From a messageboard. My response to "Five Records That Define Hardcore to You"
Black Flag "My War"
This is one of the albums that showed me how far you can push the envelope with punk rock and still have the same basic feeling to it. Also in here is "Slip It In," because it was the first Flag record I ever bought and the song "Slip It In" was the first Flag song I ever knowingly heard. But "My War" just exemplifies it.
Bad Brains ROIR
Obviously. This album (with a few obvious exceptions) completely embodies everything that is sonically appealing about hardcore. Everything on this is so fucking tight and crushing. What more is there?
Jerry's Kids "Is This My World?"
This whole record is like a fucking tornado. Completely relentless, insane drumming. Everything on this record is so precise and is right on the edge of exploding, but it never gets out of control. Easily the pinnacle of Boston hardcore.
Seven Seconds "The Crew"
Not so much musically, but the lyrics and attitude of this record totally embody everything I think of in the hardcore scene (as I want it to be). Plus the fact that it was the only tape I listened to when my grandmother was dying and I was driving back and forth across Massachusetts between her hospital room and my job when I was 18 years old.
Cro-Mags "Age Of Quarrel"
I came really late into the 'Mags and I regret it. Even when I wasn't really into the whole record, the intro was one of my favorite things to hear. McPheeters said it best, "Everything you need to know about life in America in the 1980s is in this record."
This is one of the albums that showed me how far you can push the envelope with punk rock and still have the same basic feeling to it. Also in here is "Slip It In," because it was the first Flag record I ever bought and the song "Slip It In" was the first Flag song I ever knowingly heard. But "My War" just exemplifies it.
Bad Brains ROIR
Obviously. This album (with a few obvious exceptions) completely embodies everything that is sonically appealing about hardcore. Everything on this is so fucking tight and crushing. What more is there?
Jerry's Kids "Is This My World?"
This whole record is like a fucking tornado. Completely relentless, insane drumming. Everything on this record is so precise and is right on the edge of exploding, but it never gets out of control. Easily the pinnacle of Boston hardcore.
Seven Seconds "The Crew"
Not so much musically, but the lyrics and attitude of this record totally embody everything I think of in the hardcore scene (as I want it to be). Plus the fact that it was the only tape I listened to when my grandmother was dying and I was driving back and forth across Massachusetts between her hospital room and my job when I was 18 years old.
Cro-Mags "Age Of Quarrel"
I came really late into the 'Mags and I regret it. Even when I wasn't really into the whole record, the intro was one of my favorite things to hear. McPheeters said it best, "Everything you need to know about life in America in the 1980s is in this record."