The Big Apple Rotten To The Core

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The second release on the S.I.N. Records label and produced by Bob Sallese.

Released in 1982, it became the first hardcore punk compilation from New York City and distributed internationally. It included six bands that regularly hung around A7 (a lower east side after hours dive bar that gave the new hardcore bands a forum). The bands were: Ism (Queens, NYC), The Mob (Queens, NYC) Butch Lust & The Hypocrites (Brooklyn & Manhattan, NYC), Squirm (Brookyln, NYC), Killer Instinct (Queens & Manhattan, NYC) and The Headlickers (Nassau County).

• Ism's John Hinckley Jr. (What Has Jodie Foster Done To You?) & Moon The Moonies off the album were put into regular rotation on WLIR and were the first hardcore songs to receive commercial airplay in the New York metropitan area.

The popularity of the album prompted WLIR to start a weekly broadcast called "Midnight Snack" which featured the other bands on the album and many local hardcore bands. It also prompted the station to put other hardcore songs into regular rotation such as Black Flag's TV Party.

John Hinckley Jr. (What Has Jodie Foster Done to You?) was nominated for two weeks straight for the station's "Screamer of the Week" award.

• Lenny Steel of the legendy punk group Pure Hell appeared on the album with Butch Lust & The Hypocrites.

• The Mob went on to influence many of the later hardcore bands that wanted to move away from the early punk rock influences and create faster thrash sounds.

• Killer Instinct was one of the first hardcore groups with a female vocalist and bass player.

• The Headlickers, a popular group that played A7, were the only band that didn't reside in one of NYC's 5 boroughs but instead came out of Nassau County.

• Squirm's song Fuck You Brooke Shields received some commercial airplay with bleeps inserted throughout the song.

• Cover photos & PR were by Scott Eisner who was one of the first writers to use the expression "hardcore punk" in a review of The Mob.(Newsbeat, September 21, 1981)

The album was the first NYC comp made available to college and alternative radio nationwide and gained notoriety quickly.

Despite it's notoriety & success, the ablum was jinxed with bad luck.

• The demand for the record's second pressing could not be met because the pressing plant would not release the masters and was bootlegging them in other parts of the country. The owner of the plant eventually got raided and busted by the FBI for bootlegging Beatle's albums.

• Ace In The Hole from Butch Lust and the Hypocrites died in a tragic car accident.

• Scott Eisner jumped off the Throgs Neck Bridge linking Queens to The Bronx.

• Squirm's Igor Jakusko, who used to roommate with Cheetah Chrome, hanged himself.

• Jism of Ism ended up spending five years in a New York State prison after a somewhat controversial arrest.

A sequel to the album The Big Apple Rotten To The Core Vol. 2 was released 5 years later. Omer Travers (infamous for breaking into Yoko Ono's apt and leaving love notes) appeared on it with a song produced by Jism & Sallese. Travers & Jism were later invited onto The Howard Stern Show to promote the album.