The Hardcore Archive Podcast

For Episode 84 I'm joined by Paul Glover from the band Rat Poison. I had a Rat Poison track on Episode 80 and I got to talking with Paul a little bit and figured it would be cool to have him on a future episode. The conversation centers around his current band Rat Poison, but we also talk about his previous band Where It Ends. There's also a lot of talk about the South Carolina Hardcore scene over...

For Episode 83, I'm joined by Tony, Diego, and Shane of the band Bent Blue. Based out of San Diego, the band formed a relationship early on in the pandemic with War Records and they're doing another release with them later this Summer. The record is titled Where Do Ripples Go and we talk about the process of putting that record together over the last year. We also talk about the formation of the b...

While I try to keep an eye on the current scene, the bulk of this podcast has focused on the 90s and 2000s in hardcore and punk. During those years, Jeremy Smith played in a lot of influential Buffalo bands. For Episode 82, we had a lengthy discussion centered around five of the bands Jeremy has been a part of, including his current band Tuning. We also talk about Jeremy's early years, growing up...

For Episode 81 I am joined on the podcast by Travis Hance. Travis is probably most known for a few of the bands he played in while living in Syracuse in the early 2000s. These bands include Hermon Dekalb, Darker Day Tomorrow, and The Funeral. We spend a bulk of the conversation talking about these bands and Syracuse Hardcore in general. Before that though, Travis talks of growing up in the really...

Recently I have been trying to get more Syracuse interviews for the podcast. I've been wanting to learn more about the history of the scene there, as well as how straight edge got to be so influential there. I knew Tom Ranger would be able to tell me a lot about how this city built such a dynamic scene over the years. Tom has been a part of the scene there for over 35 years and he even talks about...

It took 77 episodes, but we have finally ventured up to the great white north. Miles Between Us was a band from Ottawa that I had the pleasure of working with on my record label over 20 years ago. For this discussion, I was joined by Matt Ford, Matt LaForge, and Adam aka Solly. Everything from the demo to the full length was discussed in this deep dive. We also talked about playing early shows wit...

Episode 76 features a conversation with Nate Derby. If you have been a part of the music scene in the Rochester area in the last two decades, you are likely familiar with some of the bands Nate has been a part of. We talked about his early beginnings in Canandaigua, helping put on shows locally at All Things Art and playing with some local bands. Nate eventually joined Heavy Hearted. The most nota...

For Episode 75 I had a conversation with Tom Cavanaugh. We mostly talked about his time playing in bands in Syracuse. The bands we discuss include Blood Runs Black, Hermon Dekalb, Darker Day Tomorrow, and Santa Sangre. This is the first time that I can think of that I've interviewed someone who was on tour over 2000 miles away from home when 9/11 happened. Tom also has a really cool story about be...

For Episode 74, I'm welcoming Dave Steele and Iggy Imig from Abnegation to discuss the band. We talk about the history of the band as well as what the scene was like during the early 1990s when Abnegation formed. Iggy also had some pretty outspoken lyrics in their earlier material and we talk about what kind of reaction they would get from people that were otherwise friendly. We discuss the evolut...

One of the main focuses of this podcast has been documenting Rochester/Buffalo/Syracuse Hardcore from 20-25 years ago. I've made it a point to cover newer bands and people as well, but I consider the aforementioned years to be some of my more formative years. My favorite Rochester Hardcore bands came along during these years, and I was lucky enough to see Bad Business develop behind the scenes fro...

For Episode 72 I'm welcoming Adam Vernick to the podcast for the first time. Adam has a pretty diverse list of bands he has played in over the years. For this episode, we talked about all of the bands he was a part of in Rochester and Buffalo. The bands we discussed are To Fester Within, Can I Say, Still Ill, No Goal, Witness, Of Wolves, How We Are, False Positive, and Lemuria. Adam also talks abo...

One of my favorite bands to come out in the last two years is Deal With God from Syracuse. I had their vocalist Dylan on the podcast back on Episode 48 and I knew I'd have their bassist Colin Mraz on eventually. Similar to Dylan, Colin recently moved to Syracuse in the last couple years. Colin and I talk about his time in Binghamton, fronting the bands Sinkhole and Misgiver. As someone who booked...

In yet another trip down memory lane, I am joined by Nate Golia for Episode 70. Sticking with a common theme of the podcast, I got to catch up with an old friend and reminisce on Rochester Hardcore, mainly the early 2000s era. We talk about the bands Nate was a part of, including Stars Shall Fall, Warblade, Of Wolves, and The Red Death. We also talk about the band Nate has been working on with a f...

For Episode 69 I'm joined by Matt from the band Contact. Contact are a band from Richmond, Virginia. During our discussion Matt talks about growing up in Florida and what eventually brought him to Richmond. Matt was also very active in the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 so we discuss activism during the interview. I'm including the link to the Contact bandcamp in the show notes. https://conta...

In the two years I have been active with this podcast, I have seen a ton of new bands form in Rochester, Buffalo, and Syracuse. One of the bands that recently grabbed my attention is Pure Bliss from Syracuse. Since they dropped their demo last Summer, the band has been fairly active, playing a handful of shows in the northeast. They also toured to Florida and back in February. As you will hear in...

This podcast was started in large part as a way to document the hardcore scene in Rochester, Buffalo, and Syracuse. I have had a pretty strong focus on bands that were active 20-25 years ago, while trying to do my best to keep an ear out for current bands. My discussion with Eric Lepore and Jeff Asbrand checks off both of those boxes. If you were going to shows in this area from 1998-2002 it is ve...

If you have been actively involved in hardcore in the northeast in the past 25-30 years, you have likely been to a show with Jeff Lasich.  I first met Jeff in 1998 when he was living in the Syracuse area. We had a very similar interest in hardcore, straight edge, graffiti, and fanzines. I don't know if I ever realized that Jeff didn't actually live in NY for that long until we did this interview....

One of the first people I interviewed for this podcast all the way back on Episode 2 (and 10) was Mike Jeffers. I figured since we did a good job profiling his time in bands two years ago, now would be a great time to check in to see what Mike is up to lately. Right off the bat, I want to say I put this episode together a bit differently than usual. Ordinarily, my guest and I will chat for a few m...

Joe Tunis has been an active participant in the Rochester music scene for the last three decades. As most listeners of this podcast are probably aware by now, I got into our local music scene in the mid-90s. By that time, Joe was playing in the band Hilkka and had already formed Carbon Records. Much of our conversation focuses on the 1990s and early 2000s. In the late 1990s, Joe also formed Pengo,...

Episode 63 features another trek down to Bath, NY. This time I'm joined by three members of the band The Red Death. I had Paul and Josh on for the whole interview and Aaron joined me for the second half. There's a couple other people who played in The Red Death that I will likely have on future episodes. The Red Death were an extreme metal band that existed from 2002-2008. They were one of the fir...

For Episode 62 I had a brief chat with Kendal Hall from the band Heavy Is The Head. A fairly new band out of Richmond, Heavy Is The Head will soon be releasing their debut 7" on GGT Records. I got the information from Kendal on how the band formed, how they hooked up with the label, and what's in store for the band in the near future. We also talk about how hard it is to put bands into genres thes...

On episode 61 my guest is Rich Thurston. Most people who listen to this podcast have likely seen Rich play in a number of bands over the last 30 years or so. Rich has been in more bands than most of my previous guests. We didn't talk about all of the bands in the interview, but I tried to discuss some of the more notable bands he has been in. Some of these bands include Culture, Blood Has Been She...

Episode 60 has been in the works for some time. For more than a decade in the early 2000s, Thom Bulman was a staple of our local music scene. Having played in tons of bands including One Year Nothing, Verona, They Sleep They Dream, Sakes Alive, and Youngbloods, I knew Thom was someone I'd want to have on here eventually. I quickly realized through connecting with him on social media that Thom has...

On episode 59 I got the chance to talk with Gerald, Michael, and Aaron from the recently reformed band Hourglass. Hourglass was originally a Buffalo based band in the mid 90s. They got a couple new members to round out the new lineup and now the band members are in Buffalo, Pittsburgh, and Vermont. This year, Immigrant Sun Records will be releasing the Hourglass Discography LP and Hellminded Recor...

In yet another edition of me catching up with old friends, I got the chance to catch up with Rich aka Spindel for Episode 58. I often talk about how great and diverse the scene was in Rochester in the late 90s. Spindel was a large part of our scene, through doing a zine/label, booking shows and later as a part of the band The Crimson Guard. We talk about all of this and so much more during our tri...