In Effect #3 1989. Steve Martin of Agnostic Front commenting on the bands appearance on a local NYC TV show called “People Are Talking”:

“That was funny. They called us up and they sent a limo and a van for our equipment because they were doing a show on skinheads and they wanted us to play on the air. So when we got there they only had two microphones and no PA so we couldn’t do it. We brought some tapes with us and they played some of our songs before they went to commercials. I didn’t say anything when they talked to us because I’m so sick of the whole politics and shit, people paying more attention to political implications instead of the music and words. You play in a band because you like playing music and stuff, not to start a political party. We have politicians to handle the politics.”

In Effect #10 1997. Paul, Joe and Raeph of Down Low when asked what was the stupidest thing they had ever done under the influence of weed, beer or other:

Joe: “With old members we had a show at The Pyramid. We had a joint passed around in the crowd and when it came back to the stage it was so fucking small. I went to inhale some and the shit went inside my fucking throat. I got the mic in my hand trying to do the song. People thought I was doing the human beat box and I was choking for real. There was another time when we played at CB’s before Joe V was in the band. Joe V was on mushrooms and he’s moshing on the stage, knocks the guitarists cable out and our guitarist is there playing thinking he’s still plugged in. We had this other show at Street Level and that same guitar player was so drunk and stoned that he put down his guitar and started jerking off right in front of everybody. The bouncers came and threw his ass out even though he still had his pants down.

Raeph: “One time Paul couldn’t play a show because he had to bail his mother out of jail.”

Paul: “She was with Rat Bones at Rikers.”

Raeph: “Me and Matt made a big six foot cut out of Paul even though he’s not six feet tall. We pasted a cardboard guitar to him and we brought it out at Coney Island High. We had a cardboard bass player.”

Joe: “After we were done playing we picked up Paul’s cut out and threw his ass off the stage. Raeph did a drum roll and Paul’s cut out did a stage dive. It had a 25 Ta Life tattoo and across his chest it said kiss me I’m a herb.”

In Effect #2 1988. Ray and Matt of A-Bomb-A-Nation when asked for final comments at the end of the interview:

Ray: “Don’t forget to adobo the chicken!”

Matt: “Come see us you bastards!”

Ray: “When you people ride the trains all you kids should meet in the last car, no matter where you are going. This way you might be able to meet up with people you already know. Just a public service message to everyone out there. Also I never thought I would end up saying this but you got to support the scene or it will just die out. Listen to hardcore radio shows, start a zine, get a band going, and go to shows because hardcore now more than ever is a fad and if you don’t support it, it will just die out. Or else you will be talking about how things used to be.”

In Effect #8 1995. Tony Pradlik and John Franko of Rockin’ Rex Record Store in Yonkers NY on the topic of having a bus stop in front of the store and if it attracted a lot of weirdos:

Tony: “We had a naked girl on the copier. She made a copy of her ass. We left that up until we closed down. I think John still has it. I had an old woman come in and ask for chicken livers. We had a lot of great, really weird regulars. We had Willimina who was this 75 year old lady. She ended up introducing Sealed With A Fist one time when they played at CB’s.”

John: “Don’t forget mildly retarded homosexual Charles who was always looking for Slayer records.”

Tony: “He was definitely a character out of Mr. Rogers neighborhood. There was one time where we had this posse of kids who were waiting for the bus and they wanted to fight me and John because he had a mohawk and glasses. They were telling us to come outside and kick their asses.”

John: “Tony made like he was a gay guy. He ran at them trying to kiss them and they all ran like hell.”

Tony: “Front window got smashed twice by high school kids fighting while waiting for the bus. Each time it cost me $600 to get a new window.”

John: “These were guido kids each time and as usual the store got the blame because people just assumed since they’re kids they must be there for the store.”

In Effect #1 1988. AJ Novello of Leeway when asked why there have been so many band member changes during Leeway’s history.

“I think it’s because Eddie (singer) smells so awful. He’s rotten, and his feet are foul. Who could put up with that? I’m the only one who could deal with him because I smell just as much. Really, it’s different reasons for different people. Mackie (Cro-Mags) we let go, we just thought he wasn’t rehearsing as much as we wanted to, he couldn’t play that many shows with us, plus he was already in two other bands. Gordon quit to join a metal band with Tony from Whiplash and Jose we let go. Me and Eddie are the only original members left.”

In Effect #12 1999. Igor of the Puerto Rican hardcore band Advertencia on why more US bands don’t play in PR:

“Probably it’s because they think there is no hardcore in PR. We had Agnostic Front come down here and 25 Ta Life played some shows last year. I don’t know. The scene here is very weird because we have a big problem with dancing and the whole pit thing. When Advertencia plays our friends and sometimes some new people generally dance the way it’s supposed to be done. They have fun and it’s hardcore. They have fun and sometimes people get knocked into. A lot of people here don’t like that kind of dancing. If you touch someone in the pit it’s automatically taken as a fight. That is probably the main reason. The shows get stopped, the owner tells us we can’t play there anymore.”

In Effect #7 1995. During the Civ interview I asked Civ about previous Gorilla Biscuit’s tours in Europe:

“We went to Europe twice back in the day when it sucked. Now it’s like wine and roses with no problems. First time we went over there we only played squats, got paid shit, traveled in the freezing winter with nine of us in a van. We got spit on like every other night by drunken punk rockers yelling American’s go home and they would also throw beer bottles at us. It was definitely an experience.”

In Effect #5 1995. Jesse of Yuppicide on the message in the song “Be A Man And Slam"

"That was written about the NY scene. It’s kind of our observations and frustrations with it. We felt people were getting a lot less unified and the dancing at shows became very violent. It’s not like we don’t want people dancing at shows, it’s just kind of stupid when you see people pulling kung-fu moves and see people trying to hurt others. If you’re at a gig with other people you obviously have something in common with them or you wouldn’t be there. It’s just a big contradiction and I think it’s a real pity. In a joking matter the song was just saying are we out here to have fun or are we out here to hate each other? Why don’t we just take chainsaws in the pit and whoever comes out alive is the winner. Where does it end?”

In Effect # 10 1997. Mike, Larry and Jay of Inhuman on how their Negative Approach cover song had been going over with crowds at shows:

Jay: “It’s been getting better responses more recently. At first when we started doing it it seemed like nobody was into it but over maybe the last six or seven shows there’s been a much better response.”

Larry: “I think a lot of times kids say wait, they’re playing a song by a band that we’re supposed to be into so we better show a little class. When we first played it kids didn’t know it because they didn’t know it, not because they didn’t like it.”

Mike: “I think it’s cool because I know a couple of people that went out and bought the Negative Approach CD because of us covering their song. Mission accomplished. If you can turn people on to an old, great band that’s great.”

Jay: “We’re going to do a Winger cover next.”

Mike: “We are also thinking about doing some early Motley Crue.”

Larry: “No, we are not thinking about that.”

Mike: “That was a joke. Larry doesn’t want us to do Motley Crue.”

In Effect #6 1995. Rick Healy of 25 Ta Life on how many demos they had sold at the time:

“The 1993 demo sold somewhere between 2700 and 3000 copies. Then we have a couple of live demos and we must have gotten rid of at least 1500 of them so a lot of kids out there got our stuff. Hardcore is not about getting on to a big label. You have to go out and spread your own message and that’s what we do. It takes a lot of time but it pays off.”

And in the same interview when asked what was the first hardcore show he attended was:

Probably the Cro-Mags or Sick Of It All but the first show that was good that still sticks out in my head was Celtic Frost and Voi-Vod at L’Amour in 1986. Celtic Frost were one of my favorite bands. I started getting into hardcore when bands started doing the crossover stuff like what Agnostic Front and The Crumbsuckers were doing. I was really more into metal and when that stuff started going on I got into Agnostic Front’s “Cause For Alarm” and that did it for me.”

In Effect #6 1995. Anthony Comunale of Killing Time on the rumors surrounding his drummers death:

“We found some kid in a cemetery named Anthony Drago who was born in 1970 and died in 1994. We took a picture of his grave site and put it in the inside of a compilation that’s coming out on Astor Records that we’re on. It’s still not out but I guess some people found out about it. That’s how it got started but obviously it’s not true.”

And in the same interview Anthony talking about the differences in sound between their debut album and their “Happy Hour” EP:

“We have broken up twice and that’s why we broke up the first time. It was just the stuff that Carl (guitarist) was writing and I have no idea why. I wasn’t happy with it and I told the other guys this isn’t Killing Time… this is bullshit. Their response was this is what we’re doing so we decided to split up when the EP came out because I’m not going to play that kind of stuff. When we were getting back together they told me Carl was back to writing the old style stuff again so I wanted to do it. We still play “Fat Bastard” here in Connecticut because they ask for it but in most other places they never heard of it.”

In Effect #12 1999. Russ Iglay of Underdog on getting their equipment stolen… and how they got it back:

“Our equipment has been stolen a few times. Once our drums were stolen out of our van on my birthday. We went to a CB’s matinee and complained to a few people and just by chance our friends Djinji and Richie Stig were on the subway and saw some guy across the platform with our drums. They had the Underdog face on the kick drum so Richie Stig showed them his Underdog pin with the same face on it and said those are our drums and the guys gave up the drums. Richie and Djinji carried the stuff back to CB’s and gave them back to us. Another time my bass and all my stuff got ripped off but I never got it back.”

In Effect #11 1997. Bill, Mark and Chris of Floorpunch on some of the bands and people that have helped their band grow in popularity:

Bill: “Ensign because we beat them in football 7-0.”

Mark: “We played Ensign in football. I think we had four guys, they had twelve. We beat them 7-0 counting by ones.”

Chris: “We had ringers. We could have had cripples in wheelchairs and still have beaten them.”

Mark: “As far as being helped out H2O helped out a lot. They’ve gotten us some big shows. Killing Time, Breakdown, Hands Tied.”

Chris: “Shelter, Murphys Law.”

Mark: “Mouthpiece, they helped us a lot. Warzone.”

Bill: “Raybeez was very nice to us and he was just a great guy, it’s a big loss for the hardcore scene.”

Mark: “It’s rare that you find someone so sincere for such a long period of time.”

In Effect #1 1988. Eddie of All For One when asked what SNL in their song “SNL Jam” stood for:

“Saturday Night Live- nah…just kidding. At first we were going to call it “Captain Crunch” because the guitar is so crunchy but we found out somebody already had a song called that. We wanted to have a funny name for it but we couldn’t find anything so we said fuck it. It really stands for sorry no lyrics.”

In Effect #6 1995. Rich, Jim and Lu of Sub-Zero on what there is to do in their home area of Westchester:

Lu: “Nothing, it fucking sucks up there. I stay in my house and get drunk.”

Rich: “Lu is really afraid of aliens. Jim seen a fucking UFO up by us once. “

Jim: “No bullshit. I saw a UFO at night in Chappaqua NY and it was fucking big! It was like three giant stadiums flying, just like in Close Encounters. It just sat there. My brother saw it and a neighbor walking their dog saw it too. I’m not lying either. It was reported by a lot of people.

Lu: “Jim don’t lie either, that’s why he’s such a fucking weirdo.”

Rich: “My aunt seen one too.”

Lu: “ Yeah, and the other night a mummy jumped out in the middle of the street when I was driving my car. I see werewolves all the time.”

In Effect #9 1996. Armando Bordas of Fahrenheit 451 on what their song “For” is about:

…”I was out one night getting wasted in some bar and I got into an argument with Stuttering John. I’m sure everybody knows who that fucking moron is (At the time a Howard Stern show personality) and I ended up getting arrested for absolutely no reason except for standing outside the bar and having someone point their finger at me and say I did something I didn’t do. So I got thrown up against the car, hit by the cop, and thrown into a cage. Now I’m bitter and pissed and I hate cops. That’s my story, brief and to the point.” 

In Effect #7 1995. Jimmy Williams of Maximum Penalty on the state of the NYHC scene at the time:

“One of the reasons I put this band back together was to spread a positive message. There is so much gang related bullshit that the hardcore scene has sunk into. Another thing is that we want to stay hardcore and keep the punk influence but a lot of singers out there today just can’t sing. Try to be a little more melodic and stop getting caught up in your image. It’s not about how many tattoos you got and who you know. There are certain bands out there who aren’t that good who get props because they know people. It’s fucked up but it’s reality. I personally think we’re more talented than a lot of other bands and it’s fucked up because we’re usually the ones who get shitted on.”

In Effect #9 1996. Dan from One 4 One on a show the band played on an Indian Reservation in Peekskill NY:

“We weren’t together for that long when we played that show and it was just like a big barbeque with hardcore bands playing. It was raining that day and all the bands played underneath this big tent. We did a cover of Breakdown’s “Sick People” and Mike Dijan from Crown Of Thornz started going nuts for it and he ended up landing on Seth’s drum set. Seth’s cymbal smashed Seth’s nose and he had to get stitches. It was real funny.”