From The Desk Of OFF!’s Dimitri Coats: My Favorite Song By A Guy In Philly More People Should Know

Hardcore will never die, at least while Keith Morris is still alive and kicking. The 55-year-old Morris co-founded the legendary Black Flag with Greg Ginn before leaving the band three years later to start the equally seminal Circle Jerks with future Bad Religion guitarist Greg Hetson. That band lasted a decade, though since 1994, the Circle Jerks have continued to tour sporadically but haven’t released a new album since 1995. That was going to change when the band convened last year with producer Dimitri Coats (Burning Brides) to work on new material. The result, however, was Morris quitting the CJs and forming OFF!, a new hardcore supergroup with Coats on guitar, Steven McDonald (Redd Kross) on bass and Mario Rubalcaba (Rocket From The Crypt, Hot Snakes) on drums. OFF! recorded four EPs that will be released as a vinyl boxed set, First Four EPs (Vice), on December 14. The band will also be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our Q&A with Morris.

Dimitri: I have a buddy in Philadelphia named Shai Halperin, who’s best known as the man behind the curtain for the Capitol Years. Shai’s name suits him. He’s shy and the kind of guy who sits alone in his bedroom, strumming sadly on a guitar while dreaming of Beatlemania and GBV. Every year or so, he sends me a new batch of rough mixes to check out. It’s fun to follow the process of an album you like. Sometimes you get used to the original version because the raw inception of the idea seems more personal. His latest effort is called Sweet Lights, which he finally threw up on Bandcamp a year after the fact. For me, one song in particular stands out. “You Won’t Be There” is one of those beautifully well-written crooners that could’ve ended up on a lost ELO or John Lennon record. I think he even played all the instruments himself. Hopefully more people will discover Shai’s music and give him some Kurt Vile recognition. Had he lived in the early music industry days, he would have made a solid living as a songwriter. He deserves to.

Video after the jump.