Like most of you, Tee Till Death has Double Cross webzine on our list of daily (sometimes hourly) reads. One of the features we have enjoyed the most is the “What hardcore/punk album has stood the test of time for you?” post. Borrowing a page (with permission and enthusiasm) from the DCXX crew, we are adding a running feature called, “One Shirt”. We could think of no better way to kick things off than with a kicker from Gordo of DCXX. Thanks for the inspiration boys! And for all you other folks, keep thinking of your favorites because we come knocking soon.
My all time favorite hardcore t-shirt has to go to the Project X Schism longsleeve. Although less than a dozen were originally made, and I’ve never even come close to owning one, this shirt is still the pinnacle of SEHC perfection in the form of cotton clothing if you ask me.
Some background: the story goes that Alex Brown screened the originals in his Brooklyn apartment along with Porcell in early January of 1988. They were printed terribly on low quality navy longsleeves, and were not sold, but given only to close friends within the youth crew. A couple days later, Gorilla Biscuits, Side By Side, and BOLD played the Anthrax and some of the youth crew cruised in wearing these while onlooker fans shit their pants. “What is that shirt and who is Project X?!?!” This would also be the night the Project X seven inch was offered for sale along with Schism issue #7, complete with BOLD stamp (I think my timeline is correct? I was 6 years old and playing with Transformers in suburban Pennsylvania). While you could cruise up to Porcell and buy that zine and mystery seven inch, the longsleeve was friends-only.
The cover of The Way It Is showcases Gus SE wearing his in mid-singalong/stagedive during GB from this night, a perfectly captured iconic photograph (you can also see Alex Brown wearing his). I remember when I first bought The Way It Is, I just stared at the cover for a couple days straight. In addition to thinking it was the coolest photo ever and simply summed up a world I was trying to learn everything about, I also remember thinking “what is that shirt dude is wearing? It looks incredible.” For that reason, I always attach some of the significance of this shirt to the power of that photo. Of course it doesn’t hurt that I absolutely love Project X and anything that says “Schism” is straight edge cocaine to me.
As for the design, it’s just a perfect Alex Brown creation that epitomizes the look of 1988 New York City SEHC. Loud, bold, clean, in your face, and unapologetic. Essentially it’s a gigantic billboard that says “WE ARE AWESOME, CHECK THIS SHIT OUT, WE ARE COOLER THAN YOU,” and that same design ethos would end up the standard recipe for probably every other SEHC shirt design of the era and even up through today – gaining tons of fans as well as critics and hecklers along the way. Much like the music played by Project X and their Revelation-era contemporaries, this design is basically a big nod of appreciation to the original early 1980s forefathers, combined with their own dose of bravado and youthful over-the-top energy.
Perhaps the ONLY way this classic design could have been even cooler is if the front had the large Schism fist artwork that was seen on the cover of Schism 7, and later used on the front of the red or black Wide Awake Schism “jumping X dude” shirts. The large Schism fists on the front with the Schism logo is maybe the BEST front shirt design ever. That Wide Awake shirt creeps up very high on my all-time favorite shirt list for that front design alone (the back design pulls it down a bit). I personally love the Schism fists so much that they are my only tattoo (I even considered getting them on my forehead – and no, the one weirdo big thumb on the one fist doesn’t bother me). Brian Clark aka Billy Bitter – if you are reading this, thank you for drawing those fists, they have brought happiness to my life. So anyways, where was I…yeah, the Project X longsleeve…if it had the big fists on the front I wouldn’t be typing this because my brain would have ruptured upon seeing such a design.
As it is, the whole design is perfect: the navy shirt, the white and red/orange hybrid ink (I still don’t know exactly what that color is, and I scoped out Alex Brown’s shirt when he was wearing it during a GB set at CB’s a few years back), the Schism logo, the Project X logo, Sammy’s X’d hand, “New York City Straight Edge”…it’s all there. Like you, I’ve had to settle for bootlegs or the Porcell/TTD re-print from a couple years ago, which was actually done pretty well. The fact that the shirt is as rare as it is and the current owners aren’t looking to part with theirs just makes the appeal that much stronger.
I love Misfits shirts, Black Flag shirts, COC shirts, Cro-Mags shirts, 7Seconds shirts, BL’AST! shirts, UC shirts…tons of shirts…but this is where my heart is at the end of the day. Project X Schism Longsleeve. Straight in ’88. Fuckin’ A.
-Gordo DCXX
