Hurang - Nice To Meet Me 7"

Hurang were one of the best bands in Central PA in the late 80s, even though they played infrequently and were kinda ragged live... But this 7" and a national tour (Stuless 88 y'alls) kinda put them above the uh... competition. Regardless of the shambling live deal, this record is a fantastic representation of the regional post hardcore kinda thing, without being Slint, ya know? Rock and roll leads mixing it up with some frenzied drumming and pace, maybe it was from seeing them, but even now, 20 some years later, I keep expecting them to fly off the song when I hear these jams. Anyway you cut it, they are great songs and Christian Osgood had a fucking awesome old school emo voice, ya know, about to break, spazz soul. Feeling it! Like how that stuff was influenced by Husker Du, Die Kruezen and all the DC Revolution Summer bands and shit. Luckily this is before the Fugazi influence killed so many good bands, everyone got slower and had those simple bass line songs and pseudo profound lyrics, loud quiet parts, yeah you get it.

So I guess this came out in 1988 on Hurang's own label, Self Serve Records. These guys were all a few years older than me and had been seeing shows for ages so I was not particular tight with these dudes, though I recall they had the edge back then, but not like super in your face or anything. They had a party house in Harrisburg that I hit a few times and we wrote about them in Desperate State fanzine back then, gave them a glowing review if I do recall... Plus the Foundation played at their house or something. That was a big deal in Central PA in the late 80s. They came back from the tour and broke up and I went to college (where I met and became pals with one of the dude's sisters) in Philly. I would see Stu around in Philly on occaision and Osgood was actually my TA in geology. Crazy shit. I know Osgood kept up the music thing for awhile, but I haven't seen him in ages. Landers was also in the band Lucky who had a 7" on Skene. In weird small world news, a coworker sent me this link today about Stu doing a book about Black Flag tattoos.



Also related around this time was Central PA's best band, the short lived but incrediblely awesome The Homecoming. These dudes succumbed to the Fugazi worship and ditched the kick ass guitarist, Hans and became Admiral. Anyways, here is an interview with Joe from the Homecoming, Crown Hate Ruin, Sacred Hate, etc here... Joe posts a link to the still totally fucking awesome Homecoming demo in the comments. It is unreal how good that holds up. I will do a separate post on that demo one of these days.

Here are some crappy live pics of Hurang. I am pretty sure this is them opening for Ignition at Studio One/The Dark Room in Harrisburg, PA in either 1987 or more likely 1988...





Also, I did these as FLAC files, please leave a comment if you prefer I go the lossless route or if you have any problems with the download etc. Thanks. Sorry for the skips and pops, I played the shit out of this record over the years.

Hurang - Nice To Meet Me/Conjugal Visit 7" (1988 Self Serve Records)