Best Late '80s Meathead NYHC Band

I have a lot of listening to do here. Gorilla Biscuits are uptempo posi fun and I can always dig them.

Sick of It All are ok, but I forget them five minutes later.

Cro-Mags fucking slay, at least Age of Quarrel. they kicked ass live last year (yes I know that's not the OG Mags, stfu)....

I do like the first two Agnostic Fronts a lot, but conservative hardcore punk leads a bad taste in my mouth. also their new stuff sucks.

don't really know the rest, but I like this genre, so I'll listen to more before voting.

Check out Breakdown's 1987 demo (it's on Spotify, YouTube, etc.). It's disgustingly heavy.

heavy poll

feel like most true believers would have to vote AF but I'm leaning Judge

Chain of Strength was from California

This poll was actually inspired by listening to Bringin' It Down.

One of my fondest high school memories is of a Sick Of It All/Gorilla Biscuits/Judge show at City Gardens in Trenton, NJ. In fact, Judge's set is on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNixhbPvkS4

I’ve heard like 14 of these bands and like 0 of them

Sorry, 13

I’ve heard like 14 of these bands and like 0 of them

It's a generational thing. You're too young. Just like people a few years older, from the Black Flag/Minor Threat/Bad Brains generation of hardcore, hated a lot of these bands at the time. And let's not even talk about how much the old-line critics who spent so much time fellating the CBGB class of '77 hated this shit.

The only reason I know Chain Of Strength is that their drummer was the original drummer of Drive Like Jehu before he was replaced by Mark Trombino.

Voted Breakdown.

I had a homemade Crucial Youth t-shirt, with the mosh safety patrol badge drawn on it. Although not really sure they should be on this list, so a toss up between Burn and Gorilla Biscuits then.
GO! were my favourite nyhc but they were later, maybe for an ABCNoRio poll.

Bold, Cro-Mags, Biscuits and AF still get regular spins - gonna have to think on this one.

Some good stuff here but I always found it interesting how slow off the mark NYC seemed to be regarding hardcore; a lot of these bands were only releasing their first singles and albums in the mid 80s; notable when thinking how far the DC and S.Cal thing had already progressed by this stage

I like it all, but in general my feelings are that NYHC > late 70s punk/new wave > early 80s HC

Gorilla Biscuits

Cro-Mags easily

Agnostic Front easy.

this scene gives off a kind of intense, sweaty vibe, even for hardcore. I found it a bit impenetrable compared to LA or DC stuff, or older NY punk. I imagine that was sort of the point

I love AF musically but I can't vote for them on principle due to this lyric:

You spend your life on welfare lines
Or looking for handouts
Why don't you go find a job
You birth more kids to up your checks
So you can buy more drugs
Cash in food stamps and get drunk

Uncle Sam takes half my pay
So you can live for free
I got a family and bills to pay
No one hands money to me
You can go to school for nothing
Get money in advance
Got that government grant
When you're sick from shooting up
Medicaid pays full portion
When little Maria gets knocked up
She gets a free abortion

Even beyond those lyrics (which were written by Pete Steele of Type O Negative, charmer that he was), I've never liked Roger Miret's voice.

lol really? it fits, given TON's own similar song "Der Untermensch"

Pete Steele: Kind Of A Piece Of Shit, Honestly

Whoa, if Genius is to be believed, the next verse is even worse?:

How come it's minorities who cry
Things are too tough
On TV with their gold chains
Claim they don't have enough
I say make them clean the sewers
Don't take no resistance
If they don't like it go to hell
And cut their public assistance

they doubled down on those sentiments when interviewed about it like....four or five years ago for their Decibel Hall of Fame interview, saying they were railing against "effortless lives"

oh great, reaganite hardcore. what were these guys rebelling against?

the middle class

I 'missed out' on these bands for mostly generational reasons but I had a couple of friends who were really into Sick of It All back in high school, around the time Built to Last was released. I myself never listened to it on my own, so I don't remember it too well.

Anyway, those AF lyrics are about as meatheaded as it gets.

those middle class welfare queens with gold chains getting free abortions

Surely you could hear the same views from any number of minivan Dads and soccer Mums in the suburbs of 1986?

I'm much more into early 80s hardcore than this stuff and am definitely not into the macho, often right wing attitudes of a lot of these bands, but I do like a lot of the music.

these are all great:

Agnostic Front - Victim In Pain
Bold - Speak Out
Breakdown - 87 Demo
Cro-Mags - Age Of Quarrel/demos
Judge - Bringin' It Down
Sick Of It All - Sick Of It All 7"

not so much into the others that I've heard (most of them) although I like some stuff by Gorilla Biscuits, Youth of Today and Side By Side.

Chain Of Strength's True Till Death and What Holds Us Apart EPs are both great too but like Whiney says they were from California.

Yeah, those lyrics were boneheaded. That's what you get letting a Staten Island mook write them for you.

The Bad Brains were asshole homophobes, probably actually did worse things that AF members ever actually did (ask Tim Kerr), but Bad Brains were the best band in the world for about five years.

The first two AF records are classics of the genre and they were the band above all others who had long hairs enter the pit (at their own risk, of course). So, them.

I do enjoy those two albums all things considered. saw them live once because of it and it was boring af, but only because their newer stuff is dire. the old stuff sounded good.

someone light up the alex in nyc signal

HONOR THE FIRE

Just like people a few years older, from the Black Flag/Minor Threat/Bad Brains generation of hardcore, hated a lot of these bands at the time.

*raises hand*

I bet I would like some of this now, though. gonna do some spot listening and try to vote. I was literally like 4-5 years too old for this stuff, I barely missed it.

I am wearing a 7 Seconds hoodie right now in fact

I was literally like 4-5 years too old for this stuff, I barely missed it.

And I am ~4 years too young to have seen Black Flag. (And even that would have been at the tail end of their run; I'm about six years too young to have seen them at their peak in 1984.)

I mean, I can go through the list.
All of these are bands I saw live back in the day and will rep for them:

Agnostic Front - My opinion is mentioned above. Saw them numerous times.
Cro-Mags - I love the first two albums, even the polarizing second album that was deemed "too metal."
Leeway - I liked this band a lot back in the day.
Sick Of It All - They came a little later. Saw them opening for Exodus as a kid and for AFI two decades later. Always solid but also not someone I return to play a lot.
Warzone - I was somewhat friendly with Raybeez - he lived in the basement apartment in a Brooklyn room I lived in and he introduced me to a good friend of mine. THe first Warzone was foundational and I liked their "metal" self-titled record that everyone else hated.

Bold
Breakdown
Burn
Chain Of Strength
Crucial Youth
Gorilla Biscuits
Judge
Killing Time
Side By Side
Underdog
Youth Of Today

Honestly, none of these bands had much of an impact on me. I never got into the Revelation segment of NYHC bands, they didn't have the fury of the other stuff above for the most part and I couldn't have cared less about their politics (vegetarianism/veganism/Krisna/whatever), even though sure some of those groups deserve respect (Youth of Today mostly). I just never played them much.

AF just stands head and shoulders above the rest in my eyes. And unlike neanderthal, I do not think their latter period records suck though fur sure they pale compared to the first two that are simply unfuckwithable.

Not on the list bands I rep for include Kraut (a little earlier than the rest but MTV played them!), Biohazard (Brooklyn), and Sheer Terror.

In addition to the Sick Of It All/Gorilla Biscuits/Judge show I mentioned, I saw multiple CBGB matinees where I don't remember who played, and saw Warzone open for GBH and the Ramones (a very violent show), and Underdog (weirdly stuck in the middle of a ska bill in L.A.).

thanks NYC, going to check out some of the bands you repped next. I have a huge NYHC blind spot

this is the fucking shit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6ybCz1qw84

madball

jk they might not be 80s

Most of this is good gym music

Do we have a thread for gym music?

(Not the best moment for it tbf.)

Should have said "working out music"

Whoops, late the table here...apologies.

Firstly, big huge respect for the KRAUT invocation -- who'll always be my faves -- but not eligible for this particular honor, given their 1981 origins.

As much as Agnostic Front is a viable contender, any answer other than AGE OF QUARREL-era Cro-Mags is wrong.

love when the fire is honoured

*honored

…

Wait.

cro-mags duh

Rich McLoughlin, bassist for Killing Time and Breakdown, has died.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

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