No Warning ep

The above artwork is the original artwork for the Martyr release. The second scan is a tour release the band made. 400 copies of the tour release exist.

Class Assassins ep

This is the first Class Assassins release. The band is made up of a number of scene vetereans who have played in the Toronto hardcore scene. I am talking about Dave Cornelius who played bass in the Unknowns and Direct Action, who are one of Toronto's most important hardcore bands. The singer Chad Nugent was in the early rendition of Chronic Submission also arguably one of the most important hardcore bands to ever come out of Toronto. Gary Cozocar was from the pride of Dunnville, Problem Children, who were an incredible hardcore band from my period.

And the brothers Farr were the backbone behind one of the most important hardcore band's to come out of Toronto, which was Hockey Teeth.  Derek Dykeman is a spikey haired guy from Burlington who I grew up going to shows with. He loves the British wave of early hardcore and did a zine called Soap and Spikes. He started up a label by the same name making this the first release and has gone and released half of the first demo. That should tell you that they are British influenced. But to say that they are a oi knock off would do them a disservice. Because there is so many generations of punk involved in this band there is bits and pieces everywhere, but the underlying ties are the roots of bands like Stiff Little Fingers, the Clash, the Ruts, Rudi. They aren't a clone, but they are playing from that admiration and mutual respect of the punks who defined the sound. So there are bits of Dag Nasty thrown in with riffs from SLF. It is part Bad Religion, part the Business. The songs on here are:



1. The Class Assassins
2. Urban Rebel
3. Breakin' Out

DFA "Destined for Assimilation" 12"

This was an a amazing band from Regina, Saskatchewn. Not many band scome from Saskatchewan. So when they played heavy crossover similar to BEYOND POSSESSION or the ACCUSED I was pretty floored. Not only did they play a genre of hardcore but they played it well. It is was a sound that was in a rennaissance with bands like HOLIER THAN THOU, paying tribute to metal and hardcore from back in the mid-80s. Crossover skate thrash from the 80's that borrowed from speedmetal. Lots of chugging crunchy riffing played as fast as one can. Vocals are flat and throaty, shouted with fervour. The themes have a hardcore scene awareness. Lots of twisty parts played with girth. But in listening to this against the early crossover, DFA stands up because it doesn't get caught up in the technical nature of metal - the music stays quick paced and flows despite the twists. They did a Left for Dead copver live so they are obviously an influence. Ugly Pop released this first record and the songs on here are:

1. Destined for Assimilation

2. With a Straight Face

3. Hypocrite

4. Nerve

5. Our Lord and Saviour

6. Your Form of Unity

7. Under the influence

8. I Know Everything

Haymaker "Love the Music, Hate the Kids!!!!" ep

This was Haymaker's first ep. Haymaker featured Jeff beckman from Choke Hold, Christian McMaster who would go on to play in the Cursed, Chris Ainsley and some other heavy weights from the Hamilton scene. This was recorded at Rumenal Sound in early December 2000. The songs on here are:

1. Guns Don't Kill Guns
2. You Save the World
3. Skate like Shit
4. ...with Friends like You
5. Team Jesus ... is losing
6. Wreckshit
7. Sometimes you don't pick your enemies ...
8. Fuck them Back
9. Painful Road Ahead
10. This won't change a thing!
11. Your Life in 30 words or less
12. Thru your Teeth

Riot99 "Destroy the City" ep

This was the band's first ep and below is the band's original line up. They totally had a more Clash sound with this line up.

"Destroy the City" was a self-released ep. I am pretty sure the P.O. Box is no good anymore. Taras is now playing in City Sweethearts which is probably how you can track him down. Riot99 does have some unreleased songs so you might not have heard from the last of Riot Records.

MRR Interview - Ugly Pop Vinyl

Simon Harvey has done a label for quite some time. His last label was called Ugly Pop Records. What a great name for the label. Simon started out by putting out a series of singles from Toronto and then did some re-issues and a few archival first time releases. It was an interesting label doing some important releases. I talked to simon about doing an interview and MRR published this as a profile in the February 2001 issue of MRR. This is issue #213 which is sold out of back issues but you can click on the cover above and get a PDF of the Ugly Pop piece.

Flyer - Tuesday, January 23rd, 2001