«
»
Br00tal-lists, Exclusive

LOU KOLLER FROM SICK OF IT ALL’S QUINTESSENTIAL GUIDE TO HARDCORE – THE FINAL DAY!

Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010 at 3:00pm by

To celebrate the release of Sick of it All’s awesome new album, Based on a True Story, we asked SOIA vocalist Lou Koller to compile the definitive list of quintessential hardcore albums. Luckily for us and all of you, he agreed! So we’ve been running one entry a day from Lou’s list of the top-ten (+1) hardcore records of all time for the past couple of weeks. Now here’s Lou’s final entry…

Bad Brains, Bad Brains

Here is the granddaddy of them all. When this came out way back when, it was only on cassette. Its energy and attitude were fresh and out of left field! The riffs grab you and HR’s vocals were so unique you knew they were something special. From “Sailin’ On” and “Don’t Need It” right into “Attitude,” you don’t get to catch your breath; then they hit you with “The Regulator,” and they just keep coming!!! They kept it going on later releases like Rock for Light (which was this album redone with Ric Ocasek from The Cars producing), the amazing I Against I, and even the Quickness album. (But anything after that isn’t worth mentioning.) Great as these releases were, they were never as intense as this first one. Their influence is probably the most wide spread – they definitely influenced everyone on this list as well as mainstream groups like Sublime, The Foo Fighter, 311, Deftone,s etc. If you ever got to see them live in their heyday, you are lucky! It is a standard that all bands should be held too!

So there you have my ten (+1) quintessential hardcore albums. There are many I missed (anything by Dead Kennedys, for example), and some you might think that a few of these shouldn’t be on here. Well, make your own and tell us what you think those should be on here!

Later,

Lou

THE REST OF LOU’S LIST

Discharge, Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing
Black Flag, Damaged
Agnostic Front, Victim in Pain
Snapcase, Progression Through Unlearning
Sheer Terror, Just Can’t Hate Enough
Negative Approach, Tied Down
The Misfits, Earth A.D./Wolfs Blood
D.R.I., Dirty Rotten LP
Cro-Mags, The Age of Quarrel
Minor Threat, Entire Discography

Based on a True Story is out now on Century Media. Visit Sick of it All on MySpace for tour dates and all the latest news from the band.

Tags: , , ,
  • http://heavystreet.com Heavystreet

    All hail the original rasta hardcore warriors. Bands today still cant touch this shit.

  • Double D

    Yeah, I’m surprised there isn’t any DK on here, although I am glad that Lou mentioned them in his last post.

  • Thrashbuster

    solid list overall. I would have had Refused on there myself but at least he got snapcase.

  • Robert

    Too bad the Bad Brains are a bunch of ignorant homophobes.

    • two snakes

      they _were_ a bunch of ignorant, young and confused homophobes back when they made good music. now they’re shitty but changed their minds.
      still doesn’t change anything about the music and their influence.

    • Genial Gentile

      Homophobia is deeply ingrained in Jamaican culture…it’s not just HR and the boys. What does that have to do with them being arguably the greatest hardcore band ever?

      • http://www.facebook.com/people/Christopher-Murrie/1391587458 Christopher Murrie

        But, they aren’t Jamaican. They are from DC.

        • Genial Gentile

          No, they’re not …I guess I should’ve specified, but homophobia is ingrained in Rastafarian tenets VIA Jamaican culture at large.

          • stu1

            Exactly.

    • Clement

      Yeah, not to say that I don’t like the Bad Brains’ music but MDC kicks their homophobic asses.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Jay-See/726690352 Jay See

    Nice! I was hoping for this since post #1 of this list. Spot on.

  • lostinsolitude

    I would’ve gone with Black Flag’s “Nervous Breakdown EP” rather than Damaged; I know everyone loves that record, but I just think BF with Keith Morris had something that Henry Rollins-era(no disrespect to him at all) and Circle Jerks both lacked.
    I also would’ve put on SSD’s “Kids Will Have Their Say.” And Redemption 87′s S/T record. And Strife’s “In This Defiance.” OH and TSOL’s S/T record/EP/first release thing. What about Youth of Today – “In This Alone” or whatever it’s called?

    I can’t hardly argue with your list because it’s pretty much perfect, but I think it could be a slight bit more diverse. Could just be me, too.

    • festernaecus

      there is nothing on any strife record that wasn’t on the first judge 7″. Building every song out of four chords is one thing, but when all the songs have the *same* four chords… boooooorrring

      • lostinsolitude

        Maybe, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a solid effort. How many Zep songs did they steal from other bands’ music? Metallica did the same, I guess apparently so did Opeth. Hardcore started with just a few chords over and over, so I don’t quite get that aspect; you can’t get much complexity out of a 12 second song, is my point.

        Out of my list, I think the main ones were TSOL, Nervous Breakdown, and maybe SSD’s record(it’s a good record and they should get a mention at least), but the rest, on a top 10 list is either more a preference or I could do without them once the narrowing down came about.

  • mahkiavelli

    II know he intentionally left off his own band from the list, but I’d put “Scratch The Surface” on there.

  • jakob

    Poison Idea – Feel The Darkness

    awesome list anyway

  • KilledByDeath

    Why no Underdog though? One of the best hardcore bands in musical sense.

  • Genial Gentile

    Honorable Mention: Gorilla Biscuits-Start Today

    Just wanted to reiterate that this would make a great weekly/monthly column on MS.
    Thanks Lou!

    • lostinsolitude

      Good choice. And I think a weekly or bi-monthly or something would be kick ass, too, I’d vote for Metalsucks having one for Hardcore.

  • JDuws

    Just a thought, why doesn’t Lou do a ‘best of NYHC’ list. He obviously would have great knowledge of the scene and could provide valuable info for kids just getting into the hc/punk movement. Would love to see it and compare it to my list. Breakdown bitches!!!!!!!

  • Korak Bundoolo

    Suicidal Tendencies first one should be up there as well.

  • errrrr

    for the most part, i concur with Lou’s choices. Bad Brains is absolutely deserving of the #1 spot. kinda surprised Youth of Today didn’t make the cut. *shrug* I’d have liked to see Turning Point -Its Always Darkest Before the Dawn in there too. annnnd Gorilla Biscuits-Start Today. 2 of the very few hc records that still inspire me, some 20 years later. takes me back to when i was a happy-ish twerp fingerpointing and floorpunching around my bedroom.

  • Lou SOIA

    Glad you guys like the list. Like I said there are a lot of bands that should be here. Youth Of Today could be up here, when they came out they gave the hardcore scene a kick in the ass it needed. But was there impacted as far reaching as the bands on the list? As for Turning Point, Side By Side and the like, great bands but no need to list them if I put Y.O.T. on here.(in my opinion sorry) Gorilla Biscuits yeah you could argue they should be here, but for positive hardcore as great as Start Today was I’d go with 7 Seconds. Who influenced G.B and Y.O.T. etc. Quicksand could be here too. I have to go back and listen to Poison Idea again. I remember not liking them back in the day, but I’ll give them another chance. As for MDC ,again a good band, but no where near as intense as the Bad Brains. Or as big an influence. SO many band s and albums we could talk about. Refused, Exploited, Ink And Dagger, Split Lip, All Out War, Raw Power, Madball and so many more. I just want to thank the good people here at MetalSucks.com for giving me this chance. And thanks for all of you who checked this out and commented on here. Our touring for ‘Based On A True Story” stats on June 11th! See you in the pit!

  • FongChung

    Ahhhhh great record!!! Any chance you will do a tour with 7 Seconds?????

  • wyld bill

    the list could go on and on but lets think outside of new york quite a bit more,please… we gotta consider bands like slapshot,dag nasty,government issue,etc.;but one that definitely comes to mind would be uniform choice.

  • motorcitymadhouse

    The only band that I think is up to par with the legendary bands on Lou’s most excellent list and are still light years ahead of the pact is the almighty Nausea. They rule… nuff said!

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Chuck-Wagner/506137459 Chuck Wagner

    Nausea should have been featured…Bad Brains is so fucking cliche. The only reason they got mentioned there is because they sold more records.

    Fuck. Gun. Die.