He has been branded the ‘master of positivity’ the man who sleeps the least and parties hard the most. Whatever you think of his bloodied face and chipper attitude to life on earth, the multi-talented musical artist that is Andrew WK made one of the most raucous rock albums of all time ‘I Get Wet‘ back in 2001. ‘Party Hard’ may still be a dancefloor smash and found in DJ bags as ammunition to feed a frenzy in clubs today, but where does AWK’s thoughts lie on animal welfare, skateboarding in the Olympics, sex life on the road and classic three-spurt art amongst other topics?
Emma Wallace caught up with him on a hotel sofa following his latest live appearance at the Hevy festival to answer the questions from our Facebook page subscribers. Click play to find out.
Arguably 2012 was Reading & Leeds strongest line up of recent years. Not only were did the legendary The Cure take to the main stage, there was a whole variety of acts that put in stellar performances from all sorts of different genres. We’ve picked our top ten from the weekend, some punk bands, some new, some old and one very pop. Check it out below:
ENTER SHIKARI
Enter Shikari and Reading & Leeds go hand in hand. Their performance on the main stage saw punters running over from the dance stage -drawn in by dubstep mix ups- to mosh along with older ‘Take To The Skies’ fans. Tracks from ‘A Flash of Colour’ go down a treat as does ‘Juggernaughts’ which is now somewhat of a Reading classic, again seeing a stupid amounts of crowd surfing. One day soon these humble lads will headline this great stage. Perfection.
RANDOM HAND
Random Hand’s high tempo mix of metal, punk and ska is uplifting. The sheer energy pouring from the band on stage certainly kicked things off in the Lock Up tent after a slow start to the day. Funnily enough, the most impressive part of the whole performance has to be the sheer capacity of Robin Leitch’s lungs! His effortless alternations between trombone, screamed vocals and dancing like a lunatic was a joy to behold.
HAWK EYES
Headlining the BBC Introducing stage was Leeds’ most unassuming rock behemoths Hawk Eyes. Playing a fast and furious set, primarily of tracks from this year’s ‘Ideas’, Hawk Eyes managed to make the outdoor stage feel like a sweaty basement, with the standard troupe of lanky lads starting a (admittedly rather tame) mosh pit. Having previously played the stage under their previous incarnation, let’s pray this signals the last time the boys are on one of the smaller stages at Reading and Leeds.
CEREMONY
When there are an abundance of acts are taking themselves too seriously on stage and swanning around the guest area like they are gods, you need a bit of Ceremony to remind you what punk is all about. Having a fucking good time. And this is exactly what Ceremony do. Vocalist Ross Farrar just goes nuts, spinning around with his t-shirt over his head and microphone dangling around his neck, musically they aren’t that tight, but really no one cares. That’s not what this set is about, it’s just a great laugh.
AT THE DRIVE-IN
Having declared their break-up in 2001 after the release of their seminal album ‘Relationship of Command’, the announcement of reunion dates were a dream come true for many a fan. With mixed reviews emerging from performances at Coachella, it was difficult to know what to expect from their headline set on the BBC Radio 1/NME stage. Opening with the explosive ‘Arcarsenal’, it was hard for a smile not to appear on the face of anyone who holds a special place in their heart for the band.
Given that this was the first time that the majority of the audience got to see the band in the flesh, it was especially pleasing to hear tracks played across their whole back-catalogue of releases, with singer Cedric Bixlar-Zavalar trying his best to recreate those explosive sets from over a decade ago.
The same joy didn’t extend to all members – it was hard not feel disheartened at the sight of Omar motionlessly standing facing his amp for the majority of the set, looking as though he’d rather be elsewhere. This wasn’t the At The Drive-In that left us all those years ago, and perhaps it is too much to expect that.
GALLOWS
The band’s first Reading Festival sans-Frank went off without a hitch in true, unadulterated Gallows fashion. Vivacious circle pits, crowd surfing and an onslaught of punk rock from the stage that never let up, this is a band that is every bit as good, if not better, as version 2.0. The crowd was totally sold by the end of the set. Interestingly it was the band’s new tracks that came across best, leaving everyone wanting more fresh material ASAP.
THE BOUNCING SOULS
Who doesn’t love the Bouncing Souls? Their inspiring punk appeals across the board in the Lock Up tent. Old classics such as ‘Sing Along Forever’ get the dedicated fans jumping whilst newer , softer and more melodic material like ‘Coin Toss Girl’ is a hit with members of the crowd previously unaware of the band. Their set is a resounding success.
ALT-J
The compacted punters inside and swarms of fans outside the Festival Republic Tent show that although fairly new on the radar, Alt-J are already a firm festival favourite. Despite their annoying- hipster-type fan base, Alt-J’s unique and slightly obscure brand of indie is certainly something to take note of with hit single ‘Breezeblocks’ becoming one of the anthems of the weekend.
SANTIGOLD
You may be thinking this is a bit of a bizarre choice if you are familiar with Crossfire’s usual content, but the thing is we can still recognize a good pop artist when we see one! Mixing electronica, hip hop and a healthy dose of mainstream pop, Santigold has a collection of great songs including ‘Lights Out’ and ‘Creator’. Santigold gets the festival party vibe going.
ATTENTION THIEVES
As we caught these local guys in their own territory of Reading, they might have had a slight home advantage. But it appears that it is Attention Thieves’s energy thats key to drawing in a huge crowd around the tiny BBC introducing stage. Attention Thieves have been gaining a lot of attention from the press lately and it seems it’s well deserved as their radio-friendly Rise Against inspired punk rock goes down a treat.
Words: Emma Wallace except Gallows (Sarah Maynard), At The Drive-In, Hawk Eyes (Joe Parry)
POLAR BEAR CLUB
Into It. Over It.
The Arteries
The Borderline, London
31st August 2012
*FULL GALLERY FEATURE BELOW*
As the opening band, The Arteries finish their hardcore and clear up all the gear, a bearded man emerges begins to sets up, checks if everything’s in working order and sits on his stool addressing the audience. The man is Into it. Over it, the sole operation of Evan Thomas. The first thing he says is, “So how many of you know I’m actually an acoustic act?”. Personally it comes as a surprise as the album is raging pop-punk. Its soon revealed that he records everything but tours as a single unit, just one man and his guitar. It was a tad strange I must admit, most of the other newbies probably felt the same. A hardcore band just left the stage and the crowd in a sweaty state, the headline act are gonna go mental, yet there’s an acoustic act sandwiched between it all?
Those apprehensive in the audience were quickly converted. Evan charged through his set, with such energy and passion as though he was fronting a full band. You could feel his passion, every song he had was attached with some kind of emotional story with the crowd are left to immerse themselves in the song as he crashed through it. Into It. Over It. Are a different kind of acoustic act, this guy was shredding and singing along with such energy that he struggled to sit still on the stool! The Arteries didn’t take the mosh pits with them, even Evan kept the crowd going.
You can always tell when the headline act grace the stage. Always. The atmosphere shifts, the crowd start to roar and everyone’s ready to tear the place apart. And of course, the same was experienced at the Borderline. Tonight is Polar Bear Club’s night, they own the this tiny basement of a venue in heart of London.
Borderline couldn’t have been a better choice of venue. Its as intimate as they come, with fans climbing onto shoulders and making their way onto the actual stage, shaking vocalist Jim Sandt’s hand whilst he’s singing, and then taking a platform dive straight back into the pool of people below.
Polar Bear Club powered through a varied set list, mixing classics from ‘Sometimes Things Just Disappear’, the epic, ‘Chasing Hamburg’ to their latest efforts from ‘Clash Battle Guilt Pride’. Whatever the song played on the night, it was received with a roar of an applause and continued stage dive action.
The band finished with the fan favorite ‘Living Saints’ and left for the back room. The crowd then started to sing the ballad, ‘Drifting Thing’. Everyone in the room, shouts as loud as they can to each word from start to finish. A call for an encore doesn’t get better than that!
So low and behold, Jimmy turns up on stage, quickly mentions that their current guitarist is a fill in and he might not know the song, to which a fan fumbles onto the stage and says if he could have a go. He introduces himself, Toby. Toby straps on the guitar, strums an a chord and the crowd erupt. He composes himself and is told, “3 strikes and you’re out kid!”, No pressure right?!
A few miss timings here and there, but the rest is perfect. You have to give the sweaty teenager credit, he’s on stage performing to a sold out crowd! Toby pulled through, Polar Bear Club loved it as did the crowd. This was clearly a stand out show for 2012 so far.
Words: Arif Noor
Photos: Alex Langworthy
Into It. Over It.Into It. Over It. warming up the crowd at the intimate Borderline"My name is Evan and this is Into It. Over It."Jimmy StadtPolar Bear Club working the crowdPBC getting sweaty at BorderlinePBC's Vocalist JimmyJimmy and fan Toby performing ‘Drifting Thing’ as an encore
Fearless Records are currently giving away their 2012 sampler through Amazon, for FREE! It features Crossfire favorites Pierce The Veil as well as 10 more Fearless Record artists ranging from the poppiest of pop-punk bands Go Radio to the obscurely dressed modern-metalcore heroes Motionless In White!
Below is the track-listing:
01 Pierce The Veil – ‘King For A Day’
02 The Word Alive – ‘Wishmaster’
03 Motionless In White – ‘ Immaculate Misconception’
04 blessthefall – ‘Promised Ones’
05 Go Radio – ‘Collide’
06 Every Avenue – ‘Fall Apart’
07 For All Those Sleeping – ‘Mark My Words’
08 Upon This Drawing – ‘Of Human Action’
09 A Skylit Drive – ‘Too Little Too Late’
10 Mayday Parade – ‘Miserable At Best’
11 Tonight Alive – ‘Little Lion Man’
Today, Crossfire favourites Title Fight dropped latest single ‘Secret Society‘ which is from their forthcoming full-length record ‘Floral Green‘. The single can be purchased here via Side One Dummy Records and is available to stream below.
In other Title Fight news, the band recently posted the second part of their documentary (directed/edited by Alex Henery) online. The short film features the band at Studio 4 in Conshohocken, PA with engineer/producer Will Yip. Watch it below:
Having sold more than 200,000 units in the U.S. alone, The Sword are major contenders in the current heavy music market. The band have announced they will release their 4th LP on November 5, 2012 which will feature cover art by legendary comic book artists J.H. Williams III (Batwoman, Promethea).
The album entitled ‘Apocryphon’ – which was produced and mixed by J. Robbins (Clutch, Jawbox)- will be released in Europe via renowned metal label Napalm Records.
Hailing from Denmark, Nuclear Death Terror is a collective of rag-tag Punx from Euroland and beyond that have been knocking around for a while now. They released a great album a few years back, and also have a couple of 7”s under their bullet belts.
This new CD on Southern Lord collates their most recent release, the “Blood Fire Chaos Death” 12”, on D-takt & Råpunk Records, plus their 2 EP’s. It’s the four new tracks that interest me, and, after scraping myself off the wall, can confirm they are absolutely storming hell hammered metallic punk rock blasters, that will have even the most clean-cut amongst you reaching for your inner crust and shaking a clenched fist in the air, whilst all around chaos reigns.
If you worship at The Alter of Slayer, Tragedy and Antisect, then NDT will more than satisfy. This is raging, bleak, and ugly music that stares down at a world shrouded in violence and despair. I can imagine Robb Stark (of Winterfell) cranking NDT out in his tent, getting psyched to take his hardened troops into battle, annihilation, or death.
Deftones are amazing, and that’s a fact. The influential band have announced they will be back to pummel our ear drums with their 7th studio album this winter. The obscurely titled ‘Koi No Yokan’ will hit the shelves on 12th November 2012 via Reprise Records. Get excited, we already are.
To remind us just how perfect Deftones are, below is ‘Rocket Skates’ taken from last album ‘Diamond Eyes’.
Sacramento thrash punks Trash Talk have released a new video for single ‘F.E.B.N.’. Interestingly the quirky black and white promo is directed by none other than Odd Future’s Tyler. The video blasts through in just over a minute and ends with a flash of the digits ‘119’, the title of Trash Talk’s forthcoming album which is set for release this autumn. Check out the vid below:
James Sherry went to the 1234 Festival in Shoreditch this weekend and came back with footage of The Buzzcocks playing Noise Annoys and Breakdown for your enjoyment. So enjoy.
POLAR BEAR CLUB
Fearless Records are currently giving away their 2012 sampler through Amazon, for FREE! It features Crossfire favorites Pierce The Veil as well as 10 more Fearless Record artists ranging from the poppiest of pop-punk bands Go Radio to the obscurely dressed modern-metalcore heroes Motionless In White!
NUCLEAR DEATH TERROR
James Sherry went to the 1234 Festival in Shoreditch this weekend and came back with footage of The Buzzcocks playing Noise Annoys and Breakdown for your enjoyment. So enjoy.