It’s an important hardcore album that most fans haven’t had the chance to appreciate simply because it hasn’t been available except via bootleg or import. This year, Bridge 9 reissued the EP in CD, vinyl (red or white 7-inch), and digital formats. This is the first time most HC fans have been able to hear a true release of this seminal album since 1983.

“Thou Shalt Not Kill” is a time capsule of 1983 New York City and other urban, industrial U.S. wastelands. It’s also an All-Star roster of NYHC scenesters. The original lineup consisted of founder Robb Nunzio on guitar, ex-Misfit Arthur (Bliss) Googy on drums and Tommy Victor of Prong on bass. John “Bloodclot” Joseph lent back-up vocals on Real Deal. Other tracks cover a sample of the issues troubling the minds of early ’80s NYC street kids — war (Die at War, Life as One), a xenophobic fear of unemployment (the controversial Foreign Job Lot) and racially harmonious violent revolution(Nazi Youth, Something Must Be Done). It’s more polished than most of the other NYHC EPs, though it’s about as short — clocks in at around 9 minutes.

All in all, any hardcore history buff will get a kick out of the reissue. Check it out. It’s good, it’s important and it’s cheap. The FSS had the chance to talk to Robb Nunzio, Antidote’s founder and guitarist:

1. “Thou Shalt Not Kill” was released in 1983, early in the life of
the New York Hardcore scene. How did Antidote enter the NYHC scene?

Antidote was formed by Robb Nunzio (guitar/songwriter) with help from
Tom Victor (Prong,Danzig) on bass and Arthur (Bliss) Googy (The Misfits)
on drums. We rehearsed at the infamous 171 A studios on Avenue A
on the Lower East Side which was recommended to us by the Bad Brains
who were recording there at the time. We had no name at the time.
I had a friend named Jeff Zane White who I went to school with sing
during that formative era. Tom left to pursue other interests and we
played our first few shows at A7 and the annex 2+2 on the Bowery
without a bass player.

2. The early 80′s hardcore scene was busting with legendary bands.
Can you describe some of the best shows you witnessed or participated
in as a band? Feel free to include some amusing or embarrassing
anecdotes.

I attended and participated in many of the early NY Hardcore scene’s
most legendary and notorious shows. I saw the Misfits come out of coffins
at Irving Plaza, a near riot between fans of the Misfits and the Undead at
the old Ritz. Vinnie Stigma bust his head open on the CBGB PA system
slam dancing at Flipper I think it was. Saw M.D.C plug their amps into a
streetlight and perform right on Avenue C one summer. The Dead
Kennedys destroy the Beacon Theatre…Opened for the Bad Brains on
the last night of their legendary 1982 Christmas shows at CBGB’s…etc.

3. How did the early NYHC scene compare to the NYHC scene of today?

I dont think you can compare now and then. Back in those days it was
something completely new and was considered crazy and dangerous by so-
called “normal” people.

4. How has Antidote grown as a band since the release of “Thou Shalt Not Kill?”

Since the original early line up of Antidote disbanded back in 1984, the line up of
myself, Drew Stone and Bass player Neal Zum has been working together now
for about 5 years on and off. This has been Antidote’s best and most consistent
lineup, not counting the in between years when we performed as a 5 piece “Hard Rock”
act during the late 80′s and early 90′s.

5. What are some of your favorite venues/clubs to play, both past and present?

My favorite place to play would have to be the late CBGB’s, RIP. No club I’ve ever
played in before or since could match its sound and intensity for Hardcore shows.

6. What are some of your favorite places to see a show?

No favorites.

7. You guys have been playing a good amount of live shows lately. Can we expect alot more?

Antidote is always ready to bust it anywhere at anytime.

8. Bridge 9 is re-releasing “Thou Shalt Not Kill.” What led to that? Why now and what took so long?

Unfortunately, there were a lot of people with thick heads involved in the early
NY Hardcore scene. That’s why it took so long. A renewed interest in the band
and its music, with the help of the internet, and the strength of our live act
is what led to the re-release of Thou Shalt Not Kill.

9. The original “Thou Shalt Not Kill” 7-inch is one of the rarest and
most sought-after pieces of hardcore history. Vinyl nerds, hardcore
fanatics, and other assorted collectors would kill for a copy. What
is it about “Thou Shalt Not Kill” that made it such a legendary
7-inch?

What makes TSNK so great is the raw power, honesty and ferocious anger
that comes across on the record. The hostile sarcastic tone seems to strike a nerve with
a large number of youth from today as well as the kids who were around when
it was first released 27 years ago. Those emotional elements coupled with a
sonic sound quality not heard on many early hardcore records are what has made
TSNKill the legendary record that it has become.

10. Are there any like-minded vinyl-crazed collectors in Antidote? If so, what are some of your most prized pieces in your record collections?

I am currently enjoying re-discovering all of the 45′s and albums I used to have
in my collection on CDs now. Some of the harder ones to find like the old British
imports I used to love I’m still looking for. It’s a fun challenge tryna get em again!
Sadly, most of my vinyl shit is long gone.

11. What are some of your favorite places to go record shopping?

I still love to stop in at the great shop Bleecker Bob’s when in NYCity. I find
stuff at FYE sometimes and found a great hardcore shop called Shore Things in
Ocean City on the Jersey shore. They’ve got an incredible selection of new and used
hardcore. Lest we forget Newbury Comics in Boston. I love that friggin place.

This Sunday proved an otherwise miserable day outside made brighter by sitting inside and listening to some vinyl. I’ve been listening to “An Open Letter To The Scene” all week on my iPod. In my car. On a New Jersey Transit train. On the stree-atht. In my office. But somehow nothing compares to sitting at home on a Sunday three cups of coffee deep and dropping that needle on 180 grams of beautiful warm vinyl. And without doubt as many times as I’ve listened to the Mp3s all week, this is the real deal. People will tell you vinyl sounds better. They’ll give you all kinds of reasons and descriptive terms why. But the only way you’ll ever know why is to sit down and listen to the difference yourself. It’s staggering. But enough about my love of LPs, you get enough of that on this site anyway…let’s get to Walter.

If you’re not familiar with the name maybe you’ll know him by some of the bands he’s been in over the years. Youth of Today, Gorilla Biscuits, Quicksand, Moondog, and Rival Schools to name a few. Any hardcore collection is lacking if all or most of these bands are not in it. “An Open Letter To The Scene” isn’t a Hardcore album though. At least not on the surface. Schreifels plays the role of acoustic rock singer songwriting troubadour on this release. But that doesn’t mean it’s not chock full of Hardcore either. From his acoustic cover of Agnostic Front’s Society Sucker to his alternate take on Don’t Gotta Prove It by Civ (a song he wrote for them while producing their first album). But the coup de grace of the album is the title track. An Open Letter To The Scene is probably the best tribute anyone has done for Warzone’s Ray Beez since he passed away back in 1997 (and believe me there have been MANY tributes since then). An Open Letter to The Scene is such a beautiful song I want it played at my funeral. I’m not even kidding about this. I’m putting it in my will. Or at least I’m putting it on the FSS and ya’ll have to back me up on it one day.  Other standout tracks include Wild Pandas and Ballad of Lil’ Kim. Like Walter I also often wonder what Lil’ Kim looks like in the morning and what she’s like when her guards down. I think about these things mostly when I hear Lighters Up (one of my favorite hip hop tracks of the last ten years). I once told Brother P that I want that song played whenever I enter a club. You know… if I went to clubs.

As mentioned earlier the vinyl comes on 180 gram heavy stock. It also includes a gatefold cover and Academy Fight Song was nice enough to also send me a poster, some buttons, and a download code. It should be noted that the vinyl version comes with a bonus track you won’t get on the CD. A cover of monsters of shoegaze My Bloody Valentine’s When You Sleep. If those aren’t enough reasons this seriously is one of my favorite albums of 2010 and one I’ll be playing for a long time to come. So get it. And if you don’t know Walter get albums by every band I mentioned earlier that he’s been in too. ” Manic Compression” by Quicksand, “Start Today” by Gorilla Biscuits, “United By Fate” by Rival Schools, and the “Moondog EP” would be a great start.

P’s Take: So one Saturday morning me and Uncle T sat down to listen to Agnostic Front’s reissues of “Victim In Pain” and “United Blood” on vinyl on my fathers system. It has been 25 years since “Victim In Pain” came out and a lot has changed. The NYHC has more or less died. New York itself is no longer what it was, it’s more like a city sound-stage designed by Disney. On the Lower East Side it is now a lot easier to find a pumpkin nutmeg latte than a bag of angel dust, you know, not that I’m looking. The circumstances that helped create AF just don’t exist anymore.

That being said, both these albums still stand up. They are both full of macho posturing and Hardcore cliché but you have to remember that when these albums were cut, there was no Hardcore cliché yet, it was still too new. The topics they touch on; crime, scene bullshit, violence, “realness”, all this stuff that sounds to us now like more of the same was then accurate reporting. And exactly none of it sounds hokey, they mean every word. AF, for better or worse was the architect of NYHC and what it became and these albums represent the best of the scene at the time.

Both these albums are nostalgia; there is no way around it. It was strange to listen to these sounds on my dad’s expensive set up, you don’t need and shouldn’t use audiophile shit to listen to Stigma’s guitar work, your amplifier becomes retarded. Whenever I hear United and Strong I remember brown-bag 40 drinking on St. Mark’s, me and the crew and a couple hundred other skins that used to line both sides of St. Mark’s Place from one corner to another every Friday and Saturday night. Now that area is a good place to hit if you need to go to The Gap or are in the mood for Afghani food, whatever that might be. Times change people and places but both these albums still make you wanna run into somebody. So there’s always that.

T’s Take: When you think about it, it’s kinda unbelievable that Stigma, Roger Miret, and Ray Beez can all be found together on the same 7”. These are the founding fathers of NYHC (as it’s commonly known) for chrissakes. If you grew up in NY or NJ or anywhere on the East Coast you know Agnostic Front. You grew up with them. You yelled “why am I going insane, why am I the one to blame” along with them. If you consider yourself a fan of Hardcore or any of its substrata but not of Agnostic Front, it’s probably not AF’s fault. You see like with all scenes, eventually things get out of hand and become a parody of what they once where. Kids get behind a mic and a guitar and sing about something or other because they think they’re supposed to. Unity this, backstabbers that…oi oi oi, something about the streets or respect or respecting the streets. You know what I’m saying and you know that these bands that do this are bullshit. But let’s not hold that against AF.

If you consider yourself a fan of Hardcore, particularly of NYHC you should own these albums. And thanks to the folks at Bridge Nine you can readily find them again in all their vinyl glory. You’ll be surprised when the records start how much of them you already know. United Blood is filled… FILLED… with classics. From the opening chords of No One Rules, to the chorus of Last Warning, all 73 seconds of United Blood you’ll remember all that was once great about Hardcore music. I think only two songs between both of these records break the two-minute mark; most hover between 25 seconds and just over a minute. If you read our review of “You Weren’t There” about the Chicago Punk scene and how they never quite formulated a true Chicago sound then you’ll be even more amazed that AF helped create and popularize a New York sound with about 6 minutes worth of music that people still remember and hold dear over 25 years later.

Stigma!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!(insert guitar solo here)