Maty’s Corner #30
D Term Nation Strikes Small Town:
The LINE
Starting in 1995 outta Big Bear Lake, CA was the LINE. The most unique and interesting skate punk band and my personal favorite. The music is a blend 90’s skate punk, 80’s hard core and a bit of stoner metal. These guys blew up pretty big in my hometown scene of Big Bear, CA. This band was put together by Ryan Immegart (Volcom’s first sponsored snow boarder and co-founder of Volcom Entertainment.) Info on this band has been difficult to come by, so some parts of this article are on the fly, appropriate I’m sure.
1995… maybe, saw their first release, Self Titled Again. Right at the drop in these guys were more technical players than most of their contemporaries. This album is shows influences like Guttermouth, but has instrumental skill akin to and above Propagandhi. These guys defiantly had their shit together before hitting the studio.
1997 brought us their second release Auricle. While still being to the core skate punk, they had evolved in their playing. I tend to think this distinction might have a bit to do with why they didn’t get as big as Pennywise for instance. The stand out track on this is Destructive Preservation. Don’t get me wrong, I love all the other bands I’ve mentioned, the LINE just had something going on that no one else was trying. It takes pretty big balls to take a risk, something to be expected from one of the gnarliest snow boarders.
2000 came out with Dissimilar. This album featured what is probably this band’s biggest song D Term Nation, one of my favorite songs period. The song became pretty much a theme for snowboarding and skate in my town. It really meant something when the Winter X Games happened about 2 miles from where I lived. The entire album is solid. This saw them experimenting with a bit of thrash and metal influence but keeping true to their punk roots.
2001 saw what would be the LINE’s final release, Monsters We Breed. The musical progression of this unit continued on. The stand out on this is Earthworm Crisis, I think it’s about a prisoner awaiting execution for some horrible crime. Damn shame this band hung it up, but the 4 solid releases keep living on. Get a hold of this stuff, then grab your skate or snowboard and fucking shred the gnar!
You can get their music at http://volcomentertainment.bandcamp.com/
-Maty Almost
Punx In Solidarity 
Reblogged this on matyalmost1983.
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