NOTHING TO NOTHING

Here it is. The record that means so much to me. The record that changed it all. The record that stood the test of time. The ultimate hardcore punk record of the 2000.´s. The best fucking hardcore punk record of the 2000.´s. Nothing To Nothing by Tear It Up is all that and much more. I first had this album on tape that I´ve taped from a friend who bought the LP on some Croatian punk fest. The tape recording wasn´t the best but that didn´t matter. What mattered was the sound and the lyrics from this awesome album. I copied the lyrics from a friend and I studied them and embraced them like a holy bible. But we will get back to that later.

Nothing To Nothing was recorded on 5th and 6th October 2001. at Clearcut Studios, Saddlebrook in New Jersey. It was 5th TIU recording session in one year and 3 Months, pretty impressive, right? Originally, Nothing To Nothing was released in early 2002. on Deadalive Records that was run by Jon Collins, friend of the TIU guys since the Dead Nation days. There were off course various versions of this record, but I won´t get into details about those, check it all out with photos of the record when you download the link. Record release show was on 3rd February 2002. in Bound Brook, New Jersey at The Hamilton St. Cafe. Other bands that played that night were: Glory Fades, The Prowl, Think I Care & Down In Flames. Wish I could be there. Even though Nothing To Nothing was recorded with first TIU line up:

Dave Ackerman – Vocals

Andy Scarpulla – Guitar

Paul D´elia – Guitar

Doug Ensel – Bass

Matt Wechter – Drums

...by the time the record was released, Doug was kicked out of the band (for not showing up on the winter 2001./2002. tour called „The Disastour“ and on the record release show, Andy switched to bass and John Devlin (of Down In Flames and later The Rites) came on guitar. That was also the last show for Paul who was moving to Boston to study art school where he also formed Cut The Shit and also later played in The Rites (both important bands from the 2000´s hardcore). After the release show, TIU played few shows as a 4 piece and then in the end of March 2002. Ryan Eckert (from A Thin Line Fading) came on bass and Andy again switched back to guitar. That was also the last TIU line up.

The production was done by Max Casselnova and Mike Carroll, Max being the dude that was also responsible for all the other TIU recordings. This record has one of the best productions on a hardcore punk record, it is just perfect. It is that great that you want to carry the record with you every time you are going to record with your band to tell the recording guy that this is how you want your record to sound.

The front cover was done by Jon Collins of Deadalive Records and he did a fucking great job. Here you have some dude sitting on the fence, behind him is barbed wire (that is actually a girl on the cover as I learned later, my mistake), the cover is pink and this color suits the cover just great, better than bunch of cliche black covers on punk records. It is one of of those records that just by looking at the cover you know that this is a great fucking record. Back cover is a photo of TIU guys ripping up on some show taken from the back of the stage with Matt in close-up (with great Damaged tattoo on his back) and Dave jumping really high. As the front cover, it is a black, white and pink combination. Inside you get a big poster with lyrics and cred list on one side (and individual photos of TIU guys showing their fists and writings on the fists, acting all tough, haha) and photos of the band on the other side. I fucking love this poster, you can look at it for ages and every time you can spot some new thing on the collage photos. In the middle is a big TIU band posing photo, up are the photos from the live shows and down are various TIU & friends photos goofing around. And you get also TIU motto on the poster which was „Play To Destroy!“ Some other various presses of Nothing To Nothing has different lyrics sheets but as I´ve said before, check it out in cover photos when you download the link.

And now we are going to the most important part of this record, the songs. Nothing To Nothing has 18 songs (actually 19, but we will get to that later) in 23 minutes. OK, the beginning of this record is one of the best beginnings in the history of hardcore punk. It´s just like wow, fucking shit, what is happening? The first song is Don´t Call Me Tonight. Holy shit, it´s a love song but done in a totally different way than you´d expect to be a classic love song. It´s a song about breaking up but not in a way: „I´m so sad because you left me“. It´s more like: „I gave you all my love and you couldn´t handle it and you were too selfish to give something back, well, fuck you, don´t call me tonight!“ The music is hc/punk as it best, energetic fast and catchy with great singalongs. The rocking circle pit part is the most awesome thing that I´ve ever heard in hc/punk and the singalong part is just insane – „If I´d could treat you like shit then you´d love me forever!“ Right on! And the timing to hear this songs was just about right for me, I was just breaking up with my girlfriend after having a long relationship with her. Actually she was breaking up with me, so I was shattered to pieces and was pretty fucked up at the time. So, hearing this song was like salvation to me. When I heard this song, I knew that eventually I would be alright. One more thing, if you hear this song and you don´t feel nothing, there is something seriously wrong with you, haha. Second song is No On Gets In and is much shorter and is punkish early 80´s hardcore style. Musically it reminds me on Spray Paint The Walls from Black Flag and lyrically it also reminds me on Black Flag, haha. Well, Tear It Up were never hiding the fact that they were heavily influenced by Black Flag. Nothing wrong with that in my book. Third song Frat Boys is back with fast and furious sound that TIU is mostly known for. Again great singalong on chorus and some catchy riffs. Lyrics talk about your usual frat college boys that are into date raping and drinking their college lives away. I know that I hate those kind of types. No They Don´t Wash Off is about tattoos and about conservative type of people giving you the looks because of the tattoos you have. It has great beginning and also cool fast part. I myself don´t have any tattoos but I can appreciate a good ones, especially hc/punk related tattoos. Play To Destroy is a fucking great hc/punk anthem about hard touring and about giving all you got when you play a show. This song is everything I stand for considering touring and playing hc/punk. My old band Vaseline Children covered this song and we played it to death, we played it on most of our shows. I even started to consider it like it´s our song, haha. Anyway, after cool sample from some movie (anyone know where it´s from?) the song starts  with: „Fuck you man, we play to destroy!“ and it continues with great fast and energetic riffs. It has cool circle pit part in the end with massive singalong. You Make Me Hate You is another fast and furious short song with personal lyrics (maybe it is about the same person as Don´t Call Me Tonight?). From Nothing To Nothing is totally Black Flag worship. The whole song is consisted of Dave yelling about everything what´s wrong his life (or Matts, depends who wrote the lyrics) and background is not a classic song structure but punching one same chord all over again with the wall of guitar noise in the background. Even Black Flag couldn´t come up with such a genius idea as this. It ends with Dave repeating: „From nothing to nothing from nothing to nothing“… I got chills every time I hear it and even now while I´m writing about this perfect fucked up depressed hc/punk anti song. The song blend into Close My Eyes And Hope For The Worst which is the slowest song on A side. It starts of with heavy Black Flagish bass and burst out with great singalong that say: „I can´t help it!“ Again personal lyrics about fucked up relationship, at least that´s what I´m getting from the lyrics. The last song on A side is the shortest one on the album – Relationshit and you get the idea what it´s about. Here are the whole lyrics: „I love you, you love me, I love you, you love someone else. Relationshit. It´s going great, it´s going great, it´s going great, it´s gone to shit. Relationshit.“ It is a short, fast and furious song counting only 20 seconds. Again, sort of an anti love song, something I could identify myself with at the time. B side opens with great instrumental called Intermission (haha, those TIU guys were the real jokers). This song is a classic example of how good hc/punk instrumental should sound, fucking listen and learn. Second song on the B side is Fortified, short and catchy punk as fuck tune with cool singalong. The lyrics are something like: „now you can´t hurt me no more, you can´t get to me, I´m fortified“. I guess it is the similar theme from last few songs from A side. I Don´t Need To Be Saved is about religion types of people that want to brainwash you. It´s early 80´s sounding, not to fast, but catchy as hell with some great riffs. Trust Me I Don´t Forget is another song that I can identify with, it´s another fuck you to all the bad shits around you and me and about releasing all these negative feelings through hc/punk. It starts with catchy riffs and continues faster with some nice singalong at the end and it´s also one of the longer songs on the album. Not This Time is short and pissed off song and it´s about back stabbing assholes, we all know those types, fuck ´em all! Live Fast, Die Punk is basically the same theme as Play To Destroy, about touring, playing to destroy and living the punk to the fullest. It´s offcourse fast and pumped up energetic song with great singalong and the last part of the song is killing circle pit part. Furious And Alone is another „fuck you, you hurt me“ theme song that is angry, fast and with classic TIU spitting the guts in your face sound. The Cause begins with another interesting sample form some movie (can you help me with that too?) and it has great adrenaline filled intro that bursts out into a fast as fuck and pissed off song. Lyrics are again about some poor ass back stabbing fucker that will finally get his share. There are some assholes in my town whom I could easily dedicate this song. The song ends with one simple but so effective word: „Die!“ And we are coming to the last song on the album – It´s The End. The slower, the longest and the most fucked up song on the album. While other songs have more catchy riffs and cool singalongs (despite some negative lyrics), It´s The End is a song with fucked up rhythm, dark riffs and even darker lyrics. The lyrics are open to figure out them on your own. Is it about end of a relationship? Is it about ending your life? Both? Which is it? Anyway, again I can sense some Black Flag here but then again, with this song Tear It Up took it to another level. „This is the end, the end of this fucking line“. I don´t know, it´s hard for me to explain what I feel when I listen to this song, but I know that there is something dark and angry inside of me that wants to break out when I yell together with Dave: „This is the end!“ The song ends with a gunshot. Who got killed? The author of the song, someone else? Fuck, so many questions.

That´s it, the perfect hc/punk record! Oh, wait a second, there is more. Original LP has also a hidden bonus track, cover of Rose Tattoo – Nice Boys Don´t Play Rock ´n´ Roll. Like all the other songs that TIU covered, they did a great job with this too. Unfortunately, I don´t have it in digital file, only on tape recorded from an LP. So if anyone has it in digital file, send it my way. Just few more technical details. In 2011. Six Feet Under re-released Nothing To Nothing on vinyl and it looks the same as the first Deadalive press with the big poster. The only thing that is missing is the Rose Tattoo cover. I have that Six Feet Under version and have one Deadalive version which I think is a second press, without big poster, it has the lyrics sheet on one side and Dave with the crowd on some show on the other side. You can see all that in the photo files, OK? Also, if you download this record and like ti, I recommend you to buy the record and support Six Feet Under Records which is a great hc/punk label. Again, some photos are from the net but lots of the cover photos are also mine. 

And now, that´s really it. The record that changed our lives, from nothing to nothing, from nothing to nothing to nothing to nothing...

Snake to Nothing

Get it here:  Nothing To Nothing

Photos from various Tear It Up shows

Photos of some Tear It Up show posters and flyers