AGAINST

THE GRAIN

Here's an interview with Adriano Garcia (A.G.) singer of NYHC band Against The Grain.  Enjoy!

What's up with ATG?  Who's in the band now?

 

The original members are me (A.G.) doing the vocals, Carlito Diaz playing
guitar, Stan" the man" Ambro playing drums and our new members are Jim Marshall
playing bass and this delinquent looking guy that looks a little shady named
Chris D'Alessandro (That would be me! Ed.)  playing additional guitars.

IS ATG coming out with any new music soon?

 

Yea, unfortunately for long island.  We got AGAINST THE GRAIN/BETWEEN THE
LINES split CD coming out and including our own CD called VICTIM ON THE 9.
They should be out soon.

Have you played any shows with the new line up?

 

Yes,  we have and we finally sound like a band.

What kind of things are you writing about these days?

 

Usual hardcore angst stuff but I'm not writing absolutely nothing about
hardcore or the scene or support shit.  That shit is tired already.

What is the song AKA about?

 

A.K.A. is about dealing with the hatred that runs inside me personally.  The
desire and mental imagination of killing a person that cannot function in
society.  Lack of functioning in this case is looking for trouble,
backstabbing, and simple rudeness that deserves death.  And when i speak of
rudeness i mean like the cock sucker doorman at the club Don Hill's in NYC or
the duschebag soundman Josh at CBGB's.  

Will Stan be delivering a message to Spanish speaking Americans on the new
CD, spoken in Stan's perfect Spanish?

 

Yes, Stan will destroy the Spanish language as we know it.  I'll be moving on
to Chinese now, thank you.

Any touring plans?

 

Probably nothing huge, but what's standing out is that hardcore fest going on
in Belgium that we might do in September of 2001 if "you" guys are cool with
it. (It never happened! Ed.)  

What label is the new ATG stuff coming out on?

 

AGAINST THE GRAIN/BETWEEN THE LINES split cd is out on FUNTIME RECORDS
and VICTIM ON THE 9 should be out on ATAQUE SONORO RECORDS.

What happened on Long Island when ATG played for a straight edge crowd?

 

Oh, ha ha that was a little bit before you were in the band.  No, I heard so
much stuff about long island before we had played there by other bands that
said "don’t play there, it sucks" whatever, but i said fuck it anyways, so
what? you know? fuck it if they don’t like us.  All we care is about playing.  
So we get there, we start up, kids line up and then i think we steamroll into
about 10 songs within 12 minutes and they're just standing there not just
watching but giving us weird looks!! I don't know.   Maybe cause we play fast
hardcore?? I have no idea.  So Carlito, being the ever-lively punk he is goes
running into the crowd with his guitar plowing people down.  Something he
does at every show.  But when you looked at the crowd they weren't too
pleased.  I was like "come on guys, this is a hardcore show, why so uptight?"
So i started cracking very un-P.C. jokes and talking about crack when this
animal rights mo-mo bitch starts cursing at us from the back and let me add
she was in these semi-tears yelling "WHAT ARE YOU SAYING?? SHUT THE FUCK UP!!
WE DONT TALK OR DO THESE THINGS HERE!! GO BACK TO THE CITY, SCUMBAG!!  So
after that, the band was protested...everyone sat down on the floor and
waited till we were done.  So I sat with them announcing my rendition of a
long island mosh pit ha ha.  To make a long story short, I got confronted by
these pee-wees from the show telling me that it was wrong for my guitar
player to get on the dance floor and they talked about payback using gangster
slang.  They were getting closer to me until I told their 12 year old
ringleader "Hey kid, fuck off, I cant fight you, tell your mom and dad on me,
that’s what kids do your age i think."  They weren't too amused but they
backed off.  I don’t think its Long Island that’s the problem.  I can only
think of two reasons.  Number 1: it was us, probably cause we weren’t playing
tuned down or heavy based on hate mail i got from a lot of them telling me to
play "real" hardcore like SLAYER and i forgot the other name POISONING
somebody from li...i forget the name. and reason number 2:  when we got
there,  someone in another band warned us, that the much, much, much younger
kids who make up the audience there still may be in a righteous scenester
nerdario phase, therefore, hating us for saying un-P.C. shit, but fuck it
that’s hardcore, hardcore's not for the delicate and pretty. Like I said, we
even got the hate mail, some kids thought Kabula was in the band, and they
threatened Kabula(its sad they couldn't decipher Kabula from Jim),
threatening Stan, whatever.  But when all is said and done, we continued and
will continue to play long island.  No skin off our backs, we just want to
play.  No harm done, but we can't help goofing on those kids now.   One life
crew would have had a ball over there.

How's living in New York City?  Seen any celebrities?

 

It's cool, I like it, i just wish where i lived was a bit more diverse as far
as neighbors go.  I got all yuppies where I live. Yea from time to time i see
celebs.  Soprano guys all the time.  That Jennifer Love Hewitt girl she had
these.. Never mind, my girlfriend will probably read this interview.  Just
kidding, Em! Hee hee.


Did Robert Blake kill his wife or what?

 

I don't know, maybe they should get Beretta on the case.
 

Alright man, thanks for the interview.  What ATG stuff is available and where
can people contact the band?

 

OK man thank you.  The MENTIROSO CD is still available so contact us at
agarci2978@aol.com. T-shirts and stickers are coming soon.  Also, on the web,
check us out at www.hardcorewebsite.net and go to their band links section
and look for us.  Then coming soon will be www.atgnyhc.com which hopefully
will be ready by the time everyone reads this.

(Also the Faction Zero / Against The Grain split CD is out soon on Faction Zero Recordings www.factionzero.com. See the ad in this issue)