Flagman

Flagman was a PA/NJ area band that existed from 1991-1994. They are slowly becoming one of those "obscure" hardcore bands, and I don't want that to happen. Alec, the drummer of Flagman, gave me a very detailed history on the band. Thanks to Alec for being so supportive of this! "Flagman originally started out in 1989 as a band called Loud and Clear, in Bensalem PA. At the time, the band consisted of myself, Sean McCabe, Sam Pinola and John Shearstone. We had started playing music together for a pure and simple reason. We were 4 of about 10 straight edge kids in out entire town. We figured it was our job to get Bensalem on the SxE music map. So we bought some equipment, and that was that. Cutting school in favor of band practice, and playing a show or two at peoples houses that was about all we did with Loud and Clear. Guys in the band started not getting along, and my brother (Dave) had gotten a pretty nice bass set up (peavey minx amp, and a no-name bass..sweet!). Plus he knew a kid named Ed Zielanski that was supposedly pretty good on guitar (and had a Fender Strat no less!) so Sam left the band, and in came Ed and Dave. John our former guitarist was moved onto the microphone. We changed our name to Flagman at that point, because we felt we had changed the band around and were heading in a new direction (This btw was the name of our demo that we recorded at Jake Hains Unisound studio, in Reading PA under the new band name) Plus we had seen a Flagman sign on the way down the shore one day. It all seemed to make sense (or at least then it did) WellI am sure you never heard the demo. There is a reason for that: It SUCKEDReally bad. So we didnt release too many of those. We should have known when we saw the Unisound studio set up was a bunch of microphones from the 1930s, rubber banded to cymbal hardware. If anything good came out of that recording, it was that: A: we were able to get some shows at the Unisound. And B: We realized that we didnt like John singing. So we got Sean McCabe to start singing for us. It was much better this way, because everyone was much better friends with Sean anyhow. Our first show as Flagman had us opening for 4 Walls Falling and Burn, at the Unisound. After that, we had gotten a couple more shows, however Sean at this point decided to take a jaunt down to North Carolina with some girl we all went to high school with. We had 2 shows booked that weekend he left, and we wound up having to cancel them. Also, Seans commitment towards the band was kind of questionable. When playing shows up at the Unisound, we had befriended this kid that sported glasses, and always wore a Celtics Larry Bird jersey. We went up to the Unisound that weekend to the one show we had to cancel, and saw the Celtics jersey kid. later found out his name was AJ Edminston, and we asked him if he wanted to be in our band. Later that week, we practiced with him, and he played an Earth Day concert at our High School as a test run. Everything went well. We played our first real show with AJ up at the Unisound with Mouthpiece, Lifetime, and Ressurection. The show was awesome, and halfway through our set, the band got asked if we wanted to release something on Watermark records. This is the way things got done at the UnisoundYou are halfway though playing your set, one of the Jordan brothers pulls your singer aside to ask if you want to put out a 7. Well, of course we were like FUCK YEA. And that was that. Signing with Watermark, did not only include a luxurious record deal, but also came along with the services of Joel Jordan. We needed a 2nd guitarist, and he was funny as hell and fit right in. We recorded the Restraint 7 at Dome Studios in Royersford PA in 1991. Our 7 did not actually come out until 1993. We had many, MANY problems with Watermark, and had actually even started recording our 2nd 7 with Consequence Records, at Why Me studios during the Watermark hiatus. Before we started recording the Consequence 7 we kicked Joel out of the band, Dave moved over to guitar, and we got Josh Brown playing bass for us. He was a great addition to the band, and turned out to be an even better friend. This is the lineup that would remain until the end of Flagman. Many shows, and stories later, we recorded our final 7 on Low Orbit records (which was owned by friend Eric Zimmerman), At Why Me. We played our last show in Massachusetts, with a ton of other bands at a HC fest. To be honest, playing this show as our last was one of the most regrettable things with the band, at least for me. The whole existence of Flagman was very personal, and this last show just did not have that feel to it. Luckily the band was all about great memories of growing up together ...Everyone is a child of their past - To Reflect "Its for Life Comp" Members of Flagman were/are also members of following bands: Crud is a Cult, Mouthpiece, Savanah, Mandella Strikeforce, Ink and Dagger, Ruby Keeler, Laurel, Battery, Lenola, Like a Fox, Favourite Sons, Hamsicle, The Series..And more that I am probably forgetting When Flagman was not playing shows they could be seen: At Taco Bell with the Grease, playing CRUD shows, shooting BBs into imitation Les Pauls, making crank calls, running scams, cruising around suburban Allentown for girls, saying MIEW, hanging out in Ocean City, and pissing off truckers and Virginian rednecks on the CB. " Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.