Congrats to Chewy Cannon who is now on the Adidas Skateboarding team. One major sporting goods company to another eh? Good to know that British talent is being recognised by those across the pond for being nuts good on a whizzplank.
Proof? Click below.
Howards Alias have posted 3 songs up on their MySpace and will be heading out on tour.
The songs on their page, Wot Ave You, Spilt Milk and Swansong are the first tracks from the band since their 2005 album Beat, Heart Beat and will be sold as a mini-sampler on their upcoming tour. The tour dates are:
July:
21st – Southampton Nexus
25th – Cambridge The Portland Arms
26th – Newport “Joy” @ The Meze Lounge
27th – Cheltenham The 2 Pigs
28th – London The Underworld
29th – Oxford Bullingdon Arms
30th – Derby Susumi
31st – Leeds Cockpit
August:
1st – Bristol The Croft
2nd – Exeter The Cavern
3rd – Plymouth The White Rabbit
4th – Bude Adventure International
9th – Newcastle The Venue @ Krash
10th – North Berwick Community Centre
11th – Rebellion Festival
12th – Cardiff Barfly
Chicago quartet Rise Against have been flying the flag for smart, propulsive melodic hardcore for eight years now, and recently completed their biggest UK tour to date in support of last year’s excellent ‘The Sufferer And The Witness‘ album. Alex Gosman caught up with bassist Joe Principe before the final show of the tour, at the London Astoria.
So how are you guys doing? How’s the tour going so far?
“It’s been great – every time we come back to Europe, it just gets better and better. This time we’re headlining the big room at the Astoria, and it’s been awesome to see the steady growth in the size of the venues we play over here, since we first came over in 2001. Every time we’ve toured the UK, London has always been the last show of the tour, and it’s a great place to finish.”
This has to be one of the best punk rock tours to hit the UK in ages – did you choose to bring along The Bronx and Cancer Bats [the support bands] yourselves?
“Yeah, whenever we’re headlining, we pick the support bands ourselves – and we really wanted to have a proper, aggressive punk rock vibe to this tour, you know? I think the reason why it’s worked so well is that although all three bands sound different to each other, we still have a lot in common, both in terms of music and attitude – so I think it’s a good mix.
We’d never met the Cancer Bats before this tour, but we knew of them because we’re all friends with Alexisonfire, who recommended them to us. We’ve known The Bronx for a while, though, and we met them through mutual friends too. It’s a good feeling when you go out on tour with some bands and everyone immediately gets along, you know?”
The last time we saw you in the UK was when you did a few dates in early September, shortly after playing the Reading/Leeds festivals. Can you give us a brief summary of what you’ve been up to since then?
“Well, after we’d finished in Europe, we went back home and toured the US with Thursday…then we did a short tour of Canada with Billy Talent, before supporting My Chemical Romance on their US tour earlier this year. So yeah, we’ve been keeping ourselves busy!”
Since you were last here, Chris [Chasse, former RA guitarist] left – was that a shock, or had he been planning to leave for a while? And how is Zach [Blair, new RA guitarist] fitting in?
“We could kind of tell that Chris wasn’t really happy, and that he was exhausted from all the touring we were doing…but it’s worked out for the best, because he’s a lot happier now, and we’re really happy with Zach; because he’s completely into the touring and all the other stuff that goes with being in a band. We’ve known him for about six years, and we feel very lucky to have him on board…it was a happy coincidence, because his previous band [Only Crime] couldn’t tour that much, so it’s worked out well for us all.”
It’s been roughly a year since you released [most recent album] ‘The Sufferer & The Witness‘ – are you happy with the responses you’ve received from fans and critics?
“Definitely; it’s had very positive reviews and praise from the fans. It’s our favourite record that we’ve done so far, and I think it really shows how much we’ve grown as a band over the last five or six years.”
Has it helped to ease the predictable ‘Rise Against on a major label!’ criticism?
“I think so…the thing is, no matter what label we’re on, you’re always going to get a record that is completely representative of us at that point in time, because we never write for anyone but ourselves. We’ve never had any interference from our label; we know some bands that have, but not us!”
From time to time, I’ve seen you labelled as a ‘political band’, which seems like a rather narrow definition. How would you describe yourselves?
“Well, yeah, the political aspect is just one side of us…I’d say we’re more of a socially-aware band. Tim [McIlrath, RA singer/guitarist] writes all the lyrics, and he writes from a personal perspective on everyday life; sometimes that encompasses politics, sometimes relationships, it’s a reflection of his state of mind at the time. If you check the lyrics on [2004’s]”Siren Song Of The Counter Culture‘, a lot of them are very politically driven, because there was a lot going on in US politics at that time.”
So what are your plans for the near future, after this UK tour ends?
“We’re going back to the US for a two and a half month tour with Comeback Kid and Silverstein; and we’ve been friends with those two bands for a long time, so it should be a fun summer!
After that, we’ll be going to Australia and New Zealand, and we’re hoping to be back in Europe around October/November time – that isn’t confirmed yet, though. We’ll probably be on the road for the rest of this year, and then start writing the new record in 2008.”
[‘The Sufferer And The Witness‘ is out now on Universal. Check www.riseagainst.com for more info]
Other than having the best name in music, Radioclit are a talented duo. The pair, who have adopted London as their home town after arriving from France and Sweden, have been busy throwing down their bleepy bass-heavy remixes for a while now and when they released their Hard Working Class Vol. 1 record, everyone in the know sat up and took notice.
The record saw remixes of reggae kings Turbulence, Brazilian nutjobs Bonde [who have some Radioclit produced tracks on their new album], chart topping dance machine Justin Timberlake and even Lily Allen as well as some of Radioclit’s own tunes.
The track you can hear when you click above is Mature Macho Machine featuring an Anglo-French mix of vocalists as TTC go up on the beat with grime rappers Ears, Skepta and Tinchy Stryder, who really comes into his own with a heavier delivery than we’re used to from him.
Don’t bother kicking back to enjoy this. Get up off your arse and start shaking violently to the beat, never mind what the neighbours think.
Abjekt.
Twenty years to the day since their first ever gig, a new book from Glen E. Friedman documenting the history of Fugazi comes out featuring never before seen photos of the band, providing an amazing insight into the band that dominated the post-hardcore genre.
Released on September 3rd, the book looks at the band that created such influential albums as Repeater, 13 Songs, and The Argument through the eyes of photographer Glen E. Friedman who followed the band throughout their career.
As Ian MacKaye says, “While most photographers were taking photos of Fugazi, Glen was making photos with us”
Voodoo Glow Skulls have posted a track from their new album online.
The Californian band, who are looking for another saxophone player, have put up the track The Ballad Of Froggy on their myspace. Hit the link below to check it out.
Forget Hulkamania, forget Ozzy falling over his own feet and forget Flava Flav taking his pick from any one of the gruesome looking broads in his house – Snoop has been given his own reality show!
According to reports, the show on the E! channel will follow Snoop aruond and show all aspects of his life: rapper, businessman and family guy. We’re wondering if it will chronicle his many, many run-ins with airport security staff too.
We love Snoop we do.
Conor Oberst will return to the UK for 3 live dates.
The singer, known for his work as Bright Eyes, will play the three shows before his headline slot at the two days of the V Festival on August 18th/19th. Those dates are:
August
15th – Bristol Academy
16th – Liverpool Academy
17th – Nottingham Royal Centre
The White Stripes have completed their Canadian tour by playing a single note.
After having played on buses, bridges, boats and classrooms, the duo played one night in St. John’s before saying they’d played every province and territory in Canada and leaving the stage.
Reports coming to Crossfire HQ that Meg White still struggled with hitting a drum in time during this one second set, are unconfirmed.
Kasabian will be releasing a new EP this summer.
The band will put out the Fast Fuse EP in September on a limited 10″ after writing some new material and said they were desperate to put something out for the fans as they don’t start work on their 3rd album until the winter. Serge of the band said:
“I’m in a really, really rich vein of form as far as songwriting goes. I’m in a really good patch where everyday something happens. There was no point in saving it you know, because we’ve got equally good songs for the album. So this marks this summer and what we’re doing at the moment.