DIRECT CONTROL

One ripping live on the radio set from Richmond, Virginia's finest purveyors of '80s style USHC. This was recorded in 2005, when DIRECT CONTROL was on the tip of everyone's tongue...what they were doing was nothing new, nothing that we all hadn't heard before, but when punks get together and dish out hardcore this perfectly, people are going to take notice. And people noticed. Brandon gave me the DIRECT CONTROL demo when he was still "this 17 year old who moved up from North Carolina to play for MUNICIPAL WASTE," and he quickly became responsible for some of the most brilliantly executed hardcore to come out of the '00s. At a fest in Chicago (2006 I think?), I signed up to drive a band to the airport to help out the organizers, but then found out that by doing so I would miss DIRECT CONTROL's set on the last day of the fest. This was unacceptable to me, and since the organizers couldn't find another ride for their cantankerous Texans, they were forced to rearrange the set times so that I could see my favorite Virginians. Does this make me an asshole? Perhaps, and I felt a little bad when DIRECT CONTROL took the stage last, after days of bands had already played and what was left of the crowd was dead tired and unenthusiastic (sorry dudes)...but that was the band I wanted to see, and fukk knows RIISTETYT were not a suitable consolation that weekend. This live set might only be 13 minutes long, but it's 13 minutes packed with hits (like "Herd The Cattle," which was my most choicest jam for at least 18 months) and features the singer from TEAR IT UP limping through a C.O.C. cover...and jokes about Boston baked beans.

DIRECT CONTROL