1st Day Of High School In 1984

                                               

         My niece is starting High School in Queens today & that led me to reminisce about my 1st day of school back in September of '84. I went to Aviation HS in Long Island City, Queens. I vividly remember seeing a swarm of kids massed outside the school as the #7 train pulled into the 33rd St station. As I got down from the elevated track to the street, chaos & bedlam was in full swing. It seems that some wannabe Zulu nation fakers were being exposed by the Gestapo division of the real Zulu Nation, hunted down by their leader named Gorilla, inquisition style. Zulu beads of impostors were being snatched with fights breaking out left & right. Aviation was a magnet school for kids from all over the city so rival graffiti crews were finally meeting face to face, long simmering beefs were being played out under the subway tracks next to Queens Boulevard. I only knew a couple of people from my neighborhood, that were starting the same day, but we got separated during the ensuing melee. Cop cars started arriving & things settled down after a fashion.
         We finally got into the school & were shepherded into the cafeteria that had be converted into a makeshift processing center. As I stood around waiting for directions, I'll never forget the 1st 2 kids I met that day. One was a guy named Dwayne, who would drop out of school by the following year to be a backup dancer for Lisa Lisa & The Cult Jam, really nice guy. I hope he got a chance to fulfill his passion & is in a good place now. The other was a kid named Luis who seemed way older than he looked, no wonder being that he was already a father with another kid on the way, all at the ripe age of 15. Boggles the mind how he's probably a grandfather now or soon to be great-grandfather!
         After a long delay, my schedule was printed out & I made my way to my first classes. I think I only made it to the 2nd classroom before I decided to ditch everything & go play handball & do some graffiti, a harbinger of things to come for my subsequent high school career.
         I know times have drastically changed for the better, my niece will not encounter the same scenario I faced. I wish her the very best, she's a smart cookie. I can't help but think of ghosts of the past whenever I pass on the train & see the old Aviation sign in the distance.

Me on the left in 1985

                             

The Allen St Boys

Mural done by LEE Quinones on Allent St. 1982

                
                   In the summer of 1984, me & a friend took a ride from our neighborhood in Queens to the shopping mecca known as Delancey St on the lower east side of Manhattan. We were both starting high school that fall & wanted to pick  up the flyest back to school gear. Delancey or D Street as it was called, was a B-Boy's dream retail emporium. One could pick up sheepskin coats in just about every color, custom made belt buckle name tags, creased lee jeans, le tigre shirts, leather bomber jackets, black or white gloves used for popping/breakdancing & of course; every shade of shell top Adidas sneakers under the sun with the fat laces already intertwined in checker board patterns if so desired. We could have probably found the same stuff around our way, if we looked hard enough, but it was somehow more legitimate to get your essential B-boy accessories from D Street.
                   We had both saved up our allowance & birthday gifts money for this day, wishing we could take 2 of everything we saw, but the reality being that we could only afford a couple of items each at best. He picked up a fresh burgundy sheepskin coat & a pair of gold rimmed Gazelle sunglasses. I settled for a matching grey BVD mesh shirt & shorts combo plus a sweatshirt with my crew's name stenciled on it.
                    As we were about to depart the last store we visited, someone that just walked in said: "Yo, you better watch your backs, the Allen St boys are out to tax today". We nonchalantly ignored his warning, in that invincible 14 year old way & proceeded to head back to the subway. Sure enough, as we made it halfway up the block, we saw a group of tough looking hard rocks running, not walking, straight toward us from Orchard St. They certainly didn't look like they were up for some friendly banter. Not in the mood to get housed today, we were like "Oh dip!" & jetted like Jesse Owens running a mile in under a minute, wolf pack at our heels. No small feat, as back in those days, in order to give the Adidas shell toe sneaker w/the fat laces a cooler, bulkier look; we would double up a rolled up sock on the front part of the inside of the sneaker. This would look cool when doing a B-boy stance at the local skating rink, but not too practical when running from a pack of marauding thugs.
                  It must have made quite a scene, us half running & half hopping down the block but we miraculously made it to the subway station, jumped the turnstile & got on the F train just as the doors were about to close. The Allen St boys were left to hurl obscenities at us as we safely pulled away from the station.
                 We told our getting chased story with some measure of pride the next day. All part & parcel of growing up in NYC during the early 80's: getting chased by rival crews, stick up kids or the police. An urban rite of passage. I sincerely hope the kids today do not go through the same trials & tribulations while shopping for their preferred outfits at places like Hot Topic or Abercrombie & Fitch!

The Heavy Metal Roots Of New York Hardcore

Riche from Sick Of It All & Rob from Straight Ahead/Rest In Pieces headbanging in 1983.

I just wrote this article about Metalheads who went Hardcore during the mid-1980's scene. Check it out here:

http://www.noecho.net/features/the-heavy-metal-roots-of-new-york-hardcore-by-freddy-alva

                                      

Nick Lord from YDL outside Studio 54 in 1985.

Latinos in NYHC & Punk 1985-1990

                                                                

Javier Villegas w/Born Against @Abc No Rio. Photo by Tim Singer

                 The good folks at No Echo website asked me to do a part 2 of my Hispanics in NYHC article. Here's the link: 

http://www.noecho.net/features/the-hispanic-impact-on-the-early-new-york-hardcore-scene-part-2-freddy-alva

 These are bunch of photos of people featured in the article that were not used for the final piece:

John John Jesse from Nausea drumming for Trauma in 1986 @Tin Pan Alley. Photo by Sam Moon Rafferty



Gavin Van Vlack playing w/Absolution @CBGB's 1988.



Sergio Vega from Quicksand/The Deftones in Washington Sq Park 1986.



Roy Mayorga from Nausea drumming for Youthquake in 1986.



Hoya Roc from Madball/Dmize in Corona, Queens 1983.



Jimmy Williams from Maximum Penalty outside CBGB's 1988.



"Lusty" Lou Morales & The Twins: Hector & Edwin Nieves in Sunset Park, Brooklyn



Rich Derespina & Ed Sayago from All For One @Giant Studios 1987.



Chiqui from Dmize in the middle 1990.



Maurice Vega from Under Pressure @Sundance 1988.



Gus SXE Pena w/Discipline 1989.



Minus & SOB



Ike Proud drumming & Andrew Monserrate on guitar w/Stand Proud 1988.



Marcos Siega from Bad Trip in 1990.

Hispanics Causing Panic In The Early NYHC Scene

         

       One of the more enduring motifs in the development of American Hardcore is the oft-repeated description of this burgeoning youth subculture as being a predominantly white suburban dominated one. While this might have been true in certain quarters of the nation during the HC explosion in the early 1980's, the situation in NYC looked a bit different. Kids growing up in New York's 5 boroughs & beyond, came from extremely varied national origins, the Latino one being an especially prominent one. Waves of immigration, starting in the 1950's, from Puerto Rico/Cuba/Dominican Republic plus subsequent ones from South & Central America in later decades, gave rise to generations straddling a bilingual gravitational pull. As Punk transitioned into Hardcore by 1980, the epicenter of this new music came to be centered around a mostly Hispanic neighborhood: Manhattan's Lower East Side or Loisaida, as the locals called it.

 The following list of people with a Hispanic background from the early years is a tribute to those that represented this music all the while dealing with the usual adversarial forces of school/family/peers plus the extra layer of identity related issues prevalent among 1st generation born or recently arrived immigrants to America. I focused on band members & scenesters that were involved in the early years of the scene, circa 1980-1985. I know that tons of other people from a Hispanic background came after that era, and are still involved now, but I'll let someone else document them.

Let's move on to some of the pioneers that lived 'La Vida Loca' during those halcyon hardcore days...

Denise Mercedes, Nick Marden & Harley Flanagan from THE STIMULATORS
      Denise is half Dominican/Spaniard, along with 2nd Stimulators bassist Nick Marden (1/2 Mexican from California) & Harley Flanagan (Dominican/Spaniard heritage) played in this influential band. Their song M.A.C.H.I.N.E., from '78 or '79, is a crucial component to the development of the music as it is one of the first Hardcore sounding songs from NYC. Nick also coined the term 'Loud Fast Rules', an important rallying cry for the short haired HC set.
Harley would go on to form the quintessential NYHC band: The Cro-Mags.

Denise w/guitar, Nick in back & a 12 year old Harley.

                                
Roger Miret from AGNOSTIC FRONT-
    Born Rogelio De Jesus in Havana, Cuba. Roger's family immigrated to the states in 1968. He played bass in several bands in the NY/NJ area before becoming AF's vocalist in 1982, just in time for their seminal 'United Blood' ep from 1983. AF's 2011 Lp "My Life My Way" featured a HC song sung entirely in Spanish. Roger's younger brother, Freddy Miret, grew up jumping on stage & singing AF songs. He would go on to start the late '80s NYHC outfit Madball. 
                                                

Roger's passport from 1964.

Robb Nunzio & Louie Rivera from ANTIDOTE
   Original singer Louie is Puerto Rican & Guitarist Robb is of Puerto Rican/Italian descent. Their 1983 "Thou Shalt Not Kill" ep set the tone for what would become the NYHC sound: vicious fast tunes with underlying metal influences. Antidote still continues 'til this day, always the Real Deal. As Robb says: "That's what made us so good, 2 PR's & 2 Mc's (Irish)!"
    

NYHC Boricuas outside CBGB's: Robb & Louie in 1983

Eric J Casanova from the CRO-MAGS-
     Original Cro-Mags singer Eric Casanova is of Puerto Rican descent & grew up in Astoria, Queens. He is credited with writing the lyrics to "Life Of My Own" & co-writing with Harley other classic Cro-Mags tunes like "Hard Times" & "Street Justice". He played with them from '82-'84 & left for personal reasons. Rumors of his demise are greatly exaggerated as he's been spotted as of late, still living in NYC.

Eric Casanova @CBGB's 1984

Javier Madariaga from HEART ATTACK
     Javier was originally from Mexico City & played in one of the 1st NYHC bands that put a record out, Heart Attack's "God Is Dead" ep  from 1981. He also went on play in Reagan Youth, A.P.P.L.E. as well as his own solo projects. He is credited with playing what would become known as the 1st recorded version of the "Blastbeat" drum pattern, as heard on the song "From What I See" off their 1983 "Keep Your Distance 12". This drum pattern would become a big influence on the extreme HC/Metal hybrid known as Grindcore.

Javier  Madariaga @The Peppermint Lounge 1983

Dito Montiel & Ray Parada from MAJOR CONFLICT
    Orlandito Montiel is the son of a Nicaraguan immigrant & an Irish mother. Ray Parada's family comes from Spain. They both grew up in Astoria, Queens & started Major Conflict in 1982, sharing members with another classic NYHC band: Urban Waste. Dito went on to a modeling career & is currently an award winning director. Ray went on to sing for the late 80's band A-Bomb-A-Nation & along with his brother Ernie Parada from Token Entry, represent a long musical footnote in NYHC's history.
    

Ray 2nd from left & Dito in the middle, 1982.

Jose Gonzales from THE MOB
        Jose "Ho" Gonzales was a Dominican teenager from Jackson Heights, Queens & in 1980 helped form one the classic NYHC bands: The Mob. He played on both their 7"s & Lp as well as joining HR, from the Bad Brains, Zion Train project in the late 1980's. The Mob still play out periodically & continue to release new recordings.


Jose Gonzales @CBGB's in 1984

Tony Dust & Paul Dordal- Lower East Side Skinheads
       Tony Dust was a Puerto Rican skinhead from Brooklyn & along with Paul, of Puerto Rican/French descent, contributed to the development of the NYHC mindset. Tony never played in a band & Paul tried to w/Harley but they were both influential skinheads that hung out on the LES. According to Sean Taggart in 1981: "Paul had dropped out of school, went out to California, hung out at the Black Flag church, was there when Henry joined. He did the LA hardcore thing & came back as a Skinhead". He instructed kids on how to shave their hair & what fashions looked too "punk", he also wrote the Murphys Law song 'California Pipeline'. Tony was notorious for starting fights & right of center politics, views they both shared. His younger cousin, Javier (SOB) Carpio, was a prominent member of the Sunset Park Skins & would form the 90's metal-core band Merauder. RIP SOB

Tony Dust far left w/the Matinee crew 1983. Photo by Drew Carolan       

Paul Dordal on the right, outside CBGB's. Photo by Karen Sullivan

                                              
Ernie Parada from TOKEN ENTRY
    Ernie's parents are from Spain & he started Gilligans Revenge in 1980 with friends from his neighborhood in Astoria, Queens. Along with various line-up changes, they became Token Entry in 1984. He later went on to play in In Your Face, Black Train Jack, Arsons, Higher Giant & is currently in Grey Area as well as being a successful commercial illustrator.

Ernie 2nd from left w/Gilligan's Revenge in 1982

Abraham Rodriguez from URGENT FURY
               Abraham is a Puerto Rican raised in the South Bronx. In 1980 he started a band called White Riot which morph into Urgent Fury in 1982. Their more melodic strain of highly politically charged HC set them apart from what was going on in NYHC at the time, as demonstrated on their '84 demo. Abraham recently resurrected Urgent Fury with new members, he's also an accomplished writer. Check out an interview I did with him a couple of years ago: http://quixoticdreamsnyc.blogspot.com/2011/03/abraham-rodriguez-so-bronx-tale.html
              

Abraham Rodriguez @CBGB's in 1985

Jose Ochoa from LEEWAY
      Jose is of Colombian descent & along with some friends from his neighborhood in Astoria, Queens started up The Unruled in 1983. Credited with bringing a heavy crossover metal influence into the NYHC sound, they would change their name to Leeway by 1984.
        

Jose on the cover of Leeway's '85 Enforcer Demo

                                     
Jorge Herrera from THE CASUALTIES
     Jorge from The Casualties is known more as 90's punk phenomenon but Jorge's roots in the NYC scene lie deeper. Originally from Ecuador, he immigrated to the states in 1980 & started hanging out in the CBGB's scene soon after, he's in the crowd shot of Agnostic Front's 'Victim In Pain' Lp from 1984. He also started a short-lived band w/future Quicksand/The Deftones & Puerto Rican bassist Sergio Vega along with Chile-born Soledad Villanueva.

                                                     

Soledad & Jorge in 1985.

I could go on & on with tons of more examples like:
- Chris Colon (Hamilton), 1/2 Puerto rican singer of the ARMED CITIZENS
- a bunch of young Cuban teenagers that had a short lived band called NO REMORSE circa '85.
- Dominican Ralphie Boy, Squat Or Rot founder & Jesus Chrust/Disassociate singer.
- Rudy Ruiz fron Bronx HC/Metalheads THE UNJUST
- Early AGNOSTIC FRONT bassist Diego
    Not to mention all the post-'85 Latinos that started bands, did fanzines/record labels, hung out in the scene; something that continues to flourish to this day in the ever expanding universe known as NYHC.

Huge thanks to Ken Wagner, Sean Taggart, Loizos Gatzaris, Drew Stone, Denise Mercedes, Nunzio, Ray Parada, Mark Yoshitomi & Soledad Villanueva for all the info.

Like AF sang, this is for:
"Esto es para todos de la escuela nueva y para todos de la escuela vieja".

 

                                                                                                                                    

                                                  
              



Last Cause in 1989

                                                                                  

        It seems like everyone that loves music has at one point tried to make their own, the outcome being determined by one's inherent musical talent or lack therefore of it. I would definitely fall into the latter camp. By 1988 I was fully engrossed in the booming NY Hardcore scene: doing a fanzine, going to shows, buying as many demos/7"s/ Lp's & just soaking up the culture as much as I could.
         I decided to attempt playing guitar, got a cheap Sears catalog guitar/amp combo & enlisted a couple of friends to "jam" in my garage. I thought playing Oi! would suit my purposes better at this time before playing any faster (& harder to learn) HC jams. We formed an Oi! band, tentatively called " Last Cause" & set out to write simple 2-chord songs. We had a couple of practices where we didn't really get much done, preferring to pack up everything up when bored & pile into drummer Wayne's car  instead & cruise around northern Queens with our singer Roy making fun of the local Guidos.
         Things soon fizzled out as Paul the bassist joined a real practicing/writing songs all-the-time band called Fit Of Anger. I also got really busy at the time with putting together a compilation tape w/my friend Chaka Malik, which would become the New Breed Tape Compilation.

Bleecker Bob's ad looking for band members. No Metal!

                                                                 
          In early '89, I somehow got the idea to get a band going again & record a song for inclusion on the comp. I answered an ad on the wall of Bleecker Bob's records for a guitarist looking to start a HC band. The guy that placed the ad, John Patterson, turned out to be really cool; we had a lot of the same musical references so I brought back the name Last Cause & decided to use it for this new line-up. We quickly set out to recruit members, a couple of upstate NY guys answered our ad: Mike (vocals) John (bass) & a drummer (Ted Gogoll) was introduced to us by mutual friend Tom Colomara.
          John Patterson wrote a couple of songs & showed me where to place my fingers for the chord progressions as I was always really inept in that department. We jammed a couple of times at a real rehearsal space called Big Fun but got banned for allegedly damaging some equipment. I wrote lyrics to 2 songs that we had music for (No New Dreams & Days Gone By). Mike enthusiastically sang what I'd written, it was such a cool feeling to have someone else perform something you've had a hand in creating.
           As the New Breed comp was almost ready, we rushed into Don Fury's studio to record the songs & pick the best version. The details are fuzzy but for some reason or other, our bassist John couldn't make the recording so I asked my friend Chris Benetos from Fit Of Anger to fill in on bass, to which he graciously agreed. We picked "No New Dreams" to be our contribution to the compilation.

                                                                       
           We had no clue what we were doing in the studio so we just pressed record & ran through the song just like at rehearsal. The finished product was not like I wanted it to be at the time so I scrapped the idea of putting it on the comp. Honestly, after listening to the material bands like Absolution, Collapse, Beyond & others that had submitted songs for the compilation; I felt intimidated that our stuff wasn't up to par or that my lack of talent held the band back. We disbanded soon after, Mike moved on to sing for this upstate NY band called Powersurge, John Patterson & Ted moved on to other projects, John the bassist disappeared & I hung up my guitar for good.
            I purposely never labeled the tape were the recording was so it got lost in between the hundreds of cassettes I have. It wasn't through reconnecting with Ted a couple of years ago, that I heard those recordings once again. I have to say that in retrospect, they're not that bad, no better or worse than some of the stuff that was around back then. Me & Ted had a discussion that, at the time, I thought we were going for an Agnostic Front "United Blood" sound on those songs, he thought we were attempting more of a Supertouch groove-like vibe. Funny how perceptions are so different! At times, under the right circumstances, the song sounds to me like early Die Kruezen with mosh parts, at other times, it's like Youth Of Today covering Project X or vice versa.

"Introspective" lyrics written by me for our 2nd song.

                                                          
            25 years later, I am proud to have been part of this, to have the chance to experience what the camaraderie of being in a band entails. Doing logos, shirts, lyrics, going to the CBGB's matinees on sundays after rehearsing... All great memories to which I'm forever thankful to the guys in the band.

I'm also glad to still be in touch with John Patterson & Ted Gogoll.

I'm happy to report that they persisted in creative endeavors, John played guitar in the hugely underrated HC/Metal band Taste Of Fear in 1992. In the mid-90's he started the heavy electronics project Woe Is Me, which he continues 'til this day. Check it out at:
http://woe1.wordpress.com/

Ted Gogoll has become a published writer with his novel called "Echoes Of A Killing" & a collection of short stories on the way. Check it out at:
https://www.facebook.com/EchoesOfAKilling

As far as Mike the singer & John the bassist, haven't spoken to them in ages, but I recently got their phone numbers. Time I give them a call!

Hand-screened shirt done by John Patterson in 1989.

See Hear Now!

 

        I was lucky enough to work in 1990, for about 10 months, at what was undoubtedly the world's only store dedicated exclusively to fanzines, a 'lil emporium called SEE HEAR.
        The store was located inside a 300 sq ft basement on 59 east 7th st in Manhattan's rapidly gentrifying (at the time) East Village. I'd first heard about the place when Greg Ginn's post Black Flag outfit, Gone, played an "in-store" concert there. I missed said gig, but I can't imagine for the life of me how they fit more than 12-15 people down there, band included.
         I got to know the owner, Ted Gottfried, through selling my fanzine there & spending countless of hours just perusing every publication like it was some kind of public library. I don't recall exactly how I got the job, probably because I happened to be there just at the moment when someone quit & decided to apply for his position. I had no retail experience, my last job had been as a foot messenger, but my connection to the current HC scene is most likely what drove Ted to hire me. Ted's background was the South Florida HC/Punk scene from the early 1980's & whatever was happening by 1990, scene-wise, was passé for him by then.
         I thought I was bought in to keep him informed on current trends in HC but it was I that got the education. Working there exposed me to all the under the radar influences that helped shape underground culture then and now. Everything from Robert Crumb comics, obscure B-movies, Body Modification pioneers, Apocalyptic Cult Leaders to outsider music like unhinged 50's Rockabilly/60's Free Jazz & Proto-Punk pioneers from decades past.

 

                                                      
           Apart from myself, the store's other sole employee was a DC to NY transplant named Reuben Radding. He'd grown up in the capital's HC scene, even playing in a pre-fame Dave Grohl related outfit called Dain Bramage. Reuben had a stellar taste in music, always making these detailed compilation tapes to play in the store. One in particular sticks out: Goblin's 'Suspiria' soundtrack on one side with Sun Ra's 'Space Is The Place' Lp on the other with a couple of James White & The Contortions tunes to fill up the remaining space. Still the perfect mix-tape in my opinion. I'll always remember when Nirvana's breakthrough song came on the radio in '91, Reuben turned to no one in particular and said: "Man, that Dave's gonna be a millionaire" & went back to reading some Jazz publication. 

 

                                  
      I met tons of legendary performers & writers during my tenure there, some highlights:
- Patti Smith coming down to sell us an unopened batch of her Seventh Heaven poetry books that'd she unearthed.
- Blasting some Gangsta Rap while Thurston Moore waited impatiently outside the door for me to open up.
- Meeting Nick Tosches at a book signing we held, hell of a writer & super nice guy.
- Talking to Twink of the legendary Proto-Punk band The Pink Fairies & having him autograph my copy of his solo lp called 'Think Pink'.

- Taking a picture w/Joey Shithead & Randy Rampage of DOA when they made the cover of MaximumRocknRoll.

      Seeing legends like Allen Ginsburg, Richard Hell, David Peel, Ornette Coleman, Handsome Dick Manitoba, Cecil Taylor, Legs McNeil etc.. come in on a regular basis was incredibly exciting. These pioneers of the whole 1960's-1970's counterculture were all unique characters that represented a NYC that's sadly, for the most part, vanished like subway tokens.

      I got let go in 1991, mostly due to me being chronically late. I was trying to juggle school full-time & also got way too involved with running a co-op record store some friends and I started. In a way it was for the best because I went back to being a regular customer, just going to See Hear with no retail obligations to worry about. Ted kept the store going until the early 2000's when he got some investors together & opened a new location on St. Marks that was about 4 times the size of the old one. I liked the new space, as it meant a hell of a lot more room to carry cool stuff, something the old store sorely lacked. Doing bigger & better meant a lot more headaches: higher rent, bigger staff, the need for security to be on the lookup for shoplifters. A lot of old customers complained of the loss of intimacy in the new space. That location soon folded & I heard Ted tried to make a go of it again on a smaller scale, but for whatever reason, that didn't pan out.

         I haven't seen Ted for a long time but always think of him & the store whenever I go down 7th street on my way to play chess at Tompkins Sq Park. His unique vision helped expand & turn on a whole generation, myself included, to an alternative view of popular culture & for that I'm forever thankful.

                                   

Down the stairs of the old See Hear location in 2013

                                     

Endnote:

My old co-worker, Reuben Radding, is not only a talented musician & astute music lover, he's also an accomplished photographer. A book of his Street Photography is being published by the end of the year, check out his site & pre-order one!

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/apparitions-new-york-city-street-photographs-by-reuben-radding