7 minute read
Axe To Grind Podcast
Besides being the year of hardcore fanzines, double twenty was also the year that many hardcore related podcasts popped up. Axe To Grind is kinda older, I’ve heard of it since 2018 but I only paid attention a year or so ago, and since then I can’t wait for Tuesday to come to listen to the new episode! If you are into hardcore memorabilia, tons of information, year round ups, and bands playing live in the studio from time to time, ATG is for you! The episodes vary from 1,5hrs to close to 4hrs and you can’t never get enough! All 3 guys behind ATG are involved in the scene for ages, playing in bands, booking shows or taking care of record labels! Enjoy the interview and tune in ATG podcast, by the time you read this they will have reached their 160th episode or so!
Picture provided by the ATG crew.
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Hey! Thanks for having us.
Grind! How did you decide to start a podcast and what was the need of sharing all this amazing knowledge with us?
Which 3 lovely persons are behind Axe To Grind? Give some info for our readers! Where is the show based? How old are you, what are your daily jobs and what’s your involvement in the hardcore scene (bands, labels, etc.)? Hardcore interrogation!
The three people behind Axe To Grind are Patrick, Tom, and Bob. We’ve seen our podcast become nomadic, we started recording primarily in Brooklyn, moved to Queens, and now have become fully distanced and have been recording remotely for the past year. We are collectively over 100 years old, and our daily jobs are a mish mash of the following: Senior Director, Video Game Content Creator, Adjunct Professor, Lawyer, Music Management, Writer, Father, and I think Patrick might have a secret OnlyFans account too.
Involvement in the hardcore scene, outside of the podcast - Tom has been in bands for the better part of his life with Indecision and Most Precious Blood, and has recently started a new band, Colossus. Patrick is much the same, with his bands End of a Year, Self Defense Family, Drug Church and various projects that include the most recently released S.W.A.T. (Sex With a Terrorist) - low key he has also released records with his label Harm Reduction and spent some time booking shows in Albany before he relocated to the Golden State. Bob has done a bunch of smaller things around the edges, including working at Revelation Records, started Sound and Fury Festival, put out records under his label Collapse Records, and booked shows here, there, and everywhere.
3 years on air, with more than 150 shows and lots of bands performing live on Axe To
Patrick and Tom had done an episode of the Deathwish Inc podcast, Deathcast, and had a great time, with loose plans to give it a go down the line. Bob was recruited in a group chat and that was that. The need was more just a desire to talk with friends about hardcore in a way that’s honest, passionate, and as little pretentiousness as possible.
Axe To Grind is definitely the nerdiest hardcore podcast in the world! Your shows can, in some occasions, last up to 4hrs, which is so incredible! If there is a hardcore history class in school, you should definitely teach it!
Thank you for that - I guess we might try and reframe it as the most passionate hardcore podcast, but we’ll take whatever people want to throw at us. From the start, our intent was to do a podcast where most, if not all, episodes would be an hour to maybe an hour and a half. Pretty soon into our start we received requests for longer episodes - many from people who work odd jobs, have weird hours, and spend a lot of time by themselves for whatever reasons and they appreciated hearing our blathering as some form of entertainment. That really meant a lot to us, and those are the people we think of when we let the tape roll. On top of that, we all have a lot of fun recording so why not.
What’s your top 3 of Axe To Grind shows and live sets till now?
This is the “pick your favorite child” question so we can leave it there, but doing the Live on Axe To Grind sets has been super rewarding. Hopefully it’s turned some people on to bands we love that maybe they weren’t as familiar with.
If you haven’t, check out some of the classic radio live sets that inspired us, like any of the Crucial Chaos WNYU sets, WFMU sets, or some of the random west coast stuff like the Infest Live on KXLU set.
What’s the topic you want to discuss but you haven’t done it yet? Do you ever censor yourselves? Any past hardcore guilts that we should keep under the carpet?
Very happy to report we have a million topics we want to talk about but haven’t gotten to yet, but to answer directly I think we are collectively excited to do a few more deep dives into classic band discographies. Always feels rewarding and almost reminds us of forgotten great material.
We have censored ourselves, but only a handful of times. Good example is during a very early on during an episode where Bob and Patrick got into a yelling argument mid episode. That got clipped. Sorry to Tom for having to deal with us as maniacs who have known each other long enough that we were able to have a full on blow out and get back to recording 5 minutes later.
Hardcore guilts? Nah, we’re open books. That said, are there stories out there that are not fit for broadcast? Of course. Quite often, it’s not
our story to tell, amplify, or embellish so we have to think about that here and there.
Who designed that cool logo of the show? How important is the aesthetics in hardcore in your opinion and which era of hardcore deserves the best-looking medal?
Good friend and a guest who’s joined us on the show, Jon Contino, designed the logo. He’s notable in the hardcore world for a ton of stuff, but I always think to his Incendiary “Product of New York” design first. He’s an incredibly creative dude and people should seek out his work as well as his book, Brand By Hand.
Aesthetic has ALWAYS been important. We find ourselves talking about the way records look and feel more often than not. Which era gets the gold medal? Sheesh. Mileage varies. Each of us probably has a different answer for that one. Suffice it to say, we’re living in a good time for care and attention to the visuals of hardcore.
We live in the age of quarantine but it seems that hardcore breathes a fresh air that can only get compared to the 90s. So many good bands and individuals taking care of zines, labels, distros and podcasts. What’s your take on this? What are your favorite bands and labels right now? Any underrated records / bands we should check?
Let me pivot this and just say there’s a ton of smaller labels coming up (Convulse, Blind Rage, Streets of Hate, Dark Medicine, Daze, 11pm, Unlawful Entry) that people should keep their eyes on. Just did a 2020 year-end episode and all three of us really enjoyed the band Pillars of Ivory.
You also did an episode on Star Wars! Did you watch the 2 seasons of The Mandalorian? Aren’t they way much better than the ‘Return of the Jedi’? Since you are cinephiles, when will you do an episode talking about all the movies that Henry Rollins has ever played in?!
The Mandalorian was / is the best Star Wars live action material since the original trilogy (despite the fact that I am a sucker for Rogue One). Return of the Jedi holds a special place but maybe is a nostalgia thing. Put me in an Ewok tree house, y’know?
We should do a Best of Henry Rollins episode. What’s better, Black Flag “In My Head” or his role as Spider in Johnny Mnemonic?
I might push back on your analysis of the 90’s, it’s very en vogue to think of it as this golden age whereas I think it was no better or worse than the decades that preceded or followed. It all depends on where you find your specific tastes as to what era you pick as the best. That said, living in this moment is a great one. Personally I think we’re seeing creativity flourish in ways that it hadn’t for a few years, perhaps out of necessity. Our take is: seize the moment and spend time doing things you want, and don’t let anything stand in the way of you expressing yourself creatively.
What’s your next plans for ATG? A Rick Ta Life solo performance on the show?!
Keep On Keepin’ On. Immediate plans are to do a grip of “Year in Hardcore” episodes in 2021, and maybe a couple surprises. We’ll see. No plans for Rick to perform on Axe To Grind at the time of publishing.
