Rory and Greg each share five songs that influenced them in meaningful ways at various points in time in their lives.

Discussion topics also include feedback from listeners on the first three episodes, the format for the upcoming interviews, skinwalkers, the 1995 family comedy Jumanji, Minor Threat and the national treasure that is Ian MacKaye, coping with grief through music, punk rock songs that require dictionary to fully understand, the popularization of nerd culture, finding religious guidance through Start Trek: The Next Generation, and escaping challenging family dynamics through skateboarding and hardcore punk.

This episode includes a bonus Spotify playlist that features the songs that are discussed. You can also access the playlist at the link in the Common Thread Instagram profile. Contact us at commonthreadhxcpodcast@gmail.com.

Follow Common Thread on Instagram at @CommonThreadHxCPodcast and Lunchador Podcast Network at @LunchadorPodcast.

Mentioned in this episode:

Mind of Magnus

Check out Mind of Magnus at magnusapollo.com, and leave him factoids at 585-310-2473! https://mind-of-magnus.captivate.fm

Joe Bean Roasters

Use promo code Lunchador for 15% off your order! https://shop.joebeanroasters.com

Lunchador Podcast Network

Check out all the shows on the Lunchador Podcast Network at Lunchador.org

Foreign?

Not yet.

No, no, the old one.

It's a good one.

Yeah, I remember that one.

David Alan Greer.

Yeah, yeah.

And Robin Williams.

Robin Williams, yeah, that's right.

Okay.

Okay.

Yeah.

For a while, my wallpaper on my phone was a screenshot of David Alan Greer from that movie because it was like, him making a goofy face.

Because on the, like, University of Buffalo cable network, they were showing Jumanji and some technical error happened and it, like, froze on David Alan Greer's face, and my brother just took a picture of it, but the audio kept going.

So it was like a frozen image of David Alen Greer, but the audio for the movie goes.

And then whatever they were going to show next went.

And then it was like that for days.

And they were like, showing, like, you know, like a movie, you know, like Reservoir Dogs or something, where people are getting murdered.

And it's like David Alen Greer looking goofy while there's, like, somebody pleading for their life in the background.

And I.

And I just put that there to, you know, remind myself of something funny.

All right, that's the perfect cold open.

For this episode here.

All right, so we got.

We have three episodes out there now, and we've been getting some.

Some positive feedback.

Yeah, thank you for everyone that's taken the time to listen and also just repost if you've done that and reach out to us and, and sharing your thoughts on those episodes.

Yeah, it's really meaningful to me when people.

Because I have a number of people reach out and say, like, oh, thank you for talking about mental health or childhood trauma.

I had a similar experience, and I have a similar relationship with hardcore and punk because of those.

And it makes it easier for me to be my authentic, vulnerable self, but it also shows me that we're connecting with people in the ways that I kind of had hoped we would.

So keep, Keep, keep reaching out, posting and, and sharing.

We appreciate all the extra publicity we can get when you share, you know, the, the, the.

The publicity and your story on, on social media.

But we've got some more great episodes coming up.

And, Rory, you've got some.

You know, we don't.

We won't.

We won't divulge specific names at this point in time, but we've got some interesting types of people coming up, and I know you've got a list.

Yeah, so what.

What Greg and I have really thought about and wanted to open this podcast up to is not your normal music interviews, but more along the lines of folks that were involved in this community that aren't highlighted or showcased in the way that folks that do bands, of course we're going to intersect with folks that were in bands and that still do bands, but folks that have just been involved with hardcore and punk, that have gone on to do awesome things in their lives, that still have a connective tissue to what we're talking about.

And those folks could be realtors, it could be small business owners, teachers, librarians, service and hospitality workers, farmers, doctors, nurses, astrophysicists.

Who knows the astrophysicist one?

Is my interest piqued?

Because I want to get to the bottom of what's actually going on here, like, where.

Where are we and what is this?

Because no one's been able to tell me that.

And I don't think I'm gonna live long enough to figure it out on my own.

I want someone to tell me in satisfying terms.

Yeah, I'm personal trainers, like, who knows, you know, like, there's so many avenues that we've leaked into in our lives and there's so much value that comes out of being involved in hardcore and punk and it's spread further than we realize.

And we want to really connect those things and talk about those things.

So if you know someone or you are someone that would like to dive into a deeper conversation about that, how you got there, what it means to you, what.

What you value from the days being evolved with hardcore and punk and.

And how it's still with you, reach out to us at common thread hxcmail.com.

Common common thread HXC podcast.

Oh, podcast.

Sorry.

Yeah, it's super long.

Every permutation of Common Thread was taken, including Common Thread Podcast.

But common thread hxc podcast gmail.com and, you know, we threw out a lot of different, like, job titles and lines of work.

You can have a super boring job you can be in charge of, like, mopping sweat off a gym floor.

But if you've had some kind of interesting life experience or just some insights that, you know, valuable insights that you would like to share that have helped you through life, maybe you, I don't know, survived a.

A traumatic experience or some sort of natural disaster or you saw a UFO or a ghost, reach out.

Please do.

Yes, I'm all for that conversation.

I'm gonna be honest.

I've always wanted to do an episode where we interviewed bands who had like a paranormal experience on tour.

We can talk about that.

Yeah.

If you haven't had any paranormal experiences or if you're an astrophysicist or both.

Reach out Skinwalkers we can cover that conversation.

Have been a part of those on tour.

Really?

Yeah.

Yeah, because my brother.

My brother, like, toured with a band with straight no chaser, where someone was, like, dead serious that they saw a skinwalker, and they, like, were, like.

They could barely talk about it.

They were, like, so freaked out.

And I'm like, this is.

This is bullshit.

I'll take a Lights in the sky.

Or you thought you saw, like, a face that disappeared, but it's one of those things where.

I don't know if it's the overnight drive combination with sleep deprivation type things, but, you know, your mind does wild things in New Mexico when you're driving.

I'll go for it.

I'll go for it, though.

I'm open.

I'm ready to believe.

Is that the Ghostbusters tagline?

Yeah.

On my hierarchy of paranormal, like, I could easily be convinced that Sasquatch exists.

And then, like, maybe aliens, then ghosts, and then, like, you know, once we get down to, like, mythic creatures or something, then I'm like, I don't know.

You got to have a lot of evidence there.

But I'm ready to believe.

I mean, Bigfoot, you know, we're still looking.

All right, so the theme for today's episode is.

Rory and I have each selected five songs that were personally very meaningful to us or inspirational.

And then we're just going to kind of talk through what those songs are and what.

What they've meant to us.

And I think this might become kind of a regular segment either, you know, like, check ins in between interviews, you know, episodes.

It's just Rory and I, or we might ask the guests, you know, tell us a couple songs that are, like, deeply have deep personal meaning to you.

So since this.

Since this was your idea, I'll let you kick this off.

Yeah.

So we're gonna bounce back and forth just so you don't hear one person the whole time and their take.

So I'm gonna dive into, like, one of the first songs that really spoke to me in hardcore and punk.

And if you know me from, like, the early mid-90s, you could probably understand where I'm coming from.

But the song Vices by Pennywise, I threw it on recently, and I just still knew every word.

But, like, growing up in a household that was surrounded by these vices, these things that were toxic, and you could see them, and I could connect them at a young age to, like, the chaos around me, it just really, really spoke to me, you know, like, the line of, like, the vices are ruining Your life, you know, like, as simple as that and as corny as sometimes Pennywise could be.

It just really hit me at a young age.

Was it off of Un.

Unknown Road?

It was.

Yeah.

Okay.

All right, I know that one then.

And Pennywise isn't.

Is.

Was an important band for me, too, because that was, like, one of those segue bands where I, like, found punk through bands like, you know, Blink 182, Green Day, Offspring, and then started to get into, like, the Epitaph Deep, Deep cuts, you know, the more popular Epitaph bands.

And then, you know, eventually made my way to hardcore.

But Pennywise.

Pennywise was an important.

An important band for me, too.

And there's another song off of either Full Circle or About Time that I think gets to the same thing that really resonated with me.

I didn't grow up in an environment where there was, like, substance abuse, but that was in my family's history.

And unfortunately, it was in.

In.

In my future, too.

But that.

That was, like, one of the first times I think I had heard it spoken about, like, so overtly in songs.

And it felt refreshing to, like, hear someone else speaking to that experience, you know, having had, like, substance abuse affect the trajectory in my family.

Yeah, both.

I mean, I remember, for me, like, that was.

That Unknown Road CD was, like, one of the first CDs that I just obliterated, you know, like, the casing on it is just all messed up.

And, you know, whether or not I still have it, I don't know.

But I do have another one that we're gonna talk about that is, like, just totally wrecked, I guess.

Sticking with Epitaph, one of my.

One of my early songs that really.

That I listen to, like, on repeat.

Because I'm one of those people if I.

You know, I'm.

I'm not listening to a whole album.

I'll listen to the whole album, like, a couple times and then zone in on their.

Like, Z0 in on the songs that really mean, mean to me.

And I'm like, all right, we're gonna listen that thing, like, six times in a row.

But sticking with the theme of epitaph, bad religions, do what you want, which is off of Suffer.

Such a great record.

Yeah, that's.

That was a.

That album, too, kind of has a lot of cross appeal with hardcore and.

And I know with Brian Baker involved now there's even more.

Like, interestingly enough, I think early adopters of bad religion would consider that a hardcore record.

I would agree.

You know.

Yeah.

And that was at A time too, I think, because I think that album came out in 88.

But I like, if I'm just imagining when it was recorded and I kind of put it at an earlier time period, like, I don't lump it in with like Gorilla Biscuits and the classic Rev bands.

You know, obviously in the pre Internet era you probably had a greater disparity between east and West Coast.

But I would, I would say that definitely is like a hardcore.

A SoCal hardcore album.

But what really appealed to me about that song in particular and, and Bad Religion in general was like, you really get the sense from Greg Gaffin's lyrics that he's like a smart dude.

And this isn't just, you know, somebody who's like, you know, like when you start out with punk, you know, you're like, I'm gonna check out the Exploited.

And, and they're like the government.

They.

They won't let me walk around with an open container and get drunk in public.

And then you get into a band like the Dead Kennedys or Bad Religion and it's like the Government.

But I have a well thought out argument about like how they're actually, you know, preventing us from like being as free as we can potentially be.

Or, you know, they're doing like these harmful things that, that are kind of taking place behind the scenes and we don't really think of.

Because they're only spoken about in euphemisms.

So Bad Religion was like a band where it.

It showed me that you can be into punk, you can be rebellious, you can be non conformist, but you can also like be intelligent about it.

And you don't just have to have like, you know, an expletive laden song that doesn't really get specific about what exactly you're the government about.

And so that, that album in particular was that for me.

And I think, you know, it's funny because there's a couple other songs I'm gonna speak to that, that really get to that.

And you know, Earth Crisis is that for me.

I can honestly say I.

I know what the word obsequious means because of Bad Religion.

Just like I know what the word anthropocentric means because of Earth Crisis.

And they didn't make the cut.

So I feel like I'm not like giving everybody cards.

But there's just certain bands and there's a few others where, you know, I.

Listening to it as a teenager in middle school, I was like, oh, wow, this is like, this is like some real adult shit.

I've.

I'VE got to like, actually look up what some of these words mean.

You know, I can kind of tell through context clues, but I'm.

I'm going to like, do the homework.

And so it made being smart, cool and rebellious in a way that, like, school didn't.

Didn't make being smart cool or rebellious to me.

And also the name Bad Religion is such like a fuck you.

Yeah.

In context.

Like then like in the.

In when you're a high schooler or even pre high schooler to be.

To have that T shirt.

Yeah.

Like, to wear it and then you're instantly like an antagonist to somebody.

Yeah.

You're drawing a line in the sand with that.

It's funny.

Cause, like, if people scroll back through the Instagram, you'll find a post I made probably like four years ago where I took a picture of this brick wall.

And you can still kind of see it, but someone had spray painted Bad Religion on the wall behind my elementary school.

And I remember seeing it when I was in kindergarten.

Oh, wow.

Yeah.

And it's still slightly visible to this day, but at that time I was like, I don't know what this is.

And a friend of mine's dad was like, I think that's like a band or something.

But I had internalized it completely differently.

Like, at that point in time, I'd started to realize there was like, other religions out there than the ones that, you know, my parents were bringing me.

And I learned about Jehovah's Witness and how they were not allowed to celebrate Christmas or birthdays.

And I was like, that is a fundamentally bad religion.

No presents, no celebrations or parties.

This graffiti must be a direct confrontation with this objectively bad religion where you don't get birthday cake only to find out a few.

Few years later that it was a band I would actually get into and would be pretty, pretty meaningful in my life.

So scroll, scroll down and find that post.

A fun trip down memory lane.

And then someone in the comments, maybe Michael Honcher.

Drenning.

I'm not sure.

One of the.

One of the OGs.

Yeah.

One of the.

One of the hard Rochester hardcore elders was like, oh, yeah.

So that must have been spray painted right after.

They're like such and such a tour when they came through town in the 80s with such and such a band.

So deep scene lore there related to graffiti at my local elementary school.

Just so funny.

That's so funny.

I love that.

I mean, back to me, I'm going to.

Since you Mentioned Brian Baker.

And this might be cliche, I don't care, but the Minor Threat discography was like the holy grail for me on CD when I was growing up.

That comforted me in so many ways.

Like, I had no idea what a discography was at the time.

I just thought it was like, oh, this is a complete recording of everything.

And so, like, that discography and In My Eyes specifically, just really spoke to me going into the state I was in and what I needed to escape from.

You look at it, and it's from a perspective of now I'm an adult, but I was a kid then.

And realizing that when they wrote it, they were kids.

But it's so profound to me.

Like, taking what their frustration was and me feeling the same thing at that same.

At a different time just meant so much to me.

And I could relate it in such a way that, like, my brother was doing this thing that, like, pissed me off, you know, in such a way, like involving drugs and alcohol and, like, he would have parties at my house and I would get into, like, fights with his friends, and it was just like a whole mess.

But like, that, you know, looking cool, doing drugs.

And I thought that was like the stupidest fucking thing.

Like, like, give me a skateboard and like, loud music.

And that's where my identity was.

And these kids, some of them were skateboarders.

And I was like, you're still stupid, you know, like in.

In just like this weird, sophomoric way.

But, you know, it really just spoke to me to.

To be able to find comfort within myself at that time and to stick to it.

Yeah, I almost put down a Minor Threat song myself too, because it resonated with me similarly, that discography, you know, specifically this, the song out of Step and, And, And Straight Edge.

But for me, I.

I've been thinking about Minor Threat recently quite a bit, because I saw that it was Ian Mackay's birthday.

Oh, yeah.

The other day, and he's 62, which kind of blows my mind.

I.

I've told some of my friends before, I think he's like a bonafide national treasure.

Like, agreed.

Like, how many people can really say they.

They coined a phrase that started a movement that will persist worldwide long after their life.

And it sounds like a little grandiose, but like, that.

What those kids started when they were like, 17, 18, 19, you know, it's.

It's.

It's only grown, obviously.

It's a worldwide movement.

You can find bands and, you know, making Straight Edge hardcore songs in every Language.

And it was just completely organic.

It was just teenagers venting about their frustrations in a constructive, healthy way.

And they became, like, the archetypical hardcore band.

Like, to this day, I think when a young band goes out on tour, whether they're aware of it or not, and I think most of them probably are, they're emulating what Minor Threat did in the 80s, and they're using that as a blueprint, and it's still valid and relevant today, and it still has meaning.

There's, like, never going to be another band like Minor Threat, you know, in my lifetime that kicks off a movement that grows to be as, you know, worldwide as hardcore and straight edge.

It's.

It.

It.

He really is.

He really is a national treasure.

We should put him on.

On, you know, a stamp or some.

I'm sure he'd hate that, though.

Absolutely.

But, like, his.

His skateboard, like, that belongs in the Smithsonian.

Like that.

That.

That iconic image of the skateboard, like that.

That is.

That is.

You know, that is something important.

That is something special.

I hate to say it, but, like, I'm.

I.

At some point in my brain, someone's gonna take the steps of the Discord House and it's gonna end up in a museum in some capacity.

Yeah.

Like, you know, but the fact that you could go there, take a picture on the steps, and sometimes he'll come out and be there, just because that's part of the thing that happens naturally is amazing.

It's so authentic.

Well, when I was in D.C.

doing an internship at the Library of Congress, I walked by it, and I was, like, too chicken shit to, like, actually go up on the steps.

But now I kind of wish.

And I think at one point in time, there was, like, some sensitivity around, like, not trespassing on a person's property.

But I understand that he's a little bit more, like, open to it now because it's become such an iconic thing.

But part of me doesn't want to see that stuff in a museum.

Like, part of me wants it to stay underground because it's kind of like.

Absolutely.

I know.

I've seen pictures.

There's, like.

I think it's in Vegas now, but, like, the awning for CBGB's is, like, in Vegas for some freaking reason.

And, you know, I've seen other pictures or there's, like, a replica of it at, like, an airport maybe or somewhere.

And it's just like, this is not really what it was originally about and is kind of like a bastardization of, you know, an Abomination of what.

What its original intent was.

But the deeper archivist part of me is like, no, these are national treasures, and we.

We ought to preserve them.

And I'm not ready to live in a world where there's, like, not a Henry Rollins or Ian McKay or Jello Biafra.

Like, I.

I'm not.

I'm not done learning from those folks.

Yeah, it's a.

You can peel back so many layers and still not get to the root and understand the complete complexity of who they are as people.

And so they have so much more to give, and it's really cool that they are all still giving in some capacity, you know?

Yeah, yeah.

And it was great.

It was great there.

Recently, I saw pictures of, like, Ian Mackay was at an Agnostic Front show, and it's like, oh, it's cool.

He, like, came out.

And I also.

Agnostic Front is a band that my appreciation and love of has only grown.

You know, I liked them when I was younger, but it's, like, really special that there is a hardcore band that.

And I know they've had hiatuses here and there, but for practical purposes, them, in seven seconds are very special to me because they've been more or less in continuous operation for 40 years.

And I would say I would also add sickle to wall.

Yeah, sick of it all, too.

Sick of it all, too.

But, yeah, agreed.

And.

And it gives me hope, because I know somewhere, like, not every band makes it.

Not every band lasts.

But somewhere out there right now, there's a band that's just recently formed, and 40 years from now, they're still going to be friends, they're still going to be making music which will put, you know, the lifespan of hardcore beyond my lifespan as a human being.

And that's meaningful to me.

I'm glad I had the opportunity to get involved in something that, you know, the ground floor of a movement from, you know, not its infancy, but its early adolescence or late childhood to get me through the rest of my life.

Yeah, it's.

It's.

It's.

That's.

That's kind of the whole point of this podcast, I think.

If I'm.

If I'm.

If I can sum it up in a few words.

So, okay, so we've got Bad Religion, we've got Minor Threat, we're talking about the 80s.

I'm gonna bring it into the 90s, but I'm going to stick with the themes of bands that have lyrics that you need a dictionary and a thesaurus to understand fully.

And that is trial The Seattle band and their song Reflections.

And this song has, like, dual important meanings to me.

The first, Greg's lyrics, now that I think about it, too, Bad Religion singers, also Greg, and I'm Greg, so we've got the trifecta here.

But Greg's lyrics, Greg Bennett's lyrics, again, you could tell he's like a thoughtful person.

You know, there's not like tons of four letter words.

It's.

It's all very articulate and sort of like Dead Kennedys and Bad Religion.

It's addressing political issues that are not necessarily being discussed in mainstream media.

You know, atrocities and genocides that, you know, I think folks involved in hardcore and punk might be aware of because of these types of bans.

But, you know, your everyday, average person might not even be aware.

Aware of some of these things that they're speaking about.

So super politically influential to me.

I would say to this day, my politics are probably more influenced by, like, Dead Kennedys and Trial than, you know, anything else.

But the other thing that's really special to me about this song is the drumming.

You know, I play the drums.

And the use of the double bass in the intro of that song is just like the perfect application, in my opinion, of double bass in a hardcore song.

And there's like a way to overdo it and there's like a way to produce it that it sounds distasteful.

But in that Trial song, it perfectly kind of like underscores the intensity.

And that was what got me to, like, buy a double bass drum pedal and learn, you know, learn it.

Which is one of the handful of things that I feel like I'm objectively good at with the drums.

There's like a bunch of things where I'm like.

I can do an approximation of a.

Of a good, you know, drum fill along those lines or a good beat or whatever.

But, yeah, I.

I can't tell you how many hours I spent trying to play along to that in high school and then eventually getting it to click.

It's just like we've talked about skateboarding, where you're like, trying to land that trick for forever, and then when you finally get it and you're like, oh, it's there, I did just, like, opens up a new level of confidence in yourself to figure things out and try new things.

I mean, that intro, Reflections as a song was a game changer.

It gives me goosebumps just thinking about it.

Like, the instrumentation to the beginning.

Like, I don't know, another band in that time frame that was doing anything like that.

And I know that they put out records before that, but that just changed.

Everything just exploded.

Like, maybe for me, like, this isn't on my list, but was is very close to it.

They represent so many, like, wonderful things.

Like you said, politically minded.

Like, Hundred for Haiti was, like, huge.

Yeah.

And I think what I really value about Trial and Greg's approach to is he's not a perfect rhythmic person on those records and even live setting.

But it's so passionate that it's so convincing and you can't unhear it and you can't hear it any other way.

And it comes through in such an emotional way that it just makes complete sense.

And, you know, musically, it's so on point, and it's just something that holds so much gravity that you can't really ignore it.

Yeah.

My funny story about Trial, I don't know.

This is not really my story to tell, but for a while, my brother, younger brother, was living in Seattle or outside of Seattle.

I think he was living in Puyallup.

I'm not pronouncing that right.

And he was working at a frame shop, because he worked at a frame shop here.

Here, you know, framing pictures and artwork for people.

And somebody comes in, it's like an older person, and they've got these pictures of, like, someone playing bass.

And it's like, clearly a hardcore show.

And he's like, hey, what's this all about?

I played bass in some punk and hardcore bands.

And she's like, oh, yeah, yeah.

It's like, you know, my son or something, he played bass in this band called Trial.

And my brother's like, holy shit.

You know, so you had, like, all these, like, old pictures that she was getting framed of him.

That's awesome.

I love that.

I love it.

I love it.

That's so great.

That's so great.

So I'm going to keep it on the west coast and also stay in the 90s.

For me, this next song, I mean, you couldn't.

You couldn't escape it when it came out.

So.

Green Day's welcome to Paradise.

And for me, you know, you could look at it and say, this is like a fun, like, punk song, but.

And it is.

But at the same time, it just had this message of reality that a lot of, like, punks were living in, but also, like, their family connections and their lives that intersected in that way.

It's like they're talking about how their world looks from their perspective of folks using drugs and being down and out and in those positions.

But Also still being humanizing those, those, those points.

And I think maybe that was what they were connecting to.

I don't know.

But like, it spoke to me.

It's like there's a realistic nature to what we're involved in.

And, and as far as looking at people in high school, like, Green Day looked more like me than I, than anyone else in that perspective.

And that was huge for me to be like, oh, this is, it gave me some sort of like, they're on mtv, they're doing this big thing.

And like, this is what I relate to more than playing sports or whatever it was, you know.

Yeah, and, and I'm glad you're, you weren't too cool and self conscious, not to mention like an early punk band because I almost, I almost mentioned carousel by Blink182 because that was another song that really resonated with me when I first got into like punk.

But Green Day is another band that kind of fill, you know, fills that role for me.

Offspring too, where it like opened the door for me to get into, you know, the, the more legitimate, deeper cuts of punk.

And yeah, that takes me back to like middle school because that was when I was first getting into all that, you know, bands of that era.

And, and it is, and you know, I feel like right now with the Internet, you know, it's, it's, it's also accessible to find other bands.

You find a band you like and then you can quickly find other bands.

In fact, you even have to look.

The algorithm will show it to you and it usually does a pretty good job.

But back in the day, you know, when maybe you had cable or maybe if you were like me, you didn't, you'd find a band like that on like the local station wber, which would play, you know, more alternative music or independent label music.

It was really special because I grew up in a town.

You grew up in a town, we've talked about this, where like sports were the thing and like music was not like, was like in skateboarding were like these non sanctioned activities.

And to see people in the mainstream that look like you and kind of aren't, they're not sports, they're not getting, you know, they're not doing sports, they're not getting good grades.

It is validating that there's like other, other ways to live.

You know, pre Tony Hawk, Pro Skater, pre Internet.

That was like so rare and you know, such a, such a gem, I guess, sticking with, you know.

And I've mentioned on the, on the interview that we did before just how important lyrics are to me.

Yeah, I'm gonna stick with another song that has, you know, very meaningful lyrics.

You know, Trial and Bad Religion are kind of like more political, but this one's more personal.

And this is probably my all time favorite hardcore song, which is Set your body Ablaze by Shai Hulud.

Specifically the one with the David lynch dune sample that appears on the split with another victim.

And not the RE record, which is a fine RE recording.

But the original really has.

Is like perfection to me.

When that came out, it was just a game changer.

Yeah.

And I think that was their first recording with Geert on vocals.

And he's, you know, to this day, as far as like metal influence hardcore goes, I think he's probably one of the best sounding on recordings.

But also his stage presence and his whole look, you know, was, was.

It just was perfect.

It was like what you want in a.

In a hardcore vocalist.

But the lyrics, you know, in particular are about, you know, like being your authentic self, you know, like having personal integrity to like be who you are, even if you're not getting validated by the people around you, you know, even if you're not getting the support you need in being the person you are.

Was like so important to me as a, you know, like 15 year old.

You know, we've discussed ad nauseam, you know, what it's like to grow up with, you know, childhood trauma.

And, you know, years after that occurs, you're still questioning yourself, you're still feeling uncertain and unsafe.

And I would put that song on at various points in time in my life and just listen to it, you know, repeatedly.

And it would build something up in me that made it possible for me to like, go out and face the world, face challenges, stand up for myself, which is always, you know, still is a challenging thing for me.

So, you know, thank you, Matt Fox.

Thank you, Gert Geert, Vander Veld, Matt Fletcher, those.

That is like, you know, the ultimate song probably that I'll ever encounter in my life.

I'll never be.

I'll never be a teenager again and have the need for a song like that, which in some ways I'm grateful for, but in other ways, you know, I feel nostalgic about being lost and lonely and finding a song like that.

It's really amazing too, like, to almost add to that layer is that that band almost kind of made being a fantasy sci fi nerd okay in hardcore and punk.

You know, like Shy hulude comes out and I'm like, okay, Dune.

Like I knew that, but so many people around me didn't know that at the time.

So I was like, okay, people.

And I didn't want to like spoil it for folks.

But then also like creating a world, you know, lyrically and just adding to it in a way.

I think Shai Huloud did that most likely intentionally.

I don't know the folks involved, but from what I understand, Matt Fox, you know, that was his band and he created that world, but you know, just captivating the emotions in a way around a world, communicating so much in such like a.

In complicated way.

Yeah, that you had to kind of know parts of the world to understand it in a whole was wild to me.

And I knew of.

I knew of Dune.

I had seen the David lynch movie, or at least parts of it probably on like the Sci Fi Channel before I had encountered Shai Hulud.

But then that made me go back and read Dune and kind of revisit that movie.

And you're right, like it it again.

You know, finding Green Day as a teenager before Tony Hawk's pro skater, before you can go to the mall and, you know, get a pair of knees and a complete deck, you know, that had so much value.

But like, nerd culture right now is like really cool.

Like it's cool to be into Dungeons and Dragons.

It's cool to be into like high fantasy.

But that was definitely not the case back in the day.

And Shy Hulud embraced it in a way that made me feel okay about it because.

And I don't know if I mentioned this last time we talked, but like, other than hardcore and punk, one of the greatest things that I've encountered in my life is Star Trek.

And in particular like Star Trek the Next Generation.

I like the older stuff, but, you know, that wasn't where I got in on, you know, it was always Star Trek the Next Generation and Deep Space Nine.

And they have like merchandise that references Star Trek.

You know, I in fact have a Shy Hulud basketball jersey with, you know, the Romulans Star Empire logo on it.

You know, their, their merch also, I think references Krull.

I've seen some of that.

They have, I think quotes from, I think the Hobbit when they're describing Smog the dragon.

There's something in.

In that within blood ill tempered that I think is.

Is pulled from Tolkien.

So all the like nerd stuff shows up and if you follow like Shy Hallud or Matt Fox on social media, you'll know.

It's like, you know, Something that he loves too.

But other than punk and hardcore, like Star Trek has like, religious connotations for me.

You know, punk and hardcore has helped me, you know, strengthen my sense of self to the point where I can be who I am out in the world.

That is sometimes hostile and not really conducive to being your authentic self and being vulnerable and speaking truthfully about your past.

But Star Trek for me was the first escape I had from my own childhood trauma.

I would watch reruns of that almost every night.

I had like this weird, like, radio that had a tiny little TV screen built into it that I got from Radio Shack as a kid.

And I would watch, you know, Star Trek, Next Generation and Deep Space Nine and syndication and, you know, that blossomed into my love of science that, you know, if I'm being honest in a totally nerdy way, I like, try to emulate, like Captain Picard.

When I'm stepping into a leadership role at work.

I want to be thoughtful but assert boundaries and be forceful where necessary, but, you know, also not judgmental.

It's like a really fine line to walk, you know, to, you know, to be true to your convictions, to.

To have wise boundaries but also not be judgmental and off putting.

So the two loves of my life kind of merge into one with, with Shai Hulud.

And I'm glad you mentioned the fantasy sci fi angle because I don't know.

I don't know that I would have mentioned that in this interview.

I mean, as someone that's just last week, I don't want to force my interest always onto the kids.

Right.

But we have the Hobbit and Tolkien books at home.

Yeah, but I just checked it out from the library with the kids one day and our youngest was like, can you read that to me?

And I'm like, absolutely, you know, so I started just reading it out loud at the table with him.

And so now that's something that we're doing and I'm like, so happy about it.

And he's asking questions.

And so it's like, just speaks to me in my, like, high fantasy love of all of those things.

And I didn't.

When I was touring, even from like, you know, the late 90s and onward, I was always reading these fantasy books and there wasn't many other folks out there doing it.

So I'd be reading the Wheel of Time series and all these things, and people were like, what are you reading?

And there's references to all of that pretty much through lots of the lyrics.

I've written, you know, Wheel of Time.

Is one that I have a strong association with you because I don't know that I had really encountered.

Encountered that or given it much thought until you had talked about it at some point.

Probably an Achilles show or something.

Yeah, yeah.

No, it's funny because I had a similar experience with my kids.

You know, like, I'm reluctant to try to force it on them because then they're not going to want it and they're just gonna be like, is that lame thing dad likes?

But my youngest was like, there's like a Star Trek cartoon on Netflix, Prodigy that he watched most of the first season of.

And I was like, oh, holy, it's happening.

He's like interested in, in Star Trek.

And then there was one time he like checked out a audiobook that was like a biography of Nichelle Nichols, who played Uhura on the original series.

So I don't want to like force it too much because I know I'll break it if I do.

But yeah, right now we're really into like all the Zelda video games, all the retro ones.

So we're, you know, we're getting my nerd on that.

That way, you know, not as important to me as hardcore and punker Star Trek.

But that's.

It's pretty high up there too.

It's a little box, you know, you gotta check the boxes.

Speaking of.

And kind of like with that theme of spirituality and connecting those threads, my next song is no Spiritual Surrender by Inside Out.

Like, for me, I think growing up in religious capacity, I wouldn't say home.

Like my mom was more like, I'll pray for you or we'll go to church, you know, holiday wise.

But I did go to Catholic school from like kindergarten to seventh grade.

I lived in the city, but like, my mom always made sure that we went to Catholic schools because that was her childhood growing up and she thought that was really important.

But this song just spoke to me in a way that like, don't let everything crush you or hold on to that spirit that you do have.

The outside world is the outside world and people are always going to try to like, pull you to do something or not have your best interests in mind and, you know, going through some of that, like childhood trauma or, you know, you know, sexual abuse and assault as a young person, that wasn't directed for family.

It really like, helped me, this song, like, helped me be like, yeah, that's real.

Like, people out in the outside world aren't always going to have your best interests in Mind and this song just really captivated, like, your spirit is yours.

And don't surrender that to.

To others and.

And push forward in a.

In a hopefully better way.

Yeah, and.

And Victor Cara was an inside out too, right?

Yeah.

And then he went on to do, like, 108, and that was like, one of the influential Krishna bands.

And I never, you know, I guess I knew that, like, intellectually, but you can kind of see the beginnings of, you know, the interest in, like, Eastern religions in Inside Out.

I think some of their T shirts have, like, designs that are kind of reminiscent.

And that's, you know, Eastern philosophy.

Eastern Religions has been where I found the most connections with the concept of religion.

You know, I'm like.

I have a firmly scientific world view, and sometimes I have to kind of stretch and reach to get, you know, like, to.

To find a spiritual experience in life because I need things to, like, fit into, like, a rational explanation.

And I think Eastern religions, for me, is a little bit more adaptable to incorporating outside beliefs than Western religions.

Agreed.

Yeah.

But that.

That kind of is like the ground floor to, you know, 108 and shelter.

And of course, the connection with Rage against the Machine.

That's another band I probably could have mentioned on this list too, you know, early.

Early introduction to heavy alternative music, but I remember Witness.

Witness covering.

I can't remember if we did the whole song or just the intro or something.

I think we just did the intro.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

But that's such a fun song.

Well, I guess.

I guess then keeping with.

With like, kind of the theme of.

Of spirituality, I'm gonna talk about two songs that I.

I kind of put together as a pair.

And then that'll leave you to round out the top 10 with a song that is meaningful to me and almost made it to my list, but I thought that it would be either this song or another song by the band you're gonna speak to Last was gonna be on the list, and I wanted to let you have it, but there's, like, two songs that I like to pair together, and those are a song by Misery Signals called Worlds and Dreams.

And it's kind of funny because I spent just like a whole, you know, 45 minutes talking about lyrics and how important the lyrics are.

And, you know, without the lyrics, hardcore and punk is just nothing.

So I'm picking a song now that has no lyrics whatsoever to it turning things on its head.

But Worlds and Dreams.

It's.

It's an instrumental song.

I think it goes well with another Misery Signal song Which I also could have put on this list.

The year Summer Ended in June, which is a song about death and grief.

I think I've seen.

When I've seen them live, they've, like, put those two together.

Like, Worlds and Dreams is like the intro to the year Summer Ended in June.

But to me, Worlds and Dreams has a lot of the same connotations as that song.

Not so much about grief, but on reflecting upon life.

And it just, you know, it's.

It's completely instrumental, but it evokes this kind of looking inward and looking backwards sense in me that if it's nighttime and I'm driving, maybe I'm driving through my hometown, and I put that song on, it'll just take me.

Take me back to a place, you know, my teenage years, adolescent years, young adult life that I don't think I can reach without the help of songs like that and without being in that particular place to, you know, jog my memories.

It's.

It's really interesting because, like I said before this, I wasn't super familiar with this band.

I always put them in this, like, swoopy hair, metalcore vibe.

But I had to listen to it when you put it on your list.

And, you know, I was surprised that it was instrumental, but the instrumental aspect of it, with this atmosphere that it created, made total sense to me.

And coming off of talking about no spiritual surrender and, you know, maybe some Krishna consciousness happening, there's almost this chanting vibe to it that I don't know if it's there vocally, but it almost emitted this mantra when the rhythms of that song.

And I was like, wow, I can really sense why this exists and the impact that it does have.

Yeah, atmosphere, the word you used there is.

It creates an atmosphere that speaks for itself without language.

And, you know, I've heard people say, like, well, music is the highest art form.

It's also one of the most mathematical art forms.

And it's interesting because I've talked to some handful of people about this song periodically when I see it on, like, other people's social media, and it seems to have similar qualities for other people.

And it's just reveals something to me about the interconnectedness of our lives and of human nature, that folks, you know, that are listening to this song, they're younger than me, they grew up in a fundamentally different place, you know, the context of how they encountered this song, for the first time, is totally different from how I encountered it, and yet it has a similar tonal and atmospheric quality for them.

It's also an interesting.

As a drummer, I'm pretty sure it's one of the few examples of a hardcore song.

And I forget the style of what this is called, but where the drummer plays with the snares on, the snare drum turned off.

And that adds something to it, to me, that I can't really put my finger on.

But I've often thought, and I'm glad I finally have a place to say this into a microphone.

If I, like, win the lottery, if I ever get to the point in my life where I just have, like hundreds of thousands of dollars to do nothing at all with, I'm gonna reconvene, you know, that lineup of Misery Signals and be like, here's.

Here's like a one and a half million dollars.

Just write me a whole album of songs that sound like this.

Now that I'm thinking about it, like, you know, computers and the Internet ruin everything.

We'll probably get there with AI first.

I could probably do that right now and just be like, hey, AI, you know, make.

Make me an album of this.

Nothing but this.

But this.

This is a song that I often listen to in a pairing with another song that's kind of about grief and death, similar to the year Summer ended in June, and that is Calling Hours by Bane.

Bane is.

Is probably one of the most important bands from my young adult life.

I could probably make a list of five songs that have, you know, just by Bane alone that have deeply influenced my life.

You know, superhero, you know, can we start again?

But Calling Hours was one that, you know, it was on what was supposed to be their last album.

You know, it was a song that I started listening to and I gravitated to more so than most of the songs on that album right before my wife and I had our first kid.

So I'm kind of like looking back at my life in this in.

In much the same way that the song is about looking back on, you know, someone's life who's passed it.

Also, you know, has guest vocals by, you know, have.

Have heart down to nothing vocalists, which really add to it.

It's.

It's kind of more so than any recorded song I think I've listened to.

Replicates the experience of seeing a bunch of people grabbing the mic and singing along.

Because, you know, Aaron Bedard is really only doing the vocals for, like, half the song because there's just so many guest vocalists.

I think there's four total.

And yeah, I know the Walter from Rotting Out.

Yeah.

And Reba from.

From is on there, which is reminiscent of the.

The of previous songs that they've done.

Which is really neat.

Yeah.

To like encapsulate.

It's not something new new that they've done.

Which I really like that they hearken back to that energy of having guests on to do that.

But you know, like that.

That segment where all the guest vocalists get involved.

Those are some of the best lyrics I think Bane has.

Has written.

They.

They just mean so much to me.

And as I mentioned, I'm not like super religious.

You know, I'm.

I'm.

I'm an atheist.

I'm.

I'm also a secular Buddhist.

But like when I encounter death, when a family member or a friend or, you know, somebody passes on, I usually wind up going to calling hours and listening to that as like some sort of like death ritual.

The way someone might read a Bible verse or listen to like a.

A religious hymn or something just because it can kind of help me kind of cope with changing not just death, but changes in life that are beyond our control.

I think too, the music fits perfectly with the Dan McCarthy art that's on the COVID of that album.

And he's a phenomenal artist, you know, reminds me of Dan Danger's art a lot.

Quite a bit too.

Another great artist with some hardcore connections.

But it, you know, depicts like a neighborhood of.

I'm sure you've all seen it, so I don't need to beat it to death, but it depicts a neighborhood with some like, Cape Cods.

And I was like living in my first home with my wife at that time and she was pregnant.

And, you know, it looked.

It was a Cape Cod.

The neighborhood we were in was all, you know, post war Cape Cods.

And it looked very much like that.

And it really just captures kind of that period of time in my life in my early 30s where, you know, I'm not young anymore, but I'm also not like decrepit and elderly yet, but I know that's coming.

So calling hours paired with worlds and dreams.

I guess that'll be on my playlist, you know, someday.

But those two songs together, super meaningful to me.

And I'm glad that, you know, you and I are sitting down.

We have an opportunity to.

To kind of share the kind of serendipitous pairing of those two, but, you know, not to bring us all down and talk about death.

You can round it out with What I think is a feel good song about growing older.

Yeah, I mean, yeah, I mean even to like talk about, you know, I think either of us would have had Bane on this list no matter what happened in various capacities.

You know, I love that you pick Calling Hours because of the representation of ultimately that band for a lot of different reasons, bringing people together to celebrate something that happened.

And I think this song automatically does that for me.

And it's when I fell in love with this band, Silent Majority.

The song is Polar Bear Club for me.

It's just a representation of community in a very specific way and calling out specific places in a song also, which I think is phenomenal.

That like makes things so localized.

Yeah.

Even though I'm not from Long island or Gilgo beach area.

Just having those reference points to think about and then also casting Annette to like years later of 42 being 42 and you know, like all these little things.

It's just like, you know, really neat to like think about that when you're a 17, 18 year old kid.

When I found this song and thinking about like, oh, like I can look at it very with this lens of like, to me this is a lifestyle, you know, not a trend kind of mentality.

But then also realizing, wait a minute, now I'm 44 and I'm still doing this in some capacity having kids.

Like, yeah.

And there's this connection and there's this community around it and there's still people doing it, living, breathing and a part of it.

And I love that capacity of it.

Yeah.

And you've touched on so much that just really gets at the heart of what, you know, the communal aspects of hardcore and punk are really about and what really make it a special genre of music.

But just a couple months ago I turned 42 and I, I listened to this song on my birthday because I was like thinking about the times I was listening to this song as a 17 year old, you know, and I'm just like, wow, this is like really cool and kind of scary and up in a way that like I've had this common thread.

There we go.

Work it in there in my life from like, you know, kind of my introduction to hardcore and punk to now.

And I love that, you know, he like references having a kid and like getting your kids into music and sharing music with your kids, which is something, you know, again, like I don't want to force Star Trek on them.

I definitely want to introduce them to, like, punk and hardcore, you know, in a way where.

Where they don't, you know, you know, feel like kind of how I felt when, like, you know, various family members tried their best to, like, force religion onto me.

And looking back, you know, I had such a hostile reaction to it, and I feel bad about it, but it was a good learning experience because, like, you know, they may have up Catholicism for me, but I'm not gonna fuck up, like, punk rock for my kids in that same way, you know.

I mean, my oldest is like, you like loud guitar music.

I don't like that.

I'm like, okay, I'm not gonna force it on you.

Yeah, yeah.

No, they can get into whatever they want as long as it's like, a form of music where there's, like, an authentic community around it.

Like, that's kind of what I enjoyed the most about her.

I mean, the music is almost.

It resonates with me.

I'm an aggressive person.

At times I need aggressive music to help push me over the hump and get me through.

But, like, it's almost in some ways secondary to the lyrics and the.

The sense of community.

And that's another thing about.

About Silent Majority that I like about bands.

There's certain bands that I've, you know, that have been meaningful to me.

Bane is one of them.

Hex Standfast.

I talked at length in our first interviews about that, where you can tell these are folks that were friends before they were in a band.

The band was kind of like the culmination of the friendship blossoming into something.

And they're going to be friends after the band is done or when the band's, you know, peak has.

Has subsided.

And those are my favorite kind of bands.

Like, I do like bands where it's, you know, the origin of the band is, like, we put an ad in the paper because we wanted a really good bass player that could play this, you know, style and was influenced by these bands.

You know, there's some great bands that came together that way.

But to me, you know, Minor Threat is another example.

I think Youth it today is probably one where it's, you know, like, there's some.

Like, the band is secondary to the friendships, right?

And that's kind of always what I've wanted with my bands.

Like, I just want to do a band.

I want to do a band with people that I want to be friends with, you know, and that's.

That's the special thing about.

About hardcore and punk.

To me also, I gotta Say too, that adding local, like.

Like, points of interest into your lyrics.

Definitely.

I agree with you there.

Avail does a great job with that too.

Yes.

And like we said, I'm surprised that they didn't end up on either of our lists.

So more to come.

Yeah, yeah.

Avail is another one too, but Avail is another one.

Do you have any lyrics with, like, references to locations?

How We Are has a song that is.

References to coming back to Rochester.

Okay.

For sure.

Yeah.

Okay, cool.

Okay, good, good.

I wanted to make sure that box was checked.

And I know another breath 2 also has, like, a touring type song with.

With references to, you know, driving, you know.

Yeah.

In a certain direction.

But I think.

I think those things not endear you to a local community even more.

You know, I'm sure you're.

It's interesting.

So for me, I have this thought process of growing up, and you did too.

I believe there was local bands, you know, that were a part of a thing locally, and there still is, to some sense.

Like, Silent and Jordy played a couple shows recently, and I was able to go down to one, and it was amazing.

But I think if you take them out of Long island, it's not gonna have the same impact.

Yeah.

Like, they played up in our area in Rochester, Syracuse, and I would always go see them as much as I could, but it was, you know, 40, 50 kids, 60 kids, you know, this was like, sold out, three nights at a club.

Yeah.

Yeah.

In Long island, like, you're not gonna find that there.

It's, you know, same.

You're gonna have that, like.

Yeah, maybe I was like, like, Stanfast was a bigger Rochester band, but take us out of Rochester, it's, like, not gonna be the same.

Yeah.

And I think that's important.

Yeah.

That's really neat to have bands like that.

Well, there's certain bands I want to see in their hometown.

It was.

Was that your first time recently seeing.

Them in Long island or in Long.

I saw them in Brooklyn.

Okay.

But yeah, it was in Long island is my first time.

Okay.

Like, one time I got to see A Veil in Richmond, and that was.

That was pretty meaningful because people were going off for that and that.

That was a cool, cool experience.

And I.

I did go to the last Bane show in Worcester, which was kind of slightly different because it was huge, you know.

Yeah.

But there's just certain bands.

Seeing them, you know, in their hometown is a different experience than seeing them anywhere else.

Like, they're great anywhere else, don't get me wrong.

But, you know, they're very much a product of that, of that space.

And so I'm glad you got to see them in.

In Long Island.

Yeah.

I have a framed poster of a show flyer that was like a large format flyer that John 25 did when silent Majority played at Eli Fagan with I think Darkest Hour.

Was it a majority rule two?

Yep.

Yeah.

Okay.

And the movie Life.

The movie Life.

That was the one.

And I think did arm's length open.

They might have.

They're not on the floor.

One more TBA and I have that hanging up right next to my screen at work.

And I look at it all the time because, you know, I like sometimes need to be reminded that life isn't work and reality doesn't fit onto a computer screen.

And that does the trick for me most of the time.

But that was like an awesome show.

That was such a great show.

And I'm glad I got to see a band like that in a venue like Eli Figan with, you know, 40 or 50 other kids.

I think it was a Sunday night too, even.

I think so, yeah.

Yeah.

You know, VFW floor.

Not even American Legion floor.

Yeah.

You know, but same similar vibe, you know, it's just crazy to think about those moments in time.

Yeah.

That are still exist now, don't get me wrong.

But it, you know, it's.

It was so much more impactful as a youth.

Yeah.

To be a part of that and.

And then to really think about as adults now that they were all young too.

Maybe a few years old.

Older than us, but still young, you know.

All right, it plays tricks on me.

So we gave out our email address.

Common thread hxcpodcastmail.com you have an interesting story in you.

You, if you're listening to this, have been influenced in some way by hardcore or know someone who has, you know, drop us a line.

Even if you don't want to do an interview, let us know how we're doing or ideas for folks you might know who might want to do an interview.

Like Greg just said too, this is a.

This is a place to almost like we'll do the work, we'll reach out to the people, but if you think someone should be nominated and has a cool space and story, let us know because there's a lot of folks out there that don't get that credit and don't get to tell their story.

And it's important for a lot of folks to hear it.

Common Thread is co hosted by Greg Benoit and Rory Van Grohl with creative support from Rob Antonucci.

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