DEAD ENEMY - Knowing The Enemy

Location: Fortaleza, Brazil

Release: Self-Released, 2020

Age Of Quarantine, day # 250 - From the always shine city of Fortaleza comes DEAD ENEMY and their first album Knowing The Enemy, paying tribute (so to speak) to our nasty far-right government leader.

The band members' background are encrusted in the counter culture movement for quite some time, with a fair amount of projects under their belts, all focused on speed! Bands like BECO TUBARÃO and BLIGHT demonstrate that well, but most notably DAMN YOUTH and their sonic thrashcore that have been waving the Ceará scene flag for the rest of the country and beyond now counting with the hand of DEAD ENEMY to tear down some fascists walls and stagedive for diversity.

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STAND HARD RECORDS - Discography

Age of Quarantine, day # 243 - Another early 00's (or so) US full label discography or in this case, semi-full. The situation here is that STANDHARD RECORDS was as DIY as you could get, from extremely limited 7" EPs to handmade cassette releases, it became pretty hard to track down everything they put out. STAND HARD served more as an outlet to promote their friend's bands as opposed to a more traditional label with webstore, street team, merch and whatnot.

It all started in 1996 with Jesse Standhard and Neal St. Clair, both playing in the Connecticut sxe band TENFOLD and their EP Vengeance Will Be Ours... which was the label's first release (or second, lol). The fun aspect about STAND HARD is that their history is entangled with other more estabilished hardcore labels since day one. From there TENFOLD went to BRIDGE 9 RECORDS to become their first ever release, two years later the same happened to RIGHT BRIGADE, the band Jesse was the frontman.

They also put stuff out by FOLLOW THROUGH another Connecticut mainstay Jesse took part playing bass after they did the 1996's Not This Time EP and shortly before that a demo cassette version was also released.

To close up the label's first chapter, still in the late 90's, they got to work with FASTBREAK and IN MY EYES, both ending up on Relevation Records. The Fastbreak release was a weird one, comprised of soon-to-be compilation tracks, since I couldn't find the audio files for it I put together those comp tracks. The In My Eyes demo cassette was a game-changer as we all know by now, one hell of a demo!

In the new millenium STAND HARD remained as a launch base for a few more but crucial early 00's US hardcore acts, working with bands that later closed deals with labels such as LOCKIN' OUT, TRIPLE-B and PAINKILLER RECORDS. Two infamous bootleg tapes came out from that era, the LOUD AND CLEAR USA (aka Step Foward) Promo Cassette and the FREE SPIRIT / NO TOLERANCE Split Demo. The first one I didn't even found an image for it what to say about audio rips.

After that we sail in uncharted waters, the complete continuity of the STAND HARD RECORDS releases can't be found anywhere, not until the mid 2010's when Jesse started to run Boston's EDGE DAY FEST. From there a bunch of promo tapes started to pop up, issued by bands performing in those fests, DIY style.

DOWNLOAD I contains:

1996 - FASTBREAK - Where It Lies 7"

1996 - TENFOLD - Vengeance Will Be Ours... 7"

1996 - FOLLOW THROUGH - Not This Time 7"

1997 - IN MY EYES - Cassette Demo

1998 - RIGHT BRIGADE - Demo

1999 - RIGHT BRIGADE - Clevo Sucks 7"

1999 - THE EXPLOSION - Demo EP

2001 - INVASION - Face Up To It!

2001 - STOP AND THINK - Boston Straightedge

DOWNLOAD II contains:

2008 - FREE SPIRIT / NO TOLERANCE - Split Demo

2014 - BURST OF RAGE - Edge Day Sampler

2014 -THROUGH THESE EYES - Promo Tape

2014 - TODD'S WAR - Your Mistake Demo

2015 - NEW VISION - Promo

2015 - SPIRIT OF YOUTH - Edge Day Demo

2016 - LABELED - Demo

U.Y.U.S. - United Youth of United States + Use Your Unedited Sense

Location: Houston, USA

Release: UYUS Records, 1989-1990

Age Of Quarantine, day # 233 - No, AllThingsOldschool is not done yet! Roughly 3 decades ago the Reagan era was ending. Hardcore, punk and metal bands had a lot to say back then as it does today.

To represent this day I picked U.Y.U.S. from Texas, they self-released 2 LPs filled with government criticism and political stands for equal rights. Although the cover may indicate Oi! related music this is pure late-80's styled thrashy hardcore not unlike Cryptic Slaughter.

Apparently there's just one audio rip available of their stuff and it was most likely made available by the Pay No More Than blog, which has its links dead for a long time. The issue is that the first LP's rip sounds way too weak! Other than that this is an amazing add to any old school punk collector. Vinyl photos by danielnatterdal.

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UNITED YOUTH OF THE UNITED STATES

IT'S OUR TURN TO STATE THE WAYS

WE'VE FOUGHT EACH FOR TOO LONG

YOU PEOPLE LEARN TO LIVE HERE

OR WE'LL ALL BE GONE

WE'LL ALL BE GONE, IT MUST BE DONE

SOME PEOPLE ARE PREJUICE, I JUST CAN'T UNDERSTAND

HOW THE COLOR SKIN CAN EXPLOIT A MAN

SO CLOSED MINDED, SO IGNORANT

YOU PEOPLE LEARN HOW TO LIVE HERE OR GET THE FUCK OUT

RACISM, WHO'S TO BLAME

YOURSELF, YOU MUST CHANGE

PREJUDICE, EXTINGUISHED

YOU MUST JOIN THE U.Y.U.S.

PUT AN END TO THIS RACIAL CIVIL WAR

JUMPING TO CONCLUSIONS, THEY'LL BE NO MORE

OPEN MINDS TEND TO DISCOVER

YOU CAN'T JUDGE A BOOK BY ITS COVER

LEARN TO LIVE HERE, OR WE'LL ALL BE GONE

LEARN TO LIVE HERE, OR GET THE FUCK OUT!