Break Up Your Band

Quicksand - “Fazer”
Slip, 1993
(Guest Editor - Geoff Garlock)

Hello Break Up Your Band Followers. My name is Geoff Garlock and I am guest editing this week sooooo deal with it. The theme for this week will be “Staying Up Late on Saturday and Sunday nights OR How I Learned to Use MTV to my Advantage to Help On My Path of Being A Fucking Weirdo to this Day”. People love to talk about how MTV used to actually play videos and now it is just a bunch of bullshit. Well what about us punk or hardcore kids who never gave much of a crap about the videos they would play anyways? There was little refuge on MTV except for a couple late night shows, aka Headbanger’s Ball and 120 Minutes (and to a lesser extent Superrock). Before I started going to and playing shows in High school, I pretty much spent my Saturday nights sitting in my basement, by myself, bouncing back and forth between the Ball and SNL. And occasionally Howard Stern when he had 80’s hair and wouldn’t shut up about how good Snapple was. Amazingly, at 31, this still sounds like most Saturday nights except now I have my lovely lady sitting next to me.  Progress? You bet.  But I digress.

Either way my first entry is going to be Quicksand “Fazer”. This was one of those rare videos that would show up on both the Ball and 120 minutes. And I hold them directly responsible for me being a hardcore kid. I was obsessed with this video when I first saw it. Heavy music that was also really melodic and catchy being played by a bunch of shorthaired dudes who you could tell knew what was up. Even if I didn’t at all. End of the day 1993, when this video came out, was a huge year for me. Not only did I go to my first real “Concert” aka Lollapalooza 93, but that Christmas my mom was fantastic in her gift buying and I got Fugazi “In On the Killtaker”, Black Flag “Damaged”, and Quicksand “Slip”. Pretty life changing bunch of CD’s. Then my Aunt Nancy, who is my metal aunt/favorite relative/lover of hair metal like Poison, pulled out an article about Quicksand from Rip Magazine that listed off every hardcore band they were in. Thus my buying lists for the next year. Gorilla Biscuits, Youth Of Today, Burn, Bold, Beyond, Absolution, etc, etc.  Which led me to further alienating myself, and declaring myself straight edge. And that was it. I was a hardcore kid. Started a hardcore band, started playing shows at 16. 15 years later hear I am still playing shows. Still clinging to the edge.  Still sitting watching the Ball on Saturday nights. Amazingly in all that, never wanted to actually be in a band that sounded like Quicksand. Then I just would have been in Shift mark II. But I digress. Quicksand “Fazer”. Watch with caution. It may ruin your life and make you a dumb punk.