As a fledgling youth in Boston, there were many a day I found solace in the angular guitar chords of Walter Schreifels. As the guitarist for New York hardcore luminaries Gorilla Biscuits and Youth of Today, he added joy to my life in ways unexplained. But it wasn’t till he formed Quicksand in the early 90s, and dropped the landmark Slip on my world, that he entered Haloed Hero category. After their Manic Compression followup, Quicksand disbanded and Schreifels went through a gauntlet of other projects — Worlds Fastest Car, CIV, Walking Concert and Rival Schools, the latter who’ll be dropping a new album in fall of this year. In the meantime he’s back with a solo record, An Open Letter To The Scene (out May 4th on Academy Fight Song), which has a decidedly more acoustic bent to it. Leagues more mellow in sonic potency to his usual work, the LP is a refreshing tangent to his pedigree. Juxtaposing his past roots with his present sound, he chose to acoustically cover Agnostic Front’s caustic “Society Suckers” as the first single and video — peep it below.

You can pre-order An Open Letter from Academy Fight Song, and $1 will go to One Love For Chi, a fundraising charity for Deftones bass player Chi Cheng who has been in a coma since a car accident in November 2008. Walter also has two upcoming New York shows — a free show for Record Store Day April 17th at Generation Records (with Cymbals Eat Guitars, Andrew WK DJ set, and more) as well as an album release show on May 5th at The Studio in Webster Hall. Look out for a full feature coming soon.

Hit the Jump to hear Agnostic Front’s original version, an acoustic version of “Open Letter To The Scene”, plus Quicksand’s “Fazer” just for old time’s sake…

Walter’s “Open Letter to the Scene”

Agnostic Front’s “Soceity Suckers”

Quicksand’s “Fazer”

Cover art for An Open Letter To a Scene