listen to Into Another/Underdog's Richie Birkenhead & Title Fight's Ned Russin talk hardcore

Last week, NYHC: New York Hardcore 1980-1990 author Tony Rettman launched his new radio show on Green Room Radio, in support of the upcoming film Green Room. Episode one had Ted Leo, and now episode two is out with Richie Birkenhead of Underdog and Into Another, and Ned Russin of Title Fight.

Ned’s a much newer artist on the hardcore scene than Richie of course, but the two actually make a great pairing. Underdog (who reunited as recently as last May) and Into Another (who put a new EP out last year) came from hardcore but pushed the boundaries of the genre to several other places. As Richie himself says on the show, they weren’t really hardcore bands. And as of last year’s Hyperview, Title Fight are arguably as much a shoegaze band as they are a hardcore band.

Tony interviews Richie and Ned about how they got into hardcore and the importance it holds to them individually, and it’s pretty fascinating to hear how their answers are sometimes identical and other times couldn’t be more different. Richie talks about his band getting pulled over by cops just for being a punk band in a van, and going to often-dangerous shows at A7, where as Ned talks about how, by the time he started playing, being in a punk band was just a normal accepted thing that his parents or grandparents could casually mention a family gathering or something (he points out that his grandma knows the word “mosh”).

They play some Title Fight and Underdog on the show, plus Bad Brains, Kraut, Misfits, Descendents, Cro-Mags, Minor Threat, Youth of Today and more. The whole thing is a good listen. Check it out below.

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https://soundcloud.com/greenroomradio/episode-02-richie-birkenhead-ned-russin