New for 2009- In the works, BROKEN full length "Active Denial" to be released on VEX Records. Mexican "Drug Wars and Swine Flu Hysteria" tour dates. We will be touring in Mexico with WHAT IF GODS LIE. Call the attorneys!
The "At The Border" 7-inch is now available through Vex Records.
Broken - At The border review from Maximum Rock & Roll - December, 2007:
There are some bands that are so fucking stunning and powerful that words fail you! BROKEN is one such animal. These tough punks have been making serrated edge, dangerous punk rock longer than most kids have known about guitars or politics! Jim Martin and his band of foul demons unleash “At The Border,” “Hollow Threats,” “Broken R’ Dicks,” and “Die” on you headbangers. Every tune gives off trouble and pain! The vocals and the guitar noise storm the fucking gates of Hell! This music has a face full of venom that has not mellowed with the years. The chug of the guitars is laced with steel and acid. The dark vocals will curdle the most refined bloodline. Embrace BROKEN on your way to your certain doom! Buy this record and dismiss your sunny optimism!
BROKEN-At The Border(VEX) review from Suburban Voice (by Al Quint legendary hardcore punk journalist and Maximum Rock N Roll columnist!!):
Connecticut veterans Broken are back with more of a metallish sound on the title track of this EP, a tale of difficulty in trying to cross the border into Canada. Don't you just love living in this post-9/11 universe? The other three songs occasionally flirts with metal but Broken remain a bruising punk band and vocalist Jim Martin refuses to mellow with age. To quote the title of an earlier release, I hope they remain mad as fuck! (PO Box 1271, New Haven, CT 06505-1271, www.myspace.com/vexrecords
Broken - At the Border 7" (Vex)
Broken are angry, fast, catchy, dark, raw... they got something of everything, and I'm enjoying every minute. I haven't been that impressed in the past, but this 7" changed my opinion. www.attackfanzine.net (Sweden)
THE HISTORY OF BROKEN FROM 1994 THROUGH 2003
1994: New Haven, Connecticut, U.S.A.- Jim Martin's first band Malachi Krunch ends in a fiery kamikaze drug crazed fury. Jim the front man teams up with his then roommate Adrian Stock on guitar. Jim and Adrian have similar taste in punk and set out to start a more straightforward band than Malachi Krunch. They recruited two young punks Tarn Granucci on drums and Justin Talarski (of The Vomit Punks) on bass. Broken's first gig was with D.I.R.T. from England and Connecticut uber peace punks Mankind? At the Studio 158 in Wilimantic. Justin didn't last the year as the bassist. To put it simply he wasn't a good bass player, but still remains a good friend. Justin actually thought Jim was going to kick his ass for quitting. What is funny is that Jim, Adrian, and Tarn were going ask him to step down when Justin announced he was leaving.
1995: Brought in Vid Walker on the bass. Vid was an older New Haven scenester. Vid had the ability and was in it for good laugh. With this line up Broken recorded their fist demo. Bill Chamberlain of The Pist engineered the recording. In the 1990's Bill was pretty much the"Phil Spector" of The Connecticut Punk scene. The recording was raw to say the least. Broken started playing more gigs in Connecticut and New York City. After this session it was decided that Broken needed a lead guitar player. Vid was a much better guitarist than a bassist. Vid took on the leads. So they asked former Malachi Krunch bassist Wolf to join. Jim and Wolf were the only members of Malachi Krunch who didn't walk away with a nasty drug habit. The best gig that didn't happen that year was The Brooklyn Beer Olympics, in an abandoned building on the docks in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. The gig was set to start and all the bands were there. There were punks from all around the world there. The N.Y.P.D. showed up in heavy force and shut it down. There was talk of the event moving to "C" Squat in Manhattan. So all the Punks jumped the turnstiles to get the subway to Manhattan. Nonetheless everyone rallied in Tompkins Square Park. Riot Police stormed the park beating up Punks without warning,. The gig was definitely off now. Classic! Vid pretty much lasted the year, he moved to California with his girlfriend. At this point Vid was more interested in guns than music when he left. We also heard that Vid was working for Revelation Records in Los Angeles. At this time Tarn and former Broken member Justin appear in the documentary film "Dead Heads". You guessed it; it is about Grateful Dead fans. Tarn and Justin are the only punks to appear in it. Tarn verbally rips into Dead Heads. It's a pretty comical part of the film.
1996: After Vid's departure Broken had Bill Chamberlain come on board for the lead guitar spot. Bill was almost in every band in the scene at the time. Besides The Pist and Broken, some of the bands Bill was in over the years included T.S.S., Brutally Familiar, Mankind?, Deceived, Revolt, and React. Some how he kept it all together. Broken's first 7" EP "No Future?!, This Is It!!!" was recorded at this time. The session was recorded in the basement of The Pist house in Waterbury. Broken's good friends Aus Rotten from Pittsburgh on their Rotten Propaganda label released the Ep. Broken started playing more out of town gigs in Boston, Providence, Maryland, Pittsburgh. Tarn also started a side band called Boiling Man.
1997: Broken retained the line up of Jim, Adrian, Tarn, Wolf, and Bill. Gigs were in abundance. At this time Broken recorded the "We're Fucked!!" 7" EP. Jim traveled to Europe frequently. Jim started hearing of these bands from England like The Restarts and Spite. These bands had a new heavy kind of sound that still retained a razor sharp punk beat with updated version of chaos punk, without going into Heavy Metal territory. He thought that Broken would fit in nicely with these bands. Jim sent off a letter and some Broken recordings to this label in England called Blind Destruction Records. Pete Rose of Spite ran Blind Destruction Records wrote back to Jim, and said yes! So they released the "We're Fucked!!" EP. Meanwhile in Boston a group of young Chaos Punks named The Unseen took a liking to Broken. The Unseen hooked up Broken with some awesome gigs at the legendary club called The Rat. Mark from The Unseen was starting up a punk label called A.D.D. Records. He asked Broken to appear on an international punk compilation CD called "The Sounds Of Rebellion". Jim gave him some songs from the "We're Fucked" sessions. Some of the bands on that Compilation besides Broken were The Casualties, The Unseen, Oxymoron, The Discocks, and Blanks 77. That CD went everywhere. In the fall Neil Robinson of Tribal War Records was supposed to go on tour with Aus Rotten to Germany, he couldn't go. Neil asked Jim to take his place. Jim went to Germany with Aus Rotten on a short tour. Aus Rotten covered the Broken song "Uprising". Which Jim of course sang.
1998: The line up was still intact. Broken appeared on "The No Royalties" compilation LP (Bad People Records) with Charles Bronson, Capitalist Casualties, and others. It was time for Broken to go to England. There was supposed to be 5 gigs over in England. It turned out to be 3, but that is the nature of D.I.Y. touring. London welcomed Broken with open arms. The punk scene at the time was centered on the Stoke Newington neighborhood of London. "Stokey Punx!" In London Broken played with the likes of Braindance, Zero Tolerance, The Restarts, and Gundog, to name a few. In Bristol Broken played with His Hero Is Gone, from Memphis, Tennessee. A change in sound happened for Broken that night. Broken were told not to bring instruments or gear through Heathrow Airport customs. The British government doesn't take foreigners making money in England lightly. So Broken had to borrow gear at every gig. His Hero Is Gone was kind of to lend Broken use of their gear, with one condition. Not to change their tuning from the key of "D". Broken played in the key of "E", but agreed not to change their tuning. What happened that it was the toughest and heaviest set Broken had ever played!! It was brutal. After the set Jim from the legendary U.K. hardcore outfit Ripcord made sure Broken didn't have to buy beers for the rest of the night. After that Broken never went back to the key of "E". The last gig was with The Restarts at the 121 club in the Brixton section of London. It was packed and the crowd wouldn't let Broken leave the stage. They played every song they knew and did some over again. It was great trip. Retuning to the States was humbling experience. Broken's first gig back there was only 5 people there. Maddening to say the least. But those 5 kids knew every word to every song. The Broken / Boiling Man split EP was released at this time. A New Haven Attorney named Mark Kliger financed the whole project. He thought both bands embodied what free speech was about. Before the end of the year Adrian had enough. He was stepping out. Jay Gorman from Boiling Man joined. Jim started a side band with Marvin White, Al Ouimet formerly of The Pist, and Bill Collins formerly of veteran West Coast bands Millions Of Dead Cops, Fang, and Intensified Chaos called The Baltimore Foot Stompers.
1999: With yet another line up change Broken recorded more. The Broken / A Global Threat split EP was released on Controlled Conscience Records. A 14 year-old kid named Colin ran Controlled Conscience. Colin was way ahead of his years. Colin set up the first Broken web site http://www.broken2.cjb.net. Colin faded out after the whole deal. At this time Jim set up his own label Magilla Guerrilla Records. He released the Broken / Restarts split EP. Both splits did very well. Broken did more east coast gigs, crossing paths with bands like The Goons from Washington D.C., Molotov Cocktail from N.Y.C., and Two Man Advantage from Long Island. Fernando Pinto owner of the Tune Inn club in New Haven and the Elevator Music Record label proposed a 3 way split CD between Broken, Boiling Man, and React. Three of Connecticut's heaviest hitters in the hardcore punk scene and whose members were all intertwined. The CD was called "That Which Does Not Kill You…Shall Make You Stronger". That CD went to all corners of the globe.
2000: Well bringing in the new millennium and the Y2K scare didn't get Broken. Coldfront Records of California offered to release a Broken full length CD. The Coldfront label roster didn't have any other Punk bands like Broken. The other bands were more Pop Punkish. In hindsight Coldfront Records was banking on Bill being an ex member of the highly popular and acclaimed The Pist. Broken knew that as well and Bill wasn't too crazy about it. But nobody else was offering Broken a full-length deal. The Broken full length was called "Rush Hour". The tracks were re-recordings of previous Broken releases with a few new ones. Coldfront wasn't too happy with it. They released it anyhow. Broken was off to do a 2-week Midwest and South U.S. tour with Aus Rotten. A month before tour Tarn decided he wanted to leave the band. Broken scrambled to find another drummer. Kenny Cushen formerly of The Stiffs, Chelloveck 4, East Coast Panic, and 3 Finger Demon took the spot. Kenny drilled the Broken set in a short time and Broken hit the road. The tour was great. Some of the best moments were in Texas. A huge gig in Austin with Spazm 151 at the legendary club Emo's. In San Antonio the gig was filled with ultra violent Mexican chaos punks. One the larger Mexican chaos punks wanted to shoot Aus Rotten for being "too leftist". He showed Jim the gun; Jim talked him out of it. Texas Rangers yelled at Wolf for climbing up a wall of The Alamo at 3 a.m. The Rangers had their hands on their pistols! In Dallas as the bands pulled up in front of the gig, the liquor store across the street was robbed in hail of gunfire, an army of cops showed up quickly. Broken savored every minute of it. Bill started a side band called Scarred with ex-members of React and Jim on vocals. Scarred was extremely influenced by terrorist acts and the sounds of Swedish hardcore and Japanese punk legends G.I.S.M. Broken were approached by the management of Wind Up Records, whose parent owners are the wanky Christian religious rock superstars Creed. They offered Broken $10,000 for the rights to the name "Broken". They had a Christian rock band from somewhere in the south who were also called "Broken". Broken turned the offer citing, "there is too much blood, sweat, and miles just to give up our name". "Besides don't religious people have anything better to do with their money than trying to buy out punk bands?" In the scheme of things $10,000 broken down between all past and present band members would only work to about $900 each. It was a chump change offer to start with.
2001: Bill Chamberlain announced he was leaving Broken and moving to Pittsburgh to join Aus Rotten. Bill always wanted to be in Aus Rotten. There were no hurt feelings. Aus Rotten and Broken always had strong friendship. Aus Rotten invited Broken down to play Pittsburgh for Bill's last gig with Broken and his first gig with Aus Rotten all in one show. It was booked at this large club called Laga. It was the biggest gig Broken ever played in Pittsburgh. There were about 500 kids there. Submachine and Silver Tongued Devil were also on the bill. Before Aus Rotten hit the stage, Aus Rotten vocalist Dave Trenga asked Jim to help him with a costume he wanted to wear for their set. The costume was priest's uniform and a rubber pig head mask with a staff in the shape of a crucifix made of "well endowed" rubber cocks (the costume appears on Aus Rotten's last LP cover). In the darkness of the club while wearing the mask, Dave couldn't see his way to the stage from the back room. Jim guided him to the stage as the rest of the band was on stage playing the intro to their set. When Dave jumped onto the stage he accidentally decked Jim with his crucified rubber cock staff. What a sight! Sadly it was Aus Rotten's last show ever. Bill stayed in Pittsburgh and now plays in Caustic Christ and Behind Enemy Lines with ex-members of Aus Rotten. Rich Neagle formerly of Jasta 14 (another former member of Jasta 14 is Hatebreed front man Jamey Jasta) came in as Bill's replacement. Rich's guitar ability and drinking habits made him fit right into Broken. At this time Broken recorded the "Mad As Fuck" CD EP on Magilla Guerrilla Records. Broken goes to Canada for the first time to play a huge outdoor fest in Quebec province. Montreal crusties Hellbound show the guys an unforgettable weekend of drinking and punk depravity. Broken now set out to tour the U.K., Ireland, and Northern Ireland. On the night of September 10, 2001 Broken flew out of New York City heading for Manchester, England. On the fateful day of September 11 while waiting for their ship to Ireland, Broken watched the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington D.C. live on television. They hadn't even started the tour yet and it seemed like the whole world was going to end at that moment. There was talk of canceling the tour. It was emotional to say the least! But the whole world was on lock down. There was no other choice but to tour. Ireland proved to be an excellent time. Some bands Broken played with worth mentioning were Stress and The Dangerfields, and Cold War. Northern Ireland still had it's share of it's own problems. Broken witnessed quite a bit of street violence in Belfast. In Derry a British Army helicopter monitored Broken as they explored the almost deserted streets. Jim met up with the I.R.A., who showed him around the neighborhood. When leaving Derry that night Broken was stopped and I.D. checked by British troops, who locked and loaded on the van. Nerve wracking to say the least! England was calmer politically. Broken played a sold out gig in Nottingham with Sick On The Bus and The Bomb Blast Men. At the last gig in Birmingham Jock from G.B.H. was in attendance. Jock and his girlfriend Sam brought Rich and Jim home and made them noodle sandwiches. It was a grand tour. Upon returning Wolf had some personal demons to slay and had step down from the band. Paul Oppel (a.k.a. Big Fun) bassist from Boiling Man came on board. Paul already knew three quarters of the set when he tried out. He was a shoe in!
2002: In January Broken played The Tune Inn's last show ever with The Pist (reunited), Kill Your Idols, and Self Defense. It was packed!! That was Paul's first gig with Broken. Over the summer Broken played in Hartford on a blazing hot summer night with Voetsek, Municipal Waste, Public Nuisance, and Coldwar from Ireland. It was in Peruvian club and it raged!! Gigs were a bit sparse in 2002. With the recent attacks in New York and the new "War On Terror" people in general were rethinking themselves. Also that summer while riding his motorcycle, Jim was picked up by New York City police anti terrorist unit (and thrown to the ground) for suspicision of being a suicide bomber. He was wearing a full face helmet and camouflage jacket. He was eventually released. Broken finished the year out playing The Punk Olympics at CBGB's with the likes of Molotov Cocktail, The Goons, Asstroland, Screamer from England, and the like. "Punk Olympics" was recorded live and released on Eastern Threat records.
2003: Rich Neagle was losing interest with Broken. He started not showing up for rehearsal or gigs. After a lengthy time of frustration, Broken asked him to step down. Yet again their friendship remains intact after the fact. Gerry Stopper played guitar in Three Finger Demon with Ken. Ken and Gerry were also roommates. Gerry had a van and he would give Broken lifts to their gigs. Gerry would come to almost every Broken rehearsal and drink beer and hang out. Some of Gerry's former bands were 100 Demons and Brutally Familiar. Gerry was a natural for Broken. Gerry Stopper is the newest member of Broken. Gerry's first gig with Broken was Broken's first gig in Montreal. Broken's good friends Hellbound had invited them up to play. It was March and it was freezing up there. Before crossing the border Jim had realized that they had brought Broken t-shirts. Canadian customs does not like forigners coming in and making money off of Canadians without paying Canadian taxes. So in the freezing cold night at a gas station Jim and Ken stripped down and put on every t-shirt in the bag. There were about 30 shirts. It was good thing that it was cold out or they would never have gotten through the border with all the bulk. The venue was punk run club called the Loud House. On the bill were Montreal's own Hellbound and Inepsy, who ripped the stage apart before Broken went on. The place was packed with about 400 plus hardcore French-Canadian punks. French-Canadian punks are the real deal, "walking the walk not talking the talk". When Broken hit the stage the place erupted!! After a few encores Broken drank until dawn with these North American Vikings. Broken agreed that Montreal currently had the best scene in North America. On the way back to the States Broken smuggled in Inepsy's merchandise so they wouldn't have to pay American taxes on thier upcoming American tour. Inepsy would have looked pretty suspicious coming into America with a couple hundred CD's in their pants! Over the summer Broken had gigs with Drop Dead and Murphy's Law. Quite a contrast!! Broken went back to Montreal in the fall and had just as good of time as in March. Except that Ken got pinched at the Canadian border for a criminal history and had to pay a fine to get in. Local gigs have been filling in the gaps. Broken appears on the SCRAP PUNK compilation CD with the ledgendary Conflict, Disorder, 2000 D.S., and many others. SCRAP Records is run by Gary from 2000 D.S. in Brighton U.K.
2004 through the present is currently being written.
thought you might dig em. swing by the page and check out the rest, they are all custom done if you want something, hit me up! cheers, spread the good word
LAST SHOW AT SACHSON'S EVER TOMORROW NIGHT!!! COME OUT AND FUCKING RAGE YOUR ASSES OFF!!! BRING AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE AND REPOST REPOST REPOST REPOST!!!!
8PM $5 WATERBURY VICTIMS (INTENSE HARDCORE FROM SWEDEN ON DEATHWISH RECORDS) IRON HAND (EPIC RAGING PUNK ROCK FROM MIDDLETOWN) ATTENTAT (MEMBER OF HIP COPS, MEAN SEAN MURPHY!)
Hey Guys, Just wanted to drop by, stay in touch and find out how music biz is treating you. Hope all is well in your world. Ours is great right now, we are recording nine all original tracks which should be ready this Fall sometime. Hope to hear from you soon and Keep Rockin! Have a GREAT Memorial Day! Wenzday Falls
hi, WELCOME TO LEON GTO-
