Either I wasn’t paying attention or I was too far deep into my “OMG freshman year of college, I want to hear everything that isn’t hardcore!” phase, but I never got around to the Give Up the Ghost (also known as American Nightmare? I’m fuzzy on the particulars). The 11-minute (11 minutes?!) trailer for the Boston hardcore band’s reunion documentary makes me wish I had.

The talking head who mentions that Giving Up the Ghost came at the wrong time for hardcore is right: Nobody was really paying attention in the early 2000s. Deathwish Inc. (and Southern Lord, too, now, I guess) wasn’t the taste-making juggernaut that it is now; while monumental, Converge’s Jane Doe (2001) took its time to seep into the consciousness of ’90s hXc kids that had “grown up”; plus, there was that whole “rock revival” thing going on (what a waste of time that was). 

Give Up the Ghost seems like it was a band torn between tradition and wondering what the hell to do about a country in flux, which is what hardcore had always been and had forgotten. It’s time to pick up those reissues and investigate.

(Source: deathwishinc)

We called it “picking up chains” back in Georgia. (Hrmm… that doesn’t sound quite right now that I think about it.)

(Source: symphonies-of-sickness, via sergeantd)

I don’t think Ben Koller gets enough credit when it comes to the Converge sound. Just listen to the tight hits on the ride and snare on “Fault and Fracture” — no decay, only miniature explosions that demolish as fast as they resolve. That has something to do with Kurt Ballou’s production style, no doubt, but sometimes Koller’s doing some incredibly complicated drum work in a very small, feral space. There’s no room for error, only punishment.

In any case, I’m incredibly excited to see Converge with Loma Prieta at DC9 tonight. It will be my third time in the last two years.

My cold, dead heart cannot resist this video. Also, whenever I should have children, they will have a lot to live up to.

beruwhitesunlars:

‘My First Hardcore Song’ by 8yr old Juliet

So long, @HCHeadlines, you funny moshbro. Here's every genius tweet. →

Happy holidays, heshers! Download concerts from Exhumed, Pulling Teeth, Hooded Menace, Dropdead and Oak from Maryland Deathfest right here. And don’t miss out on metal warrior and scribe Kim Kelly’s killer interviews with Hail of Bullets and Funebrarum.

Photo: Laina Dawes/Handshake Inc.

Watch F’d Up’s in-the-round performance of David Comes to Life at Le Poisson Rouge. I really wish I had been there!

[Pitchfork]

"In junior high you’re allowed to get away with having a very eclectic music taste, you know what I’m saying? In junior high only are you allowed to one day wear a Dead Kennedys shirt, the next day wear a Nirvana shirt, the next day wear an Alice in Chains shirt. You’re allowed to get away with that."

Jeremy Bolm of Touché Amoré [NPR Music]

Coming next week: A five-part mixtape of bands from my old stomping grounds in Athens, Georgia. GET READY.