Troy, NY

With all the fuss I make about the 20+ year-old musical sub-genre affectionately known as troycore, I thought I would give everyone some valuable insight into the city behind the name. The original home of Uncle Sam, it is coined rather accurately in the first video I have linked today as "the city that modernization forgot." From the boarded-up buildings and the various bums meandering the streets downtown, to the unflattering nickname of "troylets" for its citizens and the rumors that there's "something in the water," it seems not exactly the friendliest place upon first glance. However I have known many stand-up individuals who call this place home, amazing bands who were birthed here - Stigmata, Burning Human and Dying Breed, just to name a few - and it's a city rich in history and it's own bizarre underbelly of subculture.

To start off this video tour de force, a hilarious mockumentary on the sights to see in lovely Troy, NY:



Deserving more than just an honorable mention, stand-up individual and all around cool dude Mike V. owned and operated the Hudson Duster, an amazing and ultimately weird little hole in the wall venue. With a regrettably short lifespan of only 3 or 4 years, it closed down due to some unfortunate circumstances. I remember being upset at the news, not only because it was such a rad place, but because this was merely weeks before my 21st birthday. I had been waiting to tackle the "Brick by Brick Burger," a huge houseburger that could win the buyer a free pitcher of beer if completely consumed. Sadly, I never got to attempt this feat.

The Hudson Duster was one of my favorite venues ever, second only to Valentiens which is still thankfully running to this day. Being a mere 14 feet wide and sort of a narrow hall with a second-story stage, it housed many awesome shows in its hayday. Inevitably the loose regulations and allowance of completely and total chaos in such a small area played part in its downfall although I think we all knew it was too good to last forever. I remember some great shows, such as the Brick by Brick and Save Yourself show which is highlighted below, and a last-minute Walls of Jericho and Bury Your Dead gig due to a huge snow-storm which stopped the bands from making their Buffalo date (this was of course before both bands turned into almost completely unlistenable crap, in my humble opinion). I saw people moshed into fireplaces, kids jump off of bars, dive off of pool tables, and so many things that made it incredibly dangerous by undeniably awesome at the same time. Here is the best video I could find that really captures just how nuts this place could get, big props to the creator of it:


R.I.P. The Hudson Duster, the only venue I've ever known run by hardcore for hardcore.

And lastly, just for laughs:


Troy is full of individualistic citizens whom hold firmly to their freedoms.


It's not where I grew up, but it's just a short drive away. Troy has been and always will be an historic city, but much like the rest of Upstate New York, it is most likely doomed to relative obscurity. Here's hoping for a new wave of insanely talented musicians



Modern troycore bands of note:

Brick by Brick
Murderer's Row
Last Call


P.S. I don't take credit for any of these pictures or videos, I just wanted to compile them for those curious. I highly recommend checking out all the bands I mentioned, because even 6000+ miles from home I'm still representing Upstate!

P.S.S. Stigmata and Burning Human are playing with my old band Damnation Alley back home in a next week, and I expect all my friends reading this who are going to mosh in my absence. Thanks.

Roadtrips, recording sessions, and really ridiculous ragers. [warning: very not-Japan related]

I would like to introduce this blog, as the little warning so succinctly states, as a testament to my friends, my bandmates both current and former, and anyone and everyone who has shared with me in the past a love of hardcore music and shows. My life is approaching some huge changes, and although I'm already making premature plans for starting some projects in Tokyo with my friend Ian, nothing will ever be the same as New York. So, from a guy who has been going to shows since he was 14, ran and indexed a website with pictures of local bands for 4 years, and has quite literally felt his life heavily impacted and changed by hardcore music and the people involved with it, this is my current story and a nostalgic gander of appreciation to the past, with a tinge of blind hope for the future.

Roadtrips-

Some of the best and worst times of my life have been roadtrips. The roadtrip is by nature an unpredictable animal. If you really think about it, you're flying down 100s of miles of pavement in a metal box with several other bio-organisms like yourself, all equally succeptible to injury or fatallity at the hand of an irresponsible driver, whether he's in your car or not. But then again, risk is one of those things that just makes life exciting, now isn't it?

Traveling to Hellfest 2002 in Syracuse, my first real roadtrip with John Torn (an enigmatic character whose personality may only be described as indubitable) to Glens falls in his "spaceship" van in 2001 to see Locked in a Vacancy if I remember rightly, and all the trips in between from Pennsylvania to Virginia Beach to Rhode island have been memorable experiences for me. The worse ones include people falling asleep due to heavy ingestion of White Castle at 1pm before leaving New Jersey, and the fact that we would have all died several times had I not be forcefully holding my eyelids open as the others slept in the back, and the driver almost slept at the wheel.

The roadtrip I took yesterday is one I personally hope to never forget, as it was with a unique group of individuals whom I've had the privilige of writing music with over the last 7 months. Former band members of a previous project I was involved in called Save Yourself include Chris and the aforementioned JT are both creative individuals, the former being the best bass player I've ever got to write with, the latter a maniacal lyricist who actually believes in passion and genuineness of his verse, a rare quality nowadays. Our drummer Josh I've known for many years although not nearly as well as I should have, he has much like myself truly come into his own writing style and "leveled up" quite well over the years. Finally Dave, who unfortunately couldn't play on the record due to a pinched nerve (a guitarists worst enemy next to carpel tunnel and tendinitis) was good enough to come along anyway, and I'm certainly glad he did.

If you don't already know, I've played guitar for almost 10 years, self-taught, not a by-the-books musician by any means. I love my ESP LTD and my 5150 head w/ mesa boogie speaker cabinet almost as much as life itself.

Our trip was to Brookline, just outside of Boston, Massachussettes, where former guitarist of One King Down (A straight edge/animal liberation-themed hardcore band of the late '90s from Albany) Mike Scoville, a talented individual and man I greatly admire, was kind enough to produce our demo for one of his classes in Sound Engineering, and for lack of a better word, it ruled.


Recording sessions-

I've recorded 4 times before in my life, and it's always an experience full of mixed affect: love, hate, frustration, relief, over-analysis, and ear-strain. We arrived at 3pm, and after about 2 hours of setting up drum mics (if you've never been in a studio before, that's incredibly fast for setting up mics,) something like 18 including 5 aerial microphones which greatly excited me, we began to lay down drum, guitar and bass tracks. We pushed on far into the night around 12:45 before we actually left for home, and I can't stress enough the saint-like patience of individuals who gruellingly review the same 3 seconds of music dozens of times or with dozens of takes to "punch in" a proper take of a musical track. It's no easy task and one I don't think I could ever do myself.

After many, many takes and corrections we actually hammered out all 6 songs we wrote, plus one super-secret cover song, and even though we're going back in a month to finish lead guitars, vocals and mixing, we definitely accomplished an impressive amount.

Really ridiculous ragers-

Rager: (As defined by me) The expression or outlet of volatile emotional discharge through a creative process that may include singing, screaming, playing an instrument, or many various physical and mental activities. The result leaves you feeling cleansed of repressed emotions, devoid of previous overwhelming frustration, and altogether better than before the rager.

This process of raging is how I'd like to define all the music I've ever written, but especially this last project, possibly my last New York-based band for a long time. We had so much fun writing and hanging out together, that it almost feels a shame to stop now. But, with Josh moving to Oregon in 2 weeks, and me moving in 5, it's time to say goodbye to the NY music scene, which is basically the same as saying goodbye to family and friends. I've made so many great friends along this wild ride. It was in hardcore music I found people I could finally relate to, words that meant something to me, and inspiration to stop taking life as it came and start changing thigns for the better. Every single person who has been involved with me in music project, and every single friend who I've even only ever seen at shows, have all impacted and inspired me with their individuality and desire to just be themselves, and not conform to what is easily accepted, normal or expected. And so with this post I begin the end of my "music career" in New York, although past projects have had rather underwhelming results it has all meant the world to me, and been some of the most fun that I have ever had.


Some info and links:

My current band: Damnation Alley (free downloadable demo coming in August)

Previous band that was my favorite: Save Yourself (R.I.P., and Josh Turner start a new band already, please)