The PMRC is one of those faint memories that music fans that grew up in the '80s try to brush away. The Parents Music Resource Center was launched in 1985 by a group of Washington power wives—the most visible face being the wife of then-senator Al Gore, Tipper—who saw rock and rap as, in Ms. Gore's words, "a poisonous source infecting the youth of the world with messages they cannot handle."

While the PMRC's power eventually only yielded one major change—the ubiquitous black-and-white "Parental Advisory" insignia that you can still find on physical copies of albums—at the time the metal, punk, and hip-hop artists that it would have affected most made some loud and vehement statements against what they saw as potential censorship of their work. With that in mind—not to mention Mother's Day and the current pieces of proposed legislation that are threatening our access to information in the modern age—let's take a quick stroll down memory lane to take a listen to some of the best of the anti-PMRC bunch.

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The Young Widows play St. Vitus.

On April 12, St. Vitus—the metal outpost in Greenpoint—turned one year old, but the birthday celebration went down between April 23 and April 28. Bands, cartoons, go-go girls, celebrities, sacrilege, and a metal magician were in attendance.

"It was chaos," says bartender and co-owner Justin Scurti.

In 2011, when Scurti, Arthur Shepherd, and George Souleidis opened Saint Vitus—named both for the Black Sabbath song and the doom metal band—they just wanted to run a successful business. "We never planned on being a full venue," Scurti says, "and we never planned on being a full-on metal bar. It just sort of happened. It's who we are and what we like."

Judging by the number of regulars present the Monday after the events and by the four sold-out shows the week before, metalheads have given the bar the horns-up stamp of approval. We asked around for the top ten most metal moments of the anniversary week.

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​Sound of the City's search for the quintessential New York City musician enters Round Two this week, with battles in the Round of 32 daily. Keep up with all the action here.

The Round of 32 closes out today, and what better way to finish things out with a battle between pop classicist Carole King and local metal heroes Anthrax? Look out below!

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The Round of 64 for Sound of the City's own version of March Madness—in which you, the Sound of the City voting public, help determine the quintessential New York musician—continues, and you get to vote on who makes it to Round Two. The first pairing in our Queens division pits its top seed, three-chord punks the Ramones, against the Big Four thrashers in Anthrax. Check out the arguments in favor of each, then cast your ballot at the Sound of the City facebook page.

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River Avenue, 3:45 p.m. Most of the Anthrax shirt-wearers were inside by this point.

The Big 4: Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, Anthrax
Yankee Stadium
Wednesday, September 14

Better than: "Nationals beat the Mets, 2-0. WP: Brad Peacock (1-0), LP: Mike Pelfrey (7-12)"

Truth be told, the crowd at Yankee Stadium last night didn't look all that different than a crowd at a Major League Baseball game normally might—lots of dudes in logo-ed t-shirts and caps, drinking beer, cheering lustily for the goings-on down below. There were also a few scattered chants about the suckiness of Boston and the Mets, just for good measure.

But the reason for the 41,000 people in attendance wasn't a late-season tilt between the Yankees and its American League also-rans; instead, they were united under the banners of loud guitars and pummeling drums, of alienation and anger. The Big 4—Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, and Anthrax, four titans of thrash who had seen both triumph and tragedy over the past 30 years—shared a bill for what was said to be the east coast's biggest metal show.

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The unstoppable, zombie-slaying Anthrax album Worship Music is their first in 21 years with classic vocalist Joey Belladonna, and naturally, it's full of thrash that hearkens back to the halcyon days of Jams shorts and up-flipped caps. However, if rap fans check out "Devil You Know," they might discover a different old school:

"If you don't know... now you know."

That callback to Biggie's "Juicy" was suggested by drummer and diehard hip-hop fan Charlie Benante, whose get-wicked drumming propelled Anthrax through a number of ground-breaking hip-hop experiments in the '80s and '90s. Back in 1987, when suburban rock radio DJs were full steam ahead on "RAP SUCKS" sentiment, Anthrax was rocking Public Enemy shirts on stage and injecting their live show with the Beasties-style snotrocket "I'm The Man." Early fans of groups like Run-DMC, LL Cool J and Boogie Down Productions, Anthrax were rap's most vocal supporters in the world of metal. "I remember in 1989, we did a photo shoot and I wore my De La Soul shirt with the flower pot," recalls Benante. "Everybody was like, 'What the fuck?'" Obviously the confusion ceased after they did "Bring The Noise" with Public Enemy in 1991, the undisputed finest hour in what would ultimately be a rocky history for rap-rock.

Take a look back with Benante at eight awesome times Anthrax toyed with hip-hop. In their immortal words: "Well, they say rap and metal can never mix, well all of they can suck our..." Uh, Charlie, watch the beat!

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Mmm. wingy.

A week from tonight, four titans of heavy metal--Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax, and Slayer--will come together at Yankee Stadium for The Big 4's East Coast concert. It's going to be great! The Bronx is pretty excited about the impending metal invasion, too, as evidenced by the missive from its tourism board SOTC received today. In addition to noting that a radio station from Baltimore will be simulcasting live from the Bronx as part of the festivities (guess no NYC station could fit metal into its format? sigh), it includes the following news: "In the build up to the concert, the Bronx Tourism Council at BOEDC is spearheading the Metal Heads Welcome promotion, which spotlights the businesses in the 161st Street neighborhood surrounding the stadium. Restaurants and bars will offer choices like 'Metallica Martinis' and 'Metal Mayhem Meatball' specials and pipe in music by the world-famous bands." Dining establishments are still putting together their lists of specials, so there's still time for them to add some--or all!--of the following 10 menu items named after iconic moments from each of the Big 4 bands!

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Get ready to be caught in a proverbial mosh, New York, because The Big 4 of thrash--that's Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax--are coming to Yankee Stadium, and tickets go on sale this morning! To all you non-headbanging SOTC readers, this event is essentially as important to metalheads as LCD Soundsystem breaking up during an Arcade Fire show while Fleet Foxes make s'mores for everyone. Plus its location means a generation of metal nerds like ourselves will finally make it to second base (boom!). We decided to see if our trusty panel of rock critics shares our excitement and asked 15 music writers:

Can you name the four Anthrax albums that feature Joey Belladonna on vocals?

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via Facebook

Who gave Mustaine the keys to the Photoshop demo? (Just kidding, Dave!)

This is the news: The second concert event at the new Yankee Stadium has been announced, and oh boy is it a doozy. The metal deities Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, and Anthrax--d/b/a The Big 4--have announced, after partying it up (and making East Coasters extremely jealous) at the Indio Polo Grounds last weekend, that they will play in the Bronx on September 14. The above poster's swiped from the official Facebook page for the collective, which now lists the Bronx as its home (aww); Metallica provides further confirmation on its official site, Slayer on its Facebook page. Tickets go on sale May 6; presales happen May 4. This... this is going to be great. (Expensive too, probably. But great.)