Category: Music News

Brooklyn punks Cerebral Ballzy have dropped new track ‘Speed Wobbles’ on soundcloud for free download. Released as the B-side to their 7″ single ‘Better In Leather’, both tracks are business as usual for ballzy with hard, fast, full throttle thrashing from start to finish. Much in the same vein as hardcore mob OFF! who Ballzy are set to tour the States with over April and May.

Now signed to Julian Casablancas’ label, Cult Records, Cerebral Ballzy’s second album Jaded & Faded is rumored for release later this year. Stay tuned.

Click below to stream ‘Speed Wobbles’ / ‘Better In Leather’ and scroll down for tour dates with OFF!

OFF! / Cerebral Ballzy Tour Dates

April 9 / Oakland, CA / Metro Operahouse
April 11 / Portland, OR / Hawthorne
April 12 / Vancouver, BC / Fortune Sound Club
April 13 / Seattle, WA / El Corazon
April 15 / Boise, ID / Neurolux
April 18 / Colorado Springs, CO / Black Sheep
April 19 / Denver, CO / Marquis
April 21 / Tucson, AZ / Club Congress
April 22 / Phoenix, AZ / Crescent Ballroom
April 23 / Los Angeles, CA / Roxy
May 7 / Minneapolis, MN / The Triple Rock
May 8 / Chicago, IL / The Bottom Lounge
May 9 / Detroit, MI / Small’s 2H
May 10 / Toronto, ON / Mod Club at CMW
May 12 / Asbury Park, NJ / Asbury Lanes
May 15 / Baltimore, MD / The Ottobar
May 16 / Philadelphia, PA / the First Unitarian Church
May 17 / New York, NY / Bowery Ballroom
May 18 / Cambridge, MA / the Middle East

Real Estate make some of the most pleasant, unoffensive and relaxed music you’ve ever heard. When you thought they couldn’t get anymore laid back, they have. Brand new track ‘Crime’ is brought to you in a guitar tutorial video made by the band themselves. With tab for both the rhythm and lead parts, you and your pal can riff along at home to this shimmering pop ditty to your fingers’ content.

Much respect to Real Estate for offering their fans this honest insight into their music. Losing your marbles to hours of playing along to records, meticulously picking apart and transcribing your favourite tunes ends here!

‘Crime’ is taken from Real Estate’s upcoming third LP Atlas, available from March 3rd 2014 via Domino Records.

If you like your hardcore then make sure you check out Big Ups who are about to hit the UK next week. This Brooklyn band take the tuneful breakdowns of Fugazi and the old school, raging sound of Career Suicide and kick out the jams. The So So Glos recommended them to us last week so they should be worth seeing.

February

24 – Bristol, UK @ Start The Bus
25 – Liverpool, UK @ Shipping Forecast
26 – Leeds, UK @ Nation of Shopkeepers
27 – London, UK @ The Old Blue Last
28 – Brighton, UK @ Bermuda Triangle

Photo by Jules Bates/Artrouble

On Monday night the legendary ‘Bob 2’ aka Bob Casale from Devo passed away and left his legacy as one of the greats within the music scene. The guitarist died of heart failure at his home and is the second Devo member to leave us in the last year following the death of former drummer Alan Myers last June.

“As an original member of Devo, Bob Casale was there in the trenches with me from the beginning. He was my level-headed brother, a solid performer and talented audio engineer, always giving more than he got. He was excited about the possibility of Mark Mothersbaugh allowing Devo to play shows again. His sudden death from conditions that lead to heart failure came as a total shock to us all. – Gerald Casale, Devo founder

For us, Devo is everything. If you look around the Crossfire office here you will see a huge amount of Devo fan stuff. It’s a sound that defines nothing but Devo. It’s unique and timeless. Bob Casale was unique. His input into this band was unique. Our thoughts go out to friends and family and all of the Devo fans around the world mourning a great.

Many pro skateboarders who grew up skating to Devo in the 80s have been been leaving their marks of respect overnight. Tony Hawk and Lance Mountain are huge fans and insta’d their tributes whilst others continue to pour in.

Bob Casale RIP

In a straight up homage to the classic punk documentary Decline of Western Civilization OFF! have unleashed a masterpiece from the Casbah club in San Diego for their official video for ‘Void You Out‘.

Directed by Jason Farrell, famous for his amazing skateboard skills and Bluetip (Dischord) fame, Keith Morris pays homage to the Germs and tries to fry an egg, Mario Rubalcaba skates a curb, Steven McDonald relives that classic punk/hippies moment and Dimitri Coats goes all WASP in the swimming pool in LA taken from the 2nd documentary that was rock based. Only those who have seen these classic films will get this proper, but the best part of it for those who don’t is that those films will change your life. Go find them.

OFF!’s new album is coming in April and we cannot wait. Check this.

Manchester garage pop mob Spring King have just dropped a new video for their debut double A side single ‘Mumma/Mumma pt. II’. This clip is pretty unique, fusing two different music videos from two different directors into one freaky visual.

‘Mumma’, part one of this visual, is a piano bashing, catchy as they come, garage pop ditty. Leading line “She got it from her Mumma” makes for a sing-a-long chorus that soars, with the underlying narrative of this track about a girl struggling with addiction.

The video was directed by Patryk Bychowski after hitting it off at a chance meeting with the band at a car park party in Poland. After much bonding over a mutual love of Ariel Pink and vodka, the band entrusted Bychowski with full creative control for this visual resulting in something quite bizarre. Watch this sorry animated sole get repeatedly sucked in by a personified pair of jeans.

This collaborative flick turns a corner both sonically and visually for ‘Mumma pt. II’, directed by Jodie Canwell. Tarek Musa and his gang take a slow drive through the suburbs to this eery reprise. An agreeable contrast to the upbeat pop sensibilities of part one, these dark jazz tones will hit you deep down.

Catch Spring King live over the coming weeks at these dates:

11th February – The Social, London
5th March – Sebright Arms, London
6th March – Soup Kitchen, Manchester

Read our take on the cracking debut album In All This Muck and Dirt here.

‘Mumma’ will be available from March 3rd on ParadYse/Transgressive Records.

If you want a sneak look into a future Album of the Week then delve into the world of Vertical Scratchers. This incredible new band are made up of John Schmersal whose work with Enon and Brainiac should be enough for the best music CV of all time, but he has linked up with Christian Beaulieu (ex-Triclops!/Anywhere) to put together arguably the best duo of all time.

‘Daughter of Everything’ is released by Merge on February 25th and is a contender of the best album of the year, just you wait. Until then, get inside of this project from this new video where Jim Putnam from Radar Brothers chats to John about music. Get hyped. It really is that good.

Oh, and a new track was released today too.

The World of photography, food, music and film are coming together thanks to Samsung’s ‘Launching People’ talent search that will cast its net to find various new upcomers across the UK this month.

Rankin’s work is second to none so if you want to get your own photography in front of him check out LaunchingPeople.co.uk He will be looking for creative individuals with unique photography skills. Submissions should be completed before the deadline of 6th March 2014 so if you are submersed in taking photos and need a break, give it a shot.

Ph: Rob Wallace/Courtesy SST Records

The saga of Black Flag took another few twists today starting with a Facebook post from bass player Dave Klein today, who has quit the band. Klein, who also plays in Screeching Weasel, has decided enough is enough and returns to play for melodic punk act They Stay Dead.

The new Black Flag singer Mike Vallely chose ESPN as the place of his second interview following the unveiling of the new singer’s role in legendary hardcore band this Monday on Rolling Stone. In this blog piece, Mike V explains how his relationship with Greg Ginn that started back in 2003 that has blossomed from becoming the manager of Ginn’s project to the new role of front man.

He said that: “…to be the vocalist for Black Flag today is not some overnight fairy tale come true. It’s the result of a friendship and working relationship developed over many, many years. Even over the past year, as the band’s manager, I was not pining for the job. I was truly glad to support the band in a management role every step of the way. But watching singer Ron Reyes throw away the opportunity was hard to swallow, and I felt the band deserved better than that. Ginn didn’t have to ask me twice.”

That much documented moment where Vallely took the mic from Reyes’ hands on stage in Australia was promted by Reyes (who was the band’s 2nd singer originally back in the 80s) threatening to quit many times. “He had informed Ginn and I several times that the Australian shows would be his last as vocalist for Black Flag,” explained Vallely. “The day of the last show in Perth, he reiterated this to us in no uncertain terms. He texted me several times while we were in Australia, threatening to not play the shows at all and to just fly home.”

Vallely basically had to endure damage limitation on Ginn’s behalf otherwise the show would have ended possibly worse than it did. “This being his last show, he looked determined to use the stage as a platform to air his grievances. I decided from a management perspective that we could not allow him to do that. I walked on stage, unplugged his microphone and asked him to leave. His out-of-shape, ill-rehearsed and noncommittal time in Black Flag was over.”

So there we have it. Mike V has cleared the air and the punk rock circus goes on. I have a feeling he will be a killer front man for the band and would certainly love to see it. It’s a poisoned challice though this band as mentioned in our most-read blog piece this week but just like when we saw the Dead Kennedy’s without Jello Biafra, the sing-a-long was worth going out for in the end.

In skate related news here’s a video on how Black Flag skateboards were originally made. Any bets on Elephant Skateboards releasing one any time soon should yield dividends.