“slapshot”
Slapshot
Old Tyme Hardcore
Taang!
Hardcore is right! Hardcore puck rock.
Slapshot, who take their name from the Paul Newman movie and who’ve thrown in a lot of inspirational dialogue from the film as well, were first introduced to me by one Melmo Biffenheimer a long time ago. What is it, twelve years? That’s a lot of time in hardcore years…
Anyway, Slapshot was introduced as a Boston straightedge skinhead band to me, and that meant whatever it meant back around 1989. Right now, judging from their songs, it means unity and (choke!) growing older and wiser.
The album starts with Paul Newman’s dialogue about wanting to play straight hockey, instead of indulging in the wild and crazy antics of the Hanson brothers. “Old Time Hockey!” he yells. Then right into the title track, boom! “Old Tyme Hardcore!” onetwothreefour onetwothreefour onetwothreefour… You know what I mean, HC people.
Judging from the lyrics, I would bet there’s an upheaval in the world of Slapshot, as all the songs are about either reclaiming the HC title or giving a history lesson to those who don’t’ know what’s up. “Lip Service” tells “poser” punks to get the hell out of the scene, “Pennies From Heaven” takes aim at, well take a guess from these lyrics: “I don’t seek God or inner peace/ I won’t chant prayer but I eat meat/ Don’t ask you to think like me/ but I’m more straightedge than you’ll ever be…Pennies from heaven is all they want to see…” Run for shelter, folks! Slapshot is in the house!
Then there’s the less hostile songs, like “In My Head” and “What’s On Your Mind” that deal with the inner conflict so familiar to outsiders like myself.
For all HC “Old Tymers.”
Taang!, 706 Pismo Ct., San Diego, CA 92109
