The best thing to do is forget everything you know already. Forget that the words Three One G reference one of Joy Division's best, hardest, most-icy songs. Forget allusions to the San Diego scene and anything about a “San Diego sound.” Forget everything you know about punk or hardcore or any other compartmentalzied subcategory. Forget what MTV and the radio tells you music is supposed to sound like. Forget everything you know already. Comb out your brain and brush your nappy synapses free of bias or fandom or hating.

The best thing to do is look at the music Three One G's put out, the bands who burned napalm-hot and died quick; the groups that are still good and will be good until they decide they're over it. Feel ASTERISK's mastodonic death-grind from Sweden's darkest tarpits. Get sexed up, then chopped up, in THE BLOOD BROTHERS' March on Electric Children super-blender. Take on JENNY PICCOLO's SCUD missile attack or die trying. Laugh, head-bang, freak out, make out, grin, dance, touch yourself, shit yourself, then pledge unholy, sweaty allegiance to their comp of bands like GET HUSTLE and THE LOCUST doing Queen songs.

Or how ‘bout the newer stuff? SOME GIRLS' All My Friends Are Going Death LP killed hardcore dead. FAST FORWARD and T CELLS split an album, one 3” CD apiece, and turned your brain into codeine soup. MOVING UNITS' Dangerous Dreams LP gave you a high view of where so-described “dance-punk” fears to tread. And HOLY MOLAR—freaky, nasty, bitchy HOLY MOLAR punched you in the throat and yanked out your snaky, still-quivering vocal chords as a door-prize.

Or the future stuff? Mutants like EX MODELS, MELT BANANA, and DAS OATH covering Birthday Party songs? JAKS' Here Lies the Body of Jaks ? THE PLOT TO BLOW UP THE EIFFEL TOWER'S sleaze-punk epic Love in the Fascist Brothel LP?

Or the past? Try elegant/ugly noise from BLACK DICE, ANTIOCH ARROW, the great ARAB ON RADAR and their new incarnation CHINESE STARS. Maybe the killing sounds of CATTLE DECAPITATION or ORTHRELM? What about murder junkies like BLACK CAT #13, CAMERA OBSCURA, SPANAKORZO, CRIMSON CURSE, SWING KIDS, or FESTIVAL OF DEAD DEER? Not enough? Let's go with GET HUSTLE, QUINTRON, and the label's first-ever release, the legendary UNBROKEN, from back in '94.

Do you believe in rock ‘n' roll, can music save your mortal soul? Sure, but as Three One G gives it, it can also pulverize you, bear hug your guts into mush, and take your choirboy virginity with no promise of respect or love come morning.

But that's all hype and fan-drooling and gushing and who needs that? Facts: Three One G operates completely removed from the flaky, style-over-substance, too-coolness laid down by a lot of their peers' labels. Releasing dangerous, relevant music and being totally legit with their bands is what they're all about. (Three One G's owners Justin Pearson and Allysia Edwards won't be sucking bongloads and watching Gilmore Girls while your bassist sells plasma to make rent, because fuck that.)

“We pay royalties and have sales reports,” says Pearson, when I ask him what sets Three One G apart from other labels. “That's one of the main things that bugs me about working with other labels. Aside from the financial aspects of the label, we strive to have creative releases not only on the audio portion but the actual packaging. This can be anything from heart-shaped records [LOVE LIFE] to double 3" gatefold CDs [HOLY MOLAR] to 5" picture discs [THE LOCUST/JENNY PICCOLO] to die cut covers [ASTERISK]. We feel that the packaging and art is an extension of the actual sounds. But the main thing that sets us apart from a lot of labels is the sense of community or even family we try to have. All the bands and artists are our friends first and foremost. They are people we know on a more personal level and people that we respect and feel are doing something profound and creative. “

Being smart with their dealings is one thing, but don't expect Three One G to chase the almighty dollar for even a millisecond. Says Edwards, “We are not going to put out a record regardless of how much money it could make us if we don't completely believe in it and appreciate it.”

Pearson and Edwards' beliefs aren't at the core of their being—like a lot of people front—they ARE their being. Their motives and ethics and agendas are right there in the open, completely flesh-raw and honest and talked about damn loudly. For one, Pearson says Three One G isn't going to standby and kowtow to the newly elected regime.

“The last election was fixed,” says Pearson. “So the mock democracy of the US calls it another victory for Bush, showing the world that it's beyond not only false representation for a democratic society but a display of who is pig of the world by letting the Bush administration continue to destroy the planet. The only positive aspects of Bush being dictator of the US and the majority of the world is that we can at least expect some sick art to come about ... and hopefully a civil war in the US.”

Check back with ThreeOneG.com regularly for sick art and revolution—in equal doses.