Category: Music

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Music News

DJ Yoda brings new show to The Roundhouse

The amazing DJ Yoda has announced a new AV show in London.

The seminal DJ who brought the world his brilliant Cut & Paste series, has continued to wow all-comers with his Audio/Visual sets and this is set to continue on September 10th at London’s Roundhouse.

Having already sold out the IMAX and Koko, the Roundhouse will be the next venue to host his music collage which runs the musical spectrum from hip hop to country music and showcases his untouchable talent to scratch visuals as well as sounds.

Make sure you get your tickets soon before they sell out from here – £14.50 for the early birds and £19.50 for those who stayed in bed too long.

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Album Reviews Buzz Chart Music Reviews

Title Fight

Shed
Side One Dummy

If you’re somebody who grew up listening to the 90’s output of labels like Jade Tree and Polyvinyl, then ‘emo’ won’t be a dirty word for you. You may look back longingly over your collection of Promise Ring and Mineral records and wonder what exactly happened to the genre, but rest assured my kindred emo spirit, all has not been lost and forgotten. For starters, we have Title Fight.

Following on from a slew of EPs, demos and compilations, it seems odd to be calling this Title Fight’s debut album, but that’s how it’s being sold. Now signed to Side One Dummy it’s undoubtedly their biggest release to date, and it both delivers and expands on expectations. While the Kingston, Pennsylvania band have maintained at least some of their breakneck approach to song writing, this is also a far more rounded effort with a range of different styles explored. While initially I was unsure of the band’s noticeable drop in pace, these songs stay with you, and the band’s progression makes for a more complete and diverse debut record.

In saying that, the band still knows when to let rip, and there is still plenty of instant punk gems on offer. Take single ‘27’ (see video below), for example, which is a front runner for my favourite song of the year. As anthemic as any of their earlier work, the signature combination of palm-muted chords and Jamie Rhoden’s rasping vocal is near pop-punk perfection. The sound is pure 90’s yet somehow manages to feel utterly timeless, even alongside its brilliantly nostalgic music video.

Title Fight are over in the UK next month and I, for one, can’t wait to see these songs brought to life. In a year that’s absolutely brimming with exceptional punk and hardcore records, Shed stands up among the very best of them.

Sleekly Lion.

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Live Reviews

Trash Talk – Live

CAMP Basement
15.06.11

It’s three hours before show time and a group of teenage Trash Talk fans surround the band outside CAMP basement. The Promotion around tonight’s show had stated the event would be 16+, yet still a group of valid ticket holders have been refused entry despite carrying ID proving, in many cases, their age of 16 or 17 years old. While they helplessly plead their case to the venue’s security, their cause is a lost one, and there will be no Trash Talk for these kids tonight. The band apologise and spend their time pre-show hanging out with those refused entry, even bringing out posters and merch as way of consolation.

“First of all I want to say thanks to tonight’s promoters for booking the show,” says breathless frontman Lee Spielman, just a few songs in from front of stage. “But I also want to say fuck this venue…” before launching into a tirade against its owners and dedicating the next song to those who didn’t make it in.

As ever with Trash Talk shows the energy inside the venue is ramped from the start, and if anything the admission problems have only added to the intensity. Beginning as usual with the sludgy, almost apocalyptic opener Hash Wednesday from their most recent album Eyes and Nines, it doesn’t take a minute before the crowd are leaping all about the place. Amongst the bodies flying around the room Shawn Crahan (Clown from Slipknot) is spotted jumping off the stage into the now frenzied crowd. In spite of the chaos, though, the band is underpinned by the dependable, almost mechanical rhythm section of drummer Sam Bosson, flanked by guitarist Garrett Stevenson and bassist Spencer Pollard.

The band run through the highlights from Eyes and Nines as well as older live favourites including Walking Disease and Sacramento is Dead, the latter of which sees a circle pit erupt around a Spielman who is crouched in the middle of the venue’s floor. There’s also the addition of a new song to the band’s set, hinting at promising things on the horizon for their recently recorded new record. Let’s hope these are joined by one or two more when the band returns to play Hevy Festival in August.

Elsewhere its business as usual for Trash Talk, who produce another blistering 45 minutes of breathtaking hardcore. The band’s reputation now precedes them as being one of the most exciting live bands around, and as if that even needs proving, tonight is no different.

Sleekly Lion

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Album Reviews Buzz Chart Music Reviews

Zounds

‘The Redemption of…’
Overground Records

Well this was a surprise… I had no idea that Zounds had a new album in the works.

With a legacy that dates all the way back to the early Eighties, and a handful of cracking releases on Rough Trade and Crass, Zounds were strictly on the Anarcho-side of the divide. Never that prolific, theirs, and founder/songwriter Steve Lake’s solo outings, has been a strictly intermittent operation – a less is more situation (if you will). I last saw one of these rare gigs at the tail end of last year, in the close confines of Brighton’s autonomous café The Cowley Club, and they nailed a righteous set that had an enthused crowd of local punkers and agitators jumping and singing in raucous appreciation of the infectious music, and stirring messages.

So, I was keen to hear this album, as I’m sure a few new numbers were aired that night at The Cowley. Jeez, as a result, I’ve been playing this disc end-to-end repeatedly. A total grower. All the key Zounds components are present; sparky guitar lines and sharp melodies to Steve’s passionate and sardonic vocals. The opening number “Cry Genie Cry” and its accompanying Bowie lifted riff, has Steve lamenting that he “still don’t know what he’s supposed to be”… oh I know that feeling, I really (really) will work out one of these days what I want I’m going to do with my life… a quandary I’ve been in for the last… err… 30 years, ack! Elsewhere, Steve interjects on a world consumed by consumerism, civil liberties being squeezed, humanitarian crisis, and war… fuckin’ war, and why we’d be better off making love, man. And that’s Zounds in essence, dreaming of a more peaceful world, I can’t argue with that…fanciful thinking perhaps, but we all need something to hang on to.

A fine piece of work!

Pete Craven

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Buzz Chart Reviews Single Reviews

The Crafty Butchers

Just A Chicken
Self-released

The Crafty Butchers’ ode to being a chicken is two minutes of punky riffs accompanying some genius lyrics from the point of view of a chicken. Yes, a chicken. The three-piece have successfully captured a rather gleeful chicken world view where the subject of the song is in fact looking forward to becoming a pie or other such delicacy.

This is a brilliantly rough-around-the-edges slab of rock and roll which you can imagine comes fully into its own in a live setting, although the band have to date only played one show so let’s hope there are more on the horizon! These guys clearly take their meat seriously, so perhaps not one for the vegetarians out there.

This bit of call and response with lead vocals against gang vocals towards the end of the song is what really makes it –

“I’m just a chiiiiicken”
“He’s just a chiiiicken”

Has to be heard to be believed.

Winegums.

Just A Chicken by The Crafty Butchers

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Dangerous!

Not One Of You
Epitaph Records

A short sharp shock of rock’n’roll swagger, ‘Not One of You’ is the first track to be unveiled from Dangerous!’ forthcoming debut album ‘Teenage Rampage’ which is set to be released on legendary indie Epitaph Records. These Aussie tykes are just starting out but have produced a slab of rocked-up pop with an edge that sets them apart from many other bands out there. It’s kind of hard to typecast them (that’s a good thing) – part glam-rock, part punk-rock, part pure-pop. A veritable melting pot of awesomeness basically.

If this rip-roaring track is anything to go by then Dangerous!’ debut should be one of the most exciting debut albums of the year. Unpretentious, fun and full of tunes is what we’re expecting. And we’re usually right about these sorts of things. The band will be hitting UK shores for the first time ever this June and will be playing the hallowed Download festival amongst other live dates so make sure you follow them and catch the live set whilst they’re here!

Winegums.

Dangerous! – Not One Of You by Epitaph Records

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Live Reviews

Wu Tang Clan – Live

Forum, London
12.06.11

The line wasn’t huge when we hit up the Forum for the second of two Wu Tang dates in North London, but after a Semtex warm-up set, it was bubbling when Alabama’s Yelawolf took to the stage. It was never going to be easy for the MC to win over the whole crowd, as many of the staunch Wu fans are a world away from his quick-fire doubletime rhyme patterns, but to his credit he amped his energy levels almost as high as his solo show at XOYO the week before and certainly gained some new fans, especially when he jumped into the crowd for an impromptu pit. An undoubted talent, both on record and on stage.

So onto the Wu. Without RZA, Raekwon and Inspectah Deck, it was a depleted crew that took to the stage and, in truth, other than Method Man and Masta Killa, it was a fairly low-energy show from the majority of them. That being said, when Mef told the crowd that they would return any energy they got from the punters, the noise levels were extremely high.

Method Man is such a charismatic man that his fronting of the show made up for the relatively dull backdrop, and when he launched himself into the crowd, it came as no surprise to the delighted fans. Running through classics such as M.E.T.H.O.D. Man, Bring Da Ruckus, Clan In Da Front and the ever singable Wu Tang Clan Ain’t Nuthing Ta Fuck Wit, it was as live a crowd as you could ever hope for and when the ODB tribute part of the set arrived with Shimmy Shimmy Ya and Got Your Money, every single hand was in the air, the majority of which were held in the big W sign synonymous with the New York group.

Mixed in was a great little DJ set from Mathematics which included handcuffing his arms together and taking off his shoes [not at the same time] and Ghostface falling into a small anecdote about the strength of the pound, confusion from which was resolved when he declared that POUNDS Rule Everything Around Me, [P.R.E.A.M.] before Pretty Tony told everyone to follow him on Twitter, an order followed up by U-God.

It wasn’t the best Wu Tang show I’ve ever been to, but even with depleted numbers, they still have enough hits and hype to deliver a fun live set. Now let’s get in the Gravel Pit and have a dance.

Abjekt.
Photo by Sleekly Lion.

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Album Of The Week Album Reviews Buzz Chart Music Reviews

Pentagram

‘Last Rites’
Metal Blade

Be forewarned, for from the ashes, Pentagram has risen. Doom titans Bobby Liebling and Victor Griffin have finally reunited and again unleashed Pentagram’s classic 70’s doom thunder with Last Rites. Alongside bassist Greg Turley, who played with Pentagram in the 90’s, and drummer Tim Tomaselli of Griffin’s band Place of Skulls, Liebling and Griffin have managed to again set the wheels in motion towards reclaiming their rightful place on the altar of doom after almost two decades in shadows and turbulence.

The first track, Treat Me Right, stands strong as one hell of a launch pad for the album. Albeit with more production and thicker distortion than the likes of the reigning self-titled album—later reissued as Relentless—Griffin stays true and lures you from the get go with a familiar crushing wall of guts and gravel. He cuts out while you’re led by a quick drum build up only to lean straight back in, neck and neck with the classic, demanding, soulful voice of a now sober, crack-less Liebling. It’s definitely a loaded (re) introduction track; a proclamation of their resurrection and return from obscurity.

Call The Man, the second track, emerges with an eerie intro of bends and death clock bass drums, culminating in a march of very heavy, very 70’s doom riffage. The following track, Into The Ground, picks up right where the last left off, plowing on with surging bluesy doom shred.

For those of you who feared, as I did, that the new album would not retain Pentagram’s true form, or that it may not deliver, you can all rest easy. The album is solid, rich, and very well put together; an even balance between re-recorded songs and demos from the 70’s—Call The Man and Walk in Blue Light for example— and new material.
Tracks like 8, Everything’s Turning to Night, and American Dream drive home Griffin’s inherent musical depth and emotion as well as exhibiting a throatier, still flawless Liebling. Together they play with all the force and strength of the band’s golden years.

Each track—even, to some extent, the ballad Windmills and Chimes—continues to stand musically true to form, reeling off more of the Pentagram of old with a slightly more modern, or perhaps “cleaner” edge—if I can get away with that.

The albums Relentless and Be Forewarned will always reign in strength and style. But I take no issue with the newer, thick distortion and sound of Last Rites. It is a triumph.

Shane Herrick

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Music News

Mastodon singer act in hilarious restaurant advert

Mastodon’s singer/guitarist Brent Hinds has appreared in a rad local restaurant advert. Watch this and get ready to order a Leviathan burger next time you pass this joint.

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Music News

Free Rockwell Knuckles mixtape

We all like freebies so Rockwell Knuckles‘ mixtape You’re Fucking Out, I’m Fucking In is a nice little present. The St Louis MC dropped this at the end of March, but better late than never we’ve got the link here.

You can check it out on the player below and can pick up the free download by clicking here. Plus, y’know, he named his mixtape after Kenny Powers, so he’s a king amongst men.


Download Mixtape | Free Mixtapes Provided by DatPiff.com