Remember a long time ago I said I might post the text insert from my Have Heart vinyl? Well yeah, I said that. This is from the vinyl version of their live record, the last thing they ever released. It includes some of the band's history, but it's all very minor details that you can look up very quickly. Their singer is talking about hardcore here, but I think it can apply to all subcultures. I'll try to copy it word for word, despite the foul language. Enjoy!
"'As the spirit wanes, the form appears.'
The singer doesn't sing on the mic half the time. The video looks too foggy. The guitarists play some sour notes. The sound quality is off...These, in my humble opinion, are the complaints of this little document from someone who either doesn't fully relate to the true essence of hardcore, or was not present at the Club Lido, on the 17th of October in 2009. I ensure you this isn't some trumped-up shithead excuse for HH's lack of professionality. This is more of an explanation of why I would like to consider this document of our funeral as a band, fully equipped with blemishes and flaws, is my personal favorite recording of anything we ever did.
Hardcore, to me, is live music. I'm not saying I don't get siked when I listen to the Turning Point 7" or anything like that on my record player in my room. Nor am I saying it doesn't belong in a recording studio. I just feel it more in it's raw state of the present moment. Say, at a show, around my peers, executedly with just the necessary amount of skill and intensity, that's when it has more of a punch and a deeper cut into the soul. At the show, it's in the moment. Get it right or get it wrong. Doesn't matter to me. Just as long as the heart is there. Thinking back, one of the best live bands I ever saw was Stop & Think. Too busy jumping/skanking to play their instruments looked sick. You ask your average rando' on the street what he thinks of a live performance like that and they'll tell you someone needs a guitar lesson or two. You ask any genuine hardcore kid, they'll tell you that's whats up.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying the most awful sounding bands are the prized beacons of hardcore. It's the heart, the moxie, the punch, the spirit of youth they bring forth. Hyper-active doesn't necessarily means it's golden. You can find any of that pre-packaged rage shit at Warped Tour all damn day and night. But it's that ability to look beyond that materialistic fools-gold standard and find the remarkable momentous flare of life that allows one to connect with the comfort of identifying your life and your real interior make-up, with hardcore. It's also that sight that could have a 15-year-old from Massachusetts realistically think driving to Virginia on a Wednesday night to see Count Me Out's last show is a perfectly good idea[didn't get to go. no car]. It's certainly an esoteric culture only the chosen few are happy to belong to.
From the '2003 Demo' to 'Songs To Scream At the Sun', I was always satisfied with our recordings. Being young and new to the whole recording process, I can look back and wish we did a few things differently. We always came in with everything we had. And it was fun and enjoyable. Applying yourself, creatively and immortalizing it on vinyl. A good experience. But, nothing could match the feeling of stepping on the stage and putting it all out there on the floor. 10 people, 10000. We didn't care. The 30-40 minutes we had each night was a chance to let it all go. Something I realize now, a year later, is so incredibly rare and soothing to the soul. I can only hope that in those 30-40 minutes each night, some kid was able to recognize our understanding of that moment the way we did when we were young and watching Bane in Worchester or old Youth Of Today videos in our basements.
I think that's why beyond any professional standard frowning-upon sour notes, lack of singing blah blah doesn;t change my opinion that this recording of Have Heart is my personal favorite recording of anything we ever did. It's not polished like TTWC or without a missed chord like so many other studio recordings. It's a raw one take of just about everything we did together. If someone were to ask me to show them what my band sounded like, I'd give em this. It shows us as we were. not as we would have hoped to be. Everything from the mic passes during parts that belonged to the crowd, to the way we transitioned from song to song, to hearing our friends in the HHCrew goofing around in the background, to the pic slides, etc, etc. If you saw HH between 2002 and 2009, then you'd know that this audio and video was us even more so than our records themselves. We weren't perfect. We fucked up here and there. But I know for sure the heart was there.
So, if you're the type that can't stand something that doesn't measure up to the standards your average major label/mainstream culture puts forth, by all means, return this. Bitch about it to your friends, starts a pro-core band. Whatever you'd like. We're fine with that. We just feel a little sorry for you probably missing out on some classic hardcore bands over the years who never gave a shit about impressing anyone but themselves."
- Patrick MB Flynn/ 9.17.10
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