With our Fresh Blood section we like to give really new bands some exposure that they might not get elsewhere. We love helping out newer bands who have shown some promise and in the past we have usually had one band featured at a time. While scoping out talent for Fresh Blood we noticed a trend on Long Island with some really good under the radar releases from bands that didn’t all sound exactly the same. The common theme within the majority of the bands within this article is that they have their first releases out and haven’t played out a ton yet… Fresh Blood! So do your part and support… read what each band has to say, check out their music, maybe give them a follow. We genuinely hope that each person reading this can come away with a “I want to see this band next time they come around” type of feeling. Thanks to all the bands who took part, the photographers who allowed us to use their shots, Paul Turano and John Franko for graphics and Sven Gjurcek for the cool "Long Island Hardcore" artwork. 

CONTROLLED SUBSTANCE are a hardcore punk band from Long Island, NY. They formed in 2017, played their first show in 2018, and if you take away pandemic induced shutdowns have been playing out consistently since their first shows in 2018. I met their singer Flanagan on the Long Island Railroad since he looked like a hardcore punk dude. He told me about his band, gave me a pin and I looked up their music soon after. Their live shows are charged and Flanagan is all over the place. Controlled Substance were one of the opening bands that played at the East River Amphitheatre in Manhattan on July 24th, 2021 opening for LA’s Dead City in a show that got a lot of exposure outside of the DIY hardcore scene. To date they have released an 8 song self-titled demo (2019) and the 6 song “Why This World” EP (2021). Both are available on streaming services with the 2019 demo having been released as a 7” (limited to 250 copies in 2019 and now sold out). Controlled Substance are currently writing new material and hope to have their next EP out this summer. The band consists of: Flanagan- vocals, Stooley- drums, Kev- guitar and Craig- bass. They feature current and former members of Gangway!, the Kickstarts, Violent Affair, Urban Waste, Lost Cause, The Stress, Boogie Brains and Beechcraft Bonanza. Sonically and lyrically they told us that they try to invoke a lot of the bands that spoke to and inspired them, like Kill Your Idols, Negative Approach, Discharge and Warzone, as well as newer bands like Gel, Warthog, Peace Test and Spy. Check out their music and give them a follow. They play often and their next show is always seemingly right around the corner. Click HERE to check out their music. 

Controlled Substance photo taken by: Matt Viel at Mr Beery's Bethpage, NY on March 12, 2022 

POWER LIES is: (left to right) Joe- bass Steve- guitar, Phil- vocals, and Paulie- drums. They play a straight up old-school style of hardcore punk which is on full display on their lone release which is a 3 song demo that came out this past January. Dig My Grave Records (Joe’s label) also put out the demo out on cassette. When we asked Power Lies to tell us a little more about their band this is what their singer Phil had to say… 

“We started this band in the spring of 2020 in the wake of the BLM protests but because of Covid things were slow moving. This is the first time I’m doing this… never so much having been in a band. I was already friends with Steve (guitar) and he saw me at a few protests, marching and yelling into a megaphone for hours on end. I guess he figured I would be a good fit for this project he’s always wanted to do. He brought Joe to one particular protest where I delivered a speech and introduced us. Later that week, Steve approached me about attempting to front this band he was putting together. I told him “I’ll give it a shot.” At the first practice, I met Paulie (drums) and we hit it off instantly. So during this session I was on my phone while they nailed down a track. After a few runs, they thought I was bored because I was just sitting there with my face buried in my phone, but when asked what was up, I said “oh no I’m not bored, I think I wrote a song.” So on the next run I joined in. That became the track “Red Caps”. I looked around the room fully expecting “thanks for coming down man, don’t call us we’ll call you” but instead they all dug it. So, the rest has been equal parts a blur and a blast. This project which later became known as Power Lies, couldn’t have come at a more perfect time with some of the best most easy going musicians I could be involved with. Their raw energy meets the noise inside my head that I normally can’t simply express with illustration. (My usual vehicle of expression) This collaborative effort has provided me an outlet, when I thought I had run out of road to run”.

To date the band has played 4 shows on Long Island and are looking to play out of state soon. Future plans include doing a split with Bitch Switch. Guitarist Steve is also currently in Take My Chances and bassist Joe is currently in Yum-Yuckers. Click HERE to check out their 3 song demo. 

RESTRICT got on our radar when they dropped their “Three Song Demonstration” demo in November of 2021. It was only 5 minutes worth of music but it pretty much floored us with some killer riffs and breakdowns. When we were putting together the lineup for this article we had Restrict as a “must have” as they checked off a bunch of boxes to things we like to promote here at In Effect HC. Jonathan Davies is Restrict’s guitarist and he told us the band was born during the early stages of the pandemic when Dan (vocals) approached him about doing a band with Mat (bass) and Brandon (drums). Ideas were passed back and forth about potential names, styles of hardcore, and influences. After they had a general idea of what direction to go in Jonathan had plenty of time during the quarantine to overthink riffs. To date the band has only played two local shows and have the aforementioned 3 song demo out as their lone release. In regards to the demo’s recording Jonathan wanted to shout out Chris Rini at Shellshock Audio for “making it sound dope”. Members of Restrict are also in Stand Still, Warehouse and Draw The Line. As for what’s next… Jonathan told us that they would like to “dive in and get a full length together”, and that “recently it's been more difficult to get back on track with writing as work begins to pick back up for all of us individually. That being said, we're not going to put unnecessary pressure on ourselves to pump out rushed, sub-par tracks. It'll be ready when it's ready, fuck the algorithms. Last thing I'll say is I’d like to see more faster-style hardcore out of Long Island. Shoutout to Survival Unit Records for doing their thing in the area regardless, and In Effect for shedding some light on other cool new shit coming out”. Check out Restrict’s music by clicking HERE. 

DEATH SPIRAL were a very late addition to this article as I had never heard of them before I caught their set at Gold Sounds in Brooklyn on May 21st where they opened for Change and Berthold City who were on an East Coast weekend run. It was only Death Spiral’s second show but they seemed like a band that had been together for a while. The fact that they already had a 4 song EP titled “Tyranny Of Tradition” out on Safe Inside Records (December 2021) made going up to them to invite them to this article pretty easy. Members of Death Spiral are spread out between Long Island and NYC. Check out what Andrew had to say below. 

IE: Who is in Death Spiral? What other bands are you guys currently in?

Andrew: Travis Reilly- vocals, Jeff Tiu and Andrew Keym- guitars, Joey Smiles- bass and Chris Mazella- drums. Travis is in This Is Hell and I am in Skycamefalling. Both bands are active but not very active. Jeff and Chris have also previously played in This Is Hell.

IE: When did Death Spiral start?

Andrew: August 2021. We were writing songs before that, but that’s when we added Travis on vocals. The band stemmed from another band called Anoint The Sick, which fell apart during the pandemic.

IE: What do u plan on putting out next and when do u think that could realistically happen?

Andrew: We have another 4 song EP that we could technically release tomorrow, but we really want to do a full length release. Safe Inside Records has also expressed interest in doing a vinyl LP for us. Right now, the plan is to add 6 more songs on top of the 4. Realistically, I would think that release would fall into next year especially with the long turnaround times on vinyl. 

IE: What else can you tell our readers about Death Spiral?

Andrew: The band has left-leaning ideals and socio-politically conscious lyrics.  In the wake of 2020, we are angry about the world and the direction our country is heading in. The “Tyranny Of Tradition” EP was in response to that trajectory and a call to arms for dissenters.

Check out Death Spiral's music HERE.  Cassette versions of "Tyranny Of Tradition" can be found HERE. 

Death Spiral collage taken by; Michelle Mennona @ Gold Sounds, Brooklyn on May 21, 2022

BITCH SWITCH formed in early 2020 when Mande (guitar) got in contact with Rachel (vocals) after finding out she was interested in forming a band. Over the course of a few months, they connected with Linnea (drums) and then Ashley (bass).  After practicing only a few times the pandemic hit and obviously put a damper on getting the band kick started. To date they have released a 2 song cassette demo (which was released by Dig My Grave Records) and have played a handful of shows across Long Island and one in Brooklyn. Their demo came out in January of 2022 and was recorded with Johnny Waste at Wasteland Studios. They also have another song that was recorded with Joey at Swan Lake Recording Company. It will be featured on a compilation that will be put out in the near future to benefit Sweetbriar Nature Center. Bitch Switch plans on doing a split 7” with Power Lies as well as a full length album but no timeline is set at this time. When asked to tell us a little more about Bitch Switch Mande had this to say…

“As a band we think it is important to influence other females to get on stage! Punk and hardcore have always been more male dominated and we would love to see more female presence in the music scene. We all come from different bands from different times in the scene. We have different subgenre tastes, and it has been fun getting to create music where they all collide into something unique”. Find Bitch Switch's music HERE. 

Bitch Switch photo by: Miguel Angel Vazquez JR. @ Bushwick Public House, August 18, 2021. 

CHUMHUFFER are the most punk rock sounding band within this Fresh Blood article. Their lone release came out in February of this year and has 4 songs. Their singer also played bass on that release and also drew the band photo you see above. ChumHuffer made things easy on us by providing a pretty detailed account on who they are and what they are all about. Read below to find out more!

ChumHuffer is a new band based on Long Island (West Babylon) that started in July, 2021. We do have members from Queens and Brooklyn too. There are five of us in the band and everyone has been in plenty of bands in the past. I am Shawn Refuse, on vocals. I've been in Refuse Resist, Zero Rights and Done With You. Blackout Matt is on rhythm guitar and is in a few bands but most notably he plays bass for Blackout Shoppers. On lead guitar and secondary vocals we have Joe Dorane, he was in Hopeless Otis a long, long time ago. Jimmy Duke is on drums and has been in bands like Urban Waste and Iconicide. Rounding out the band is Ryan Paige on bass. He's done a lot in and out of the island. Past members include Marc Noiz (Lopez) from 2 Man Advantage on bass and Mike Flaherty on drums, who helped write a bunch of the songs we play now. Mike is featured on our EP “Blood In The Water” that we self-released digitally in February of this year.

Our sound comes from a lot of places and only seems to be gathering more influences. Matt, Joe and I started the band thinking that we'd do a surf-infused hardcore punk band. Throughout the writing process we just played what came out rather than trying to build a mold. Every song has a little bit different of a theme to it musically and lyrically. We can be serious like in “Orgy Of Hate” where I talk about the world being full of hate and only being able to be changed by us. Then we have songs like “Strufoli” about a guy named Jimmy (not our Jimmy) that has massive diarrhea all the time. And one of my favorites is “Sloth”, about the hero of the Goonies. We try not to take ourselves too seriously. There is enough seriousness out in the world today and we don't need to be preaching every song. Currently, we have enough songs to put out another EP later this year or maybe a full length in the beginning of 2023. If people want to hear our music they can go on to Spotify, we are the only ChumHuffer out there. For people who don't want to give in to the green giant, they can find us online HERE or via our Bandcamp page.

TAKE MY CHANCES are the wild card band of this article as they are without a doubt NOT a new band. Their existence dates back to the early 2000’s and they were pretty much 6 feet under for quite some time until recently when they started making local appearances and now word that new music is within reach. Their back catalog is filled with quality music with some whacky song titles. Take My Chances are a fun band and their singer is hardly ever near the stage with the rest of the band as he uses a very long microphone chord. Take My Chances is also named after an old Grey Area song. Their current 2022 lineup is: Ben Gallup- vocals, Hugo Fitz- guitar, Travis Paduano- guitar, Steve Morton- bass and Quinn Dynamite- drums. Check out what Ben had to say below.

IE: When did Take My Chances start?

Ben: We started in 2004 (or 2005?) after the Backup Plan and Heads Vs Breakers both called it a day. We played for several years during our first run, then had a few hiatuses up until starting to play again full time in late 2021.

IE: Tell us about the bands live show history.

Ben: We played dozens of shows when we were originally active, and probably 8 shows between 2009 and now. Since returning to full time, we've played three shows this year with a few more booked for the summer.

IE: What have you put out so far?

Ben: “2005 Demo”, “Live At CBGB’s 2005” and the "Down Here With Us" full length in 2006.

IE: What do u plan on putting out next and when do u think that could realistically happen?

Ben: We are currently in the process of recording three songs to launch for streaming as soon as possible. It's obviously been a very long time since our CD, so we want to get some of the newer material out quickly. We have a bunch of other songs finished, and more in the works, and are hoping to record a full length a little later this year.

IE: Are people in Take My Chances currently in other active bands?

Ben: Steve currently plays guitar in Power Lies. Ben and Hugo play guitar in Rocket To Ronkonkoma which is a punk rock cover/karaoke band that has already played a few local shows this year. 

Click HERE to stream the Take My Chances back catalog 

Take My Chances photo taken by Matt Viel @ Mr Beery's, Bethpage, NY on March 12, 2022