BORN AGAINST & SICK OF IT ALL DEBATE. CRUCIAL CHAOS, WNYU-FM. FM BROADCAST.

To say that this recording is entertaining is putting it quite lightly. Simply put, what begins as as a meeting of the minds quickly turns into a discourse of vitriolic proportions. And it's also the most notoriously known half hour in the history of WNYU radio. On one side, Steve Martin (founder of In Effect Records and formerly of Agnostic Front), Lou and Pete Koller of Sick Of It All, and Sam of Evacuate Records represent the alleged commercially motivated hardcore contingent of the late 1980s New York hardcore scene. The other side, representing the populist, do-it-yourself faction involved in New York hardcore is Sam McPheeters and Adam Nathanson of Born Against/Vermiform Records and Charles Maggio of Rorschach/Gern Blandsten Records.

What begins as an on air radio debate about the principles of censorship, the hardcore economy, and the role of artist in the underground turns into an in-studio brawl. There's certainly some interesting points along the way. McPheeters, Nathanson, and Maggio are populist purists rooted in the tradition of do-it-yourself hardcore and are blatantly calling bullshit on In Effect Records and Sick Of It All because they feel they are selling out.

I find this document to be really captivating. In the archetypal days of hardcore, there were no online message boards for a legion of people to speak with digital courage. Disputes were settled by the primal act of street justice. Considering the zeitgeist of New York hardcore in the late 80s, this debate truly shows the convergence of two separate hardcore scenes with vastly different ideals concerning scene politics. The regional experience of New York hardcore has always been entrenched in working class, tough, and unsophisticated ideals. In my opinion, it's always served as a reaction to the cosmopolitan culture of Manhattan. The second wave of New York hardcore (of which In Effect Records and Sick Of It All were key players) was defined by right-wing philosophies and violence. Born Against, Rorschach, and the other bands that comprised the ABC No Rio scene in the late 1980s served an alternative to this culture. This recording captures this cultural wrangle in real time.

The quality of this tape is satisfactory considering it was recorded in the WNYU studios. This version suffers from the slightest bit of tape hiss that I have yet not tried to correct digitally.

If anyone has the date this was recorded, I would really appreciate it if you could pass this information along to me.

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