UNDERDOG

UNDERDOG
by Jason Walsh

Skateboarding and hardcore were practically synonymous in the early days of the 80s underground scene. Bands took the aggressive shredding attitude of board riding, coping grinding, and aerial flying and put it into their music. Many band members during this era could easily be found tearing into a half pipe when they weren’t on stage. As the decade wound to an end, hardcore continued to branch out, finding its way, and developing into a multitude of sub-genres defined by style, influence, and what particular hometown you claimed as your own. One of the innovative skatecore champions during this time was New Yorks’s UNDERDOG.

Born in the vibrant and emerging NYHC scene, UNDERDOG had a different take on what music from the five boroughs was all about. Infusing their “agro” upbringings with elements of punk, hardcore, and reggae, they wrote some classic old-school songs that stand the test of time today. After releasing some demos and 7-inches, they put out “The Vanishing Point,” one of the classic full-length staples in any 80s hardcore collection. Following this initial LP, UNDERDOG toured in support of the album, took a break, and that was pretty much the end of it.

In recent times, the band has become a little more active, playing out somewhat over the past few years and a few tours abroad. 2010 sees the release of their complete discography, dubbed “Matchless” on Bridge 9 Records, and finds the guys from NYC with a record to promote with the possibility of new material in the future. So there is no need to fear (sorry…had to) as I had a chance to catch up with vocalist Richie Birkenhead to talk about the future of UNDERDOG.

How are you doing today, man?

I’m doing well. How about you?

Not bad, not bad. It’s Sunday and too bad Monday is coming soon.

Yeah. We have beautiful weather here in New York. Where are you?

Virginia. Pretty nice down here as well. So, tell me about re-releasing all the UNDERDOG stuff on Bridge 9. How did that come about?

Well, it’s something Russ (Iglay) and I wanted to do for a long time, just kind of put everything on one disc, whether it be vinyl or CD and get it out there because it seems that there’s been so many sort of versions of “The Vanishing Point” and then there was “The Demos” and the 7-inch. We actually have a pretty tiny discography but we still wanted to get it all in one place. We’d just been talking to a couple of labels and it just felt right with Bridge 9. Actually, Russ kind of took thee helm with talking to them and it just seemed like a great vibe all the way around. It just seemed like they made to most sense.

So are you guys playing right now? Are you guys doing anything as far as the band goes?

Oh sure. We play shows fairly few and far between but we play shows, travel…we played Japan a couple years ago. We did Europe and we do a few New York shows a year. Once this disc is out I’m sure we’ll be playing much more often because we’ll have a release to support.

You have this whole generation of kids that are going to shows now that might have heard of you guys, maybe never saw you, maybe never even heard you. Now they get an opportunity to go back a decade or so and hear some of the old original stuff that came out of New York.

Absolutely. It’s great both ways because we get to sort of have all those feelings back again, being on stage together, and playing shows, and it’s amazing to know that there are kids in the audience who are hearing this stuff for the first time. It’s a really, really good feeling.

When did you guys start playing again together?

It kind of happens sporadically. We did briefly in 1998, we started playing together very briefly and then went back on a semi-permanent indefinite hiatus and then it was 2005 when we heard CBGB’s was going to close down. We were asked to play what we were then told was one of the very last shows. It turned out not to be and the place lived for a while longer and then we did in fact play one of the very last shows at CBGB’s in 2006. We played with THE BAD BRAINS and THE STIMULATORS. But, yeah, it all started again in ‘05 and we’ve played a handful of shows a year since then.

Now when you do this, you play together and then you have these breaks, and then you come back together, what kind of feeling is it for you to be back doing it again. Is it positive for you? Is it motivational for you? Do you still enjoy doing it?

Oh absolutely. It’s like anything your passionate about. The minute it all starts, I mean even if it’s a rehearsal, the minute we hear those guitar chords again, the minute I start singing or screaming and yelling, yeah, I feels exactly the same. Absolutely.

When you take the break, I mean is that tough on you? This is this thing that you’ve done that you love to do and then when you have these long stretches of not doing it, do you almost kind of like go through withdrawls?

In a way it is. I mean I have a lot of other stuff in my life that makes me very happy. I have a little daughter that makes me very happy. I have a lot of other things, but yeah sure, I love making music and I’ve made music in various forms and I still make music even if I’m sitting alone in my house, so I have that, but sure, I definitely miss being on stage when I’m not. It makes it that much more special when we get the opportunity to do it again.

Now I’m a kid of the 80s and I grew up riding skateboards and listening to hardcore bands on the East Coast. I remember when “The Vanishing Point” came out, it was one of those defining records that was kind of unlike the other bands that were coming out of New York. You guys did a tour following that and took a break and that was pretty much it for the band. What happened? It seemed like you guys were at the top of your game and all of a sudden decided to not keep doing it.

Yeah, I mean at the time, you know, it’s hard to even remember all the reasons why, but we were kind of like the Barry Sanders of hardcore. We were at the top our game and retired. I think that we were just a little road weary at the time. I think band members were maybe sort of drifting apart personally for whatever reasons. Those dynamics are always so complex but for some reason back then being together for what was only four or five years, seemed like a good run and we kind of just bagged it. We called it a day. It also felt at that time, like in 1989, it felt like hardcore had sort of plateaued and started to wither a little bit in certain ways. And of course, that was just our narrow perspective from where we saw it. We didn’t realize it was still thriving and growing and, you know, for the same reason that people get divorced or bands break up inexplicably, we just kind of stopped. We didn’t even know we were breaking up. We just kind of finished the tour in San Francisco and drove back to New York and just didn’t rehearse or play again. It just kind of happened. And yeah, it was difficult, and we all moved on and did other stuff musically, but ultimately we were drawn back together.

Now the discography is called “Matchless.” Have you and the guys in the band had a chance to listen to it from beginning to end.

I have just by assembling all the songs in sequence in my Itunes library, just listening to it at home but it’s a real trip for me just to hear the progression from the very first demos going through “The Vanishing Point.” It’s pretty cool to listen to them chronologically, but I’ve only done it that way.

So, is this going to be all the songs as they were originally released? They haven’t been remastered or anything like that.

Yeah, yeah. There’s no adding backup vocals or any of that stuff. It’s as they were originally recorded and mixed, the same exact versions.

So no Pro-Tools magic on this one at all?

No…no (laughs). And it’s funny, I’ve definitely heard on hardcore records where that has happened and it’s always really bizarre. I won’t name any bands that have done it but I’ve definitely listened to recordings of hardcore bands where all of a sudden you hear backup vocals you didn’t hear before or a guitar that you didn’t hear before. It’s a little weird.

Now my last question, being together and playing with the guys again, you’ve got this release coming out and you’re probably getting geared up to do a bunch of shows this new year, is there any chance that you guys might get together, hit the studio, and put out some new stuff?

Yes. There is a very, very good chance of that. In fact, we have it in mind to, at the very least, record a couple of covers and a couple of originals and do a sort of EP but it could easily turn into a full-fledged album.

Just kind of see where the day takes you and if it’s still fun I guess?

Yeah. We don’t want it to be disingenuous so we don’t want to force it. If it happens and it feels right, then absolutely, and I think there is a very good chance of it happening.