HARDCORE TROUBADOUR

PLAYING MUSICIS cathartic for me,” Jesse Malin says. “I don’t know where else I could go to get that feeling.” He laughs. “I used to say, ‘What else are you gonna do — rob a bank?’”

Malin views his line of work as more a calling than a choice, and true to form, the native of Queens, New York, is a music lifer. He began playing in bands at the tender age of 12, fronting the seminal New York City hardcore act Heart Attack, who were part of a scene that also included Bad Brains and the pre-hip-hop iteration of the Beastie Boys. Malin went on to experience mainstream success in the early ’90s with major-label glam-punkers D Generation, and in the process he became friends with some