A Tribute to Skip Candelori

This is a tribute to Frank "Skip" Candelori, the vocalist for Turning Point who died unexpectedly on June 19, 2002. I've compiled a collection of bands Skip was in from 1986-2000. Included are both Pointless (pre-Turning Point) demos, 3 Turning Point demo tracks, the Godspeed "Swimmer's Ear" ep, and the Memorial Day demo. All great sound quality. All great music. Thanks to Patrick Lindenhof for helping clean up the sound on the Pointless demos (they came out great). Also thanks to David Michaels and Jeremy for the music. Enjoy!

A Tribute to Skip Candelori

Pointless
"Confusion" demo (1986) lineup
Skip Candelori - vocals / bass
Jay Laughlin - drums
Ed - guitar

"One Force" demo (1987) lineup
Lee - vocals
Skip Candelori - bass
Jay Laughlin - drums
Ed - guitar

Pointless started in 1986, as Skip and Jay were just getting into hardcore and wanted to start a band of their own. For a bunch of kids who were just learning their instruments, Pointless put out 2 demos worth of some great memorable hardcore. The first demo "Confusion" (with Skip on vocals) is raw, stripped down, angry hardcore with a healthy dose of an early '80s punk sound (bands like 7 Seconds and Circle Jerks come to mind). The song "Confusion" has a bit of a darker edge, and sounds like it wouldn't be out of place on some '80s LA punk compilation. The "One Force" demo, my favorite of the two, is pure youthful energy. The first track "Staying A Youth" is just your classic hardcore punk song, with great riffs and a catchy singalong chorus. The kind of stuff that gets stuck in your head for days. On this demo, Skip just handles the bass duties, and the band's friend Lee steps in for the vocals. He does a killer job.

Jay Laughlin on Pointless:

Skip and I started talking about doing something, since we were both getting into punk and hardcore more and more. So I said "let's start a band!" I taught him how to play bass and then I taught this dude Ed to play guitar, and figured I would play drums. At first we would just goof around and play the intro to "We Gotta Know" or whatever. But we kept playing and this would end up being the band Pointless. The guy I took drum lessons from had a set up in his house to record, so we would go there to do stuff.

We were young, but we were playing out. Our first real show was at Club Pizazz in Philly sometime in 1987 with Government Issue. It sounds like it should have been a cool show, except the same night at City Gardens was DRI and GBH, so there weren't many people at Pizazz. But it was still cool, even if it wasn't so packed. Overall though, Pointless didn't play too much, I guess kinda due to a mix of things.
We did two Pointless demos. The first one is with Skip singing, the second is with Lee singing. Skip could play bass and sing, but not at the same time. We never played with him singing though, his first time singing in a band on stage was Turning Point.
Turning Point
Skip Candelori - vocals
Jay Laughlin - guitar
Nick Greif - bass
Steve Crudello - guitar
Ken Flavell - drums

I did a Turning Point post a while back, so i won't be redundant and ramble about how great they are again. I posted 3 tracks from the 1988 demo. The source of these 3 tracks is from a cassette given to my bud Jeremy from Skip and Jay when Jeremy sent for a Pointless demo and asked to do an interview. The 3 tracks from the (at the time) not yet released '88 demo sound much fuller and heavier than any Turning Point demos i've ever heard, including the ones on the discography CD on Jade Tree Records. I'd love to get a copy of the entire demo with this sound. Thanks to Jeremy for sending me these tracks. I was blown away when i heard them.

Jay Laughlin on Turning Point:By 1987 we were totally into hardcore, like full on. We met the guys from Failsafe by them playing with Pointless. We just got friendly through playing, so we knew their drummer Ken, who lived in Tabernacle. From dabbling with guitar more and more, I decided that's what I wanted to play. So me and Skip talked to Ken about doing something. And we also had met Nick through a friend of a friend, he lived in Vincentown and played bass. We all had the same ideas and focus, and we were all on the same page. We decided to get together and do a band - which was Turning Point.

For the entire interview, and lots of other great interviews with members of Turning Point (and shitloads of other bands), check out the fantastic Double Cross online blog-zine.Godspeed
Skip Candelori - vocals
Jay Laughlin - bass
Dave Grubb - guitar
Sean Byrnre - drums

After the demise of Turning Point in 1992, Skip and Jay started the short-lived Godspeed. Listening to later-Turning Point, the music they played in Godspeed was the logical next step. The "Swimmer's Ear" ep, released on Temperance Records in 1993, was more in the vein of the early '90s "emo" scene, and much more indie rock (for lack of a better term) oriented than the hardcore they played years prior. At times it's similar to what bands like American Standard were doing early on, and at other times it has a kind of Native Nod or Greyhouse vibe. Whatever the case, it's a great ep. I only wished they would have kept it going a while longer.Memorial Day
Skip Candelori - vocals
Steve Crudello - guitar
Nick Fantazzi - guitar
Anthony Montemurro - bass
Brandon Wallace - drums

Another short-lived project with Skip on vocals, and joined this time by ex-Turning Point 2nd guitarist Steve Crudello. Memorial Day only released one demo during their existence in 1999/2000. It's similar to what Godspeed were doing, but a bit more noisy and experimental in the guitar dept. Think Dinosaur Jr. meets Jets To Brazil. I'm not too good with comparisons, just check it out for yourself, it's an excellent demo, and my favorite Skip-related project after Turning Point.

Since 2000, members of Turning Point have continued to play music in countless bands. In 2002, Jay Laughlin, Dave Grubb, Sean Byrne and others (in a band called Lenola) released a a 2xCD called "Sharks and Flames" which they dedicated to Skip.

RIP SKIP

Note of interest: Both Pointless demos are missing one track each. There was a song on the "Confusion" demo called "Cardboard Box", which i left out because of the awful sound quality. It breaks apart in various spots and sounds like it was recorded under water. Also, the last track on the "One Force" demo is missing. It was labeled as "Untitled", and the mp3 i had cuts off after only 20 seconds. If anyone has these missing tracks, please get in touch.

The Pointless photo was taken from the Double Cross blog. Head over there to check out other pics of Pointless, Turning Point, and related bands.