Friday, November 18, 2011

Zack de la Rocha's Music Before he Started Rage Against the Machine

Hard Stance were a straight edge hardcore band from California in the late 80's. Their sound is fairly typical of the sound from from out there. Old-School-ish mid to fast tempo hardcore. Done mostly pretty good.

I hadn't heard this EP until more recently. I had known of the bands existence for some time. Like a lot of people know, it's the band with Zach Del La Rocha in it. And that's cool. He plays guitar like he did for Farside shortly after. That was a brief moment before his rise with Rage Against The Machine. The bands pedigree is deeper than that. The connections are many and some of the bands that these guys have been involved in might be more the reason for the interest in this EP, than just Zach De La Rocha. The Haworth brothers went to play in State of the Nation, a really good post-hardcore band. The drummer went to play in Chain of Strength, continuing the Hard Stance sound and aesthetic (read hard-line straightedge), but with more of a NYHC youth crew influence. And one of the two brothers were in the band Farside who played more of a rocking punk vibe. I guess we cant forget Inside Out, which is an amazing EP and is probably ubiquitous at this point, but No Spiritual Surrender is a classic.

Thats mostly what I have known / learned. It's cool to finally hear this EP and while it doesnt hold a candle to members later projects it is a cool entry into the history of Hardcore. People had requested this too, so this ones for you. We should talk about Outspoken after this. They were a great Cali hardcore band from this time.
 Hard Stance - Face Reality 1988
Tracklist
Face Reality       
Horizons       
Discrepancy       
Clash Of Views       
No One To Blame       
Enemies       
Quick To Judge       
Our Turn

 Hard Stance – Hard Stance 1994

 Tracklist
Is This The End   
Torn Apart       
Strength Through Strife        
Face Reality        
Horizons       
Discrepancy       
Clash Of Views       
No One To Blame       
Enemies       
Quick To Judge       
Our Turn

No comments: