Angel Du$t
By nature, hardcore punk is music born of the underground. It lurks in basement shows and fire-hazard venues with graffiti-coated public restrooms that haven’t ever seen a toilet brush. The music generally sounds intentionally uninviting to visitors. But sometimes the ones on the inside feel the draw of something different than what their small scene provides. Hardcore purists have shunned that notion, and strive to keep the waters pure from outside influence. Bands like Black Flag and Corrosion of Conformity were criticized for incorporating metal elements. Die Kreuzen and Hüsker Dü were denounced by slamdancers when they slowed their velocity and started playing college rock. More recently, bands like Scowl and Turnstile have caught flak for taking on sounds that don’t strictly align with their thrash roots. It’s always been difficult to navigate the idea of expanding the sound without getting a knock on the door from the punk purity police.
Baltimore native Justice Tripp is an exception in many ways. In 2013, his band Trapped Under Ice called it quits, and he started Angel Du$t, which has shared members with the other band of TUI expats, the aforementioned Turnstile. While TUI’s gruff mosh grooves kept them at the center of the hardcore world, Tripp took a different sonic approach for Angel Du$t. From the beginning through the pre-release tracks from the band’s forthcoming Cold 2 the Touch, there have been huge melodies, delicate guitar tones and even a saxophone solo — all signatures of artists who have left the scene behind. But AD$ has held onto hardcore as an aesthetic while expanding the palette, because that’s how Tripp wants it.
“I think there’s like this loyalty element to some people with hardcore, where it’s like you’re not allowed to do anything else,” says Tripp. “You know, it’s not like a judgment call, but people will change the identity of what hardcore is to fit their narrative. And I think that’s so much of what Angel Du$t is — challenging that narrative. Being like, ‘Yo, Cock Sparrer is foundational for hardcore, whether people see that or not.’ You know what I mean? ‘Biggie Smalls’ Ready to Die is a hardcore album without guitars.’”
Tripp explains his mission statement for his project: “I want to utilize all the tools, all the things that, whether they’re currently hardcore or the things that have defined hardcore in the past.” But he also wants to explore ideas that might be foreign to his thrash underground, noting that “hardcore could be a lot more things than we realize.”
“And I feel like sometimes authenticity is a defining part of hardcore.”
“Authenticity,” a word Tripp used over and over in our interview, seems to be the boundary line for what AD$ will and won’t do with music. “Ideally,” he says, “art is about authenticity. It’s revealing your authentic self.”
But Tripp has to stay vigilant to keep that pure self at the front of his work. Although he’s worked on pop records and even has his own mellow Flaming Lips-esque side project Cold Mega, pop isn’t where he sees an identity for himself.
“I think there’s a level of performance in pop music that’s OK for pop music. There’s a level of inauthenticity in some capacity. Not saying pop stars in general are inauthentic, but you allow so much room for performance and artistic expression that just doesn’t really exist in hardcore to me. You know? I mean, so there’s that line where I’m like, ‘OK, this feels too performative.’”
