Reprinted from Living #1
Those of you familiar with the local hardcore scene have probably heard of Slugfest. If not look into them. They’ve definitely got their own sound. Hard and original not like many of the generic bands around the world. This interview was done a few months back with Scott Vogel at our school. I strongly suggest looking into buying their demo!!!!!
Living (L): What’s your current lineup?
Scott (S): Jay – guitar
John Geib – guitar
John R. – drums
Andy – bass
Scott (me) – vocals
L: How long have you been together?
S: We’ve been together for about five months with a solid line-up.
L: Have any of you been in any other bands?
S: Members of Slugfest have been in: The Pinheads Assault Squad, Lost Cause and The Toenails.
L: What got you motivated to start Slugfest?
S: Seeing some of the local bands like Solid State made me want to play in a good hardcore band.
L: What bands do you listen to? Favorites?
S: Other members listen to D.R.I., M.O.D., The Accused, Rush, Kiss, Black Sabbath, My personal favorites are: No For An Answer, Uppercut, and Brotherhood.
L: Any influences?
S: We are influenced by tons of bands, because Slugfest is made up of a variety of people. I don’t think we really sound like any other band.
L: What viewpoints are you trying to express?
S: We’re not a straight edge band, or vegetarian. The lyrics are somewhat negative because of all the bullshit I see.
L: How do you feel about the local scene?
S: The Buffalo scene is great. There’s a lot of great kids and bands. The only thing that gets me down is when no one shows up at smaller shows. Discontent is a great local band, the Against All Hope demo is good, and No Joke may have some vinyl soon.
L: Do you have any other interests other than music?
S: I just go to school, make pizzas at work, play drums, listen to records and go out with friends.
L: What can we look for in the future from Slugfest?
S: A new demo soon, more t-shirts, some out of town shows.
L: Is there any goals, music wise, you’d like to achieve?
S: In a year or so we would like to put out a 7″, but who knows about that.
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Reprinted from Blindside #1
What is the line up of Against All Hope?
Tim: Me and Phil on guitar, dean plays drums, Flip plays bass and Poppey croons.
Flip: I like to line up behind Poppey naked.
How long has Against All Hope been together?
Poppey: Well, we started in 1987, 1988. We were a punk band called Bastard Squad. Back then we were influenced by early punk rock bands, and classic young hardcore bands like SSD and DYS. For a few years we had our ups and downs until about three years ago things started to go our way. There were many times we wanted to give up, but we stuck with it, and it paid off because now we are all happy and comfortable with what we are doing.
Tim: Yeah, we started awhile back and have gone through a lot of line up changes. It is going the best right now, so we like it.
What has been the response of your 7″?
Tim: Apparently the 7″ went over very well. I think Curt (Round Flat Records) has pressed it three of four times by now. Plus I have been told by some people that the stuff on that is better than some of our recent stuff but those people are few and far between. I don’t think it compares.
Flip: The girls respond pretty good to my 7″.
Poppey: I guess it sold pretty good. I heard most of the sales were in Europe (Germany).
Flip: I also heard that.
Phil: But then again it’s kind of hard to believe anything Curt says!
What kind of ideas does Against All hope try to express though your music?
Flip: Well Lawrence Lambchops, I just wanna say that Iron Maiden isn’t into devil worshipping and everyone thinks they are and that’s wrong.
Tim: We all sort of collaborate on lyrics so there isn’t just one main message but it tends to be more personal. I just don’t want to do it in a cliche manner.
Poppey: I think it is definately personal, but if you know the lyrics or read them, you will grasp the concept.
Phil: I have to agree with Poppey.
When do you plan on releasing the full length cassette?
Flip: Who the fuck knows!? It was supposed to be out in like October. It’ll probably be available in like two years.
Tim: Right now we are pretty pissed off about the whole, “It’ll be out by Halloween” thing so we are looking at someone who may put out the cassette and most likely at a cheaper price. Right on.
Poppey: I’m pretty upset. For awhile when we first recorded I was excited but no I’m disappointed. I just hope it comes out as soon as possible, but it’s up in the air right now.
Phil: Since it took so long for us to finish this interview, the tape is out on Third Party Productions and there will be 100 limited edition copies and then the tape will come out as it’s whole.
What do you think of the Buffalo scene?
Flip: I’m not gonna say anything bad because I got in trouble in the past for doing so but it could be better, could be worse. People are gonna have to realize that the scene isn’t just a big fucking Boys Club.
Tim: I think it’s ok, but it would be better if we got our shit together.
Poppey: I think it’s pretty cool. I’m happy with it because it is the only thing we got.
Phil: If more people would go to local shows, maybe the scene might grow, but because people would rather party on Friday and Saturday nights than see a local show, the scene is dying and the only packed shows are when big bands come around and no parties are going on.
What are Against All Hope’s influences?
Flip: Iron Maiden.
Tim: I don’t think that we are influenced as a band but I think at times each of us brings our own influence with us. Brian Baker rips. Oh yeah, and Iron Maiden.
Poppey: I have to agree with Tim. Right now, at this moment, I don’t think we are influenced by other bands. I can sit here and write a list four pages long stating what bands I like, but I don’t feel influenced by any of them too much. But I’ll tell you this, one band that won’t be on my list is Iron Maiden.
Phil: I definately agree with Flip but I don’t think any other bands are responsible for Against All Hope’s sound.
Does Against All Hope plan on going on tour?
Flip: We have problems getting local shows. It would be nice to tour but it’s just a pain in the ass setting one up (transportation, getting off work, etc).
Tim: Hopefully we can get a label that can get our stuff out here in the states. If we do, then I’m sure we will be able to.
Phil: I will do anything so it’s not up to me. I can leave tomorrow and never come back but others have commitments such as work or school, but hopefully in the summer we will tour.
What is in the future for Against All Hope?
Flip: Send out the eleven songs we just recorded and hopefully get on a somewhat decent label.
Tim: Keep playing shows and get the tape out and we’ll take it from there.
What do you guys do in your free time?
Flip: Drink coffee, go fishing, play video games, build model rockets and fart a lot.
Beth: I go out for coffee with the boys, watch the boys play video games, argue about the Buffalo Bills, play the football game at JNC. Also, I assist the boys in masturbation.
Tim: Ride skateboards and snowboards, dabble in other small side bands and do very bad in school. School sucks. I hang out with Jackie (my girlfriend) and Hollis and the boys. I also have a small clothing company called Punching Tree so be on the lookout for good threads.
Jenn: They hang out with these awesome girls by the names of Jenn, Jackie and Beth. We are the backbone of Against All Hope. Without us, they’d be nowhere.
Phil: I watch tv, play video games, get tattoos, make four track tapes, and argue with Dean.
Poppey: In my free time, I do nothing. I am a loser! The only time I have fun is when I drink a can of Coors Lite!!!
Flip: Me too and I have a crack pipe.
Any closing comments?
Poppey: Thanks and goodbye.
Tim: I just want to thank everyone for their support because we’ve gotten quite a bit. So, thanks to those people for their help setting up shows and interviews. People can get in touch with us at: (address left out).
Phil: Anyone who reads this interview, please start or keep going to shows no matter who is playing so that we can have more shows in Buffalo. Buy Gumhead!
Thom: Straight Jacket – relentless, relentless, relentless.
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Reprinted from Open Season #3.
In the last issue of Open Season, there was a distinct lack of local coverage, so we decided to remedy that in #3. We here at O.S. are guilty as charged in regards to ignoring local talent (esp. Rochester), and we will continue to ignore local bands as we see fit. If you don’t like it, then start your own zine, dickhead. However, there are some bands in this area that just can’t be ignored. One such band is Buffalo’s Zero Tolerance. Believe me, I’ve tried for years to ignore ‘em, and with the release of their ‘Fuel The Fire’ cassette. I just couldn’t do it anymore. It pleases me to no end when hardcore bands can generate twice as much power as most of the generic deathmetal garbage out there, and do it in an intelligent, or at least INTELLIGIBLE manner. ZT has been at it for the better part of four years, and has put in their fair share of hardcore dues. Here’s what they had to say after a show in Rochester with a couple of unoriginal, unitelligible deathmetal bands.
Open Season: You haven’t played Rochester in quite some time, how do you think the show went tonight?
Mark Bellanca (vocals): Well, we’re pretty happy with the way things went. We usually play to a big crossover scene where there’s a lot of metalhead kids here tonight which is cool. Our sound is more metal, we don’t play in the death style. We like to work with both crowds.
O.S.: How would you say Rochester has changed since the last time you played here (summer of ‘89)?
Mike Robinson (guitarist): It’s a different crowd.
Mark: The Rochester metal scene is really cool, it’s always been really big, but… the hardcore scene here is weird. Sometimes it’s like ‘punks not dead’, other times it’s cool, sometimes it’s not, you know? It’s changed for the better, I think. The bands here, they used to have those hippy bands… But we’re happy with it.
O.S.: What happened with the drummer? (They chuckle)
Mark: What happened with the drummer? Well, many things happened with Darren, you don’t have enough tape to tell you all of ‘em, but he basically just didn’t get along with us and we couldn’t deal with a person like that so we decided to make a change. For the better. We got a guy that we can hang out with, and he’s a pain in the ass right now (laughs). Not only did we get a guy that works better with us, we got a guy who slows things down and can grove more instead of always trying to speed things up like Darren.
O.S.: You guys do your own management now. Why don’t you tell us a little about that.
Mike: It’s always better to keep things concentrated within the band then you know what goes on. When you get an outsider, someone you can’t trust, things get all fucked up… I don’t know what was being said, what kind of comments were being made from people of importance, and now the comments are made directly to band members.
O.S.: So you basically eliminated the middle man.
Mike: Right. It’s harder this way, but we got the tour with Shelter on our own-
Eddy (guitarist): And hopefully we’re gonna get the tour this summer on our own.
O.S.: What are some of the bigger bands that you’ve had good experiences gigging with?
Mike: Cro-Mags, Biohazard…
Mark: Just about everyone we’ve played with we’ve had good experiences with. Sick Of It All has been really helpful to us, Biohazard’s been good to us, Cro-Mags were cool, Vio-Lence, almost every band we seem to get along with. So we’ve been kind of fortunate in that respect.
O.S.: You’ve played NYC a couple of times, how does the NY crowd differ from the Upstate audience?
Mark: The NY crowd differs from everywhere in the country. When you say “HARDCORE”, that’s where it comes from. And it’s hard. And there’s dudes that will mess you up. And… it’s kind of cool. It’s nice that you have young kids, but sometimes the young kids, especially as you get older you see these little kids making comments and stuff, and you look back and think that’s kind of ridiculous. But yeah, their scene’s huge there, they’ve got a lot of great bands, it’s very established…it’s a lot older crowd as well. You’ve got a lot of guys from their upper teens to mid-twenties in that scene and older. In most scenes, like Buffalo, and Rochester, they have younger scenes, Syracuse, they’re younger kids you know?
O.S.: It seems like the gang violence thing kinda blew over in NYC. You don’t think it’ll carry over up here?
Mark: Nah, because like you said it’s mostly just young kids, just like suburban, kids that’re into the music, but they’re more like Quicksand softy kids than (I laugh) which is alright, you know, we’re not here, this isn’t a gang contest, God forbid it was, you’d have people getting slain all over the place. Especially the people that talk so much crap. But I really don’t think that’s happening, NYC’s a different situation, I don’t think you can compare the two. There’s Eric, if you want to ask Eric a question. Ugly’s here!
O.S.: Ok. What did you think about Cypress Hill being in that issue of ‘High Times’?
Eric Rice (bassist): I loved it.
Mark: Check it out, Cypress Hill is gonna go on tour with Sick Of It All down in Florida. They’re an awesome band, whether they smoke pot or not, they’ve got good beats, good rhymes…
Eric: Plus they smoke pot! (laughing)
(We talk about Cypress for a bit, then they bring over a case of Corona.)
Mark: Hey, let’s sell this instead of drinkin’ it! (they bicker for awhile, then drink ‘em.)
O.S.: You got a really good production on that tape, how’d you do it, and was it economical for you?
Mike: We had someone helping us out financially, the person backing Criteria Records. The way the production is, we went into the studio a number of times so we had experience. I got ripped off, that 7″, if anyone knows about that, it’s horrible. That cost us as much as it cost to do the tape. The guy from the Goo Goo Dolls did it (the 7″), he came in drunk, and ruined our sound. But now we’ve got better musicianship, and we’re the tightest we’ve ever been. Once you’ve got the musicianship, you can work on the production, and that’s what happened.
O.S.: What’re the other guys that were in the band on the 7″, what are they doing now?
Mike: They’re all softies now! (laughing)
Eric: They just couldn’t hang. John’s cool though.
Mark: That’s what John wanted to do, he didn’t want to play the harder stuff that we do. He’s more into a mellow, Fugazi type thing. We’re happy for him. You gotta play what you’re into. We like playing the hardest stuff we could possibly write. That’s what we’re into.
O.S.: What about the professor guy?
(they laugh)
Eric: He just can’t hang.
O.S.: Did you used to teach? (to Mark)
Mark: I was a social worker.
O.S.: People used to say you taught Freshmen English.
Mark: Naw, that was Andy. I worked with emotionally disturbed kids.
O.S.: Like the ones at this show! (laughter)
Mark: Like the guys in my band, like Eric!
(We talk about Buffalo.)
Mark: The best venue they ever had was the Skyroom. (I beg to differ. -ed.) The best sound, it could hold a ton of people, tons of kids would show up, good crossover shows too.
O.S.: Eric, you used to be in S.A.O. Did you have fun with that?
Eric: Definitely. I loved it. It was intense.
O.S.: (to Mark) Rumors of your Krishna beliefs have been greatly blown out of proportion. What, if anything, does it mean to you?
Mark: Well, I don’t live in a temple anymore, I was a monk for awhile, I lived in a temple for about five months, now there’s a teaching (?) center starting in Buffalo. I wouldn’t call, I’m not the leading example of a devotee right now, but Krishna’s still my supreme personal godhead, I’m always thankful to him, as well as my [swami-something] in Toronto. They’re almost my true family. That’s the way I feel, and I always will too.
O.S.: In what ways has it benefitted you?
Mark: It’s shown me a lot of different things. It’s shown me what the material world really has in store for you, and let me tell you, it isn’t much. You can get by it, it shows you how temporary things really are. And as well as for myself, the kind of false ego I used to have, and still do have.
O.S.: (to Mike) You guys move around a lot on stage. Did you like Eddie Van Halen when you were younger?
Mike: Nah, I liked The Who and Pete Townsend and Roger Daltry! Those dudes went nuts when they played. I was an athlete in high school and college, and I think that probably contributed to it also. I can’t stand still on stage. I have fun like that, and I wouldn’t want it any other way.
Bill Tonon: What do you use for equipment?
Mike: I play on a Pierce amplifier which is Buffalo made, Rocktron XDC(sp.?) for my distortion…
Mark: (interupting) Why do you use Crates?
Mike: Becasue Marshall SUCKS! Make sure you put that in!! Marshall cabinets are just a name, and their cabinets suck!!! That’s all.
O.S.: Ok, I try to make it to a fair amount of Buffalo shows, and it seems at first like you guys are always up there playing at everyone of ‘em. But then I look a little closer and I’m like, ‘wait a minute, that’s not Eric on bass. That’s not Mark signing.’
A2J2: It’s SnapTolerance!
Mark: Yeah. Make sure you put that in.
O.S.: What the fuck is it with these Buffalo hardcore bands? With the exception of No Alibi, wanna look like, wanna dress like, wanna sound like…
Mike: They even steal our fuckin riffs! I hear songs with stuff I wrote.
Eric: Like Snapcase…
Mark: I don’t know, you’d have to ask them, we don’t bite.
Mike: Truthfully, we’d like to wipe everyone out, but if we did that, there’d be no one left to laugh at.
Mark: It’s like, what can you do, you know? We must be doing something right if everyone wants to copy us.
O.S.: Dude, it’s like they’re paying homage at the temple of Tolerance. (laughter)
Mark: (laughing) All glories to the Tolerance Temple!
Mike: They can try to imitate, but it just doesn’t come out right.
Ed: That’s right, because no one can spin like Mike!
Mark: (getting serious) It’s true though. I mean, we notice it, and we don’t really want to be dicks about it, but this is our sound. Even if you look back at the 7″, which wasn’t the best sounding, you can see that the riffs were harder, heavier, a little slower… and that’s the same way we are now, only tighter.
Mike: Now with the new drummer we’re more controlled, with a lot more rhythm. Darren was just too hyper. He was a hyper kid and that showed in his drum playing…
(we talk about A Minute To Pray, Ghetto Boys)
O.S.: You guys should sample that music from ‘Rollerball’.
Mark: ‘Tokyo!Tokoyo!’ Yeah, I’d like to play Rollerball with a couple of bands. (laughter)
O.S.: How was playing Florida?
All: Awesome.
Mike: We’re jonesing for it right now.
Eric: Florida’s where my heart is.
Mark: It was cool, we played like four shows down there. Miami’s awesome, just to be in Miami alone is cool. Then we played all to these kids. In Tampa, Obituary came out to check us out, which was cool, we met ‘em when we were up there…
Mike: A lot of old Buffalo people were there like that band Thaw, Malevalant (sp.?) Creation.
O.S.: (smiling) I heard it’s violent in Florida.
Mark: Ah, well, I think it can be you know, there are gangs and stuff. When we went down there I met these gangs called, uh, Latin Disciples, then I met this thing called the CCC, Crazy Cuban Connection. (Eric laughs) I guess some of ‘em are into it for real, which is cool. It’s pretty much everywhere, our society is based on violence. I’m not condoning it, look at the way this land settled. (Background noise drowns out the interview for a brief but annoying moment.) You go everywhere and you’ll see bad shit.
Mike: After man conquered the land, he had nothing left to conquer but man, so he just kept going.
O.S.: What’s that bullshit in MRR, some punk motherfucker trying to call you guys racist, etc. That’s the oldest trick in the book, to try to bring bands down.
Mike: I don’t know where whoever wrote that letter got that from. It’s fuckin’ ridiculous. We’ve got so many black friends…
Mark: It’s like you said, it’s a cheap shot to try to take a bite out of us. I mean, before you see people copying us, other people get jealous and instead of trying to copy us they try to bite at us. By tearing you down, you know, the easiest thing to do in this world is criticize.
O.S.: MRR likes to promote, and fuel rumors like that. Especially if you’re from New York.
Eric: Yeah, they like to promote it, but we had an ad in there, they took our ad, cut it up, they put what they wanted in it. They put the wrong address.
Mark: Then they said we settled with them.
Eric: Which is impossible, because we were out on tour at the time. The guy was being an ass about it, talkin about I gotta give him more money. They call us fuckin capitalists, but they’re no better. They can’t even give us a reprint on an ad they themselves fucked up on us. The cut up our ad for what? to make room for the Radicts?!
Mark: This huge dumb punk rock band from NYC, this huge skyline advertisement, and cuts our ad in half…and these people, you know, they start making these racist comments, out of nowhere, it’s almost insulting to have to explain it.
Eric: Exactly. Because I listen to S.O.D.?!!
Mark: Anyone who’s seen us on tour, they know the deal. And whoever wrote that, they’re not practicing what they preach either. What they are doing is using their publication for their pinnacle of power, and it’s sad.
O.S.: We’ll continue to drill on MRR in O.S. just as a matter of policy, because we feel like it.
Mike: We sent in a tape and they wouldn’t review a tape. Fuck ‘em.
Mark: And it’s also because I’m a devotee, and was living in a temple, that might have something to do with that. They won’t give Shelter any time at all. They won’t even put in ads for Shelter, they won’t review their records. And they said the Equal Vision fanzine, which is of the best fanzines out, if you ever want to read it and see awesome pictures and layout, they reviewed it and said ‘easy to tear and even better to throw’ or some shit. You meet Vic, and he’s one of the greatest guys you’ll ever meet. They’re jerks.
O.S.: What’s ‘Back To Square One’ about?
Mark: It’s a look at progress, or digress if you wanna call it, of society. It’s about the environment, how people, for their own greedy reasons are just taking things for granted, and this is what you have, this is the end result… you know, we’re a bunch of guys and all, but if you look at the big picture, it’s not so happy.
O.S.: It’s an election year, do you think it matters who wins?
Mark: Well,… I don’t see any candidates that are worthwhile. The one they got in there is a dog himself…they live, and some people act like animals, they get together, and they elect the biggest animal.
O.S.: (scrounging for questions) Any new bands you feel are worth mentioning?
Mark: No. A big fat no. Too many bands don’t have their own style, they want to ride off of everyone’s coattails and riffs. I don’t know, there’s some bands that I heard sound like us, some band on Nemesis called Point Blank, I heard they were kind of heavy, but then I heard they sound like old Bold. (mass laughter)
Eric: Damn, I hope we don’t sound like old Bold!
Mark: Yeah, Berserker is supposed to be pretty heavy. Which is what we like, that old style of hardcore, if that’s what you like to do, then fine, but we like that crossover style.
O.S.: Speaking of crossover, when I think of crossover I think of A.F., what did you think of that new A.F. record, since you’re gonna be in same issue with them?
Mark: Haven’t heard it yet. I still think their best record was the one with the cartoons on the cover, the one with ‘Eliminator’ on it. But they’re a legend, and I think the new record is going to sell well.
Eric: They’re a fuckin good band, and they fuckin stayed in their, and progressed…
O.S.: The thing that pisses me off is that these faggots like Nirvana got big and shit and A.F. has been around a lot longer.
Mark: It’s a big difference in sound, it’s not as offensive as Agnostic Front is or ZT is. I mean, I can’t see the majority of little guido girls going around ‘didja hear that new Agnostic Front?’ (laughter)
(We talk about Nirvana a bit more.)
O.S.: Do you think hardcore could get up there in popularity like that?
Mark: No. Not hardcore.
Mike: No. There’s no more talent left in hardcore. It’s just little kids now. Even bands like Sick Of It All, the Cro-Mags, they were never… the attitudes these kids have, the looks these kids have, it just seems like these kids could never become like Sick Of It All or Cro-Mags or Agnostic Front. It doesn’t seem that way to me. No dedication…
Mark: We’re not one of those bands that’ll say we never want to sell out. That whole sell-out thing is rediculous. It’s a bunch of talentless guys who say that.
Eric: I don’t see how you can sell out living in a capitalist society. I don’t understand that.
Mark: And look at Sick Of It All and Cro-Mags, they have been busting their balls for years. And we’re busting our butts now. I finished college, got my four year degree, I’m working now and it’s a pain in the ass.
O.S.: You guys are older than 1992’s average hardcore band, what’s your ages?
Mark: The other guys are like 21, 22, I’m 25. It adds a little more integrity to things, we’ve been around and we know what’s up, and we know what’s not.
O.S.: That’s why I like my fuckin zine, because I’m 22, and I’m gonna put this out for a long time.
Mike: You didn’t just come here, you didn’t just come out of the wood work.
O.S.(A2J2): So, what’s your names, and ages, what’s the line up of the band, and what are your influences? (laughter)
Mark: It’s like, what are your influences, who’s straight in the band? (groaning) The best fanzines are the ones with the most bizarre questions. And the good questions you ask, stuff people want to read, so many questions are like ‘how long has the line up been together’. You can read it a hundred times, it’s the same answer for every band.
(We talk about including porno in the next issue of O.S.)
O.S.: What kind of tour can we expect from Zero Tolerance?
Mark: Ah, something crossover, with a metal band, like our set tonight, it was mostly hardcore kids dancing, I don’t know, maybe because I don’t have cookie monster vocals. (laughter)
