The Pacific Northwest region of North America has a thriving and growing hardcore scene. Chopping Block, Dry Socket, Witness Chamber, and Juice are just a few of the bands helping to bring focus to the region in recent years. On the live front, Brain Stem Productions and 777 Booking are just two of the promoters putting shows on there.
Turning to the label of things, Brain Floss Records hasn't been around around all that long, but with releases by Cujo, End of Dayz, and the aforementioned Chopping Block, its reputation is growing.
With a new release called Where Do We Go - A Northwest Hardcore Compilation featuring some of the best bands from the region, I reached out to Brain Floss owner Eddie to learn more about his passion project.
Tell me a bit about yourself and how you came to be involved with the NWHC community.
My name is Eddie and I am the person behind Brain Floss. I moved to Seattle with my wife in 2011 from Delaware. Hardcore isn’t so big that you can’t make friends everywhere you go with a shared love of this thing, so after leaving Delaware I made a bunch of friends in NWHC.
When I wasn’t able to go to as many shows as I would have liked due to kids and work, I had the idea to start a label to help support NWHC in whatever capacity it called for.
What are some of the releases you’ve done so far, and do you have a specific stylistic lane you prefer to ride in?
I’m really proud of Chopping Block's Seattle's Hardcore because it felt very "pro" in a way that I thought only big labels could do. Mosher had a vision and we ran with it.
The Cherub Chains demo and the Unjust s/t record I’m stoked on because both of those bands are filled with folks who have always supported the scene, so it felt nice to release them and support them in return that way
What can you tell me about this NWHC compilation you have coming out? How much work went into it? It’s famously tough to pull a comp off!
First and foremost, credit to Matt Miller, my friend and the guy behind NorthwestHardcore.net and @northwest_hardcore on IG. When he caught wind that I wanted to do a comp (eventually), he volunteered his services. His contacts, his relationships, his everything. This wouldn’t be happening without him driving the ship. I’m very grateful for his guidance. He dove in head first and I followed his lead.
To that end, it’s been a lot of fun. We've had a bunch of conversations about how to do it and taking influence from the compilations we grew up on.
We knew we wanted to represent the entire northwest from Oregon to Washington, to Vancouver BC, over to Idaho. We didn’t want to exclude any styles either so that whatever your flavor of hardcore is you can find something that you’ll appreciate. There are very established bands, some brand new bands.
Just trying to wrangle tracks from folks, sequence it the right way, and represent the northwest in a cool way.
What’s next for Brain Floss beyond this comp?
After this comp is the new Witness Chamber LP, which comes out in October. It's got the best songs they’ve written and feel very grateful to release it. I also have new Spurr, Cujo, and Cherub Chains coming out in the future as well. All Northwest, all the time.
The End of Dayz x Land Lost split records are shipping here soon I hear as well. Should be good.
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The vinyl version of the Where Do We Go - A Northwest Hardcore Compilation is available for pre-order.
Brain Floss Records on social media: Instagram
Tagged: cherub chains, chopping block, end of dayz, land lost, record label profile
