First Class Champ - Demo (1996)

    First Class Champ was a band from my hometown of Calgary, Alberta. Members of the classic Calgary all ages hardcore band All Rights Reserved started this band around 95' or 96'. 

    This band sounds like it could be on Vermin Scum back in the golden days; political, pissed off and chaotic as hell. I love the live video where Aram rips his guitar off and starts going crazy. This is another incredible Calgary band that I am so happy to showcase, they are incredibly solid all around and compete with the best I have heard out of the American and French scenes.

    Edit: from a member of Consumer Identity

    Oh hey - saw your First Class Champ post on your blog. Not sure if you were aware but First Class Champ's singer was Aram Arslanian, who later played in Champion and Betrayed and currently sings for CHANGE (and was in Consumer Identity with me and some of the Fake Cops guys for a bit after FCC ended)(also the founder of REACT! records). Also, FCC's drummer was Jeff Trawick who was later the original drummer for Three Inches Of Blood but left that band around the time they signed to a major label. Just a little more info if you were interested.

Thanks to the Calgary Cassette Archive for these tracks! The work they do is incredibly valuable!

Demo 1996

Joule - Discography (1994-2005)

    Joule was a hardcore band from Calgary, Alberta that existed from around 1994-1998 and then again from 2001-2005. At their earliest stages Joule was influenced by the D.I.Y hardcore scene in the states and France, with Devin citing bands like Julia and Finger Print as major influences. They captured the heart of the scene so perfectly; their handmade demo release contained a poignant political zine and patch with every copy.  

Heartattack #9 Zine Review

    In the later stage of the band Joule took on a keyboard player and a lot more influence from the ever popular white-belt scene at the time (Wolfnote etc), which shines through most clearly in the CDEP and unreleased sessions. Joule is a picture perfect encapsulation of the Calgary D.I.Y scene in the 90s and I am so very glad to have discovered them. I will link their Demo, CDEP and split tape with Dillinger here; but there is a lot more unreleased material that they have. Its going to be a bit of a WIP but hopefully I will also have that stuff linked here (or finally released!) soon. 

    P.S. Last night I had a great time chatting with Devin from Joule about his time in the 90s Calgary hardcore scene. It looks like Devin kept a lot of pictures, posters, zines and other memorabilia from the scene! He said he would be more than happy to let me dig though this stuff, so I might have a lot of cool things to archive down the line here!

Discography (So Far)

It Is Always A Pleasure If Always Means Never CDEP 2003 (Core-Upt)

Demo Tape 1996

Dillinger Vs. Joul Split Tape

Core Upt Records Sampler