Friday, March 28, 2008

Tension




City: Ft. Lauderdale
Years Active: 1993 - 1997
Type of Music: Hardcore
Myspace or Website: http://www.myspace.com/tensionsfhc

From 1993 - 1997, Tension was South Florida straight edge. To understand the power of their live show around this time was something you just had to see to believe. So much energy and I always felt that Mike a great lyricist who could really work the crowd. They released the "In Our Time" 7 inch which was followed by (in my opinion) a true classic "The Sickness of Our Age". They later released their only full length "Agent of the People". Check out one of the greatest bands to ever come out of South Florida. Members were in and went on to Endure, Shai Hulud, Strongarm, and Further Seems Forever.

Bio taken from the Tension Myspace:

"TENSION (1993-1997) A long time ago, in a neighborhood not so far away... A band was formed, a band that brought the house down on its good days, a band based on friendship, a band that unfortunately didn't last for very long... That band was Tension... In 1993 Singer Mike Hurley at the time was the frontman for Endure, which many members of Strongarm were also in, and they were a great band that many would go see... Mike Hurley met Guitarist Joe Keit, who was helping out in a band called the Murrychesstoes and the 2 quickly became good friends... They both already were good friends with Chris Michealis, and Mike & Chris began plans to start a new band and to them Joe was the man for the job on guitar... Joe started playing guitar very young and along with Matt Fox of Shai Hulud formed a few bands in their teens. Joe was used to writing his own music and lyrics from an early age and together with Mike Hurley some great songs and lyrics were born... Nick Dominguez from Strongarm & Endure came in on bass guitar and together the 4 created the orginal frame of Tension... After the 1st phone conversation between Joe, Mike & Chris, Mike decided to meet that very night, and in that night 6 songe were written... The songs of course sounded similar to each other, but were very raw and became the 6 songs recorded 2 weeks later in the studion as Tension's 1st release "In Our Time"... Tension quickly began playing shows and right away friends and new fans came out and supported Tension and helped make the shows exciting & fun... Tension was being aired on College radio and was doing small tours throughout Florida and the east coast trying to get the music out... With the formation of Strongarm, Nick Dominguez left to play guitar with them and Ray Rodriguez joined in on bass... The song writing was getting better and more intense new songs were being developed and shortly after the next ep "Sickness of Our Age" was released... In the studio that day, a girl Joe was dating broke it off, and Chris & Joe had an arguement which really helped fuel the fire to give "Sickness" that anger and edge it definitely has... To this day Tension fans agree that "Sickness of Our Age" is the best and most raw of Tension's releases... After more shows and more songs and the sucess of Tension, drummer Chris Michalis took a leave to pursue other things and long time friend and old band mate of Joe's Eric Leon joined up... After Eric Leon Joined up, the shows and songs were more intense and better than ever, Tension was at its peak and realization of the little Bomb from Florida that it really was... So many of the friends of Tension made what was accomplished back then possible... Tension was awarded a Slammie Award for best new band, and was in negotiations with a few major record labels to try and get a release and tour... Being from Pompano and being probably the most ghetto and broke hardcore band, Tension put out an ep on Endless Fight Records (Sickness of our Age) out of Conneticut and later that same ep was re-released by Uprising Records out of California along with Tensions last release, an LP "Agent of the People".... While in negotiations with a record label in Germany, Tension recorded a single called "Stand Aside", which is the only recording featuring drummer Eric Leon, this single was only released in Germany....... Due to reasons unmentionable, Eric Leon had to leave Tension and was replaced by drummer Mike Mcdermit who was with "L.U.N.G.S.", Mike was a great addition to the band and an amazing drummer, he is the drummer on "Agent of the People".... Also Tension had more members than "Spinal Tap".... Included in the band were long time friends: Matt Fox (Shai Hulud, Murrychesstoes), Ray Souza (Hit the Morror, LOAD, Murrychesstoes), Little Chad (New Found Glory), Kenny Fontaine (Kenny Steel, the steel is for real), John Wiley and a few more here and there...... Tension has played with some great bands and some big names, from Shelter, Earth Crisis, Hatebreed, Strife and believe it or not, Maryilyn Manson... hahaha!..........We hope this myspace page and can be a place for old friends to re-unite and for us to remember some great tracks by a group of friends who love to bring the house down..... Thank you all for your support in the past and for your interest in TENSION.... let's keep it real......"

Tension - In Our Time

http://www.mediafire.com/?nznxizzzml2

Tension - The Sickness of our Age

http://www.mediafire.com/?ee2xed112md

Tension - Agent of the People

http://www.mediafire.com/?50b22jiyxdm

11 comments:

EMS / COREGASM said...

i'm very excited to rock this stuff again!

xCHIPxSEM said...

Glad you like it Eric. Any requests, let me know

Joe Tension said...

This is Joe Keit the guitarist from Tension, just wanna let you know about our myspace page: www.myspace.com/tensionsfhc

Hope you enjoy the music, it was a great time and I miss it...

Take care!

xCHIPxSEM said...

Thanks for posting Joe. I did my best to show what you guys were...one of the best damn bands to come out f South Florida. If you have anything you want to contribute, please get in touch.

Jon said...

i absolutely love the sickness of our time 7inch.

seriously one of those "how did i miss/ignore this band" moments.

awesome blog

Anonymous said...

thank you for posting this!

i was searching mp3s of TENSION for some time now.
really great band!

Anonymous said...

thanxxx for this awesome blog, however i think the link to the "in our time" record is wrong. would be great if you could post the right link. cheers and keep up the good work. mike

Hirsinger Youth said...

Did the 7" on Century Media really ever came out? I just remember one track on the Century Media compilation CD "Bloodlines" but I have never seen the mentioned 7".

Zoidberg said...

Hey guys!
My friend showed this band to me and I'm amazed...my request: would be somebody so kind to send me the lyrics of "Agent of The People"? I would be grateful. Oh and can I buy that record somehow, somewhere? I live in Hungary, guess that makes it a bit hard...:)
Thank you, Marci

Anonymous said...

Thanks! Great bio and links...

ps; Tension - Agent of the People link is dead

gaba said...

Really felt the need to listen to Sickness of Our Age tonight. Thank you.