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Tuesday, June 28, 2011

At All Cost - NYHC (1987 - 1991)

For my first post in the Rockland County hardcore (RCH) section I had to go with the first and most successful of the RCH bands At All Cost.

The origins of At All Cost begin in early 1987 when a group of 15 year old high school friends somehow discovered the NY Hardcore scene and decided to form their own band. This original incarnation of At All Cost consisted of Darin Galgano (drums) , Charlie Oberle (vocals) , Chris Scott (bass) and Wade Babcock (guitar) and went by the name Violent Youth who basically functioned as a hardcore cover band who played a few shows locally covering bands like Warzone, Agnostic Front and various other NY Hardcore bands of the time.

At some point in 1987 Violent Youth added Mike Iovino on vocals and moved Charlie to bass, however Mike's time in the band was short lived as he was quickly replaced by Jeff Guzman, and At All Cost was born. At this point the band began writing original material and playing out locally. It was also with this line up that At All Cost recorded and released the first At All Cost demo tape in 1988.



After a short time of playing with this solidified line up At All Cost made two final personnel moves when Charlie Oberle left the band to be replaced by Brian Getkin on bass, and Chris Scott also left the band to be replaced by Mark Calimbus. This line up of Darin,Brian,Mark, Jeff and Wade would become the final line up for At All Cost and also the most cohesive and powerful line up to date. I believe it was with this final line up that At All Cost played their biggest shows with the likes of Raw Deal, Cro-mags, Destruction etc.



In 1989/90 At All Cost went into the studio for one final time and as a result of this studio session a final demo was released in 1990 which featured the bands strongest material to date, but like so many young bands the wheels started to fall off the wagon after the release of the 1990 demo. The trouble began with a record deal that went bust, and the final straw that broke the camels back was the departure of vocalist Jeff Guzman. After Jeff's departure At All Cost auditioned vocalist but could never find the right fit for the band, which is unfortunate because the new music the band was working on at the time was probably their best to date, unfortunately these new songs were never properly recorded and only exist to this day on a practice tape that is in the possession of one of the band members.

After The break up of At All Cost Mark C went on to form Atlas Shrugged who had a very successful career releasing multiple 7" and full length releases on Rockland County based label Trip Machine Laboratories. Darin and Brian went on to form Dahlia Seed with Chris Skelly who was a member of Rockland County thrashers Selective Outrage. Dahlia seed went on to become one of the more influential Emo bands of the 90's releasing multiple 7 " singles and full length albums over their 5 year career. In the near future Individual posts for both Atlas Shrugged and Dahlia Seed will be forthcoming on Suburbia Suburbia SUBURBIA! ... Dave G.



Download ... Demo 1988 and 1990

Download ... CBGB 10/15/1989

Download ... WNYU Radio 10/25/1990





Our Friend Dan over at Old-Fast-and-Loud was kind enough to cut up the AAC live shows ... boost the levels and make a nice cdr cover for everything. Here are Links to Dan's files and please check out his excellent blog as well.

At All Cost - CDR

CDR covers


11 comments:

  1. jesus christ,no comments yet huh
    this stuff is @#$%^%$ AMAZING!
    THX!!!!!!!!!!!
    Dan

    edited versions as cd-r up on ofal blog soon! ill send you first!

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  2. Thanks for commenting Dan. Glad you like At All Cost, my brother was their drummer so this stuff holds a special place in my heart...Dave G.

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  3. a shame they never got the chance to release that 12''
    pretty sure if it was released back in the day,it would be a classic now
    those livesets are amazing too
    again thx,ill make something nice of it (i think ;-0)
    probably gonna send tonight!

    Dan

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  4. Dan, I saw the AAC post on your blog...thanks for helping us spread the word about At All Cost. I added your blog to our links section, and I look forward to hearing what you've done with the recordings...Dave G.

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  5. thx Dave!~appreciate it
    ill redo the back cover,saw i made a mistake in Darin's name = darren and Mark = Marc ;-0 will change and will add the previous members too
    sorry,rushjob ;-0
    will send corrected versions tomorrow!
    Dan

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  6. Hey Dave thanks for doing this being in that band was a great experience I will never forget those days I can't download the remix stuff from old loud fast that guy did a great job on the artwork hope you have it when I come over and burn some music I hope one day we get back together and have some more fun it would be interesting what would come out I saw a guy in the newberg mall in fye wearing an At All Cost shirt looking in the hardcore bin I asked about the shirt and he went on and on about AAC he asked if I heard of them and I said yea I know the guys pretty good ha

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  7. The download is working for me Wade...I will burn you a copy when we get together. Let me know if you have any free time coming up and we'll hook up.

    Did you see someone recently wearing an At All Cost shirt? If so then that's pretty crazy.

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  8. freakin awesome guys. keepin it alive!!! it means so much to me

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  9. Doing all we can to spread the word Jeff. Glad you're pleased with are efforts. Between this blog and Rocket Science blog the At All Cost music is getting a lot of well deserved attention.

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  10. To all my fellow band mates this is charlie o. I just discovered this today online. I just want to thank you Dave for posting this. Those days will always hold a special place in my heart.

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