BURNING FIGHT

BURNING FIGHT
BY ELANO PIZZICAROLA



The sun set and as it got darker and darker, more and more guests slowly sprinkled into Tradition. The event was a book release. The name of the book was Burning Fight: The Nineties Hardcore Revolution in Ethics, Politics, Spirit, and Sound and the author was Brian Peterson. In the book, Peterson interviews a variety of hardcore musicians and scene members about the sound and the ideas contained in the music they loved, specifically in the 1990s. T-shirts bearing the book’s title were draped aback the store’s front window. The walls, paraded gritty black and white photos of hardcore musicians and the genre's treasured memorabilia of flyers and posters alike.
The crowd was diverse and their ages varied greatly. Some were teens while others were in their thirties and forties. The crowed sprawled the well-lit room, and as fast-paced, intense hardcore, blasted out the JBL speakers at breakneck speed, filling the room with explosive energy, there was an evident commonality as these fans mingled.

Hardcore’s traits reached them personally. They identified with it.



Meet Corey Williams. “I am a hardcore fan … I’ve been into hardcore for 18—19 years,” the 31-year-old said. He sported modest blue jeans. His sweatshirt was thick and charcoal-colored.

He assured he likes many types of music. “But hardcore’s what I relate to,” Williams said. His first album was Lights, Camera, Revolution by the band Suicidal Tendencies. Williams said hardcore is “about loyalty.” He talked about the genre relating to its fans.



Corey with Internal Affairs

He reflected on how hardcore influenced him. He discussed the music’s following of loners and outcasts, many of them looked down upon by the mainstream. But Williams welcomed this reality with open arms. “I think it’s a great thing,” Williams said.

“Those people came together because they loved something, not because … the cool dickhead at school told them it was cool.”



Ryan Downey, 35, is another fan, who said he was reached by hardcore’s counter-culture mentality. He reminisced back to when he was first introduced to the cassette compilation, New York City Hardcore: The Way It Is. Downey said he was about 14 or 15 years old when he came across it. Downey said it “changed my life.” He said the message from the music reached him. “It was just a sound ... style ... message and … urgency that I haven’t heard before.”


Mike Hartsfield (New Age Records, Outspoken, Against The Wall, Etc.)

And then there was Mike Hartsfield. Hartsfield, 40, said he got into the hardcore scene back in 1985. Hartsfield said he saw its open-minded inclusiveness. “Hardcore seemed to be attainable by everyone,” he said.

Peterson said his influence to put pen to paper came from his Midwestern upbringing. “I always liked writing. But I was hesitant,” he said.

Peterson said he never knew he would be the one to author the book. “I just started thinking about it,” he said.

So Peterson said he contacted his friends for interviewee connections. And gradually, he got the ball rolling on his 1990s hardcore survey. “It turned into a spider web that just sort of started from a couple of people,” Peterson said.


Author, Brian Peterson


Peterson said the book was a long six years in the making. Most of the interviews, he said, ran two to three hours long. And he said there was “160-plus” interviews.

Peterson said there’s been a history of books spotlighting the 1980s hardcore scene, but he said there was yet to be a book about 1990s hardcore.

He drew the line between 1990s hardcore and the other era’s hardcore. “The 1990s to me seemed like people were really focused on specific issues,” he said. “Animal rights was a big issue in the 1990s … race, gender, all those … things where important.”

He added the power of hardcore even transcends politically. “Anytime any kind of ideas are presented in any kind of underground, artistic setting, I think it’s gonna have reverberations,” Peterson said.

He brought up the Chicago hardcore band Los Crudos as an example. “All their songs were in Spanish,” Peterson said. They talked about issues pertaining to gender, race and immigration.

Peterson got the name of the book from a song by the hardcore band, Inside Out. He said Inside Out, was lead by Rage Against The Machine’s lead singer, Zach De La Rocha.

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