A couple of months since our last feature on Blind Rage Records teenage skate hardcore punk band GONE WRONG, we are back with another feature showcasing of the label’s new band called LOCKED UP! We have teamed up to give you some more details behind their project, self-titled debut EP, and their thoughts on Ohio hardcore scene, and some of the main political events, including racial injustice protests and COVID-19.
Started as a means to release built up aggression from being on lockdown for the past several months, members of LOCKED UP have all been in bands together for the past 15+ years, Playing in Cold Sore, Dog Fight, Defend Means Attack as well as running Blind Rage Records. In addition to this 3″ EP, the band is working on material for a full 7″ EP as well as a split with God’s America.
“For this band we wanted to strip everything down to its core and just come up with something brutal that we’d want to hear. We didn’t really expect the reception we’ve gotten.” – comments the band.
“We recorded our 3″ EP at the end of June after only 2 full band practices, we did a lot of recording rehearsals solo and sending them to each other to come up with riffs that we all wanted to play. Due to years of playing with each other it all fell into place with a lot of ease.”
LOCKED UP is: Bryan – Drums, Vocals, Ryan – Vocals, Jim – Bass, James – Guitar, Noise / Recorded by Jayson Hartings at Levelhead Studio / Cosmetic Plague written by Rudimentary Peni
Track by track commentary
1. Drawn Lines – This song is a callout to the police, there are no good cops, the line was drawn when they picked up the badge.
2. True Colors – More and more we’ve seen people we know show who they really are, be it in their defense of police, defending Rapist and abusers in the scene or being outright racist in their actions. There is no room for that bullshit and we won’t stand for it.
3. Stand Up – This song is the most straight forward call to action, smash this racist system.
4. Burn It Down – This song sort of serves as a summary to the entire EP. We need to start over, we need to dismantle white supremacy and it starts with destroying their army of overzealous pig stormtrooper. The two party system we’re forced to blindly follow needs to be removed. We need to burn it all down.
5. Cosmetic Plague – This song was written by the great Rudimentary Peni, aside from being an amazing song it also further drives home the message we want to convey.
Being honest is no means of survival, avoid your inner-feelings like the plague,
This is what it takes to comply with the images this structure will accomodate,
But things aren’t what they seem when they’re partially hidden behind walls of pretence built for peace of mind.
The barriers between us are forever maintained by our acceptance of the roles others choose to define.In a world of competition life’s portrayed as a contest where we’re forced to live by making gains at others expense,
But no-one’s really gaining when perpetual conflict’s the result of our relationships based on pretence,
We don’t need this cultural cosmetic division it upholds the self-interest on which the system feeds,
A deconditioned consciousness of mutual respect is the only way to cure this cosmetic disease.
The George Floyd protests
“We fully support Black Lives Matter, it has been amazing to see how the international hardcore community has come together to raise money and awareness for this cause, our label has been able to donate quite a bit as well which we are grateful to be able to help, it’s been refreshing to see punk in this light again.”
COVID-19
“Covid has definitely changed the ways things operate within our community. Months of no contact with band members was strange but made the little time we could carve out seem more urgent, we didn’t want to waste our time. It’s hard to tell when shows will resume but we’re in no hurry for that anyways.”
Ohio hardcore scene
“Ohio is a strange place, there is a lot of overlapping scenes from city to city. In terms of hardcore bands there are not many from our town of Dayton, Negative Protein is one to check out though, luckily we are very close to Cincinnati where you can find Spear, Treason & Flesh Mother to name a few. Columbus has Nukkehammer and Minority Threat. Our good friends Body Farm are not too far away in Baltimore, Ohio.”
“I’d be remiss to not plug the bands we work with via Blind Rage. Peace Test from Providence just dropped their debut 7″ with us and To Live A Lie Records.
We also just released a 7″ ep for Jawstruck, an incredible band from Santa Cruz, CA.
The 2nd 7″ from the UK’s Vision Quest was just released by us, Crew Cuts and Angry & Hungry Records. We also have fresh stuff on the way from Gel (NJ), Gone Wrong (Vermont), Internal (MA Glory) and a few other surprises.”
