This page exists in the spirit of archiving a band from New Brunswick, NJ that was a fixture in the New Brunswick D.I.Y. hc/punk scene from late '95-'99, & whose material was previously only accessible on cassette and vinyl.
Early practices were in Jay's basement's laundry room in the fall of '95. Jay had Tony Hawk hair. Carl had a Bulldoze shirt. Derik was all uptight/ABC NO RIO'd out, but showed blast beat promise. Our original name was "I Thought Murder Was Legal," which Bryan Poerner and Mat Gard asserted was the best name ever. Tons of time was spent in the Rutgers University library looking for graphics and themes for the '96 demo and I still have some pages we illegally copied using an ingenius system to foil Rutgers copiers. Even more time was spent (at all hours of the night) @ the old New Brunswick Kinkos on Albany St. with scammed Kinkos cards hand copying/cutting and pasting cassette demo covers and stickers with stolen, clear sticker paper. Each demo was hand dubbed individually. About 1/4 of them included a live song (they varied from tape to tape) from a '97 show @ the Princeton Arts Council in Princeton, NJ.
We handed out lyric sheets at dozens of shows. (Does that still exist?)
In 1998, We were to record our 9 song 7" a month or so after the fest. Justin Rowand (of: Evacuate, Inhuman, All out War, and Taste of Fear) learned 7 songs in one day and recorded (while naked) on the 7", writing one additional [new] song with us in about 10 minutes. For the 1 song he didn't learn, we used Alex's demo guitar track and recorded everything else over. Justin was not a permanent member and we began to fade from there. A kid named Cenk, who lived in Japan for much of his life, entered he picture somehow, and he ended up playing 1 or 2 shows with us. We had a practice or 2 with Chris Kelly of 97a on guitar, but nothing materialized from those sessions.
In around 4 years, we played with our comrades in: The Degenerics, Fanshen, You and I, Degradation, Amalgamation, His Hero Is Gone, Trial, Divide and Conquer, Ricanstruction, Birthmark, Critical Mass, Hacksaw, Kid Dynamite, Hausipungo, Asstroland, Try.Fail.Try., Vorhees, Worthless, Handful of Dust, Uprise, Malefaction, Inflict, Brandon Walsh, Rad, Jesuit, Black Army Jacket, Atom & His Package, No Regrets, SOV, No Contest, Devoid of Faith, Endeavor, Fall Silent, Deathreat, Acrid, SoIHadToShootHim, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Unruh, Ensign, Ignite, Dystopia, Disassociate, Catharsis, Stormshadow, Unanswered, 400 Years, Assfactor 4, Milhouse, Fedakin, Mancake, Monster X, Evacuate, 97a, C.R., Standpoint, Ire... and tons more we'll think of later. We once played with Ex Ignota and cleared the entire room.
Thanks to: the New Brunswick underground, Isosoles "Igor" Sombillo for being our first fan/supporter, Paul D'Elia for the photography, and all our friends from that era who made sure none of us took ourselves too seriously and sang along to the Beyond, Lifes Blood, and ManLiftingBanner covers. Special thanks to Steve Roche at Permanent Hearing Damage studios in Philadelphia for re-mastering all 30 [studio and live] songs on May 4th, 2006.
Discography:
*Demo- 10 songs, recorded at Off Axis Studios in Perth Amboy, NJ in late 1996 and put out in 1997.
*s/t 7"- 9 songs, recorded at Off Axis Studios in Perth Amboy, NJ in 1998 and released by Hater of God Records.
*'Solidarity, a benefit comp for ABC NO RIO'- 1 track ('Furnace'), released on DeadXAlive Records in 1998)
remember at your show at the metuchen church when i got kicked out of the ladies bathroom because this old lady thought i was a boy? and then i flashed her my boobs, but she still didn't seem to believe me. ah, those were the days of shaved heads and baggy hoodies...
even to this day, every time i go to a store and they try to give me bag when i don't really need one, i think of Jay screaming in the clerks face: "NO, I DON'T NEED A BAG!" - hahhahahaah!
