Hoods live @ Danville Grange Hall videos

I was pretty stoked when I stumbled across these videos the other night, and I figured that I had to post them on the blog. This Hoods set was filmed by Eric Fortner (Downshift) at the Danville Grange Hall back in January of 1997. Big thanks to Eric for always being cool about sharing his music and video footage. This very early Hoods line-up featured Mikey on guitar, Mario playing Bass, Billy (someone please correct me if I’m wrong) on drums and Mike Miranda (aka Mike Spaulding) on vocals. Mike Hodson (Lockjaw .44, Strength By Strength, Through It All) also makes a guest vocal appearance somewhere around the end of the first video that continues onto the second video.

Despite the fact that this video is chopped into three parts, this is still is a pretty good quality set, especially when considering the time frame. The band plays mostly earlier stuff here (first ep, demo tracks, new blood, etc.) and closes with a pair of Agnostic Front covers (“Last Warning” and “Friend or Foe”) which was definitely a Hoods-staple for years. Videos like this definitely make me miss the Grange Hall. On a related note, be on the lookout for more Hoods-related posts very soon, and if you haven’t done so already, be sure to download any records of theirs that I’ve already posted.

Hard Luck - The Brick Sessions

Hard Luck originally formed sometime in early 2000 under the name Threat Assessment. Donny, Dan and Greg set out to play straight forward Hardcore influenced by bands like Madball, Agnostic Front and Powerhouse. After placing some ads and putting up flyers in search of a drummer, the three eventually hooked up with Matt and put some songs together. Threat Assessment played their first show at Gilman St. in April of 2000. The band continued to write songs and tighten up their sound, and after playing their second show as Threat Assessment (at the Danville Grange Hall), they decided to change the name of the band to Hard Luck. Shortly thereafter, Matt left the band and Tony B. (then drummer of Second Coming) eventually came in to fill the void. In the following months, Hard Luck played shows all over California and the Northwest.

By January of 2001, the band had decided it was finally time to go into the studio, and later that month they entered Digit Sound (Second Coming, Doomsday Device, Lowlife) to record what became known as “The Brick Sessions”. The end result was 8 songs of pissed off, heavy, straight forward Hardcore. The production may be considered somewhat raw (especially by today’s standards), but personally I think it suits the band just fine. These songs have a MAJOR Biohazard feel to them, so fans of early 90’s NYHC (think bands like Bulldoze, Madball, Dmize, etc.) should definitely check this one out.

Although Hard Luck had traditional influences, they were far from generic. Donny’s voice was always very unique and his lyrics dealt with the hardships and struggles of everyday life, while still maintaining a relatively positive mental attitude. In my opinion, they were definitely one of the more underrated bands of the era.

Unfortunately Hard Luck was always plagued with drummer issues, and sometime after this recording, Tony B. left Hard Luck to focus on his other bands; Second Coming and Sworn Vengeance. Hard Luck pushed on for a time with friends filling-in on drums whenever possible, but ultimately the band broke up in the fall of 2001 when Dan and Greg moved to Seattle. Donny would eventually go on to sing for bands like Time For Living and Modern Eyes while Greg went on to sing for Rosary. Dan would also join Time For Living upon returning to the Bay Area in 2003, he currently plays guitar in Set Your Goals. Find out where these guys cut their teeth.

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News and Updates

After an extended hiatus, the blog is officially back! My sincere apologies and thanks go out to anyone who has been supporting the blog and waiting patiently… Any dead or invalid rapidshare links have been replaced by working ones, so if you’ve been trying to download something that was previously unavailable, please try again! Everything should be working properly now.

Also, I am currently accepting contributions for the blog, so if you have some relevant material that you’d like to submit, please get in touch! I can be reached at nathan.beneishai@gmail.com . Basically, I am looking for any music (please include decent-sized cover artwork), videos, photos, flyers, fanzine pdf’s or scans, interviews or anything else that I am missing, that would be relevant to the blog (specifically anything from the mid-late 90’s and early 2000’s).

Although I’ve been fortunate to find the majority of my music, flyers and fanzines from ‘back then’, some stuff has inevitably been lost or misplaced over the years. Although I definitely have more than enough material to keep the blog going for now, eventually I will need some help… Any contributors will be given full credit for their submissions. If this sounds like something that you’re interested in, then please get in touch. My collection is growing more and more all the time, so please let me know what you are submitting before you send it (I am trying to avoid receiving duplicates wherever possible). Thanks again for the continued support! Without further due, let’s get back to business…