Lars Weiss of JUDGE/SIDE BY SIDE/ETC reviews ADTR, Attack Attack, BrokeNCYDE, and more

Guitarist Lars Weiss is a veteran of such legendary New York hardcore bands as Side By Side, Alone In A Crowd, Judge, and Uppercut– as well as a practicing attorney. Pretty impressive resume, but what I really appreciate about him is that he is one of the rare people who’s kept a sense of humor and open mind about music over the years. In addition to being an authority on hardcore, he’s also a big fan of dance music, so figured it would be cool to get his thoughts on what the current generation of kids are doing with both hardcore and dance music.

For more info on Lars, check out the excellent series of interviews he did with the boys at Double Cross (one of the very best blogs on the planet), as well as his response to the earlier SYWH post “Scene Girl Reviews Judge ‘New York Crew 7”“.

Thanks to Lars for his time, sense of humor, and giving some dap to dubcore (even if the 20 year olds in these bands have probably never even heard of Black Flag).

Emmure “Solar Flare Homicide”

Wow! this is pretty thugged out. Don’t know these guys at all. My knowledge of shit like this begins and ends with Madball & Merauder who both started playing out after I stopped going to shows in NY (man I’m old).  Now that I’ve recently started going to hardcore/metal shows again, what has impressed me the most is how many girls are at the shows.  Man, dudes today have it easy! You practically had to have a secondary social life besides the hardcore scene (like going to clubs ) to meet girls in the old days. These dudes are taking it back to that old school all male vibe. No girls allowed!

Brokencyde “Teach Me How To Scream”

Brokencyde should start some beef with those “Teach Me How to Dougie” kids (and LMFAO for that matter)-that would be hilarious. I like these guys’ attitude as they definitely don’t give a fuck.  Not that this will be in my iPod anytime soon, but unlike Kevin Seconds, I don’t hate crunkcore as I think it has some potential to be a pretty cool rap/rock hybrid. For real, this is better than 90% of N*E*R*D’s songs. Totally excellent how crunkcore is completely ignored by the hipsters. No crunkcore parties are poppin’ off in Bushwick and that’s a good thing. Judging by the lack of palm trees in the video, it looks like these guys haven’t done anything gay like move to LA.  Thumbs up for rockin’ 40′s, but lose the Grey Goose…

Attack Attack “Smokahontas”

I really like the production especially the keyboard parts thrown in there.  The Sarge has informed my old ass  that this is a trend in metalcore (Up to now, I’ve only heard Pendulum, but that’s because they were drum’n'bass producers first) As a big dance music fan and someone who likes to see new musical hybrids I fully back this, no matter how lame the trance breakdown in the middle is.  The outro is hard, what are they tuned down to? C flat?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_P1ZEyvlvXc

The Bangz ft New Boyz “Found My Swag”‘

Gotta say I’m a huge Clipse fan (until this last album) and the beat sounds like something the Neptunes would have done like 8 years ago, so I’m cool with it.  A few observations: 1) Yo! these kids are mad young….2) “half black, half bad bitch” is pretty funny coming from a 12 year-old. 3) I like the “post-racial” crowd shots with their friends- everyone wears skinny jeans now days! (and Vans in real life- this video was sponsored by Puma) 4) Found your swag? did you lose it? Maybe, being so young, they just recently grew into it and started being real confident all of a sudden….Not so sure about this one.

Hollywood Undead “Everywhere I Go”

This is retarded… don’t really know what to say. The video is like some Mr. Cartoon shit with hockey masks. On the plus side,  this is music that no hipster would touch with a 10 foot pole.

Commissioner “Click Click Flash”

This is crazy! Totally like the combination of metal and dubstep. This is definitely the best of the bunch. Would totally recommend this to some producers I know as the production is insane.  Actually impressed that kids are liking this… this is some forward thinking shit! They should produce something for Brokencyde…

Dev “Booty Bounce”

Can’t review this one. My firm represents Dev’s management company (not kidding!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kd-lbg1QQ-Y

A Day To Remember “Downfall Of Us All”

I gotta say, I thought I would hate this… but how can you be mad at a band that sounds like a combination of the Descendents and Celtic Frost.  The double bass/mosh parts are hard and I like the dude’s singing voice. After listening to the Attack Attack joint and this one,  I have to say metal/hardcore these days is relying too much on double bass drum triggers- seems generic at this point, but hey, if the kids are into it…

Rej3tcz “Cat Daddy”

Ever since I was a teenager, I’ve been very wary of large groups teenagers rolling down the street. Guess it’s a product of me growing up in NY in the 80′s. However, don’t know if I’d be worried about a bunch of dudes in jeggings and Sponge Bob shirts. Might be wrong in this case as I think these guys really are “hood.” That being said, seems like you can get way more flamboyant with your style in LA since you don’t ever have to ride the subway. Can’t figure out if the “Cat Daddy” is some lame dance that I’m gonna have watch out for during player introductions at NBA games, but the song is ok. I like the guy who does the last verse. Btw, I don’t understand Chris Brown’s role here- is he just showing us that he still has an ear to the streets?

Grudge “Drinking’s Great”

I remember when this came out- I love poking fun at stuff I’ve been involved with but this is terrible. Not funny at all (and there was so much that was funny about Judge/ Project X). Garbage….