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Black N Blue Bowl DVD 2008 Available Now!!!
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The
year was 1982. The place, New York City.
Who'd guess that almost twenty years
later a band first called Zoo Crew would emerge as the seldom
contested, always respected godfathers of hardcore - Agnostic
Front? "Vinnie Stigma was the creator of the name," says
Cuban-born vocalist, Roger Miret. "He liked the definition
of "agnostic"; to be in doubt of the absolute truth, to
question authority and he wanted more than a band. He wanted
a movement, a front, so it is christened Agnostic Front.
That's what he tells everyone and that's basically it!"
AF quickly etched their names in the concrete sidewalk in
the history of hardcore with the unchained, unforgiving
"Victim In Pain" LP, a 15-minute long musical fight. That
album helped establish AF as one of the meanest sounding
bands in punk, helped create the term "hardcore", and placed
all of New York hardcore on the map by association. "We
had no idea that in the beginning that this would branch
out as far as it did," admits Roger. "Back then we were
lucky to get a van and drive down to Washington D.C. to
play without the van breaking down along the way or something."
Their strength through pain was an infection that still
has no cure. AF long outlived their now-legendary contemporaries
like Minor Threat, SSDecontrol, Dead Kennedys, Black Flag
- and could easily live on their laurels. But the fight's
not over. "It's social politics," Roger says. "The day-to-day
reality of waking up, reading the newspaper, and walking
around the neighborhood. It's a hard stare on why
the world is still one fucked-up place and we tackle the
very real shit that's going down; gentrification's running
rampant, working wages aren't, and backs are still being
stabbed." The years in-between the formation of AF have
been anything but hopping and skipping through candy land,
but more akin growing up on streets, watching the lights
shot out one by one. Jail terms have been served. Divorces
have been filed. Close friends have died. Some have been
murdered. Even Roger's back was broken. You may ask what
drives the AF legacy? It's the rhythms of machine
guns and garbage trucks that'll make your fists shake and
have you instantly chanting along. But the songs are deeper
than its musical rage. Found inside is a darkened maturity
- a distilled, finely tuned aggression that's spun on the
long-running Stigma/Miret axis. The result isn't pretty.
It's still undeniably NYHC and it works for several reasons.
One, Roger neither preaches nor whines. He calls it how
he sees it. "There is a message contained in this," Roger
says. "Think before you strike." Secondly, Roger is grounded.
There's no rock star hang-ups, no over-inflated head that
prevents him from walking through doorways. (The last time
I met Roger, he was handing out free sodas to the kids standing
in line at the Unity Tour 3 show.) "We're the last stupid
punk rock band alive," Roger self-effaces. "I guess it's
in our hearts. We like to suffer and we like the abuse.
It's like a bad drug addiction you can't shake off or like
a bad marriage still only sticking around for the kids.
Honestly, we live it. It is our lives and it is all we know."
AF as a band, still works like a musical razor blade. Regardless
of their history, the proof is simple: AF's songs are still
hard, cutting, strong musical hit and runs. No one is born
with tattoos. No one's born hardcore. But when the ink or
the music sets in, you're changed. AGNOSTIC FRONT continues
to be living embodiment that "hardcore for life" isn't an
empty slogan or a musical dead end.
www.agnosticfront.com
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