Radio Silence / A Selected Visual History of American Hardcore Music

Massive updates today, beginning with the announcements of two Radio Silence events in California.

Up first will be an all ages free show with Nike Sportswear at The Montalbán in Hollywood on October 8th featuring a set by the Cro-Mags Jam and one other special guest. After the show we’re hitting up Beauty Bar for an after party and a special DJ set.

October 9th will be equally as special, we’ll be at Open book store in Long Beach. Popeye from Farside and Jeff Caudill of Game Face will be doing acoustic sets, we’ll have books many of the contributors will be hanging out, signing books and enjoying some free beverages courtesy of Independent Trucks.

I went to Studio B in Brooklyn to catch the Cro-Mags Saturday night. The new line up featuring John Joseph, Mackie, AJ Novello and Craig Ahead tore through a set packed with classics and a few surprises. If you want to know how it was I offer this to you : Baba O’Riley cover that sounded sick into the opening chords of Rise and Fall, followed up by We Gotta Know…that’s correct, the two hardest intros ever recorded back to back. When you have members of Leeway, Rest In Pieces, Agnostic Front, Straight Ahead, and Sick of It All backing John Joseph with a collective fire and energy that matches the intensity of the songs it’s going to fucking shred and we’re looking forward to doing it again in Los Angeles.

Lastly we have a special one to brighten up a shitty Monday morning, a clip from Craig Ahead’s interview for Radio Silence titled Hillbilly Brawl Fest. Check it out here.

Collecting all the images and stories for Radio Silence was an incredible process, unfortunately we had to omit some great material due to the page count. Radio Silence could have easily been over a thousand pages but we had to do the most with the space that we had. Craig’s interview was packed with colorful stories spanning his introduction to hardcore in the early 1980s up to present day and was cool enough to let us post excerpts occasionally here. He’s a natural storyteller and a rare talent who has as much passion for music as he did as a teenager and we’re honored to be able to share some outtakes.

Thanks again to everyone involved in all the events, more details coming later this week and don’t forget to RSVP for the New York release parties coming up on the 3rd and 4th of October.

Photos: Cro-Mags Jam, Studio B, Brooklyn, New York September 27th, 2008; Photograph by Manny Mares

Tags: Agnostic Front, Cro-Mags, Sick of It All, Straight Ahead