The Witzard

Josh Alvarez outside of The Trocadero and "disintegrating" live with Crossed Keys (SOURCE: Facebook / CREDIT: @lightloved) Just this past weekend, a buddy and I trekked into Philly from South Jersey for a... "Sunday Matinee" Punk/Hardcore show in a church basement! It was all organized by Joe "Hardcore" McKay and featured a stellar line-up of Gorilla Biscuits, KILL YOUR IDOLS, Raw Brigade, Combust, DEAD LAST, and HARD TURF all performing at the legendary First Unitarian Church . We were most excited to see DEAD LAST (Jon Gusman & Jon Scanlon's new band,) Philly's own HARD TURF, KILL YOUR IDOLS, and, of course, Gorilla Biscuits, but we thoroughly enjoyed the two middle bands, as well. Now, mid-day openers HARD TURF is made up of Philly's finest, Joshua "Josh" Alvarez, Scott Emhoff, Jason "J." Shigeru Swisher, and ever-elusive members known only as "Wardog" & "P.M.S." Amongst them, HARD TURF...

Pat Society Pictured with Bernie Parent (Flyers, Bruins, Maple Leafs, Blazers) Not entirely unlike Wrestle/Wrassle Rap or Basketball Rap, there's, apparently, a whole sub-genre of hockey-themed Punk/Hardcore—oftentimes, referred to as "Puck" Rock or Hockey-core. Yes, I've been a die-hard fan of Punk/Hardcore for 15+ years and I, too, only first heard about Puck Rock within the last few weeks. Although, once I started diggin' around, I discovered about 10-15 bands at the forefront; this was, then, gradually narrowed down to 10 "front-line" bands, which will be chronicled here over the course of coming weeks. The "top-scoring" bands we selected include: Crippled Youth, SLAPSHOT, The Hanson Brothers/Nomeansno, Two Man Advantage, The Boils, D.O.A. THE ZAMBONIS, Pansy Division, The Hextalls, and THE RAMOMS' "Gritty Is A Punk" flexi-disc. We sent out a short 6-question interview form to all of the aforementioned bands, received some b...