The first thing to strike me was that this rig a pirate on its hull! Some tips to avoiding pirates:
1) Investigate the planned route and find out if pirates are active in that area. The Malay Peninsula, parts of the South China Sea, and the Caribbean coast of South America are all areas that still see amounts of pirate activity.
2) Be conscious of the tactics pirates may use. They are creatures of habit, following consistent patterns, striking the same areas at certain times (moonless nights, for example). Alter your planned route and agenda to reduce risk.
3) Maintain radio contact with fellow travellers or main land contacts. Never broadcast your exact location.
4) Keep in mind that most piracy related situations do not turn violent. Pirates tend take a few things and leave. Once pirates do board your vessel, armed resistance usually amounts to a shootout. Do consider that a visible show of arms prior to the pirates’ contact may convince them to choose a lesser target.
5) Plant a decoy in your safe so you can make a show of opening it and handing your valuables over. Hide all other valuables in separate hiding places about the boat. If pirates do come aboard, they’ll expect to leave with something, but that doesn’t mean they have to find everything.
6) Ram the swine pirates’ boat. Pirates’ tend to use small powerboats and come broadside to their target; small boats are no match for a sturdy cruising sailboat.
7) If all else fails remember pirates, under that eye patch, don’t have a missing eye. The patch keeps the eye in darkness to increase its sensitivity to light, making navigation by stars easier. So, just poke them in that eye!
Here we have the first four of a prospective six re-issues from UK Hardcore pioneers the Stupids, who came busting out of Ipswich in the mid-Eighties and totally nailed a new fresh sound on these shores with a formula that was very much under the influence of the harder faster Punk that was being hammered out across the pond in North America. And these guys totally nailed it with incredibly catchy and adrenalized songs that embraced skating, girls, b-movies, soft drinks, fast food… and general goofiness… and in turn helped set the blueprint for the US inspired Hardcore explosion that swept the UK underground in their wake.
These four discs encompass their debut 1985 EP “Violent Nun” whose raging twelve tracks were a serious shot in the arm and entered a landscape where UK Punk was very much about UK’82 burnouts and doom laden Crusties. The EP and subsequent two albums “Peruvian Vacation” and “Retard Picnic” originally saw the light of day on Children of The Revolution Records. Disc four includes their three sessions on the hallowed John Peel Show, plus four tracks from a BBC session by drummer Tommy and guitarist Ed Shred’s alter-ego Frankfurter… including the 7SECONDS inspired (!!) “We’re Gonna Eat”…
For the purists amongst you all these releases have (limited edition) vinyl pressings, with some extra cuts, whilst the CD packages are a full blown ‘bonus fest’ with demo’s, outtakes and live material, plus a chunky monkey booklet complete with liner notes, photos, flyers… all the good shit Holmes! Discs five and six will include the “Van Stupid” “Jesus Meets The Stupids” and “Frankfurter” 12″s…. oh yes… appetite whetted… so much fun…!!!
When I heard that John ‘Speedo’ Reis from Rocket From The Crypt and Hot Snakes fame had started a new project and was back in the driving seat, I knew this record could possibly be a contender for album of the year. Why? Because his song writing skills and general vocal presence has always been an enjoyable experience and live, well, if you have never seen the above mentioned bands then you are lucky to have another chance, as live, Speedo comes as cool as ice.
The Night Marchers sound is not as technical as Hot Snakes and less flamboyant than the horn filled Rocket but “See You In Magic” sees the band deliver a full album of incredible songs that melt sweet rock and roll into your ears with a spiky edge. The album kicks off with stabbing excellence of ‘And I Keep Holding On’ and delivers rock and roll, pop perfection in songs such as the catchy ‘Jump in the Fire’, ‘I Wanna Deadbeat You’, ‘Total Bloodbath‘ and In Dead Sleep (I Snore ZZZZ). The rockabilly stomp continues on the express ride of ‘Branded’ and ‘Open Your Legs’ and only slows down once the brakes are applied at the right moments.
Basically Reis is back and he means business. This record is heading the charge of the 2008 rock and roll revolution, let’s just hope your ears don’t miss out on what without doubt will become one of the albums of the year.
In an old job I had years back this window cleaner came into the office. Bit of a geezer, the usual banter. He looks up at all of the punk posters on the wall. This was in the mid-90s and the PR company I worked for represented all of the US melodic punk labels at the time like Fat Wreck, Nitro and the Epitaph Records heavy-hitters.
“So you’re into punk rock here,” he said. We didn’t really pay attention, expecting one of those terrible conversations when you have to try and explain your music taste to someone who has no idea where you’re coming from or anything about the music you’re into. He looks up at all of the Bouncing Souls, Offspring and Bad Religion posters and just sneers. “That shit ain’t punk,” he says. “Rudimentary Peni, now that’s punk!” Never judge…
Although Rudimentary Peni were part of the Crass-led anarcho punk scene that exploded across the UK, and then the world, in the early eighties, there was always something very different, almost creepy about these strange fucked-up kids. They were not directly political like most of their peers, preferring to dress their messages up in strange gothic stories and moods, like the Tim Burtons of anarcho punk. They very rarely played gigs, instead focusing on studio work recording two classic singles and the incredible ‘Deathchurch’ album.
Since their early original eighties burst of activity the band have remained in existence. They surfaced in the early 90s to play a few gigs but didn’t like the bright lights and scuttled back into the shadows again. And since then the band have done, well, whatever the fuck they want really – releasing new material when they see fit and ‘No More Pain‘ is another great peek into Nic Blinko’s twisted world. Ten tracks, of which only three break the two minute mark, of the kind of scratchy, creepy, demented horror punk sludge you expect from Peni. The fact that they’re still making records is incredible. The fact that the records they’re making are still good is amazing. Rudimentary Peni, now that’s punk.
Murder By Death‘s previous album ‘In Bocca Al Lupo‘ was an underrated, dark-hearted highlight of 2006, so here’s hoping that ‘Red Of Tooth And Claw‘ will gain them some much-deserved extra recognition. If you like your bands with grit under their fingernails, tales of liquor-stained hell weighing on their conscience, and a none-more-black sense of humour, then it’s high time you started paying attention to this lot.
Vocalist/guitarist Adam Turla sounds even more like Johnny Cash than before, which is certainly no bad thing. “I’m comin’ home, but I ain’t comin’ home to you!” he proclaims on the opening track, as cellist Sarah Balliet weaves a funereal melody in the background. It sets the tone for a record that sounds almost like a personal exorcism of sorts; one that rarely makes for easy listening, but is always eerily compelling. Stick with it until the end, and you’ll be glad you did.
Check out ‘Fuego‘ on the link above, and try to catch the band live when they return for some UK dates in July:
Fri 11th – Oxford Zodiac
Sat 12th – Bristol Thekla
Sun 13th – Nottingham Bodega Social
Mon 14th – Manchester Night & Day
Tue 15th – London Borderline
Wed 16th – Glasgow King Tuts
Thu 17th – Birmingham Bar Academy
Fri 18th – Latitude Festival (Suffolk)
Hip Hop guerilla Immortal Technique will perform an exclusive one off show in the UK.
The show will promote his new record The 3rd World [with DJ Green Lantern] and will be supported by GI Joe, Da Circle, Skinnyman, Triple Darkness and DJ 279.
Top 5 Reasons why 2008 is better than 2007 for skating.
1) Extremely Sorry, potential Tom Penny madness and quite simply, David Gonzales.
2) People will hopefully slowly cease talking about Ryan Sheckler all the time.
3) Monster Network’s Never Forever, new Skipp footage and the first full section from Dave Watson.
4) After the standard set by Fully Flared, it can only get better. Hopefully.
5) Girl hooking up with (Red) gives you a good reason to shell out your hard earned monies for a plank of wood.
Top 5 skate smells
1) Vert pads
2) Christensen’s hat
3) Christensen’s armpits
4) Robin’s BBQ on the road
5) Fresh urethane
Pic of the Week
Steve Gourlay shoots a MASSIVE 360 Flip from Andrew Brophy somewhere in Oz
When Chinese Alchemists combined tang dynasty, elemental sulfur and saltpeter with charcoal in the late decades of the 8th century, they created a black powder which they referred to as ‘huoyao‘! This powder, as they eventually discovered, was not a method to securing eternal life, but was used to treat skin diseases and kill insects instead.
As they kept experimenting with ‘huoyao’ (gunpowder), the potential of the powder became very apparent and they started to attach arrows to bamboo tubes, launching them with their bows. They soon discovered that these gunpowder tubes could launch themselves just by the power produced from the escaping gas, thus, the true rocket was born!
What has this got to do with a skateboard? Fuck all, but, if you backtrack through Flip Skateboards’ history, you’ll find that Geoff Rowley‘s talents were immediately acknowledged and has overtime exploded in pretty much the same way gunpowder did. He’s one of the biggest guns in industry and is widely respected by skaters all over.
This pro model is of a much more street nature, a skinny bitch with a techno curves. It’s a 7.5 inch Canadian maple stick that flips faster than a chart in a global warming meeting. It’s got enough curves for you to dare take on transitions, but I personally don’t ride skinny sticks on trannies, toothpicks are made for the streets! It’s a great shape and the narrowness comes in at 31.25 inches in length, a nice a short piece of wood that’s easy to manage under your walkers. It’s a contemporary English graphic that covers the bottom, so you’re representing your country whilst flipping through parks and streets on this rocking deck!
The birth of Blood Red Shoes came about nearly four years ago, after two bands, Lady Muck and Cat On Form, wound down their activities. This left an ex-member from each band, Steven Ansell and Laura-Mary Carter, looking to each other for their musical outlet.
The collaboration of the two formulated the band that is, Blood Red Shoes. We fast forward now to May 2008 and after a heady first three years of touring, writing and releasing singles, Blood Red Shoes have cumulated their music into a debut album, Box of Secrets, released on the V2 label. David Osbon delved into Laura’s world whilst the band toured throughout April and got the full scoop.
Where did you record the album, Box of Secrets? Who was the producer?
We did it in Wales at a studio called Monnow Valley…it was really out in the middle of nowhere. We co-produced it with Mike Crossey who was great, he really helped us get the sound down just how we wanted it.
How many countries are you hoping to release the album in?
Everywhere. Everywhere that will have us.
Does your record contract allow you to concentrate on future E.Ps or will we be seeing only L.Ps in the future from BRS? I remember reading that you favour singles to albums, does that still hold true?
We can do what we like really – we’re actually planning an EP for later this year already funnily enough. Should have 3 or 4 new songs on it. I don’t want to assure anyone it’ll be out when we say, because things always seem to take longer than they should when we tour so much, but we’d like to get it done as soon as possible.
Do you plan to do more promo videos to promote the new album?
Yeh we’re gonna release one more single and make a video to go along with it. The song will be This is not for you, it’ll be the last single from the album before we move onto new stuff.
Do you feel more pressure now that you are signed to a record label like V2 or has some of the pressure been taken off you now that V2 can take control of the non music making decisions?
I don’t really feel any more pressure. I feel more stressed because there’s more work to do – we don’t actually allow our label to make many decisions in reality, they mostly just press the record and get it in shops. We’ve made decisions about what singles, in what order, laura-mary did all of the artwork for everything and we plan out our touring schedule together etc….basically because the band exists on a grander scale and is known in more countries, there’s a lot more for us to do! So it is pretty tiring but I don’t really see it as pressure.
As a good number of tracks have been on older E.Ps , did you re-record those tracks for the album? In Artrocker Mag.(feb 2007) you hinted that the album would be all new tracks, what changed your mind?
That art rocker review was way off….usually they’re pretty good but that interview there were loads of misquotes. I mean we said we wanted to put as much new stuff as possible but we didn’t say it’d be exclusively new material. We would have been idiots not to put you bring me down or it’s getting boring by the sea on there. That was never the intention. We used 3 or 4 older songs then the rest were really fresh, which we always thought would be a good balance to it.
Do you both have favourite Blood Red Shoes tracks?
Yeh, we both really like This Is Not For You as our favourite song from the album…we also really like the new songs we’re just working on, unsurprisingly!
Will you be playing anything new while on your current tour that the fans haven’t heard at previous gigs? Any new songs not on the album?
On this tour we’re not playing the new songs yet – we’ve dug out some b-sides and songs we play only very rarely but we’re saving the new stuff until it’s in really good shape.
Steven, are you still sick during gigs?
Yeh but not as much. I was sick 2 nights ago in Northampton actually. All over the mic, it was disgusting.
As I know that you love to play live over anything else, do you ever fear that you may burn out without ever realising it? Is it something you have thought about?
Yeh we do! And we have to stop sometimes and just say no to shows. That’s something we’ve become very aware of recently because we’ve had a few nights where we shouldn’t have been playing – we just didn’t want to be there, and I never want to get on a stage and play and not be 100% into it, it becomes kind of a lie. So we’re trying to be smart with it now.
Best gig experience you have played so far? Carling Tent at Reading Festival?
Yeah probably…or maybe the London calling festival in Holland last year.
Still shoplifting?
Actually yes. Tho I don’t really have a reason to do so, but I got so used to it before that I can’t stop. Besides I don’t really like paying through the nose for various goods from chain shops. Who gives a shit if you steal from those people, they’re fucking everyone over in the name of profit maximization anyways.
Do you play any other instruments? Any that you would like to play?
Yeh I can play guitar and piano. I’d really like to learn cello more than anything. cello and trumpet in fact. Laura-mary also plays drums and piano….and a bit of harmonica I recently found out.
Being in a band do you find yourself more critical of other music & other bands? Do you find you music tastes broaden as you experience new countries when touring?
I’m definitely very critical of other music and other bands…I’ve always been like that tho, even when I wasn’t in a band. If you love something a lot then you end up having quite high standards – I’m obsessed with music and bands, so when I see it being done badly it really gets me, it’s like ruining the art form which has changed my life. So I get pretty over the top when I criticize, because I feel so passionately about it. I think my music taste has definitely broadened through experiences in this band – not so much from travelling to other places but more because we exist in a different world to my old bands. Mostly I was interested in underground music from UK and USA and that was the majority of what was on my radar…in this band I’m much more aware of the mainstream/”indie”/NME/mtv universe than I was before. And although the vast majority of that world is fucking tripe, I have found music that I really like that previously I probably would have written off/not bothered to hear because it was too “mainstream”.
Your first record you ever bought?
Bad by Michael Jackson
Last record you bought?
The Birthday Party live album, can’t remember what it’s called but it’s them playing live in Germany.
Drummers that sing lead vocals are a rare thing these days. The last band I saw live that had the lead sung by the drummer I think was a UK punk band called Snuff. Steven is it harder than you make it look?
Ha ha I remember snuff, I went to see them! Singing and drumming took a lot of practice, I wasn’t very good to start with. I had a head start because I was used to playing guitar and singing in my last band…drums and singing is harder but it is just a case of practice. Sounds dumb I know, but it’s true, there are no tricks to it, just practising.
The first drummer in a band that made me sit up & take notice was Stewart Copeland of The Police. Who was/is your drumming hero(s) Steven?
I don’t really know. I definitely always paid attention to drums in music, to be honest it’s pretty strange it took me this long to pick it up properly as an instrument since my early memories of music are based around singing vocal melodies, but also tapping along to songs and playing air drums…I grew up around a lot of rock music that had big drum sounds, cheesy stuff like Bryan Adams or Robert Palmer…but that big sound makes an impression when you’re 9 so the seeds were probably sewn back then. My favourite drummer is certainly Richard Davis from q and not u. Dave Grohl is an obvious one but again, he made an impression on me quite early and has definitely influenced how I play despite being essentially a pretty straight up rock drummer.
Laura are all your guitar heroes male? Or do you look up to female guitar players more than males? A healthy mix of the two? Do you think lead guitar is the most male stylised instrument that a female can play with regards to its history?
No my guitar heroes are people like Kat Bjelland from Babes in Toyland, PJ Harvey, Josh Homme, Nick Zinner from YYY’s, John Reis (speedo) from Hot Snakes…so a mixture of male and female. I don’t really look up to female guitar players more than male, but female guitarists definitely made more of an impression on me when I was younger. I think electric guitar is definitely seen as a more male instrument, there are a lot more female acoustic guitarists than electric guitarists.
Do you feel that women who have strong positions in music & play in bands are still looked upon as a rarity & can suffer from the press that like to label women in music as more a gimmick than a pioneer?
Yes and no. There are certain musicians that people take really seriously and look up to, like PJ Harvey, but she’s been established for so long that she’s overcome the “gimmick” thing. But yeah some bozos definitely don’t take women in bands seriously.
The éS Shoes Euro Team will be heading out on the road across the UK this weekend (yes we know, we just got sent this too!) so if you have not made plans yet at least you now know that these guys will be turning up to a few select parks.
The first thing to strike me was that this rig a pirate on its hull! Some tips to avoiding pirates:
Here we have the first four of a prospective six re-issues from UK Hardcore pioneers the Stupids, who came busting out of Ipswich in the mid-Eighties and totally nailed a new fresh sound on these shores with a formula that was very much under the influence of the harder faster Punk that was being hammered out across the pond in North America. And these guys totally nailed it with incredibly catchy and adrenalized songs that embraced skating, girls, b-movies, soft drinks, fast food… and general goofiness… and in turn helped set the blueprint for the US inspired Hardcore explosion that swept the UK underground in their wake.
When I heard that John ‘Speedo’ Reis from Rocket From The Crypt and Hot Snakes fame had started a new project and was back in the driving seat, I knew this record could possibly be a contender for album of the year. Why? Because his song writing skills and general vocal presence has always been an enjoyable experience and live, well, if you have never seen the above mentioned bands then you are lucky to have another chance, as live, Speedo comes as cool as ice.
In an old job I had years back this window cleaner came into the office. Bit of a geezer, the usual banter. He looks up at all of the punk posters on the wall. This was in the mid-90s and the PR company I worked for represented all of the US melodic punk labels at the time like Fat Wreck, Nitro and the Epitaph Records heavy-hitters.
Murder By Death‘s previous album ‘In Bocca Al Lupo‘ was an underrated, dark-hearted highlight of 2006, so here’s hoping that ‘Red Of Tooth And Claw‘ will gain them some much-deserved extra recognition. If you like your bands with grit under their fingernails, tales of liquor-stained hell weighing on their conscience, and a none-more-black sense of humour, then it’s high time you started paying attention to this lot.
When Chinese Alchemists combined tang dynasty, elemental sulfur and saltpeter with charcoal in the late decades of the 8th century, they created a black powder which they referred to as ‘huoyao‘! This powder, as they eventually discovered, was not a method to securing eternal life, but was used to treat skin diseases and kill insects instead.
The birth of 
