Tuesday, September 21, 2021

The Attica Underground

 


In high school I spent a lot of time hanging out at Ernie November, the record store in downtown Mankato, MN at the time. I bought a lot of records and CD's. I bugged the employees a lot. I especially bugged them about hiring me when I turned 18. Eventually I turned 18 and graduated high school and they hired me. My first boss there was a Sioux Falls, South Dakota transplant named Erik Torkelson.

It's not very often you have a boss in any job that is into the same records as you, and for my first record store boss he was excellent for recommending some bands based on the stuff I was into. One of the bands he informed me about was his old hardcore band from 1997 in Sioux Falls called The Attica Underground, which he was the vocalist in alongside drummer Becky Hanten, who also played drums in Cadillac Blindside, The Book Of Dead Names, and The Kill In Me.

He played the 7" for me at work one day and upon hearing the beginning of the first song on side A, I knew I had to track down this 7". It wasn't long before I came across a used copy at the Ernie November store in Sioux Falls, SD while on a roadtrip to see a show and I've recommended this 7" to many friends since then, although it's not easy to find by any means, unfortunately. Erik eventually quit the record store and moved back to Sioux Falls to join Examination Of The... as their second (and eventually only) bass player.

Aside from Erik and Becky, two of the members of The Attica Underground played previously in the Sioux Falls band Jedi, which was the opening band of the first punk show I ever attended (I'll upload their 7" sometime in the future). The 7" also features backup vocals from Shawn Glassford, who is currently in Starfucker.
Pre Spirit of Versailles, but 90s goodness.

Tape + Some repeats (get the 7inch from the blog above)

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