Sick of It All/Snapcase poster
SICK OF IT ALL
Sick of it All’s 1994 album ‘Scratch the Surface’ was life changing for me. I first read a review on it in an amazing German socialist fanzine called ‘Blood Red’ and for some reason it piqued my interest intensely. The description of this heavy metallic punk sound with socially conscious lyrics that was known as ‘hardcore’ appealed so strongly to me.I think I basically started my little record distribution in South Africa just so I could get my hands on a copy (in those days there were NO stores that carried anything remotely close to this kind of music). The band epitomises commitment and passion, setting my personal ideals and standards for music really really high especially when it came to forming my own band, perfomances and touring. SOIA just never give up and consistently put out records with great songs, lyrics and videos. Even today they’re performing and releasing material as strongly as if they had just started the band.. check out the video off their last album right down below.
Read more about Sick of it All on the Wikipedia entry or enter their name into google and look around.
This was the video that started it all for me:
(In the opening scene you see Toby Morse their then roadie who went on to form the band H20 and now doing great stuff with http://www.onelifeonechance.com)
Here’s some great footage & interview with SOIA at their 20th anniversary. Here you hear Lou Koller (vocals) recount a few highlights of their band one of which being meeting Joe Strummer (The Clash) and having him tell them that SOIA “are amazing”, and Craig Setari(bass) tell us about his bass that his mother bought him when he was 13 that he still plays TO THIS DAY :
So yes, Thursday I’m taking a flight to New York City and on Saturday I’ll be a part of this:
And this (“Step Down” off the album “Scratch the Surface”:
And finally, their latest music video for “Death or Jail”:
There’s tons more stuff out there, start searching if you’ve just discovered what I felt like 15 years ago.
The next post will be about SNAPCASE the opening band on this show and exactly half the reason why I’m going.. stay tuned.
Stay strong always.
UPDATE:
Here’s the interview that I was referring to above, you probably can’t read it, but I thought I’d post it here for reference:
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