Urbicide, New York City 1983

Courtney Holt of New York City writes: "This gig was at a club was called Snafu, located on 21st and 6th ave right by Danceteria. It was a tough venue as you were always competing with the television (top right). We were all between the ages of 15-17 at the time and really into hardcore. After spending weekend after weekend at CBGB’s hardcore matinees and going to record shops like Rat Cage, 99, Freebeing, Venus, and when we had to... Bleecker Bobs, we were ready to give it a go. We took the best of everything we had seen at CBGB’s – Agnostic Front, Murphy's Law, Minor Threat, Meatmen, Die Kreuzen, SSD – and threw it in the blender.

Each member of the band had a different cultural reference. Our drummer, Jeff, was into songs that were socially relevant and political. Seth who played bass, wanted to fit in and make sure our sounds would play with the NYHC crowd, making us change stuff to avoid sounding like poseurs. Dave our guitar player was the most talented musician and he wanted to shine, which meant he wanted solos – something that didn’t figure too much on the hardcore punk scene, but we figured it out somehow. We were a total mixed bag, I had to filter thru. We had political songs, funny songs, “reggae” songs, and covers ranging from the arty (Wire) to bands we wish we were as good as (Negative Approach).

I don’t remember who came up with our name but our drummer was an artist and he did the crafty artwork on the banner behind us. We were originally called American Waste for about a minute until we realized that it was the name of a Black Flag song, and at that time liking Black Flag had fallen out of favor. Seth brought this to our attention and we promptly changed the name but it lived on the hazardous waste symbol that was on everything we did.

Our biggest show was playing with Sonic Youth at CBGBs which was some sort of benefit with like 20 bands. Someone recently sold a flyer for the show on ebay, but the price sky rocketed and we didn’t win it."

To listen to Urbicide and their fearsome track, Barney Miller, click here. Stonking stuff.