Ben Edge On Music 7

Reason To Believe- "The Next Door":
"The 7" and LP by this band are amazing. They are the closest thing the west coast had to a band like Dag Nasty or Gorilla Biscuits (i.e., a melodic yet powerful and energetic hardcore band with melodic singing).
Jon Bunch is definitely the best singer in hardcore ever. Not by favorite per se, but technically the best. Maybe I'm tripping though. I don't know shit about singing.
I can't believe they were never a popular band."
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Discharge:
"Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing is the best Discharge record. It's so loud, powerful, and relentless.
That said, it's funny how they were the biggest influence on continental European and Japanese hardcore, when there were easily 30-40 American hardcore bands from the early 80s that were better than Discharge."
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Ben was asked his opinion on the following highly acclaimed drummers:

Keith Moon - "A very unorthodox drummer. Not skilled in the traditional sense. He had his own style, and played really well with his band mates. Just before he died, they recorded the WHO ARE YOU? LP, and there's a song with 6/8 time, and Keith just couldn't play it. He got worse in the end, because of the drinking, drugs, and lack of discipline."

Neil Peart - "Fucking awesome. He does not practice improvisation AT ALL. Every single drum hit on every album are played that way live, and always will be. That's why I understand a Rush show consists of dudes playing air drums. They know exactly what he's going to play. He also introduced right wing Ayn Rand politics into the band."

Dave Lombardo - "Yeah, he's good. It's pretty obvious. I can't get into Slayer, but that's my own problem."

John Bonham - "The best rock drummer ever. He could play circles around Keith Moon."

Tommy Lee - "More cowbell! He's great. The drums on that first Crue album are rad. And to think he's playing all that WHILE he's spinning his sticks the whole time? That's talent!"
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The Clash- "Combat Rock":
"My brother had the tape of it when it came out. I still have the tape. We loved the video for "Rock The Casbah". It's a good album. Way better than the one before it or the one after it. There's some strange stuff on there."
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Anthem 88- "Define A Lifetime":
"I didn't like this. It was these crusty thrashy dudes trying to do youth crew, but they couldn't help themselves, and they ended up making it sound crusty and thrashy."
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Post suggestions of bands/albums you would like to hear Ben's opinion on. (I am running low on good ones.)
Or ask him nerdy questions about early 80's punk and 70's glam.

Ian & Ben