I remember where I was when I first heard Avail. I was sitting in my friend Greg’s minivan driving down Lake Cook Rd near Northbrook Court Mall in Deerfield, Illinois. I was in the backseat and the song was “Scuffle Town” off Over The James and I was absolutely certain it was the most amazing thing I had every heard during my 15 years on this planet. Over The James quickly became one of my favorite albums and listening to that album eventually became one of the most powerful and important musical experiences of my life.

Hardcore is at its best when it conveys urgency and sincerity, although a strong showing of one may reduce the need to show the other. Urgency is rarely lacking in most hardcore. Due to the nature of the scene and its narrow appeal, bands have to play their hearts out just to survive and certainly to stay relevant. But sincerity is a different matter altogether. Bands tend to meet this requirement by channeling their rage and frustration through screams and hard-line politics. The musical style suits the expression of these emotions well, but short of subtle stylistic differences the bands are almost interchangeable. There is not a remarkable difference between, say, Strife and Integrity.

At 15 years old, hardcore was still fresh and I was a very serious fan, but even I was getting frustrated with its limitations. Over The James was the first time I heard any band sincerely express complex emotion within the hardcore framework. Vague lyrics about strength and defiance can be fun, but they aren’t nearly as interesting as a song about grappling with regret or alienation and not nearly as compelling as listening to someone swear their support to a friend. Avail legitimized hardcore for me at a time when I was beginning to think it was nothing more than a vehicle for anger in a predictable format.

Over The James became a dependable soundtrack for my complete disillusionment during high school. But unlike countless other bands that made so much sense to me then, I've never stopped connecting with Avail's music. Maybe it's nostalgia, maybe I'm just a fan of the genre, but I'd like to think it's more. I believe Avail wrote those lyrics with sincerity, with the intent to actually communicate the power and complexity of their emotional experience and I think they understand that their opportunity to communicate this is finite. That sort of communication is something we've all done before. It's sincere and it's urgent and it makes for some really great hardcore.


"Deepwood" - Over The James

"S.R.O." - Over The James

"Lombardy St." - Over The James

"Simple Song" - 4 a.m. Friday

"Black and Red" - Front Porch Stories