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The Missing 23rd
first got together in the summer of 1995. Before CD burners,
cell phones, & DVD players (at least in the punk rock world)
M23 started writing songs and playing shows. During the next
three years they recorded two demo tapes, had some line-up
changes, and put out a 7" on their own IF Records. They went
on a few self booked west coast tours and put out an LP "The
Powers That Be". Their first record got great reviews from
fanzines across the world, some claming them to be the best
punk band to come out of the Oxnard/Ventura area since the
glory days of Nard Core. M23 kept playing around California
and when back in the studio late 1999 early 2000 with Russ
Rankin (Good Riddance) behind the controls. "Control.Alt.Del."
came out in late 2000 on Sessions Records. In March of 2001 is
when M23 started to tour. First they toured the U.S., then
went up to Canada for a month. Flew over the Pacific for a few
shows in Japan. Toured the west coast with Strike Anywhere.
Did 3 ½ weeks in Europe. Came back and did a few more shows in
Canada and the mid-west. They have played in eight different
countries and all over the U.S. Their new punk sound with old
school vibe has led them to play with many of their old school
hero’s like T.S.O.L., Fear, Adolescents, Youth Brigade, along
with the big bands of today such as A.F.I., Strung Out, Good
Riddance. Their songs appear regularly on Blue Torch and Fox
Sports and are on video games for Playsation 2 and X-Box. (Amped,
Transworld Surfing). Recently they did an east coast tour with
the Circle Jerks and G.B.H. and played shows with Bad Religion
up and down California. They have a song on the new WARP Tour
Comp. and have an albums worth of new songs that they are
working on. The boy’s in The Missing 23rd like to rock and
will do so in front of 5 or 5000 people. Playing in clubs like
Irving Plaza in New York and The Palace in L.A. to people’s
basements and garages, M23 have adopted a feeling of play hard
and have fun all the time every time in front of everyone or
no one. Review:
#106, Dec 2004
THE MISSING 23RD
THE END OF AN ERROR
BLACKBIRD MUSIC
M23 unleash wonderful old-school-sounding socio-political
hardcore punk full of youthful vigor (though they HAVE been
around, in one form or another, since '95). With vocals
reminiscent of those found in True North and bludgeoning,
spirited instrumentation, they tear shit up on THE END OF AN
ERROR, especially on the intensely fast, blazingly hardcore
"Moral Majority". Other fine offerings are the defiant
diatribe "Everything Must Go"; "Struggle", which brings to
mind slow, depressing classics from D.I. like "Venus De
Milo"; "My Escape", with it's infectious gang vocals and
totally sick little bass solo; and the track that bookends
the rest of the 12 songs: the agitated, frantic "Till It's
Gone" (the first offering, which in a different form closes
out the record). Even if you're not into the politics
apparent on many tracks, get this record, if only for the
insanely fucking good punk in which they are enveloped.
-Janelle Jones |
