More classic HC!
“Endpoint is/was the largest hardcore band to ever come out of
“Catharsis” is arguably Endpoint’s masterpiece. Everything is in place; the songs are well structured, and the performance and production is incredibly tight. And on top of all that you have Rob Pennington’s characteristic/charismatic high-pitched singsong, speaking about self improvement and railing against social injustices. I however, always liked the earlier “In a time of hate” better. It’s a bit rougher, musically not as refined and it is definitely not as well produced as “Catharsis”. But, gosh, does it kick ass! Particularly, the song “Model” was probably included on every mixtape that I made for 2 straight years. “In a time of hate” put Conversion Records on the map for me, and for a while I sought out every release from them that I could get my hands on.
Endpoint had a couple of releases before (“If the spirits are willing”), in between (two 7”), and after this (notable: “Idiots” and “After taste”, which is really so-so), but these 2 records here get the most play from me by a mile; it’s not even close…
I suspect there are many people out there who know much more than me about Endpoint (and who may even have been to
And yeah, if you take the time to go to either of those pages that I have mentioned above you will see that several members of Endpoint are still making music, and those few bands that I do know are pretty good, too, so check them out!
15 comments:
Endpoint was always a band that I loved live, but never felt like their records had that power. One of the few times they played Mpls was with Crudos in 94 or 95. A pretty amazing mix of kids at the show getting into both bands.
Now By the Grace of God, there is a band to revisit. Freaking amazing!
great stuff!! (speaking of Doghouse)
I just came across the Fabric record in my library. Dont know if anyone liked them, but I found out about them back then because of Endpoints connection with Doghouse. They had a good 7" and the album had some okay moments..
I agree that Aftertaste was pale in comparison to these two. And I never listened to any of their other stuff beside those three.
Hi guys, thanks for stopping by and (more importantly) for leaving a comment. On most blogs that I visit I am also nothing more than a lurker in the shadows, so I am not really surprised about how few people actually leave comments, however, only after starting this blog I got an idea how mismatched the ratio between downloads and comments really is. So thanks for the continuing support.
I wish I would have had the opportunity to see Endpoint live, but I don't think they ever played Germany (or if they did I sadly missed them).
I also like By the Grace of God (which I only "discovered" years later - when they were still around I did not follow HC that much anymore), but at least on record they lack a bit of the energy that Endpoint had. They sound more like the late Endpoint embodied by Aftertaste. You know, it's good (both Aftertaste and BTGoG), just not "In a time of hate"-good. But as always, I think it has to do with when and under what circumstances you discover a band for yourself.
Nowadays I often find new bands or get recommendations for stuff, and there still is a lot of good stuff, but I doubt I will ever have the same visceral reaction again as when I was an 18yr old and put on Bad Religion's "Suffer" for the first time, or YOT's "Can't close my eyes"
Having that said, Tim, I am still curious about "Fabric" ^_~
Ok, always one to admit when I am wrong: I was just listening to By the Grace of God again, and they are clearly better than "Aftertaste"... However, due the sentimental value early Endpoint still get the nod ;-)
Sentimental value goes the distance. Its really the frame of reference like you described.
I hear a lot of new stuff that probably woulda blown me away at one point. For instance, Braid. I just recently listened to them and its really good. But if I heard it when was in high school I would probably have loved every minute of it.
I'll work on gettin that fabric up.. I am gonna post the 7", but I'll toss the cd link your way.
and oh yeah. comments... I didnt start getting comments until like a year later... It will almost be two years for me now. It was last spring that things really picked up. Ever since Andrew from Aversion linked me in a post my hits have skyrocketed... pretty crazy. Hes been doing it for a long time so he has a lot of readers I guess..
Did you just switch over from a color background to white? It looks a lot better!
He, he, yeah I did. Thanks. Simpler is better. I'd have a couple of ideas as what I'd like the background to look like, but I have absolutely no HTML knowledge and even less time to learn about it (I can't even post on a regular basis). So I will probably have to do with Blogger's option for a long, long time...
Hey Sven, I just stumbled upon your blog! That copy of In a Time of Hate, with the red cover and the blue vinyl looks pretty sweet!
Hi Mike, good to see you around here. Yeah, the marbled blue vinyl is pretty nice. This was at a time when you either were lucky to get a colored copy, or you didn't (no preordering of 5 different colors... well you know how it was). What I am not sure about is whetehr this was the first (original) pressing or the second pressing, but I am sure that info is out there somewhere.
well, i always liked first and last Endpoint records best, respectively. funny but "catharsis" was the weakest point for me. "last record" has that great corn-fields-of-south vibe about it that drew me to endpoint and some more lousville bands at first :D
but yes, "in a time of hate" might be under-produced or whatever, but is definitely their best!
I'm glad somebody else out there doesn't regard this bands output as "Bad Dated 90's Hardcore" like many people i know. I like the first record so much, I named my blog after it. Endpoint played the 2nd show I ever attended in 92 in Syracuse and Rob Pennington's sincerity blew me away. Plus I was psyched that he was wearing a Black Flag hat.
I disagree about "After Taste" though, I think it's a great record. "Keating" is a great tune.
"IM SO FUCKIN PEEYUUSSED!!!" is a classic hardcore terets style outburst that rivals Infests "SICK FUCKIN O!!"
Very nice to see these guys get love from elsewhere. I grew up in Louisville and was 15 when I went to my first Endpoint show. The Louisville Hardcore scene at that time was certainly at a high point. I'm 32 now and these discs still make it into my cd player pretty frequently. Back in the day it seemed like we had "all ages" shows to go to every weekend. Where else could we go for an entire evening and hear phenomenal music, semi-safely exert our aggressions in a mosh pit, and hang our with our friends and smoke cigarrettes while underage and without harrassment for $5.
Bands were always plentiful, even though not all were as talented as Endpoint. Louisville just seemed like a town where if you found too many bored teenagers sitting around, it would be much longer before they'd form a punk band to pass the time. Perhaps it wasn't quite like that, but it sure seemed that way with the circle of friends that I surrounded myself with.
Not sure how easy it is to root up some of this stuff (I'm recalling what I can from memory, I don't have much of this stuff left) but from Louisville I would definitely suggest checking out Guilt, Falling Forward, The Enkindles, Crain, Rodan, Bush League, King Horse, Sunspring, Metroschifter. And even though they were out of Nashville, Tennessee, Loppybogymi is definitely worht a listen. Generally Loppy would come to town and a few Louisville bands would open, but those were some of the best shows that I can remember.
I was just checking the web for some "traces" of endpoint history and was also surprised to find that mostly the louisville/local popularity was stressed. in my opinion endpoint and especially the catharsis album was what made "Louisville" a synonym for a certain kind of sound.
Thank you for the nice words.
And to Luciferyellow, Endpoint played around 25 shows in Germany in 92-93 i think.
Lee
@ Lee: I think I saw you, too. But I must admit that my memory on these things (dates and places) is vague at best. Back in those good old days I went to so many shows... It always helped if I could buy a tour-shirt that had dates and places printed on the back ;-)
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