VINYL OF THE MONTH
CHEECH – Old Friends EP
Boston, MA
WTF Records
Hardcore is alive and well and living in the outer fringes of Boston’s city limits. There was a time (who are we kidding, it’s still true) when anything that wasn’t branded “Authentic NYC Hardcore” was shat upon in most serious circles. But fuck that noise, because CHEECH has been kicking ass and taking names in the Hub of New England for 20 years, and their latest 7-inch, Old Friends, packs more of a punch in under 10 minutes than most of the “ANYHC” releases we’ve been privy to in the past 5 or 6 years. Bonus points for being on a really nice (and well-pressed) slab of clear vinyl.
Old Friends isn’t just a 4-track collection of songs for the sake of pissing off your parents (although, if that’s your objective, you’ll find that this 7-inch fits the bill quite nicely) — the front cover’s bulldog is a sly nod to the band’s friends, the upstate NY band Bulldog Courage, who sadly lost both their lead singer and guitar player within weeks of each other in 2014. The final cut on Side B is a (surprisingly touching) cover of Bulldog Courage’s aptly-titled “Old Friends Die Hard,” a fitting tribute to CHEECH’s lost comrades, and the genre as a whole.
If you have even a passing interest in contemporary hardcore, we heartily recommend copping the new CHEECH EP. If you’re so inclined, you can also pick up a few bonus tracks with the digital edition on Bandcamp. But we all know the only true way to listen to releases like this is on vinyl. And this piece of wax deserves a spot on your turntable.