This Was The Scene Podcast

Jay Vics grew up in Vernon, NJ and attended his first local show in 1997, and that very night was when he decided he needed to get involved with this wonderful community of people who seemed to not give a shit what others think about them. This, in fact, was the jersey scene. Over the next several years, he went to countless shows, joined the band RedRover, went on tour, recorded twice, and passed out countless flyers. In 2009, he created the North Jersey Pop Punk 1994-2002 group on Facebook and invited everyone he could from that time period. The group now has over 1500 members and is a wonderful source of information from the time period.

I got him on the phone and here's what we talk about

• Antonio from the Dharma Boys
• The North Jersey Pop Punk FB Group
• Dillinger Four show on Lake Hopatcong
• Smacking Isaah
• Rob Heiner's Bachelor party
• Brian Fallon
• His love affair with Rob Heiner
• And a ton more

Do you have a cool story from the late 90s scene? Email it to me and I'll put it on my blog - [email protected]

Check out my new website! -->>> thiswasthescene.com

If you'd like to support the podcast you can donate as little as $1 a month through Patreon by going to thiswasthescene.com and click on the button at the top of the page that says Click HERE FOR BONUS MATERIAL. As a Patron, you get access to bonus material that regular podcast subscribers do not. OR you can do a one-time donation by clicking the DONATE button.

Element 101 hailed from New Jersey and molded their own brandish scale of punk rock, reminiscent of Elvis Costello, the Go-Go's, All, and the Descendents. They issued their debut Future Plans Undecided in spring 2000. Stereo Girl followed in early 2001. By the time Element 101 prepped for their third album, they'd reach a new musical level. More Than Motion, which was released in fall 2002, showcased a new found confidence from the band as well as a melodically tight sound.

I luckily found their Instagram account and went down the rabbit hole to get in touch with Crissie and she was stoked to chat.

Below is what we talk about:

• Hitting a cow with their van
• Tooth and Nail Records
• Being a harpist
• Sound Exchange
• Recording at the Blasting Room
• Old Wives and Action Reaction
• Possibilities of a new song
• And a ton more

Do you have a cool story from the late 90s scene? Email it to me and I'll put it on my blog - [email protected]

GET 15% OFF MERCH THIS WEEKEND (code - wayne)

Donate laptops here - [email protected]

Check out my new website! -->>> thiswasthescene.com

If you'd like to support the podcast you can donate as little as $1 a month through Patreon by going to thiswasthescene.com and click on the button at the top of the page that says Click HERE FOR BONUS MATERIAL. As a Patron, you get access to bonus material that regular podcast subscribers do not. OR you can do a one-time donation by clicking the DONATE button.

Coolidge Records is an Independent Punk Rock label that Brett and Jack love. Their bands range from all kinds: Plow United, The Rusty Nails, Coolidge 50, Homage, Lancaster County Prison, Speedwell, Gladys, Soccer, Squatweiler, Deerheart, and so many more. Go check out his Tea Shop if you're in Pittsburgh, PA! I got Jack Ball on the phone and this is what we talked about:

• Growing up in Wyckoff
• Interviewing Ian McKaye
• Using MTV's mailing labels to get press
• Plow United
• What it was like having multiple bands on the label
• Working for Sanctuary Records in Raleigh, NC
• Danny from Jill owing Jack some songs
• And a ton more

Do you have a cool story from the late 90s scene? Email it to me and I'll put it on my blog - [email protected]

Click to check out the Wayne Firehouse Shirt

Check out my new website! -->>> thiswasthescene.com

If you'd like to support the podcast you can donate as little as $1 a month through Patreon by going to thiswasthescene.com and click on the button at the top of the page that says Click HERE FOR BONUS MATERIAL. As a Patron, you get access to bonus material that regular podcast subscribers do not. OR you can do a one-time donation by clicking the DONATE button.

Neil Sabatino contributed a ton to the NJ scene by doing the following:

Booking shows at The Palace in Bound Brook in 1998 and then also doing stuff at Hamilton Street, Bloomfield Ave Cafe both when they first opened. He played in the bands Little Green Men, Stick Figure Suicide, Pencey Prep (with Frank Iero of My Chemical Romance on Eyeball Records), and then Fairmont. Neil helped put out a bunch of stuff with Reinforcement Records from 1999-2004, and did a zine from 1998-1999 called "When I'm On Fire I Burn & Yell Things Like Ouch and Help I'm On Fire".

All this was a pre-cursor to starting the label Mint 400 Records, signing over 95 bands, putting out over 250 releases in the last 12 years, producing dozens of albums, still booking up to 5 shows a month and starting The North Jersey Indie Rock Festival.

I got him on the phone and this is what we talked about:

• Ryan Sellick
• Recording in a cabin
• Still running a record label
• Dave Weston's solo album
• Booking shows at the Palace
• Nada Surf
• Getting kicked out of Pency Prep
• Eyeball Records
• Hamilton Street
• The Lanemeyer show at the Palace
• His band Fairmont
• And a ton more

Check out the 30 band festival "Indie Binge" on November 9th at Pet Shop in Jersey City which is presented by Mint 400 Records and Friends.

Do you have a cool story from the late 90s scene? Email it to me and I'll put it on my blog - [email protected]

Check out my new website! -->>> thiswasthescene.com

If you'd like to support the podcast you can donate as little as $1 a month through Patreon by going to thiswasthescene.com and click on the button at the top of the page that says Click HERE FOR BONUS MATERIAL. As a Patron, you get access to bonus material that regular podcast subscribers do not. OR you can do a one-time donation by clicking the DONATE button.

Tom Martin is a Pennsylvania legend known for his time in Third Year Freshmen and Throttle Jockey with Brian from Plow United.

I've talked about Tom on so many episodes that I just had to get him on here. And it was completely worth it.

If you get a chance to look up his newer stuff on Spotify because it's really fucking good. I added Summer Legs to my personal playlist and can't get that damn song out of my head.

I got Tom on the phone and this is what we talked about

• Hair Metal
• Recording super weird music as a teenager
• Lollapalooza
• Calling the Villanova Radio show on Saturday nights
• Going to the halloween party at Arik from Creep Records house
• Meeting Weston for the first time
• How he became Crazy Tom Martin
• Keeping food in his wallet
• The Good Riddance Show
• Tom Big Wig's last show with Felix Frump
• Forming Throttle Jockey
• Playing with Anal Cunt
• The Flash Paper story
• Chris Gethard
• And a SHIT ton more

Submit your cool story here.

TODAY'S SPONSOR

jvi mobile marketing has been in business since 2012. Founded by former member of New Jersey pop-punk band RedRover and creator of the North Jersey pop-punk Facebook group, he has been building a digital marketing agency that has grown to over 100 clients from all around the country. The agency specializes in all sorts of digital marketing for local small businesses. Whether you need a logo, website, automation, Facebook ads, or just more traffic and better rankings for your business, Jay and his team will work with you to find the best and most affordable solution. To learn more, contact JVI Mobile today at 866-587-3837 or visit www.jvimobile.com

Check out my new website! -->>> thiswasthescene.com

If you'd like to support the podcast you can donate as little as $1 a month through Patreon by going to thiswasthescene.com and click on the button at the top of the page that says Click HERE FOR BONUS MATERIAL. As a Patron, you get access to bonus material that regular podcast subscribers do not. OR you can do a one-time donation by clicking the DONATE button.

Chris Gethard is a comedian based out of Queens, NY, with proud roots in West Orange, NJ. He can be seen performing all over the world. In NYC you can often catch him at The Comedy Cellar. He's the host of the podcast Beautiful/Anonymous, the author of the book Lose Well, and the figurehead of a television show that's actually more like a religious cult. In hipster cities, he is most often recognized for playing Ilana's boss on Broad City. In regular America, he more often gets "Aren't you the guy who tried to hit Oscar with the pipe on The Office?"

Back in the late 90s, bands started getting websites. On these websites were forums where people could chat about music, the scene, hot topic, white belts, chain necklaces, etc. It was a place for the scene to exist outside of shows.

At that time, a random character names SOMEKID popped up and started talking shit to everyone. I believe this person was my first introduction to trolling. They started shit so much that people in the scene wanted to basically kill this person but no one ever knew who it was.

Until today. Luckily Chris remembered this and reached out to me to talk about this. Now, he presented this to me as he had "a story" and you'll hear my confusion in the very beginning. It takes us a minute to get into why he reached out but holy fuck is it worth it.

Usually, I'll break down what we talk about but it's a few stories about the scene and then he goes into the story so you need to just hold tight.

TODAY'S SPONSOR

jvi mobile marketing has been in business since 2012. Founded by former member of New Jersey pop-punk band RedRover and creator of the North Jersey pop-punk Facebook group, he has been building a digital marketing agency that has grown to over 100 clients from all around the country. The agency specializes in all sorts of digital marketing for local small businesses. Whether you need a logo, website, automation, Facebook ads, or just more traffic and better rankings for your business, Jay and his team will work with you to find the best and most affordable solution. To learn more, contact JVI Mobile today at 866-587-3837 or visit www.jvimobile.com

Check out my new website! -->>> thiswasthescene.com

If you'd like to support the podcast you can donate as little as $1 a month through Patreon by going to thiswasthescene.com and click on the button at the top of the page that says Click HERE FOR BONUS MATERIAL. As a Patron, you get access to bonus material that regular podcast subscribers do not. OR you can do a one-time donation by clicking the DONATE button.

I've mentioned in many episodes that I wanted to get more female interviews because this was turning into a bit of a boys club. Eva Silverman hit me up and was like "I have some stuff to talk about."

Sooo, I got her on the phone and this is what we discussed:

• Her zine Riot Duck being 50 - 100 pages
• Interviewing Thurston Moore from Sonic Youth
• AOL Instant messenger chat groups
• Her old band Pinker Duck
• Riot Girl
• Making friends with Dennis from Plan A
• When bands finally got websites
• What it was like writing a zine
• The limited amount of diversity in the scene
• Queer punk
• And a ton more

Check out my new website! -->>> thiswasthescene.com

If you'd like to support the podcast you can donate as little as $1 a month through Patreon by going to thiswasthescene.com and click on the button at the top of the page that says Click HERE FOR BONUS MATERIAL. As a Patron, you get access to bonus material that regular podcast subscribers do not. OR you can do a one-time donation by clicking the DONATE button.

Serial Killer Clothing was a clothing company, a skateboard company that basically created the MEME. They designed shirts that had pictures of pop culture icons with one-liners underneath them which completely contradicted what you were seeing. Some examples were the cast of Baywatch with the words ORGY underneath. Another was Pee-Wee Herman with Masturbate under him, and so on.

Bigwig was the band that introduced the clothing line to the Jersey scene because they would have it at their table or be wearing the shirts and other bands like Cooter, Lounge, and Beefcake would soon follow. Serial Killer also put out a compilation with Fearless Records which caught anyone's eye because of the 2 porn stars making out on the cover.

I got Johanna on the phone for over 2 hours and this is what we chatted about:

• The Black Flag Church
• What it was like being in a Female band in the scene
• Fletcher from Pennywise
• The BigWig story
• How Serial Killer started
• Cooter
• Meeting Gabe Saporta
• The Serial Killer Comp
• Bigwig again
• Pennywise
• Matt Serial Killer
• Annoying Girl Zine
• And a ton more

Check out my new webcomic book "Drink and Draw. A sketchbook for single people sitting at bars". This is a sketchbook for people who'd like to take a break from technology and reconnect with their randomness.

I'm working on a new website so hold tight thiswasthescene.com

If you'd like to support the podcast you can donate as little as $1 a month through Patreon by going to thiswasthescene.com and click on the button at the top of the page that says Click HERE FOR BONUS MATERIAL. As a Patron, you get access to bonus material that regular podcast subscribers do not. OR you can do a one-time donation by clicking the DONATE button.

JILL was a pop-punk band, from San Angelo, TX, that was active from the years 1993 - 1997. They self-released a 4-song cassette that led to Springbox Records (Benecia, CA) "signing" the band, releasing the Scary Thoughts 7" as well as the Just Like Fonzie EP. They also released a split 7" with New Jersey pop-punk band True Zero, on Coolidge Records, and also had a song included on a 7" compilation released on Act Your Age Records. Their sound could be described as a hooky combination of Lookout! Records era Green Day, Jawbreaker, and Ramones inspired bands such as Screeching Weasel. I got Danny on the phone and this is what we talked about:

• Apple
• 80s music
• Writing about girls
• Playing in sketchy bars
• Playing with Jimmy Eat World
• Scrapping a full album that still exists
• The Lavaleans (lava lean ahs)
• Coolidge Records
• The Fonzy Legal Story
• How he met Alan Rappaport
• Weird NJ
• And a ton more

Check out the JILL Facebook page and Danny's band Gentlemen Rogues.

Check out the new merch on the thiswasthescene.com

If you'd like to support the podcast you can donate as little as $1 a month through Patreon by going to thiswasthescene.com and click on the button at the top of the page that says Click HERE FOR BONUS MATERIAL. As a Patron, you get access to bonus material that regular podcast subscribers do not. OR you can do a one-time donation by clicking the DONATE button.

Buddyhead Records was an independent record label from Hollywood, California that sprouted from the website of the same name. The label was started in 2000 with the pressing of a seven-inch single from The Icarus Line ("Kill Cupid With A Nail File") and ended almost exactly ten years later.

The thing that I remember Buddyhead for are their posts where they gave out phone numbers and emails of bands they didn't like so people could fuck with them. What triggered my memory was talking to Alex Sarti in episode 57 (go check that one out after this one) and Buddyhead was brought up after Alex and I started talking about the time Midtown flipped there van and what Buddyhead wrote about it.

I got Travis Keller's info from someone telling me about his Instagram account TravisMichaelKeller and I reached out to him.

I got him on the phone and this is what we talked about:

• Meeting people through his photography
• Calling Dave Navaro
• How they got so many phone numbers
• Living in Tarzana
• The Icarus Line
• The Transplants not digging one of the posts
• Fred Durst
• Is he still down with Buddyhead following him
• Drive-thru Records
• And a ton more

Check out his new project http://americanprimitive.org/

Check out the new merch on the thiswasthescene.com

If you'd like to support the podcast you can donate as little as $1 a month through Patreon by going to thiswasthescene.com and click on the button at the top of the page that says Click HERE FOR BONUS MATERIAL. As a Patron, you get access to bonus material that regular podcast subscribers do not. OR you can do a one-time donation by clicking the DONATE button.