Even Worse
| Even Worse | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| origin | New York (USA) |
| Genre (s) | Punk , hardcore |
| founding | 1980 |
| resolution | 1984 |
| Founding members | |
singing |
John Pouridas (1980) |
guitar |
Dave Stein (1980) |
bass |
Nick Marden (1980) |
Drums |
Paul "Jack Rabid" Corradi |
| Last occupation | |
singing |
Ken "Tantrum" Tempkin (1982-1984) |
guitar |
Steve Waxman (1982-1984) |
guitar |
Thurston Moore (1982-1984) |
bass |
Tim Sommer (1982-1984) |
Drums |
Paul Corradi |
| former members | |
singing |
John Berry (1980, † 2016) |
Vocals, guitar |
Rebecca Korbet (1981-1982) |
guitar |
Robert "Bobby" Week (1981–1982) |
bass |
Eric Keil (1981-1982) |
Even Worse (German: "Noch Schlechter") was a punk and hardcore band from New York and one of the style-defining bands in the transition from punk to hardcore in the early 1980s.
history
In March 1980 Paul "Jack Rabid" Corradi (drums) and Dave Stein (guitar) , who lived in Summit in New Jersey , bordering on New York , founded the band Even Worse together with New Yorkers Nick Marden (bass) and John Pouridas (vocals) . The occasion was an upcoming appearance by the proto-hardcore band Stimulators in the New York Club Tier 3, for which an opening act was needed. Marden, who was friends with the stimulators, called his friends Corradi and Stein and motivated them to start a band at short notice. The quartet (Pouridas was another friend of Mardens) studied two pieces from the Legionaire's Disease Band and the Rezillos , wrote two songs of their own and practiced with the instruments of the stimulators. The concert was sold out because of the main group, and Marden and Stein were so excited that they each drank half a bottle of tequila immediately beforehand to calm down, but the performance went to the satisfaction of the audience. As a result, the band completed a few concerts in New York clubs, including as the opening act for the Bad Brains . Corradi and Stein moved to New York together with their future bass player Eric Keil, initially in an apartment that was occupied by the stimulators who were on tour in Ireland. The notoriously shy singer Pouridas did not appear for a performance in Tompkins Square Park in August 1980, whereupon John Berry was recruited from the audience as the new singer. At the end of the year Marden joined the stimulators as the successor to bassist Anne Gustavsson, whereupon Berry and Stein left the band; the former founded the Beastie Boys predecessor band The Young Aborigines.
In the spring of 1981 Corradi recruited new members for Even Worse: the singer and guitarist Rebecca Korbet, the guitarist Robert Week and his roommate, the bassist Eric Keil. With this line-up, the band contributed two tracks to the style-defining hardcore sampler New York Thrash and recorded an album in November 1981, which was only released posthumously in 2002 for financial reasons. In November 1981 the band appeared with Reagan Youth and the Beastie Boys as support acts as headliners in the sold-out New York Playroom, a week later with the Bad Brains and The Mob in the CBGB 's. The band also performed regularly in the A7 . The last concert with this line-up took place at the end of March 1982 together with the Misfits and Kraut in New York's Irving Plaza . At this point the band had reached the peak of their career, but broke up due to internal disputes - the band members were dissatisfied with the unauthorized actions of Corradi, who, for example, had selected the tracks for the New York Thrash sampler without consulting the band. Korbet, Week and Keil left the group.
Corradi again recruited new members. He found what he was looking for in singer Ken Tempkin, guitarists Steve Waxman and Thurston Moore (who had previously played with Glenn Branca ) and bassist and " Noise the Show " presenter Tim Sommer. With this line-up, the band recorded two singles: Mouse or Rat? , recorded in August 1982, was released on the band's own label Worse Than You!?! in 1984. Records released; Leaving , recorded in November 1983, was only released posthumously in 1988. In January 1984 the band split up after a concert with Adrenalin OD at the popular hardcore club The Anthrax in Stamford .
In 2002 the line-up Korbet-Week-Keil-Corradi got together again for a one-time concert at CBGB's; on this occasion, the "lost" album from 1981, supplemented by a live recording of a concert at Max's Kansas City in the same year, was released posthumously.
Rebecca Korbet was a founding member of King Missile in 1986 . Sommer, who was DJ of the influential radio show Noise the Show alongside his work at Even Worse , later worked as a producer and presenter for the TV station MTV . Eric Keil works as a furniture designer in Pennsylvania . Robert Week is co-owner of a web design agency in Durham . Paul Corradi is editor of the music magazine The Big Takeover . John Berry died of Pick's disease in 2016 .
Style and reception
John D. Luerssen described the band's music for AllMusic as a "critical link in the punk rock chain", as "raw and angry" and "stormy". The Village Voice sees the band as the “mainstay” of the A7 club. The British Sounds magazine located the band more in British punk than in American hardcore. The band has intelligence and a sense of humor and, thanks to their fresh line-up (the article is from October 1981), represents a “hardcore with a milk beard”. The British Guardian described Even Worse as a "chaotic" band in the "embryonic phase of hardcore".
Drummer Corradi described the band's music as influenced by The Damned , the Avengers and the Weirdos , and therefore by classic punk bands. The assignment to hardcore was made primarily by belonging to the New York scene, in particular the hardcore scene of the Lower East Side , which also manifested itself in the use of even-word pieces for the New York Thrash sampler. A unique selling point of the band from 1981 to 1982 was the singing of Rebecca Korbet - no other New York hardcore band had a female singer.
Discography
- 2002: You've Ruined Everything (posthumously, Grand Theft Audio )
Web links
- Memorial website by Paul Corradi
- Worse Even at Discogs (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b EvenWorse.com: History. Retrieved February 24, 2018 .
- ↑ Tony Rettman: New York Hardcore 1980–1990 . 2nd Edition. Bazillion Points, New York 2015, ISBN 978-1-935950-12-7 , pp. 48 .
- ↑ Steven Blush: American Hardcore. A tribal history . 2nd Edition. Feral House, Port Townsend 2010, ISBN 978-0-922915-71-2 , pp. 203 .
- ↑ George Hurchalla: Going Underground: American Punk 1979-1989 . 2nd Edition. PM Press, Oakland 2016, ISBN 978-1-62963-113-4 , pp. 187 .
- ↑ AllMusic.com: You've Ruined Everything. Retrieved February 24, 2018 .
- ↑ villagevoice.com: gleefully Violent Hardcore Nostalgia Reigns at the A7 Reunion. Retrieved February 24, 2018 .
- ↑ Tim Sommer: Beating the New York Doledrums . In: Sounds . October 10, 1981.
- ↑ TheGuardian.com: John Berry: Beastie Boys founder was much more than a punk rock footnote. Retrieved February 24, 2018 .
- ↑ George Hurchalla: Going Underground: American Punk 1979-1989 . 2nd Edition. PM Press, Oakland 2016, ISBN 978-1-62963-113-4 , pp. 165 .