MIR (Мир) – Mindecision LP

By now, it’s not surprising that the dissemination of the hardcore punk movement in it’s infancy seeped into the pores of nearly the entire planet. Of course, all the major cities worldwide developed burgeoning hardcore scenes that yielded the classics we know and love but there’s something to be said about the less known spots on the map and their select inhabitants that were swept up in the fervor of it all, like some of those in the sleepy valley town of Roanoke tucked away in the tranquil Blue Ridge mountain region of Southwest Virginia. It was in that city, circa 1984, that four teenagers came together to form Мир or, for the non-Cyrillicly inclined, simply MNP. The band name, pronounced “Mihr” and which translates to peace, was also the group’s mission statement and driving force in their brief existence. Having played a slew of gigs locally and elsewhere alongside contemporaries like CORROSION OF CONFORMITY, SCREAM, BATTALION OF SAINTS and DEATH PIGGY among others, they left as quickly as they came, disbanding in the summer of 1985 before most of the members left for college. Thankfully, the band entered the studio earlier that year before calling it a day. The tracks that made up the criminally underrated and sparsely circulated “MINDECISION” cassette are a crucial entry into the annals of early Virginia hardcore punk history, featuring twelve cuts of scorching USHC executed by small town high school kids. Remastered from the original reels by Chris Corry, each record comes in a jacket adorned with the original cover art by drummer Lawson Jaeger, featuring a 12″ x 24″ insert chock full of live photos, flyers and other ephemera plus liner notes by guitarist Spencer Edmunds