Now This Is Rock N Roll!

RIP: Dickie Hammond

Besides being a completely awesome band, my love of Leatherface probably had a little to do with the challenge in finding albums that would go on to be my favorites even 20 years later. Mush criminally turned up in the cheap bins due to poor US distribution and promotion. After that, it took some mailorder from Round Flat, Vaccum Records, Bottleneck Distribution and a US roadtrip to complete my Leatherface collection.

When I found out that 3 of the members had been in another hardcore band previously, I then set out to find all of those records. I was expecting HDQ to be, you know, just some old hardcore band. But they turned into one of my favorites as soon as I heard You Suck. I hadn't heard that kind of guitar work on a hardcore album since Dag Nasty.

And like Brian Baker, Dickie Hammond became one of my favorite guitarists and I followed him to any band he joined. I don't know what it is about British punk guitarists, but they have a certain sound that I've never heard from a US punk band. That sound of multiple chords in one. Dickie had that sound and damned if I wasn't a sucker for it every time.

Dickie's era of Leatherface remains one of the most consistently awesome periods of any band. Like most fans, Mush is still my favorite, but everything else he played on comes in a close second. Some of the guitar interplay on The Last almost makes me cry at how cool it sounds.

I've linked a few YouTubes highlighting his career over the years. Just to be in one of these bands would be a proud feat.

Hour Of The Wolf - Obsolete (Hellfish, 2009)

A quick upload to let you know I'm not dead.

Speaking of which, Hour Of The Wolf left this world too soon. I only became aware of them from seeing them live at The Fest in Gainesville one year. My friend JGoon actually had to deliver them some t-shirts or something from the label he was working for at the time. "Hour Of The Wolf, eh? Never heard of them. I'll check them out."

That show converted me into an instant fan. It reminded me of the first punk shows I'd gone to, with that mixture of excitement and fear. The band was aggressive, but funny. They played with the intensity of Black Flag and the melody of the Misfits. They obviously had a rabid bunch of converts already. I don't do much "dancing" at shows anymore, but I was nervous to even be on the outskirts of that pit. And that was before a garbage can went flying into the crowd!

I tracked down all of their stuff (only EPs), and of course shortly after, Think Fast! Records reissued it all on 2 vinyl compilations, along with some bonus stuff. A physical copy of this CD is included with the Decompositions Vol. 2 LP, but it's mastered to about half the normal dynamic range. I just pushed the level up to the full dynamic range, so now it's at an equal volume to the rest of their CD/digital material.

This EP ended up being their final recorded output. I'd say it sounds just slightly more tame than their other stuff. No less powerful, but a little more melodic. And as usual they throw in a classic cover, this time being Agent Orange's "Bloodstains."

01) Faith In Fiction
02) Age Of Nothing
03) Heart Failure
04) Obsolete
05) Bloodstains (Agent Orange)
06) Cowards And Critics

Hour Of The Wolf - Obsolete (R) (vbr 0)

Just In Case You Don't Have Facebook And Haven't Seen This Yet

Make sure you watch until the "chorus."

I Think I'm Just Getting Dumber

For JGoon

Ex Number Five - Extras

Anyone remember mp3.com? Anyone remember tying up your parents' or roommates' phone line for hours with a dial-up modem just to download shitty 128 kbps (or less!) mp3s, or stream them with real audio? Am I really old?

Besides having an incredibly opportune url, mp3.com was one of the first sites I can remember that featured downloads of a lot of good, independent bands. Some of my beginning mp3 collection came from the site with bands like Capture The Flag, The Jealous Sound and Ex Number Five.

If I remember correctly, Ex Number Five piqued my interest from their comparisons. The closest 2 would have to be Farside and Shades Apart. Maybe a little Seaweed in there too. A little too tough to be pop punk, more in the melodic hardcore vein.

They put out a bunch of releases, but never really took off the way that their peers did. I'm not sure if they ventured out too far from New Jersey, which might have had something to do with it. You can grab their full length (that sounds weird) from bandcamp, but I've compiled their remaining odds and ends here.

Demo (2002)
   01) Empty Bottles
   02) Houster
   03) Zero To Sixty In 10.6
   04) How Does It Feel?
   05) The Blood We Bleed
The Movielife Split Cdep (2001)
   06) Armistice
   07) Go
Va - The Best Comp In The World (2000)
   08) First Attempt Spangler
Va - Streets Of Philadelphia (1999)
   09) Old Village 73
Odd Ends
   10) Caterpillar
   11) Safe (Dag Nasty)

Ex Number Five - Extras (vbr 0)