A New York City Hardcore Punk Label Est. 1989

“Yeah that’s right, you can tell by the way this song is…Astoria, Queens rules!”  Jimmy Gestapo – “A Day In The Life” by Murphy’s Law

During the golden ages of “New York Hardcore”, you could paint the term NYHC with a broad brush. The bands, friends & fans that made up that unforgettable scene could always claim representation from somewhere within New York City’s five boroughs (Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx and Staten Island) as well as Westchester, Connecticut and New Jersey. And there was plenty of neighborhood and crew representation to go around: “Lower East Side“, “Youth Crew“, “Alleyway Crew“…just to name a few.

But today, Id like to take a few minutes to reminisce fondly about my hometown – the little neighborhood in Queens that spawned her share of NYHC bands – Astoria.

When you take a roll call of the bands that had members who either lived in Astoria, went to school in Astoria or just came to Astoria to hang out, the list is pretty remarkable: Kraut, Major Conflict, Murphy’s Law, New York Hoods, Abombanation, Token Entry (originally Gilligan’s Revenge), Leeway (originally The Unruled), Outburst, Breakdown, Show of Force, Fit Of Anger, Cold Front, Everybody Gets Hurt. (Please comment if I’ve inadvertently forgotten any other band(s)….)

If you took a census of the blocks on the south side of Astoria Park from 12th street to 18th street, on any given night in the mid to late 80’s, you’d have an Astoria Park bench where A.J.(Leeway), Saso (original Leeway drummer), Mike Dijan (Show Of Force, Breakdown, plenty of other bands), Tony (Show Of Force), Nick (Cold Front), Chris (Fit of Anger, EGH), George and myself (Outburst) would all be hanging out for hours on end. I remember one night, Eddie (Leeway) brought Doug (Kraut, Cro-Mags) to hang out at the park and we heard a few rough cuts from what was to be The Age Of Quarrel record.

(l-r) Chris, Nick, Tony, George, me, A.J.

Anthony (Token Entry, Raw Deal/Killing Time), A.J. and all five members of Outburst attended St. John’s Preparatory, Astoria’s Catholic high school. Just a few blocks away on Ditmars Boulevard was Pizza Palace, where the hardcore kids (the few that there were in the early days) would congregate after school. A few more blocks from there, you had the Pyramids, a public area by the Con Edison plant on 20th Avenue that doubled as a skateboard park. Kraut memorialized the park fondly in the song “Pyramids” on their Wetting The Scythe record.

You could’ve ventured a couple of miles east to neighboring Jackson Heights, where Anthony, Civ, Walter, Arthur (Gorilla Biscuits) and Dylan Schrifels & Gus Pena hung out. Or, you could’ve  went back to Astoria Park South and hung out at the apartment/studio of B.J. Papas – NYHC’s resident and loyal photographer. On any given night, you could’ve been hanging out there, shooting the breeze with Pete from Sick Of It All or Mackie from the Cro-Mags, or even a certain founder of Blackout! Records. Since B.J. was (and still is) one of the coolest girls you’ll ever meet, and she only lived a mere two blocks from me, I found myself hanging out there quite often.

For a great period piece on Astoria and what it was like in 1986, check out the film A Guide To Recognizing Your Saints, starring Robert Downey, Jr., Rosario Dawson & Shia LeBeouf. The film was written & directed by Astoria native Dito Montiel (Major Conflict, Gutterboy). Coincidentally, Dito’s dad was George’s little league baseball coach and one Halloween night, during an Astoria Park/Ditmars Blvd egging rivalry, some of my friends and I were fire-extinguished in an alley somewhere near 21st street by Dito. All in good (and retrospectively dangerous) fun, of course.

Whenever I hear “A Day In The Life” I still get a kick out of Jimmy’s line, comically bragging about his hometown that ruled beer & herb. He may have been singing tongue-in-cheek, but he was definitely onto something. Thank you, Astoria, Queens.

A few months ago, a friend sent me a link to to a thread on a message board. The main topic was “why does Blackout! suck now?” At first, I got angry and tried to track down the phone numbers of the offenders. After a few minutes on this little tirade, I cooled off and took it for what it was- armchair quarterbacking from irrelevant faces. But I also realized that they were, in a way, on the money.

It’s true. We hit our “adult crash.” On one level, the label business is very different than it ever was. Running an indie music company has become a fast moving treadmill that becomes incrementally faster every day – so it’s harder than ever to make a real adult living. It’s also different on a personal level. Jim and I first started Blackout! as an outlet for our friends’ bands back in 1988. But now? Bands look at the label as simply as a means to an end, and the naive adolescence and pie-eyed enthusiasm that made it special isn’t there. Work and other responsibilities have replaced it.

So now it’s been a few years since our last (official) release of The Fire Still Burns EP and we gotta find something to do with whatever legacy we have left. So Blackout! is going to be a blog. A blog about our past – where our extended family can relate some of their memories, and keep the catalog alive. A blog about the future- where we may find new ways to expose new punk and hardcore that still make us want to sing along the way it was.