{"id":487,"date":"2014-01-10T15:24:25","date_gmt":"2014-01-10T09:54:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/metalassault.com\/articles\/?p=487"},"modified":"2014-01-10T16:07:52","modified_gmt":"2014-01-10T10:37:52","slug":"a-blast-from-the-past","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/metalassault.com\/articles\/2014\/01\/10\/a-blast-from-the-past\/","title":{"rendered":"A Bl’ast From the Past"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Avinash Mittur<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"blood\"<\/a> When you think of heavy and savage music in the Bay Area, what is the setting that you picture? Is it a small club in San Francisco, or a grimy warehouse in Oakland? Maybe it\u2019s a house or a dilapidated rehearsal space in the vast recesses of the East Bay? Why not the surfer\u2019s haven, Santa Cruz? That odd town hidden behind Highway 17 is home to one of the bay\u2019s coolest secrets, a band called BL\u2019AST! We\u2019ll just call them Bl\u2019ast from here on out- no need to yell after all. Back in the late \u201880s, Bl’ast was one of the Bay Area\u2019s best contributions to the hardcore punk movement. Their music, noted by blinding speed, shredded vocals and jagged (yet incredibly heavy) riffs, was the logical successor to the sound first heard on Black Flag\u2019s legendary My War<\/strong> LP. Fittingly enough, Bl’ast released three albums on Black Flag\u2019s own label, SST Records, before calling it quits in the early \u201890s. In late 2013, the hardcore punk world found itself in for a treat- Bl\u2019ast came back from the dead, and the band brought with them a new version of their second album, It\u2019s in My Blood<\/strong>, now entitled BLOOD!<\/strong> As 2013 comes to a close, the members of Bl\u2019ast are ready to play their second show since reforming. I meet with singer Clifford Dinsmore and guitarist Mike Neider barely an hour before they hit the stage at the Regency Ballroom in San Francisco, and they offer me a look at how they managed to return to the music world and resuscitate the raddest band to come out of Santa Cruz, CA.<\/p>\n

The gears began turning when Neider stumbled upon the master recordings for It\u2019s in My Blood<\/strong>. Neider explains that it was his pal, Southern Lord Recordings head Greg Anderson, that encouraged him to give those tapes their first play in twenty-five years. \u201cI\u2019ve been working with Greg for about ten years now, my personal business with his business. We\u2019ve done shirts and merch and we always talk about [Bl\u2019ast] all the time. He said, \u2018Well send [the tapes] down to me man,\u2019 we sent them down and decided to let him see what he could do with them.\u201d Anderson, anticipating that the tapes would be in less than ideal condition, came up with a course of action. From what Neider has to say, Anderson\u2019s decision making was sound. \u201cIt\u2019s funny because after Greg got these tapes he said, \u2018Oh, I\u2019ll send it to Brad Boatright in Washington and see what he can do with them and see if they\u2019re even usable.\u2019 We thought they\u2019d just be destroyed after all these years.\u00a0 A couple weeks go by and he calls me up, \u2018They\u2019re so dirty that we can\u2019t even play them. The machine is just caked. The only chance we have left is to bake these tapes. That can either destroy it or fix it.\u2019 So we figured yeah, just go for it. Nothing to lose.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anderson\u2019s gamble paid off- Neider was stoked. \u201cWe get a call a week later, \u2018Holy shit, it totally worked. We baked these tapes and they totally worked, only thing is that it stripped out some of the tones.\u2019\u201d While that would spell disaster for most other bands, the event was a bit of a blessing in disguise for Bl\u2019ast. According to Dinsmore, It\u2019s in My Blood<\/strong> was made in a place where no one knew how to engineer hardcore punk. \u201cThe thing that was funny about back then was that it was totally the luck of the draw. There was no one you could really go to for that kind of music and get it right\u2026 If you were in Santa Cruz and went into an average recording studio and said, \u2018We\u2019re going to record this<\/i>,\u2019 you\u2019re going to end up with someone who doesn\u2019t know how to deal with it at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"grohl2\"<\/a>
Dave Grohl, Greg Anderson, Mike Neider and Clifford Dinsmore at Studio 606, where BLOOD! was mixed.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For Neider, the project became just a bit cooler when an old friend got wind of it. \u201cDave Grohl found out about [the project] and said, \u2018Fuck, bring them over to me and let me see what I can do about it.\u2019 He got the tapes and took everything<\/i> off of it, stripped it down to the bare bones and added what he thought was fucking insane. They worked on it for a day or two or something, called Cliff and I and said, \u2018Fuck, get down here man. Check this shit out.\u2019 We went down and it was insane.\u201d Grohl gave It\u2019s in My Blood<\/strong> the mix it always deserved using his Neve 8028 console, the legendary piece of gear featured in his film Sound City. \u201cDave stripped it down, took off all that \u201880s stuff that was supposed to make it sound super huge but ended up just compressing it. So now it\u2019s like Bl\u2019ast in 3-D, it\u2019s crazy,\u201d Neider explains. BLOOD!<\/strong> would be released on September 3rd<\/sup> 2013, and the reception would be largely positive. This was the way Bl\u2019ast should have been heard all those years ago.<\/p>\n

Though the \u201880s drum reverb was now gone, there was a rather cool sonic element freshly added to the new mix: guitar tracks played by former member Kip DuVall. These days, Kip goes by his birth-name of William and sings for a band called Alice in Chains. DuVall gave Neider and Dinsmore his blessing, and Dinsmore was even able to reconnect with his old buddy when Alice in Chains rolled through town. \u201cIt was cool because all of [DuVall\u2019s] tracks got brought up and it sounded insane. We thought, \u2018Man, we better give him a call!\u2019 He called me back and he was really excited about it. Alice in Chains came out to Shoreline Amphitheater in San Jose, and it was really cool. He had a day off so I went over the hill and hung out with him and we just talked for hours and hours.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BL'AST!<\/a>
BL’AST! live in the late ’80s with William “Kip” DuVall. Photo by Fred Hammer.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Neider and Dinsmore\u2019s new collaboration with Southern Lord brought up the obvious possibility of Bl\u2019ast returning to the stage. Dinsmore, who remained a fixture of Santa Cruz\u2019s heavy music scene, recalls that the current incarnation of Bl\u2019ast with Hoss Wright on drums and Nick Oliveri on bass was almost assembled sarcastically. \u201cIt was funny because I work at a place called The Catalyst in Santa Cruz and Mondo Generator was playing there. I had the night off so I was just hanging out and that was the night I met Hoss and Nick. I was talking with Nick and he was telling me, \u2018Dude, you gotta get Bl\u2019ast back together.\u2019 I mentioned that Southern Lord was going to reissue all the records. He\u2019s like, \u2018What, really?\u2019 I said, \u2018Yeah, I think there\u2019s going to be some live shows,\u2019 and I was just joking. He asked, \u2018Who\u2019s playing bass?\u2019 \u2018You are!\u2019 and he\u2019s like, \u2018Fuck yeah, I\u2019ll do that shit!\u2019 and he kind of surprised me. All of a sudden Mondo plays and Hoss is drumming and I call up Mike and tell him, \u2018Dude, you gotta check this out.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The journey to the stage was not going to be easy however, especially for Dinsmore. \u201cAt that point in time, I was really out of shape and injured. I had gotten in a wreck a couple months before that. For me it was like, \u2018Okay, sure\u2026\u2019 It was like the physical transformation that would have to take place, it was going to be a race against time to make it happen. It happened though, it gave me a lot of good discipline in my life, doing the physical therapy and having it be so intense.\u201d The rehearsals with Wright and Oliveri would take some effort, but Dinsmore was well aware of the commitment. \u201c[The rehearsals] were awesome, they just kind of progressed because it took a lot of time to get back into it. It\u2019s not something you can do half-assed, it\u2019s gotta be all the way. It took some work to get there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"B'last<\/a>
B’last 2013: Nick Oliveri, Clifford Dinsmore, Hoss Wright and Mike Neider.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This lineup of Bl\u2019ast would spend nearly six months rehearsing away. Neider was chomping at the bit to play before an audience. \u201cWe were actually a lineup since June or May. We had shows lined up that fell through, but six months later we finally got to play. It was like this anxiety thing that was like, \u2018Alright, we can finally play!\u2019\u201d On December 28th<\/sup> 2013, Bl\u2019ast would play their first show in over a decade at The Observatory in Santa Ana. Many of their friends and peers from back in the day would be in attendance, and Dinsmore knew that they\u2019d be the band\u2019s toughest fans to please. \u201c[That night] we just had the heaviest panel of critics. People who were there from twenty years ago and were at all the shows. Greg Anderson, Scott Hill, Fred Hammer\u2026 people who had seen us so long ago and would be hardcore Bl\u2019ast critics. They were stoked, but we were worried. \u2018What are these people going to think?\u2019 They were our monitor.”<\/p>\n

The next day, Bl\u2019ast drove up to the Bay Area for their homecoming show. Their thirty-minute set proved to be muscular and lethal, with Neider headbanging like his life depended on it and Dinsmore instilling fear into the hearts of those in the audience. The songs sounded simply monstrous in the live setting, with the title track from It\u2019s in My Blood<\/strong> bringing the set to a crashing and heavy as hell finish. It was a triumphant return by any standard. Dinsmore was pretty dead on when he did his best to describe Bl\u2019ast as a live unit. \u201cIt feels better than ever right now. We\u2019ve got that violent aggression that the music has always carried, and we\u2019re really positive in the way we play right now. Hoss and Nick have brought this whole new element to it, they\u2019re tight and punchy. It\u2019s just insane, there\u2019s an energy right now that feels really good.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Dinsmore<\/a>
Dinsmore onstage at The Regency Ballroom in San Francisco. Photo courtesy of Raymond Ahner.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As for what the future holds, Dinsmore says fans can expect a remastered version of Bl\u2019ast\u2019s first record, The Power of Expression<\/strong>, to be released via Southern Lord. “From there on it\u2019s a toss up between new stuff and try to fix Take the Manic Ride<\/strong>. There\u2019s not much we can do with that one because we don\u2019t have the original tapes-” “Other than re-record it,” Neider says as he finishes Dinsmore’s sentence. “That\u2019s a concept that\u2019s been thrown around. That\u2019d be a pretty big project to take on so many years later, but it would be kind of awesome.” Neider laughs at the challenge. “We\u2019d be stoked to do it.”\u00a0Until then, for those who want to catch Bl’ast live, they are playing on January\u00a010th\u00a0<\/sup>at The Echo in Echo Park with Nails and The Shrine, and on January 25th<\/sup> at Brick by Brick in San Diego. Bl’ast is back, and they are out for blood.<\/p>\n

Visit BL’AST! on Facebook<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0and at their official website<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Avinash Mittur When you think of heavy and savage music in the Bay Area, what is the setting that you picture? Is it a small club in San Francisco, or a grimy warehouse in Oakland? Maybe it\u2019s a house or a dilapidated rehearsal space in the vast recesses of the East Bay? Why not … <\/p>\n

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