In Effect #6 1995. Jimmy G of Murphys Law on why he started putting on shows at Coney Island High in NYC:

“All the clubs right now aren’t doing anything for hardcore except for feeding off of it and selling dead air. When they have dead space in their club they’ll book a hardcore show. We’re like dogs and we get thrown a bone whenever somebody needs a band to fill in. CBGB’s has all this protocol to get a show and my band can’t even play there. They give us excuses and they just blow me off. Meanwhile we helped them get some popularity. We helped to put a lot of people in that place. Every time it was time for a benefit or something there we’d play it… Hardcore music and bands get taken advantage of. For the most part all the kids want to do is play and a lot of people have taken advantage of our family and now it’s my turn to help things out and try to do the right thing. I’m doing shows every other Saturday and the place is down on St. Marks Place. I’m trying just to book hardcore bands and NYHC bands right now but I will take any bands that want to play.”

Jimmy G in the same interview on their new song called “Hardcore Reality”:

“That’s just a jam. It’s still being written kind of. Every time we do it the words are different. It’s about things at the present moment that just get on my nerves like people moshing at Woodstock. You put on the TV and there’s a beer commercial for Miller Lite where the guy is riding the crowd. That’s hardcore reality right there. I used to get beat down at shows for dancing because nobody understood. People didn’t understand when pogo-ing turned into skanking and into moshing. I remember when we first started calling it moshing and me and Vinnie Stigma debating on how it should be spelled. For me to see the evolution of 30 kids being a big show to 3000 to 30,000, to the Bad Brains playing at Madison Square Garden. That’s hardcore reality. The song is just totally coming from my heart and my head because none of it is written down. We’ll see what happens with it when we go to record it.”

In Effect #1 1988. Joe Songo of Outburst on how Outburst got started:

“We all went to St John’s Prep High School in Astoria, Queens. Brian and Chris hung with one crowd and Jay, George, and me stayed with another. Until the senior ski trip. I never really knew Brian or Chris but we were introduced on the bus and we found out that we knew a lot of common things, especially hardcore. After graduation and a few foolish jams at my house, the Cro-Mags and Attitude Adjustment covers got boring, so we started to try some originals. “Learn To Care” is the first song that we ever wrote.”

In Effect #8 1995. Kurt Stenzel and Paulie of The Six And Violence on their song called “Hamburger Hairdo” and their live sets which included throwing burgers at the crowd:

Paulie: “That’s a song about drunken people who can’t even get into real fast food places.”

Kurt: “We started throwing real hamburgers right from our first show at February’s on Long Island in 1985. The biker guys who ran that place got really pissed the first time we played there and like most places made us clean up the mess. There was one time where I was at a barbeque and took some of the leftover burgers home with me. I didn’t have a refrigerator and they ended up sitting around my apartment for three days. Anyway, we played this show and threw out these disgusting, gross hamburgers. We’re in the middle of a song and I actually had the band stop the song because there was this crusty punk kid woofing the burgers down. Even though I warned him that they were definitely bad burgers he didn’t seem to care and ended up eating about three of them.”

Paulie: “I just want to point out that Kurt is eating french fries for breakfast because he is a fucking freak!”

Kurt: “We didn’t throw burgers for awhile because it’s real messy and the pit can turn into a real skating rink. We used to throw bananas during “Planet Of The Apes”. One time we threw 15 pounds of bananas at a show at the Pool Bar on Bleeker and Broadway. We played there at least 18 times and one time we played there on Halloween. Our buddy came out wearing a gorilla suit with 15 pounds of bananas and threw them out in the crowd. Actually AJ from Leeway came by that night and he walked in and asked somebody if the 6 And Violence were on and as he was asking a whole club of bananas smahed into the jukebox. Within seconds we were covered with banana shit and people were all on their asses. There was no stage there and there was a pool table in the middle of the pit. Kids were jumping off of the pool table on to us. I saw one kid slip on a banana and smack his fucking head right into the pool table. After that show we stopped using bananas.”

(R.I.P. Paulie)

In Effect #11 1997. Frank Pavich of Velebit Productions (NYHC Documentary) on what moment sticks out in his head the most from the filming of the documentary:

“Probably the moment that stands out the strongest in my mind was during the first show we recorded. It was during VOD’s set at the Pipeline in Newark. That night we were filming 25 Ta Life also, but first up was VOD. They opened with “Formula For Failure.” Naturally at the climax of the song, the kids went bezerk, punching and swinging and kicking. I was onstage with our second cameraman, Isaac. After that song, he just turned to me with his mouth wide open and this expression on his face that read pure shock. I knew then that we had something good. I think it was good that the cameramen were entering a world of which they knew nothing about. Henryk couldn’t believe that there were places that kids went to where they basically beat the shit out of each other while a band played.”

In Effect #5 1995. Craig “Ahead” Setari during a Sick Of It All interview on what were some of the worst shows he had played in any of the bands that he had been in:

“There was this Agnostic Front show in Savanah, GA that was really bad. Me and Roger went outside and there was this guy with a shotgun blowing up trees and shooting out car windows. Me and Roger got really nervous so we went to a pay phone and called the cops. The cops didn’t really give a shit either and they didn’t do anything at all. There was a guy at the bar with a pistol playing Russian Roulette. There was a huge bar fight and people were hitting each other with bar stools. When we finally got to play the electricity was fucked up and our equipment didn’t work right. It sounded like a wall of noise. I was hitting open strings and it sounded the same as if I was playing perfectly. I looked over at Stigma and he had his arms around 2 Marines and he had a meatball sandwich in one hand and a quart of beer in the other. Willie (drummer) hit Roger in the balls with a drumstick and he went down. Nothing mattered, it was just a bunch of hicks going wild. It was a scary show. I was only 17 or 18 years old and I was shitting in my pants.”

In Effect #7 1995. Keith of Cause For Alarm on what the NYHC scene was like in the early 1980’s:

“I grew up in Northern Jersey and I started going to shows in 1981. The thing back then was there was hardcore and only hardcore. There weren’t eight million different genres. The kids who were down with the scene all shaved their heads but we didn’t use the term skinhead at all. There was no such thing as straight edge or anything like that and it was all just one small scene. Everybody who was involved in the scene hung out together. When big bands like The Clash, Black Flag, or The Dead Kennedy’s would come to town you would have kids from outside the scene coming to shows. Even the whole East Village where we hung out was different. There was nobody walking the streets and Avenue A was a ghostland after 8 o’clock. The clubs over there were A7 and The Park Inn. There were apartments over there for $200 a month and there were millions of them. Now you can’t even get a parking space around there. You didn’t even think about going down to Avenue B. Now the scene is real big and diverse. Every show I go to just has a different crowd of kids. We’re finding our niche and I think the word is getting out that we’re a very intense live band to see and we’re building ourselves back up.”

In Effect #2 1988. Lou Koller of Sick of It All when asked if their drummer Arman (who is still in Sick Of It All 24 years later) will be staying with the band:

“When he first joined the band he said he was only going to stick around for the demo. After that he wanted to stick around for a couple of shows and he has just stuck around after that. He likes it because he loves to drum but he likes Rest In Pieces more because he is more in charge there. Now he is telling me that he is going to stay with us until after the album and maybe a few shows but Rest In Pieces is taking off really fast so it looks like we’ll have to find a new drummer after the new Rest In Pieces record comes out.”

In Effect #7 1995. Dimi of Stillsuit on why their EP was titled “Green Spock Ears”:

“Julian (singer of Stillsuit) and Jesse from Yuppicide were talking on the phone and they started getting some interference on the line. Julian was always paranoid that his phone was being tapped so he got concerned about it. After that he started receiving calls where the caller would say that his phone is tapped and then they would just hang up. Another time Julian and Jesse were talking Jesse said if anyone is listening in on this conversation say green spock ears and nothing happened. After they hung up someone called Julian and started yelling GREEN SPOCK EARS, GREEN SPOCK EARS, YOUR PHONE IS BEING TAPPED! They hung up and that was the last time anything happened. That’s why we have a phone on our cover. Maybe whoever was doing it will see the cover and say I got those idiots to put out a record called Green Spock Ears.”

In Effect #1 1988. Tom Capone of Beyond when asked if they are happy with how they’re demo came out:

“Yes, I’m really pleased with the recording and the music. We dropped the music and lyrics to our song “Better Things to Do”, keeping the title. The response from the demo has been great. It sold real well at Some Records, but since the store is closed now I’ve been selling the demos at shows and through the mail.”

In Effect #9 1996. Mark Scondotto of Shutdown on being 12 or 13 years old and having his older brothers in hardcore bands:

“First show I went to was a Sunday matinee at L’Amours around 1992 or ’93. It was Madball, Confusion (his brother Mike's band) and 25 Ta Life. When my brothers band went on it was kind of funny because the guitarist broke his guitar and they ended up playing three songs. That was my first show and after that I wanted to go to every single show. When I was about ten or eleven I used to see kids coming in and out of the house. Sub Zero used to play with Lament (his brother Jon's band) a lot and they would come to my house on Sunday’s before the shows and play football outside of my house. Mike’s been good friends with a lot of bands too and it always seemed like there were a lot of people hanging out.” 

In Effect #10 1997. The members of Tripface talking about exactly how far out on Long Island they live:

Pete: “We’re in Lindenhurst right now and it’s about an hour from here east to Scott’s house, then maybe another half hour to Jay’s house, and then another five minutes to my house.”

Dave: “You go to the end of the Long Island Expressway and then go about another 20 miles or so. I live at exit 68 on the expressway and that’s like the ghetto and at exit 73 it ends and it opens up into vineyards.”

Scott: “Once you get by my shithole of a town everything is nice.”

Jay: “Let me just say that Pete literally lives in the middle of a cabbage field. I used to live in the middle of a potato field but they have let that grow into a forest now.”

Pete: “The earliest records of my house and farm date to 1736.”

Jay: “Scott’s house is a log cabin.”

Scott: “That is not a joke either. I live in Riverhead and it’s kinda fucked up and so is Dave’s town which is Mastic. My downtown area is just silly. Where I live is ok. There is like a six block radius in the downtown area where if you go you’ll just get shot. Domino’s Pizza and all these other places won’t deliver there. My friends from Indecision talk about rich Long Island kids. I want them to come from Brooklyn out to where I live because it’s almost funny. I’d rather live in NYC than Riverhead. When I used to go to school there I would dress a little like a skinhead and it always got me in a shitload of trouble and there were constantly fights and brawls but luckily I had big friends."

Pete: (Laughing) “My school was a hick school and Scott used to come out and beat people up from my school.”

In Effect #3 1989. Doug Williamson of Terminal Confusion on why the band doesn’t get much airplay on WNYU's Crucial Chaos Radio Show:

“Can I riff guys? That scumbag Spermacide at WNYU has something against us. She won’t play any of our tapes while she will play a live tape of Token Entry made at Giant Studio. She will play their whole tape, 30 minutes long, but she won’t play one song off of a recorded demo tape. We got beef with every fucking person in the world and in every band except for the people we know. We have people from everywhere that want to kill us and nobody wants to give us any breaks. That’s why when we make it it’s gonna hit so hard it will knock mother fuckers out. I had people tell me though that we got airplay on WSOU. These stations won’t play our songs then they play garbage like The Dead Milkmen, Weenies From Hell, and Gay Bikers On Acid. They will play anything but they won’t play us. It’s like there is a book somewhere in the fucking Himalayas with an old wiseman and it says Terminal Confusion must be stopped! She better not say anything about this on the air or I’ll go fucking nuts down there. I hate everyone!”

 ...and Jordan of Terminal Confusion on what some of their worst shows have been:

“We were supposed to play at this party in New Jersey and some kid went crazy and hacked some people up with a garden hoe and one of the kids who got hacked came back a little while later with Bam Bam Bigelow the professional wrestler and started riffing with us.”

In Effect #4 1994. Dimi and Mike Dijan of Crown of Thornz on what were some of the better places they had played outside of NYC:

Dimi: “The Blue Mountain Reservation”

Mike: “They had slabs of fucking beef, ribs, they roasted a fucking pig man. They had half cooked burgers and ribs and that shit was good too. I had to shit in the woods.”

Dimi: “They had like these huge containers of potato salad.”

Mike: “People were moshing in mud mixed with food. Heavy Metal Jeff’s sneakers fell off and he was moshing in his socks. That was a lot of fun. We stole a full keg of beer and brought it with us to Boston and got everyone up there drunk.”

In Effect #8 1995. Myke Rivera  and Cesar Ramirez of District 9 on their bass player Loki’s animal collection in his house:

Myke: “He got a baby alligator, a boa constrictor, a python, two tarantulas.”

Cesar: “I think he got rid of the two tarantulas."

Myke: “Well anyway, he had them. He also has ferrets and this other lizard thing that looks like Satan. It’s mad ugly. This is his moms place too but he is trying to turn it into his own little Bronx Zoo. They’re all caged up and everything but he let’s them out sometimes when we’re over. Everybody in the band has pets, not just Loki.”

Cesar: “I got two snakes, two birds, and a little dog named Baby Meth. It’s a little dog but it’s only got one eye like Method Man. I also just got a new cat.”

Myke: “I had an iguana but I had to give it to my girl. I have this big lizard just like the one in that movie “Stone Cold”. I had this other big fucking lizard but I had to choke the shit out of it because he bit me. I took him out of his cage and he bit me so I started choking him with a shoelace. My mom walked in and made me stop before I killed it. Rey our drummer has two cats and Todd has that afro he’s been wearing around.”

In Effect #3 1989. Jeff Perlin of Breakdown on why they were not going to be putting out future releases with Revelation Records:

“We couldn’t be on Revelation Records because we’re not straight edge. This is what happened. Revelation was thinking about putting out our 7” and one night we were hanging outside of The Ritz and I didn’t remember what Jordan (Revelation Records) looked like. A fight broke out in front of The Ritz and I said YEAH! There’s violence, we need more violence back in hardcore. After that they weren’t interested about putting us on the label. Plus my sneakers cost less than $30.00.”

...and in the same interview Jeff’s response when asked if they would ever consider signing to a major label:

“Yeah, we’d do it. There is no money in it anyway. If you go on Caroline the guy who puts you on it is snorting so much coke you’re not going to get any money anyway.”

In Effect #12 1999. Ernie Parada of Grey Area on stagnant and un-original hardcore bands of the time:

“I think the whole notion that is going wrong is the retro thing. Picking up an album that was written and recorded in 1982 and saying “that’s what we’re going to do.” Just following the formula. I enjoy going to see some of it but there is no invention anymore. It’s been done already. You have to keep inventing and keep things moving along. It’s not even a matter of a band stemming from their influences anymore. If we follow a formula that already worked chances are it will work again. No band sounded like the Cro-Mags before the Cro-Mags. No band sounded like the Bad Brains before the Bad Brains. You listen to bands now and you find ones that sound exactly like a specific band from a specific year in the early 80’s. Exactly, and there are a lot of them.”

In Effect #6 1995. Toby Morse of H2O on how H2O got it’s start:

“I was a roadie for Sick Of It All and they wrote me a song called “My Love Is Real” and I just added lyrics to it. At first it was just a joke. It was all the guys from the band except I would sing instead of Lou. Whenever they would be touring if there was extra time or no opening band I would come out and do some songs. Kids just started liking it and I did it in Europe, Japan, and here in the US. People started asking about it a lot and I decided to get serious with it. I’ll be 25 years old soon and it was a lot of fun being a roadie and I appreciate everything SOIA has done for me. They got me a life and because of them I’m doing this.”

In Effect #7 1995. Brendan of Vision Of Disorder on the differences between the NY and Long Island hardcore scenes:

“They both have their good and bad but in different ways. There is definitely cross discrimination. NY kids think the island is a wimpy kind of scene with all rich kids and kids on the island think NY is all about tough guy shit with everyone wanting to fight.”

In Effect #4 1994. Nick B of Coldfront on growing up in Astoria Queens:

“It was really cool. I used to play football with Tony from Raw Deal/Killing Time and AJ from Leeway. Our neighborhood that we hung out in was about 4 blocks long. In that little area we had George and Joe from Outburst, AJ (Leeway), Mike from Crown Of Thornz, Spiro from Circular Ruin. Down on the other side you had Jimmy from Murphy’s Law, Doug Holland from the Cro-Mags. Over by the Pyramids you had Kraut, Token Entry, NY Hoods, Gilligan’s Revenge. Everybody was cool with one another. I met John (Coldfront's singer) writing graphitti on the RR train at Hoyt Avenue in 1980. It’s the N train now but back then it was the RR. They used to lay up trains right there. I haven’t done that shit in years though. I met Harry through John who knew him for awhile from around town.”

In Effect #8 1995. While discussing his Hare Krishna lifestyle Ray Cappo of Shelter talks about what a normal day for him is like:

“Outside of Mackie everyone in the band lives in a temple in downtown Brooklyn. We all live in the same room. Today I woke up at 4AM. I have a morning program where I sing and dance and chant which is a type of meditation. I pray silently to myself for about two hours a day. I’m also an initiated priest right now and I can perform marriages and also funeral rights. There are two initiations before you become a priest and Porcell has only been initiated once. His Krishna name is Paramananda. Adam and Franklin aren’t initiated yet.”

In Effect #4 1994. Dean and Kent Miller along with Vinnie on how their second singer Mike Dixon joined the band:

Kent: “After the show Mike D came over to us and said you guys really suck but I think if I join the band the shit would kick ass.”

Dean: “After that our shit started to sound good. We would practice a lot at the Jamaica Music Building and we put together some songs.”

…and on some of the things the band has worn on stage:

Vinnie: “ We all dressed up like surgeons one time.”

Kent: “Probably just going naked was the craziest thing we’ve done.”

Dean: “Sometimes we’ll wear suits on stage with ties. When we played The Wetlands with The Meatmen I wore a tu-tu with a g-string and I had HARDCORE written on my ass.”

In Effect #11 1997. Sheer Terror’s Paul Bearer on “new school” hardcore:

“This new shit kids are playing isn’t even hardcore. It’s fucking death metal! We have a Black Sabbath influence and shit like that, sure. That’s way back when Blake was in the band but I hate hardcore that’s out now. It’s fucking death metal with kids with baggy pants, facial piercings, and a stupid haircut. That’s what it is.”

in the same interview Paul talks pro-wrestling:

“My favorite wrestler when I was a kid was Ivan Putski. He had the Polish Hammer! Nowadays me and some of the guys who I work with watch wrestling on Mondays on the big screen and shit. These days I like someone called Steve Austin. I like his attitude. The ECW is definitely a lot of fun too. They go fucking nuts over there. When I was a kid I was heavily into it but I just started getting into it again. It’s cool, it’s entertainment, it’s like cartoons come to life.”