Tim McMahon / DCXX Blog Interview by Jordan A. Baker
It's easy for those of us who have been around punk and hardcore for awhile to get into a rut about how things used to be; the days of mailorder, paper zines, finding out about shows only through flyers, etc. Most of the musings revolve around a degree of personal interaction, and how the internet has altered our relationships. But it's hard to say that most of these changes are for the worse. And in the case of applying old-school ethos with modern technology, the results can be stunning. This situation can found in the still relatively new hardcore blog Double Cross (DCXX), which is helmed by former MOUTHPIECE and current TRIPLE THREAT frontman Tim McMahon. In not even a year, DCXX has become one of the best resources for the history of hardcore music, shared through the eyes, ears, and mouths of those who have been on the ground for nearly three decades. In February 2009, Pastepunk caught up with Tim about DCXX's mission and the timely release of MOUTHPIECE's highly sought-after discography, out now on Revelation Records.
Pastepunk: As someone who found his way into youth-crew hardcore through the Spirit of '98 instead of '88, the Double Cross blog (DCXX) has been like sorting through a daily museum exhibit of hardcore artifacts. Have you been surprised about how much material there is to post about, and how many stories yearn to be told?
Tim McMahon: You know, it's funny. When I first started putting Double Cross together, I really had no grand plan about how I was going to do it, how much I was going to do and for how long I was going to do it for. Originally I figured I'd just grab some of the old interviews that I had lying around, post some photos, write about a few things that 25 people would probably care about and that would be the end of it.
Then a week or two after I started assembling a few entries and hadn't shown anyone aside from Gordo (DCXX's co-Editor), Gordo told me that he loved the idea and offered to join forces with me and push it into a more serious project. Once we announced it, the positive responses flooded in. As the momentum was gathering, Gordo and I saw that there was a genuine interest in what we were doing, so we kept pushing it.
We both love digging up old stories and getting to the bottom of things that we've been curious about forever. We started putting together lists of who we wanted to contact, what we wanted to write about, things we wanted to do, etc.. As the five day a week entries were coming together and the ideas continued to flow, I think we realized that there really was a ton of great content out there that we could bring to the surface.
Pastepunk: It seems like one of your hardest tasks is to get people to open up about their past history in hardcore when they may have moved on from the scene, or the music altogether. It's well known how much you want to interview Mike Judge for DCXX, and the futility of your attempts thus far. Why do you think some people want to leave the past as it is? In a scene that has always been heavily populated with introverts, is this all that unexpected?
Tim: Gordo and I have both loosely been in touch with Mike on and off for a couple of years now. Although we've never had any huge in depth, long winded conversations, he's never been anything less than cool to both of us. He knows we'd love to interview him, but his feelings have always been that he's spoken his piece. He seems to be a very quite, humble guy who appreciates the interest and respect, but doesn't seem all that interested in telling the same story over and over again.
About two years ago Mike did agree to do an interview with someone and a friend of mine was there for it, but so far that interview has not seen the light of day. I've talked to the person that interviewed him and it really was done as "The Final Interview", so Mike has kept to that. We'll see though, you never know.
As for why some people want to leave the past in the past, I think a lot of them are just so far removed from the scene that they don't realize or understand how much a lot of people still care. It's hard to explain to someone that's been disconnected for 20 years that people really do want to hear what they have to say. I guess if you're not in the circles that show the interest, you may think that's it's just a few die-hards that care. Like you said though, for all I know, some of these people might genuinely feel awkward or uncomfortable talking about things that they did 20 years ago.
Pastepunk: Your former band MOUTHPIECE has just released its long-awaited discography on Revelation Records. This must mean a ton to you on two fronts - 1) simply having a release on Revelation Records, and 2) the ability to present long out of print MOUTHPIECE music to a new generation of hardcore kids (who will naturally, just download the damn thing anyway). Who sparked the idea of a discography release, and what was it like getting everyone involved in the band on board?
Tim: You're spot on with both accounts. I couldn't be happier releasing our final and most definitive collection of music on the label that inspired me to do the band in the first place. Those early Revelation releases were like my bible, I lived and breathed what those bands and records embodied. To have our discography in line with releases by Youth Of Today, Bold, Chain Of Strength, Judge, Gorilla Biscuits, etc. is to just feel extremely grateful and lucky.
The idea of doing the discography came about sometime back in early 2004. Originally the plan was to do the discography on Livewire Records, which is a label that I help my friend Ed McKirdy run. I knew the majority of our releases were out of print and after doing the string of reunion shows in 2000, it was clear to me that people still cared about the band. Some of the older crowd still appreciated it and some of the newer kids were interested, so I thought it would be cool to put it all together on our own label and control it all as we wished. Problem was, we wanted the release to be the absolute best we could do and kept making it a bigger project than it really had to be. We did a whole lot of talking and planning, but very little actual work. At some point it just felt too overwhelming to do everything ourselves, so the project sat dormant for awhile.
Then towards the end of 2004 I was talking with my friend Larry Ransom, who at the time was working at Revelation and he asked me what was up with the discography. I told him that we still wanted to do it, but it sort of became almost too big of a project for us to get done on our own. Larry then said, "Why don't you release it on Rev?" I said, "I'd love to, but who's to say that Rev would have any interest in doing it?" Larry then went on to tell me about some conversations that he had heard over his years of working at Rev and really felt that they'd have a strong interest in making it happen. Within a few days, Larry talked to Jordan and Jordan confirmed it, he was interested. Our minds were blown.
As far as getting back in touch with all the past members, that was a bit of a challenge. Some of those guys we hadn't talked to in over 10 years. That's where the the beauty of the internet really shines. You do some searching, you find someone that knows someone and before you know it, you've acquired an email address or a phone number. It did take a few months to track everyone down, but when we eventually did, everyone was very receptive to the idea.
Pastepunk: Turning the tables, what hardcore band discography do you want to see released? What long-gone band needs the legacy help of a fine remixing, remastering job with a fresh slab of artwork and perspective?
Tim: That's a great question and there are two bands that come to mind instantly. One is the late 80's New Jersey straight-edge band, RELEASE. Between their demo, their first 7", their second 7", their split 7" and their unreleased second demo material, I'd love to hear all of that cleaned up, remixed, remastered and re-introduced to everyone. I know there are a ton of great photos, so I know new artwork and packaging could be great.
The second band that I'd love to see have a definitive discography released for would be the late 80's Connecticut band, PRESSURE RELEASE. To me they are a band that never had a proper release. Their early material that appeared on the Smorgasbord Records, "X Marks The Spot" comp, their two songs that appeared on the "New Breed" tape comp, their numerous demos and then their final release, the "Prison Of My Own" 7" on New Age Record are all great, but it's all so spread out and all over the place, that I don't think they were ever appreciated like they should have. I think if everything could be collected, cleaned up, remixed, remastered and repackaged, many more people would see something in this band that they hadn't before. In my opinion, between their "New Breed" tape comp material and their "Prison Of My Own" 7", they writing music that was way ahead of their time. The musicianship was growing, their song writing was getting stronger and they really had something unique going on at that time.
Pastepunk: Between DCXX and the Livewire Records message board, there is an ever-growing community of older people involved in hardcore, who collectively are dealing with the pressures of adult life. What do you think are the long term implications for you in all of this? Will you still be planning to hit up 'reunion' shows when your 50?
Tim: It's really hard to gauge. Considering how young of a music style that hardcore is, we really haven't had a lot of time to see what a we'll all be thinking when we're 50. Personally, I doubt a lot will change. I've been interested in this music for over 20 years now and I can't imagine suddenly thinking that this is all insignificant and uncool. I feel like there has definitely been some sort of resurgence in hardcore amongst the older crowd. With the release of the "American Hardcore" book and movie and now the "Radio Silence" book, a lot of the older crowd has started resurfacing. I've had a number of people contact me that I thought were long gone, through Double Cross, so it almost seems like what's old is new again. Who knows what it will be like in 30 more years? Like I said though, I doubt I'll lose my interest.
It's easy for those of us who have been around punk and hardcore for awhile to get into a rut about how things used to be; the days of mailorder, paper zines, finding out about shows only through flyers, etc. Most of the musings revolve around a degree of personal interaction, and how the internet has altered our relationships. But it's hard to say that most of these changes are for the worse. And in the case of applying old-school ethos with modern technology, the results can be stunning. This situation can found in the still relatively new hardcore blog 
Pastepunk: Your former band MOUTHPIECE has just released its long-awaited discography on Revelation Records. This must mean a ton to you on two fronts - 1) simply having a release on Revelation Records, and 2) the ability to present long out of print MOUTHPIECE music to a new generation of hardcore kids (who will naturally, just download the damn thing anyway). Who sparked the idea of a discography release, and what was it like getting everyone involved in the band on board?
