What turned you on to Straight Edge? I was involved with sports and music. I saw kids from an early age, whom I grew up skateboarding with, get into drugs and alcohol. They started skating less and being less enthusiastic about the things they had been passionate about. It was terrifying to watch people I cared about become drug addicts or alcoholics. ... In essence, I was scared straight.
You graduated from Henninger (High School) in 1989. Looking back, that was a pretty crazy time. It was. I remember our state being in an economic recession. Half of James Street was boarded up. It was wild. Half of downtown was boarded up ... it's much better than it was. I believe the city is starting to rise.
Ryan hanging like a hex records sent this to the awesome Stuck in the past blog and then I stole it from them. This is a great artcile about the middlesex Yogurt throwing show. I already posted the you tube video of it here on the blog.
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Sorry there have not been alot of posts of late. I have been researching and working behind the scenes on getting this book together. More soon.
I've already gotten two great interviews from Mike Riccardi (FW,EC,Path, Another Victim), and Shane Durgee (FW, Gatekeeper, Farthest man). I am planning doing interviews with Ian, Scott, Ben Read(If I can find him), Pete(Gatekeeper/Beta minus) Spielman, Tom Ranger(Eternal Youth). Have any great framework memories? Did the framework records have an impact on you? Drop me a line I want to interview you!
Photos: Guav from the Framework "Reunion" Need pics of Mike! For now here are some gems from the Mike and Shane interviews...
Shane: My memory of some of this is starting to fade, so whatever DJ and Karl can agree on is probably the truth.
Mike: Vegetarianism came shortly after that when my friend Mark went veg and I knew a couple of skate punks that were also veg. I read parts of Singer’s Animal Lib and that was it for me. At a practice of my band Forefront someone asked me if i thought it was ok to ride horses, something up until that point I had never thought about. I started thinking, implicitly, about speciesism and extended this logic to dairy products.
Shane: You know, Ben wrote all the lyrics and almost all the music. So it’s actually easy for me to pick one of his because I don’t claim any responsibility for how good it is. Tear me Down is my favorite. The “Your victory is my misery” part of the song was so good and so fun to sing.
Mike: only after practicing once or twice with Karl we played a garage show. I don’t even think Karl had all of the lyrics written at that point and we just had faith that he would show up and it would come together. Needless to say it did; Karl showed up, screamed his head off, and I remember everyone being kind of blown away by his vocals. At the time I wasn’t sure what all of the songs were about because we hadn’t talked about it before that day.
Shane: It was in garage behind a hardcore house off Westcott, near the SU campus. It was this crumbling little shack in the back yard where you could probably fit one car. Somehow we pulled off a full show. It was packed. It was also (the new) Earth Crisis’s first show. They opened for Framework haha.
Mike:I knew Karl in passing for a couple of years before we started EC. He was quiet and not trendy like other HC kids (myself included!) and I think that confused me! I remember thinking of him as a skate punk with blond-dyed dreads or long hair in a pony tail who was just really friendly. He wasn’t like other straight edge kids at the time that had something to prove and were acting tough. After a short while I came to see Karl as someone with alot of dedication and vision. He knew pretty much what he wanted. I would see him occasionally (we grew up n different parts of Syracuse) and he would ask me to jam with him.
Shane : It was entirely from skateboarding in the mid 80’s. The music on the skate videos sounded really cool to me because I was into Iron Maiden and Run DMC. So then my brother bought a Thrasher skate rock comp and I was blown away by McShred. Weird cosmic coincidence that my first real hardcore show (with the exception of Suicidal Tendencies) was Underdog with Chuck Treece playing bass. I also met some straight edge kids at the show and that led to meeting Karl, DJ and McKaig within that same year… like 1989?
Mike: I was playing with Karl in my basement, him on bass, and he had already written ecocide – this was before Ben and Scott played with us. I was messing around with some drum beats for the beginning and he said, pointing to the floor tom, “play something on that... like you’re in an indian tribe and going to war.”
Chip from one of our sister blogs Xstuck in the pastx has scanned and posted a zip file to Shane Durgee's Straight edge comic zine from 1994. Shane was singer for Framework the band that became Earth Crisis and at the time of the comic was in a band called Gatekeeper which featured members of Green Rage, Beta minus mechanic, and Earth Crisis. Shane also is due to release his first novel North American Primates this fall. I reviewed it on my personal blog. In shameless plug Shane also did the cover art for Scott Crouse's recent solo effort Isolated and my first book Screams from a Dying World.
The story is of a young couple just being introduced to the straight edge scene, a nazi shows up to the show and the girlfriend stands up to the nazi. The band playing on the stage is called Gatekeeper. Chip(stuck in the past) thought it was plug for Shane's band. I am pretty sure this was pre-gatekeeper, due to mailing address on the back cover. The Harvard house was the conviction records address(and everybody else) during the early EC/Framework days but I'm not sure people lived there when gatekeeper was a band. Click on the intro and read it. It's great!
Download One path here: http://www.mediafire.com/?g1gig1kdkmu
Started to find some videos from the current EC tour in europe. I have heard from some european hardcore friends that they were unhappy with the line-up of bands that EC toured with this time. It's too bad it looks like they have a good set with more material off To the Death. Last time I caught EC I wanted more of the new album. Not sure which country this was filmed in but I think it's eastern Europe. Set opener against the current into All out war.
Well interviews have begun for the book and I'm starting with interviews for one of the chapters about the most important shows in the band's career. The first interviews are being done about the more than music festival. Here are some pictures from the show and a few brief quotes from the interviews.
I was there at that show in march 1993, you can see me at the tip of bulldog's hat on the left. I was just recently vegan, unsure about that but had been straight edge for two years already. All day there were rumors that they wouldn't be allowed to play. People were trying to prevent them from playing. Large numbers of people were yelling at them to get off the stage and various other things. At the same time they gave one of the most powerful performances of raw power I had ever seen. They believed in being vegan, straight edge and it had a huge impact on me that night.
“I think it was the true birth of Earth Crisis that night. We realized that we were empowering people and that motivated us to give 110% to the band.” - Scott Crouse Guitar
“That was a crazy show. People were purposely unplugging the power to try to shut us down. But we just kept playing. We didn't give a fuck and I don't think the people that were into us did either. They continued to sing along and go off. That did kind of set the stage for what we were up against for the rest of our career.” - Dennis Merrick Drums
“I was fucking blown away, they had so much power and intensity. I thought, this is what hardcore is about. Fuck the people telling them to get off the stage, most of those people were narrow minded and I doubt even involved with punk or hardcore now. I was one of the people going crazy, their performance stands out as one of the best I have ever seen.” - veganshawn Zinester of Crunchface
“I'd heard all of the basic rumors that were floating around at the time, like people showing up at their shows with guns, etc. It struck me as a bunch of hype more than anything, I'd already been to a couple of shows in Syracuse by that point, so I was pretty familiar with how the scene was there, and didn't believe the gun shite for a second.” Reece Ex-Hardball and Split Lip Roadie
“The thing I remember most is that was the first night Bulldog came out of his shell. He started going fucking nuts and I was amazed. I remember he did a stage dive with his bass and I was wondering "who the hell is this maniac." - Scott Crouse
“The whole entire upstate NY scene was there I think. The place just exploded. My jaw was dropped at how crazy the place got. We had never seen pile ups and that kind of passion at a show before. I knew there was something about to explode within the hardcore scene. and to have this powerful presence taking a radical in your face approach to the defense of animals. I knew they would be the poster kids for many of years and every step they took would be watched,admired,feared,critized,etc.” - Scott Niemet Ohio show organizer and zine editor.
“we'd caught wind of the interest, but this was one of the key dates where you could see it so clearly. They already seemed bigger than the other bands. Also, you gotta understand Syracuse, NY. It's so isolated from the rest of the country, even from New York City. If you grow up in Central New York it's hard to grasp that anything you do is gonna touch another part of the world, especially back then. We knew that people were super interested, and everyone in Syracuse knew that the hype was well-deserved, but it wasn't until they played a massive show in the middle of Ohio and almost brought the walls down that we really saw it. It crystalized all that we had assumed... basically that they were gonna be the most famous hardcore band of the decade simply because they were one of the best musically and they were immersed in controversy straight out of the gates.” - Shane Durgee Vocalist of Framework, Gatekeeper, and Reflection records
“it was a really great experience in HC, there was a passion and a real sense of the community being really vibrant and alive. I met so many new people over that weekend, and saw so many bands for the first time that I hadn't had the chance to see before (Into Another, Mouthpiece, Mean Season, and Ressurection to name a few). looking back, it is awesome to see what was accomplished with so little, and how it was all done totally DIY. The most popular bands weren't necessarily on the biggest labels, or popular because of the amount of money spent. they made an impact because of their energy and passion, or what they had to say. EC was a perfect example of this at that time - they had a 7" released on a fairly unknown label, but the energy and conviction of that recording surpassed expectations” - Kurt Vocalist of Birthright and Catalyst records
“We opened with Firestorm. We played it differently back then - Ben would start it off alone on guitar and I would come in after he played the riff a few times. I remember screaming my head off when he started playing that riff and the room truly felt like it was going to blow up.” Dennis Merrick
“It's amazing to me how non-punk the early detractors of Earth Crisis were. These kids responded to adversity with censorship. Why would they even go to a hardcore show? I can't imagine being so frightened of music that I'd have to take measures to make sure NO ONE hears it,” -Shane Durgee
“We all had this feeling that something was brewing. when we got there we bought every zine we could get our hands on. the first night at the hotel as we are flipping through a 12" stack of zines we realized that EXC were in EVERY zine. It was amazing.” - Josh Grabelle Trustkill records
“Playing with EC, and playing More Than Music Fest as my first show, was the best thing that could have happened. I remember my friend, Paul, that drove with us out there, asked me later "How much are you willing to give up to be in that band?" I'm still not quite sure what he meant by that question, but my answer would be "anything." That was the best thing I could have ever done at that point in my life and I would not give up those experiences for the world.” - Dennis Merrick
“I was surprised on so many levels. Surprised people knew our songs, and surprised that people also had such hatred for us as well. Syracuse was SO great back then. We had a crew that followed us to every out of town show! That show would symbolize the push and pull that Earth Crisis has felt from that day forward. There are no fence riders when it comes to EC. You love us or hate us.”- Scott Crouse
Other shows I plan to profile. Firestorm record release show California takeover Middlesex yogurt throwing show First show overseas Final show
You'll be seeing more updates soon. I finished the book I was writing and Forged is my primary writing project.
First thing I am looking for is people who were at the the first more than music fest. I'm working on that chapter so I'll be sending out interviews on that soon.
So this was the last EC show I was at. This has great audio, you can hear your faithful blog editor hog the mic at the 1:05 mark. You can see some Portland kids representing if you know where to look. Davey from AFI was singing along as well. Fun show.
Yesterday was the first day I took off from the horror novel I've been writing in over a month. My wife Cari suggested we go for a hike. I thought this was great idea, I needed not to think about the novel (entitled Demons of Winter), it is a horror novel about the death of parents. Yesterday was the 23rd anniversary of my mother's death. On the moments like these in the woods I tend to think about the book in progress a lot. Today I didn't want to do that. I wanted to think about the next project “Forged in the Flames.” Mostly I was developing an extended list of people I wanted to interview, thinking about some questions that needed to asked of Karl and the guys. On the train ride back we decided to pick up some raw grub at Blossoming Lotus an amazing vegan Restaurant in downtown Portland. We are walking past Rocco's pizza and a group of crusty looking punks are drinking beers out side. I'm wearing my Earth Crisis – Animal Liberation shirt by the way. One of the crusties with dredlocks and that red facial skin you get from drinking way too much was looking at me funny. Whatever I kept walking, as soon as I was out of sight he yells out. “Fuck Earth Crisis!” Cari stops at point not sure if I heard it. I was not sure, I turned around and walked back. “Excuse me – did you have something to say?” Through the dude's sun glasses dredlocked dude looked like a deer caught in headlights. He sputtered for a moment. “Hey man, no insult to your beliefs man but fuck that band. Fuck that tough guy bullshit.” “No, you have it all wrong, I lived in Syracuse most of the 90's and they are really cool people. A lot of that stuff is myths.” “Man, Fuck that I grew up in Philly, I got thrown out of Earth Crisis show in middlesex for...” “You were one of assholes throwing yogurt? You think you wronged for being thrown out after throwing yogurt at a militant vegan band.” “You deserved to have your ass kicked,” Said Cari. At this point you should know that the show he is talking about is infamous. Back in 96' I got a call from my friend Pete. He asked me what I was doing, he told me that there was all this gossip when EC played in New Jersey that night that a whole bunch of people were going to be throwing stuff at them, maybe starting fights. He was organizing cars to go down and make sure that Earth Crisis had back up. You have to understand that for years the EC guys just took it. They had beer cans(empty and full), cigerettes, and much more thrown at them. People threatened by their message often reacted with such childish displays of anger. They always took it, ignored it. Pete told me that day on the phone. Not anymore. Not tonight. Thanks to the wonders of you tube you can see some of it. Posted below. It does get the craziness of the night, it misses alot. You'll have to wait until Forged for the whole story. Anyways back to 2009... “Man don't get up on stage if you can't take criticism,” Said drunk woman at second table. “What kind of music journalism is supposed to involve the throwing of food. No it is an insult, meant to provoke a reaction, don't whine when you get one.” “I like to rub yogurt on my nipples,” says one non punk looking dude sitting with them. I ignored that guy. “Man I remember all those bands Earth Crisis, Snapcase, 108 there all tough guys.” Drunk guy continues. I laugh at this point. Snapcase were not even close to tough guys, 108 were krishnas what kind of tough guys where robes? Cari is getting frustrated as hell. But as real life tough guys Hatebreed say “I live for this,” I love this argument. “Snapcase tough guys? Dude now that is just funny,” I laughed. “Man not a insult on you, it's Earth Crisis, they were dicks. I saw Karl knock a cigerette out of a kids hand once.” First off, I know this is bullshit. I have been at more Earth Crisis shows than I have weddings,funerals or graduations combined. I have hung out at pre-smoking ban coffehouses with Karl filled with so much smoke it was like a cancer incubator. Really why did we hang-out at zopies? I'll never understand that. In all the shows I've been at with Karl I have seen plenty of people smoke in Karl's presence and never not once did I see him knock one of of somebodies hand. “They hate anyone who isn't straight edge,” He continued “That's bullshit man, dude Karl has a stoner friend he skated with the whole time I lived there. He probably still skates with the guy. They tour with more non-straight edge bands than edge bands.” The guy looked at me confused. Behind him one of his friends leans forward, he is so drunk he can barely stand up(3:30 in the afternoon). “Fuck that man they don't drink, they need to chill out.” Cari grabs my arm. “Come on these guys are bunch of stupid fuckin drunks, there not going to listen.” “whatever fuck Earth Crisis.” Said dredlock dude.
Cari and I went to get food. My first regret was not getting that guys information because as dumb and wrong as he was. He could be a great interview for Forged. You see he is one of the many reasons I am writing this book. If Earth Crisis were not a legend, a serious hardcore legend that kind of interaction 18 years after the band had started thousands of miles from their hometown would not have happened. For every hater like that dredlocked drunkard there is a person that had there lives positively impacted by the band's effort. They are a unique experience in the history of hardcore, in music itself. This interaction to me is a testament to the amazing work they have done over the years.
A myspace page is also up for the tour. So get all the information there. EC made it back from Australia safe and it sounds like they had a great time. I've got my eye out for videos, nothing so far. Come on Aussies!
EC guys also posted this bulletin if you missed it:
Australia was AMAZING!! Thank you all so much for coming out and helping make us feel so welcome. Day of Contempt, Antagonist, The War, Against, Stomp Touring, we love you all. Next stop Hell On Earth tour Europe!
1.The Discipline 2.No Allegiance 3.Forged in the Flames / GSE (Tie) 4.Against the current and there was no love for fortress. Ha-ha,To bad it's awesome song just tough competition.
Also the poll ended for favorite Straight Edge anthem. The winner was The Disciple. I certainly agree that song has both a sing along and the the strongest most valid argument for straight edge. I think the argument presented is at times political and personal. Forged is a personal favorite but I agree with the winner here and voted for it myself.
So I like this video because you can see all the players, also Christopher the singer of 7 generations (excellent new Vegan Straight edge band out of southern California) singing along during born from pain. The next song is to the death off the new album but the video cuts off before the amazing "Vegan for Life" sing along. Too bad.
I've got my eye out for Aussie footage and will post song as soon as I find it. EC is still down there if you reading this down under.
Framework was young militant vegan straight edge band who debuted on the scene with a three song 7-inch(Conquer the World records) before hardcore legends Earth Crisis put the movement on the map. Framework shared more than beliefs with Earth Crisis it was almost the same band as the all out war 7-inch.
Scott Crouse and Ian Edwards who still play in Earth Crisis, Ben Reed (EXC, God is I) and Mike Riccardi (ExC, Path, Another Victim) were the musical core for this band. In the beginning Ben played guitar and sang. They picked up their vocalist Shane Durgee after his band Oversight(who had a lost 7-inch also on Conquer the World records) called it quits.
On shameless plug note Shane Durgee recently did the cover art for my short story collection Screams from a Dying World.
This tour was after the release of DTM featured Damnation AD and Guilt. Ignite must have been good timing.I saw this tour in Columbus Ohio and don't remember Ignite being on the bill. This show was in indianapolis, it has an upcoming show note for Mouthpiece and Birthright, although that is hard to read. Anyone who was at this show...drop me a line. Thank you to Streetlight justice Downey for sending me this bad boy...
Earth Crisis will be touring Europe in late-August and September with support from War Of Ages. This will include the world famous super huge dynamo metal fest. Here's the latest:
The story of Earth Crisis is a unique one in the history of music. No other band has had such a deep and fundamental effect on their fans. They influenced a huge number of hardcore kids around the globe to change their lifestyle down to their diets and the way they party. Reaching further and deeper than any other straight edge band before or since the global reach of this band is incredible for an underground act. The popularity of Earth Crisis also brought with it a rise of militant animal and environmental activism and made them much more than just another band. At the same time few bands bring up same intense anger and hatred by their detractors.
Over the next two years I am working on a project to fully document the history and ethics of this legendary act. I will spend this time researching and writing. In the mean time I hope this blog can become a web home for Earth Crisis fans. Here you can follow updates on the book, help me assemble old flyers, pictures, interviews etc.
You can also use this blog to follow the latest news about Earth Crisis, Freya, Path,Veganism, and of course straight edge. You'll also be able to geek out over old flyers, T-shirts, live footage etc. There are lots of ways you can help and in the coming year I will be interviewing Earth crisis fans from all over the world so please stay posted. Lay-out is temporary, and the blog is still a work in progress. Hope you like it.
This interview was done right after the All out War 7-inch came out on conviction records. The interview was by Luther who went on to sing for the Indiana Vegan Straight Edge band Warcry.
Click on the pages if you want it big enough to read.
Scott Crouse long time Earth Crisis guitar player hosted the Century Media podcast previewing 'To The Death and playing some of his favorite tracks by other Century media bands. Scott plays a good mix of hardcore and metal. Highlights include Heaven Shall Burn and Maroon both vegan bands from germany.
Beneath the glare / Days of agony are spent / Caged, chained or penned / Above a floor of wire fence / Every basic right denied / Even the freedom of movement / Inescapable insanity / Dominates every moment / Enslaved and entombed / I disengage the death machine / species torn from nature / individuals decreased / from living beings no nothing more / than mechaniced protein machines / calves seized from their mothers / confined in veal crates / Meat, dairy industries connect / To end with the same fate / Enslaved and entombed / I disengage the death machine / Boxcars, stockyards – the killing floor / decapitated in the abattoir / partake suffer the consequence / anthropocentric arrogance / Beneath the glare / Days of agony are spent / Caged, chained or penned / Above a floor of wire fence / Every basic right denied / Even the freedom of movement / Inescapable insanity /Dominates every moment / Vegan for life / Vegan to the death
Forged in the Flames: The story of Earth Crisis
By David Agranoff
Note: This blog is fan generated, and is not an offcial Earth Crisis site.
This blog is an online community for Earth Crisis fans, but more importantly it's central online organizing arm for a work in progress biography of one of the most legendary hardcore bands ever.
