Apocalypse Hoboken Is the Best Band Ever!

[Semjaza]

Now that I have your attention, I shall regail you with tales about the best punk band known to man.

Apocalypse Hoboken was a local Chicago punk band than eventually enjoyed moderate success. They were on a few labels here, such as Johann's Face.

[img]http://www.apocalypsehoboken.com/infoheader.jpg[/img]

They were established in 1987 in their last year of High School and randomly released stuff until their ultimate demise in 2001. They're best decribed as "snotty punk" I guess, or so I've read. I don't really know what to call them.

Their original stuff was mostly fast and aggressive with a "who gives a ****?" attitude. Their last couple releases were almost concept albums in a sense. The Apocalypse Hoboken on Microstars is far different than the one on Jerk Lessons or Daterape Nation.

I discovered these guys pretty much on accident. I met a girl who introduced me to them. She didn't really speak about them much, but it was one of many bands she told me about. She was one of those total punk girls, where previously I mostly just liked metal. We should have hated eachother, according to the rules. Yeah, those rules.

Anyway, I wound up finding more about these guys after time... Eventually I picked up Microstars and completely fell in love with them. I own a bunch of vinyls as well as their box set they sold at their last show (only 200 made). It was mostly demos and unreleased stuff on three discs.

Anyway, by then I missed most all their shows. They're gone. I'm never going to get to experience them live. They broke up because of a lot of weird reasons... mostly I guess they were just tired of the life. On top of that the ex-girlfriend of one of the people involved sold ALL their equipment... despite none of it belonging to him.

My favorite part of the band is the thing most people hate... the vocals. They're wonderful and just unique. Everything about them rocks though.

In the meantime, I try exposing them to as many people as possible. Due to the problems of really finding their stuff online, I'm willing to send MP3s so just ask.

Their last stuff was on The Vandal's Kung Fu Records... which really doesn't mesh with the rest of the sound that label goes for, although they're more like The Vandals than most bands they signed.

Anyway, please check them out if you can.

[url]http://www.apocalypsehoboken.com[/url]
MP3s are also at [url]www.kungfurecords.com[/url]

Again, I will send MP3s if asked.

[IMG]http://www.apocalypsehoboken.com/daterapenation.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://www.apocalypsehoboken.com/irpcover.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://www.apocalypsehoboken.com/punishcover.jpg[/IMG]

[Guest Fiasco]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Semjaza Azazel [/i]
[B]My favorite part of the band is the thing most people hate... the vocals. They're wonderful and just unique. Everything about them rocks though.[/B][/QUOTE]

Dude, just to tell you, I think vocals are so much more important than most of the instruments played, atleast in punk because it's not difficult to play fast. If you don't have decent vocals, then the band sucks. :)

From their CD covers, they look like a regular punk band with the same titles. I might check them out, but if they don't scream or anything, then I doubt it.

[Mitch]

[size=1] Well, I managed to get one song from your site when you still had them linked up...I [i]was[/i] planning on getting the entire CD from there, but then I got my computer taken away (the first time lol).

Yeah. You'll end up sending me their stuff on .mp3 CDs I'm sure...so I don't have to ask that.

As for that one song...I liked it. They have, it seems, pretty fun lyrics and nice vocals, like you said. Although...from that one song, I wouldn't exactly call them "punk." What I heard was sort poppy-ish, at least to my ears, I guess.

Yeah. They definitely sound pretty good though from what I've heard. Now if I could only remember the song title which I am speaking of...

I believe it is "Microstars Save the Day," or something near that. I'm sure you know which song I'm talking about if I'm guessing wrong..so you can enlighten me on the song title.

[quote]As of this date, no one can confirm what Apocalypse Hoboken actually means. Sorry. [/quote]

lol. I find that oddly funny.[/size]

[Semjaza]

Apocalypse Hoboken is the name of a town.

People seem to hate the vocals in this band because they're not conventional. I don't know how else to describe them. I can't think of another group offhand that sounsd like this vocally. Of course, I don't know many punk fans in my daily life either. Maybe two. So they probably wouldn't like them to begin with.

There is screaming, but it's not one of those highly emotional screamy groups that people seem to like. It's not a focal point. If it was, I doubt I'd bother. I got tired of that years ago heh.

I don't know what you mean by "same titles". If you don't want to bother, I don't really care... lol, but I think they are worth checking out.

As for this poppy song... I don't know which one you listened to, so it's hard for me to comment. Their last two CDs aren't really as punk-ish as previous ones.

[Mist]

[color=crimson][size=1] I actually heard a couple of their songs yesterday! I was at my best friends house and he was playing some out-landish stuff. I asked him who it was and he said Apocalypse something.

Well, at least [b]now[/b] I know it's Apocalypse [i]Hoboken[/i]. Hehe. :whoops:[/color][/size]

[Heaven's Cloud]

[color=indigo]Is it possible to find their stuff at music stores, or are they pretty obscure?

What three albums would you recommend?

I'm interested checking out this band, they sound like the type of punk band that I really enjoy...so I'd appreciate any info.[/color]

[Semjaza]

There are countless bands with Apoca-whatever in their names. Could have been anything, but now that you're in Chicago... it's likely lol.

The last stuff isn't hard to find. Many music-centric stores here seem to carry them. I know Piro bought their CDs at BestBuy.com

What do I recommend? Well I'd go with Microstars first. It was their last release and quite different from previous.

After that... Superincredibleheavydutydudes and Inverse/Reverse/Perverse. Gives you a good mix.

[PiroMunkie]

[size=1]LoLZ, OMg... Apackolips HOBOKIN iz teh gr8est bnd EVR!!!!1!!1!!seveteen!!

On a more serious note, Apocalypse Hoboken is truly one of my favorite bands. I could even be so bold as to put them right up there with AFI. It is not the same kind of music, but the enjoyment I get out of them is pretty much the same. I only wish I had the extra money to buy what CD's of their I can find, but I have to wait until either I find another job or until Christmas.

Currently, I am listening to [i]House of the Rising Son of a *****[/i] on playlist. I only actually own [i]Microstars[/i], but as soon as I can I shall be getting the others.

I am with Tony in the fact that I love the guy's voice. I have not heard anything like it, that I can think of, and I find it hard to even imitate it.

At first they are just kind of fun to listen to, but once you actually read the lyrics and get into the song you enjoy them [i]so much more[/i]. It is really great. Their songs usually have a good variety in sound as well. One rarely sounds like another.


Is the [i]entire[/i] name Apocalypse Hoboken the name of a town? I thought it was just Hoboken. It is up by Lake Eerie or something like that; one of the great lakes... I think...


The current lyrics in my signature: "Tucked away is a little boy pulling worms apart. Inside that little boy is a broken little boy heart." is from their song "Pulling Worms Apart" off of [i]House of the Rising Son of a *****[/i].[/size]

[Semjaza]

I'm still trying to figure out Fiasco's post. Vocals are important to any band. As if I wouldn't know this...? lol

Hoboken is the town. Not Apocalypse Hoboken heh. I told you that since you said someone thought it was Japanese techno, but whatever. I just meant Hoboken lol.

I remember telling Piro about this band way, way back. He downloaded a couple songs because of a post I made about them, but that seemed to be the end of it. I hosted Microstars much, much later and I guess he just fell in love with it.

They truly are an excellent band. And like you said, once you read the lyrics, you like them that much more. They're like Marilyn Manson in that sense (although I guess that depends on if you can stand him)... Where you can just listen to it and enjoy it a good deal, or you could read what they are truly saying and figure out what it means. Apocalypse Hoboken is far deeper at times than even I expect. There's of course tons of just goofy, fun songs too.

[Heaven's Cloud]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Semjaza Azazel [/i]
[B]
They truly are an excellent band. And like you said, once you read the lyrics, you like them that much more. They're like Marilyn Manson in that sense (although I guess that depends on if you can stand him)... Where you can just listen to it and enjoy it a good deal, or you could read what they are truly saying and figure out what it means. Apocalypse Hoboken is far deeper at times than even I expect. There's of course tons of just goofy, fun songs too. [/B][/QUOTE]

[color=indigo][b]Microstars[/b] arrived in the mail (compliments of BestBuy.com, I was unable to find any of the bands CD's at retail stores) on Tuesday, so I threw it into my small entertainment system and listened to it while I washed dishes. I was really pumped up and excited by the time the CD arrived, however, my initial reaction was "ehhh?!"

It wasn't that I didn't like it, I just didn't understand what all the hubbabaloo was about them. After I finished washing my dishes I started the CD from the begining while I read he lyrics...I liked the CD a lot better after that. I find the lyrics on [b]Microstars[/b] very creative, in a Zappa-esque (oddly unique) kinda way. The vocals were pretty cool as well, the lead singer (I'm sure Semjaza knows his name) does an amazing job changing the way his voice sounds in various songs. As far as instrumentals go, I thought they were a bit better than typical punk power chords, but I wasn't really blown away.

It is definatly a CD worth picking up if you tend to enjoy unique sounding bands. [/color]

[Semjaza]

As I said before, Microstars is somewhat of a concept album. I don't even know that I'd refer to it as punk, at least not compared to their older stuff.

I've been listening to the CDs of theirs I own. Specifically House of the Rising Sun of a *****, Daterape Nation/ Jerk Lessons and Microstars... and after all this time, I realized how good the individual members are.

Daterape Nation/Jerk Lessons is the older of the three. It has some really great songs on it... but the time difference between that and House of the Rising Sun of a ***** is years, and it's obvious. Some of the work put into Rising is just excellent. I'm sometimes just really surprised by how damn good the drum work is. You can just picture him sitting there and going nuts on the kit, but it's obviously so calculated. Just excellent stuff while still staying within the ideas of what you expect from a drummer in this type of band.

A lot of the guitar work is just excellent too. With most punk bands I don't expect much outside of basic chords, but AH manages to do so many other things. There are a lot of just really catchy riffs, in my opinion.

I love these guys.