Category: Buzz Chart

Deadline are among the hardest working punk bands in the UK, and if there’s any justice, ‘Take A Good Look’ will be the record to gain them some much-deserved recognition.

Songs like ‘Blood On Your Hands’ and ‘Keep On Running’ combine the melodic suss of NYC luminaries like Blondie and the Ramones with a hardcore edge reminiscent of The Business and other UK street-punk bands. There’s plenty of lush vocal harmonies, courtesy of singer Liz Rose, and overall, ‘Take A Good Look’ sounds like it could eat offerings from pop-punk lightweights like Paramore for breakfast.

Melodic enough to sing along to, but loud enough to kick up a decent-sized pit amongst any punk crowd worth their salt, it seems that this Deadline has well and truly arrived. Check out ‘Do You Think’ on the link above, and visit the band’s Myspace page at: www.myspace.com/deadlineuk for more tunes.

The band also have a couple of UK dates ahead of them before the end of the year:

Nov 25th – Great Yarmouth, Speedfreaks Ball
Dec 9th – London, Islington Academy

Pigeon John is the most fun rapper on earth, it’s basically as simple as that. The rapper, who has put out songs about having an identity crisis and a goat named Sam is back with his new album, his first for the Quannum label, which is home to Lyrics Born, Lifesavas and more.

Pigeon John has always had feel-good beats behind his raps and this new album steps it up a level, with the likes of DJ Rhettmatic, Dnae, Chris James and RJD2 stepping up to the board with their own styles that John flows over with his inimitable happy-go-lucky steezo. With subject matter on this album ranging from losing his job [I Lost My Job Again] to thinking back to the early days of hip hop [Growin’ Old], John always manages to put a smile on the listeners face.

The track you can hear here is The Last Sunshine, which features the production of RJD2 and the guest vocals of J-Live and provides a chorus which ends with “A cold old man that was once a child/ I just wanna tell you I miss you”. Even with tracks like these, Pigeon John is able to use his delivery to give you that feeling that maybe things will be alright in the end.

And with this album being one of the best hip hop records of the year, I think we all know that it will be alright – so long as we do the pigeon dance!

This record has without a doubt been one of, if not the, most popular CD played at Crossfire HQ this year, and it’s not hard to see why this is the case.

From the first bleepy beat to the last “la la la”, it’s a fun filled electro diamond of an album. With many albums, you may get stuck on one track, liking it so much that you have to keep going back to it, but with this album from the Brazilian band, you can’t do that or else you’ll miss out on the next awesome track.

Alala is the catchy single and though it is simple, the chorus is literally just “alala”, it’s something that you won’t ever stop singing once you’ve heard it. Similarly the bouncy Alcohol, with its “hey hey hey hey HEY, do you wanna drink some alcohol?” imbeds itself in your head as soon as it begins.

The six piece, whose full name is Cansei De Ser Sexy, have crafted a pop-fuelled album full of little gems with some awesome titles – Let’s Make Love And Listen To Death From Above, Art Bitch [where you are invited to suck the singer’s art hole] and Music Is My Hot Hot Sex. The bleeps and basslines carry every song through with their own electro-melody and Lovefoxxx’s voice can’t help but make you smile.

Go on, stick it on. I bet within 30 seconds you’ll be Alalal’ing your way through the day.

2006 has been a stand out year for Australia’s finest export, Wolfmother. With sales of their debut album topping a phenomenal 900,000 sales and jaw dropping sets at Reading and Leeds, the big haired rockers return for one last tussle for the year with their single ‘The Joker And The Thief’.

There are many bands that spring to mind when listening to Wolfmother, but they seem to be coming into their own, and whilst they’re undoubtedly heavily influenced by 70s rock – they’re have their own unique take on it. Handpicked by Johnny Knoxville for the lead track in his painful new outing in ‘Jackass 2′, ‘The Joker and The Thief’ is a slice of melodic rock, with an almost Led Zeppelin-esque backdrop, guitars are flamboyant and moody, but the chorus never quite cranks into action as you’re expecting. This single’s something to revel in, it’s a fairytale, “I’ll tell you all the story about the joker and the thief of the night..”, played with confidence and despite lacking the expected hooks, it works.

Wolfmother hark back to the days of Deep Purple and the like, but their 70’s rock kaleidoscope of guitars and throbbing bass combined with Andrew Stockdale’s heady vocals, are the perfect recipe for a track worthy of fronting ‘Jackass’. Listen with the lights dimmed and let the good times roll…

Released November 20th….

It seems pointless to even try to musically pigeonhole Converge, because ultimately you need to hear (or better still, go see) the Boston quartet in action to truly discover what they’re about.

No Heroes’ is a chaotic, extreme, malevolent and – above all – brutally uncompromising beast of a sixth album, which sees Jacob Bannon and co. pushing their twisted metal/hardcore hybrid ever further into new territory. If all you neatly-groomed ‘fashioncore’ types aren’t quaking in your Converse All-Stars yet, then now would be a good time to start.

The band waste no time in pummelling your senses into submission with the opening salvo of ‘Heartache’ and ‘Hellbound’ – with guitars and vocals sounding raw anf frenzied enough to shred your speakers, given half the chance. But there’s plenty of depth beneath the sonic warfare, as perhaps best evidenced by ‘Grim Heart/Black Rose’; an almost ten-minute long epic laden with dark melancholy and even some (gasp!) actual singing. It’s unlike anything this band have recorded before, and provides an excellent contrast to the aural armageddon that surrounds it.

You can hear the album’s title track on the link above, and also check this recent interview with Jacob to find out what the future holds for Converge.

How could the combination of Seattle grunge legends The Melvins and Hydra Head recording artists Big Business be anything less than absolutely fucking incredible?

When word got out that The Melvins had teamed up with Big Business (who, in case you don’t know, delivered one of last years most powerful albums ‘Head For The Shallow’ and are equally jaw-dropping live) no one was quite sure how the end results would turn out. Chances are it was going to be a typically Melvins slab of impenetrable noise, but instead, the newly born Big-Business-Melvins have turned in the most commercial album of their long careers.

‘A Senile Animal’ is undoubtedly the band’s most straight-up rock album , but done of course in the trademark Melvins lurching doom-drenched style. Rhythmically, it’s incredible – the combination of Dale Crover and Coady Willis on drums is utterly earth shattering. Combine that with a double lashing of fuzzed-out bass and this is the sound of planets exploding. Yet all the way throughout, the vocal and guitar hooks are utterly addictive and some of these songs wouldn’t sound out of place on a Soundgarden album.

Quite how, over twenty years into their careers, The Melvins have delivered what could be their best album so far beggars belief. But then again, this is The Melvins we’re talking about here. Worship them.

Building Better Bombs are the hardcore band of Doomtree member and Rhymesayers’ rapper POS and this is your chance to slap your ear drums with some noise courtesy of the Minnesotan band.

Stef [POS] and his friend Isaac started off by playing hardcore with a drum machine until Isaac went overseas, but since his return, and with the help of bassist Ryan Olson and Drew Christopherson on drums, Building Better Bombs are back and they’re creating carnage.

The group are ready to unleash their debut full length onto the world, a scorching 28 minute, 13 song screamfest onto the world and this track, Lookout, [this version is taken from POS’ Meat Tape], is just an example of the fast paced sonic avalanche you can expect when the record drops. You like it loud? You want it to fuck your hearing up? Well Santa just came early kids because this is exactly what you’re after.

Head on over to their myspace page at www.myspace.com/buildingbetterbombs for more tracks off the album and just as much rowdy behaviour.

What better way could there possibly be of celebrating Halloween than with the ultimate horror fiend punks The Misfits!

So, here’s a little treat from the Crossfire archives for you to help get you in the mood for a spot of trick or treating, goat slaughter, devil worship or whatever it is you pesky kids get up to these days on Halloween.

Today is our chance to openly celebrate the evil and macabre so let’s all dress up as monsters and put the willies up the old folk (not literally of course, that would be horrible).

Here we have Glenn Danzig and Co’s own tribute to Halloween, lifted from Caroline Records’ 1995 release ‘Collection II’ that features many of their best songs and more singalongs than you can shake a zombie at. Happy Halloween!

The genre of straight-edge hardcore is not generally known for musical innovation these days, so it’s refreshing when a band like Boston quartet Righteous Jams come along. ‘Business As Usual’, the band’s second album, is described by vocalist Joey Contrada as “hardcore that’s not influenced by hardcore” and as opening track ‘Thought Vacation’ thunders out of the speakers, it’s clear that these guys are thinking in wider musical terms than your average hardcore ‘purists’.

Songs like ‘Instinct And Music’ and ‘Lizards‘ mix the speed and fury of traditional hardcore with muscular hard rock riffing; owing just as much to the likes of Helmet and the Rollins Band as they do to hardcore heavyweights like Black Flag and the Cro-Mags. If you like the sound of hardcore with a filthy, sleazy edge, then RJ are for you. Check out ‘Lizards‘ on the link in the top-right corner of this page.

Having recently played US dates with the reformed Gorilla Biscuits, the band will tour the UK in late October/early November – dates are as follows:

Oct 30 – Southend Minerva
Oct 31 – Northampton Racehorse
Nov 1 – Newport Le Pub
Nov 2 – Hull Ringside
Nov 3 – Sheffield Broomhall Centre
Nov 4 – Durham Elvet Methodist Hall
Nov 5 – Manchester Star & Garter
Nov 6 – London Underworld
Nov 7 – Ashford (Kent) Downtown Diner

You’ve got to respect Enter Shikari – despite the bun fight of labels after them they’re sticking to their roots and releasing their debut single ‘Sorry You’re Not a Winner’ on their own Ambush Reality label. Having had to recently upgrade their Mean Fiddler show to the Astoria, enjoyed a nomination at the Kerrang awards and killer shows at the Reading and Leeds festivals it’s not bad going for group of guys who were relatively unknown this time last year.

Having released their first offering ‘Mothership‘ digitally, ‘Sorry You’re Not a Winner’ is being released on CD and limited edition colour 7″. It’s a heady mix of metalcore and trance like beats, lyrics screamed out so hard that the rising tension is palpable. The lyrics are too blurred to create images for the listener, so it’s down to the guitars and effects to draw up feelings and emotions – and that’s where Enter Shikari step into their own. The disco vibe layered over heavy riffs and biting guitars mesh with the wonderfully incoherent lyrics, barked out by frontman Rou. This is what The Automatic try to be – this raw, jagged offering is the real deal, fresh, vicious and very very exciting.

Enter Shikari are home-grown talent at it’s best. Progressive, innovative and something different from the endless indie bands that all merge into one another after a few drinks. Full of an acidic zest, ‘Sorry You’re Not A Winner’ is the real deal, it’ll grab you by the scruff of your neck and enthral you – turn up and the volume and enjoy, this is a sheer delight.