[Androol]

http://www.myspace.com/charredremainsakamanisthebastard

fucking essential

[Inhuman]

Their music sounds really good! Thanks. Not a fan of the band name though, they should have left it just at "man is the bastard"

[atsonicpark]

hahaha

[Dead-Air]

Definitely an essential "post-hardcore" group, though I've always been into their spin-off project Bastard Noise better.

[Androol]

post-hardcore?! youre way off. thats shit on dischord like Regulator Watts, Crownhate Ruin, Fugazi, etc.

MITB is typically labeled as power-violence although they have a lot of different styles of course. appreciated you agree they are essential though.

yeah im still a n00b i can only really get into a couple of bastard noise songs.

[Dead-Air]

Originally Posted by Androol

post-hardcore?! youre way off. thats shit on dischord like Regulator Watts, Crownhate Ruin, Fugazi, etc.

Oh brother, we are now taking something as ambiguous as "post-hardcore" and limiting it to a handful of bands like a formula? There are lots of types of post-hardcore, on lots of different labels. The Sun City Girls are fucking "post-hardcore" for one very exotic example. They totally came out of the Phoenix hardcore scene, and played on indie comps and shows that featured the like of JFA, and they've never lost sight of they're antogonist roots. They just do it in a different way than Fugazi, The Ex (who were arguably "post-hardcore" back when hardcore started), or Lightning Bolt.

Power Violence is certainly a sub-genre of hardcore, which makes pretty much any Power Violence group post-hardcore.

[ni'k]

herd music nerd

[k-krack]

Originally Posted by Androol

post-hardcore?! youre way off. thats shit on dischord like Regulator Watts, Crownhate Ruin, Fugazi, etc.

MITB is typically labeled as power-violence although they have a lot of different styles of course. appreciated you agree they are essential though.

yeah im still a n00b i can only really get into a couple of bastard noise songs.

"Power-violence"?! What the fuck is "power-violence"?! There is absolutely no need for such ridiculous terms in fucking music, man. It's post-hardcore, whatever the fuck that even means, and that's as far as I, and anyone, should be willing to take the term. "Post-nu-power-core-straight-edge-indie-punk with some experimental-avante-garde-metalcore leanings." ...NO!

[k-krack]

Originally Posted by Dead-Air

Oh brother, we are now taking something as ambiguous as "post-hardcore" and limiting it to a handful of bands like a formula? There are lots of types of post-hardcore, on lots of different labels. The Sun City Girls are fucking "post-hardcore" for one very exotic example. They totally came out of the Phoenix hardcore scene, and played on indie comps and shows that featured the like of JFA, and they've never lost sight of they're antogonist roots. They just do it in a different way than Fugazi, The Ex (who were arguably "post-hardcore" back when hardcore started), or Lightning Bolt.

Power Violence is certainly a sub-genre of hardcore, which makes pretty much any Power Violence group post-hardcore.

What do you think of Bastard Noise by the way?

Thank-you! Even though you got it first, whatever. I'm backin' you up, I guess...

[Dead-Air]

Originally Posted by ni'k

herd music nerd

terd playing with werds

[golden child]

i like bastard noise.

[DJ Rick]

Originally Posted by k-krack

"Power-violence"?! What the fuck is "power-violence"?! There is absolutely no need for such ridiculous terms in fucking music, man. It's post-hardcore, whatever the fuck that even means, and that's as far as I, and anyone, should be willing to take the term. "Post-nu-power-core-straight-edge-indie-punk with some experimental-avante-garde-metalcore leanings." ...NO!

"Powerviolence" is not a new genre name. The name's been around since the early- to mid-90's. It's kinda funny how the word became a genre descriptor.

Slap-a-Ham Records began as a label in 1989 or so with the release of an album by the not-so-memorable melodic hardcore band No Use for a Name, which SAH founder Chris Dodge used to sing for at the time. Next up, he began releasing records that were combining elements that were previously not mixed together: thrash/HC, crust (of Scandinavian mid-80's descent), grind, death, proggy breakdowns, and hip hop breakdowns and samples. This music was strictly through a punk/HC perspective...not metal. Some of the early records were by bands like Neanderthal, Crossed Out, No Comment, Infest, and Charred Remains, who later changed their name to Man Is the Bastard.

No one had heard music quite like this before, although there were some precursors (even within MITB ancestry such as Pillsbury Hardcore and Pissed Happy Children) including the most metal-accessible moments of NoMeansNo and the proggier side of early Melvins. So, when record reviewers at MaximumRockandRoll attempted to describe it, they were often too perplexed to find the right words. One reviewer--finally through with throwing "brutal" around over and over--asked: "What is this music that Slap-a-Ham is releasing? Some kinda sonic powerviolence???"

In the next issue of MRR, Chris Dodge ran with the quote and adopted a new slogan which appeared across the top of his 5" square Slap-a-Ham advertisement: "Specializing in Sonic Powerviolence Since 1989."

Several reviewers and columnists there thought he was serious and continued calling it "sonic powerviolence" or just "powerviolence."

The music began centered in Claremont, CA, with the MITB family tree of bands, L.A. with the likes of No Comment, Infest, and others, and Redwood City, CA, with the Plutocracy family tree which hatched bands such as Spazz, No Less, Evolved to Obliteration, etc., and the SF Bay Area at large with Capitalist Casualties. It spread throughout the west coast through the proliferation of releases by Slap-a-Ham, Deep Six, and Pessimiser/Theologian, a collector frenzy which reached Japanese punk collectors quickly, and through a series of weekend festivals at 924 Gilman Street in Berkeley called Fiesta Grande. The music spread to the east coast and in a satirical reflection of East/West hip hop rivalries, a milieu of bands from Virginia to Boston would jokingly call themselves "East Coast Powerviolence," including Suppression, Black Army Jacket, Discordance Axis, Ulcer, and others. Sound Pollution Records would also be recognized as a main mover in powerviolence. Japan would naturally boast the largest contingent of bands from outside America with Fuck on the Beach, Slight Slappers, and others.

Many bands on the most extreme end of powerviolence would widen their influence funnels even further to advance (some would say reduce) their sound to more experimental fields such including noise. MITB would carry on as Bastard Noise, and other members would form Amps for Christ as their main post-MITB vehicle. Chris Dodge himself would do solo noise as Jesus Philbin and make the bizarre East/West Blast Test recordings with Discordance Axis' Dave Witte (later drummed with Melt Banana), and the band Suppression would descend into straight noise and make collab recordings with artists like Facialmess from Japan and even Crank Sturgeon.

While many futurists in the scene were getting more experimental, traditionalists in the scene were focusing more on celebrating the roots, especially Max Ward who hatched his label 625 Productions during the height of powerviolence but later focused almost strictly on very traditional thrash/HC a'la early D.R.I., the Neos, and his favorite Dutch bands such as Larm and Pandemonium. Along with Havoc Records outta Minneapolis, Max would pretty much teach HC history to a whole new generation.

With so many powerviolence principals moving in opposite directions, "powerviolence" sorta folded until recent moments of nostalgia have attempted to resurrect it.

What's also funny is that "powerviolence" is still only taken seriously up to a point even by critics who count themselves as fans, and thus, the word almost always appeared in quotation marks then and now.

[jonathan]

Man is the Bastard fucking rules. That band was still able to maintain artistic integrity in the hardcore scene, which is nearly impossible. Its really incredible to see a band maintain any sort of "prestige" doing what they did. They strike a chord with me for that very reason, even though I rarely listen to the music.

[Savage Clone]

I didn't know Amps For Christ came out of that.
Huh.

[Everyneurotic]

i'm listening to a lot of that crap lately: charles bronson, fuck on the beach, spazz, gore beyond necropsy, bathtub shitter, discordance axis, early anal cunt. that dj rick post looks great for looking into other bands.


oddly enough, i haven't chacked man is the bastard yet; bastard noise owns, though.

[Androol]

thank you dj rick! we all miss you by the way! nate/william just arrived in europe to meet matthew and disco (not sure if you left before her) and he's stuck in prague right now. poor bastard. at least drop by to tell us we're all full of shit.

[Androol]

Originally Posted by Dead-Air

Oh brother, we are now taking something as ambiguous as "post-hardcore" and limiting it to a handful of bands like a formula? .

i was just using those as an example but sorry mitb is not post-hardcore although im more than happy to agree to disagree.

anyways im almost positive mitb coined the term powerviolence with "flower power violence"

[Dead-Air]

Originally Posted by Androol

i was just using those as an example but sorry mitb is not post-hardcore although im more than happy to agree to disagree.

anyways im almost positive mitb coined the term powerviolence with "flower power violence"

Well, we're going to have to do that, since I do seriously disagree. All of the "powerviolence" bands that Rick mentioned in his post were post-hardcore. Post-hardcore is a term for bands that sprung up out of the hardcore movement and went off in other directions (just as post-punk is the same thing withing the wider world of punk). Your effort to limit all that to a handful of bands that play(ed) a particular style is just silly. Powerviolence bands are post-hardcore the same way that punk rock bands are also rock.

As for your "almost positive", it does seem to run counter to what Rick clearly documented as the origin of the term in his post. Could be either or some combination of both though. Legs McNeill and Alan Vega both make convincing cases as to how they were the first to use the term "punk" after all.

[Androol]

*trying really hard to agree to disagree*

yeah i guess it was actually spazz who made up flower power violence after the fact