The Matts (Rubano and Fazzi) have left Taking Back Sunday. Sad times. However, it seems that the band are now returning to their roots with original members John Nolan and Shawn Cooper re-joining the band following their departure several years ago. Who would’ve thunk it?!
Back to the old-school it is… (hopefully).
fun. took London by storm last week and you can check out a free download from their forthcoming album ‘Aim & Ignite’ here.
The band are all set to return to these shores for those left salivating for more. May will see fun. taking in a little more of the UK including an appearance at Dot To Dot. It’s going to be FUN!
Fri 21 May Liverpool Sound City
Sat 22 May Glasgow Stag and Dagger
Sun 23 May Leeds Cockpit 2
Mon 24 May Brighton Prince Albert
Tue 25 May London Kings College
Thu 27 May Kingston New Slang
Sat 29 May Bristol Dot to Dot
Sun 30 May Nottingham Dot to Dot
Mon 31 May Manchester Dot to Dot
Jaguar Love are set to grace these shores once more at the Great Escape festival in Brighton. Stay tuned for details!
In the meantime, check out the rather brilliant video for ‘Up All Night’, from forthcoming album ‘Hologram Jams’ which will be released on 26th April in the UK.
Crystal Castles are back with a new 12” inch single which shall be released as part of record day celebrations.
The single will be limited to a vinyl only pressing of 500 copies, featuring a new song “Doe Deer” and “pure guitar-noise” versions of older tracks. These tracks were recorded before the band added electronics to their sound, and feature the songs “Mother Knows Best”, “Insectica”, and “Seed”.
Record Store Day takes place on April 17th, and the band will also play a one-off show at London’s Heaven venue on April 20th.
Reading and Leeds’ mainstage line up has been revealed.
The Friday at Reading [Sunday at Leeds] will see Guns N Roses headlining over Queens Of The Stone Age, Biffy Clyro, Lostprophets, Nofx, Gogol Bordello, and Billy Talent playing, the Saturday [Friday for Leeds] has Dizzee Rascal, The Cribs, The Maccabees, Modest Mouse, and The Gaslight Anthem with Arcade Fire headlining and Sunday [Leeds’ Saturday] will see Blink 182 finish the festival off ably supported by Weezer, Cypress Hill, Limp Bizkit, Paramore and You Me At Six.
The Radio 1/NME Stage will see the likes of Pendulum, Enter Shikari, Klaxons, We Are Scientists, LCD Soundsystem, Phoenix and Foals playing.
Refused are not on the verge of reforming.
Many people thought that the holding page of the website Official Refused, which said “Refused, coming soon…”, meant that a reunion was on the cards for the Swedish band, who split in 1998. However, despite Zane Lowe tweeting about how huge it is, it seems that the page is for a re-issue of their seminal The Shape Of Punk To Come album, rather than a get-together.
Our man Paper Tiger has released the latest in his line of 20 Minute Mixes.
Following his amazing New Jack Swing mix, Papes has put 20 minutes of Ice Cube together, to celebrate his Doomtree crew’s appearance at the Paid Dues festival, which Cube is headlining. Grab it by clicking here.
Heroin and Landscape Skateboards cheese Mark ‘Fos’ Foster has a new interview online at the Artist Advocacy site.
Read on for words with the jack-of-all-trades Londoner here.
Man, you know you’re getting old when bands start celebrating 20th, 25th and even 30th anniversaries of albums… that you brought 1st time around!!
Case in point; “Let’s Wreck the Party” by Canadian trailblazers DOA, that I purchased from the band after a gig at the 100 Club, London is September 1985. Years later I read that the copy I had, with a small DOA logo in the centre of the cover sleeve, was in fact a misprint, due to a cock-up at the printers, and was replaced as soon as the proper covers were pressed up. The cover of this reissue CD though is the original North American sleeve, with a photo of the band disrupting a family Thanksgiving Dinner, turkey and all!
Released on Just in Time Records in Canada, and Alternative Tentacles in the U.S.A and Europe, the line up saw Joe Shithead (vocals/ guitar) Dave Gregg (guitar) augmented by a new, but seasoned rhythm section for the bands 3rd LP; Brian “Sunny Boy Roy” Goble from the (Canadian) Subhumans on bass, and departed drummer Chuck Biscuits older brother Dimwit on drums. Dimwit had played with Shithead in their pre-DOA outfit The Skulls, and had been in and out of DOA since their incarnation…
So, revamped line-up, and “Let’s Wreck the Party” also a saw marked shift from the straight up full tilt rowdy Hardcore Punk of the first 2 albums, and a more Hard Rocking direction with great effect. I loved this album at the time and all these years down the line it still floats my boat big time, with songs that rally against money grubbing corporations, the plight of North America’s native population, mainstream media control and “General Strike” encouraged people to stand up for their rights in the work place.It’s a topical number, and a timely reminder that whilst many of us have redundancy constantly hanging over our heads, tighter working conditions and zero pay rises to deal with an ever increasing cost of living, the bosses and company CEO’s still get their six figure salaries and mega bonuses: “everything is not alright, and there’s no end in sight”. The latter track remains a staple of DOA’s live set, as does “Race Riot” with its blunt anti-racist message… “race riot, don’t buy it, we don’t want that crap – no, no, no”…
If you’re starting out with DOA, then I’d recommend you first check out “Hardcore ‘81” and “Something Better Change”, but definitely follow them up with a shot of “Let’s Wreck the Party”.
Pete Craven
I spent the entire weekend listening to Australian rockers Tame Impala. If you like your rock 70s tinged and on the psych side then this could well be your new favourite band. They have an album called Innerspeaker dropping on Modular over there right now so expect them to be bringing their laid back shit over to the UK fairly soon. Have this Half Full Glass of Wine video as a taster from an EP that came out a while back and look out for this lot on your travels.