http://www.mediafire.com/?e3eki83z2it5ik11999 Demo
1.Boot Militia (solo/original lyrics)
2.Way It Should Be
3.No Mercy
4.S.O.S.
5.Menace To Sobriety
1999 Self Release 7inch
1.Pullin On The Boots
2.Salute
3.B.K.B.C.
4.Menace To Sobriety
1999 Greasers Punks and Skins #2
Squigtone Records
14.The Way It Should Be
1999 Drunks Not Dead
Murder and Mayhem Records
4.Menace To Sobriety
2000 Split 7inch w/The Siege
1.Boot Militia (different lyrics/no solo)
2.Your Power
Boot Militia Back Story:
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The band started out with myself and Dan McCarthy in early 1999. He wanted to play drums in a band, but he wasnt good. He had no lessons and had trouble keeping time. So we thought it best if he sang.
We kept writing music while we were looking for a drummer and guitar player. In that time he actually got pretty decent, so we ended up keeping him on drums. Brett Kaplan filled in but wasnt really down with doing the band. First person we tried out was a skinhead girl, we played "Bovver 96-Hammer and Brickwall", she sang and played. She could sing fine, but her playing wasnt fluent, she had a lot of trouble with bar chords. We let her know it wasnt going to work out.
Next person we tried was a 27 year old punk dude named Charlie. He sucked at guitar, he brought his girlfriend to every practice and was really proud to be in this shitty just starting Oi! band with teenagers. He said something about Dan sucking at drums, and we pretty much kicked him out right there. After that we were stuck.
Dan and I were his basement working on songs and Steve Sheckelton walks in. We got done with the music and were talking about finding a new guitar player. It hit me, I turned to Steve and said " wait, you play guitar, would you want to do a band like this?". I believe his answer was a cool guy response like "I guess" or "Whatever". Steve was now in.
I think soon after that Adam came over to tryout for singing. Dan and JOEL PARSONS were in BKBC with Adam. We knew all of them from meeting them at The Numbskulls and Hooligans Party shows. The band was formed. Steve, Dan and I would write the music, and Adam would have a notebook full of prewritten lyrics. Songs were made super quick and before we even had them tight they were recorded.
Demo 1999
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This demo was recorded so quick. We actually recorded here before we recorded "The Numbskulls-In With The Old..."Demo. Steve used this old rusty stringed guitar that kept going out of tune and I used a bass with a nylon E string that wouldnt stay tuned. Drums were a struggle fest, if the drums were even a little close, we kept it. It was terrible. Adam did all this vocals in one take, even if he messed up, he kept it.
We all messed up and didnt care. I think thats why Im such an asshole in studios now. I think it cost us 60$ for the recording. The quality shows it.
Adam was an unstoppable force once he got the CD mix down. I think he made over 100 cassette demos himself and sold them for 4$. After he paid himself back for buying the tapes, he started paying us. For every tape sold, everyone in the band got a dollar. So he'd come to practice sometimes and give us all 6 or 7 dollars. That seriously blew me away.
Self Release/Greasers Punks and Skins #2/Drunks Not Dead Comp 1999
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I came into 10,000$ when my grandmom passed away, I put this 7inch out, Adam did all the work, I just funded it. We felt that our demo was trash (it was) and we wanted to put out an enjoyable release. Adam had a lot of ideas for this 7inch. It was his idea to cover "Bastard Squad-Pullin on the Boots" and he also had ideas for the songs BKBC and Salute. This recording I was a major asshole, I would make us do entire songs over even if it was a little off. One of the main reasons we were covering Pullin on the Boots was because Rosemary from BKBC could sing the german part. Well on the day of the recording everyone from Philly and NJ BKBC came to do back up vocals. Everyone except Rosemary...bummer.
I had a new bass and I think Steve borrowed one of Bretts guitars. Dan improved 100% from the demo and we were prepared for this recording. Again Adam did all his vocals in one take. We recorded 5 songs but only 4 made it on the record. We spent many nights sitting in the back of Jo and Johns in Absecon working out final details on pressing and artwork of the 7inch.
We pressed 500 7inches. 300 black and 200 white. We sent this 7inch to everyone. I sent a copy to Doug from Squigtone Records and Two Tone in Passaic. Adam sent some to Uhl from DIM Records and Vulture Rock.
A few weeks after we got the 7inch, we played a show with Blind Society. After the show the lead singer Blaise asked if we could trade merch. They were going on tour and wanted to spread the word of New Jersey Oi! and streetpunk bands. They gave us 5 CDs and we gave them 20 7inchs.
The 5th song we recorded that wasnt on the 7inch was on a comp on Squigtone Records called Greasers Punks and Skins #2. Squigtone was run by the Bass player of a band called Squiggy. After the release of the comp Adam set a show up in Washington DC with Squiggy, Battaltion 86, Boot Militia and Blind Society. Show was a lot of fun.
At the show we talked with the dudes from Blind Society. They told us that they went to some store in California on tour and tried to give them some of their merch on consignment. He told the guy that he had some merch from other bands from New Jersey too. He told me as soon as they said Boot Militia the guy said " give me 15". They were blown away, they asked the guy " Have you heard of them?". He said "No, but the name is going to sell the records". We thought it was kinda awesome.and
I was contacted about another comp. This comp was called "Drunks Not Dead". The label was called Murder and Mayhem records. I sent them the Menace To Sobriety track and this was released pretty quickly. Every band on it was terrible.
We had about 200 7inches left and Uhl from DIM records contacted Adam. He said " Send me the rest of your 7inches, I'll distro them for you through Europe, and in return I'll put out your next release.". So I gave the rest to Adam and he shipped them to Germany.
Split 7inch Boot Militia/Siege 2000
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When we were talking with Uhl about doing the record, he said he didnt want to do a split 7inch, but he liked our self titled so much he was going to make an exception. This is the only split ever released on DIM Records to this day.
Recording this record was a pain. Adam was going to school in Washington DC and before we recorded we only played together maybe 2 times in a 3 month period. We had maybe 3 new songs and we wanted them to be on this release. The Siege were from Washington and good friends with Adam. The day of recording Steve and I met up with Adam and the guys from The Siege at our practice spot at Joels. We were going to go through the songs and get tight before recording. Well we couldnt get a hold of Dan, so we asked the drummer from The Siege to fill in till Dan came.
This dude made our songs sound amazing. Our songs never sounded so good. We ended up ditching the idea of doing all new songs and did one new and one old. Right as the drummer from The Siege got the songs down tight, Dan showed up. It then went back to slop. The problem was Dan stopped playing completely, he wasnt down with doing the band anymore and just wanted to focus on The Numbskulls only.
We got to the studio and it was just tension. Our other band The Numbskulls had a show that night, so we tried to get the music done as fast as possible. We played live and as soon as we got the two songs done, we left to play the show.
After the show we came back so Steve could lay the solo down and just fix some small problems. When we got back to the studio Adam and The Siege were mixing down everything. We told him that we needed to add more things but he told us it was to late. It caused some lame band drama cause we felt Adam didnt care about our tracks and was only focused on The Siege tracks.
We didnt get to hear the songs till it was released on vinyl. We were not happy with how it sounded. After this release I called Adam and said the band is over. I felt none of us were really in to it anymore and it made no sense to keep the band going with Adam in Washington and the rest of us in NJ.
if anyone has any stories.. post em.
Thank you to:
usofoiofsweden.blogspot.com/for ripping the 2 7inches to MP3
&
Steve Sheckelton
for the pictures
People using "Really" way to much. I know it started on SNL with this skit, but Im sick of people using it as much as they do.
