L.V.G. (La Vieja Guardia) Cuban Hardcore from Miami.

 I was performing a Google search on my old Hardcore band L.V.G. (La Vieja Guardia) in order to see if perhaps there were some images online from shows or show-flyers that I don't already have or perhaps haven't seen yet. It was part of an effort to put together some graphics in order to dress up an article that I was going to write for this blog about said group. My therapist thought it would be great for me to actually write again, preferably about something that I am proud of, an accomplishment of sorts, instead of the usual doom and gloom misanthropy; so I figured I'd give my old band 15 seconds of non-fame. Though short-lived and went nowhere fast, L.V.G. was a major bullet point on my very short musical resume that I am most proud of. The aforementioned non-fame wouldn't be undeserving by the way. After all, the L.V.G. 5 song E.P. on I SCREAM Records easily stands in the 10 greatest releases of Miami Hardcore, ( that is, if we are indeed talking of Hardcore), a claim that I will later address and state my case for. Once my Google search came back, I came across this article by some hack freelance writer titled Miami's 15 Best Hardcore Bands. I clicked on it enthusiastically, thinking that certainly L.V.G. would be on that list... We weren't...  

Oh, of course, it's an article for the Miami New Times, an institution of half-ass, hack/hipster journalism since before hipsters were hipsters when South Beach was still actually "a thing". The writer of this article, the marginal Abel Folgar listed what he thought were the greatest  "Hardcore" bands this city has had to offer but his list fell flat... It came short... It sucked... I'm going to dismantle the article a little bit before I get back to the task at hand of self-indulgent glorification of the mighty L.V.G.

First of all, and really least of all, within that mix of 15 local acts, the writer listed bands such as Holly Hunt and Floor, which aren't even hardcore bands (let alone Load, Chocolate Grasshopper, etc.) I like both of these bands (the prior two), and I own their recordings, but I don't put their records on when I want to listen to Hardcore.

The writer tried to excuse the inclusion of these bands into the mix by saying that their attitude is hardcore but he totally deviated from the headline. I think all he knows are 15 local bands total, let alone Hardcore bands. His spectrum went just a little bit broad for his limited perspective. Perhaps some Adderall when he writes might help. Some research would help too. By the way, why 15? Isn't 10 the gold standard of lists?

Miami Hardcore is Miami Hardcore, period. Those two words capitalized next to each other represent a list that doesn't go beyond perhaps 15 bands, total, all of which with interchangeable members! The truly important ones he glossed right over, like Out Of Spite, Timescape Zero, Mindframe. You're only credible nominations were that of Mehkago N.T. (which is not really a Hardcore band either, but OK), ANGER (which really should've been number one) and DNME. But even then, in the section on DNME, all you wrote was, and I quote:

"I was going to say all kinds of incredible things about DNME and how awesome they were when they were around but all I can think of right now is how sad life has been since drummer Alex Del Bueno passed away on October of 2008. Has it really almost been six years since the community service was in full effect? Jesus. Now I'm completely saddened and my only hope is that wherever Al is, he's got himself a nice Crown on ice."

That's it! That's all he wrote... pun intended. The guy got to his number one pick, the top of the heap of his crap showcase article and that was all he was able to muster. Certainly there are points with which to support the claim that DNME is (was) top of the food chain, like the band's dynamics, their role in the Miami scenes chronology and it's individual members impressive resumes. It would take a scene-cognoscenti to list these points, however, and  perhaps this particular gentleman is just not in the know. (By the way, he also listed Hialeah band BRETHREN, which were certainly a reputable 90's band, but only half as dope as the L.V.G.) As for Mr. Folgar, I sure as hell have never seen his ugly mug at a Hardcore show in my entire life, and I became a part of the Miami Hardcore scene in it's golden age, which was the wee early 90's. That's two decades plus of paying dues! As a matter of fact, when you go to that great blog The South Florida Music Scene Past And Present, my little ass is standing right there in that crowd shot representing in the mosh-pit. (A little self-aggrandizement never hurt anyone.) That pic was taken at a 108 show (circa 96/97 I believe) at the Miami venue Cheers. 

(Also in that pic from the old Miami scene that I can pick out are Andrew Logan, Brett 'Bane', Bunde One, Charles Obregon, Julian Del Bueno, Ray 'Coma', Felipe Mena (R.I.P.), Pete Carrino- who was a douche and always smelled humid, and Big Joe Sanford)


To give my friend the writer/author the benefit of the doubt, perhaps the lack of due documentation or the short lifespan of my old band are the reasons that we never made it into his prodigious radar and subsequently onto his fuck-ass list. Also, this article was written in 2014, quite some time after the L.V.G. had broken up and right around the time that I stopped giving a shit about Hardcore and became a hermit. So, in the original spirit and purpose of this post, and in order to educate those interested, and the hack writer in question, I bring you the authorized story of the L.V.G., La Vieja Guardia. It was due time, because frankly it would be a damn shame to not document the brief existence of this truly great sounding Hardcore band/record. 

(Besides, what the fuck else do I have to write about on here?)

To tell the story of L.V.G. we must first mention Miami melodic punk band Guajiro. Guajiro formed in 2005. At that point they had self-released a 5 song EP which I had picked up randomly at a record store. The EP really caught my attention due to the very pronounced musical influence of Husker Du, a personal favorite. The Husker Du influence would not be all that intrigued me, but also the fact that these guys were doing it in Spanish really drew me in, since I was in a phase then of trying to reconnect with my cultural background, so I was listening to a lot more Spanish-language music at the time. I saw them play for the first time at an art gallery in Wynwood on December 17th 2005. 

That night, hours prior to the show, by sheer fluke I met their drummer Doug McKinnon at a convenience store across the street from where the gig was to take place and we sort of hit it off based on our conversation where we found the common ground of both being old Hardcore kids from the early 90's. McKinnon touted a rather impressive resume, having done stints as drummer in a few big underground names such as Boston's legendary yet abhorrent Slapshot, then over on the west coast with Ignite, the Vandals and Speak 714. We exchanged numbers and a semi-friendship formed, and subsequently through him I became acquainted with the rest of the band. 

In 2006 Guajiro ended up getting signed to I SCREAM Records who would put out their debut full-length. When studio time came around, McKinnon wanted to have at least one old-style Hardcore song on the album to show that this band had roots from that scene- a dog whistle of sorts.

So he and Guajiro guitarist Dave Santos wrote an instrumental and enlisted myself and Miami-scene Capo-regime "Dirty" Harry Bosch to throw down the lyrics and vocals. Harry at the time was doing MEHKAGO N.T. (in my top 5 favorite bands of all time), but was also known for fronting DNME and Out Of Spite. As for myself, asides from experimenting with some lo-fi hip-hop stuff, I had not done anything musically since my early 90's band Burning Strong. The song we did with Guajiro became titled 'Delincuente', Spanish for 'delinquent'. Harry and I came into the studio, penned the lyrics, went into the booth and nailed it on the first fucking take. Producer Darren Randall was working the boards, and he gave his respects. Mic drop... that's a wrap, motherfuckers. 

Everybody got super stoked by the track, and it was agreed upon by all of Guajiro's members that this song needed to be part of the live set with Harry and I singing. However, McKinnon was not satisfied with one meager serving of the musical style that was closer to his heart than the bright melodies of his main band. You can take a cat out of the jungle, but you can't take the jungle out of the cat. It was at this time that talks emerged about doing a batch of songs in the vein of 'Delincuente' and putting them on a recording. The L.V.G. had been born. 

A pic from an early rehearsal.

I came up with the name "La Vieja Guardia" which in Spanish means 'the old guard'. I felt it was a fitting name, since that's precisely what this band's  integrants were- we were old school Hardcore guys doing a 90's revival record.  At that time, we consisted of myself, Doug McKinnon on drums, Dirty Harry Bosch and Dave Santos on guitar. We soon started rehearsing in Guajiro's practice space and thanks to the riff-machine that is Harry Bosch we soon had six songs of our own (one that would never go on to be recorded.) We practiced these songs till they were air-tight, over and over. We practiced until we became hostile towards each other in rehearsal. Then around that time a string of really wild house shows went down in Miami that year, at which we played a few with Dave switching from guitar to bass duty for the purpose of the live sound. There was a tremendous response from the crowd, which in 2006 was composed of a rather eager new batch of kids at shows that were full of energy and hungry for Miami's version of the Revolution Summer, which to me, in many ways, 2006 was just that. It was a glorious time where Hardcore kids, Punks and Long-hairs coexisted in perfect disharmony. The time to record was now at hand. 


We went into Southern Noise studios to record the E.P. with Jon Nunez of SHITSTORM who would produce and fill in on bass guitar for the recording sessions. Jon's improvised bass solo on our song Hialeah DeathStomp still gives me goosebumps.

I think it took us about a week to record the 5 songs that ended up being put out by I SCREAM Records, no doubt thanks to affiliation with Guajiro through Doug. I didn't really feel that I SCREAM was the right label for us. I really felt that we should have gone with a Latin label, one with a distribution focus on central and south America, not a label based out of Belgium. At that time there was a lot of really cool happenings coming from Latin America in terms of Hardcore music that I wanted to be a part of. In the end I SCREAM was the one that we went with. I guess it was kind of cool, for me anyways, to be label-mates with such names as Maximum Penalty, Beowulf and Token Entry. 

With an E.P. out, it was time to fill in the bass guitarist slot with a steady member. A few people were auditioned, but nobody quite fit the mold. I don't think that there was any real prerequisite qualifications that we were looking for, it was more of a certain attitude that needed to be possessed. Also, in all fairness, nobody that we auditioned could tolerate the often contentious nature of our bands interactions with one another during practice. It could get very tense, very quickly in that little room. Like I said earlier, we practiced our songs till we became hostile towards each other. The fact was that we were all guys in our late 30's at the time who were very set in our uniquely neurotic ways, and in my particular case, very angry, unmedicated and out of control. 

After an unfruitful search, finally the right fit bassist would appear in the persona ( and I do want to stress the word 'persona') of former ANGER alumnus and well-known sociopath Willy "The Nasal Snowstorm" Medina. Willy was actually a tremendous lead guitarist but he really dug what we were doing conceptually and did not mind at all switching from guitar for bass duties.

There was no audition, he was in from the beginning mention. If you can boast affiliation to the mighty ANGER, you have got all the credentials you need to play in my Hardcore band. Just listen to their classic jam Winds Of Violence, just to name one of many unsung classics from this Miami band and tell that you can't put it up against anything on "Age Of Quarrel". Willy was, and probably still is, a fucking nut that fit perfectly with us old rusty bolts. His dexterity as a lead guitarist translated  perfectly onto the fretboard of the bass guitar, and he was loud, obnoxious and abrasive enough to hold his own during heated band practices. The L.V.G. was complete, a motley crew of misanthropes indeed.

Unfortunately, completion of the circle would not mean that it would roll forward. Asides from playing some cool shows at home and a couple of out-of-town gigs with MADBALL, and playing the Tattoo Convention, L.V.G. would pretty much die while still on the vine. There were lots of elements working against our survival as a band, from the demands of my employment which limited my ability to tour, to the fact that L.V.G. was everybody's side band; everybody but mine.

It started to feel like L.V.G. was some slut that everybody goes to fuck when their girlfriend is out with her friends. I had also come to a point personally where I did not want to be associated to Hardcore anymore just because I did not like the direction that I started seeing the scene take musically and as an attitude in general. We all came to the agreement that we had run our course, and so L.V.G. played our last show with AGNOSTIC FRONT on the 5th of February, 2009 at Churchill's Pub, Miami's version of CBGB's. What an oddly appropriate band to play a last show with, I thought, since Agnostic Front's "Live At CBGBs" cassette was among the first four Hardcore records that I got as an outcast kid in 8th grade who was just discovering this incredible underground scene. They were my "Blood In", and on that night they would be my "Blood Out" of Hardcore.

Do I have any regrets, as far as how far we took it, or could have? No, none at all. I was not a young man any longer, at least I did not feel like one. It became evident to me on those two 'away' shows with MADBALL that I was already too neurotic and grumpy for the road, much less with four other neanderthals in tow. I was already way too domesticated by my soon to be wife and was very into the comforts of my home and my pets. At the very least, I was able to scratch that itch that every old Hardcore kid gets about every 10 years or so to make a little bit of ruckus. I was able to scratch that itch with a record that I am really proud of. 

So to Abel Folgar, and anyone who may have read and gotten offended by my claim that the L.V.G. should have been on that list, I will now present my case, for your consideration....

Look, musically L.V.G. wasn't inventing the wheel. How far can you go with Hardcore without it morphing into something else? We were doing our take on formulas that already existed from the very late 80's and into the 90's. I think if you were to listen for old-school influences, one can detect a little bit of WARZONE, maybe some CRO-MAGS, even some post-Hardcore flavor of bands like ATLAS SHRUGGED or BURN is present.

One undeniable element that made L.V.G. exceptional in my view is the sincerity of emotion and the spirit of the music. Those five songs would make the hair on my arms stand up like needles when I would perform, or even when I listen to them today the effect has not diminished. The product speaks for itself. Those songs are executed razor tight, with no emotion compromised. Of course, none of which could have been achieved without the riff mastery of Harry Bosch, one of the musicians that I have had the most admiration for throughout my years in music. Every band that Harry has ever formed has been in some way detrimental to the survival of the South Florida Hardcore scene and the man is an encyclopedia of music for misanthropes. I can say that I was bandmates with Harry Bosch, my career in Hardcore was now complete, even though our friendship of almost three decades persists till this day. 

Musicality aside, L.V.G.'s lyrical content is ultimately what really set us aside from the Miami Hardcore pack. Riding on the back of our homegrown Hardcore sound was a homegrown attitude, a truly 'Miami' approach to lyricism that gave LA VIEJA GUARDIA its true unique flavor. L.V.G. would be an all Spanish language Hardcore band which up until us, and I don't believe since, has there been a band like that in Miami.

I always found it odd that there weren't other bands that wrote in all Spanish, a scene that was almost entirely comprised of Latin kids. ANGER only had like two songs in Spanish I think (NI PINGA!). We wanted to throw it down not only in Spanish, but in Miami/Cuban slang. I tried to incorporate as much deep Cuban slang and idioms into the lyrics and they just worked. I know that it would be a little alienating to do so, but it was the only way to write THE Miami Hardcore record, a job which I believe we did successfully. Also, I wanted Cuba to have its hat in the ring, up until that point, traditional Hardcore had not reached the island yet despite a burgeoning Punk scene. 

I put a lot of heart into those lyrics, which at the end of the day is what gives a Hardcore band its greatness and its legitimacy. I challenge any Spanish speaker/reader to listen to that record while following along with the lyrics and not have their emotions stirred by our track 'Entre Hermanos', or the esoteric philosophies espoused in 'Moyugba Ache'.  The spirit of Hardcore is ever present in that recording that I am endlessly proud of. At the very least, when all is said and done, we contributed something truly solid to the zeitgeist, a bittersweet testament to Miami Hardcore that will stand the test of time, and for that I am eternally grateful to those four neanderthals.