Bad Trip - 1988-1992 anthology

Great hardcore punk from Queens. This is everything the band recorded between 1988 and 1992. They released 2 more records after 1992, but the band went in a more indie rock direction with those releases, and i wanted to keep this as a document of the band's hardcore material, as well as keep it under 80 minutes. Great sound throughout. Thanks to Mike Fairley, Andy (Mortville Records), Brian Meehan, Dirty Steve and Rick Smith for helping out with music, scans and info. Enjoy.

Bad Trip: 1988-1992 anthology

Fred Muench - vocals
Marcos Siega - guitar
Luke Montgomery - guitar
Brendan White - bass
Erik Matheu - drums

Tracks 1-7: Positively Bad 7". Recorded at Don Fury Studios in January of 1989 and released the same year on Bell Bottom Records. Repressed in 1990 on Wreck-Age Records. Excellent debut. The tracks here were taken from the CD version of the Fear and Loathing LP, where they appeared as bonus tracks.

Track 8: Chop Chop comp 7". Released in July of '89 on Skene Records. Other bands on the comp were Constant Grief, Payback, Vicious Bite (formerly Under Pressure), and the great AbombAnation. 1,000 made, lyric booklet included.

Track 9: New Breed comp tape. Yet another band (that makes 15 for this blog) that was on the legendary cassette put out in 1989 by Urban Style Records aka Freddy Alva and Chaka Malik (Burn). Of the 3 different recordings of this track in this collection, this is by far my favorite.

Tracks 10-11: Look At All The Children Now comp LP. These 2 killer tracks were recorded at Don Fury Studios in November of '89 and released by Evacuate Records in 1990. This was the first release by the short lived Evacuate Records, and a great document of the more "alternative" (for lack of a better term) side of the NYHC scene closing out the '80s. Bad Trip starts off this comp, and are followed by SFA, Moondog, GO!, Yuppicide, Bustin' Out, Citizens Arrest, Bugout Society, World Discrimination, Team Effort, Rorschach, Product 19 and MAS. Besides a few lackluster tracks, this is a great compilation. Citizens Arrest steals the show (of course) with Won't Allow and the monstrous Death Threat. The album came with a 16 page booklet containing lyrics and other info. The other 2 Evacuate releases were the Yuppicide 7", and the Inflatable Children 12", both also released in 1990.

Tracks 12-13: GO!/Bad Trip split 7". Also known as the "Split Tour ep", released in September of 1990 on Skene Records. Two more great tracks, including an extended version of the song Fading Away (from the Positively Bad 7"), with a nice 2-minute Black Sabbath medley finishing off the song.

Tracks 14-23: Fear And Loathing LP. Recorded by Don Fury (who also produced, engineered and mixed the album) during August-November of 1991. Released in 1992 on Wreck-Age Records on both LP and CD. The CD also contained the first ep and the song No Easy Answers from the Look At All The Children Now comp as bonus tracks. LP tracks here taken from CD version. A bit more metallic sounding than the band's previous recordings, but i love this album.

Tracks 24-30: Demo. Recorded at Don Fury Studios in January of 1988. These songs were recorded before Marcos joined the band, so there's only one guitar player on these tracks. Some great exclusive tracks on here like Faces Go By (my personal fave), Trip To Nowhere and Joe Cool. Sound is a bit rough on these recordings, but it sounds great to me. Solid, raw, late '80s NYHC demo. Can't ask for more.

Between 1993 and 1995, the band recorded 2 more records. The Elevator 7" (1993 Wreck-Age), which i like a lot, and the Buzzy LP (1995 Wreck-Age). Both records recorded at Don Fury Studios. During this time, Luke was replaced on guitar by Arty Shepherd.

Buzzy was dedicated to the memory of Herb "Buzzy" Meier and Hank Matheu. It seems to be a "love it or hate it" album. I haven't heard it enough times to form a solid opinion, but i'd say check it out yourself. It should be pretty easy to find online.

Bad Trip have recently reformed and are playing shows again. You can check out the band's Myspace page here.

After Bad Trip, guitarist Marcos Siega went on to direct music videos, and from there went on to direct various Hollywood movies etc. He even directed 9 episodes of Dexter!! Check his IMDB page here.

Jordin Isip, who did much of the band's artwork, went on to become a well-known illustrator who's work regularly appears in the Village Voice, and even Time magazine. You should check out his amazing website right here.

Release - 1988-1991 Discography

Late '80s straight edge hardcore from NJ. This is a collection of everything the band released between 1988-1991, aside from one song exclusive to a comp known as the Inner Journey Sampler Tape (which seems impossible to find). Great sound throughout. Enjoy.

Release: 1988-1991

Original lineup:
Rob Fish - vocalsJoe Coia - guitar
Chris Zusi - guitar
Greg Shafer - bass
Chris "Cap" Caponegro - drums

The band's demo was recorded during the winter of 1988. Great raw hardcore, with some catchy riffs (Drug Free Youth and Set You Straight come to mind right away), fronted by a young Rob Fish, later of 108, Ressurection, and Judas Factor, who couldn't have been much more than fourteen years old during these demos. As usual, the demo is my favorite Release recordings. I've always been a demo guy. It just seems like a band's initial burst of inspiration put onto tape always feels so "real" for lack of a better term. Once they hit the studio and try and get everything perfect, there's a certain charm that's usually missing. That's not a blanket statement by any means, and Release's records are pretty damn good. The demo here sounds great compared to other versions i've heard. No tape hiss, nice full sound, and the bass is more prominent in the mix. The first track sounds a bit rough, but after that it's a really good rip.
"The Pain Inside" 7" was recorded April 15 and 16, 1989 and released in July of '89 on Axtion Packed Records (the label's 2nd release). It was mixed and mastered at Audio Plus. Layout and art by Kyle Talbott (who's artwork you may recognize from other late '80s East Coast hardcore bands). 1,000 copies of the 7" were pressed onto black vinyl, all hand numbered on the inner white sleeve. Two demo tracks, Drug Free Youth and Greed were re-recorded for the ep, as well as three new songs and an intro. The recordings here (as well as the split ep and No Longer ep) were taken from the "Shelter" CD on Lost & Found Records. Great sound quality.

The split 7" with Courage, also known as the "Bring It Back" 7", was released on Threshold Records in 1990. 1,000 on black vinyl, 50 with dark brown cover, the rest with black and white cover. The 2 tracks on the split are a bit longer and more complex than the earlier material, and you can hear the band going into a more metal direction while not exactly veering off into crossover territory. Think more later Uppercut than Leeway.

The "No Longer 1988-1990" 7" was released in 1991 on Inner Journey Records. The record came with a lyric sheet and flyer, and was pressed on black, gold & red vinyl. All came in multi-fold 2-color semi-gloss covers. The red vinyl had a hand-stamp on the dust sleeve or inside cover that said something about 'European press' even though it was pressed in the USA on Inner Journey. The test presses had generic typeset covers that just said 'Release - No Longer' test press with the Inner Journey logo and song info. The test presses had 'United Record Pressing' white labels, and were on black vinyl. There were also special "Wolverine" editions on black vinyl with different covers and Marvel cards inside. The ep was later repressed with a different cover on Noode Records. Thanks to Dave Brown for the pressing info.
The unreleased live track was pulled from a show in Harrisburg, PA. Not the greatest quality, but i did my best to extract the song from a wall of static. It's a great song. Before the song the band introduces Dale as the new bass player (later to play guitar). I'm pretty sure Dale didn't join until after all the recordings in this collection were recorded.

Rob Fish on Release:

Well, Release started with members including me (Rob), Chris Cap, Greg Shafer and Joe Coia. After being together for about two months, we started playing out and got ourselves a second guitarist (Chris Zusi). We released a demo in the winter of 1988, started playing out a lot in February of 1989. We then got a 7" offer from Axtion Packed, recorded for it and that record was released in July of 1989. We did a short two week tour all over, came back, practiced a lot, recorded a new 7 song tape, 5 songs went to a new 7" on Inner Journey, 2 songs went to a split 7" we did with Courage. Greg got kicked out and we brought this kid named Tony in on bass. After awhile Tony got moved up to guitar and Greg came back on bass. Now that Courage has broken up, Chris has left and we've added Dale on guitar. We're now working on some new songs, trying to get tight and I'm starting to book shows now. Hopefully we'll do a full length record.

You can check out the entire interview on the Double Cross web-zine here, as well as other Release interviews and lots of great photos.

You can also check out the band's Myspace page here. It hasn't been updated in nearly three years, but there's some nice pics and artwork on there worth checking out. Seems there was word back then of a possible Release discography, which i'm guessing has long been dropped.

Rob Fish, as already mentioned, also played in 108, Ressurection and Judas Factor. Chris Zusi also played in Ressurection and Judas Factor, as well as Floorpunch. Chris Cap also played in Up Front and Courage.