In b4 every new band’s Facebook profile pic looks like this
We saw that my predictions for 2012 being “the year of the tr00″ are coming to life, and it looks like I was also right when I predicted last year that The Next Big Thing would be white hardcore kids jocking Mexicans. Hardcore bands have been appropriating black urban culture for years (via wiggerish arm movements), but 2012 is all about taking your cues from Mexican gangsters (aka cholos)! Apologies if this is TLDR, but it’s actually a pretty complex phenomenon that requires a lot of explaining.
PART 1: A BRIEF HISTORY OF HARDCORE & GRAFFITI
Until recently, when hardcore bands used graffiti-style art it was always in the style of the 1980s New York style, as you can see when you compare this piece by COPE2 and an old E-Town cover. Personally I never liked the NY style at all, but when you say “graffiti letters,” this is what people think of. Also, it’s important to note that this kind of graffiti has NOTHING to do with gangs.
Here’s an example of classic cholo block letters, in this case from the 18th Street gang (which you may know about from that TV show Gangland). This style is native to the LA area, but you’ll see it all over the west. If you ever see “SUR X3,” “NORTE XIV,” 13, or 14 scribbled on something, that’s cholo graffiti. In contrast to the NY style of graffiti, this stuff is gangster as fuck. If you aren’t down, you definitely can’t go around writing X3 on stuff, and like the line in “Pocket Full Of Fatcaps” goes, even catching a tag in the wrong neighborhood could get you fucked up.
Left: COPE tag, example of classic NY style graffiti. Center: some LA gangster shit- KREEPER is the guy who wrote it, HST and P13 refers to his gang (Paramount 13 or something, I don’t know). Right: SAGA TKO tag, example of typical LA-style, non-gang graffiti. Note the obvious influence of cholo graffiti and how much more angular and complex it is than NY style.
The first hardcore band to use cholo graffiti art was SUICIDAL TENDENCIES. This is because they were actual gangsters- not sure of the details, but I would guess that they were affiliated with some Sureno set based on the fact that they always wore blue and rep 13, which you couldn’t really get away with in LA if you weren’t down. There were a few other bands like BEOWULF and EXCEL who also used this kind of art in the 80s, but it was pretty much limited to bands from Venice (which was pretty shitty and full of gangs at the time).
In the early 90s, DESPISE YOU also used a lot of cholo-style art. They were (mostly) white guys, but it made sense because they are from Inglewood (which was/is a pretty shitty part of LA full of gangsters) and obviously love Suicidal Tendencies.
Think of Famous Stars & Straps and Rebel 8 as the “patient zero” of the current wave of cholo imagery: both of them are run by people who know what’s up (Travis Barker, who is from the 909, and Mike Giant, who is from ABQ and one of the best graffiti writers of the 90s), but most of the people who buy their gear don’t.
PART 2: CHOLOS AND THE WHITES WHO LOVE THEM
The basic point of part 1 is that until recently, the use of cholo-style art in hardcore was limited to bands who were either semi-gangsters themselves, or grew up in Southern California surrounded by them. Either way, the bands who used it had a pretty good understanding of where the style came from and what it means. Not so these days: from what I can tell, cholo style imagery has replaced NY-style graffiti letters as the default aesthetic for bands who want to be seen as tr00 hxc.
ROTTING OUT do these graphics better than any current band since Despise You. This is because they are from LA and they know what’s up. I’m including them here because Tumblrsluts and tr00 hxc bros jock them, often in the form of really bad attempts at their visual aesthetic, much like shitty bands from Wisconsin tried to look and act like Madball in the 90s (with embarrassing/lulzy results).
BACKTRACK’s logo is well done, but it’s pretty funny to see this style (which is so closely tied to Southern California) with “NY” in the middle of it. I guess it’s like someone writing “MEXICO” and filling it with the stars and stripes of the American flag?
Mind = blown at this style used on a flyer for a bunch of bands (mostly) from the East Coast playing a show in the South.
It doesn’t get much tr00er than TERROR, nor does it get much shittier than the imitation-cholo “DIEHARD” letters on the back of this shirt.
And then there is the unfortunate case of Vincent from THE ACACIA STRAIN’s clothing company Diamond Cut. This is what happens when white guys from Massachusetts become Rebel 8 fanboys. Embarrassing…
If you were thinking, “Oh come on Sarge, it’s not THAT bad, you just picked a couple of random shirts. This isn’t an actual thing,” then I present to you my final example: even VANNA, a bunch of post-hardcore fggts from Maryland, are hopping on the bandwagon.
This Old English shirt is pretty fucking sweet, but if you are white you probably shouldn’t wear it
Let me be clear: I’m not pulling the old “STOP LIKE THAT THING U LIKE, U DON’T KNOW WHAT ITS RLY ABOUT,” I’m just saying that I called it. I’m not buttmad, but it is a little different than when bands use NY-style graffiti imagery in that this style is inherently gangster. It could get awkward if kids end up wearing some cholo-style graphic around the wrong person at the wrong time. Nobody is going to mistake them for gangsters or anything, but some cholo who’s having a bad day might just fuck with them anyway.
Was this post long as fuck, or was it long as fuck?? What do you think of this trend? How long until some French wigger band puts SUR X3 on a t-shirt???
What makes a band REAL REGRETCORE???
Although I use the term a lot, I’ve never done a post about REGRETCORE. As you might guess from the name, regretcore is music by fuckups, for fuckups, about being a fuckup. The majority of regretcore bands are hardcore, but it really doesn’t matter what genre the band is as long as they are fucked up losers who hate themselves and write a lot of songs about it.
Usually when I refer to something as ‘real’ I’m implying that they’re pretentious buttholes who are actually the opposite of real, but in this case I’m using the term non-ironically. There’s no shortage of bands who are just going through the motions, writing angsty lyrics about being sad or hating themselves simply because, well, that’s what all the other bands do, but there are only a few REAL regretcore bands. How can you tell the difference??
Don’t be confused by regretcore’s close relative selfimprovementcore! There any many similarities, but the key difference is that selfimprovementcore bands (such as The Ghost Inside) always end on a positive note, looking forward to the future, whereas regretcore has no confidence that things will ever get better.
It’s actually pretty easy: the defining characteristic of REAL regretcore bands is that there is something really uncool or embarrassing about them that tells you they truly give zero fucks. When I say “uncool,” I don’t mean that it’s something most SYWH readers would necessarily look down on, I mean it in the sense of “something that normal people and/or Tumblrsluts will be grossed out/scared by.” You know they’re sincere because nobody who was faking it would ever choose to do something that would negatively impact their chances of stabbing the guts or acquiring currency!
A few examples:
CAPITALIST CASUALTIES
Let’s start off with a very clear example of the realest of real regretcore! This song is about being a meth addict, and it’s not because they watched a show about it on the Discovery Channel. This is from 1992, back when only people with personal experience knew about meth.
What’s uncool about them: Basically everything? Is there anything that’s NOT uncool about white trash drug addicts from Vallejo with long hair and Slayer shirts??
CROWN OF THORNZ
When it comes to songs about doing dumb shit that you regret, the first two things that go through your mind are also the chorus of this song: “I guess I’ve got to learn the hard way again” and “Please let there be a next time.” In fact, I can remember getting some really bad news once about something really fucking dumb that I did, sitting back in my chair, literally thinking “I guess I’ve got to learn the hard way again” and then thinking “fuck, I just said CoT lyrics.”
What’s uncool about them: The really, really, REALLY bad singing parts.
FAILURE FACE
This is an obscure 90s hardcore band who are both tragically underappreciated AND classic regretcore! If these lyrics don’t hit home with you, count yourself as one of the lucky ones and move on.
What’s uncool about them: There’s maybe no bigger disparity between darkness and intensity of music and the underwhelming ordinariness of the people who made it: the singer was just a super chill, nice guy named Bob who had a label called Burrito Records *sad_trombone.wav*
HATEBREED
Many people mistakenly think of these guys as selfimprovementcore, but don’t be fooled by their overwhelmingly positive lyrics about triumphing over adversity- they are 100% regretcore! The fact that Ezec says Jamey Jasta is the bigger scumbag of the two should tell you all you need to know O_o
What’s uncool about them: Everyone in the band is an old, fat, scummy metalhead. Also, opening for Slipknot at Ozzfest.
MEST
The perfect example of pop-punk regretcore! This song is called “Fuct Up Kid,” and it is about being a fucked up kid who grew up to be a fucked up guy, and how that’s kind of awesome but also kind of sucks. Oh, and the singer stabbed someone to death in a parking garage. If you also love Mest, check out this longer post I did on them.
What’s uncool about them: They play ska pop punk. They spell it “fuct.” They look like this.
TERROR
Classic regretcore!! These guys are also commonly mistaken for selfimprovementcore, but I assure you there is no self improvement going on here.
What’s uncool about them: I’m just going to leave this and this here #BSGD
(ps just saw that this Crowbar video was uploaded by our bro Buske of Terror/Maximum Penalty/Ragmen- bonus regretcore points!)
CROWBAR
Pretty much all Crowbar songs are about being super burned out on life, and wanting to give up and die. I don’t know if that’s exactly the same thing as hating yourself, but I feel like there’s enough common ground to call it regretcore!
What’s uncool about them: All of them are fat except for the drummer. They are so giant their guitars look like those little toy, inflatable ones that you get for a prize at the state fair.
NO COMMENT
The “Downsided” 7″ is easily in my top 5 hardcore records of all time, and not just because the music is some of the most intense, blistering material ever recorded. It’s also because the lyrics are so fucking dark and depressing- pretty much all of the songs are about being a depressed junkie. Also, the lyric sheet includes a huge, life-size photo of the guitarist’s gashed wrist from when he tried to kill himself.
What’s uncool about them: They were all groce, strung out heshers with long, stringy hair who worked at gas stations and wrote songs about banging Dilaudid.
RAMALLAH
I have no idea why this band doesn’t get more love because they go hard as FUCK, and White Trash Rob (also of Blood For Blood) is one of the best regretcore frontmen ever. This song is about being an angry, fucked up piece of shit loser, feeling confused and wanting to die aka THIS IS MY SHIT! Also, a kid got beat to death at a Ramallah show a few years back.
What’s uncool about them: The ghey gothic parts with keyboards and singing :/
VISION OF DISORDER
When this album first came out, I wasn’t feeling it, but after I got strung out a couple times and spent most of my time hanging out with burned out hardcore dudes who made their living selling drugs and robbing people I fell in love with it!
What’s uncool about them: Imagine how bummed sxe moshcore kids were when they popped this in and found out that VOD’s new sound could be best described as “Alice In Chains meets Godsmack”
TERRORZONE
After he got out of prison, the singer for Bulldoze started this band, and they are fucking sweet. “I regret what I did though / I had to do a bid” = hardest shit ever.
What’s uncool about them: This is a perfect example of how a band can be “uncool” not because they’re embarrassing, but because fangirls would be freaked out and scared (via normal people not being comfortable around career criminals)
UNWRITTEN LAW
Although I guess you’d call UL a pop-punk band, none of their songs are about anything remotely fun or upbeat. In fact, almost all of them are being lonely, miserable and hating yourself for making the same stupid mistakes over and over. In the case of this song, it’s about the singer being an alcoholic/drug addict/piece of shit who fucks everything up.
What’s uncool about them: They cross the line between “fun guys who like to party” and “fucked up alcoholic losers who are gonna kill themselves someday.” Also, this video looks like it was done with the Persona 3 engine.
DEATH THREAT
This song = my life, basically. I love it so much I got a “NOW HERE FAST” tattoo (srs, seen here next to my non-ironic Chris Isaak tattoo). This is what regretcore is all about IMO: hitting bottom is the best motivator ever, because when you think about how shitty it is down there you’ll do anything not to be there again.
What’s uncool about them: Dat cover art… u mirin?!
What is your favorite REAL regretcore band?? What’s uncool about them??? Does it make you lol to think about how scared tr00 hxc tumblrsluts would be if they hung out with Jamey Jasta or Ezec for a weekend??