cover looked "punk or hardcore". This was one of those instances.

I had a 7" from Intent and had also heard some of Substances stuff so I picked up this comp. It has a nice mix of punk and hardcore bands from the albany area. Ranging from bands that sound like they could be on Dischord Records (Glee Club, Intent) to the harshness of Substance, and then you have the unique Terrorcake track that I absolutely love. I always wished I could find more songs from Terrorcake but over the past 15+ years have not been successful. Anyway, enjoy the comp, I definitely did. Released by RAKE Records.


1. TERRORCAKE "Intricate"
2. GLEE CLUB "Diafraggem"
3. INTENT "Flaw"
4. SUBSTANCE "Thorn In My Side"
5. VERTEBRAE "Jittery City"

SWITCH STYLE "s/t" 7"

In 1996 I released the final issue of Surprise Attack Fanzine. In that issue I interviewed an awesome band from Japan called Switch Style who had a real Strife meets Refused sound going. They were super nice guys and put out awesome music. They were supposed to release an EP on Life Setence Records but that never happened for who knows what reason. This is their 7" released on a Japanese label called HG Fact records (#41), I think it's pretty sweet. If anyone has info on what happened to this band and if any of the members went on to form newer bands let a cracka know.


1. "Pass"
2. "Distance"
3. "We Just Testify"
4. "Why Can We Hate?"

THE ICEMEN "buried alive" 7"

I know, I said I was going to go on a spree of European bands but I changed my mind. You see it's my blog, my rules... twats. One of the main reason was that I made a list of Euro bands to feature and had at least 30 band names. So I figured I would just litter them in now and then. I did however get off my ass and made a road trip to radio shack to pick up some new RCA cables that are long enough to reach my computer from my stereo. Yup, I'm ripping vinyl again so expect some gems. I easily pulled out 75 different 7"s for the first string of rippage. Here's a quick one for ya, let me know how you feel about the quality as I feel like I'm starting to get a good balance.

If you've been reading this blog since it's inception you'll remember the feature I did on THE ICEMEN. Man did that get a lot of downloads! Well by request here's their 2 songs from their 7" on Twilite Records entitled "Buried Alive". I personally feel that these songs just don't add up to the "R.I.P." ep but they are still decent. For some reason they just aren't as memorable, but that doesn't mean they aren't good. Check them out and you decide. My 7" doesn't have a lyric sheet, does anyone know if it came with one? There really isn't much info available on this band. Little mishap: on the back of the 7" the Track listing for Side A & B are flipped as to what they are on the record. Woops! The copyright looks like it says 1991 & 1995 so I'm guessing these are from '91 originally.


1. "Fire N' Ice"
2. "Buried Alive"

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Previous post update: Josh Woods (guitarists of Initial Reaction) also checked out Coregasm and posted in the blog about his band and what he's up to these days. You can read his response here. I'm glad that they got the chance to see people still appreciate music they made many moons ago.