rest in peace mikey offender

the news of his passing is a few weeks old now, but i've been inspired for this post.  finally found my copy of "we must rebel" somewhat hidden among the stacks on my record shelves.  didn't put the needle down on this one in about a year or so, and it sounded good enough to crank it up and shake the paint of the walls.  the kind of album that gets repeated spins at a time.  i ripped the vinyl and was ready to upload, when i found out it had been recently repressed by reflex records and is available from TKO records online.  seriously, check it out.

more about the offenders via Kamikaze Conniptions:
The allure this band had on the psyche of hardcore youth in the '80s was the intense brutality of their sound. This was hardcore at its harshest- a wall of noise that engulfed you as soon as the first guitar chord was stricken; lyrics that sang of youth revolt and riots; the insanity of war; societal and family expectations unmet that created rifts- all of this was captured in songs that were, more often than not, only a minute and a half. JJ, the vocalist, was another factor in this appeal. Having run away at a young age and living in the streets gave him the street cred that most people who tend to care for that sort of thing gravitate to. Once his writhing and screaming on stage are witnessed, they are forever carved into the consciousness. The Offenders were the living embodiment of American hardcore music and are as essential as Black Flag were-at least in this writer's mind. If you've never heard of the Offenders then you don't know shit about Texas punk.

you can read the rest of the article and hear the i hate myself / bad times EP here.

mikey @ myspace
the offenders @ KFTH
mikey tribute + lost causes / rockin the town EP @ good bad music for bad, bad times!
mikey tribute @ official MDC website