You can imagine how stoked I was to see an email in my inbox titled "I was in Judge." I was even more stoked once I actually read it and saw that it was from Judge guitarist Lars Weiss and that he enjoyed YeahYouKnowIt's review of the Judge 7" the other day. Oh, and that he doesn't hate crunkcore.
If you are old, you understand that Lars is a hardcore vet who has done time in legendary bands like Side By Side, Alone In A Crowd, Uppercut and of course Judge. If you're one of the younger kids who reads this site and don't understand exactly how well-respected and awesome these bands are, read this interview with Lars from Double Crossed and learn. Let me be perfectly clear: I make a lot of jokes, but I fucking love hardcore and I always will. Lars seems to be on the same page, and I am definitely stoked to hear from someone who was in some bands that mean a lot to me. Thanks bro, if you're ever in town hit me up and we will get fucking crunk!
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Lars is the guitarist with Tony Hawk hair in this video for Judge's "Where It Went." If you don't think this is a lolfactory, you are in the No Fun Club.
Here is his email:
Hey,I was in Judge for minute (I played guitar on the summer 1990 tour & "The Storm" ep) and I just had to let you know that Scene Girl's review had me dying. So funny on many, many different levels, most of which have been touched upon in the comments on your blog and the livewire records board. Totally surreal reading an extra-long text message making fun of Mike for wearing raver pants. I really want to see what she thinks of "Screaming for Change"....Anyway, I still see Sammy on the regular. Can't wait to tell him about the post.Btw, I've checked out the blog before and I dig it. I too am an old dude who keeps up with new stuff. For awhile, my taste leaned towards (for lack of a better term) "hipster rap" -- Fools Gold/ Mad Decent, etc., but now I feel that shit is kinda weak. I still keep up with dancehall and beardo house stuff like Rub'n'Tug, Map of Africa, DJ Harvey but those dudes are older than me! Always looking for something new to get excited about. I have to say I found out about crunkcore from StuffYouWillHate and while I don't exactly "like" it, it does fascinate me.Anyway, keep up the good work...Lars
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One of the funniest hardcore songs of all time, "When Tigers Fight" by the highly underrated and highly fucking awesome Alone In A Crowd
I hope Sammy is also stoked. I am a big fan of his work, especially the bowling shirts he rocked in the layout for the CIV record! Lars continues in a second email in which we discussed the finer points of hardcore lolfactories and crunkcore:
You're right about "When Tigers Fight" [being a lolfactory]-- Drago, Carl (Killing Time dudes) and I were dying in the studio when we recorded it! Drago even came up with the idea and overdubbed the little "ding" that you hear when Jules says "There ain't gonna be no bell..."....As far as Crunkcore, I mean how can you not be interested in anything (Lil Wayne included) that involves a lot of tattoos and autotune.. Plus, I'm for ever searching for great Rap/ Rock hybrids (I've always though Leeway should have been huge & Fred Durst should still be tatooing in FL somewhere) and maybe one of those kids could do it. I mean some white kid's gonna have much more of a feel for hip hop than Pharrell (or Lil' Wayne)does for punk rock...
Thanks Lars, I'm glad to hear that you and I both know how to have fun despite being fossils! Oh, and a giant high five for coining the phrase BEARDO HOUSE. A++++
