Local. Independent. Out of Print.

Erik Stenglein from Northless

Erik from Northless shares with us, a few records he was introduced to over the years. He is an all-around nice guy. Make sure and check out his band – and bring ear plugs, because it’s gonna be loud. We, at MKEpunk, recommend you pick up their double LP, Clandestine Abuse. Epic.

His MKE5 goes a little something like this:

MKE Top 5

  • Seven Days were one of the first bands I really got into from Milwaukee. I started really going to shows in Milwaukee in ’99, and they were one of the first bands I ever saw and played with. At the time, the Milwaukee scene looked a lot different, and there were a lot of bands and people doing things that I wasn’t really into. Seven Days were loud, heavy, and had a sense of melody and songwriting skill that surpassed their hardcore punk contemporaries. To this day, “Bury Your Head” still gives me goosebumps every time I hear it, and takes me back to the Wright house in early 2000 where I first saw them play it. Since then, Dave Rudnik has been in many other bands I’ve followed and enjoyed immensely, including High On Crime, Get Rad, Coffin Dodger, etc. This is, for me, where my relationship with the Milwaukee hardcore punk scene started.

  • I really wanted to talk about Hero Of A Hundred Fights (my favorite MKE band ever) instead, but this will have to do! Milwaukee had this smattering of bands, including Akarso, HO100F, Managra, Tintoretto, Forstella Ford, Insidious, and others that had this emo/screamo (not the bullshit they call screamo nowadays) sound that I just loved. One of the first bands I was in was called Under The Bridges of Umea, and it was with Ben Davison and Brad Herwig from Get Rad, who really introduced me to this kind of stuff. At the time, we were kinda playing stuff in the vein of those bands (though we never recorded anything). I’ve always been a sucker for good musicianship in the punk/hardcore scene, and these bands had that in spades. Great melodies, awesome songwriting…Too bad most of these bands were slightly before my time, and I never got to see them live. Life is bullshit.

  • Another release well before my time, but so fucking awesome. Any 90’s hardcore fans really need to pick this up, or just download it from the site. Very heavy, Earth Crisis-esque, but also with some kinda Bloodlet-esque moments, and overall sick mosh parts. It’s also awesome that Jesse Smith was in this band, because he is a friend, and a person whom I have immense respect for. Jesse went on to be in a lot of other hardcore bands (including xFor Death or Gloryx with me…and he filled the vacancy when I quit Protestant), but this has a special place in my heart.

  • Up In Arms were one of the first Milwaukee hardcore bands I ever saw live. I can still remember the insane mosh pits they used to inspire. There was definitely a lot more friendly violence at shows back then. I saw these guys open for Buried Alive at the Globe East. It was sick. I also worked very briefly with Jason Straute (their singer) as a masonry assistant, and he told me about Up In Arms and gave me a CD. I still have that CD, and the song “Walls” has been a mainstay on hardcore mix CD’s I’ve made ever since.

  • What can I say, this will go down as one of the sickest metal releases this city has ever seen. This was the first metal band from Milwaukee I saw. I first saw them play at the Couch by UWM in 1999. Karl, their guitarist, was warming up playing these insane sweep arpeggios and weird atonal riffs, and I remember just being blown away. Karl also used to be in Creation Is Crucifixion (a Pittsburgh band), one of my favorite metal bands. You can hear the similarities here. My old band Chaos Diaries (featuring Ben Davison from Get Rad, and some members of Textbook Traitors) also shared a practice space briefly at the Sydney Hih building with these dudes. That place sucked. Anyway, this CD rules, and still holds up.

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