HXR20YR RETROSPECTIVE: HXR06- ED GEIN "s/t" EP

It’s weird to think about, but by 2002 I was already feeling like part of the old guard in Syracuse.  I was only around 25.  But that’s how hardcore goes- the generational gaps are short and fleeting.  I speak to this because there was already a younger crop of kids coming out of the middle of nowhere, making their own noise, and starting their own scene.  When you begin to feel that you’re a little out-of-the-know that’s when it’s clear that the next generation is on it’s way.  That younger group seemed to be led by a handful of maniacs from what we in the central NY area called ‘the north country’.  These were all the rural suburbs north of Syracuse, extending up to Oswego and out east to Oneida Lake.  No one had any interest in going up there.  There was literally nothing up there.  And if we thought Syracuse was cold and got a lot of snow, some of those northern areas got double that.  25 miles makes a big difference in those parts.  These kids had a band called Beyond Fall- a run-of-the-mill kind of name for a younger band in that era.  But when you heard them it was kind of wild what they were doing.  They all had to be around 16 or 17 and were playing really technical metalcore that, whether you were a fan or not, had to respect due to the level of musicianship they all displayed.  I mean, when you live in the middle of nowhere what else is there to do, right?

So Beyond Fall gigged around for a couple years, eventually making their way on to Syracuse bills with more established bands before they decided to call it quits.  In the wake of that, three of the members- Jesse Daino, Graham Reynolds, and Aaron Jenkins decided to keep going under a new name- Ed Gein.  And they ditched most of the metalcore parts in favor of playing as fast and as insanely technical as humanly possible.  It was crazy.  They cut a two song demo tape and quickly heads around town turned to witness what these three wild dudes, who all shared vocals by the way, were doing.  How many riffs could they possibly cram into a single song?  Into 10 seconds?  It was nuts.

I’ll admit, at first I wasn’t super into it.  It just seemed like too much mushed into one song with no cohesion, even though I did totally admire their ability as musicians.  They reached out to me and asked if I would put out their next effort- a CDEP they had pretty much ready to go.  In fact, I think they all came over to my apartment to meet with me and the guys sort of wafted in the background awkwardly and made Aaron do all the talking.  It was definitely strange.  I wasn’t really in a position to make a commitment based on not really having a lot of money at the time.  They offered to cover a chunk of the costs and the reproduction was going to be pretty minimal because they planned on just doing a simple sleeve with a sticker on it and an insert.  So I relented and gave it a shot and put in to help out with the release.  I kind of thought people wouldn’t be too into it, but what did I know?

An Ed Gein show down in Pennsylvania with some like-minded bands

 

That summer the EP came out and the band played the annual Hellfest in Syracuse and a lot of people were curious.  When they did their set the whole place went completely bananas.  It was wild.  I distinctly remember near the end of their set everyone was going crazy and so was the band and Graham’s guitar went out.  Instead of trying to fix it (why bother? They were into the last 20 seconds of their last song), Graham just air guitared the part and dove into the crowd.  And everyone loved it.  It was hilarious.  I think I sold somewhere around 300 of those little EPs just in one day.  I’ve never had such a crazy interest in a band that I released something for.  And here I was, a little bit of a naysayer, but I was thoroughly convinced after that.  And pretty soon these three guys would have bigger things on the horizon for their band.  This is where things also began to really take off for this label in a bigger way.  Finally, Ed Gein was the reason I became close friends with all three of the guys and they would end up being a big part of my life for years and years after that.

I don’t have too much to say about this particular release because while it definitely put the band on the map and totally surprised me insofar as the response it received it was almost a half-release for the label as the band did the majority of the work in regards to bringing it to fruition.  And, as I’ll look more closely into within the next few weeks, plenty more happened for these guys that I’ll get way more in-depth with.

 Various old logos the band used when they first started out

This is a short one so now it gives you plenty of time to purchase the digital tracks for this release, which, for the next week, will only be $2.  Not bad right?  That works out to about $.005 per part in each song.  Go over to the bandcamp to get 'em because physical copies of this one have been gone for a long time now.

OH BOY, IT'S REVIEWS TIME.

Fresh for 2019, or considering we're already two months into the new year maybe more like 'close to expiration date'.  Amirite?
Between announcements about new records coming out and doing the weekly retrospective series there has not been much time to dedicate to posting up new reviews.  And to be blunt, I do not expect to dedicate as much time to them this year as I have in the past.  But some stuff has come my way and I don't want to be a jerk and ignore it.  So I wrote what came down and here we are.  It's a real mixed bag, I'll tell you that much.  But that always keeps things interesting.  So here you go.

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DARK BLUE, “Victory Is Rated”

This is my first time really listening to Dark Blue, though I have been aware of their existence for awhile now.  This is actually their third record and it comes as a great surprise to me because I’m more familiar with the members past work, most notably Clockcleaner, who were one of the most abrasive and purposefully annoying bands I’d ever heard.  I quite liked their take on Big Black-meets- Arab On Radar-meets Jesus Lizard stylings.  But Dark Blue is nothing at all like that whatsoever.  This sounds more like early Interpol, but a bit more somber and straight-laced.  They like Britpop, but their sound is a little more developed and mature.  It’s like they’re all really excited to go to the soccer (that’s football to you, chump) game but they’re sure as hell not going to let you know it.  And they’re certainly not going to show it.  I’m not sure what led to a radical change from one incredibly abrasive style of music to a very accessible and pleasant one, but I respect the ability to transition like that and do it well.  (12XU)

GREAT FALLS, “A Sense Of Rest”

I know I should have gotten to this earlier, but life, things, plans, busy doing my own record for this band, etc kept me from doing a proper write-up on it.  So anyway, this is the third proper full length from Seattle’s most punishing trio Great Falls.  They also have about a thousand other splits, comps, and other assorted bits and pieces to their vast catalog.  But “A Sense Of Rest” feels like their most ambitious effort.  It’s one of the only times they haven’t done the artwork themselves, it’s a double LP, and it’s so ridiculously heavy and painful that if they all just exploded after this record came out it wouldn’t be a surprise.  I’d go on to say that if you have heard any of their full lengths prior to this one you know what you’re in for.  It’s the same ground the players here have been treading, going way back to Demian being in Nineironspitfire and Kiss It Goodbye, him and Shane pulverizing faces in Playing Enemy, and now (for at least 8 years) that continuation of sound with Great Falls.  They have an incredible way of consistently sounding utterly tortured and legitimately pained, and it never sounds stale.  Their music is emotional and vicious, combining the weight and tone of Neurosis with the gnarled dexterity and ugly menace of Rorschach (of which this band also has a shared lineage through one degree of separation).  They can transition with ease from creepy melodies to destructive off-time sludgy beatings and slide into a quick blast beat before the whole thing collapses into a storm of feedback and broken instruments.  Great Falls do what they do very well and I hope to see them continue to do this for a long time to come.  (Corpse Flower/ Throat Ruiner)

GREAT REVERSALS, “Stalactite” 12” EP

This record starts with the vocalist awkwardly screaming “trepidatiously” out into the void.  It’s a weird way to start things off.  My Word program doesn’t even recognize it as an actual word (it is).  However, I also think my Word program kind of sucks.  All that aside, on Michigan band Great Reversals seventh (holy shit, that’s a lot of material for a very part-time band) release there’s really no re-invention of the wheel.  They continue to worship at the alter of the slower, moshy hardcore Trial excelled in.  In fact, the only song here that has a faster, more traditional sort of fast hardcore approach would be closing track, “Little Did You Know”, which also happens to be the best song on this EP.  Once again, Dropping Bombs comes correct with some inventive packaging as this clear 12” has a screenprinted b-side that looks pretty cool. (Dropping Bombs)

ILS, “Pain Don’t Hurt” demo

A handful of old-school Portland guys got together, proved that age don’t mean shit, and have laid out a handful of burly rocking heavy stuff that is 100% legit.  I don’t really know where to place this in the never-ending expanse of sub-genre labels.  But I will say it leans hard into noise rock territory, and the vocals sort of remind me of Greg from Dillinger Escape Plan (more of the screamy side, and less of the singing side).  That still doesn’t tell you much.  OK, how about a list of like-minded distortion freaks who would pair well with Ils like a complimentary side dish?  Let’s see…  maybe some Great Sabatini, Cellos, Will Haven, and maybe even a little Unsane.  How’s that sound for you? (self-released)

LIFT, “Harsh Light Of the Truth” 7”

Total Snapcase, “Progression Through Unlearning” worship.  To their credit, Lift do it very well.  I mean they really got that groove and driving feel down pat.  The three songs on this record are very strong and despite their obvious influence Lift have a good thing going.  Additionally, these days hardcore lyrics don’t generally move me all that much just because I’ve kind of heard it all before, but I think the lyrics here are very well-written and are compelling.  So if my ‘heard-it-all-before’ old ass can find some inspiration and motivation within the words here than I guess this band must be on to something.  As an added bonus this three-song 7” is one-sided and has a cool screenprinted B-side, so if you’re into art and all that I recommend picking this up.  Ya know, for hardcore.  (Dropping Bombs) 

PINKO/ EXHALANTS split 7”

Two of the best new(ish) bands out of Texas team up for this split, which was intended primarily for the tour they did together late last year.  Pinko come correct with two more spazz freak outs that combine all the best elements of chaotic, yet rhythmic, groups like earlier Frodus, Forstella Ford, and some Ebullition hardcore, and then mix in screamy Guy Piccioto (Fugazi) vocals.  It’s excellent stuff.  A little on the rougher side of recording than their previous material, but I’m still all about it.  Exhalants, who put out one of my favorite LPs last year, also give up two new songs.  While these were recorded by the same person who did their LP they have a bit of a cleaner sound to them and emphasize the faster side of the band.  Their two tracks go by quick and roll with an inventive take on upbeat…  whatever it is that Exhalants do.  It’s part noise rock, part catchy as hell punk, and lots of Unsane and Unwound love rolled into this really cool package that I can’t quite put a finger on.  All I know is that they’re one of the more interesting bands to come around lately and pretty much anything they do is worth checking out.  (Self Sabotage Records)

TALK WRONG, “Feral Bearings” 12” EP

Some of the guys from Mayflower, and other Syracuse usual suspects, have come together to start this new band, which is essentially a continuation of what Mayflower was doing…  which was some very Fat Wreck-influenced Dillinger Four love.  I mean, Syracuse doesn’t have much of that going on so someone has to make it happen right?  There’s a lot of ‘man, fuck this shit, let’s go have a beer and not pay our taxes’ kind of looseness to it all and if you have ever been to Gainesville Fest you have seen at least a dozen bands that exemplify this style, and likely not on purpose.  You could throw a rock there and hit at least three bands who love this sort of stuff.  I got no beef with it.  It’s fun, and easy to roll with, and yeah, sometimes you do want to just say ‘fuck it, I’m quitting my job and not paying my taxes’, and you do it to the sound of fun music like this.  Also, once again, this is a record with just an A-side and a screenprinted B-side.  This is the third record I’ve received very recently like this.  Are B-sides dead?  Is everyone required to not put music, only screenprints, on the B-sides of records now?  (Ersatz Reality)

TUNIC, “Complexion” LP

I know this band is going to hate this, likely because they get this a lot, but there’s some parallels that Winnipeg’s Tunic share with Metz.  First off, they’re both trios.  Secondly, they both hail from Canada.  But more than anything, they both tend to go with simple, punk noise blasts, played quick, (objectively) catchy, and aggressively.  The differences lie in Tunic not only playing in a different tuning, but also almost making an effort not to be catchy, even though to this listener it comes off that way regardless of all the skronk and feedback happening.  They exist in a jarring, hyperactive space filled with cold sweats and nervous panic where post-punk, noise rock, and art-damaged punk rock cross paths to blow through ten tracks and a couple interludes.  They even resurrect some lyrics from their last 7” and re-apply them to the closing bit on this record.  Bonus points for the addition of some wailing saxophone noise on the next to last song.  It works well.  This is a damn fine debut LP for these touring machines after a few 7” efforts and worth your attention.  (Self-Sabotage)

USA/MEXICO, “Matamoros”

This is the ugliest sounding record you will hear all year that still somehow manages to be ‘music’.  Recorded in such a way that focuses completely on the grimy, harsh, feedback-encrusted, raw-as-fuck filthiest aspects of their molasses-like crawl through fucked-up songs, and not an ounce of polishing to be applied anywhere, this Austin trio return from the cultural apocalypse on their second outing to further demolish eardrums.  Imagine Harvey Milk with an ever-present buzzing of a malfunctioning distortion pedal and recorded in a moldy, flooding basement, or perhaps early-era Cherubs slowed down to 16 rpms (in fact, Cherubs vocalist Kevin Whitley guests on a cover of his own band here made somehow even more fucked up than Cherubs material already is).  Some of you may be reading this and thinking me a hypocrite as I tend to get bored by sludgy doom-y stuff like Primitive Man, and I’m not really swayed by bands looking to be edgy by purposefully having recordings that sound like shit.  But this is a different animal.  I will say, I am a bit partial because this features members of the band Todd, whom I was quite fond of and that band sounded legitimately crazy and super weird.  Add to that another member of the Butthole Surfers within the ranks and it starts to make sense as to why USA/Mexico sounds so completely off the rails.  The band is composed of lifer weirdos who have spent decades completely warping the minds of freak maniacs and drug fiends with absolutely no regard to conventional music.  Yeah, there’s riffs.  But they sound so completely overwhelmed with fuzz and noise that scraping your way through to the surface is an exercise in futility, followed by the sense that you’ve drowned in weirdness.  I can respect that.  (12XU)

HEX20YR RETROSPECTIVE: HXR005- BUILDING ON FIRE, "Blueprint For a Space Romance" CD

In the late 90’s I was wrapping up college in Buffalo, NY. While there I encountered a guy who would go on to have a hand in shaping the direction of Hex Records, and who I would travel the United States with.

I distinctly recall there being an area near the student union where a number of hardcore kids who all attended the school would gather and hang around between classes. I would come over and chat with them. One of those people was Rob Antonucci, who was playing guitar here and there with different Buffalo bands, often filling in. To my recollection he was playing in a really metallic group called Dead To the World, as well as a more post-hardcore group called Grey In-Between. I believe he also filled in on tour with Despair briefly. But what really caught my attention is when he did a short-lived band named Voicekiller, which I immediately recognized as a nod to a Quicksand B-side track. So between that, our mutual interest in graphic design and early Meshuggah (way before hundreds of bands were copying their style), we became fast friends and remained in touch after we both graduated. Rob returned to the Rochester area and I went to Syracuse. And during that time both towns had very tight knit scenes that frequently overlapped so we saw each other quite a bit.

Fast forward to the craziness of Hellfest 2000 that almost did not come to be and thousands of kids hanging out in various parking lots, waiting to settle on a venue to host the festival. I caught Rob huddled with a group of other Rochester-area people I didn’t know yet. Of course, they weren’t from Rochester. They were from Newark, NY. Get it straight. There’s a difference. He gave me a demo of a band he had started with all of them. They were called Building On Fire. I asked if that name was referencing the Talking Heads song of the same name and he assured me it was. I was immediately interested.

                    Matt Werts and Sean Bailey of Building On Fire

Listening to those songs I was blown away by all the various influences and ideas that were exploding from the fast and heavy sounds on the tape. The band began playing shows around locally and making a name for themselves. They consistently had so many ideas going at once it was tough to keep up. They soon self-released their own 7” and it was this wildly packaged ordeal where the cover was in the shape of a giant matchbook, printed on metallic paper, with an insert stapled inside and the 7” held in place with a brass fastener. I was very impressed.

Within the next year I worked closely with Building On Fire to put out their full length, “Blueprint For a Space Romance” (originally titled “The Everything Outline”), get them on shows, and travel the country with them as a roadie. They were consistently creative, from coming up with intense and heavy music, cracking bizarre jokes, designing all their own stuff, creating a tour documentary (and a soundtrack to go with it, a la “Fugazi: Instrument”), and going on to make a couple more records before splitting up. They’re definitely one of the more unique bands I ever had the pleasure of working with and they’re also one of the more underrated bands because of all the creative chances they took with their music.

Tyler Farren from Building On Fire (drums) with Rob (guitar) in background

After splitting up both Tyler and Matt went on to play in a litany of bands together, most recently School Shootings. Jason and Sean haven’t done much musically since, and Rob has played in a number of bands including Marathon, Longest War, and most notably, Achilles. I’ve released 4 records he’s been on, he helped design the first Hex website, he did a bunch of artwork for my first band, and has created a number of various media projects associated with Hex Records. Lately, he keeps incredibly busy being an art teacher, coaching a couple kids basketball teams, and being in full on dad mode. He and I still keep up on a regular basis and he’s one of the most easy going and friendly people I’ve had the good fortune of meeting all those years ago. He’s pretty much been there since the beginning, so I figured we ought to talk about this record.



The rest of the guys in the band I didn’t know until you introduced me to them and they didn’t seem to quite be a part of the Rochester scene as I knew it. Am I incorrect with this? How did you all come together?

R: I look back on it all now in a much more fond light after seeing what we did and what we accomplished. So, anyway, Sean, Matt, and Tyler were all in The Chuds together. They were kind of like… I don’t want to call them a joke band because that makes it sound negative and people liked them. But they were kind of a comedy group, but they could play and that’s really what the Chuds were. And it’s funny how it all sort of organically happened that my buddies from growing up, who I didn’t see a ton of, gravitated towards Rochester hardcore and I gravitated towards Buffalo hardcore when I was living up there for school. When I moved back home it just seemed perfect, like ‘who do I know in the hardcore scene here who I could start a band with?’ And it turned out to be my buddies who I grew up with who are in The Chuds. And I just fell into hanging out with them again. That’s how it came together. We were all from Newark (NY, a bit East of Rochester). We all grew up together. And then the connection with Jason (vocals) was that he is Sean’s (guitar) cousin, who I grew up skateboarding with. We were huge skateboarders from about sixth grade on. We skated together every day. The other guys weren’t skateboarders, just me and Jason. We were a little older than those guys. So Jason and I were part of the skate culture. So when we decided to start the band it was natural to bring Jason into the fold because I knew him already and I took that leadership role and said, ‘hey, come on in, this is what we’re doing, and I have all these songs ready to go.’

original ad for the record, which was initially titled "The Everything Outline"

BOF was definitely creative in a very unique way that I hadn’t seen before. Generally, with a lot of bands, there’s one or two people who handle the creative direction, but I got the impression everyone was really creative in their own way and all that made for some of the crazy ideas that occurred in the band. Can you talk a bit about how everyone contributed in this way?

R: It was definitely different than The Chuds, and Dead To the World, which was the Buffalo band I had been playing with. I mean, we were coming off of Stillborn Records, Jamey Hatebreed’s label where there is a definite sound and style connected with that. We were playing Queens and Connecticut every weekend. I still love that music but I kind of got to the point where I wanted something different and I was really into bands like Glassjaw and Drowningman. I thought, “I wanted to write a song that can start off in C# because every song I’ve ever written, between being in Union and Dead To the World, always started in a low E crunch, which I love. I thought, ‘I want to start in the C3 key’. So the first Building On Fire song, “My Conversation Piece” was nothing like anything I’ve ever written before. I just wanted something different and artistic. Matt and Tyler were really into bands like Orchid and all those nutty groups, which I don’t love. But I love their artistic aspect and how they were doing something so different. And that was really the goal- to push my songwriting. I can write metal-hardcore stuff, no problem. But I wanted to see if I could do something different and that was the start of the band.

                                    Jason Medero of Building On Fire

Yeah. It was creative in a way that I hadn’t seen before. Generally, in most bands, there’s the one of two people who handle the creative direction. But I got the impression everyone in the band was creative in their own way and that made for some of the crazy ideas that happened in the band.

R: I would come in with maybe three or four parts and have a general idea of how the song was going to go. I’ve done this with most of my bands. But the difference is, when I came into practice with Building On Fire it would generally start with Tyler (drums) and he would say, ‘OK, that’s pretty good, but we’re going to do it this way instead’. I was pretty open-minded at the time to trying something different and weird. And when Tyler would say, ‘we’re going to do it this way’, and then Matt (bass) would throw in something of his own, and Sean would have a part where he sang back-ups. And I never thought of it that way before. I always thought, ‘this is the drummer, this is the singer, whatever.’ So we would have Sean do singing parts, which came out pretty good, I didn’t know he could pull it off. And Jason (vocals) he would just sit there and write and smoke, and write, and smoke, and his lyrics ended up being really great. However, he wasn’t as much a part of the creation. He was the icing on the top.

That first seven inch has some of the best packaging on a record ever. How did you all manage to create it, and was it ridiculously tough to pull it off?

R: It was. The actual printing of most of it was handled by Tyler because he’s really good with that stuff. The actual artwork and concept was a project I had worked on while I was in college. I was still finishing up college when we started the band. One of my final projects was to create packaging for something and I thought, ‘perfect, we’re going to do it for the seven inch.’ So the initial concept was by me and Tyler and I’m sure Matt and Sean contributed too. But that was always our mentality- looking at it as art. Not like literal art hanging on a wall, but having songs that are works of art. This packaging is going to be a work of art. It’s a matchbook, but it’s not a matchbook. And instead of ‘how to start a fire’ it was called “How To Start a Lie”. We didn’t care. We just wanted to create art and I’m glad people liked it.

What was happening around the time that the full length was written and recorded? How did that process go?

R: This is funny. We didn’t really have anywhere to practice at first. So we had to practice in our friend Jenny’s house who lived in Newark. The seven inch had come out and we began writing the new record that you ended up putting out. So we would go to this girl Jenny’s house and write songs and we would have to load in and out every time we practiced from this empty room in her upstairs. And eventually, after the record had come out, we started practicing in Sean’s basement. But for a long time we had no where else to practice except for the upstairs of this girl’s house. We wrote the full length there.

Then we had to figure out where to record. Everyone had recorded with Doug (White, Watchmen Studios) and we wanted a different sound. Doug has made some awesome, heavy records, but we wanted something different because that’s how we were at the time. So we recorded at this place that I had recorded at a long time ago with an old band I was in Grey In-Between. And that place was, ironically, the upstairs of this guy, Derrick Prellwitz’s, mom’s house. I feel like you were there?

Yes. I came up for a day or two, not the whole thing. 

Building On Fire at Westcott Community Center, Syracuse

R: It was an experience, let me tell you. At one point Tyler smashed something and it ended up being recorded and we used it at some point on the record. Do you remember that? It was a backwards sample. And I’ll give Tyler and Matt a lot of credit for this because it was definitely their sort of thing, but once the songs were done and the tracking laid down, those two loved to go in and add in all the little things that you’d hear if you listened closely. They would add weird bubble samples to stuff and these weird backing vocals, and all these little spices. That’s why I loved it, that’s why I loved this combination of guys. Everybody brought something cool and weird to the table. But that’s why I had to let it go. In a lot of my other bands I had this tight grip over everything that happens because that’s just sort of how I am. But with this group I just had to let that go. These guys are so creative and I had to just let it go. When it got to mixing Tyler would step in and have it mixed really differently and pan certain things all the way to one side. I just look back on it and I’m proud of what a creative piece of work we came up with.

One of the good shows from the 2001 US tour, in Portland, OR (Standfast did not play)

The U.S. tour was sort of a disaster. What are some of your best memories of it and what are some of your worst?

R: Well, we made a movie out of it, you can watch it for yourself! But the worst part was just the end of it. I kind of regret how it ended for me. We got to Texas and it was so hot, and I was just so miserable that I just called home, asked my folks to pay for a ticket for me to fly home, ended up paying them back for it, but I regret that. That’s kind of a wimpy way out. And when I go back and watch that video years later I feel kind of bad. I should have just driven home with everyone else, and I didn’t. And I kind of regret that I did that. I made the wrong choice at the time, I was a stupid kid, I got bailed out, and I probably shouldn’t have. That’s kind of my worst regret from that tour.

But I tell you, that tour was the only time I’ve ever done a full US tour, even if it really wasn’t that much of a tour. We drove out to California. I don’t know if the highlight for me was the shows. I think the highlight was just being with all of you guys and having a great time.




When I was little my dad told me about a time that he and his buddies drove out West and they didn’t have a reason to go. They just did. They got in their car and drove out West for the hell of it. And as a kid I thought, ‘I’d love to that some day.’ And when I did I had a reason to, and it was to play shows.

I think it was the same for me too. That was my first time going across the whole country and seeing a lot of places I’d never been to. That was great. The worst for me was probably packing seven people, and whatever gear we could take, into a minivan in the middle of summer. When we got to Dallas it was so hot, and we had no air conditioning, and I was dehydrated, and I think I passed out in van. That sucked. But after that first U.S. tour though you all came back and did a couple more tours through the East and Midwest that went way better, correct?

R: Yeah. I think what the first big tour did, if anything, was really hold the mirror up to us and we got to see who we really were. We had never really experienced anything like that ever before. I had driven back and forth plenty with my other bands, playing shows all over the Northeast, but I had never driven that far, or did anything like that, and you earn a lot about yourself when you’re out on the road and you have next to nothing. I had my guitar and my head and we had to borrow cabinets everywhere we went. So not only were we playing shows on the road, but there was the added stress of having to borrow equipment every time because the trailer was gone and Standfast was gone (quick back story- the summer 2001 tour was intended to be Building On Fire and Standfast. Building On Fire toured in a minivan, Standfast had a van and trailer. Standfast took the majority of the gear but on the first day of tour their van broke down and was beyond repair so they headed home. Building On Fire continued on with as much gear as could be packed in the minivan and had to connect, as best they could, with promoters and bands a long the way to borrow gear at each show- ed).

Rob (left) and myself (right) on the 2001 US tour somewhere in Salt Lake City

But we did a couple more tours after that that went well, but they never went as far as that first one. And we did that EP, “1+1=Blue” on a different label during those tours. But once we did these tours, and began writing other material, I started getting into stuff like Isis and heavier things like that. And the final downfall of the band was that Matt was not as into the new material that we began writing. So he said he didn’t want to do the band anymore, which is fine because we were all friends who had grown up together. That was a part of it anyway. No one was really mad at him because he’s a great guy. T’s hard to be mad at him. It sort of made sense. It was around that time that we recorded our final material, which was a record called “Newark”. It was wild. It was a fun record to do, and it was pretty much after we had split up. So that’s why it never really came out. We just wanted to record that last material.

I had also began playing with Marathon as well, which was the next thing for me.

                                       Matt Werts from Building On Fire

I definitely remember being at a show we were hanging out at, I don’t recall if you were playing or not, but you approached me with all these ideas you guys were having for the next record, which I was going to put out that ended up being “Newark”, which I didn’t put out because you all split up. But the ideas you all had were crazy, like it was going to be about a railroad heist or something and it was part hilarious, but I was excited regardless. What are some of the more elaborate ideas that were proposed with BOF that never happened?

R: I bet Tyler would remember a lot of that stuff. A lot of that is gone because my memory is bad and I’ve done a lot of stuff since then. I do remember the bit about wanting to originally name the record after a railroad heist. But, yeah, it ended up being called “Newark” because it was the one thing that bonded us all together the whole time. We all grew up there and had the same experiences. I mean, how many bands have the same five people for their whole existence, and are all from the same town? The album cover was supposed to be just the sign of the Newark Plaza, where there was a Wegmans and a Chase Pitkin and an Ames, and all those stores. It ended up being that crazy piece of metal folded up into a CD case. I think since we knew we were going to split up Tyler just took over the project and decided he was going to make this thing, which there was never an argument over that aspect of stuff. He worked at a place that manufactured metal products, so he had access to that stuff.

I think back to what you said earlier, I think we had all these insane ideas where we were going to go next and once Matt was ready to move on the whole thing sort of dissolved and I had to change focus and figure out what I was going to do next.

                    Rob Antonucci of Building On Fire playing in Rochester

What was the best part of being in BOF and the “Blueprint…” record in particular? What was the least favorite part?

R: I listened to it recently and I don’t love the way the recording is. But as I go through I think, ‘it’s the right recording’. My explanation for that is if we were to record that somewhere where it would be perfectly clean and big and bold I don’t think it would have had the same effect as where we ended up recording. I don’t think it would have had the same charm and charisma if it were recorded somewhere else. I’ll use this comparison, and hear me out- it’s like the first KISS records. The early KISS records- I know you’re going to laugh, but it’s real- if you listen to those early KISS records the recording is not what you think it would be. The recording is really rough, but it’s really special and that’s what gives it it’s charm. My comparison is just the strange recordings. I wouldn’t want it recorded it any other way. It’s not bad, it’s just an entirely different flavor. If you eat candy bars your whole life and all of a sudden you get a candy bar that’s salty and bitter you’re like, ‘oh, this is awesome! It’s different and cool’. That’s what it was like for us. I’m proud of it. The other thing I love is there’s such a variety. We had songs with clapping that were in a major key on that record. Who does that? Punk bands do that and we weren’t a punk band. We had breakdowns that came out of the middle of nowhere that you never expected would have a breakdown in. It was always a surprise. We would play in a different key, or have a blast beat, and it really was a… what was the term you used for us? Cacophony? Yeah, that’s it. I thought that was a perfect term.

The least favorite part was that whenever we played live we never played the song the same way twice. I’m kind of in the frame of mind where ‘this is the way things are played’, but Tyler would always change things around a bit and I had a hard time with that.

But the best part was that I think it was the most free and artistic experience I had because we never really said ‘no’ to anything. We would put any kind of part in any song. I loved the friendships. I loved playing in a band with kids I grew up with. I loved being part of a record label that loved what we were doing. I loved that whatever we decided to put down on that record you were up for it and supported it. I thought that was great to have such great support. That meant a lot to us. And that you came along on the big ‘tour’.
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That was a beut, eh?  Well, you know the drill now- you wanna/have to check out Building On Fire's lone full length for Hex, "Blueprint For a Space Romance".  It only came out on CD so you can score that for only $4 this week.  And you can get the digital version of the release through bandcamp for $2.  So jump on that and follow the linky-loo.

HEX20YR RETROSPECTIVE: HEXR004- INKLING, "Miscommunication" CDEP/7"

My initial aim with my label was to keep things fairly local. There was always a lot going on with the region in which I lived and I wished to explore that, and promote it to whoever would listen. But the zine side of things kept a steady influx of new music from all over the place coming into my mailbox and exposing me to stuff that I wouldn’t otherwise know about. One such package came from some label in Pennsylvania who sent a random assortment of local stuff they had released, including a CD from a band called Inkling. I didn’t think much of it immediately, but once I gave it a listen I was really blown away by how solid and developed they sounded. How their very-on-the-sleeve influences combined to create this awesome heavy thing and I really needed to know more. I reached out to them and they mentioned a couple shows they were playing down in who-knows-where PA and I made plans to drive down and check them out.

They ended up being really shy and quiet people at first, but the more I got to know the members, the more personable they became. They also got out a bit more from their Lansdale bubble and ended up traveling around the region.

When plans were being put together for what became the “Miscommunication” EP I wanted to try doing a dual format thing, as I had never pressed anything on more than either CD or vinyl at that point. I once again wanted to try doing a promotional thing for Hanging Like a Hex zine, as well as the band so two of the songs from “Miscommunication” were pressed onto a 7” and a few hundred copies were added as a bonus to issue #15. The rest were sold individually, and given to the band. I remember spending a considerable amount to have the CD pressed between it being the first tri-fold insert I’d ever done, the recording costs (the band recorded with Brian McTerrnan at Salad Days), and CDs just cost more to press back then. So I tried as much as I could to save money on the seven inch pressing any way I could. One of those ways was when the covers were made I asked for them not to be glued, just printed flat, and I would take care of that part. It somehow saved me around $100 I think. However, I spend so much time with a hot glue gun gluing those stupid covers together. Plus, seven inches were a little tougher to sell when you had a CD version of something. But that’s why it was more of a promotional item. The CD itself had 5 tracks on it. The 7” had two. I was still kind of new at this, so logic wasn’t always my strong point. Whatever the case, it worked out pretty well in the end.

By the time the record was released the band played a record release hometown show that I traveled down for. The record had been out for about a week or something and the show they played was pretty stacked. I think Drowningman and All Else Failed played as well, which was a pretty great pairing when Inkling is added. I distinctly remember them playing “Drawing Conclusions”, the first song on the record and near the end there’s a little pause where they yell, “Never call you again!” and I swear that every voice of the couple hundred people packed into the VFW hall yelled it in unison. Not only was I surprised that so many people already knew all the words, but I really felt like I wasn’t just putting out records because I enjoyed them. There were a ton of other people who were into them as well. That was a pretty good feeling.


 "Drawing Conclusions" live from Inkling's reunion show in 2012 in Lansdale

In the years that have passed I have managed to stay in touch with most of the guys in some way or another. Their bassist, Eric Haag, would go on to help me create a Hex Records website and play in Ladder Devils years later with Tim and Brian. Guitarist Tim Leo became a close personal friend and became my go-to for a crash pad whenever I would find myself in Philly. Him, Chris, and Medlin also played in the Minor Times together, who obviously went on to do quite a bit more. And their other guitarist, Chris Mascotti, was my primary contact for the band for their whole existence. Plus, he was always hilarious to be around. He now lives in the Denver area and has gone the whole family and kids route. But he still keeps an ear to the ground for new music. We caught up about the making of the CD and accompanying 7” for their lone Hex Records outing “Miscommunication”.

   Chris from Inkling at Westcott Community Center, Syracuse, NY

R:  Talk about Lansdale, PA. Everyone in the band grew up there. No one really thinks about it, but it has a bit of a history with some fairly established bands and it’s own scene right?

C: Yeah, for sure. More recently Brian Schmutz (vocalist of Inkling) was in The Starting Line. That Wonder Years band came out of Lansdale. They’re more in that pop-punk sort of thing, whatever. But as far as more legit hardcore bands there were a ton of local bands. I’m not sure if any of them made it nationally. But it seems like at any show there would be like 400 kids there. This one time Boy Sets Fire came through and there were around 400 kids there. And they asked if it was because of them, if they were the draw. But it was just because there were always that many kids at shows. I had Drowningman come through and Darkest Hour, and a ton of different bands, and it didn’t matter who was playing, a ton of kids would show up. It’s definitely pocketed within a bunch of cities, ya know. I don’t know what to say, it’s Northeast suburbia?

R:  I remember meeting those guys from Wonder Years once before they got really huge and they were just hanging out at a show in Rochester, NY, not playing, and they had mentioned that your band was a huge influence on them. And I thought, ‘you sound nothing like them!’

C: I guess Inkling had people locally who loved us. Not many people knew Inkling much outside of our local scene, and several other towns that we played a bunch. But I was talking to Tim (Leo, guitarist) about this the other day that as much as we don’t want to admit it, we probably fit in with bands like Poison the Well and Hopesfall and all those bands that did the singing-screaming thing. But, of course, we thought we did it better. Everyone thinks that. But that’s what drew people to us for sure- having those sing-along parts or whatever. For fun, in either 2011 or 2012, we did an Inkling reunion show in Lansdale. Did you hear about that?

R: I did. I heard about it.

C: And once again, like 400 kids showed up. It was if nothing had changed. So I could see those Wonder Years kids being influenced by maybe what was happening at the time, but not really by what we sounded like entirely.



R:  How did Inkling start? You all have known each other for a long time correct?

C: Yeah. All of us started meeting around the same time in our teenage years. I met Tim when I was around 13, but we didn’t start hanging out more and playing together until a few years later. I met Tim through his brother Matt, who ended up being in the Minor Times with us together later on. Before that I met Brian Medlin (drummer) when I was around 15 or 16. Me and my brother both knew a bunch of kids who knew each other, all named Brian it seemed. There were, like 17 Brians. That’s how I met Schmutz (Brain, vocalist) too. Medlin and Schmutz had already been playing together since they were really young teenagers, just jamming Nirvana covers at Brian’s house. That’s why we played “Scentless Apprentice” at that one Halloween show you saw us at where every band was supposed to cover The Misfits and we were like, ‘yeah, no.’ So anyway, when Medlin started playing drums with us Brian (Schmutz) came along with him to do vocals. Actually, before Medlin was playing drums my brother was playing drums and, in a crappy way, I told my brother ‘Medlin’s going to play drums for now on because he’s better’ and my brother played bass instead for awhile. I don’t think you knew us back then. That was when we first started. But then he got into hip-hop and stuff and went away to college so then we got Eric. Eric Haag was our bassist after that and we had known him since high school too. So, for a short answer, yeah, we all knew each other since high school. The writing started with me and Tim riffing in each other’s rooms.

Rough ideas for the design/layout for "Miscommunication" that I came up with, but the band decided to do the artwork on their own

R:  You did your first full length through a local PA label. Talk a bit about that record. The recording was done in several different sessions, correct?

C: There was a demo before that, it was like an eight song demo.

R: Yeah, that was probably the longest demo I ever heard. It was like a full length.

C: I don’t know why we thought we needed to put eight songs on a demo! So, anyway, “Minute” was all recorded in the same place, but at different times. It was recorded at Signal Sound Studios in Quakertown, like half an hour from us. The dude who recorded us was Dana from Weston. He’s a great dude and he did a great job. But what happened was we would record some of the record and then take a break, and the next day Dana wouldn’t be working. But the guy who owned the studio, Pete, would come in and… it was a mess. So we had to try and mix it ourselves and we had no idea what we were doing! We recorded those songs probably over the course of a year, at different times. The first couple songs were recorded in one session. And then “Surfacing” was recorded at a different session, and the next couple were recorded at another time. And each time some of our set up would change a bit. I’d have a different pedal, or a different guitar, or a different head. Medlin had a different drum set. It made the record sound like a compilation of seven inches. And we also did record a seven inch with our friend Schwa with this band called Charlie Brown Gets a Valentine on Spoiled Records. It was all a mish-mash for sure.

R:  Between “Minute” being released and the record you did on Hex what did you all learn about being in a band, recording, songwriting, etc?

C: We definitely had a bit more experience and how to prepare for recording. So by the time we were ready to do the EP with you we felt better. And we recorded with Brian McTerrnan, so that was a bit more serious. I guess he’s sort of a genius, but kind of an asshole too. He kind of helped us out though. We knew we wanted our record to sound cohesive, but sometimes we were just sort of throwing darts at a wall. But with “Miscommunication” we were ready to go, we packed up all our gear, and drove down to Maryland for a week. We were like, ‘Alright, we’re going to do this. We paid all this money to do this the right way, at this time, we’re going to get it done and we’re going to be spending time together and stay focused, and no one’s going to go home for a minute’. That helped too. We were there the whole time together. McTerrnan is a good engineer. He had just recorded Snapcase and they had a piccolo snare, and he hates piccolo snares. So we show up and Medlin had a piccolo snare and McTerrnan was like ‘no’. So we said, ‘what do you mean ‘no’?’ So he gave us a snare to use. When that dude puts his name on something he wants it to sound like something he did. So that helped a bit too. We were really tight at that point too. It was the last thing we did so I guess we were at our tightest and most cohesive as a band. We were playing every weekend, constantly, at that point. We knew what we wanted to do and we didn’t use a lot of effects on things. We kept it kind of raw. The whole experience with McTerrnan was pretty great overall honestly. So much so that we went back when we started the Minor Times and did that EP with him as well.

One of the best Halloween shows ever, Rochester, NY

R:  Talk a bit a bout recording “Miscommunication”. You all really stepped it up in terms of production and so on. Why didn’t you just do a full length? Or did you have plans for an LP further down the line?

C: We were planning on doing a full length. But then Brian (Schmutz) quit and we became The Minor Times. And the music you hear from that band is sort of where we were headed anyway. So really the writing process for “Miscommunication” and the first Minor Times EP were pretty much back-to-back. Tim pushed things in a bit more angular, or noise-rock direction. I was the one who wrote the more melodic stuff. I would be like, ‘hey, I want to write Deftones parts, but in a more hardcore sort of way’. I think, essentially, we just wanted release a record with you and we had this EP worth of stuff and we just wanted to do it and not wait. The next step would have been to write an LP, but Brian cut that short. It just felt right.

the final design for the 7" version of the EP

R:  Inkling never toured very much, but you did weekends and stuff like that. Was there any reason, or hesitation, about getting on the road for a long stretch?

C: Yeah, it wasn’t so much hesitation. We wanted to tour, we just didn’t know what we were doing. We did a tour with Charlie Brown Gets a Valentine, that was like a week and a half. All the stuff we did as Inkling was always just East Coast and Midwest. We went down to Florida and then did a Midwest thing for 8 or 9 days, and it was just tagging along with bands we knew. If someone had asked us if we wanted to go on tour for a month we would have been like, ‘fuck yeah’. I just don’t think we really knew how to reach out to others, or to network yet. You need someone like that in a band. We didn’t have a booking agent. Schmutz would organize some stuff, Medlin would organize some stuff, every once in awhile I would, it was really just whatever we could grab. I could talk to you about shows in Syracuse, or upstate, but that’s it really.

R:  A few guys in the band were very design-oriented. How did you all come up with who would do layouts and stuff like that? Was there any competing ideas around that sort of thing?

C: It was a bit of a competition sometimes! I went to school for design. Eric went to school for design. I don’t use my degree at all. Tim was kind of self-trained. That dude just has raw talent when it comes to that sort of stuff. His stuff just looked cool, and he was able to use it since he ended up working for Relapse Records for awhile doing design. We would just rotate when it came to things, like making flyers for our shows. I’d make a flyer for our show and the next time we played we’d pass it and Tim would make the flyer, or Eric. With record artwork we would collaborate. With our demo and our full length the guy who put that stuff out- this guy named Mitch Martinez, he had all these design programs so we sort of art-directed him. With “Miscommunication” Eric did the artwork for it. He had a lot of updated design programs and that was more of his style. Everyone would put their ideas in and have input, but that would boil down to each of us saying, ‘I don’t like that’. We were poor critics. It would just be ‘I don’t like it.’ ‘Well, why don’t you like it?’ ‘I just don’t like it’. We also had this guy Mark Price design some stuff for us and he’s made a career out of his art at this point. But anyway, our design process would get a little competitive, and sometimes a bit of a sore spot occasionally, but it usually worked out pretty good, and we had fun with it mostly.

R:  What led to Inkling splitting up?

C: We have all played in other projects with Brian (Schmutz) over the years so there’s no bad blood or anything. He just didn’t want to do stuff like that anymore. When he quit I believe he stated that he wanted to do something that sounded more like Weezer. But Brian was always more pop-oriented than us. That’s why The Starting Line was such a good fit for him later on. He wanted to push things more in the direction of when we had those singing parts in our songs. And myself and Tim, Tim especially, just wanted to go heavy. Everything we listened to at that point was just heavy. We wanted a really heavy direction. Back then I might have said I wanted to go in a math-rock direction. But honestly, just heavy. That’s what I wanted to do. Medlin too. I think he wanted to go heavier as well. So we all did Minor Times after that with our friend Brendan singing and this guy Justin, who was actually the bass player right at the end of Inkling and as we started Minor Times.

R: What’s your favorite thing you remember from being in Inkling? What’s the least favorite?

C: The best thing was being in a band and traveling with my best friends. No doubt about it. Absolutely. We were very tight knit. People outside our group could see it, they knew we were all close friends. It was so much to the point that it would be like, ‘I can’t date you if you don’t like Tim’. It didn’t happen. We were each others best friends. We had been writing together since we were teenagers. And then we just all got in a van and it was awesome. The worst thing about it? I don’t know. Maybe it was that we delayed our lives to do this? So maybe it was a concern at the time, but then you look back at it and you figure out how to be adults. We didn’t care. We figured it out later on. I guess also being that close to each other and being around each other that much could have been kind of crappy occasionally. There were definitely some rough times where Tim and Brian got in some pretty heated arguments. It’s like being married to 4 other people. At that point we would practice three times a week, play out every weekend, we were in the Northeast so everything was close and we would play something lie 5 or 6 shows a month, do long weekends, sleeping in the same place, we would have jobs together all the time too. In any relationship where you see people that much can get a bit tiring. But the good outweighs the bad for sure.

Chris and myself in Denver in 2016

R:  Do you still keep in touch with the band? What are people currently engaged in with music/life/etc?

C: Everyone is still out in the Philly area except me. I’m sure if I still lived there we would be playing music together. Tim and Medlin are doing a band together now called Desperate Living. Before that Tim had Ladder Devils, and I was a part of that early on before I moved. We get older and have our differences, but we still get along. If I was there I could go hang with Brian and write some melodic, slow thing. And then go over and jam with Tim and Medlin playing some crazy noisy thing. We figured it out on a casual level that didn’t involve touring anymore. But I don’t have much time for that since I have a full time job, and I’m adult, and I have three kids. It kind of slows things down ya know? But it’s great. I’d probably be bored without them!