NYHC legend Harley Flanagan has formed a new punk band HARD-CORE and has announced they will release a new record this summer. Some of the proceeds from its sales will go towards the recovery Dr KNOW of BAD BRAINS. Dr. Know is suffering from medical issues, while the band’s frontman H.R. is scheduled for brain surgery on February 21. GO HERE to read more on that. Flanagan launched a new fundraising campaign at this location and shared the following:
“When Gary Miller A/K/A Dr Know the guitarist for the Bad Brains got sick I wanted to do something to help him, so I reached out to my old band members to see if we could do a benefit or a reunion show, but that didn’t work out. Dr. Know and the Bad Brains were a huge influence on my music, on the Cro-Mags and close personal friends of mine and my family. I am releasing the first song from my new LP coming out this year to support Dr Know and his family.”
GO HERE to donate!
More about Harley and the CRO-MAGS:
According to the The New York Times, “Few bands were as energetic as the Cro-Mags during the heyday of the Lower East Side hard-core scene in the mid- to late 1980s.
Their first record, “The Age of Quarrel,” featured an illustration of a mushroom cloud on the cover and driving songs with shouted lyrics about existential fear and the limits of anarchism. In many ways the songs were a reflection of the world as seen by Mr. Flanagan, who left school at an early age and began hanging out on the decaying streets of the Lower East Side, where rent was cheap, abandoned buildings proliferated and the drug trade flourished.”
Age of Quarrel (1986) the Cro-Mags first album, ranks among the Top 20 Hardcore Albums in History (at #8). “Age of Quarrel is the last great album of hardcore’s first wave and the opening salvo of its second,” said LA Weekly.” There is no band that changed hardcore’s direction more than the New York-based, Hare Krishna-influenced ’Mags.
“Led by kinetic frontman John “Bloodclot” Joseph and the inimitable Harley Flanagan …. provided the template for post-1986 hardcore. They were also, notably, the first band to have a video on MTV featuring moshing and stage diving.”
Harley is a tough, “take no bullshit”-type of guy, according to LA Weekly. “But he’s also the kind of person you wouldn’t hesitate to let teach your child about chokeholds and joint locks.”
