Abjekt Approved hip hop collective Doomtree will be performing their second Doomtree Blowout this year in Minneapolis. Abjekt himself will be aiming to fly out to catch the show, but even if you can’t make it to the Twin Cities, just check out how dope the poster is for the show. Holy Teeth Batman!
A brand new None More Punk radio show is winging it’s way to you in our editing suite for launch next week here at Crossfire.
Theis months playlist includes tracks from The Briggs, Comeback Kid, Code of Honour, Fucked Up, Shook Ones, November Coming Fire, Abandon Ship, Crass, The Heart Attacks, and many more.
This months special guest is Stuart Gili-Ross from the most talked about Watford based hardcore band Gallows who tells all about the bands outrageous battle to finish live shows without being in ambulances!
Look out for it next week on this very site.
Mean Fiddler
07.10.06
Despite having to go on a mere 15 minutes after doors opening, Gallows‘ performance still hits home like a machete to the senses. The way vocalist Frank Carter tears around the stage like a tattooed tornado of rage is unsettling enough, but his band’s twisted, discordant hardcore attack is the aural equivalent of a car crash from which you just can’t tear yourself away. Make no mistake, you’ll be hearing plenty more about this lot in the near future.
Fellow Home Counties hardcore types The Steal are not as much of a spectacle, but their break-neck speed anthems certainly deserve the small but intense moshpit down at the front. The fact that they’ve pinched more than a trick or two from the likes of Gorilla Biscuits is forgivable when they’re infused with this much vitality.
Lifetime never truly received the recognition they were due in their mid-nineties heyday, but guitarist Dan Yemin’s subsequent work with Kid Dynamite and Paint It Black has clearly spread awareness of his former band, to the extent that the New Jersey quintet’s recent reformation was hotly anticipated in hardcore circles.
Tonight, the atmosphere is dampened somewhat by a barely half-full venue and a pointless pit barrier, but the band don’t seem at all bothered as they rip through melodic hardcore gems like ‘Cut The Tension’ and ‘The Boy’s No Good’ with great gusto. You get the feeling that a sold-out show in a smaller club would’ve been a truly special occasion, but when band and crowd are feeding off each other’s energy as much as they do tonight, you might as well embrace the positives.
Alex Gosman
[Photos by Niki Kova’cs]
Capdown are back with a new release called Keeping Up Appearances. It will be a limited 7″ release and will preceed their third album, Wind-Up Toys, which is due early in 2007. The single will be out on November 27th on Fierce Panda records. In addition to this, the band will be embarking on the Kerrang! Most Wanted tour, the dates being:
November:
26th – Birmingham Barfly
27th – Camden Barfly
28th – Cardiff Barfly
29th – York Barfly
30th – Glasgow Barfly
December:
1st – Aberdeen Moshulu
2nd – Edinburgh Exchange
3rd – Liverpool Barfly
Clinic have announced they will be playing a show with Archie Bronson Outfit, DJ Laurence Bell and These New Puritans on Thursday December 14th a the Central Saint Martins College Of Art And Design.
The venue staged pivotal gigs in history by the likes of Sex Pistols, Buzzcocks and Adam Ant.
DGK have just added the mighty healthy pop of Washington DC bad man Darren Harper to the team. For an example of Darren’s ghetto pop, try this switch heelflip for size..?
In related DC news, the Washington Gold rail might be rendered unskateable after some kid decided to connect his board and a security guard’s head. Footage of the incident hit the net like wildfire but has since been removed. Skaters are stupid too sometimes.
Something sweet comes from Germany and its called Hessenmob – a collective of artists and skaters that like to rip it up on any terrain, all the time.
The boys are busy right now working on a new video called The Kids Are All Ride which looks like a load of fun. Someone’s been training up the ol’ manuals…
Walter Schreifels, who has been part of the bands Rival Schools, Quicksand and Gorilla Biscuits, recently did an acoustic performance of songs spanning his career and has made them available online.
You can hear them by clicking here.
Fat Wreck Chords have announced that Smoke Or Fire’s next release with be called This Sinking Ship and will be released sometime next year.
In other news on the label, the video for Love Equals Death’s new track Bombs Over Brooklyn has been posted online. The track comes from Nightmerica and you can check it out by clicking here.
Brixton Academy
09.10.06
After a 2 year break in recording albums, A.F.I have made one hell of a comeback. Hitting London in May at the Electric Ballroom warming up after roughly 4 years, they follow their sold out performances with a bigger venue. The one and only Brixton Academy. They surely enough manage to sell out this venue quick enough, with touts not even having to try and push the high in demand tickets. I am lucky enough to arrive late, and get ushered through the same door as Davey. Seeing the band arrive in perfectly made up form it looks like butter wouldn’t melt in their straightedge mouths.
Gracing their immaculate, clean, white stage, the band is clad in matching white lycra pant suits showing off their new ‘buffer’ physique. Inspiration from the Darkness perhaps, or in step with their 70’s-esque track “Miss Murder“? Davey bounces around on stage strutting newly rehearsed moves to every piercing chord. Surely enough every word has a buttoned down move, which has been perfected and will be practiced over the next 2 months of touring. With a few months of rehearsing behind them, the band is sounding tighter than those lycra slacks, so its no wonder they receive a warm London welcome.
Playing tracks from their new love inspired album, Decemberunderground, vegan Davey Havoks’ voice has marvelled a miraculous recovery, after shattering his vocal chords many months ago. If you have heard any of the soaring songs of Sing the Sorrow it isn’t any wonder! As one of my personal favourite albums, I am only too pleased when they play “Silver and Cold“, “Dancing through Sunday“, “Bleed Black“, “Girl’s Not Grey” one of the top singles of 2003 and sing about it classic “The Celluloid Dream“.
Celebrating their 15th anniversary in June, classics like “Ever and a Day“, and the ringing out of “I want you, I want you, I want you…to stay” in their infamous track “Days of the Phoenix” from the album “The Art of Drowning” have people singing along. Definitely an older crowd than the Electric Ballroom in earlier May this year where Davey had to curl into a ball on stage to reach those high notes without straining his voice too much.
Playing one of his personal top 3s’ ”Love Like Winter“, and new to become bonafide classic “Endlessly, She Said” the new album Decemberunderground is well paced, and is a tangible example of a maturing band comfortable enough to experiment with their own sound without losing their identity. From tracks like double-edged “Kiss and Control” to hand clapping synthesised beat of “Love Like Winter” they are sure to steal fans from the likes of My Chemical Romance and the like.
After an encore they politely thank the crowd again before disappearing into the darkness.
Niki Kova’cs
[Photos by Jen Saul]