Steven Blush’s American Hardcore: A Tribal History is one of the great rock n’ roll history books. And now it’s bigger. Originally published in 2001, the Feral House book nails the golden age of old-school hardcore, from the movement’s inception to the watershed year 1986. The book inspired a documentary, the 2006 film American Hardcore. The movie is a must-see that has inspired as much griping and controversy as the book.

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Jon Fine’s best known band was Bitch Magnet, a (usually) three piece active from the late 80s to the early 90s. Though hardly a metal outfit, Fine was a vocal apostle of heavy music in the independent circles the band traveled in, deeply knowledgeable and conversant in obscure, loud shit going back to the early 70s (and earlier). I met Jon at a number of shows in NYC and read a bunch of his enthusiastic and thoughtful posts on the now-dead Chugchanga mailing list and figured he’d have an opinion or twelve on this. Jon also played in Vineland, Coptic Light and even did some time in Don Caballero.
These days Jon pays rent as a media analyst. You can find him on Mediabistro, CNBC and Twitter (where he has about eleven times as many followers as Gary Suarez).

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Once upon a time, these guys were amazing, in a very specific, granddaddies of math-rock kinda way. Sure, some of the jams would go on for a really long time, often repeating a rhythmic guitar loop for ages while the octopussian drummer, Damon Che, would thump and pound concentric circles around yr ass, but the music would wax and wane, shift and progress, each section creating a strong distinct mood — almost always fascinating but not always so interesting, nawmean?

In any case, Don Caballero holds a vital spot in the history of…well, in the history of math-rock, even though they apparently hated that genre name (especially in reference to their trigonometric music). But honestly folks there’s no other way to describe it, as their sound usually seems straight out of an AP Calculus textbook: complicated, quite textured, and haughty (for the most part). Extremely impressive, not the most listenable band out there. And the last time I saw them play (with a mostly new line-up) the set left a lot to be desired.

But now, a small handful of years later, some way, somehow…Don Caballero seems to have gotten awesome again.

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