About Me
By age 14, Matt Warnke (voice), John "Zulu" (guitar), Tim Brooks (bass), and Drew Thomas (beat) had taken detailed notes on the likes of Black Flag, 7Seconds, Minor Threat, Bad Brains, Agnostic Front, Antidote, The Abused, SSD, and DYS, among others. They had also begun serving time in a crash-course apprenticeship to NY/CT's own, Youth Of Today, resulting in the birth of the original "youth crew," which would later extend to select others who grew tight with the two bands over the next few years (the term also later becoming misappropriated to categorize any hardcore strand seemingly traceable to the two brother bands). The result of such hardcore overload on the teens was Crippled Youth and their 1985 "Join The Fight" seven inch EP on New Beginning Records. Crippled Youth, however, had also been their working band name for years prior as the band stabilized on their punk training wheels with early-teen-fueled basement jams such as "Desperate for Beer," as Drew could laughingly recall in a 2003 interview. Torn shirts, mohawks, and "Sid Lives" insignias, as well as even a very young Matt singing and playing guitar were a sign of these pre-"Join The Fight" times. Obviously this was a very pre-pubescent and also pre-straight edge precursor to what would evolve later- ah, the avenues of youth. But, the Join The Fight EP loudly and brashly solidified the teenagers' adoption of what they had been intensely studying. Nine songs of straight edge hardcore sound and fury, it was "pure arrogance spoken with the black and white conviction of youth" destined not to be confined to only a K-Town novelty or local opening act.Crippled Youth got moving. While most kids their age were trying to talk their parents into letting them go see Kiss at MSG (if that), the four Katonah youths were making their way up and down the northeast United States, and assembling their own K-Town Mosh Crew. With playing out and continuous song writing came a transformation away from Crippled Youth, a name Matt remembers just sounding "too punk," to that which would soon become recognized as that of BOLD - a name change they found more appropriate and a better reflection of no-punches-pulled songs like "Nailed to the X," "Still Strong," and "Always Try." They weren't little kids much longer...
