I mentioned before that we are mixing up the musical content and coverage this year at Corehammer. Band Of the Week has served its purpose and run its course so we’ll be switching over to more reviews, interviews and gig coverage in coming weeks. Something else I wanted to try was to shine some light on those particular records, regardless of genre, that have had a significant impact upon us as individuals. I extended that invitation to writers from some of the various blogs we follow as well as friends and allies of Corehammer. There was no specific criteria beyond the fact that the music had to have some kind of personal meaning to the writer and could inspire an anecdote or interesting personal reflection. Maybe it was the record that opened those forbidden doors to the underground for you as a young’un and changed the course of your life or perhaps it was the first band you ever truly related to, could be that it was the record that was spinning in the background whilst you popped your cherry (we are functional gamers here after all) maybe it was the album that you rinsed whilst getting over the break up of a shitty relationship or perhaps it was the soundtrack to a particularly memorable summer? Over the course of the year we’ll be throwing a few of these up every now and again.

First up is Gav Russell who runs the excellent (and Corehammer approved) Tight To the Nail website. TTTN is a frequently updated extreme music review blog that covers punk, hardcore, metal, drone and everything you can possibly conceive of in between. With a labyrinthian musical knowledge and the boundless enthusiasm to match it, TTTN also offers free download samplers of the good stuff they mention on the site and is usually my first port of call when looking for new sounds on the world wide webz. Over to Gav……

It all happened, as the best things often do, by accident. And because my friend, for some bizarre reason, had a pen friend. A fucking pen friend?! I think she was Irish, I could be wrong, I’m not even sure actually that she was a she. But what I do know is that she sent him a tape. And on that tape? A musical milestone of such vast importance that I would only later come to comprehend it.

Saying a NOFX record is a game changer, hell, even a life changer, might sound a bit….well…. shit. In 1997, they were a band on the cusp of being past their prime. Indeed, So Long And Thanks For All The Shoes is the last good record that they released. Trust me, I’ve listened to the records since then. No dice. That’s a current losing streak of 14 years. But that record introduced me to a whole new genre, became an eventual springboard into hardcore and changed the way I thought about music completely.

Before NOFX, The Offspring and Green Day were about as far as I got down the spit splattered road of punk rock. I wasn’t connecting the dots. When I later learned of The Offspring’s connection to Nitro Records, I think I felt my brain gasp. It’s a common understanding to underground music fans nowadays that the record label is like a family. A series of inter-connected artists, usually playing music with a similar feel and message, united under one banner. Stick a pin in a roster and you’ll usually find something else you like. It was NOFX that taught me that. Before So Long… records were just records that magically appeared on shelves. Who put them there? Who arranged getting them released? Who the fuck cared.

So Long… was released on Epitaph. I can’t remember specifically how the epiphany happened, but a combination of the strength of what I was hearing (pitch-perfect punk rock, tongue in cheek with an occasional dark side, fast as fuck, breaking from all conventions that I had come to understand), that E logo on the back and a thanks list of alien names made me understand that I needed to start knowing shit. All of a sudden, and with a bit of investigation, a record label was a guarantee. No more probing in the dark. No more just doing what Kerrang told me. Fuck you Kerrang, I won’t do what you tell me. And so the flood gates opened.

Epitaph, Fat Wreck, Nitro, Hellcat, Burning Heart; I was hopping from contemporary punk rock label to contemporary punk rock label like some sort of cat who got the Mohawk (I did get a Mohawk). I moved up to secondary school. Daunting? Fuck that! I just met even more weirdos who carried Millencolin and No Use For A Name CD’s around in their backpacks.

NOFX gave me that. There have been other records of huge importance since this one from 1997 (So Long…isn’t even that well respected among their back catalogue). But none that literally changed the way I understand how the music that I love works. Listening to it now (as I often do), it’s not a perfect record. It’s got way too much ska for one thing, and it’s a bit too long. But it does contain ‘All His Suits Are Torn’ – probably one of the saddest punk songs you’ll ever hear. And it does contain ‘I’m Telling Tim’ – probably one of the most life affirming punk songs you’ll ever hear. And it does contain ‘It’s My Job To Keep Punk Rock Elite’ – undoubtedly one of my favourite songs of all time and 80 seconds of sheer, snarling, sarcastic perfection. It’s not perfect, I actively dislike parts of it, but I still love it.

And like all gateway drugs, it wasn’t long before we all needed the harder shit. Down the rabbit hole we go. What’s this? Hardcore? Breakdowns, you say? Say hello to Equal Vision, Victory, Revelation, Trustkill, Deathwish. How deep does this hole go? Fuck it, keep going. What’s down this path? There are bands in England that make this sort of music?? Well. Say hello to the rest of your life.