downset. podcast @ StuffYouWillHate.com
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There’s a new recent podcast with downset drummer Chris Lee (Krasp One) done by Sergeant D over at Stuff You Will Hate .com! This podcast is pretty thorough and touches on Graffiti and the underground culture it pertains to as well as the lack of respect for art in and around Los Angeles. We also go into a little Q&A on downset and some of the lesser known things you may or may not have wanted to know as well as some pre-downset history touching on Social Justice. You can listen to the full podcast entitled: SYWH Podcast 10: Krasp from DOWNSET as well as the other SYWH podcasts here! Don’t forget to leave a comment at the bottom of the page.
Tags: 2012, Chris, downset, interview, podcast, review
downset. – the last show 2005
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On a rainy March 28, 2005 in Marburg Germany at the KFZ venue; Downset performed their last collective show with Ares’ side band Demean and German hardcore band Maroon in support. To a sold out crowd of 500, the tour sponsored by Dickies, OX Magazine, Triggerfish.de, Legacy, Pirahna, and Pop Frontal came to close as a party ensued onstage! The ever straight edge Maroon guys poked fun at the stereotypes surrounding downset by bombarding the stage with bandannas on their heads and pendleton flannels buttoned at the top looking more like the Asian cholo’s Cheech had to school in Born in East L.A. than South Siders. With mock joints the size of large wiffle ball bats they rolled on out and we jammed an encore. Complications ended a follow up US tour before it finished planning and this wound up being the last downset show. This pic was taken a few hours before the last show with everyone including the Guys from all 3 bands, crew members and our tour manager and driver in front of the 2-story moving vessel we called home for two months while traversing across Europe, Scandinavia, the Mediterranean and the UK. 7 years later the memories are still fresh and the hunger is growing!
Tags: 2005, 2012, downset, flashback, review, show, tour
January 15th, 1995 MLK – Generation of Hope Tour
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On or near January 15th of every year we honor the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for his contribution to society in general. downset felt it necessary to honor him is song and sampled an excerpt track from the ”How Long, Not Long” speech delivered by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on the steps of the State Capitol in Montgomery, Alabama, after the successful completion of the Selma to Montgomery March on March 25, 1965. We used this track to open up our shows for a “Generation of Hope” tours and released it as the intro to the track “Empower” and the Do We Speak A Dead Language album in 1996. The picture is of the limited edition patch we released for the above said tours. You can hear the intro track on YouTube here.
Tags: 1995, 1996, 2012, downset, flashback, tour
downset. interview @ One Metal
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There’s a new recent interview with downset drummer Chris Lee done by Dave Fensome over at One Metal dotcom! This includes and picks up where the Terrorizer interview left off earlier this week. You can read the full interview entitled: OneMetal talks to downset. here! Don’t forget to leave a comment at the bottom of the page.
Tags: 2011, Chris, downset, interview, review
downset. @ Terrorizer
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There’s a new “Dave’s band of the day” featuring a short but recent interview with downset drummer Chris Lee over at Terrorizer / Truecultheavymetal.com! You can read ”Dave’s band of the day: downset.” here on Dave’s blog at Terrorizer / truecultheavymetal.com! Don’t forget to leave a comment at the bottom of the page.
Tags: 2011, Chris, downset, interview, review
downset. @ Out Of Step
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There’s a few new posts on downset over at Out Of Step dot net! There is the story entitled “DOWNSET. “ABOUT TA BLAST” 7″“ A humble story about the second vinyl 7″ we released in 1993 and a review to go with it. Read the article here! There is also a few embedded videos of downset at Club Babyhead in Providence, R.I. from January of 1995. Read that article here! Lastly, Out Of Step is conducting a downset interview with Chris Lee and others, so if there’s something you’ve always wanted to know; now is your chance to ask the band directly! You can direct your question to downset here via the OOS form!
downset. @ Stuff You Will Hate
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There’s a new post on downset over at Stuff You Will Hate dot com entitled “Bands you may have slept on: DOWNSET [via Dickies, Mean Streaks and Can Control]” Go check it out as it’s a good read especially for the older hardcore and graff generations. Read the article here!
downset. – the BIGGEST show 1995
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On June 4th & 5th of 1995 in Eindhoven Netherlands on the Eindhoven Meadow, the largest installation ever of the Dynamo Open Air festival took place boasting a record attendance of over 110,000 people who came to witness the event! Downset were fortunate enough to be a part of this event and share the stage with Slayer, Machine Head, Dub War, Sepultura, Fear Factory, Life Of Agony, Type O Negative Biohazard, Blitz Babies, Brotherhood Foundation, Crash Worship, Dog Eat Dog, Earth Crisis, Eleven Pictures, Grip Inc., Hate Squad, Horace Pinker, Madball, Mary Beats Jane, Mental Hippie Blood, Motorpsycho, My Dying Bride, Nailbomb, Nevermore, No Fun at All, NRA, Orange 9mm, Overdose, Paradise Lost, Rape, Rich Kids on LSD, Schweisser, Shihad, Skyclad, Snapcase, Strawman, Sun, Tiamat, Trouble, Undeclinable Ambuscade, Warrior Soul and Waving Corn. If the lineup wasn’t enough the grounds had numerous booths and tents setup selling anything you could possibly think of or need! Chris was also part of a large on-stage drum ensemble that took place during Sepultura’s set for the intro to Chaos A.D. To commemorate the festivals standing, Roadrunner Records released the “Dynamo Open Air 10th Anniversary” CD simultaneously! Again, downset were fortunate enough to be placed on this release with a previously unreleased version of Body Cry (a song we revamped from our Social Justice catalog) as we were the ONLY band on the CD that was not on Roadrunner!
Tags: 1995, 2011, downset, Dynamo, flashback, review, show, tour
Food For Fun Campagne 1996
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In June through September of 1996 we launched a campain in numerous countries across Europe, Scandinavia, the UK and the Mediterranean. Through our Food For Fun Campagne” which ran in over 50 cites we donated food everywhere we visited to local food banks, pantries and kitchens. This canned food drive was run in conjunction with our concerts, thus every ticket holder who brought cans of non-perishable and non-expired food was given a 2 track sampler CD via Mercury/Polygram Records containing Live versions of Anger & My American Prayer from a CBGB’s show in NYC the previous year (CD press limited to 25k = VERY RARE!).
This was nothing new as we borrowed the idea from the old DIY (Do It Yourself) punk rock scene and shows we used to attend ourselves in the 1980′s, usually for free admission. It would be nice to see more food drives like this within the music cluture. I don’t mean the ever present food-drive’s for reduced or discount ticket prices only for some capitalists’ gain either; I mean receiving something in return for taking the time & money for supporting someone elses cause. Something as financially meanial as a sticker or button can make all the difference… If I recall correctly we obtained a collective amount of cans well over 100,000!
Tags: 1996, 2011, charity, downset, flashback, review, tour
Pocket Full of Fatcaps!
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In the Fall of 1995 we wrote a song about the graffiti scene in Los Angeles and the then graffiti subculture in general. To date it was one of the only true graff tunes that had made it into the semi-mainstream. At the time we were pretty O.G. given that we were ALL graffiti writers from the L.A. area and all from respected crews (UTI CBS THC MYL SNM) as big up’d in the last line of the song. Polygram/Mercury Records chose it as the second single from the Do We Speak A Dead Language album released in 1996 and we even went as far as to rock some graff-non-graff artwork featuring some of our own blackbooks and utensils for the cover art.
“Twelve was the age that set me off with the graff style. While zapp bumping, gang banging was hype with the juvenile. Graff grabbed my mind which led to expression and thought. Seventh and Hill I used to bus kill with “Snap” and “Skill”. Fake bus passes with all city access, Insides and outsides going up was a must. Paying much dues from the “Valle” to “Los”, One-Times is on the sweat and they’re jacking for piece-books. (Pocket full of Fatcaps! So what’s up and where you at!) Tag-banging toys hit me up like what you write ese. But I’m not about beef just the burners and sketches. And respect is gained from the flavor you’re phlexin’. Not by capping a piece and dissing tags for attention. Serious world-wide aerosolic expression. So focus the mind hit some surface and stop trippin’. (Pocket full of Fatcaps! So what’s up and where you at!) Graffin’ up in L.A. you can’t act stupid and play, striking up in the wrong hood could mean your last day. Most every set has a block and every block has a mad set. With sick evil fools who love to see blood hit pavement. L.A. area hip-hop under threats of existing. B-Boy culture in violence peace as purpose is drifting. So tag-banger afraid to be a real gangster. Get schooled on some roots and get that mission together. Graffiti writer ghetto culture provider. Facsist activist don’t want me to exist. Propaganda, media hype, Stereo-type you try to make me look like the one with the gat and knife. Lies after lies classist racist and mythical. But even suburbia child is down with ghetto cultural. “Fear”s got three strikes. “SKATE” gets all the love I got. Under The Influence of The Hard Core that Can’t Be Stopped.”
To the many artists that stayed true to the game regardless of haters and band-wagoners! Stay Up!
Listen to the track on the sidebar player or here: Downset – Pocket Full Of Fatcaps
