If you ever witnessed one of his feral live performances, it wouldn't be off base to expect that Timmy Greene, aka Timmy No Justice, was some kind of unhinged character. But there I was a few years ago, getting introduced to the hardcore music lifer by a mutual friend, Tru Pray (Malfunction Records), at some danky venue here in Los Angeles. It turned out, Timmy was nothing but low-key and affable.
Though the Virginia native's discography isn't a lengthy one, Timmy's work in Bladecrasher and No Justice left its mark on the hardcore scene, especially through their aforementioned wild live shows. While other vocalists constantly prod the crowd to move up closer to the stage and get busy, Timmy would launch off a PA cabinet into the audience like a man possessed, over and over again, throughout the entire set. Not to mention the occasional cymbal stand he'd fling off the stage.
Whether he sang into the microphone or not wasn't really what Timmy was most concerned with. No, he was there to participate. As I found out, one of the main reasons why he began playing in bands in the first place was to tap into the spontaneous and unbridled essence of early hardcore punk.
Though he hasn't done many interviews throughout the years, Timmy was down to chat with me about his life in hardcore, his health scare some years ago, and what he's up to these days in Southern California.
Special thanks to Jess Humphrey for the use of her awesome photos for this piece. Make sure you follow her Instagram page for more photos from the '90s and '00s East Coast hardcore scene: @i_used_to_be_a_hardcore_girl
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Where did you grow up, and what kind of kid were you? Were you outgoing, into sports, or anything like that?
I was born in Maryland but I’m a Virginia Beach kid at heart. That’s where I spent most of my childhood. Typical story, dysfunctional family, so I found punk shows at a very young age.
Looking back now, I wish I got into sports. My sport was stage diving with the teenagers back then. Ironically, my dad tried to get me into a local neighborhood football league when I was elementary school but the week before I was injured stage diving at a show (laughs).
You mention getting into punk at a young age, so did you hang out with anyone I might know from the hardcore scene when you were growing up?
I was so young. I had a couple of pals at the show but really I was the youngest person in those clubs at the time, so I never hung out with kids outside the shows until a few years later. We didn’t have a lot of bigger hardcore bands that came out of the area at the time. It was mostly thrash metal bands that had demo tapes.
I think you know the guy that has the Instagram handle @revoltoftheapes [Ryan Muldoon who was in the early '90s death metal band, Incarnis] because we discussed this before when talking about Virginia Beach people we knew from back then. I remember seeing him at shows when I was little.
Like three or four years later when I turned 14, Nate from Converge and all his friends started coming out and everything changed. Not saying in a bad way, things were just different.
READ MORE: 2018 interview with Nate Newton (Converge, Channel, Jesuit)
What was the first show you ever attended?
My very first was a Megadeth show at the Boathouse in early '88, I believe, but I don’t count that because they sucked and no one was diving. My first stage dive was that summer when two local bands called At War and Over the Top played. At War got a lot of attention back then around the world. They were a thrash metal band that would play some big shows In Virginia and went out of town to play a lot of shows with all the bigger NYHC and thrash metal bands around the country.
At War and Over the Top played alot of wild shows in the late '80s. A lot of crazy stage dives from skaters and surfers, skins fighting metalheads, etc. That was my introduction to this stuff, which was a lot to take in for a little kid.
At what point did you go from spectator to contributor?
The band stuff came like seven years later with a hardcore band called Bladecrasher. Youngblood Records put out out the 7”.
Bladecrasher was kind of part of that mid-'90s Youth Crew revival stuff, but a little more punk and crazy than the kids in that scene so not sure where we fit into that.
Who else was in Bladecrasher with you?
A couple of kids named George and Ryan. Ryan was younger but booked a lot of the local shows, so that helped us out a lot. I believe he played in Municipal Waste or maybe just roadied for them years later.
I still love all the kids from that band but I don’t believe they did anything after except for Clint Maul. If you are into alt-country type stuff, check out his Bandcamp. I still listen to all his solo releases, and he's a super-talented guy.
You mentioned it a few minutes ago, but how did you feel about being labeled as a "Youth Crew revival" band at that time? Personally speaking, even as someone who has never been straight edge, I loved that wave of bands, including Bladecrasher. But I could see how it would be annoying to be lumped in like that.
I can’t speak for the other kids in that band, but it didn’t really bother me being called a "Youth Crew revival band." I loved how that style was coming back and making hardcore fun again. We did our best to play other shows because it was always a goal of mine to make shows crazy again in our area, and just playing with Youth Crew-style bands wasn’t going to do that. Except for Floorpunch, of course. Those dudes were a few years older than us but they were just on another level with making hardcore fun again and we could completely relate to what they were doing.
Why was claiming straight edge important to you back then? Did you ever have a point in your life before that where you drank/smoked?
Straight edge was a big thing for me personally but wasn’t really something I wanted to push in the band. It still means something to me personally. However, a lot of my friends at the time did drugs but we all just respected each other.
Our scene around that time was so mixed. You would see punk and skins really into drugs, mod kids, straight edge, metalheads, all hanging out together and if some skinhead kid or straight edge kid came from out of town and was rude to our pals because of how they live, we would let them know to chill or leave.
Why didn't Bladecrasher last longer than it did?
I can’t really remember why we broke up. I was moving to the DC area and I think maybe other members were moving too. By the way, maybe my ADHD is kicking in, but a little off topic, I love these questions about my old hometown.
The place had a great little scene going and you will never see it in a book or talked about much in documentaries on punk. Virginia Beach sits two hours off of Highway 95, so it’s often forgotten about.
What are some of your favorite memories from that band?
My favorite memory had to be the scene that was created around Bladecrasher. The shows got big for the area with 6-7 hundred kids getting wild. A few years before the band, that didn’t exist. Honestly, we didn’t care much about the band, we just wanted our local scene to get wild again and have all different kinds of bands playing together.
I remember playing one weekend with Redemption 87 in front of 800 kids and shortly after playing our pal Billy’s house with a disco funk band. All the walls got wrecked, a couple people went to the hospital, windows broke while people were dancing. You know, the good stuff that younger punk kids like to call their salad days.
His house was wild. The dude had Hatebreed play his backyard when they were first starting to play out.
How and when did No Justice start? What were some of the influences that went into the stew?
No Justice came about from Steve Clark (better known for being in 86 Mentality after No Justice) and I wanting to make DC shows wild again. I had just moved there and we were always talking about how pissed we were on what DC was turning into.
It was kind of the same thing I wanted to do with Bladecrasher but this time it was more of challenge because of the different factions of punk and hardcore were so divided in that city during that era. But we were the kids at all the shows no matter who was playing and were dead set on getting everyone together to make the shows more interesting.
When you say "what DC was turning into," what exactly do you mean?
This was decades ago, so memory is hazy, but I remember you had like 40 different scenes at the time and they kind of kept to their own shows. Me and Steve hated that “cool guy shit” we would always say when we were kids.
We loved the mixed bills from our youth and the excitement of how unpredictable shows were before this divide that was going on. You had that older Dischord crowd, and punk kids having these boring “ask a punk shows."
You also had straight edge and skinhead kids not getting along, and always being scared of each other and acting like fucking bullies who would only fight if they had their pals around.
OK, so I don't remember a demo ever coming out, but when did No Justice start playing shows?.
No, honestly we didn’t care about shirts or putting out music at the time. It was all about the “scene” for us back then. We were going to five and six shows a week sometimes. I remember we decided to let this kid in Chicago put out the record because we just wanted to go out to Chicago and watch bands play.
Most people don’t know that No Justice never had anything thing out until the last show, basically. I believe we had one tape for sale which was the 7”. We sold them on the only tour we ever did with the Nerve Agents because the 7” hadn’t showed up in the mail until the tour was half done, but memory is a little hazy.
I think we had a song on a Youngblood comp but that was it [2000's Memories of Tomorrow Hardcore Compilation].
What do you remember about the crowd's reaction to what they were seeing when No Justice was playing?
Kids think we were a bigger hardcore band or something because of that last show clip everyone has seen on YouTube, but that wasn’t the really the case. There was definitely talk about us and kids offering us shows all over the country just from word of our live shows but not the attention that it gets now, decades later.
How extensive was the tour?
We played a couple shows in the Midwest and then jumped on the Nerve Agents tour which was basically the East Coast and Texas. After that, we drove out to California without the Nerve Agents and just jumped on a few shows for fun.
The What Happens Next? kids really hooked us up with two great shows in San Francisco. One at 924 Gilman was with Raw Power and bunch of bands, and another show that was outdoors. They said you might get arrested for the outside one if cops come shut it down and we were like let’s do it.
Did most No Justice show pop off with the kind of wild energy you would become known for? Did it ever get the band in trouble?
A lot of our shows definitely had some wild kids that would show up and jump off anything and everything, which of course, we would encourage. A few fights would break out sometimes because we loved playing mixed bills. Somehow, I never got a felony when I would get excited and start throwing shit, but on a few occasions, we got into some fights because of it.
The Posi Numbers appearance in 2000 is a classic.
The last show and Taco Bell trash can show is definitely what kids talk about the most it seems. We showed up at Posi Numbers fest and we didn’t like the stage size for diving. So someone came up with the idea at a Taco Bell to steal their big-ass trash can and push it down the road to the show.
I still don’t know how we did that without getting arrested but before cell phones we were always doing ridiculous shit (laughs).
Did you ever get into it with either your bandmates and/or show promoters in relation to damaging equipment?
We definitely had to give up whatever money we were making at the show when things would get broken on few occasions. Steve and I would have no money to eat but still forfeit our band money and just be stoked the show was fun for the kids. We definitely had conflicts between band members at times. We were some wild kids, man.
We had one bass player that threw his bass and walked off while we were playing because he couldn’t deal with constantly getting ran into and hit while playing. I’ve seen him say such great things about the band now online, so no hard feelings. Good dude.
I didnt play an instrument so I can’t imagine how annoying and wild it was to have to deal with playing in that band.
The final No Justice show is full of hardcore lore at this point. What was going on in your mind right before you began playing? Did you know how unhinged things were gonna get, or was it business as usual in the No Justice mindset?
I mean, business as usual of course but I wasn’t expecting to lose it like I did. I get there and see that kids from all over the country had flown out to see us and there was just this excitement in the air.
I blacked out when we started and was ready to die on that stage and take someone with me. It was all a blur. I don’t even do drugs so I can’t blame that (laughs).
There was nothing planned about any of that. All these sites that have nothing to do with hardcore post clips from that show so it’s turned into something we never wanted it to by some people that don’t get it. But the kids that were there understand, which is all that matters to me.
Right after that set, did you, or your bandmates, discuss what had just transpired? In other words, did you guys know how nuts it was?
A couple of older people came up and said that was the wildest set they had ever seen. These are people who saw bands like Void and Bad Brains back in the day, so I kinda felt it but it didn’t sink in at the time because again, I just kind of blacked out when jumping around.
I don’t think I was even singing most of the songs. Stage diving was always more fun than singing anyways.
You mentioned the viral effect that video has had throughout the years. Did that bother you?
No, it’s funny to see all the comments by the kids that didn’t know us or were there. Especially all the sites that post who aren’t hardcore kids. It’s always something like, "those kids were on drugs and they should be jail or someone should put them in the hospital."
But the hardcore and punk kids get it and know we loved that scene more than anyone and would do anything for any kid back then, and even now to this day.
I imagine you get No Justice reunion show offers to this day?
We get offered some decent money for reunions now, which is weird because No Justice never cared and just lost money while we were together. But I’m like that last show will never be captured again.
Not to sound too corny, but that was a for the kids, by the kids insane punk rock moment that you can’t create again. I'm not sure what kids would expect now from a No Justice reunion. It wouldn’t be the same.
Did you play in any bands after No Justice? You must have had people approaching you to get something cooking.
You know I just wanted to be the kid in the crowd again so I didn’t get burned out like every other kid that drops out of hardcore after a band breaks up. It was exciting again to watch bands and not worry about any band bullshit so I never played again.
A few people that I have looked up to over the years have mentioned starting something and I definitely thought about it but decided to remain that kid in the crowd. I still get excited about watching bands play and going to shows alone to get in a couple of stage dives with the kids and then dip out and not have to do any band social stuff.
READ MORE: Nails Vocalist/Guitarist Todd Jones Discusses the Cover Songs They’ve Done Throughout the Years
Speaking as someone who had to have surgery some months back to get a tumor I had next to the lower part of my brain removed, I can attest to the anxiety that situation can be bring on. Tell me about your brain surgery, and how that all went down.
I remember seeing that online. So thankfully you are here. Respect.
Mine was a brain bleed. The medical term is arteriovenous malformation, or something way above my vocabulary level (laughs). I was having the worst headaches and definitely thought I was going to die before they found out what was going on.
I'm definitely just happy to be alive and not much upset me anymore, that’s for sure. Most of family has passed away so it’s just lots of alone time these days and I’m still very thankful to be here. Even walks on the beach alone are exciting for me. I’m showing my age a bit (laughs).
There was a benefit show for you in Virginia Beach in 2016 featuring some awesome bands on the bill. That must have been overwhelming for you.
So, after that brain surgery, some pals started doing benefits. My doctor told me stay away for at least a year but I just couldn’t. Two shows I really couldn’t sit out was that benefit with Floorpunch, and also a Breakdown/Token Entry show in the park in New York.
I was just excited to be alive and brought a helmet with me so if got hit in the head I wouldn’t end up dead because I knew I wanted to be close to the stage. I also had a walking cane with me that the hospital gave me because I had some trouble walking after the surgeries.
While Floorpunch was playing, [Mark] Porter said, "Timmy is going to sing this one," and it’s "Ready to Fight" by Negative Approach. I thought it was a joke but Porter doesn’t fuck around and next thing I know I’m pushed up on stage with my fucking helmet singing the song and the place goes ape shit.
How closely have you followed the hardcore scene in the last decade or so? It’s reached new levels of exposure and popularity in recent years. I’m curious to your thoughts on that.
It’s wild how big it’s gotten. The shows in California are huge at times. I love it when there are no bouncers or barricades at these bigger shows. I don’t get to as many shows as I used to because these damn things are expensive now.
Not sure how a young kid could go to all these shows. I guess that’s why you see so many older people these days. I would say for my age, I follow it somewhat closely but just way too many bands to keep up with. I wish more kids did zines or something instead of just wanting to start bands and crews.
When you want to listen to hardcore today, what are some bands/records you throw on?
I don’t have the attention span for records anyone which is funny because that’s all I have basically owned my whole life. I still watch a lot of young hardcore bands play so I don’t really listen to a lot of hardcore when not at a show. I will throw something on before jitsu class just to get hyped.
But to name a few current bands I listen to, I would say Human Garbage records sound great. Those kids are also in bunch of other bands that are good. A lot of bands now have an Oi! influence or d-beat influence, which is cool to hear.
Hardcore still rules. I will think of a bunch of band names after this, I’m sure. I just get bored with metallic hardcore stuff with that big horseshoe in front of the stage.
The last I hung out with you was at an End It show in Oxnard. I think you mentioned you were surfing a bit now that you’re based here in Southern California? Are you generally an outdoors type of person?
I spent most of my life in dark clubs watching bands or DJs play, so living in Cali and getting outside in this weather is change for me that I needed. I picked up surfing for a bit but busted up my knees real bad when I started doing jitsu again but hopefully will be back in the ocean again soon.
Do you see yourself settling down here for good, or are you a wandering spirit?
Family is mostly gone now so I love wandering but who knows. Just trying to enjoy whatever time I have left and would love to see the rest of the world, that is for sure. Cali is just so expensive so I do a lot of wandering around this place and haven’t traveled outside the country in several years.
How has hardcore shaped your overall experience? Are your closest friends people you met through hardcore?
It shaped everything. I wouldn’t be alive today without it. I have learned to enjoy life on not alot of money. My family never had a lot of money but got into drugs and alcohol to kill the time. Hardcore saved me from all that.
Hardcore was my religion growing up and even though I’m not at every show or hang out with many hardcore kids these days, corny as this sounds, I love it with all my soul. So many pals and occasional enemies in that scene just to keep it interesting (laughs).
READ MORE: Colin of Arabia Frontman Colin Campbell on the ‘00s Hardcore Scene, PTSD, Jail & Other Nightmares
If you had to pick a band and/or record that captures the essence of what makes hardcore so special to you, what would it be?
That live Bad Brains record that came out in '87 or '88 [it's simply called Live]. Hardcore for me was always about the live show so hearing those songs so raw and recorded live blew my mind. You hear the joy and pain in HR's voice. That band came from another planet.
Anything else you’d like to say or include in this interview?
Thank you for getting me out of my head to talk about some of this stuff. I’ve been asked by a good handful of people to talk on their podcasts or sites over the years but just couldn’t get my anxiety in check.
To everyone that has asked in the past, it means the world to me that you even think my opinions are still valid.
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Tagged: bladecrasher, no justice