|
"This is the end of Hardcore.
We started it and we're ending it here today".
Springa of SS Decontrol at a Jerry's Kids show in 1984.
It might be a bold statement, but to a large extend he was right.
At least in the case of Boston Hardcore. Little remained of the
original scene as bands such as SS Decontrol, DYS, Gang Green
and The FU's had either disbanded, or gone metal [a sound that
didn't appeal to many within the Hardcore scene].
People were simply growing up, and with adulthood came other priorities.
Either that or they discovered that they could play music other
than the 60 second, three chord assault that Hardcore Punk was.
Either way, by 1985 there were just a few bands kicking around,
and the scene had gone from Hardcore to metal to dead.
Steve Risteen [ex Terminally Ill] kept bumping into Jack Kelly
[ex Negative FX and Last Rights] in a 24-hour Food mart week after
week. Jack Kelly, who wasn't in a band at the time, wanted to
play again. So in October of 1985 Steve Risteen, Mark McKaye [Terminally
Ill's manager] and Jack Kelly formed SLAPSHOT [they were originally
supposed to be called Straight Satan, after the motorcycle gang
which protected Charles Manson].
The threesome started writing songs and soon after Jonathan Anastas
[ex Decadence and DYS] joined the band. He had been good friends
with Jack through the Boston Crew, had roomed with him for a time
and respected his vision for a new version of an old school Hardcore
band.
There was big hype about SLAPSHOT before they ever played a live
show due to Jack and Jonathan's reputations in Hardcore circles.
And also since a friend of the band, Mike Gitter, who was writing
for allot of magazines at the time [one of which was his own zine
- XXX], had written that SLAPSHOT was a great live act. Note -
in the Punk tradition of Malcolm McLauren and the Sex Pistols
- these stories were written before the band had even played in
front of an audience.
Mike Gitter later went on to work as an A&R executive for
Atlantic and Roadrunner where he signed CIV and Orange 9MM to
their major label debuts.
In October of 1986 SLAPSHOT released their debut album. To save
money [as the band wanted to record the album on a full 24 tracks
instead of the usual low-quality 8 or 16 tracks Punk records were
recorded on at the time], the group had to record from midnight
to 8 AM to get the lower overnight rate.
The album was completed in only four sessions. There were no real
overdubs, a few takes per song - it was very live. Titled Back
On The Map [a challenge to the world that Boston Hardcore was
back], the album was released by Taang! Records.
SLAPSHOT was about to get reinforcement in the shape Jordan Wood
[ex STP, The Loved Ones and Deathwish]. He joined the band as
a second guitar-player right after Back On The Map was released.
In July of 1988, three songs [Same Mistake, Might Makes Right
and an acapella version of the Gilligan's Island theme] were released
as an EP and in October of 1988 the single was followed by the
band's next release, a full-length album, called Step On It.
When the band was writing new material for their next album Jamie
Sciarappa said that he'd be moving to Los Angeles and SLAPSHOT
therefore once again needed a new bass-player.
So in March of 1990 Mark McKaye asked his friend Chris Lauria
if he could fill the position. Mark, Steve and Chris all knew
each other from the days with Terminally Ill. Steve Risteen wanted
to try out some others first but eventually Chris Lauria was their
choice.
In two week Chris Lauria learned to play 25 songs and the first
show with the new bass-player was in Allentown, PA.
Three tracks, Firewalker, Chip On My Shoulder and Moment Of Truth,
were then released as the Firewalker EP. However, contrary to
popular beliefs, the second and third track weren't recorded live
at all. They were actually recorded in the studio and the "live
elements" were added later on [it's actually the band members
themselves doing the shouting].
The band toured the US in support of Sudden Death Overtime in
September and October of 1990 and in Europe February of 1991.
However, when the band got back it was obvious that Jordan Wood
wasn't getting along with neither Steve Risteen nor Jack Kelly.
So Jordan Wood convinced Chris Lauria to quit the band with him
and start another. Chris Lauria soon returned to the band but
they were now in need of a second guitar-player and they found
Darryl Sheppard. He and Chris Lauria had played together in a
band a long time ago called Deslok.
The band's next album, Blast Furnace, took about 2 weeks to write
and about 3 days to record, and the band members were sick of
it before it even came out. However, that was album number one
of a three-album deal - that's how the band saw it.
After releasing Blast Furnace and with only one original member
left the band went to Europe in the spring of 1993. On the second
date of the tour, what was to become the band's next release,
a live called Live At SO 36, was recorded at a show in Berlin.
A month after Live At SO 36 was recorded band flew to Berlin to
play two shows, then came back and released Live At SO 36 [two
down one to go]. The winter of 1993-1994 was tough... The band
was writing/scrapping material for what was to become their next
release. About 30 songs were written all in all. Chris Lauria
wanted to get Mark McKaye back to liven things up but Jack Kelly
wouldn't have anything to do with it.
The band went to Chicago to record. The band really thought that
this album was the greatest thing - a whole new direction. The
album was called Unconsciousness and was produced by Steve Albini,
ex-Big Black member and Nirvana producer.
In August of 1994 SLAPSHOT when off to Europe for a two month
tour with Ignite and an EP was released to promote it. It kicked
off at the Hultsfred Festival in Sweden on August 11th and ended
on October 4th in Germany. SLAPSHOT played 50 shows in 7 countries
in 54 days.
The band started working on a new album but to Chris Lauria it
all sounded like the previous album. So he decided to start his
own band and they would be the opener on the next tour. The band
was to be called Bitter and since the singer and drummer were
roadies for SLAPSHOT so it would only be one extra person on the
tour bus.
Jack Kelly was listening to some of Bitters material and was apparently
so impressed that the band scrapped just about all the material
they had, moved into a new rehearsal space and started collaborating.
Jack Kelly and Chris Lauria collaborated on the music while Jack
Kelly wrote the lyrics.
The collaboration resulted in a completely new album, called 16
Valve Hate. It was first released by Lost & Found Records
in Europe. The deal was very low key. No contract, Lost &
Found Records paid for the recording and gave the band some CDs.
The album was then released by Taang! Records in the US.
Anyway, on August 25th 1995 the band set off on their most ambitious
tour to date in support of 16 Valve Hate. With Doug McKinnon [ex
Vandals] filling in for Mark McKaye, SLAPSHOT played over 60 shows
in 8 countries with only 4 days off. Right Direction from the
Netherlands was the opener.
When the band came back from the tour they started planning for
the next album, writing songs and playing shows. The album, called
Olde Tyme Hardcore, was then recorded and released. Olde Tyme
Hardcore was originally recorded for Taang! Records but Century
Media Records wanted to put it out in Europe, so the band signed
a deal with them. Therefore the layout looks a bit different depending
on what version you've bought.
In the spring of 1996, Century Media Records asked SLAPSHOT to
headline the Crossover 2000 tour in Europe. It was a disaster
from the beginning and somehow managed to get worse everyday.
In the midst of this turmoil, SLAPSHOT played one of their biggest
shows to date, headlining the skatefest stage at the Dynamo Festival
in the Netherlands on May 24th 1996.
Two weeks later the band returned to Europe and played a short
two and a half week club tour with John Madden [ex Doc Hopper]
on bass. This tour featured SLAPSHOT's first appearence at the
With Full Force Festival in Germany on June 23rd 1996. Opening
for Motorhead and Ministry, SLAPSHOT played to a crowd of over
20.000.
SLAPSHOT did not tour again for almost 3 year...
In July 1997, SLAPSHOT played what was to be their last US show
for 5 years in Plymouth, Massachusetts. For a long time, it looked
as if this show was gonna be their last US show, ever. The show
was videotaped for a local TV and the band was interviewed after
the show [i.e. Mark McKaye and Jack Kelly since John and Ben from
Ten Yard Fight played the guitar and bass for that show]. At the
interview Kelly stated that he don't know if this was SLAPSHOT
last show or not, every show can be the last, but then again,
they might come out a few years later and do another show...
Then everything went all quiet and the mandatory rumors of a split
surfaced. However, all rumors were killed off when there was a
confirmation of a forthcoming European tour. Initially, the idea
was that the line-up would consist of Chris Lauria, Steve Risteen,
Mike Bowser, Mark McKaye and Jack Kelly. A sort of a reunited
SLAPSHOT tour. The tour kicked off on March 26th 1999 in Chemnitz,
Germany and ended, 16 shows later in Maastricht, Holland. The
band also made it over to Europe for a couple of shows in July,
making their second appearence at the With Full Force Festival
and their first appearence at the Graspop Festival in the Belgium.
Boston drops the gloves - a tribute to SLAPSHOT was the title
of a tribute album issued by Ken Casey's [Dropkick Murphys' bass-player]
Flat Records and San Francisco based label TKO Records. The release
date was December 12th 1999. 22 Boston bands paying homage to
Boston's finest Hardcore outfit.
The contributing bands were:
Blood For Blood, Tommy And The Terrors, Ten Yard Fight, Close
Call, 30 Seconds Over Tokyo, Anal Cunt, The Pug Uglies, Strikers,
The Bosstones, Vigilantes, Intent To Injure, Kicked In The Head,
The Trouble, Wrong Side Of The Tracks, The Pinkerton Thugs, Blacklist,
Last In Line, The Grenades, Nobody's Heros, Down But Not Out,
The Molly Maguires and The Dropkick Murphys
On October 22nd 2001 a new SLAPSHOT album, entitled Greatest Hits,
Slashes And Crosschecks, was released by Century Media Records
and a new chapter in SLAPSHOT's legendary history began. Featuring
fierce rerecorded version of classic SLAPSHOT songs, the records
was an instant favorite for long time SLAPSHOT fans and helped
intrdouce SLAPSHOT to a new generation of Hardcore kids.
Chris Lauria rejoined SLAPSHOT and the band returned to Europe
in May of 2002 to play 17 shows in the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium
and England. The tour was well received and the band was invited
back to Europe for two club shows and two festival shows [the
Graspop Festival and the With Full Force Festival over the 4th
of July weekend, 2002.
On August 3rd 2002, SLAPSHOT played a short set as special guests
on the Kill Your Idols/Poison Idea show at the Hideaway club in
Cambridge, Massachusetts.
On October 13th 2002, SLAPSHOT would have played their first official
show at the Hideaway in Cambridge, Massachusetts but due to the
venue shutting it's doors at the last minute, and with no alternative
venues, the show got cancelled.
On October 26, SLAPSHOT played the 6th annual Back To School Jam
festival with Blood For Blood, Reach The Sky, Converge, Panic,
No Warning, Count Me Out, Fit For Abuse, Impact and Some Kind
Of Hate. SLAPSHOT also played this show as Stars & Stripes.
In November of 2002, SLAPSHOT returned to Europe for three club
dates and an appearance at the European Hardcore Party, were they
signed a new record deal with I Scream Records for both SLAPSHOT
and STARS & STRIPES.
In November of 2002, Boston based label Bridge Nine Records reissued
Greatest Hits, Slashes And Crosschecks in the US. One year after
the album's initial release date, it had become obvious that Century
Media Records hadn't been able to distribute it in the US so Bridge
Nine Records stepped to the plate.
Today in 2003 I Scream Records is very proud to give you the long
awaited new studio record “Digital Warfare” which
will be in stores in September 2003. An amazing new cd with 13
“Old Time Hardcore” tunes to set the record straight.
This is old school hardcore!! Right after the release of the new
records SLASPHOT will tour Europe in October so check them out
at some club near you. “Digital Warfare” is licensed
out to Bridge 9 Records for the USA.
|
