This Was The Scene Podcast

Before we start, feel free to support the podcast if you’ve been listening for a while by signing up for my Patreon for $1 and I will love you forever.

Jump Start Records was born in a college dorm room first as a paper mailorder catalog and zine that quickly evolved into a vinyl 7″ release with Montreal’s The Planet Smashers. Twenty years and over 100 releases later, they’re still here, for better or for worse, fighting the good fight.

While the focus and drive of the label has shifted greatly over the years, one thing has stayed true and that’s a personal connection with the music and a desire to work with their friends releasing music that they love. Times are tough, and being an independent record label in the year 2017 isn’t easy; getting people to pay attention to a small record label run out of a suburban Philadelphia basement is no easy task, but they hope you enjoy what you find as much as they enjoy introducing the world to bands and music they think people ought to know.

They don’t give a fuck what bands you’ve played with, who you recorded with, or how many followers you have on social media. If they like it, they like it, and there’s not much else to say. It doesn’t matter if it’s punk, hardcore, ska, soul, hip-hop, or jazz, when the record needle hits you know it when you hear it.

Shout out to Adam Fowler of the Overdrives for the intro to Jeremy.

• Neshaminy Creek Brewing 
• What he’s doing for the 25 year anniversary
• How did they stand out as a label
• Going on Warped Tour with Belvedere
• His love of LWL
• A Wilhelm Scream
• His thoughts on the Napster era
• Dealing with people
• Working with distributors
• The shit going on with Interpunk
• Trying to release an Animal Chin record
• And a ton more

Go check out www.jumpstartrecords.com to see what they’re up to for the 25 year anniversary.

Check out my new book The Couples' Checklist for my webcomic dailyBred. It's a great gift for Valentine's Day.

If you market aggressively on Instagram Stories and want custom stickers then go here to get custom stickers or just email mike@drive80.com and I can send you samples. These are great for B2C companies and Realtors.

Feel free to support the podcast for as little as $1 a month through Patreon

Or go to thiswasthescene.com to possibly buy some merch.

Before we start, feel free to support the podcast if you’ve been listening for a while by signing up for my Patreon for $1 and I will love you forever.

Against All Authority was founded in Florida in 1992. A strong engagement in political and social issues is clearly evident in their lyrics. The band maintains a fierce DIY stance influenced by the approach of the Dead Kennedys and Subhumans. Early in their career, the band decided to book concerts, make recordings and even produce band T-shirts on their own. Their first release was a 7" called "Above The Law" in 1994. Later they signed to independent label Hopeless Records, becoming one of their major bands. In addition to touring and recording, the band is frequently involved in demonstrations and social projects. They have also influenced a number of other bands.

I got Joe on the Skype and this is what we talk about:

• The punk rock museum
• Being a band from Miami, FL
• Hurricane Andrew’s impact on the band
• The Crumbs
• Farout Records
• Who did their artwork
• Where the Farout Records logo came from
• Their bromance with Plan A Project
• Dealing with the cops
• The band Onyx ripping them off
• And a ton more

Go support Joe by following his Instagram @koontzguitars and buy a guitar or 5.

This week's sponsor is Mint 400 Records.

You can find Mint 400 Records releases streaming at Spotify, Pandora, Tidal, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Deezer, and more or at all mp3 outlets worldwide. Visit www.mint400records.com for links and more info.

Check out my new book The Couples' Checklist for my webcomic dailyBred. It's a great gift for Valentine's Day.

If you market aggressively on Instagram Stories and want custom stickers then go here to get custom stickers or just email mike@drive80.com and I can send you samples. These are great for B2C companies and Realtors.

Feel free to support the podcast for as little as $1 a month through Patreon

Or go to thiswasthescene.com to possibly buy some merch.

Before we start, feel free to support the podcast if you’ve been listening for a while by signing up for my Patreon for a $1 and I will love you forever.

Bluechannel was an NJ band from the 90s. They sent me a write up which you can hear when you listen to the episode.

I reached out to the BC boys, got Brian and Christian on the Skype, and this is what we chat about:

• 3 piece crank
• The NYC scene
• Spunk Vol 1
• Their song “Looking at life through dirty glasses”
• Did they like playing shows
• Releasing some stuff on Mint 400 Records
• Getting interest from Drive-Thru Records
• The riot they caused
• And a ton more

Their latest release, This As A Drawing, just came out on Mint400Records. Here is what Mint400 had to say:

Bluechannel was around for that whole mid-90s era but this newest release, This As A Drawing, was written in  2008 and shows that it stuck to its roots and remained gritty and punky while having more sophisticated lyrics and songwriting structures. The obvious comparisons were Samiam and The Get Up Kids but, and I say this a lot, it’s more likely that they shared influences rather than being directly influential on Bluechannel.

Check out my new book The Couples' Checklist for my webcomic dailyBred. It's a great gift for Valentine's Day.

If you market aggressively on Instagram Stories and want custom stickers then go here to get custom stickers or just email mike@drive80.com and I can send you samples. These are great for B2C companies and Realtors.

Or go to thiswasthescene.com to possibly buy some merch.

Before we start, feel free to support the podcast if you’ve been listening for a while by signing up for my Patreon over at patreon.com/thiswasthescene for a $1 and I will love you forever.

Mid Carson July was a punk band from Good Ole PA. I didn’t feel like doing a long intro so here we go.

Thank you to Marcus Vaughn for the connection to Bryon who I got on the Skype and this is what we chat about:

• Taco Bell
• 80s and 90s movies
• Their practice sessions
• Their website that’s still live to this day
• Jazz June and Grey AM
• Kiss of Death Records
• Getting arrested with his brother
• The split with Tigers Jaw
• What it was like to run a record label
• Starting a vegan grocery store
• And a ton more

Check out his grocery store Black Radish.

Check out my new book The Couples' Checklist for my webcomic dailyBred. It's a great gift for Valentine's Day.

If you market aggressively on Instagram Stories and want custom stickers then go here to get custom stickers or just email mike@drive80.com and I can send you samples. These are great for B2C companies and Realtors.

Or go to thiswasthescene.com to possibly buy some merch.

Colossal is an American indie rock band from Elgin, Illinois, United States, who formed in 2001.

Their albums are Brave the Elements, Welcome the Problems, and a split with Owen.

Their lyrics and musicianship display a depth much like that found in math rock.

I got Pat on the Skype and this is what we chat about:

• Potentially partying with him in Chicago in 2000
• His band "Flowers"
• The Elgin Scene
• Working for Milk Magazine
• Brendan Kelly’s podcast
• Being on Asian Man Records
• The stories behind the artwork for the albums
• What attire one should not wear on stage
• And a ton more

Fun fact, this was recorded during the storming of the Capital back in January, so we start off referencing that.

You can follow them on Instagram by clicking here.

Check out my new book The Couples' Checklist for my webcomic dailyBred. It's a great gift for Valentine's Day.

If you market aggressively on Instagram Stories and want custom stickers then go here to get custom stickers or just email mike@drive80.com and I can send you samples. These are great for B2C companies and Realtors.

Or go to thiswasthescene.com to possibly buy some merch.

Before we start, feel free to support the podcast if you’ve been listening for a while by signing up for my Patreon over at patreon.com/thiswasthescene for $1/month and I will love you forever.

Seaweed was an American band from Tacoma, Washington who was active throughout the 1990s. Their style of music is a combination of various rock sub-genres, including grunge and post-hardcore.

I heard about these guys back in the mid-90s when my good buddy Bob Bikel had their CD and I heard Start With. When I started to play bass, the beginning of this song was one of the first things I figured out how to play without tablature even though it was on guitar.

I got Aaron on the Skype and this is what we talked about:

• The early 90s Tacoma scene
• His thoughts on playing in Seattle at the time
• Being on Sub Pop Records
• Free records for life from Sub Pop
• Flannel shirts
• His thoughts on their record Spanaway
• The story about the green lighter on Spanaway
• And a ton more

This starts off with us talking on his computer and then I had to call him so the audio is all over the place. And then in the middle, he had to jump off so we continued the conversation a week later.

Check out his latest band Ghost Work with members of Snapcase, Minus the Bear, and Milemarker.

This week's sponsor is Mint 400 Records.

You can find Mint 400 Records releases streaming at Spotify, Pandora, Tidal, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Deezer, and more or at all mp3 outlets worldwide. Visit www.mint400records.com for links and more info.

Check out my new book The Couples' Checklist for my webcomic dailyBred. It's a great gift for Valentine's Day.

If you market aggressively on Instagram Stories and want custom stickers then go here to get custom stickers or just email mike@drive80.com and I can send you samples. These are great for B2C companies and Realtors.

Feel free to support the podcast for as little as $1 a month through Patreon

Or go to thiswasthescene.com to possibly buy some merch.

Dharma Boys were a late 90s NJ band from North Jersey. There's nothing really out there about them. BUT, here's what Nuno from A Wilhelm Scream said about them when I announced this interview:

"Dude no fucking joke, I’ve spent the last 2-3 days listening to their records on SoundCloud nonstop. How did they not make a billion dollars!?! If you see those dudes or whatever tell them I sweat their songs HARD. STILL. Can’t wait to hear the new eppy."

And there you have it. I got 2/4 of the "Boys" on the Skype, and this is what we talked about:

• The current demise of the NJ Diners
• Sound Exchange in Wayne, NJ
• The start of Hinchkraft Studios
• His thoughts on reunion shows
• His brief stint in parkour
• Playing in Copperpot
• His latest band Reality Suite
• And a ton more

f you market aggressively on Instagram Stories and want custom stickers then go here to get custom stickers or just email mike@drive80.com and I can send you samples. These are great for B2C companies and Realtors.

Feel free to support the podcast for as little as $1 a month through Patreon

Or go to thiswasthescene.com to possibly buy some merch.

Today I talk again with Jesse Short about his time in Weston and the allegations brought up against James Alex of Beach Slang by manager Charlie Lowe.

Feel free to support the podcast for as little as $1 a month through Patreon.

Or go to thiswasthescene.com to possibly buy some merch.

Nick Storch is a premier booking agent as Angelo from Grieving Eucalyptus (episode 116) explains in his Instagram introduction to Nick.

Here’s the list of bands Nick has worked with over the years:

Bouncing Souls, Face to Face Scene bands, Kill Your Idols, Fairweather, Hope Conspiracy, Breaking Pangaea, Darkest Hour, Ghost, Frank Turner, Ice T, Sevendust, Baroness, Underoath, and a shit ton more. Nick grew up in the PA scene playing in a band, promoting shows, and then finally becoming an agent.

I was lucky enough to get him on the Skype and this is what we talk about:

• Managing the Bouncing Souls
• his obsession with vintage merch
• His band the Side Affects
• Kind of being a part of Plow United playing Riot Fest
• Recording at the Creep House
• The funny story that involves Angelo from Grieving Eucalyptus
• Signing Coheed
• Working with Sparta
• His thoughts on Weston
• And a ton more

If you market aggressively on Instagram Stories and want custom stickers then go here to get custom stickers or just email mike@drive80.com and I can send you samples. These are great for B2C companies and Realtors.

Negative Progression Records was a label that formed in 1998 by Seth Hyman and released some of the best indie, emo, pop-punk, hardcore, and metal bands. The catalog included such bands as Counterfeit, Over It, 5 Driver, The June Spirit, Bounder, and a ton more. I remembered NPR from back in the day when they released the 5 Driver’s album “Self Proclaimed Rock Stars” which I thought was quite a ballsy name.

I connected with Seth, got him on the Skype, and this is what we chat about:

• The 5 Driver artwork
• The show with skinheads vs. straight edge kids
• His band Lipmonger
• Starting Negative Progression
• Dealing with band breakups
• Playing a show where Hopeless happened to be in the crowd
• Over It leaving the label to go to Lobster Records
• Dealing with bands on the label
• Almost signing Midtown
• The Substance Free Coalition
• Bands that he wasn’t able to sign
• Lumberjack Distribution
• And a ton more

Click here to check out their bandcamp page 

You can also hire Seth to represent you legally at www.sethhymanlaw.com

This week’s sponsor is Mint 400 Records.

Mint 400 Records is a boutique indie rock record label located in Northern New Jersey with bands across the United States, Canada, and Europe. The label features great Jersey bands of the past few decades in addition to new indie rock, indie folk, and post-punk bands. Over 350 exciting releases.

You can find Mint 400 Records releases streaming at Spotify, Pandora, Tidal, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Deezer, and more or at all mp3 outlets worldwide. Visit www.mint400records.com for links and more info.

also want to talk about a nonprofit organization called Pizzastock.

The Jason R Flood Memorial is a newly established non-profit founded after the suicide death of Jason Flood. It began as a way for the youth in our community to communicate with one another and know that they are not alone. Our goal is to raise awareness of suicide prevention and to feel comfortable to speak up and reach out when warning signs are recognized. We have partnered with other local mental health providers and organizations to build leadership and confidence in youth programs. We are constructing education and peer support groups to offer guidance for a variety of mental health issues, particularly with the tween and teenage groups. Information can be found at Pizzastock.org.

Their next event is on Saturday, January 9 in the form of a live stream battle of the bands set at Events United, the company that put on the massive Dropkick Murphys Live Stream last March.

If you market aggressively on Instagram Stories and want custom stickers then go here to get custom stickers or just email mike@drive80.com and I can send you samples. These are great for B2C companies and Realtors.

Feel free to support the podcast for as little as $1 a month through Patreon

Or go to thiswasthescene.com to possibly buy some merch.

Prevent Falls was a post-hardcore band from NJ that existed from 1998-2003. Their members included Jeff, Nash, PJ, and Nick. PJ and Nash later went on to join Ben Jorgenson (episode 46) in Armor for Sleep. Here’s an old write up from Lambgoat.com - Equalvision cites similarities between the band and such groups as Helmet and Quicksand, with an indie punk twist. The band has been in existence since 1998 and have previously self-released a full-length entitled 'Solutions Have Problems'. Their EVR debut is slated for release in March of 2002. Look for the band on the road this fall playing numerous weekend shows on the East Coast, and eventually on tour next summer to support the album. Yes, this is an old review.

I got Nick on the Skype and this is what we chat about:

• Salvation Army T-shirts
• What it was like being the “Young Band”
• Making their own merch
• Finding his bass sound
• getting on Equal Vision Records
• Playing shows with Coheed
• Touring with Underoath
• And a ton more

Go give their Instagram a follow. 

This is the last episode of 2020 and I’d like to thank all of the listeners for your support this year. Because of you the podcast broke 100K downloads and has been gaining a continuous fan base. And I love you for this. I hope to keep bringing interviews that you love in 2021 when we are all vaccinated and hugging once again.

If you market aggressively on Instagram Stories and want custom stickers then go here to get custom stickers or just email mike@drive80.com and I can send you samples. These are great for B2C companies and Realtors.

Feel free to support the podcast for as little as $1 a month through Patreon

Or go to thiswasthescene.com to possibly buy some merch.

Shady View Terrace were a screamo/emo band from Sussex County NJ. You may remember them from their split with the Lawrence Arms and from the many episodes where I and many of my guests have talked about them. I can’t find any write-ups online in the 5 minutes I spent looking for them so I’ll just start the interview as fast as possible.

Thank you to Mr. Robert Ruth Charles Spencer Hitt for getting me Paul’s email. I got him on the Skype, and this is what we chat about:

• The split with The Lawrence Arms
• His band The Oi Scouts
• Getting support from Ricky and the Bombshelter crew
• What bands influenced them
• What labels were they talking to
• Is there a possible reunion show in the works
• And a ton more

This week’s sponsor is Mint 400 Records.

Mint 400 Records is a boutique indie rock record label located in Northern New Jersey with bands across the United States, Canada, and Europe. The label features great Jersey bands of the past few decades in addition to new indie rock, indie folk, and post-punk bands. Over 350 exciting releases.

You can find Mint 400 Records releases streaming at Spotify, Pandora, Tidal, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Deezer, and more or at all mp3 outlets worldwide. Visit www.mint400records.com for links and more info.

If you market aggressively on Instagram Stories and want custom stickers then go here to get custom stickers or just email mike@drive80.com and I can send you samples. These are great for B2C companies and Realtors.

Feel free to support the podcast for as little as $1 a month through Patreon

Or go to thiswasthescene.com to possibly buy some merch.

Dawson High was a punk band from Latrobe, Pennsylvania. Their members were Joshua, Jeff, Robbie, and Timmy. I asked Mr. Jeff Kish what their sound was and he said "What do you consider Weston or Digger? Pennsylvania Punk?” I said, “That works.”

Jeff is the dude that I mistook Jesse Short for in his interview Episode 76. You can hear that story at the beginning of both interviews.

You’ll most likely remember their split with The Juliana Theory who incidentally has a new song out with a music video by Jesse Korman of The Number Twelve Looks Like You (Episode 106).

There’s a part in the middle where it jumps from talking about the reunion show to Weston breaking up. You’ll hear me break in and explain what happened.

I got Jeff on the Skype and this is what we talked about:

• Discussing how I mistook him for Jesse Short from Weston
• The awesomeness of Dave Weston
• The scene in the Pittsburgh area
• Following Brian Granik to Barker’s party
• Playing in Digger
• Playing in Weston
• New Bedford Fest
• The split with Juliana Theory
• Their reunion show in 2007
• Weston breaking up
• Cordova
• The scene in Brooklyn in the late 2000s
• Putting on The infamous At the Drive-in / Knapsack show that’s on youtube
• And a ton more

Jeff works for Universal Music Group so go check out the bands they put out.

Today Bandcamp is waiving their fees so go buy as much artists stuff on there to help support the bands you love.

If you market aggressively on Instagram Stories and want custom stickers then go here to get custom stickers or just email mike@drive80.com and I can send you samples. These are great for B2C companies and Realtors.

Feel free to support the podcast for as little as $1 a month through Patreon

Or go to thiswasthescene.com to possibly buy some merch.

Grieving Eucalyptus was a three-piece band from Berks County, PA who combined the sounds of Buddy Holly, garage rock, and punk-pop groups like The Buzzcocks and the Rezillos. That’s the write-up that Angelo gave me and I’m sticking to it.

Their name has come up a few times in the previous interviews like Chuck from Weston, Josh from the Overdrives, Arik from Creep Records, Jessie from Weston, and a ton more. To be honest I forget exactly which interviews they were mentioned but you can go back to those episodes and let me know.

After some scheduling issues on my part, I got Angelo on the phone and this is what we talked about:

• Who from the PA scene did he go to college with
• Skinheads in the scene
• Getting on Kevin seconds record label
• The scene in Western PA
• His letter to Superchunk
• His band Sadaharu
• The Every time I Die Story
• His record store with his wife
• And a ton more

If you’re in Lancaster PA check out his brother’s record store Mr. Suit Records. 

If you market aggressively on Instagram Stories and want custom stickers then go here to get custom stickers or just email mike@drive80.com and I can send you samples. These are great for B2C companies and Realtors.

Feel free to support the podcast for as little as $1 a month through Patreon

Or go to thiswasthescene.com to possibly buy some merch.

the fiendz are a Jersey pop-punk band that formed in 1987. Their catalog includes 13 releases since 1987 including their James from Fun Size’s favorite album Wact which we talk about in this interview.

The fiendz are Jersey legends who had an influence on a ton of bands in the late 90s so I thought it would be fitting to have Jerry on the show. He said yes, and this is what we talk about:

• His friendship with James from Fun Size
• Changing up their sound
• How they were able to play City Gardens with The Ramones
• The lost Fiendz record
• The show with GG Alan
• Their album Wact
• Their latest release
• Transitioning into the late 90s as a band
• Bill Stevenson
• And a ton more

This week’s sponsor is Mint 400 Records.

Mint 400 Records is a boutique indie rock record label located in Northern New Jersey with bands across the United States, Canada, and Europe. The label features great Jersey bands of the past few decades in addition to new indie rock, indie folk, and post-punk bands. Over 350 exciting releases.

You can find Mint 400 Records releases streaming at Spotify, Pandora, Tidal, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Deezer, and more or at all mp3 outlets worldwide. Visit www.mint400records.com for links and more info.

If you market aggressively on Instagram Stories and want custom stickers then go here to get custom stickers or just email mike@drive80.com and I can send you samples. These are great for B2C companies and Realtors.

Feel free to support the podcast for as little as $1 a month through Patreon

Or go to thiswasthescene.com to possibly buy some merch.

Donuts N' Glory were a couple of high school friends with similar musical tastes started playing together with no intentions of anything serious. They put an ad up in a local record store (Vinyl Solution in Huntington Beach, CA) seeking a singer and bass player. A few days later they met and played with Freddie, who played bass and sang. They liked him instantly and began writing songs, playing parties, and developing a fan base. Once a buzz started developing, they started playing real shows at local clubs. A friend of theirs released the "I can Pee EP" on Pinkie Records out of San Diego. His good friend knew someone in Blink (who later became Blink-182) and they landed a show with them. This got them some attention and they signed a two-record deal with Liberation Records out of Anaheim, California, started by a sixteen-year-old, Dave T. The band was featured on the Liberation Records compilation, "Punk Sucks". Dave set the band up with bigger shows, opening for bigger acts, like No Use for A Name, Suicide Machines, Nonsense, Ten Foot Pole, The Queers, The Quincy Punks, etc. In 1996 they recorded "When Pregnasaurs Ruled The Earth" at Westbeach Recorders in Hollywood with Donell Cameron, the same studio where Fat Wreck Chords had used for recording many of its bands in their early years. After the release of their record, they toured the west coast once, and toured to the east coast and back twice. A second album was never recorded.

I reached out to Gary Cassidy on Instagram to get him on the Skype and this is what we talk about:

• Boxcar
• Playing shows with Blink
• Recording with Mike Rosas of Inside Out
• Playing a show in a cave
• What were their crowds like
• being on Liberation Records
• Would they do a reunion show
• The artwork for When Pregnasaurus Ruled the Earth
• And a ton more

Gary is a General Contractor out in Costa Mesa, CA and his domain is gccrocks.com. You should hire him.

If you market aggressively on Instagram Stories and want custom stickers then go here to get custom stickers or just email mike@drive80.com and I can send you samples. These are great for B2C companies and Realtors.

Feel free to support the podcast for as little as $1 a month through Patreon

Or go to thiswasthescene.com to possibly buy some merch.

Slow Gherkin was formed in 1993 and released their first album, Double Happiness, which was distributed by Asian Man Records, on July 29, 1996. They released their second album, Shed Some Skin, in 1998. In 2002, the band released Run Screaming, their final album. The band played a farewell show on August 17 of the same year but played a sold-out reunion concert at Santa Cruz's Rio Theater on June 18, 2011. In 2016, the band reunited to play at the Asian Man Records 20-year anniversary show and released two new songs. In 2018, the band played a few shows in California as well.

Thank you, Aaron Carnes (episode 111) for the intro to James. Pre-Order Aaron’s book In Defense Of Ska at Clashbooks.com

I got James on the Skype and here is what we talked about:

• Playing shows with The Stereo
• Partying with Skankin Pickle
• His thoughts on Double Happiness
• Streetlight Manifesto
• Asian Man Records
• Ska Against Racism
• The German Skinhead story
• Their album Run Screaming
• And a ton more

What Have You Done is a new short film from writer/director Mike Pelak. The film is about what happens when a powerful man with a dead body in his trunk confronts his fixer about what to do. When the identity of the body is revealed, all hell breaks loose.

The film stars Jay Potter and Smitty Chai. Jay is an actor who starred as Roger Mills on Season 1 of FX's Rescue Me and has appeared in feature films The Big Short, The Call, and others. Smitty is an actor who has appeared on Madam Secretary and Blindspot.

The film examines the dark sides of powerful people in society, and the lengths they'll go to keep those things secret; a timely piece in the shadow of a controversial election.

This film has some strong scene connections. Writer/Director Mike Pelak was interviewed on Episode 18. The film's Director of Photography is Christian Lesperance who is the brains behind Jersey Interchange. Dave Flores (Taxicab Samurais) handled location sound for the shoot. 

Watch it now at blackoilfilms.com and go like facebook.com/blackoilfilms for additional content, such as explainer videos about how the film was made. 

James requests you check out Hod and the Helpers.

Check out Mike Park’s new show Music. It’s powerful stuff on https://www.youtube.com/c/asianmanrecords

If you market aggressively on Instagram Stories and want custom stickers then go here to get custom stickers or just email mike@drive80.com and I can send you samples. These are great for B2C companies and Realtors.

Feel free to support the podcast for as little as $1 a month through Patreon

Or go to thiswasthescene.com to possibly buy some merch.

Mustard Plug is an American ska punk band from Grand Rapids, Michigan, consisting of Dave Kirchgessner (vocals), Brandon Jenison (trumpet), Jim Hofer (trombone), Nate Cohn (drums), Colin Clive (guitar/vocals), and Rick Johnson (bass). Formed in 1991, the band has regularly toured throughout the United States, Europe, Japan, and South America. They have toured with the Warped Tour twice and participated in the Ska Against Racism Tour. As of 2014, the band has released seven studio albums and continues to tour actively. Explaining the band's goal, Jim Hofer said, "We may have some messages in our music, but essentially we just do this because we love it and we want people to lighten up and have fun."

Thank you to Aaron Carnes (Episode 111) for the intro to Dave. 

I got him, Dave, on the Skype and this is what we talked about:

• The Suicide Machines
• My old band playing a show with them in 2000
• the Scene in Michigan
• Moon Ska Records
• The yellow suits
• The consistent mustard theme
• Recording with Bill Stevenson
• Being on Hopeless Records
• His thoughts on Pray for Mojo
• The story behind the video for You
• And a ton more

You can go to mustardplug.com they have a list of every show they’ve ever played archived

JERSEY INTERCHANGE is an ongoing musical collaboration series that reimagines the songs of the New Jersey punk, hardcore, emo, and ska scenes of the late 1990s / early 2000s. A total of OVER FIFTY DIFFERENT ARTISTS from some of the most beloved bands in the NJ scene cover OVER THIRTY SONGS from other NJ scene bands and artists, and bring a fresh take on the melodies that might have since been buried in basement storage bins, but never forgotten in the memories of the fans who sang along with them over twenty years ago.

Tracks include Heath Saraceno of Midtown and Senses Fail slaying Bigwig's raucous punk anthem "Flavor Ice", Mikey Erg of The Ergs! channeling his best nerd-core self on Atom and His Package's "Punk Rock Academy", and even comedian/actor Chris Gethard serving up some tasty melodies of his own on Weston's "Just Like Kurt". Other artists with songs in the project include Jon Tummillo of Folly, Kevin Lynch and Ed Brown of Shades Apart, Nate Gluck of Ensign, Alf Bartone of Ex Number Five, Jeff Davidson of Catch 22, Jared Hart of Mercy Union, Chris Barker of Lanemeyer, and of course me Mike Doyle!

Check out all of the songs at soundcloud.com/njpparchives/ and like and follow Jersey Interchange on facebook and instagram to get the latest updates and track releases.

If you market aggressively on Instagram Stories and want custom stickers then go here to get custom stickers or just email mike@drive80.com and I can send you samples. These are great for B2C companies and Realtors.

Feel free to support the podcast for as little as $1 a month through Patreon

Or go to thiswasthescene.com to possibly buy some merch.

In a mix of interviews, essays, personal stories, historical snapshots, obscure anecdotes, and think pieces, In Defense of Ska dissects, analyzes, and celebrates ska in exactly the way fans have been craving for decades. This book will enlist ska-lovers as soldiers in the ska army, and challenge ska-haters’ prejudices to the core.

Ships in April 2021 including special ska swag and surprises.

Thanks to Adam from Link 80 for the intro. I got Aaron on the Skype and this is what we talked about.

• His band Gnarboots with Adam from Link 80
• seeing skanking pickle for the first time
• How he met Mike Park
• The normalness of Mike Park
• How was he as a roadie
• Getting his book on Clash Books
• A snippet from his book about Slow Gherkin
• The real story behind Ska Sucks by Propagandhi
• Some more snippets from the book
• the story behind the book’s cover artwork
• And a ton more

You can PRE-ORDER your copy of the book by clicking here.

If you market aggressively on Instagram Stories and want custom stickers then go here to get custom stickers or just email mike@drive80.com and I can send you samples. These are great for B2C companies and Realtors.

Feel free to support the podcast for as little as $1 a month through Patreon

Or go to thiswasthescene.com to possibly buy some merch.

Since calling it quits in 1997, Tampa, FL's Pohgoh has been known to break out the guitars for the occasional one-off reunion over the years.

In August 2017 the band made their way to Baltimore, MD's Magpie Cage Recording Studio to record their sophomore full-length with engineer/producer J. Robbins resulting in Secret Club,

With a rich history within the 90's DIY/indie/emo scene, Pohgoh was in a small league of female-fronted bands of the era alongside peers like Rainer Maria, Dahlia Seed & Jejune. The band's previous catalog includes several singles, a split 7" with Braid, the closing track on the Emo Diaries, Vol. 1 and the aforementioned full-length.

You can hear them mentioned in Episode 51 with My Pal Trigger and Episode 52 with Ryan from Discount.

I got Keith on the Skype and this is what we talked about:

• Recording their music video
• His record store Microgroove in Tampa
• The show where Judge broke up
• Their album All Along
• Emo Diaries Vol 1
• Sarasota
• Opening for Jawbreaker on their reunion tour (this story is wild)
• New album with J Robbins
• The band Hank shaw
• His label New Granada
• What label would they want a future release to be on
• And a ton more

Check them out here:

FACEBOOK
INSTAGRAM
TWITTER
BANDCAMP
SPOTIFY
ARTIST PAGE/BIO AT NEWGRANADA.COM

If you market aggressively on Instagram Stories and want custom stickers then go here to get custom stickers or just email mike@drive80.com and I can send you samples. These are great for B2C companies and Realtors.

Feel free to support the podcast for as little as $1 a month through Patreon

Or go to thiswasthescene.com to possibly buy some merch.

Yermomlluvus have no write-ups anywhere on the internet. So luckily, this interview exists.

I got Chris Pinto on the Skype and this is what we talked about:

• Taylor Ham
• Congress of Cow
• Trash This Comp
• Finding friends in High School based on their punk rock look
• Who was the primary songwriter
• Boxcar
• Link 80
• His band with THE Joe Pulito
• And a ton more

Check out his band Downbound City

If you market aggressively on Instagram Stories and want custom stickers then go here to get custom stickers or just email mike@drive80.com and I can send you samples. These are great for B2C companies and Realtors.

Feel free to support the podcast for as little as $1 a month through Patreon

Or go to thiswasthescene.com to possibly buy some merch.

Hellcat Records is an independent record label based in Los Angeles, California. The label, an offshoot of Epitaph Records, was started as a partnership between Brett Gurewitz of Bad Religion, the owner of Epitaph, and Tim Armstrong of Rancid, the latter of whom is generally responsible for signing bands. The label specializes in ska, punk, oi!, psychobilly, and hardcore bands. Give 'Em the Boot, a Hellcat label sampler which also includes tracks from other up-and-coming independent bands was issued every other year from 1997 to 2009, with the exceptions of the third release, which was released three years after the second, and the sixth which came one year after the fifth.

Some of the bands that have grazed their roster are The Gadjits, Hepcat, The Pietasters, Op Ivy, Tiger Army, Dropkick Murphys, and a ton more.

Shout out to Jason Boardman for connecting me with The Wix who I got on the Skype and this is what we talked about:

• Working for the real-life Bobby Fisher
• How The Wix came to fruition
• The Conan O’Brian show
• meeting Skankin Pickle
• Interviewing Jello Biafra in high school
• How Hellcat started
• Signing Dropkick Murphys
• Give em the boot comp
• The Keith Richards story
• And a ton more

Check out her art at https://www.qualianaart.com/

You can follow her on Instagram at crisqualiana

If you market aggressively on Instagram Stories and want custom stickers then go here to get custom stickers or just email mike@drive80.com and I can send you samples. These are great for B2C companies and Realtors.

Feel free to support the podcast for as little as $1 a month through Patreon

Or go to thiswasthescene.com to possibly buy some merch.

Goober Patrol’s music and – perhaps more importantly – drinking then brought them to the attention of NOFX’s Fat Mike who signed them to his legendary Fat Wreck Chords label. Their first FAT release Vacation (1996) displayed their mastery at concocting contagious, hook-laden punk tunes, whilst the follow-up The Unbearable Lightness of Being Drunk (1999) mixed offbeat Brit humor and serious personal overtones with raw, hardcore, punk ‘n’ roll.

In the late 90s and early 2000s, the Goobers toured non-stop around America, Canada, and Europe with Tilt, Down By Law, Bouncing Souls, Strung Out, and Diesel Boy, and made a couple of really stupid videos for FAT’s Peepshow compilations. Now, following a break to go back to university, work in the Christmas cracker factory and for bass player Tommy Goober to tour the world in the Toy Dolls, the Goobers are back with a new album, new members and a desire to get drunk in the greatest cities in Europe whilst playing their favorite tunes, from ‘Easy Life’ and ‘The Biggest Joke’ to ‘B.E.E.R’ and ‘Last Train to Shezza’.

Shot out to Rob Dementia for connecting us.

I got Tom on the Skype and this is what we talked about:

• Wonkfest
• Propagandhi
• The current power of social media
• Living together for almost 2 decades
• How they got on Fat Wreckords
• Fat Mike
• How he became a vegetarian
• Their gig in Salt Lake City
• Playing in Toy Dolls
• Playing with Me First and the Gimme Gimmes
• Rich Kids on LSD
• Flying over a Monsoon
• S&M Club with Fat Mike
• The story behind the Peep Show video
• And a ton more

Before we start, I told Tom if he wanted to leave things out he should use the password Cornflakes so that’s why you hear it here and there through the interview

Check out his current band Toy Dolls.

If you market aggressively on Instagram Stories and want custom stickers then go here to get custom stickers or just email mike@drive80.com and I can send you samples. These are great for B2C companies and Realtors.

Feel free to support the podcast for as little as $1 a month through Patreon

Or go to thiswasthescene.com to possibly buy some merch.

The Number Twelve Looks Like You is an American mathcore band formed in Bergen County, New Jersey, in 2002. The band went on a six-year hiatus in 2010. In May 2016, they performed a secret show and then announced their reunion.

I got Jesse on the Skype and this is what we talked about

• Producing movies
• Straight edge
• Warped Tour in 97
• The Saves The Day CD release party at the Manville Elks Lodge
• Shady View Terrace
• Geoff from Thursday
• How they were treated in Jersey
• The band Bad Rabbits
• And a ton more

You can follow Jesse on his Instagram: www.instagram.com/jessekorman

Check out my new Animated Series where I take clips from interviews and animate them. My latest is with Heath from Midtown (podcast episode 003) where he talks about the time Midtown almost got carjacked. Click here to watch.

Check out dailyBred which has been my daily webcomic since Nov. 11, 2017. 

Feel free to support the podcast for as little as $1 a month through Patreon

Or go to thiswasthescene.com to possibly buy some merch.

Shabbagoy, according to Joe Pulito, were a melodic punk/hardcore staple of the early-mid 90’s central Jersey scene. Since there is no other info about this band, I'll go into what Dan Palyca and I talk about:

• Jawbox
• Shows at high schools
• The Bouncing Souls original sound
• being in the Shades Apart Tainted love video
• Talking to Tyler from Midtown
• The Uprise shirt I found
• The real Lamar Vanoy
• One Nature
• And a ton more

Check out my new Animated Series where I take clips from interviews and animate them. My latest is with Heath from Midtown (podcast episode 003) where he talks about the time Midtown almost got carjacked. Click here to watch.

Check out dailyBred which has been my daily webcomic since Nov. 11, 2017. 

Feel free to support the podcast for as little as $1 a month through Patreon

Or go to thiswasthescene.com to possibly buy some merch.

You know who the Dropkick Murphys are but you may not know who West Beverly was. Well, now you will know.

Luckily I got Tim Brennan on the Skype and this is what we talked about:

• Playing the show on Fenway
• The Boston accent
• Dan from Sunny Day
• Damon from Braid
• The demise of the band
• Selling Dropkick’s merch for 3 months on the Warped Tour
• Adjusting to the shift in the early 2000s
• His friendship with Hey Mercedes
• The Mick Jones pudding origins story
• And a ton more

Check out my new Animated Series where I take clips from interviews and animate them. My latest is with Heath from Midtown (podcast episode 003) where he talks about the time Midtown almost got carjacked. Click here to watch.

This episode is sponsored by www.houseofmerch.com/ where you can buy band merch and get 10% off by using promo code "scene" when you check out. PLUS FREE SHIPPING.

Feel free to support the podcast for as little as $1 a month through Patreon

Or go to thiswasthescene.com to possibly buy some merch.

Dynamite Boy was a pop-punk band from Austin, Texas. They were comprised of Sean Neil, Dusty Kohn, Adrian Munoz, and Sam Rich. They disbanded in 2005 after a ten-year career. 

Monkey, the roadie extraordinaire from Episode 006, connected me to bassist Adrain Muñoz and this is what we talked about:

• Craig from The Impossibles
• The Bernardsville Church show
• Getting on Fearless Records
• Using Jim Cherry’s bass to record Finders Keppers
• His thoughts on Somewhere in America
• Their relationship with Fearless
• Keeping up with the early 2000s
• Sean quitting the band
• His story that you def don’t want to miss
• And a ton more

Check out my new Animated Series that launches 7.15.20 where I take clips from interviews and animate them. Episode 001 is starting off with Heath from Midtown (podcast episode 003). You'll be able to see them on my Youtube channel.

This episode is sponsored by www.houseofmerch.com/ where you can buy band merch and get 10% off by using promo code "scene" when you check out. PLUS FREE SHIPPING.

Feel free to support the podcast for as little as $1 a month through Patreon

Or go to thiswasthescene.com to possibly buy some merch.

Less Than Jake is an American ska punk band from Gainesville, Florida, that formed in 1992. If you don't know who they are then go listen to Pezcore and Losing Streak. I'll wait...

This interview is very nostalgic but if you’re currently in a band, you need to take notes because Chris breaks down all of the things they did to grow their band.

Luckily I got him on the Skype, and this is what we talk about:

• His upcoming book
• Meeting Roger
• The song Fucked
• How they marketed the fuck out of their band
• Naked people at their shows
• How they found Alan Rappaport’s house for the backyard show
• And a ton more

Make sure you go check out Chris's podcast, Chris DeMakes A Podcast where he discussed the ins and outs of songwriting with a variety of guests from the world of music.

This episode is sponsored by www.houseofmerch.com/ where you can buy band merch and get 10% off by using promo code "scene" when you check out. PLUS FREE SHIPPING.

Feel free to support the podcast for as little as $1 a month through Patreon

Or go to thiswasthescene.com to possibly buy some merch.

Diesel Boy is a punk rock band from Santa Rosa, California. They were formed in 1993 and were active until 2002, and have been on hiatus since then. They have a 7" on Fat Wreck Chords, 4 full-length albums released on Honest Don's Records, and a split EP with the band Divit that was released on Coldfront Records. According to Last.fm, Diesel Boy's most popular tracks are "Titty Twister", "Looks That Kill" (Mötley Crüe cover), "She's My Queen" and "Stroking My Cat".

Thank you, Monkey, for the intro to Dave Lake who was kind enough to carve out some time for a chat. Below is what we talk about:

• Critiquing music
• Possibly playing the Lanemeyer CD release party
• Coleslaw judging
• His Metallica story
• Working for Epitaph and Fat Wreck Chords
• Honest Don’s Records
• Their reception in Canada
• Their Episode on Freaks and Geeks
• The Canada story
• And a ton more

This episode is sponsored by www.houseofmerch.com/ where you can buy band merch and get 10% off by using promo code "scene" when you check out. PLUS FREE SHIPPING.

Feel free to support the podcast for as little as $1 a month through Patreon

Or go to thiswasthescene.com to possibly buy some merch.

Sunny Day Real Estate was an American rock band from Seattle, Washington. They were one of the early emo bands and helped establish the genre. In 1994, the band released their debut album Diary on Sub Pop Records to critical acclaim. However, shortly after releasing their second album LP2, the band broke up, with members Nate Mendel and William Goldsmith joining Foo Fighters and Jeremy Enigk embarking on a solo career. In 1997, they regrouped long enough to record two more studio albums and a live album but ultimately disbanded once again in 2001. The band reunited again in 2009. Bassist Nate Mendel, who chose to remain with Foo Fighters during the previous reunion in 1997, took part in this reunion. In 2014 the band released one song from those sessions, "Lipton Witch," on a split 7" vinyl with Circa Survive on Record Store Day.

I got William on the Skype and this is what we talk about:

• My sunny day tattoo story
• What drumming has done to him physically
• What was his scene
• How the band got together
• Diary’s artwork
• Breaking up right when they were taking off
• Red Elephant
• Trying to find inspiration to make music again
• Recording Rising Tide
• Working through anxiety
• Their unreleased album
• And a ton more

Check out William's band, Assertion

This episode is sponsored by www.houseofmerch.com/ where you can buy band merch and get 10% off by using promo code "scene" when you check out. PLUS FREE SHIPPING.

Feel free to support the podcast for as little as $1 a month through Patreon

Or go to thiswasthescene.com to possibly buy some merch.

The Stereo was a pop-rock and roll band started in early 1999 by former ska-punk band frontmen Jamie Woolford (of Animal Chin) and Rory Phillips (of The Impossibles). The pair were initially brought together on the recommendation of their record label Fueled By Ramen. The duo released their debut album Three Hundred in summer 1999. Over their recording and touring history, the band endured a number of line-up changes. Singer-songwriter Woolford was always affiliated with the group and composed all selections on subsequent releases. The group disbanded in early 2004 with Woolford and bassist Chris Serafini reconvening to form the band Let Go.

In 2009, Alternative Press named Three Hundred one of the '10 most influential albums from 1999 that shaped Punk today'. In 2011, The Stereo briefly reunited with original members Phillips and Woolford to perform at Terminal 5 in New York City with Paramore, Fun, The Swellers, and This Providence to celebrate the 15th anniversary of Fueled By Ramen. 

I got them on the Skype and this is what we talked about:

• Their performance wardrobe
• Working for Fueled By Ramen
• The Impossibles
• Animal Chin
• Coming up with the name
• Their dynamic as a band
• Rory’s exit from the band
• A podcast being in the works
• And a ton more

This episode is sponsored by www.houseofmerch.com/ where you can buy band merch and get 10% off by using promo code "scene" when you check out. PLUS FREE SHIPPING.

Feel free to support the podcast for as little as $1 a month through Patreon

Or go to thiswasthescene.com to possibly buy some merch.

Scott Shields played in a few NJ bands. The 2 you’ll probably remember are My Favorite Citizen and Situation at 1200. There’s not a lot of info out there about these bands so thank goodness for this interview.

Scott’s name has come up a few times in interviews so I thought it would be cool to have him. So I did and this is what we talked about:

• Knowing Chris Gethard
• My Favorite Citizen
• Alan Rappaport's blurbs on releases sold at Flipside
• Jimmy Eat World keeping it real
• The biker bar in Parsippany
• The Jon Hiltz story
• Chris Vaglio
• Gabe Saporta being his landlord
• And a ton more

This episode is sponsored by www.houseofmerch.com/ where you can buy band merch and get 10% off by using promo code "scene" when you check out. PLUS FREE SHIPPING.

Feel free to support the podcast for as little as $1 a month through Patreon

Or go to thiswasthescene.com to possibly buy some merch.

Brian Granik is a great person. He was super involved in the NJ scene back in the late 90s from promoting shows, being apart of Umbilical Records, playing with Houseboy and 5 Driver, and just always being front row to point that sweet finger of his up in the air when he sang along. 

He was hesitant for a good amount of time until one day the stars aligned and he finally gave in. So I got him on Skype while we had many drinks and this is what we talked about:

• Going to school with other NJ punk rockers
• His thoughts on the scene itself
• Working at Hot Topic in the Rockaway Mall
• How Modesty Panel’s record got funded
• White Powdered Donuts Comp
• And a ton more

Go check out houseofmerch.com which is run by Sean from Lanemeyer. You can find a ton of shirts from your favorite bands large and larger. The prices are super low compared to other websites out there and you can take an extra 10% off by using the promo code “scene”. So go do that.

If you haven't watched one of the quarentunes live streams on the NJPP Facebook group you have been missing out! Performers have included a number of people who have been interviewed on the podcast(including me). The next live stream is next Friday, May 22nd beginning at 8 pm. Musical guests include Jeff from Mother Mania, Jonah Matranga from far and One Line Drawing, Mikey ERG, Shane from Valencia, John Maiello from Dead Bars, The Archivist himself, Joe Pulito, Chris Schulz from Suicide Pact, and Michael Joncas of Harrison Ford Mustang. You are not going to want to miss this one! Tune In by joining the North Jersey pop-punk 1994 - 2002 Facebook group or by visiting the NJPP archives YouTube channel.

Feel free to support the podcast for as little as $1 a month through Patreon

Or go to thiswasthescene.com to possibly buy some merch.

Strung Out is an American punk rock band from Simi Valley, California, formed in 1990. They are known mainly for their musical style, which fuses aspects of melodic punk rock, progressive rock and heavy metal to form their primary sound. They have released nine studio albums on Fat Wreck Chords as well as one Live album, 2 B-sides collections, a best-of, a box set, and appeared on numerous compilations and skate/surf/dirt bike/offroading videos. They have played on the Warped Tour and continue to tour internationally.

They were one of those bands that were in rotation when my friends would be driving around New Jersey headed to Flipside, Shows, or the Rockaway Mall.

You can check out the Wendy Cherry interview, Episode 79, where she talks about the Jim Cherry days in the band. That’s also a great interview.

Luckily Jake heard that interview and also wanted to talk about the band so I got him on Skype and this is what we talked about:

• How they dealt with the early 2000s
• The video for Bring Out Your Dead
• The early scene in Southern California
• Their astrolux symbol
• Renting RVs to tour in
• Putting out albums after Jim Cherry wasn’t in the band
• His thoughts on still playing shows
• Dying on stage
• And a ton more

Check out their beer at craftshack.com and go to their website to buy their quarantine shirt to help out the band.

This episode is sponsored by https://www.houseofmerch.com/ where you can buy band merch and get 10% off by using promo code "scene" when you check out. AND FREE SHIPPING.

Check out the North Jersey Facebook group tonight for the live show.

Feel free to support the podcast for as little as $1 a month through Patreon.

The Dillinger Escape Plan is a fucking amazing band from NJ. If you don't know who they are then go listen to them. 

Luckily Ben is a solid dude and said yes to an interview and this is what we chat about:

• His farm
• Matt from Uprise
• Their first drummer Chris Pennie
• Skaters World
• Steve Evetts
• Chris Badami
• Mike Patton
• Playing a basement show in New Brunswick
• And a ton more

Go check out Ben’s Patreon for his farm. And definitely watch the video he made.

This episode is sponsored by https://www.houseofmerch.com/ where you can buy band merch and get 10% off by using promo code "scene" when you check out.

Check out the North Jersey Facebook group tonight for the live show.

Feel free to support the podcast for as little as $1 a month through Patreon.

Big D and the Kids Table is a ska-punk band formed in October 1995 in Boston, Massachusetts when its members converged in college. Their first release was on their own Fork in Hand Records label, but have since teamed with Springman Records and SideOneDummy. The band has been noted for its strict DIY work ethic, such as engineering, producing, and releasing their own albums and videos and self-promotion of their own shows.

Thank you, Michael Catania, for the intro to David McWane who I got on the Skype and this is what we talked about:

• Having to stop recording a new record
• His theory on why people stop liking newer albums from older bands
• Sugar Ray
• Playing the full Op Ivy set
• At The Drive-In
• Our love for Taylor Swift
• Having a hard time fitting in
• Too Hep Records
• And a ton more

Check out the North Jersey Facebook group for the April 24 live show.

Feel free to support the podcast for as little as $1 a month through Patreon.

Triple Crown Records is a New York-based rock music record label created in 1997 by Fred Feldman. The label features such artists as The Receiving End of Sirens and The Dear Hunter, and launched the career of Brand New in 2001. It is a part of the Eastwest family of record labels, a subsidiary of Warner Music Group, and is distributed by the Alternative Distribution Alliance.

Here's what we chatted about:

• How are the current state of affairs effecting the label
• Starting at a hip hop label
• E Town Concrete
• In Reverie
• Lounge
• Folly
• Brand New
• Outline
• And a ton more

Feel free to support the podcast for as little as $1 a month through Patreon.

Uprise was a hardcore band based out of Northern Jersey. 

I heard about them when Mike Z joined the band because he was a classmate of mine at Jefferson Township High School and it was the first time I ever saw a local band put out a 7in which blew my mind. I talk about this in the interview.

You may also remember the Morris County Youth Crew from back then which Matt formed. That name has come up a few times in previous podcast interviews. Especially Episode 23 with Brian Molloy who talks about the Morris County Adult Crew. Which, btw, I made merch for. You can check that out on thiswasthescene.com in the STORE. https://thiswasthescene.com/product-tag/mcac/

I got Matt on the phone and this is what we talk about:

• Hair metal
• Growing up in Morristown
• Straight edge
• Gorilla Biscuits
• His band Downfall
• The Music Den in Jefferson
• The NJ Impossibles
• Replacing Fortitude with Uprise on a show
• THE Morris County Adult and Youth Crew
• Ben from Dillinger Escape Plan being in the band
• Frank Cappuccio
• Their 7 in being pink
• Weston
• Hello Bastard’s artwork ripping off another album
• And a ton more

Check out Matt’s other band Dead Nation on Spotify.

And his other other band Kissing is a Crime

feel free to support the podcast for as little as $1 a month through Patreon.

Ultimate Fakebook is a 3-piece power pop band from Manhattan, KS. They released three full-length albums—Electric Kissing Parties (1997 - Noisome Records), This Will Be Laughing Week (1999 - Noisome Records, 2000 - 550 Music/Epic Records), and Open up and Say Awesome (2002 -Initial Records). Shortly after releasing their EP Before We Spark (2003 - Initial Records), they broke up.

I got them on the phone and this is what we talked about:

• Bro Hymn by Pennywise
• Having Falsetto in their songs
• Alternative Music
• Touring with Nada Surf
• Tenacious D
• Their first drummer
• The At The Drive-In / Get Up Kids tour that went through Wayne NJ
• Being the backing band for Reggie and the Full Effect
• Epic Records
• Why they stopped touring
• Playing with KISS
• And a ton more

After you listen, go help a local business. And wash your hands.

Annnnd feel free to support the podcast for as little as $1 a month through Patreon.

Dan Yemin is known for playing in Lifetime, Kid Dynamite and Paint it Black. You should go listen to all of those bands. After you listen to this interview.

After weeks of scheduling, we locked this interview down and here is what we chat about:

• Oktopus co-producing Paint it Black’s album New Lexicon
• Using a flyer to start Lifetime
• When they finally found their sound
• Somewhere in the Swamps of Jersey
• Their reunion show in 2005
• The Melody Bar
• Forming Paint it Black
• And a ton more

Thank you, Brian Mcgee, for the intro to Mr. Yemin. 

Check out his newest band OPEN CITY

Feel free to support the podcast for as little as $1 a month through Patreon.

Texas Is the Reason was an American emo/post-hardcore band founded by former Shelter guitarist Norman Brannon and 108 drummer Chris Daly in 1994. They disbanded in 1997 and held brief reunions in 2006 and 2012–2013

In 1997, on the eve of signing with Capitol Records, the band flew overseas for a European tour. Ongoing intra-band tensions arising from the major label attention reached their apex. The night of the final stop of the tour in Bielefeld, Germany, Daly, and Brannon agreed before the show that if the show was "awesome", it would be their last. Brannon later related, "I walked on stage and we opened with 'Antique' and when Garrett started singing, there were eight hundred Germans singing along with us. I looked at Daly and knew that this was over."

I got Norman on the phone and this is what we talked about:

• The Anti-Matter comp
• What he wanted to find out when he interviewed people
• Working for Keith from Cause For Alarm
• Going to shows at CBGBs
• Dealing with trauma
• Becoming a Hare Krishna
• The song “Do you know who you are?”
• How he got Garrett in the band
• Their reunion shows
• Bands getting paid good money for playing shows
• The slideshow in 2006 at Irving Plaza
• His amp blowing up at a reunion show
• Knowing that they were a possible time bomb at the beginning
• Jets to Brazil
• And a ton more

Feel free to support the podcast for as little as $1 a month through Patreon.

Click to -> buy my sketchbook

Hire me to animate things for your company – drive80.com

Today I chat with Matt Gray about his Bigwig days. 

Here's what we talk about:

• Dealing with seizures
• Breaking his femur at a show 
• His journal that he’s kept every day since 1997
• What the second van was that I talk about in the Tom Petta interview
• Getting scabies
• Having a seizure during a show
• The mixing of the drums on Stay Asleep
• Their song “Friends”
• The Ataris
• Getting kicked out of the band
• The Starting Line
• The Tour with Gob
• And a ton more

88 Fingers Louie had their van broken into last weekend and are raising money to cover the costs of the shit that got stolen. If you’d like to donate to them go to thiswasthescene.com/88fingers and I have a button there that leads to their Gofundme.

Feel free to support the podcast for as little as $1 a month through Patreon.

Midtown was an American pop-punk band from New Brunswick, New Jersey. Midtown was formed in November 1998 by three Rutgers University students but soon became a quartet. The group released three full-length studio albums and three extended plays before disbanding in 2005.

• Constantly playing a song on repeat
• The bands that influenced Midtown
• Writing really high notes in Lanemeyer
• His first band which wasn’t Professor Plum
• Meeting Josh from Humble Beginnings
• How Midtown formed
• Gabe’s usage of big words in songs
• Buying CDs with friends and dubbing them for each other
• Jay Pinball
• New Found Glory
• Their first album being amazing
• Vinnie from I am the avalanche singing background on a Midtown song
• Fenix TX and Drive-Thru Records
• Almost getting fired from the band
• Being roommates with Max Bemis
• And a ton more

Check out his label here http://isurrenderrecords.com/

Check out Bodega cats https://www.bodegacats.nyc/

Support the podcast for $1 per month

www.thiswasthescene.com

Forming in the suburbs of Atlanta while they were still in high school, Whippersnapper was originally called Corpus Spin. The band's five members, guitarists Mike and Jason, drummer Pat, vocalist Andy, and bassist Andy B., decided to adopt the current name fairly soon after the band's founding. Their first recording was a split 7" with Ronin -- soon they were hitting the ground running and touring with punk giants like Green Day, 88 Fingers Louie, and blink-182. Lobster Records issued their first two albums, America's Favorite Pastime (which was released in 1998 when the bandmembers were all 19) and 1999's The Long Walk. The first album featured pretty standard East Bay-influenced hardcore played with youthful energy -- but by the time The Long Walk was issued, the band had moved to L.A. and soaked up enough new influences to produce a more adventurous album that played with rhythm and lyrics, resulting in a more creative product. Appearances Wear Thin, Whippersnapper's first for Fueled by Ramen, appeared three years later.

I got Andy Munn on the Skype and this is what we talked about:

• Jim Cherry
• The propane heater in the van story
• The Jackie Brown story
• Getting on Lobster Records
• Putting on a show for Blink 182 before they were huge
• Staying with weird-ass people
• And a ton more

If you'd like to help me pay for a colonoscopy then CLICK HERE.

Support the podcast for as little as $1 a month through Patreon.

Latex Generation is a New York, USA punk rock band formed in the early 1990s. The name was inspired by a news report heard on the radio by bassist Tommy Rockstar that spoke of the current generation of teens and the threat of STDs, especially the AIDS epidemic. The band of young high-schoolers (at that time) agreed to the name "Latex Generation" instead of "Dead Cat Lickers". They are also referred to as "L8XG" or just "LG". They went on to release 2 full-length CDs, 3 7" records, a number of compilation album contributions and toured around the world. They are currently disbanded.

I got Tommy on the Skype and here’s what we talked about:

• The difficulties of working for yourself
• How he started screen printing
• His Guns N Roses documentary
• The Peawack in Long Island
• Their logo
• Motherbox Records
• One Foot Records
• Going on their first tour
• The band Tilt
• The Tijuana story
• The Alien Story (you don’t want to miss this)
• And a ton more

Check out their website - latexgeneration.com

Check out his screen-printing business here - https://www.underground.press/

CLICK HERE TO BUY MERCH FOR MY COLONOSCOPY - https://thiswasthescene.com/colon/

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Lobster Records is an independent record label based in Santa Barbara, California. It was founded by Stevan Lubarsky in 1991. The label started with Bad Neighbor, a Montecito-based rock band, with a huge local following featuring Alan Duncan and Mark Bennett on guitars, Sean Murphy on drums, Todd Roll on Bass and Zak Remington on lead vocals. Former members include Lynn Strait on Bass (R.I.P Lynn) and Bobby Champagne on drums (R.I.P Bobby).

Steve went on to develop Buck Wild, featuring Lagwagon guitarist Shawn Dewey, and has since released records from marquee pop-punk acts such as Yellowcard and Over It. They have also started a new label title Oort Records which has signed bands such as Faster Faster and Nottingham.

I got Steve on Skype and this is what we talk about:

• Promoting concerts in College
• How he got the label name
• Book Your Own Fucking Life not being the best resource for him
• Losing the label to a shit deal
• Focussing on artwork and top producers for the brand
• Some Major Labels not knowing how to keep a bands sound
• Joystick and NJ Joystick
• The process of running a label
• His releases being available on victorymerch.com without his knowledge
• How Whippersnapper got on the label
• How he plans on Rebooting the label
• Looking for bands outside of California
• The Whippersnapper MLB logo
• And a ton more

Be on the lookout for his book Autumn 859

Click here to -> buy my sketchbook for drawing dicks

Support the podcast for as little as $1 a month through Patreon.

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Piebald is an American alternative rock band who started as a hardcore band in Andover, Massachusetts, out of the same scene that produced Converge and Cave In. Originally a key Massachusetts post-hardcore band often seen touring with fellow DIY hardcore bands such as Jesuit, Reversal of Man, and Harvest during the mid to late 1990s, they later moved to the Boston suburb of Somerville and became a staple of the Greater Boston indie rock scene.

A turning point in Piebald's career came when they recorded seven tracks, and put them on the CD that came to be known as Sometimes Friends Fight. Their musical sound had greatly matured, and Travis' lyrical ability was finally brought to the forefront of the band's music. Another two seven-inches later, Piebald was ready for another metamorphosis.

In 2007 they called it a day, but have since played some shows since then.

I got Travis on the Skype and this is what we talk about:

• Growing up knowing the guys from Cave in and Converge
• Starting off with a heavier sound
• Hydra Head Records
• Their school bus
• The Actuality of Thought Comp
• Sharing the bill with harder bands
• Playing bass for Cave-In
• Big Wheel Records
• The Macrock Story
• Jon Cheese
• The response to All ears, All eyes, All the time
• Doing shows with Dashboard in February 2020
• And a ton more

Check out their tour with Dashboard Confessional in February

Click here to -> buy my sketchbook for drawing dicks

Support the podcast for as little as $1 a month through Patreon.

Hire me to animate things for your company - drive80.com

"The Last Scene" will be the FIRST comprehensive chronicle of what many believe is the LAST underground, DIY music scene. One forged in VFW halls and community recreation centers across the United States in the late 1990s/Early 2000s.

This is the story of the punk and emo kids who gave us the last "new" thing in rock music, during an era of change for the music industry and youth culture at large.

Kyle Kilday's objective is to make a feature-length doc that covers about a 10-year period and I envision the narrative being organized chronologically into 3 distinct time-periods: 1997 - 2000 2001 - 2004 2005 - 2007 (with a "Where Are They Now," "What's It All Mean" coda...)

I got Kyle on the phone and this is what we talk about"

• Getting into music because of piano
• The band Drexel
• Jimmy Eat World’s album Clarity
• Fred from Taking Back Sunday
• How he’s setting up the interviews
• The Kickstarter
• Dealing with music licensing
• And a ton more

Go check out his website here - https://www.thelastscenedoc.com/

Click here to -> buy my sketchbook

Support the podcast for as little as $1 a month through Patreon.

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This week I do a Q&A with my good buddy Tom Simon where I answer fan questions that they submitted on Instagram. 

Check out Tom's company Zookies Cookies

Click to -> buy my sketchbook

Support the podcast for as little as $1 a month through Patreon.

Hire me to animate things for your company - drive80.com

Laura Ladisheff booked a ton of North Jersey shows in the 90s and also managed Humble Beginnings. She also helped my old bands Congress of Cow and Lanemeyer get on a ton of shows. 

I thought her story would be awesome and I was correct. Here is what we chat about:

• Brian Granik
• The Weston show at the Boonton KOC
• Matt from Uprise
• Managing Humble
• Robotrips at Delvecchio's House
• How She helped Congress of Cow get Bruce the van
• Jeremy joining Humble Beginnings
• Jeff Kish from Dawson High/ Digger and Weston
• Beth and Elizabeth from Hot Topic
• Benson
• Jay Blanda’s Mom following my webcomic
• How I would only play another show if it was at Boonton legion hall
• And a ton more

Go check out the organization she works for that helps Foster Kids at casaforchildren.org. Scroll down and click on the map to see where they are in your area.

You can also CLICK HERE to see the video I animated which explains the organization.

Click to -> buy my sketchbook

Support the podcast for as little as $1 a month through Patreon.

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Jim Cherry was one of the five original members of the band Strung Out, playing bass guitar. He was also part of the initial lineup of the band Pulley, playing guitar. After releasing three albums with Strung Out, Cherry left the band in 1999. Shortly after, he formed the punk rock band Zero Down he passed away on July 7, 2002. In the liner notes of their album Exile in Oblivion, Strung Out dedicates the song "Swan Dive" to Cherry. Pulley dedicated the album Matters to Cherry, as well as the song "Thanks". He is also mentioned in the NOFX song "Doornails" from their 2006 album, Wolves in Wolves' Clothing.

After interviewing Johanna Hackett in Episode 64 I told her that I was looking to get more female perspectives from the scene and she introduced me to a few people. One of whom is Wendy Cherry who was married to Jim until he passed away. Before doing this interview I had no idea how much Jim contributed to both Strung Out and Pulley. This is a great interview because Wendy gives her perspective not only about the scene at that time but also tells a punk rock love story which is really endearing.

Here is what we talk about:

• How she met Jim
• Going to her first Strung Out / Pulley show
• Jim and Jordan’s relationship
• Helping to pull his publishing
• The Poison Chicken Story
• The Matters
• the song Ultimate Devotion
• She talks about how Jim passed away due to complications
• And a ton more

Check out Jim’s last project Zero Down

TODAY YOU CAN BUY MY NEW BOOK FOR $12

Support the podcast for as little as $1 a month through Patreon.

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Adam Goren was born in The Bronx on January 14, 1975, but grew up in Oreland, Pennsylvania. He played in several local bands as a youth. While Goren was still in school, a friend introduced him to music sequencers, and he began writing music with one in his spare time. In 1991, Goren joined the punk band Fracture, and he remained with them until 1995. Later he started performing shows as Atom and His Package, consisting of himself, a B.C. Rich guitar, and his QY700 music sequencer. In 1997 he released his first album, named The First CD, on Bloodlink Records. He released several more albums and EPs and has performed on several compilations and self-released EPs while touring internationally.

I reached out to Adam thanks to Chris Gethard and this is what we talk about:

• His amazing website that still exists
• Chris Gethard
• Buying shitty albums
• the band Fracture
• How he found the Package
• Playing on the Chris Gethard show
• Playing Fest
• Who did his artwork
• The hate-mail he got
• And a ton more

Check out his favorite band, Future of the Left.

If you’d like to support the podcast you can donate as little as $1 a month through Patreon.

Check out my webcomic - dailyBred

I also animate things - drive80.com

I Farm was a skate-punk rock band, later turned melodic hardcore/punk band with pop-punk & thrash elements. They started in Ithaca, NY and ended in Brooklyn, NY. I Farm was: Arun Farm, John Meredith, Josh Carothers, and also included: John Conklin, Jeremy Curtin, Phil Thy, & Jaime Villamarin. I Farm released material from the early 1990’s to 2006.

I was introduced to Arun by Brian from Plow United (episode 41), he said he was down to chat, and this is what you’re going to learn in this episode:

• Working for Obama
• Binghamton, NY
• Growing the Ithica punk scene
• Being buddies with Plow United
• Touring with Anti Flag
• Propagandhi and The Queers
• Operation Cliff Clavin
• And a ton more

Check out Josh’s band, Chilton - https://chilton444.bandcamp.com/

Check out my webcomic - dailyBred

Hire me to design or animate your content - drive80.com

If you’d like to support the podcast you can donate as little as $1 a month through Patreon.

Weston is a band from Bethlehem. Annnnnd you can hear the intro I did about them in the Chuck Weston Interview.

In this interview, I talk to Jesse Short about his days in the band and what his view looked like when he joined the band and rocked out on the bass. 

I got him on the Skype and this is what we talk about:

• Completely mistaking him for Jeff Kish for the first 3 minutes of the interview
• Walter Krugg
• Phil from Digger
• Joining Weston
• Go Kart Records
• And a ton more

Check out his latest projects - arDuvall and The Wampmlers

Check out my webcomic - dailyBred

Hire me to design or animate your content - drive80.com

If you’d like to support the podcast you can donate as little as $1 a month through Patreon.

Submit your cool story here

If you’d like to support the podcast you can donate as little as $1 a month through Patreon.

Also, check out my webcomic.

Face First was a Ska Punk band that formed in Mendham, NJ when Jarret Seltzer met Tom Chitty Keiger. They played in the NJ Scene for a few years and eventually realized that ska sucks my ass and evolved into the sounds that was Houston Calls. From there they did a shit ton of touring, signed to Drive-Thru, and broke up in the mid-2000s.

I got Jarrett on the phone and this is what we talk about:

• His Bagels
• Meeting “Chitty”
• Obsessions
• Starting Decibel Records
• Registering with CCM just to have health insurance
• Becoming Houston Calls
• Rushmore Records
• And a ton more

Check out his bagel store - http://bagelsbyjarrett.com

And http://customtourpasses.com

Go give love to David Patino - http://davidpatino.com

Do you have a cool story from the late 90s scene? Email it to me and I'll put it on my blog - thiswasthescene@gmail.com

If you’d like to support the podcast you can donate as little as $1 a month through Patreon by going to thiswasthescene.com and click on the button at the top of the page that says Click HERE FOR BONUS MATERIAL. As a Patron, you get access to bonus material that regular podcast subscribers do not. OR you can do a one-time donation by clicking the DONATE button. 

The Youth Ahead was a 4 piece pop-punk band from Old Bridge, NJ. started in 1995 they stayed extremely active until their breakup in 2005. Some of the records they put out were The Order Years, The New Album, The Package EP, and For The Ones That Got Away.

• Steve LWL connecting us
• Our Dad’s not believing in our musical endeavors
• The Cheesequake Firehouse Shows
• John D from Bamboozle
• Not knowing who’s running their current website
• A possible mix up for not getting on certain labels
• Wanting Steve LWL to join the band
• Why remembering that time period is important
• And a ton more

Check out Panic State Records

Do you have a cool story from the late 90s scene? Email it to me and I'll put it on my blog - thiswasthescene@gmail.com

If you’d like to support the podcast you can donate as little as $1 a month through Patreon by going to thiswasthescene.com and click on the button at the top of the page that says Click HERE FOR BONUS MATERIAL. As a Patron, you get access to bonus material that regular podcast subscribers do not. OR you can do a one-time donation by clicking the DONATE button. 

Jay Vics grew up in Vernon, NJ and attended his first local show in 1997, and that very night was when he decided he needed to get involved with this wonderful community of people who seemed to not give a shit what others think about them. This, in fact, was the jersey scene.

Over the next several years, he went to countless shows, joined the band RedRover, went on tour, recorded twice, and passed out countless flyers.

In 2009, he created the North Jersey Pop Punk 1994-2002 group on Facebook and invited everyone he could from that time period. The group now has over 1500 members and is a wonderful source of information from the time period.

I got him on the phone and here’s what we talk about

• Antonio from the Dharma Boys
• The North Jersey Pop Punk FB Group
• Dillinger Four show on Lake Hopatcong
• Smacking Isaah
• Rob Heiner’s Bachelor party
• Brian Fallon
• His love affair with Rob Heiner
• And a ton more

Do you have a cool story from the late 90s scene? Email it to me and I'll put it on my blog - thiswasthescene@gmail.com

Check out my new website! -->>> thiswasthescene.com

If you’d like to support the podcast you can donate as little as $1 a month through Patreon by going to thiswasthescene.com and click on the button at the top of the page that says Click HERE FOR BONUS MATERIAL. As a Patron, you get access to bonus material that regular podcast subscribers do not. OR you can do a one-time donation by clicking the DONATE button. 

Element 101 hailed from New Jersey and molded their own brandish scale of punk rock, reminiscent of Elvis Costello, the Go-Go's, All, and the Descendents. They issued their debut Future Plans Undecided in spring 2000. Stereo Girl followed in early 2001. By the time Element 101 prepped for their third album, they'd reach a new musical level. More Than Motion, which was released in fall 2002, showcased a new found confidence from the band as well as a melodically tight sound.

I luckily found their Instagram account and went down the rabbit hole to get in touch with Crissie and she was stoked to chat. 

Below is what we talk about:

• Hitting a cow with their van
• Tooth and Nail Records
• Being a harpist
• Sound Exchange
• Recording at the Blasting Room
• Old Wives and Action Reaction
• Possibilities of a new song
• And a ton more

Do you have a cool story from the late 90s scene? Email it to me and I'll put it on my blog - thiswasthescene@gmail.com

GET 15% OFF MERCH THIS WEEKEND  (code - wayne)

Donate laptops here - hello@welcomehomerefugees.org

Check out my new website! -->>> thiswasthescene.com

If you’d like to support the podcast you can donate as little as $1 a month through Patreon by going to thiswasthescene.com and click on the button at the top of the page that says Click HERE FOR BONUS MATERIAL. As a Patron, you get access to bonus material that regular podcast subscribers do not. OR you can do a one-time donation by clicking the DONATE button. 

Neil Sabatino contributed a ton to the NJ scene by doing the following:

Booking shows at The Palace in Bound Brook in 1998 and then also doing stuff at Hamilton Street, Bloomfield Ave Cafe both when they first opened. He played in the bands Little Green Men, Stick Figure Suicide, Pencey Prep (with Frank Iero of My Chemical Romance on Eyeball Records), and then Fairmont. Neil helped put out a bunch of stuff with Reinforcement Records from 1999-2004, and did a zine from 1998-1999 called "When I'm On Fire I Burn & Yell Things Like Ouch and Help I'm On Fire".

All this was a pre-cursor to starting the label Mint 400 Records, signing over 95 bands, putting out over 250 releases in the last 12 years, producing dozens of albums, still booking up to 5 shows a month and starting The North Jersey Indie Rock Festival. 

• Ryan Sellick
• Recording in a cabin
• Still running a record label
• Dave Weston’s solo album
• Booking shows at the Palace
• Nada Surf
• Getting kicked out of Pency Prep
• Eyeball Records
• Hamilton Street
• The Lanemeyer show at the Palace
• His band Fairmont
• And a ton more

Check out the 30 band festival "Indie Binge" on November 9th at Pet Shop in Jersey City which is presented by Mint 400 Records and Friends.

Do you have a cool story from the late 90s scene? Email it to me and I'll put it on my blog - thiswasthescene@gmail.com

Check out my new website! -->>> thiswasthescene.com

If you’d like to support the podcast you can donate as little as $1 a month through Patreon by going to thiswasthescene.com and click on the button at the top of the page that says Click HERE FOR BONUS MATERIAL. As a Patron, you get access to bonus material that regular podcast subscribers do not. OR you can do a one-time donation by clicking the DONATE button. 

Tom Martin is a Pennsylvania legend known for his time in Third Year Freshmen and Throttle Jockey with Brian from Plow United.

I’ve talked about Tom on so many episodes that I just had to get him on here. And it was completely worth it.

If you get a chance to look up his newer stuff on Spotify because it’s really fucking good. I added Summer Legs to my personal playlist and can’t get that damn song out of my head.

I got Tom on the phone and this is what we talked about

• Hair Metal
• Recording super weird music as a teenager
• Lollapalooza
• Calling the Villanova Radio show on Saturday nights
• Going to the halloween party at Arik from Creep Records house
• Meeting Weston for the first time
• How he became Crazy Tom Martin
• Keeping food in his wallet
• The Good Riddance Show
• Tom Big Wig’s last show with Felix Frump
• Forming Throttle Jockey
• Playing with Anal Cunt
• The Flash Paper story
• Chris Gethard
• And a SHIT ton more

Submit your cool story here.

TODAY'S SPONSOR

jvi mobile marketing has been in business since 2012. Founded by former member of New Jersey pop-punk band RedRover and creator of the North Jersey pop-punk Facebook group, he has been building a digital marketing agency that has grown to over 100 clients from all around the country. The agency specializes in all sorts of digital marketing for local small businesses. Whether you need a logo, website, automation, Facebook ads, or just more traffic and better rankings for your business, Jay and his team will work with you to find the best and most affordable solution. To learn more, contact JVI Mobile today at 866-587-3837 or visit www.jvimobile.com

Check out my new website! -->>> thiswasthescene.com

If you’d like to support the podcast you can donate as little as $1 a month through Patreon by going to thiswasthescene.com and click on the button at the top of the page that says Click HERE FOR BONUS MATERIAL. As a Patron, you get access to bonus material that regular podcast subscribers do not. OR you can do a one-time donation by clicking the DONATE button. 

Chris Gethard is a comedian based out of Queens, NY, with proud roots in West Orange, NJ. He can be seen performing all over the world. In NYC you can often catch him at The Comedy Cellar. He’s the host of the podcast Beautiful/Anonymous, the author of the book Lose Well, and the figurehead of a television show that’s actually more like a religious cult. In hipster cities, he is most often recognized for playing Ilana’s boss on Broad City. In regular America, he more often gets “Aren’t you the guy who tried to hit Oscar with the pipe on The Office?”

Back in the late 90s, bands started getting websites. On these websites were forums where people could chat about music, the scene, hot topic, white belts, chain necklaces, etc. It was a place for the scene to exist outside of shows.

At that time, a random character names SOMEKID popped up and started talking shit to everyone. I believe this person was my first introduction to trolling. They started shit so much that people in the scene wanted to basically kill this person but no one ever knew who it was.

Until today. Luckily Chris remembered this and reached out to me to talk about this. Now, he presented this to me as he had “a story” and you’ll hear my confusion in the very beginning. It takes us a minute to get into why he reached out but holy fuck is it worth it.

Usually, I’ll break down what we talk about but it’s a few stories about the scene and then he goes into the story so you need to just hold tight.

TODAY'S SPONSOR

jvi mobile marketing has been in business since 2012. Founded by former member of New Jersey pop-punk band RedRover and creator of the North Jersey pop-punk Facebook group, he has been building a digital marketing agency that has grown to over 100 clients from all around the country. The agency specializes in all sorts of digital marketing for local small businesses. Whether you need a logo, website, automation, Facebook ads, or just more traffic and better rankings for your business, Jay and his team will work with you to find the best and most affordable solution. To learn more, contact JVI Mobile today at 866-587-3837 or visit www.jvimobile.com

Check out my new website! -->>> thiswasthescene.com

If you’d like to support the podcast you can donate as little as $1 a month through Patreon by going to thiswasthescene.com and click on the button at the top of the page that says Click HERE FOR BONUS MATERIAL. As a Patron, you get access to bonus material that regular podcast subscribers do not. OR you can do a one-time donation by clicking the DONATE button. 

I've mentioned in many episodes that I wanted to get more female interviews because this was turning into a bit of a boys club. Eva Silverman hit me up and was like "I have some stuff to talk about."

Sooo, I got her on the phone and this is what we discussed:

• Her zine Riot Duck being 50 - 100 pages
• Interviewing Thurston Moore from Sonic Youth
• AOL Instant messenger chat groups
• Her old band Pinker Duck
• Riot Girl
• Making friends with Dennis from Plan A
• When bands finally got websites
• What it was like writing a zine
• The limited amount of diversity in the scene
• Queer punk
• And a ton more

Check out my new website! -->>> thiswasthescene.com

If you’d like to support the podcast you can donate as little as $1 a month through Patreon by going to thiswasthescene.com and click on the button at the top of the page that says Click HERE FOR BONUS MATERIAL. As a Patron, you get access to bonus material that regular podcast subscribers do not. OR you can do a one-time donation by clicking the DONATE button. 

Serial Killer Clothing was a clothing company, a skateboard company that basically created the MEME. They designed shirts that had pictures of pop culture icons with one-liners underneath them which completely contradicted what you were seeing. Some examples were the cast of Baywatch with the words ORGY underneath. Another was Pee-Wee Herman with Masturbate under him, and so on.

Bigwig was the band that introduced the clothing line to the Jersey scene because they would have it at their table or be wearing the shirts and other bands like Cooter, Lounge, and Beefcake would soon follow. Serial Killer also put out a compilation with Fearless Records which caught anyone's eye because of the 2 porn stars making out on the cover.

I got Johanna on the phone for over 2 hours and this is what we chatted about:

• The Black Flag Church
• What it was like being in a Female band in the scene
• Fletcher from Pennywise
• The BigWig story
• How Serial Killer started
• Cooter
• Meeting Gabe Saporta
• The Serial Killer Comp
• Bigwig again
• Pennywise
• Matt Serial Killer
• Annoying Girl Zine
• And a ton more

Check out my new webcomic book "Drink and Draw. A sketchbook for single people sitting at bars". This is a sketchbook for people who'd like to take a break from technology and reconnect with their randomness. 

I’m working on a new website so hold tight thiswasthescene.com

If you’d like to support the podcast you can donate as little as $1 a month through Patreon by going to thiswasthescene.com and click on the button at the top of the page that says Click HERE FOR BONUS MATERIAL. As a Patron, you get access to bonus material that regular podcast subscribers do not.  OR you can do a one-time donation by clicking the DONATE button. 

• Apple
• 80s music
• Writing about girls
• Playing in sketchy bars
• Playing with Jimmy Eat World
• Scrapping a full album that still exists
• The Lavaleans (lava lean ahs)
• Coolidge Records
• The Fonzy Legal Story
• How he met Alan Rappaport
• Weird NJ
• And a ton more

Check out the JILL Facebook page and Danny's band Gentlemen Rogues.

Check out the new merch on the thiswasthescene.com

If you’d like to support the podcast you can donate as little as $1 a month through Patreon by going to thiswasthescene.com and click on the button at the top of the page that says Click HERE FOR BONUS MATERIAL. As a Patron, you get access to bonus material that regular podcast subscribers do not.  OR you can do a one-time donation by clicking the DONATE button. 

Buddyhead Records was an independent record label from Hollywood, California that sprouted from the website of the same name. The label was started in 2000 with the pressing of a seven-inch single from The Icarus Line ("Kill Cupid With A Nail File") and ended almost exactly ten years later.

The thing that I remember Buddyhead for are their posts where they gave out phone numbers and emails of bands they didn’t like so people could fuck with them. What triggered my memory was talking to Alex Sarti in episode 57 (go check that one out after this one) and Buddyhead was brought up after Alex and I started talking about the time Midtown flipped there van and what Buddyhead wrote about it.

I got Travis Keller’s info from someone telling me about his Instagram account TravisMichaelKeller and I reached out to him.

I got him on the phone and this is what we talked about:

• Meeting people through his photography
• Calling Dave Navaro
• How they got so many phone numbers
• Living in Tarzana
• The Icarus Line
• The Transplants not digging one of the posts
• Fred Durst
• Is he still down with Buddyhead following him
• Drive-thru Records
• And a ton more

Check out his new project http://americanprimitive.org/

Check out the new merch on the thiswasthescene.com

If you’d like to support the podcast you can donate as little as $1 a month through Patreon by going to thiswasthescene.com and click on the button at the top of the page that says Click HERE FOR BONUS MATERIAL. As a Patron, you get access to bonus material that regular podcast subscribers do not.  OR you can do a one-time donation by clicking the DONATE button. 

Jon Cheese toured from 2002-2012 working for all kinds of bands as a tour manager/Merch guy. Piebald, cave in, my chemical romance, Apollo Sunshine, Limbeck, The Honorary Title, Meg & Dia, Big D & the Kids Table, Streetlight Manifesto, and The National. He did a weird T-Pain tour... and every Warped Tour from 2002-2011 (02/03 with Doghouse records and 04-11 with Side One Dummy Records.

I got him on the phone and here's what we talked about:

• Why it’s ok to not like some of the older punk bands
• The origins of the name Jon Cheese
• Possibly running Cave-in’s Merch
• Finally remembering the name Aaron Kraft from many episodes ago
• My arch nemesis from high school
• The Morris County youth crew
• Meeting Piebald
• The My Chemical Romance story (this is fucking amazing)
• Jesse from Motion City Soundtrack’s involvement in Jon’s marriage
• Selling real estate to Fat Mike and other punk rock folks
• And a ton more

Check out the new merch on the thiswasthescene.com

If you’d like to support the podcast you can donate as little as $1 a month through Patreon by going to thiswasthescene.com and click on the button at the top of the page that says Click HERE FOR BONUS MATERIAL. As a Patron, you get access to bonus material that regular podcast subscribers do not.  OR you can do a one-time donation by clicking the DONATE button. 

WELCOME TO EPISODE #60

Hopeless Records was founded in 1994 by Louis Posen. The label's artists are generally considered to fall under the genres of punk rock, pop punk, post-hardcore, and alternative rock, but some also include elements of heavy metal. Some of their most well-known artists include All Time Low, Sum 41, Neck Deep, Avenged Sevenfold, Thrice, Yellowcard... 

Thanks to Denis 88 I was able to get Louis on the phone and this is what we talked about...

• Heckle
• Filming videos for NOFX and Guttermouth
• Figuring out how to put out a record
• What was Guttermouth like
• The Sampler CDs
• What they did to stand out in the industry
• Davey Tiltwheel
• Napster coming into the picture
• And a ton more

This week's episode is sponsored by my animation company drive80.com. I do explainer animations, logo animations, and Instagram animations. Feel free to reach out to me if you need videos that don't suck ass.

Check out the new merch on the thiswasthescene.com

If you’d like to support the podcast you can donate as little as $1 a month through Patreon by going to thiswasthescene.com and click on the button at the top of the page that says Click HERE FOR BONUS MATERIAL. As a Patron, you get access to bonus material that regular podcast subscribers do not.  OR you can do a one-time donation by clicking the DONATE button. 

Check out my new book “How To Get Divorced. A Guide for people currently going through some shit.” You can download a free copy at YourDailyBred.com.

Folly is a band from Sussex, New Jersey. Their music is a mix of hardcore, metal, punk, and ska. The band's final lineup included Arben Colaku on bass, Geoff Towle on guitar, Anthony Wille on drums, Agim Colaku on guitar, and Jon Tummillo on vocals.

They chose the name Folly due to its implications that a "costly undertaking having an absurd or ruinous outcome" is, in fact, the complete metaphor of the band and its members. In their words, "Folly is exactly what we are, not just as a band of fools who play ridiculously entwined and exploited musical genres, but as people who are continually kicked while they are down, while stubbornly and resiliently grinning in the face of mainstream adversity."

I got Jon on the phone and this is what we talked about:

• Jared from Face First / Houston Calls
• Unleashing the fury at shows
• His Dad being the music teacher at my high school (JTHS)
• His Brothers being in Right Turn Eddie
• Sussex County venues
• Jim Slim and the Midget Tossers
• Finding his voice as a singer
• Triple Crown Records
• The scene changing in the early 2000s
• Playing with no shoes on
• And a ton more

This week's episode is sponsored by my animation company drive80.com. I do explainer animations, logo animations, and Instagram animations. Feel free to reach out to me if you need videos that don't suck ass.

Check out the new merch on the thiswasthescene.com

If you’d like to support the podcast you can donate as little as $1 a month through Patreon by going to thiswasthescene.com and click on the button at the top of the page that says Click HERE FOR BONUS MATERIAL. As a Patron, you get access to bonus material that regular podcast subscribers do not.  OR you can do a one-time donation by clicking the DONATE button. 

Check out my new book “How To Get Divorced. A Guide for people currently going through some shit.” You can download a free copy at YourDailyBred.com.

The Overdrives were a punk band from Nazareth, PA. They played with such as Grieving Eucalyptus, Weston, Digger, and other PA bands. I got Josh on the phone and this is what we talked about:

• Nazareth, PA
• Their current angel fire website
• The beauty of tablature
• Grieving Eucalyptus
• The Feedmill practice space
• Josh Bigwig giving him a copy of Unmerry Melodies
• Getting on the Chuck Weston’s last show
• The Serial Killer Comp
• accidentally drinking his own piss
• Joining Bigwig and playing his first show within hours of being asked
• Witnessing what it was like to play in Canada as a member of Bigwig
• Touring with the Bosstones
• The real reason he left the band
• The Matt Gray falling asleep story
• And a ton more

This week's episode is sponsored by my animation company drive80.com. I do explainer animations, logo animations, and Instagram animations. Feel free to reach out to me if you need videos that don't suck ass.

Check out the new merch on the thiswasthescene.com

If you’d like to support the podcast you can donate as little as $1 a month through Patreon by going to thiswasthescene.com and click on the button at the top of the page that says Click HERE FOR BONUS MATERIAL. As a Patron, you get access to bonus material that regular podcast subscribers do not.  OR you can do a one-time donation by clicking the DONATE button. 

Check out my new book “How To Get Divorced. A Guide for people currently going through some shit.” You can download a free copy at YourDailyBred.com.

Alex Sarti is a show promoting, Roadie extraordinairing, Lorde managing, SOB. I met him in 1998 when he was putting on shows in Binghamton, NY and I thought it would be awesome to geek out with him about the late 90s scene. Annnnd, here's what we talked about:

• Managing the artist Lorde
• The new NOFX book
• The Victory Records Incompatible and Go Kart Records Double Exposure Comps
• Columbia House
• Booking shows in Binghamton
• Introducing Ben from Armor for Sleep to his wife
• The Movie Life story
• Buddyhead
• Midtown flipping their van
• iSurrender Records release of Lanemeyer’s vinyl
• Fallout Boy
• Lifetime putting their record out on Decaydance
• Matt Red Leader writing comic books
• Talking shit about Midtown
• Brian Fallon
• And a ton more

This week's episode is sponsored by Neshaminy Creek Brewing Company, bringing the punk rock ruckus to liquid form! Brewing up lip smackin, palate crackin IPAs and sours, robust dark beers, and a healthy mix of classic easy drinkers. Neshaminy Creek beers are available in NJ, PA, DE, and MD. Neshaminy Creek will celebrate their 7th Anniversary on Saturday, June 8th with a free show at their main brewing facility and taproom in Croydon, PA, featuring: Dave Hause, Modern Life Is War, School Drugs, and Fire In The Radio.

Website - neshaminycreekbrewing.com

Check out the new merch on the thiswasthescene.com

If you’d like to support the podcast you can donate as little as $1 a month through Patreon by going to thiswasthescene.com and click on the button at the top of the page that says Click HERE FOR BONUS MATERIAL. As a Patron, you get access to bonus material that regular podcast subscribers do not.  OR you can do a one-time donation by clicking the DONATE button. 

Check out my new book “How To Get Divorced. A Guide for people currently going through some shit.” You can download a free copy at YourDailyBred.com.

Sicko was an American rock group from Seattle, Washington, formed in 1991. Exceptionally, the three-piece pop-punk group maintained a constant membership for every recording as a band. This line-up was Denny Bartlett (guitar, bass, vocals), Ean Hernandez (guitar, bass, vocals), and Josh Rubin (drums, brother of Aaron Rubin from The Mr. T Experience). Sicko released four full-length albums and five 7" eps as well as a retrospective CD with unreleased and rare material, a released demo and a tour video. They also appeared on approximately fourteen compilations on labels such as Lookout! Records and Liberation Records. They once exchanged covers with Cub. The vast majority of their recorded output was recorded by Kurt Bloch of The Fastbacks and released on Seattle-based punk label eMpTy Records. One EP and the retrospective CD were released on Mutant Pop Records. Three Sicko songs were featured on the Xbox game Project Gotham Racing 2 alongside artists like The Flaming Lips and Princess Superstar.

• Alan Rappaport being the #1 fan
• His Misfits T-shirt
• Empty Records
• Who did their album artwork
• Having their stuff released digitally on Red Scare Records
• Switching instruments during their set
• The Reunion show they played recently
• Frank from the Mr. T Experience
• And a ton more

This week's episode is sponsored by Neshaminy Creek Brewing Company, bringing the punk rock ruckus to liquid form! Brewing up lip smackin, palate crackin IPAs and sours, robust dark beers, and a healthy mix of classic easy drinkers. Neshaminy Creek beers are available in NJ, PA, DE, and MD. Neshaminy Creek will celebrate their 7th Anniversary on Saturday, June 8th with a free show at their main brewing facility and taproom in Croydon, PA, featuring: Dave Hause, Modern Life Is War, School Drugs, and Fire In The Radio.

Website - neshaminycreekbrewing.com

Check out the new merch on the thiswasthescene.com

If you’d like to support the podcast you can donate as little as $1 a month through Patreon by going to thiswasthescene.com and click on the button at the top of the page that says Click HERE FOR BONUS MATERIAL. As a Patron, you get access to bonus material that regular podcast subscribers do not.  OR you can do a one-time donation by clicking the DONATE button. 

Check out my new book “How To Get Divorced. A Guide for people currently going through some shit.” You can download a free copy at YourDailyBred.com.

The Wonder Year’s sound was a fast-paced tone of melodic energy that celebrated the feelings of being young and dumb. Lead by Singer Singer Writer Brian Moss, AKA B Moss, the band started its journey in California’s Bay Area and lasted until 2000(ish).

I got Brian on the phone and this is what we talked about:

• Teaching the youth of today
• Touring with the Lawrence Arms
• Being friends with Jesse from Op Ivy’s little sister
• Eviction Parties
• The digital era we are in
• Their drummer Caitlin being the shit
• The Nile in Mesa
• Drinking floaters at parties
• And a ton more

Check out his bands after The Wunder Years, The Ghost, Hanalei, and Great Apes.

On Friday, August 16, 2019, check out the show with Humble Beginnings, digger, Jettison, Avery at Asbury Park Brewery in Asbury Park, NJ. This is presented by Aftermath Collective.

Feel free to email me with suggestions or praise.

Check out the new merch on the thiswasthescene.com

If you’d like to support the podcast you can donate as little as $1 a month through Patreon by going to thiswasthescene.com and click on the button at the top of the page that says Click HERE FOR BONUS MATERIAL. As a Patron, you get access to bonus material that regular podcast subscribers do not.  OR you can do a one-time donation by clicking the DONATE button. 

Check out my new book “How To Get Divorced. A Guide for people currently going through some shit.” You can download a free copy at YourDailyBred.com.

Plan A Project were a punk band from Northern New Jersey. Started in 1995 with Bassist/ Vocalist Danny DeSimoni, Guitarist/ Vocalist Dennis DeGraw and Drummer Kieth Wyland. Possessing an uncanny amount of energy, desire, and spirit that demanded respect. In the duration, 3 EPs were released and 2 studio albums (Go Kart records) with drummers Dennis Zyla, Tim Caspare and Paulie Yaremko.  

Dennis heard of the podcast from a buddy of his and emailed me to catch up. From there I said, let’s chat in an interview and he said yes.

• Stealing wood from around town to build a halfpipe
• Going to shows to learn how to play guitar
• The back cover of Dookie
• Coming up with the band name on the fly to get on a show
• The Westwood garage
• Creating their own merch
• Against All Authority
• What the NYC scene was like
• Sleeping in a walk-in freezers
• GoKart Records
• The Tour with the Buzzcocks
• And a ton more

I mentioned this week that there was a surprise and here it is. while setting up this interview, Dennis sent me a song and said this “When we decided to call it a day we went in and made sure we recorded something as we envisioned., something we wish made it out there sooner rather than never. With that, the lyrics pretty much sum up what being a member of plan A was about. Thought I’d share it as this song has never been heard outside of my very close friends .”

I immediately replied and said that he should get this on Bandcamp. Luckily, he had more songs and decided that I was a genius, took my advice and now these unreleased songs are available online.

Just go to - Planaproject.bandcamp.com 

Check out his art here - https://www.dennisdegraw.com/

Check out the new merch on the thiswasthescene.com

Check out my new book “How To Get Divorced. A Guide for people currently going through some shit.” You can download a free copy at YourDailyBred.com.

If you’d like to support the podcast you can donate as little as $1 a month through Patreon by going to thiswasthescene.com and click on the button at the top of the page that says Click HERE FOR BONUS MATERIAL. As a Patron, you get access to bonus material that regular podcast subscribers do not.  OR you can do a one-time donation by clicking the DONATE button. 

88 Fingers Louie is an American band from Chicago which was formed in 1993. They played a style of hardcore punk, melodic hardcore, and punk rock. After disbanding in 1999, guitarist Dan Wleklinski and bassist Joe Principe formed the well-known punk rock band Rise Against. The band reunited in 2009 and has continued playing shows in Chicago, Canada, Belgium, Las Vegas, and Asbury Park. The band held a 20th-anniversary show in 2013. The name comes from a Flintstones gangster who sells dodgy pianos. 

Fun fact, Denis is a fan of the podcast. Well, I mean he said he liked a few episodes so I’m going to take that as he has the logo tattooed on his chest now.

I asked him if he’d like to talk about the days of 88 and how cool Chicago is and he said

• The Ballet
• Where did the video for "I’ve Won" go?
• How he found this podcast
• The Rod Stewart curse
• The Josh Humble Fireside Story
• Michael Gaughan
• The "I’ve Won" video story
• Later 88 songs making their way onto the first Rise Against Album
• And a ton more

This week's episode is sponsored by Neshaminy Creek Brewing Company, bringing the punk rock ruckus to liquid form! Brewing up lip smackin, palate crackin IPAs and sours, robust dark beers, and a healthy mix of classic easy drinkers. Neshaminy Creek beers are available in NJ, PA, DE, and MD. Neshaminy Creek will celebrate their 7th Anniversary on Saturday, June 8th with a free show at their main brewing facility and taproom in Croydon, PA, featuring: Dave Hause, Modern Life Is War, School Drugs, and Fire In The Radio.

Website - neshaminycreekbrewing.com

Check out the new merch on the thiswasthescene.com

Check out my new book “How To Get Divorced. A Guide for people currently going through some shit.” You can download a free copy at YourDailyBred.com.

If you’d like to support the podcast you can donate as little as $1 a month through Patreon by going to thiswasthescene.com and click on the button at the top of the page that says Click HERE FOR BONUS MATERIAL. As a Patron, you get access to bonus material that regular podcast subscribers do not.  OR you can do a one-time donation by clicking the DONATE button. 

Discount was an American punk rock band that formed in Vero Beach, Florida, in 1995 and disbanded in 2000. Before disbanding, the group's members relocated to Gainesville, Florida, where they performed their last show in August 2000. They released three full-length albums, several EPs, and two b-side collections. Members have gone on to form The Dead Weather, The Kills, The Kitchen, Black Cougar Shock Unit, Unitas, The Routineers, The Draft, Laserhead, Stolen Parts, and Monikers.

• Living with Chris from Hot Water Music
• Almost killing my friends' wives at a Sunny Day Show
• Using Dialer devices to make free phone calls on the road
• Knowing Alison because she was his neighbor
• Touring while they were in High School
• Touring with Less than Jake and Hot Water Music
• Half Fiction
• Doing a long ass tour for the break-up
• Allison’s new band The Kills
• And a ton more

Here is a link to Ryan's new endeavor - northernelectriclighting.com

This episode is sponsored by Creep Records the best record store in Philadelphia. You can order online at creeprecords.com for a 5 dollar flat rate shipping fee on as many records that you buy. They also have a smoke shop where you can buy fun shaped glass pipes to enjoy all of that tobacco that you buy on the streets. Fun Fact, you can listen to my interview with Arik who owns Creep. Just scroll down to Episode 37. 

Check out the new merch on the thiswasthescene.com

Check out my new book “How To Get Divorced. A Guide for people currently going through some shit.” You can download a free copy at YourDailyBred.com.

If you’d like to support the podcast you can donate as little as $1 a month through Patreon by going to thiswasthescene.com and click on the button at the top of the page that says Click HERE FOR BONUS MATERIAL. As a Patron, you get access to bonus material that regular podcast subscribers do not.  OR you can do a one-time donation by clicking the DONATE button. 

My Pal Trigger were a punk/emo band from the great state of Fl. Their members were  David, Jack, Jeremy, and Thomas Ellison. You most likely saw them playing a lot of shows in the late 90s with Discount.

You can find a bunch of their stuff on ashtraymonumentcol.wixsite.com

I reached out to David and Jack, asked if they’d like to chat, they were thrilled and this is what we talked about:

• Destroying punk houses on tour
• The new Metal version of My Pal Trigger
• Jack meeting his drum teacher in a random parking lot
• The schoolhouse venue in Fl
• Talking about the Jersey scene
• The enormous size of Florida
• Chooch
• Long ass drives on tour
• Wesley Willis
• The rope swing story
• And a ton more

This episode is sponsored by Creep Records the best record store in Philadelphia. You can order online at creeprecords.com for a 5 dollar flat rate shipping fee on as many records that you buy. They also have a smoke shop where you can buy fun shaped glass pipes to enjoy all of that tobacco that you buy on the streets. Fun Fact, you can listen to my interview with Arik who owns Creep. Just scroll down to Episode 37. 

Jack's current band - https://badyeardenverco.bandcamp.com

Down By Law's Bandcamp - https://downbylawpunk.bandcamp.com

David's company - https://e3motorcycles.com

Check out the new merch on the thiswasthescene.com

Ricky Saporta was a show promoter in NJ back in the late 90s. The main space he did this at was the Wayne Firehouse in Wayne, NJ. Shows started in the smaller room and then progressed into the large room where bands like At The Drive-In, Jimmy Eat World, The Get Up Kids, New Found Glory, Alkaline Trio, and many other large acts played.

It took me FOREVER to get him on the show but he finally caved and this is what we talked about:

• The unreleased song I wrote to entice him to be on the podcast
• How he connected with his punk rocker wife, Nina
• How I finally got him on the show
• NYC being scary back then
• Plan A Project
• When did he start taking photos at shows
• OL Rebellion
• How he’d get band logos for flyers
• At The Drive-In
• The Piebald story
• Andrew Ellis
• Benny Horowitz
• And a ton more

Make sure you go support his wife, Nina’s, Kickstarter for her book, “Sunshine Elementary Chapter Book Series”.

Before we begin, this week’s episode is sponsored by my new book “How To Get Divorced. A Guide for people currently going through some shit.” You can download a free copy at YourDailyBred.com.

If you’d like to support the podcast you can donate as little as $1 a month through Patreon by going to thiswasthescene.com and click on the button at the top of the page that says Click HERE FOR BONUS MATERIAL. As a Patron, you get access to bonus material that regular podcast subscribers do not.  OR you can do a one-time donation by clicking the DONATE button. 

Benny Horowitz was a show promoter at the Manville, NJ Elks Lodge back in the late 90s. You also might know him from his bands Mercy Union and Gaslight Anthem.  I obviously heard of Gaslight but had no idea he promoted shows until Roadie Extraordinaire, Monkey Cipriano filled me in and then made an intro. Benny was more than excited to spend close to 2 hours talking about the scene. Fun fact, this interview was going to be a 2 parter because we had to end the first part of the interview and continue a week later. However, since I have a special guest for Episode 50, I decided to keep this as one interview. Plus, this is a podcast so suck it up.

I got Benny on the phone, twice, and this is what we talked about:

• Gaslight Anthem’s current status
• Ricky Saporta
• The Morris County Youth Crew
• His thoughts on Manville, NJ
• Drinking at Elks Lodges
• Crazy show stories
• John Hiltz doing sound
• E-Town Concrete broken mic story
• Monkey The World Famous Roadie
• Dealing with band contracts
• Earth Crisis
• How a 16-year-old kid prints flyers with he’s broke
• The magic of pagers
• The ABA
• The Fantasy baseball league
• And a ton more

Before we begin, this week’s episode is sponsored by my new book “How To Get Divorced. A Guide for people currently going through some shit.” You can download a free copy at YourDailyBred.com.

If you’d like to support the podcast you can donate as little as $1 a month through Patreon by going to thiswasthescene.com and click on the button at the top of the page that says Click HERE FOR BONUS MATERIAL. As a Patron, you get access to bonus material that regular podcast subscribers do not.  OR you can do a one-time donation by clicking the DONATE button. 

Hot Water Music is a punk rock band from Gainesville, Florida. The members of the band are Chuck Ragan, Chris Wollard (both lead vocals and guitar), Jason Black (bass), and George Rebelo (drums) first formed in 1993. Since then these guys have broken up, gotten back together, recorded albums, gone on a hiatus, got back together, made more records and so on.

Make sure you check them out on their 25th Anniversary Tour CAUTION + NO DIVISON Full Album Shows and they also have a new EP coming soon.

Thank you to Heath Midtown for the intro to Jason. Fun fact, the 2 of them played in Senses Fail together.

I got Jason on the Phone and this is what we talked about:

• His stint with Heath Midtown in Senses Fail
• Seeing Def Leppard as a kid
• Trying to get George to like punk
• How did people like them when they started
• Casey Lee Morgan’s HWM poster
• No Idea Records
• Scott Sinclair’s artwork
• When did they start to gain a following
• Some Records
• The Split with Alkaline Trio Split
• What was it like when the scene shifted
• And a ton more

Before we begin, this week I have a sponsor. On March 23 the ska punk band The Ska-Walkers is playing at the Meat Locker in Montclair NJ. The show is $6 at the door and $5 if you bring a can of food to donate. Doors open at 9 pm. You can check out The Ska-Walkers on Facebook and give their songs "RudeGirl" and "Skater's World" a listen at theskawalkers.bandcamp.com. If you play trumpet, trombone, saxophone, or keyboard, live in the Wayne NJ area and want to join a ska band - contact us at skawalkers@gmail.com

Check out my comic by clicking here.

If you’d like to support the podcast you can donate as little as $1 a month through Patreon by going to thiswasthescene.com and click on the button at the top of the page that says Click HERE FOR BONUS MATERIAL. As a Patron, you get access to bonus material that regular podcast subscribers do not.  OR you can do a one-time donation by clicking the DONATE button. 

Dave Patino played in NJ bands The Jerkoffs, my band Lanemeyer, and with Day At The Fair when they get together at the Stan Hope house every so often and play shows.

He now does photography so hire him.

I told Dave that he was going to talk to me and since I am stronger than him he obviously said yes. Here is what we talk about:

• The Police (the band)
• The NJ hot spot, Obsessions
• Fucking with our hair as kids
• Going to Berkeley School of Music
• Creating a recording studio in his basement
• Working at the Hot Topic in the Rockaway Mall
• How cliquey we were in the scene
• How the Jerkoffs really broke up
• Recording Houseboy
• Lanemeyer and Lounge getting chased by rednecks in Kentucky
• Writing my song Energy
• The super annoying guy who wanted to sign Lanemeyer
• Trying out for Ari from Lifetime’s band Zero Zero
• And a ton more

Before we begin, this week’s episode is sponsored by my animation company drive 80 studios. If you’re a marketing company in need of someone to turn your graphics into video then check out my website drive80.com to see some of my work.  

If you’d like to support the podcast you can donate as little as $1 a month through Patreon by going to thiswasthescene.com and click on the button at the top of the page that says Click HERE FOR BONUS MATERIAL. As a Patron, you get access to bonus material that regular podcast subscribers do not.  OR you can do a one-time donation by clicking the DONATE button. 

Welcome everyone to This Was The Scene, the podcast that takes a look back at the late 90s / early 2000 Punk scene, I am your host, Mike Doyle.

Random Task was a punk band from NJ who frequented hall shows all across the NJ scene. Ben Jorgensen was the drummer but eventually left the band to front Armor for Sleep who got signed to Equal Vision, toured their asses off and eventually decided to close shop. If you haven’t heard Car Underwater then you should go on Spotify and listen to it as soon as this episode is over because it’s the shatttttt.

Random Task was the younger band in the scene who were solid dudes to hang out with any time I saw them at shows. I typically talked to Ben and Evan and still think Evan’s write up of my band’s CD for his zine Braceface was shit and he should go back and do a better one.

I reached out to Ben and asked if he’d like to talk about summers passed and he said that he would like that. And this is what we talked about.

• Peeing on the Hollywood sign
• Going to the same school as Josh and Gabe from Humble
• His first show at Teaneck American Legion
• The Braceface Zine
• Making a business plan to go on tour
• Delvecchio's sweet sweet foot
• The Juliana Theory story AGAINq
• Starting Armor for Sleep
• Opening for Linkin Park
• And a ton more

Before we begin, this week’s episode is sponsored by my animation company drive 80 studios. If you’re a marketing company in need of someone to turn your graphics into video then check out my website drive80.com to see some of my work.  

If you’d like to support the podcast you can donate as little as $1 a month through Patreon by going to thiswasthescene.com and click on the button at the top of the page that says Click HERE FOR BONUS MATERIAL. As a Patron, you get access to bonus material that regular podcast subscribers do not.  OR you can do a one-time donation by clicking the DONATE button. 

Feel free to subscribe, leave a review and share this with anyone who would love some nostalgia.

Welcome everyone to This Was The Scene, the podcast that takes a look back at the late 90s / early 2000 Punk scene, I am your host, Mike Doyle.

Less Than Jake is the shit. If you don't know who they are then you're in the wrong place. 

I was able to get Vinnie on the phone, which was AWESOME, and this is what we talked about:

• Stepping away from touring
• Growing up in Jersey
• How were they embraced when they started out
• What influenced them to write ska songs
• Getting on Asian Man
• The Alan Rappaport pool party
• How has Jersey treated them throughout their career
• The Losing Streak hidden track
• And a ton more

Before we begin, this week’s episode is sponsored by my animation company drive 80 studios. If you’re a marketing company in need of someone to turn your graphics into video then check out my website drive80.com to see some of my work.  

If you’d like to support the podcast you can donate as little as $1 a month through Patreon by going to thiswasthescene.com and click on the button at the top of the page that says Click HERE FOR BONUS MATERIAL. As a Patron, you get access to bonus material that regular podcast subscribers do not.  OR you can do a one-time donation by clicking the DONATE button. 

Feel free to subscribe, leave a review and share this with anyone who would love some nostalgia.

Asian Man Records is a DIY record label run by Mike Park. Park started a record label and began releasing music in 1989 under the name Dill Records, with the Asian Man label established May 1996.

Some of the label’s releases came from such bands as Slapstick, Less Than Jake, Alkaline Trio, Link 80, MU330, The Broadways, Tuesday, and one of the current bands that I love, Joyce Manor.

• The MOD movement
• Skankin Pickle
• Dill Records
• What did his parents think about him starting the label
• Putting out Goddammit
• Did he sign bands with a handshake?
• Less Than Jake
• Running the label from his parent's garage
• How the download era affected the label
• My band playing with Alkaline Trio the week Goddammit came out
• And a ton more

Check out his SHAKE FACE Instagram

Before we begin, this week’s episode is sponsored by my animation company drive 80 studios. If you’re a marketing company in need of someone to turn your graphics into video then check out my website drive80.com to see some of my work.  

If you’d like to support the podcast you can donate as little as $1 a month through Patreon by going to thiswasthescene.com and click on the button at the top of the page that says Click HERE FOR BONUS MATERIAL. As a Patron, you get access to bonus material that regular podcast subscribers do not.  OR you can do a one-time donation by clicking the DONATE button. 

Feel free to subscribe, leave a review and share this with anyone who would love some nostalgia.

Mohawk Barbie was Fast, Snide, Bathroom and Beer humor punk rock from the Garden Hate. They played a lot of shows with Lanemeyer, Bigwig, Humble Beginnings (Gabe of Midtown's old band), Boxcar, Stick Figure Suicide, Beefcake and yes even Midtown. The bassist and drummer of this band, as well as some non-album members, went on to form the Human Adult Band.

I got in touch with Trucker and here's what we talk about:

• His new band Human Adult Band
• His thoughts on Nevermind
• Their show with Clincher
• The “I have no legs” from the movie Kids cover
• Watching Another State of Mind
• What was the band’s relationship like?
• The No Wiper Story
• Still touring with his band Human Adult Band
• The Palace in Bound Brook
• And a ton more

Check out his website dihd.net

Make sure you check out his band HUMAN ADULT BAND’s show on Sat March 30th, 2019: Bill Nace (featuring Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth) @ White Chapel Project, Long Branch, NJ

Before we begin, this week’s episode is sponsored by my animation company drive 80 studios. If you’re a marketing company in need of someone to turn your graphics into video then check out my website drive80.com to see some of my work.  

If you’d like to support the podcast you can donate as little as $1 a month through Patreon by going to thiswasthescene.com and click on the button at the top of the page that says Click HERE FOR BONUS MATERIAL. As a Patron, you get access to bonus material that regular podcast subscribers do not.  OR you can do a one-time donation by clicking the DONATE button. 

Feel free to subscribe, leave a review and share this with anyone who would love some nostalgia.

Weston is a punk rock band hailing from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1990, they took their name from singer Dave Weston's family, since his parents allowed them to practice in their basement. The band never found mainstream success but their energetic and irreverent live shows earned them legendary status amongst their peers as well as their fans. Following their major label debut, the band split up. It was announced on October 17, 2006, that Weston would be reuniting for three shows in late December. This led to even more reunion shows in following years and a live album released December 2009.

• Not missing playing late at night
• Helping a friend run away from home
• Starting off writing harder sounding songs
• Getting chased by the singer of Ignite with fireworks
• The poop in the shower story
• The Ricky Fataar story
• What he thought about Got Beat Up
• Their friendship and tour with Lifetime
• The wrestling outfit he wore on stage
• Why he left the band
• The reunion shows they just played
• The Gwar story
• Alien from Latex Generation
• Did he do an underground wrestling group?
• And a ton more

Before we begin, this week’s episode is sponsored by my animation company drive 80 studios. If you’re a marketing company in need of someone to turn your graphics into video then check out my website drive80.com to see some of my work.  

If you’d like to support the podcast you can donate as little as $1 a month through Patreon by going to thiswasthescene.com and click on the button at the top of the page that says Click HERE FOR BONUS MATERIAL. As a Patron, you get access to bonus material that regular podcast subscribers do not.  OR you can do a one-time donation by clicking the DONATE button. 

Feel free to subscribe, leave a review and share this with anyone who would love some nostalgia.

With that said, let’s get started.

Plow United is an American punk rock who formed in Wilmington, Delaware in 1992. They played fast punk rock with pop, thrashcore and hardcore influences. Their lyrics are sometimes labeled "emo" postfact. Band members are Brian McGee (vocals and guitar), Sean Rule (drums) and Joel Tannenbaum (bass).

In 1996, the band recorded and released their second record ("Goodnight Sellout"), and received attention from major labels. They declined to pursue a career in rock and roll, however, and in 1997 the band broke up at the height of its popularity. In 1998 Creep Records released a posthumous third LP ("Narcolepsy"), a darker take on the band's loose, aggressive pop-punk sound. In 1998, Plow United reformed to play three shows in New York and Pennsylvania to promote the release of "Narcolepsy".

They got back together in 2011 to play some shows including Gainesville. Florida’s FEST, and recorded a full length in 2012 called Marching band.

Arik from Creep Records said I should reach out to Brian. I did and here’s what we talk about:

• Their “show” with Busta Rhymes
• Playing in the High School band having an influence on Plow
• Who was the main songwriter in the band
• Throttle Jockey hair on fire story
• The Bouncing Souls
• Their time on Creep Records
• How they have a ton of merch left over
• Making merch to help save Day Laborers
• His chance to sing in a little band called Kid Dynamite
• Square Dancing
• And a ton more

If you're in Carrboro check out his new store 

Before we begin, this week’s episode is sponsored by my animation company drive80. IF you’re a marketing company in need of someone to turn your graphics into video then check out my website drive80.com to see some of my work.

Before we begin, this week’s episode is sponsored by my animation company drive 80 studios. If you’re a marketing company in need of someone to turn your graphics into video then check out my website drive80.com to see some of my work.  

If you’d like to support the podcast you can donate as little as $1 a month through Patreon by going to thiswasthescene.com and click on the button at the top of the page that says Click HERE FOR BONUS MATERIAL. As a Patron, you get access to bonus material that regular podcast subscribers do not.  OR you can do a one-time donation by clicking the DONATE button. 

Feel free to subscribe, leave a review and share this with anyone who would love some nostalgia.

With that said, let’s get started.

Braid is an American emo band from Champaign, Illinois, formed in 1993.

Following several early line-up changes, the band eventually settled on Bob, Todd, Chris and Damon. In 1998 the group released their third album, Frame & Canvas, to critical acclaim and is considered a staple of the late 90's emo movement. Despite Frame & Canvas's success, Braid disbanded in 1999. This lead to the formations of Hey Mercedes and Chris would continue with The Firebird Band which was previously a side project.

The band reunited shortly from June to August 2004, before disbanding again. In 2011, Braid reunited permanently, playing their 600th show and releasing a new album, No Coast.

I reached out to their FB page to see if they’d like to chat and got in touch with Chris Broach, he was down to talk and here’s what we chatted about:

• The band not having a digestible sound
• Skating with the dudes from Cap’n Jazz when they were in High School
• Teaching himself how to play guitar based on what he thought sounded good
• How he joined the band
• Chicago pride
• Touring a lot burning out the band
• The Actuality of Thought DVD
• Frame and Canvas (this part is sick)
• Damon’s drumming
• And a ton more

Go check out Chris' newer music from SNST and his solo stuff.

Before we begin, this week’s episode is sponsored by my animation company drive80. IF you’re a marketing company in need of someone to turn your graphics into video then check out my website drive80.com to see some of my work.

Before we begin, this week’s episode is sponsored by my animation company drive 80 studios. If you’re a marketing company in need of someone to turn your graphics into video then check out my website drive80.com to see some of my work.  

If you’d like to support the podcast you can donate as little as $1 a month through Patreon by going to thiswasthescene.com and click on the button at the top of the page that says Click HERE FOR BONUS MATERIAL. As a Patron, you get access to bonus material that regular podcast subscribers do not.  OR you can do a one-time donation by clicking the DONATE button. 

Feel free to subscribe, leave a review and share this with anyone who would love some nostalgia.

With that said, let’s get started.

Fun Size started more or less in 1991, in Richmond, Virginia. The members consisted of James, Allen Brian, and Orice. They put out a few releases including a 7” on Fueled by Ramen in 97 called “The Process of Selling Out,” a play on the Black Flag record “The Process of Weeding Out” and also poking fun at Less Than Jake for recently signing to Capitol after Vinnie told James about all the undeserved flack the band was getting for signing to a major. In 98 they released “Glad To See You're Not Dead” and disbanded soon after.

The band did, however, reunite in 2012 when guitarist Brian moved back to Richmond, VA and they released "Since Last We Spoke". If you haven’t had a chance to check out this album, then do so because it’s really good. Especially the song "End of the Road" which has been on heavy rotation on my Spotify playlist for months.

I met these guys back in 98 on their last tour through NJ. My old band Lanemeyer played a show with them at JT Skate Zone in West Orange, NJ. We also did a mini-tour if you can call it that with James’ second band River City High which we also talk about in this interview.

I reached out to him through Facebook to see if he’d like to talk about 96-2002 and he was more than happy to spend 2 hours discussing this time period. And here is what we talked about:

• Performing as a kid in front of his 5th grade class
• Did Richmond have hall shows?
• Tim from Avails advice on touring
• Getting signed to fuled by Ramen
• His pen pal in Denville, New Jersey
• Matt Red Leader
• The formation of River City High
• Big Wheel and Doghouse Records
• Dealing with the scene changing in the early 2000s
• Brett from the Juliana Theory
• Fun Size reuniting in 2012 to record an album and play shows
• And a ton more

Before we begin, this week’s episode is sponsored by my animation company drive 80 studios. If you’re a marketing company in need of someone to turn your graphics into video then check out my website drive80.com to see some of my work.  

If you’d like to support the podcast you can donate as little as $1 a month through Patreon by going to thiswasthescene.com and click on the button at the top of the page that says Click HERE FOR BONUS MATERIAL. As a Patron, you get access to bonus material that regular podcast subscribers do not.  OR you can do a one-time donation by clicking the DONATE button. 

Feel free to subscribe, leave a review and share this with anyone who would love some nostalgia.

With that said, let’s get started.

Farside was an Orange County, CA punk band Farside formed in 1989, comprising frontman Popeye, guitarist Kevin Murphy, bassist Brian Chu and drummer Bob Beshear. Upon landing a deal with Revelation Records, the quartet issued their debut Rochambeau in 1992, followed a year later by Rigged; in the wake of a self-titled 1995 EP Farside was largely silent for the remainder of the decade, finally resurfacing in 1999 with The Monroe Doctrine. (thank you Revelation Records for having that write up for me to snag)

Below is what we talked about:

• His brief stint with the Aquabats
• His career as a voice over due to many years of singing and smoking
• His band’s reaction when auditioning to be the singer
• Zach De La Rocha being in the band for a hot second
• What it was like being on Revelation Records
• Staying at Walter Schreifels and Civ’s apartment
• Not caring about major labels
• Going on a tour that wasn’t booked
• The Monroe Doctrine going way over budget
• The song I Hope You're Unhappy
• Having massive stage fright
• And a ton more

Popeye will be opening for Hot Water Music on their 25th anniversary tour.

Friday, May 17 in Santiago, Chile

Saturday, May 18 in Sao Paulo, Brazil

Check out my comic and my book.

If you’d like to support the podcast you can donate as little as $1 a month through Patreon by going to thiswasthescene.com and click on the button at the top of the page that says Click HERE FOR BONUS MATERIAL. As a Patron, you get access to bonus material that regular podcast subscribers do not.  OR you can do a one-time donation by click the DONATE button. OR you don’t have to donate shit and just keep listening each week.

Creep Records began as a record label started by Arik Victor in 1993 and has since expanded to a retail space, recording studio, and screenprinting.  Their roots are in punk and hardcore, putting out releases in our early years from the likes of The Bouncing Souls, Plow United, Violent Society, All Else Failed and more.  The tales of the Creep House in West Chester have become that of legend, building a bond and community that lives and grows to this day.  However, they have always been a label that puts out the music they truly love, regardless of genre. 

I heard of Creep Records when I was in my late teens because my friends found out about this band called Plow United. Plow would be on heavy rotation in my buddy Lucc’s silver Ford Probe when we would drive from Jefferson, NJ to either the Rockaway mall, Jefferson Diner, Greenpond, Flipside Records or the many shows we attended. Alan Rappaport mentioned Creep Records in episode 24 and it made me think, well shit, I need to interview Arik. So I did and this is what we talk about:

• 80s hip hop
• NWA and 2 live crew
• The scariness of metal shows
• How he started recording bands
• Using a house party to get bands to record with him
• Creating Creep Records because of Plow United
• Getting taken advantage of by distributors
• Passing on the first Bigwig release
• His process for signing a band
• Why bands can’t reunite after 20 years and make it a full-time gig
• Tower Records having a positive effect on the music industry
• Hopes of punk rock saving the country
• Opening his record store
• And a ton more

Check out my comic and my book.

If you’d like to support the podcast you can donate as little as $1 a month through Patreon by going to thiswasthescene.com and click on the button at the top of the page that says Click HERE FOR BONUS MATERIAL. As a Patron you get access to bonus material that regular podcast subscribers do not.  OR you can do a one time donation by click the DONATE button. OR you don’t have to donate shit and just keep listening each week.

Knapsack formed in 1993 by band members Blair Shehan and Colby Mancasola who were 2 high school friends that went to UC Davis. They released 3 full-length albums which were Silver Sweepstakes, Day 3 of My New Life and This Conversation Is Ending Starting Right Now.

I fell in love with this band when my buddy Christopher James Barker played me Diamond Mine off of Day 3 of my new life. I always felt that the first 4 songs of that record were perfect but I would just play songs 1-4. When This Conversation is Ending Starting Right Now came out, I played that whole fucking thing on repeat for weeks. The album is flawless.

Needless to say, I was fucking fired up when Blair was down to get on a call so I could ask him questions about the band. Here is what we talked about:

• His love of hardcore music
• How they got on Alias Records
• Touring while being in college
• His thoughts on the first record
• Did they or did they not play the Warped Tour at Action Park in NJ in 97
• Getting Sergie in the band
• How he writes a song
• How he typically feels when one of his records comes out
• Where that signature yell comes from
• Jealous Sound
• And a ton more

You can hear his new band here - Racquet Club

Before we begin, this week’s episode is sponsored by my book that has nothing to do with punk rock. It’s called “I’ll eventually like kids when they’re older” and is a compilation of daily comics I’ve been drawing and uploading to Instagram for over a year. This is a great gift for the holidays as a coffee table book or for bathroom reading.

You can check it out by going to yourdailybred.com. I also have a link for it on thiswasthescene.com. Feel free to follow the Instagram at yourdailybred.

If you’d like to support the podcast you can donate as little as $1 a month through Patreon by going to thiswasthescene.com and click on the button at the top of the page that says Click HERE FOR BONUS MATERIAL. As a Patron you get access to bonus material that regular podcast subscribers do not.  OR you can do a one time donation by click the DONATE button. OR you don’t have to donate shit and just keep listening each week.

Feel free to subscribe, leave a review and share this with anyone who would love some nostalgia.

With that said, let’s get started.

Digger formed in the Lehigh Valley in the mid-1990s and signed to Hopeless Records in 1996. Upon the event of Digger's live recording being played on WMUH the word of the band spread quickly, which led to the band's sign to Hopeless Records. The band released their first LP, Powerbait, and then toured a lot. This was followed by releasing 4 more albums over the years until they broke up in 2004.

Original members Matt and Chris reformed the band in 2015 and have been playing shows sporadically throughout the years Including the reunion shows with Weston last month. Powerbait was a staple in my cd collection in the late 90s because of songs like I want my hat back and Dale. My old band played a bunch of shows with these dudes in and out of Jersey. I’d also like to point out that Freak Out is one of the best Digger songs of all time. You can find that on the split 7’ with Weston or just search Spotify for Freak Out Digger and it will come up.

I reached out to founding member Chris Benner to see if he’d like to reminisce, he said yes and this is what we talked about:

• Playing in Weston
• Skateparks and social media
• This episode coming out after the Digger/Weston show
• What the scene was like in Leigh Valley
• Getting signed to Hopeless
• Matt’s Police shirt
• How playing shows now a days is a pain in the ass
• Dating while being in a band
• What it was like to play Fest
• Getting stoned and listening to Third Eye Blind
• And a ton more

Before we begin, this week’s episode is sponsored by my book that has nothing to do with punk rock. It’s called “I’ll eventually like kids when they’re older” and is a compilation of daily comics I’ve been drawing and uploading to instagram for over a year. This is a great gift for the holidays as a coffee table book or for bathroom reading.

You can check it out by going to yourdailybred.com. I also have a link for it on thiswasthescene.com. Feel free to follow the instagram at yourdailybred.

If you’d like to support the podcast you can donate as little as $1 a month through Patreon by going to thiswasthescene.com and click on the button at the top of the page that says Click HERE FOR BONUS MATERIAL. As a Patron you get access to bonus material that regular podcast subscribers do not.  OR you can do a one time donation by click the DONATE button. OR you don’t have to donate shit and just keep listening each week.

Feel free to subscribe, leave a review and share this with anyone who would love some nostalgia.

With that said, let’s get started.

Link 80 was a band from the Bay Area. The name came from the interstate highway I-80 which they used to get to the drummer's garage for band practice and connected the band members' homes: members lived in Oakland, Berkeley, and Richmond. Fun fact, I also named my animation company drive80 after route 80.

Far more punk than ska and with an energy and a sense of immediacy lacking in pop-oriented ska bands, Link 80 was able to avoid the clichés of ska-punk characterized by their peers. As Asian Man Records describes them, they are an energetic blend of ska, punk rock, and hardcore.

My old band Lanemeyer met these dudes on our last tour and played a couple shows with them. I thought they were the nicest guys and thought Adam would have some great stories from back then. I was 1000% correct in thinking this as you will hear in this interview.

I sent him a facebook message to see if he’d like to chat, replied “Sure!” And this is what we talk about:

• Being the stage manager for the Plea for Peace Tour
• How it would be weird to tour now and stay
• What it was like joining the band
• The first singer passing away at a young age
• Going through van after van
• Still being straight edge
• Days of Thunder
• Quitting the band
• Turning from Link 80 into Desa
• The song The Last Time
• His band Gnarboots
• Being a punk rock Dad
• Some stories about NJ
• Teaching Bigwig about Tiger Balm on your balls
• Talking about the Alkaline Trio shit in the box fiasco
• Getting a shitty proposal from Victory Records
• And a ton more

Before we begin, my old band Lanemeyer has our first EP Stories For The Big Screen available on vinyl. The record was put out by iSurrender Records. It’s green vinyl with an etching of GOD I MiSS yOU GOD I MISS THIS PLACE on one side and we are doing a Black Friday Sale. Here are the details:

• 20% Off Promo Code - SURRENDER2018
• Must be entered at checkout to receive the discount
• Valid on the entire store
• Active from 11/22 12AM - 11/26 11:59PM (this covers Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Weekend, and Cyber Monday)

Just go to thiswasthescene.com and scroll down until you see the Llanemeyer cd artwork. Click on it and purchase.

Thank you to everyone who has donated and all of you that have signed up for my Patreon page. If you’d like to help keep this podcast alive you can donate as little as $1 a month through Patreon by going to thiswasthescene.com and click on the button at the top of the page that says Click HERE FOR BONUS MATERIAL. As a Patron, you get access to bonus material that regular podcast subscribers do not.  OR you can do a one-time donation by clicking the DONATE button. OR you don’t have to donate shit and just keep listening each week.

Feel free to subscribe, leave a review and share this with anyone who would love some nostalgia.

With that said, let’s get started.

Welcome everyone to This Was The Scene, the podcast that takes a look back at the late 90s / early 2000 Punk scene, I am your host, Mike Doyle.

Samiam was formed in late 1988 after the breakup of the Gilman club mainstay Isocracy. Their first show was in January 1989 with Christ on Parade. They released records through New Red Archives and Hopeless Records in the US and Burning Heart Records in Europe. In the mid-'90s, the band had two releases on major labels, Atlantic Records in 1994 and Ignition/Tommy Boy in 1997. This path achieved modest mainstream success; a video for "Capsized" gained a lot of airplay on MTV, they performed on The Jon Stewart Show in 1994 and the single "She Found You" garnered considerable radio play in 1998. The band toured extensively throughout Europe, North America, and Japan with Bad Religion, Green Day, The Toadies, Sense Field, blink-182, and Millencolin.

I got an intro to Sergie from Rob LWL and we set up a late Thursday call in August.

Side note, check out his design work here - slappedtogether.com

Here's what we talk about:

• His love of the Jersey accent
• Our very long ramble about interviews
• Not having any aspirations to be in a band
• What was the San Francisco scene like
• How he and Jason started Samiam
• Tres Cool being in the band but not being in the band
• What was Samiam’s following like
• What it was like being on a major label
• Their song being on Harvesting the Crust
• What did they write about
• Joining Knapsack
• Touring with At The Drive-In right before they broke up
• And a ton more

Before we begin, my old band Lanemeyer has our first EP Stories For The Big Screen available on vinyl. The record was put out by iSurrender Records. It’s green vinyl with an etching of GOD I MiSS yOU GOD I MISS THIS PLACE on one side and we are doing a Black Friday Sale. Here are the details:

20% Off Promo Code - SURRENDER2018

Must be entered at checkout to receive discount

Valid on the entire store

Active from 11/22 12AM - 11/26 11:59PM (this covers Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Weekend, and Cyber Monday)

Just go to thiswasthescene.com and scroll down until you see the Lanemeyer cd artwork. Click on it and purchase.

This week’s episode sponsored by Southern Tier Distilling Company.

Building on 300+ years of western NY spirit production, Southern Tier Distilling Company puts that heritage into every bottle.

Now, expanding their market to NJ, DE, and Ohio, more of us can enjoy these premium spirits such as STDC’s Straight Bourbon, Silver Medal Award-winning Vodka, Smoked Bourbon and their 2XHopped Whiskey (a whiskey distilled from their gold medal winning 2XIPA)

In addition to their spirits, also available are their premium canned cocktails! The Gin&Tonic, Vodka Madras & Bourbon Smash. Great for camping, the beach, tailgating, and the golf course.

Available at most Buy Rite, Shop Rite & Joe Canal locations, or just ask for Southern Tier Distilling at your local liquor store.

Check out Southern Tier Distilling at www.stdcspirits.com and follow them on Instagram at @southern_tier_nj.

Southern Tier, Why the hell not?

Thank you to everyone who has donated and all of you that have signed up for my Patreon page. If you’d like to help keep this podcast alive you can donate as little as $1 a month through Patreon by going to thiswasthescene.com and click on the button at the top of the page that says Click HERE FOR BONUS MATERIAL. As a Patron, you get access to bonus material that regular podcast subscribers do not.  OR you can do a one-time donation by clicking the DONATE button. OR you don’t have to donate shit and just keep listening each week.

Gameface is a band whose music combines the best elements of punk, hardcore, emo and pop to make something simpler, something sincere beyond a defined scene. They have the ability to reach people with undeniably catchy melodies underneath heartfelt lyrics. Thank you to revelation records for having that write up on your website

Their record label roster consisted of Dr. Strange, Revelation and currently Equal Vision. Thanks to an introduction from Rob LWL to Gameface’s lead singer Jeff Caudill, I was able to set up some time to chat and pick his brain about the band's origins. I’d also like to mention that Jeff is super fucking nice and his musical talents have passed down to his daughter who has a band camp page with some really fucking good songs that you should check out at melody.bandcamp.com

I got Jeff on the phone and this is what we talked about:

• What his high school life was like
• Being scared of his first punk show
• Playing their first show with Inside Out
• How they started touring
• What he writes about
• Is it odd having his daughter listen to his songs?
• Getting on Dr. Strange Records
• Losing their first drummer to suicide
• His love for the Jersey scene
• And a ton more

This week’s episode sponsored by Southern Tier Distilling Company.

Building on 300+ years of western NY spirit production, Southern Tier Distilling Company puts that heritage into every bottle.

Now, expanding their market to NJ, DE, and Ohio, more of us can enjoy these premium spirits such as STDC’s Straight Bourbon, Silver Medal Award-winning Vodka, Smoked Bourbon and their 2XHopped Whiskey (a whiskey distilled from their gold medal winning 2XIPA)

In addition to their spirits, also available are their premium canned cocktails! The Gin&Tonic, Vodka Madras & Bourbon Smash. Great for camping, the beach, tailgating, and the golf course.

Available at most Buy Rite, Shop Rite & Joe Canal locations, or just ask for Southern Tier Distilling at your local liquor store.

Check out Southern Tier Distilling at www.stdcspirits.com and follow them on Instagram at @southern_tier_nj.

Southern Tier, Why the hell not?

Thank you to everyone who has donated and all of you that have signed up for my Patreon page. If you’d like to help keep this podcast alive due to the costs associated with it (ie, hosting, and hours and hours of editing) you can donate a $1 a month through patron by going to thiswasthescene.com and click on the button at the top of the page that says Click HERE FOR BONUS MATERIAL. OR you can do a one-time donation by clicking the DONATE button. OR you don’t have to donate shit and just keep listening each week.

Feel free to subscribe, leave a review and share this with anyone who would love some nostalgia.

With that said, let's get started.

Slapstick is a punk-ska band from the Chicago area that was primarily active from 1993 to 1996. Started by a group of friends from the Elgin area, the group took inspiration from Operation Ivy and the guttural punk vocals of Crimpshrine. According to Wikipedia. 

They went on to form bands such as The Broadways, Tuesday, The Lawrence Arms, The Honor system, and Alkaline Trio. The Broadways and Tuesday spent a week in Jersey in late 99 where my old band got to play a few shows with them and then we did our last tour with Brendan’s current band Lawrence Arms for almost 2 months in late 2000 which was one of the best times of my life.

I heard of Slapstick in the Summer of 97 when ska was pretty giant and I fell in love with the song “There’s a metal head in the parking lot” because it was poppy, honest and super fucking catchy. I reached out to Brendan to see if he’d like to reminisce, he said yes, and this is what we talked about:

• His punk rock babysitter as a child
• His psychedelic music recordings with Chris from Lawrence Arms
• Not knowing what ska was before joining Slapstick
• The Chicago scene
• How the band formed
• How he established his vocal style
• His love of the Goo Goo Dolls
• Getting signed to Asian Man
• Did he like ska
• What broke up the band
• No one liking the Broadways
• The Larry Arms
• The Slapstick reunion shows
• Nihilist Arby’s
• And a ton more

This week’s episode sponsored by Southern Tier Distilling Company.

Building on 300+ years of western NY spirit production, Southern Tier Distilling Company puts that heritage into every bottle.

Now, expanding their market to NJ, DE, and Ohio, more of us can enjoy these premium spirits such as STDC’s Straight Bourbon, Silver Medal Award-winning Vodka, Smoked Bourbon and their 2XHopped Whiskey (a whiskey distilled from their gold medal winning 2XIPA)

In addition to their spirits, also available are their premium canned cocktails! The Gin&Tonic, Vodka Madras & Bourbon Smash. Great for camping, the beach, tailgating, and the golf course.

Available at most Buy Rite, Shop Rite & Joe Canal locations, or just ask for Southern Tier Distilling at your local liquor store.

Check out Southern Tier Distilling at www.stdcspirits.com and follow them on Instagram at @southern_tier_nj

Southern Tier, Why the hell not?

Before we begin I’d like to mention a guy from the NJ scene named Yale Klein. His niece was diagnosed with Leukemia in the midst of her first semester at Cornell. This is his Facebook post about it:

“As confident as I am that she will beat this, it is hard to watch my niece have to endure this both physically and mentally. And it’s almost as hard, especially being a parent, to see my sister and brother in law work through this. Shout out to my nephew who has been a real trooper and an amazing little brother.

Anyway, Marlee has started a fundraiser for her 18th birthday and I wanted to share. It is donations to a foundation that helps with a variety of items related to Leukemia and beyond (of course she is asking to help others) obligations and no judgments.

She is my eldest niece and the type of person I hope my daughter aspired to be like as she gets older. She is the strongest almost 18-year old I have ever met.“

If you'd like to donate, please click here.

Feel free to subscribe, leave a review and share this with anyone who would love some nostalgia.

The Movielife formed in 1997 in Long Island, New York. They’ve released quite a few records such as It's Go Time (1999) This Time Next Year (2000) Forty Hour Train Back to Penn (2003) Cities in Search of a Heart (2017).

I got Vinnie on the Skype and this is what we talked about:

• The latest I Am The Avalanche album
• Silent Majority
• Touring with No Use For A Name
• Playing in front of 5000 people while on tour with New Found Glory
• Going from Revelation to Drive-Thru
• The band breaking up
• How was I am the avalanche perceived in the beginning
• Making handwritten lyric sheets
• And a ton more

Go get the new I am the Avalanche album out now on iSurrender Records which Vinnie says is their best album to date.

If you market aggressively on Instagram Stories and want custom stickers then go here to get custom stickers or just email mike@drive80.com and I can send you samples. These are great for B2C companies and Realtors.

Feel free to support the podcast for as little as $1 a month through Patreon

Or go to thiswasthescene.com to possibly buy some merch.