Back with a Clearer Vision and a Crew

Welcome to the "New and Improved" Faster Than The World. As I said a couple of days ago, I wanted to change the blog a bit. I wanted to get away from just doing the same old tedious record reviews. So I've brought in a couple of people to help out with the duties of writing for this, and you will have more variety in your reading. Walt has been around for awhile, so his insight has been invaluable to me. Kate may be the youngest out of the 3 of us, but she knows her shit. Now that she's involved, you'll have pictures to look at too, instead of just album covers and writing. You probably won't have to deal with my promises of posting some pics, and then it never happening. She's the one that takes them, so I'm sure she'll be more on the ball with it. In the coming weeks you'll see this blog change and take shape into something closer resembling a web zine than a blog of someone who is bored. Now that that's out of the way, here's the Crew of Faster Than the World (We all wrote our own bios, eventhough I'm the one posting them):

Kate aka. "Katebreed"

Don’t forget your roots” are lyrics that have stuck in my head for some time now thanks to the band H2O, whom also inspired this blog’s name. My roots reside in punk rock. Never really fitting in when I was in school since a young age, I became rebellious against what was considered “cool”. My teenage angst magnetized me to punk rock. It appealed to my anger, rebellion, and hate for what was popular. Through punk, I discovered its offspring: hardcore. It was faster, harder, and a hell of a lot more angry. As I grew more bitter towards mainstream society with age, my musical taste followed, craving something on the next level. Through hardcore I have met some of the best people in the world, and a few of the worst. I quickly learned it’s more than a genre of music, it’s a way of life. With values such as unity, loyalty, and respect, I feel it’s something that is with me for life.

Another one of my passions is photography. I’ve loved it for many years, but this past year it has become a complete unhealthy obsession. Up until a month ago, I had mainly taken pictures of friends, cities, nature, and cars. I shot shows for a little a few years ago, but stopped. My good friend, Bill Dukes, knew I wanted to get back into shooting live bands, so he asked me to take pictures at his birthday show/fiesta. I had such a blast photographing the show and was quickly reminded of why I loved it before. From that show on I started shooting shows that my friends’ bands were playing and shows that my friends’ were booking. Shortly after that I was asked to be the official photographer for Stay On Point booking, based out of the Phoenixville area, as well as Fistful of Hate online zine and True Blue Promotions. Then along came Rich with a message on Facebook similar to this: “Oh hey, I hope you don’t mind that I used one of your pics for my blog”. We got to talking and eventually he asked me to join his blog and here I am. The End

Rich aka. "Shuddyboy"

I'm not really sure what to say about myself in this little introduction section, so a lot of it may be regurgitated from the very first post I wrote for this blog. If you've read it before congrats, if not enjoy. I'm relatively new to the hardcore scene. I've listened to bands like Agnostic Front and H2O, as well as classic punk bands like The Ramones and the Sex Pistols for years, but it wasn't until the last few years that I became completely immersed in the music itself. Now bands that I've listened to for years and years have slowly started falling off of my radar, to be replaced by bands like Wisdom In Chains, Shelter, and Blood for Blood. There's something about the aggressiveness and the passion that comes through that draws me to hardcore like a moth to flame. At this point in my life, I'm going out of my way to absorb absolutely as much of it as I can, whether it's Youth Crew Straight Edge, chug-a-chug ,more metal oriented, or off the wall stuff. This music has become theraputic for me. It's cathartic. It's the music that helps me sleep at night, yet keeps me awake because I can't stop listening.

Now that the musical part of my bio is done, here's the me shit. I'm a single dad, raising two awesome boys, Dravin and Bradlee. They listen to hardcore with me, and I take them to shows here and there when I know they won't be trampled. I drink, I smoke, I curse like a sailor, and I make no apologies for who I am. My friends are my family, and hardcore has brought a lot of cool people into my life, and given me an outlet to not feel so alone, no matter how shitty I'm feeling.

Walt aka. "Walt BTB"

Veteran of the hardcore scene, been around long enough to have witnessed the ebb and flow of the underground population and the rise and fall of many venues and bands. Did my own cut-and-paste 'zine, Under My Skin, as well as helped and contributed articles, columns, etc to other 'zines over the years. Played in several bands, including Proceed, On Thin Ice and Back To Back. Booking shows since the mid-90's and still trying to do my best to create something out of the bare minimum. Cantankerous and cynical on one hand, positive and hopeful on the other. Certainly unafraid to speak my mind even if it means it's going to offend some fragile egos. This is who I am, that's all you need to know.

Now that you've read the bios of the main contributors, I want to give an honorable mention to two of my friends. Mark Rooster has a contributed an article in the past, and he may still do it occasionally. 9 times out of 10 he's the one that goes to shows with me, and it's a blast to be stomping around at his side. Jim (aka Jimcredible) did a logo for this site that is abso-fucking-lutely amazing, but Kate and I collaborated on the one that you see on the top of the page, and for right now we are attached to it enough that we want to stick with it for a little while. There will be a time in the near future that Jim's design is used, but it's too good for me to not share with you immediately. So here it is:

Enjoy the blog everyone