The Man Behind The Curtain

I would like to disclose the truth behind JOEHARDCORE.NET. I figure I will do this before all the legal litigation happens when I start being sponsored and making 1000’s a month with all the banner ads that will soon cloud over these humble words.

Joel “JUICE” from Clenched Fist is the guy who registered the URL for me. He has always pushed me in a positive way towards something like this. He drew a cover that I will be putting up here for my failed attempt at a zine in 02. He is a truly supportive, encouraging friend and in thinking about this site and how it just popped up out of an email I got from him, I would like to take the time to micro analyze our friendship and its correlation to the bigger picture that is hardcore.

It was 2000 and I received a CD with a band Clenched Fist from Memphis, TN on it. Later on and into 2001 I was booking Punishment’s first US tour. Via Mike Hood I got Juice’s contact and the game began. Sure enough we had a show and we were truly appreciative of it. Then it was a lot harder to get shows period unless you were booked by an agent, there wasn’t myspace and email was checked at the free library via hotmail addresses. Not every band and his mother decided to go out and tour the states (like it is today). The fact we could hook up with a band of similar interest in a place as far different and removed as Memphis and Philadelphia just reveals the power of hardcore (to nerds like myself) the day of the show we were told to go to his apt and the door would be open. Lets think about that for a minute.Book a band and tell them they can go to your house before you get there. It speaks volumes to the character of my friend. It wasn’t too long before he showed and we were hitting it off like we had grown up together. There were varying differences, my love of metallic bands like Dmize and yet amazing shared interests ala the few hardcore videos that made headbangers ball and such.
So we go to play the show and there are only a handful of kids (maybe 20 at most) that are all friends with Clenched Fist at this huge venue. Now typically that would put people in a shitty mood but we were all uplifted by the spark of a new friendship that we didn’t even care or take notice toit. We played first and it was awesome, great sound anda great time. Clenched Fist took the stage and the entire place (all 20 or so of us) was going off. There is something special about a band playing on its home turf. Sooner or later they had run out of songs and started doing covers. At this point Punishment began our usual antics that included at that time naked moshing. Totally unexpected to these kids from Tennessee but that was most of the gag. With clothes back on a few of our guys got on stage and more cover songs were played. This is so not typical of how things were or are. If there is no one at a show its usually a bust. If there are 2 bands playing it’s usually cut and dry sets and then everyone goes their separate ways. The show was quite long and so much fun that it ranks up in the top 10 shows I ever played or was at. Back to Joel’s house where we were paid by the kids and Joel out of pocket just as a token of friendship. I can’t tell you how much that meant to be a band that no one cared being paid by the kids just so we can get to our next show. We had a lot of good talks and we knew we’d be seeing each other soon enough.

The next time we hung out was in St. Louis at the Creepy Crawl where for those of you who know Clenched Fist’s “Welcome To Memphis” cd know at the end there is a live track of Juice telling the crowd that if Joe Hardcore gets naked and goes from end of the club to the other end that they’ll do Madball. Sure enough, in front of St Louis and everyone else that’s just what I did. In fact at one point during the naked moshing I jumped on someone’s shoulders and there was a pic of it for a bit. Definitely great fun times with our new buddies.

Over the course of the next few years we only grew tighter, whether it was Clenched Fist coming to Philadelphia and living at my mom’s house or Punishment or SR stopping by Memphis and being treated to some of the best away from home cooking ever.

When we came to Memphis after Thanksgiving we were treated to a for real Thanksgiving meal prepared by Brookie and it was just awesome. Even back then we were always on Joel to try to pursue the tattoo thing as he is one of the best artists that I am friends with. He has some much talent it was such a waste that he was rocking a tie and working at a bank. The guy painted this awesome Santa Claus with all these tattoos and a spiked baseball bat on a sheet of plywood, and then cut it out, it was seriously just incredible. Like someone crossed Santa with Bluto from Popeye and everything.

The last Punishment tour with Blacklisted we had one of the greatest moments in touring wiffle ball competition ever. I think we were at the corner of his new house in Memphis for about 4 hours of serious middle of the intersection wiffle ball that would just not end.
The show that night was just awesome and afterwards I was introduced to Down South barbequing with a charcoal “smoker” that gets your coals nice and red hot before you start cooking on them. I can’t tell you how much I wanted one of those things.
The following year I was presented with a gift from Joel at a show in Chicago (SR’s last time there) It was a brand new charcoal smoker with my ugly face hand painted on there with a spatula in my hand and the words master griller like Merauder’s record.
That’s the kind of bond we had. After I tried to get them signed to Too Damn Hype where I worked (years before the smoker) I got them hooked up with Thorp and that’s how they got the Welcome To Memphis CD. That CD had so much lyrical power for me, I wonder just how a guy could write shit that hit me the way that did.

Funny enough, that JoeHardcore cartoon face wasn’t born from that but MET (too damn hype/chord) wanting to give me a label under TooDamnHype. He had Juice draw up a caricature face with my signature crooked hat, bad crooked teeth and slobber coming out of my mouth. So fucking funny. I really wish I had my old hard drive shit so I could post that picture. That alone just showcases his talents in being able to draw these awesome characters.

The bonding points for Joel and I go beyond our hardcore pursuits and principles and that’s where the deep connection was made. He and I both grew up with a mom who did all she could for our siblings and us. We both grew up on the have not side of things, in neighborhoods that were less then nice and more often blacker then white. We had a lot to talk about and so much to connect to it really amazes me that I met someone that is my age that grew up so much like I did who just happened to find not only the same music I did but is into so many of the same bands and principles and virtues of the core. Don’t get me wrong we have our bit of differences but they are minute and just something for us to pick on each other about.

Its just incredible to have a friend out there that truly understands not just what you’re into, but what you’re capable of, where you came from and what makes you who you are… I have always thought of hardcore as the great equalizer for those with an ax to grind, a story to tell or a past to work out through healthy doses of aggression but I never would have thought I would get a friend from Memphis who could finish my sentences and fully know some of the pains and bullshit that came from growing up the way that we did.

My friend Joel is still to this day not a tattooer, though I hope now with him in Denver he will explore that avenue. I really look forward to having something by him tattooed on me; in fact I plan to save space just for that eventual occasion. The only real question is whether it will be a PMC tattoo or something else.. maybe a Biohazard logo.

http://www.juicyjoel.com/