Categories
Live Reviews

Stretch Armstrong

Camden Barfly
18/01/06

There’s nothing like a good hardcore show to perk you up after a tiring day’s work. Let’s not forget that beyond the legions of in-vogue,’metalcore’ bands, there are still plenty of bands doing things in the true spirit of
hardcore – not least the likes of South Carolina quintet Stretch Armstrong, whose current two-week UK tour involves local promoters, intimate venues and – best of all – dirt-cheap merchandise prices.

On record, With Honor play excellent melodic hardcore in a similar vein to Rise Against; alas the Barfly’s PA doesn’t do them many favours, reducing much of their sound to tuneless bludgeon. Still, they’ve clearly got several fans here tonight, and therefore give it their all anyway.

It’s left to Stretch Armstrong to show how invigorating stripped-down hardcore can be. There’s no recycled old-school metal riffs or macho posturing here, just shedloads of enthusiasm (from both band and crowd) and a clutch of hard-hitting anthems that bring to mind Sick Of It All stealing a few notes from Hot Water Music’s book. Frontman Chris McLane is obviously happy to see so many people here on a cold Wednesday night, and frequently offers the mike to the fans going crazy at the front, as the band rip through old favourites and gems from new album Free At Las’.

It all ends in suitably chaotic style, with a stage invasion for the last song. With their current profile, it’s unlikely that we’ll be seeing Stretch Armstrong on the likes of the Taste Of Chaos tour in the near future, but on tonight’s evidence, they more than deserve their small-but-loyal UK following.

www.stretcharmstrong.net for all the trimmings.

Alex Gosman

Categories
Skateboarding Product Reviews

I-Path Yogi

The infamous I-path Yogi is a shoe well know by skaters everywhere. Designed by ‘hippie’ pro skater Matt Field. The shoes I had were the suede version and were black.

The shoe looks simple but feels nice and is very functional. It has a well padded tongue with a relatively large stash pocket in the front. They have gel insoles to absorb shock and the soles are very flexible which leaves you with a comfortable board feel.

The sole is very grippy even with worn down griptape but not too grippy. Just right for the balance between Ollies and flip tricks. While I have been skating in the shoes I found it easy to get used to them from my old shoes (88’s) and have found a lot of tricks have become easier.

Overall this shoe has been excellent to skate in and I would definitely consider getting another pair in the future.

www.ipath.com for all the spiel.

Chris Arundel

Categories
Music News

The Dead 60s UK Tour

The Dead 60s have announced details of a short UK tour in March. The band, whose debut album has now sold over 75,000 copies, will headline their biggest London show to date by performing at The Astoria on 19th March.

The Dead 60s have just returned from a sold-out tour of Japan, where they played to audiences of over 5,000. During a recent trip to the US, guitarist Ben Gordon met up with Dead 60s fan Courtney Love. Courtney played Ben some of her new material and they discussed working together in the future. “We played through about 7 or 8 of her new songs” commented Ben. “It’s different from what she’s done before, it’s very sensitive and sounds a little folky at times. It reminds me of Bob Dylan or Patti Smith. We stayed in touch and may work together later this year.”

March

Wed 15th Manchester Academy
Thu 16th Coventry The Colosseum
Sat 18th Nottingham Ballroom
Sun 19th London Astoria

Check www.thedead60s.com for all info

Categories
Music News

Placebo To Tour UK!

To celebrate the release of their forthcoming fifth album, Meds, Placebo take to the road in April to play their first UK shows since their amazing sell-out Wembley Arena show back on November 5th 2004.

Since the band last played the UK, they have toured the world extensively, taking in every continent, culminating in a sell-out tour of South and Central America, where they played to tens of thousands of screaming fans per night (Q Magazine witnessed this spectacle in Mexico, awarding it a 4-out-5 rating and describing it as “a dancefloor rammed with screaming teenagers, wobbling under the weight of 15,000 pogoing bodies.”).

The band release their new single Because I Want Youon 6th March. It was added to the XFM Daytime playlist seven weeks upfront and has been championed by BBC Radio 1 DJs Jo Whiley, Zane Lowe and Steve Lamacq. The band caused hysteria last week when over 1000 fans turned up at the video shoot for the single.

The tour dates are as follows:

Wednesday 5 April
Blackpool Empress Ballroom- 01253 292029/ 0161 832 1111

Thursday 6 April
Glasgow Academy- 0870 169 0100

Saturday 8 April
Newcastle Academy- 0870 771 2000

Sunday 9 April
Birmingham Academy- 0870 771 2000

Tuesday 11 April
London Alexandra Palace- 020 7403 3331/ 020 7734 8932/ 0870 5344 4444

The tour goes on sale from 9am on Friday 3rd February.

Meds will be released on 13th March.

Placebo are one of the UK’s most successful bands of the last 10 years, having sold one million albums in the UK and 6 million worldwide, with 1.4 million of those sales for their last studio album Sleeping With Ghosts, which went Top 10 in 20 countries (including the UK), including number one in France.

For further information on Placebo, go to: www.placeboworld.co.uk

Categories
Interviews

Strapping Young Lad Interview

Gene Hoglan is one of metal’s most experienced and respected drummers, serving over 20 years in the scene with the likes of the legendary Death, thrash pioneers Dark Angel, and of course the Devin Townsend led maniacal outfit Strapping Young Lad.

Prior to the band’s performance at London’s Astoria as main support to Arch Enemy, “big Gene” spoke to Ryan Bird in none other than the venue’s backstage shower area. Get those rubber duckies at the ready, you may get wet!

Wow, you smell nice!

Thanks! That’s my shampoo. Apparently people can smell it outside and everything. It’s awesome.

I’m sure it is! Anyway, this is the first time you’ve been to the UK in a while…

About 6 months I think? A pretty long time anyway.

Even then it was only a one-off show. How does it feel to be doing a full UK tour this time?

Well, this is only 5 shows, so I’m not sure you could even call it that – but it’s cool. We’ve not really hit much of Europe as a whole at all this time around, which I suppose sucks, but we’ll get there. Hey, could you pass me those boots over there?

Erm, sure. Here you go *covers eyes*

Thank you sir!

Not a problem. The bill seems to be rather diverse with yourselves sandwiched in between Throwdown and Arch Enemy. How does that affect your reaction each night?

Well it’s pretty much the same each night really. Arch Enemy have their fans, we have a bunch of people there for us, and Throwdown apparently have a cluster of their own fans at each show too. Everybody just seems to respect the bands whether they’re really into them or not, so it’s cool. Although, I haven’t managed to check out Throwdown yet.

After their latest record, I wouldn’t recommend it!

Ha! Really? It’s not good?

As good as straight edge hardcore can be I guess.

Say no more then.

Quite! You seem to be a band that can pretty much play with anyone and not seem out of place. I’ve seen you with everyone from Clutch to Fear Factory and now Arch Enemy…

Absolutely. We are a band that can play with effectively any band you throw at us. You could put us on a bill with a bunch of real mellow bands, and we’d wheel out the mellow material and slot in. At the same time, you can put us on a death metal bill and we’ll slam out some of our heaviest shit. It doesn’t matter what bill you wanna put us on, we’ll still rip your head off.

You spent the summer on Sounds Of The Underground which was certainly a very diverse line-up once again. How was that for you?

It was awesome. An excellent way to spend the summer. We had a good time with effectively every show we played. We’d just go up onstage, do our thing and then leave. We had this “fuck you!” attitude about us on that tour because we kind of stuck out like a sore thumb compared to most bands, and we didn’t give a fuck if people dug it or not.

How do you feel you stood out above all others? This was a tour that included bands like Clutch and Opeth after all…

Because a handful of bands aside, everybody else sounded the same to me. Metalcore or whatever you wanna call it. I mean it’s cool if that’s what bands want to do and I don’t have a problem with it – but most bands sounded the same to me on that tour.

Speaking of Opeth, I heard you had to help them out on that run?

Yeah, I did. Their drummer Martin got real sick, and played the first 8 or 9 shows regardless. Sadly for him it took its toll and the band sent him home, and they asked me to step in and play a couple of songs with them, which I was delighted to do.

How do you manage to learn such complex songs in such a short space of time?

Well I already played with them before, when they toured North America a while back. Again they needed some help with the drums and asked me to play a song at their Vancouver show. I knew Devin (Townsend – SYL vocalist) was going to the show and was a big fan, so I called him and asked him what song I should play. He was like “Drapery Falls!” so I listened to it overnight, played it through once at sound check and nailed it right off the beat. I had such a blast I learn another one straight away and didn’t even sound check it. As we played it onstage that WAS the practice run!

Wow, that’s gutsy. Obviously you’ve been playing drums for a long time now in bands like Death and Dark Angel, so it may be easier for you to pick things up so quickly compared to a lot of people – but how would you say modern day drummers compare to when you were a kid learning the trade?

Kids today are getting very tasty very early on. They’re playing these technical rolls and licks at 19 or 20 that I wasn’t even starting to grasp until I was like 25. When the whole thrash thing was starting in the 80’s and I was with Death Angel, it was a pretty tough task to find yourself a solid drummer. Charlie from Anthrax was solid, Megadeth had a decent drummer, and Lars from Metallica was…ok. Nowadays kids are getting so good so early on that you can easily find a solid drummer for a band now.

Which of course can only be a good thing for music in general.

Absolutely! You certainly have to wonder where it’s going to go next. There’s definitely a new level of heaviness that hasn’t been discovered yet, and eventually someone is gonna find it.

It’ll be me that finds it, and you’re not having any when I do. Anyway, back to touring. You were with Fear Factory for 6 weeks or so. I’d imagine that’s a crowd that would certainly appreciate your music…

Yeah, that was a fun time. We only had about 4 days off between the end of that and the start of this run, but it’s cool. I suppose with Fear Factory having a very industrial based sound and us dabbling with electronics ourselves, it was a nice balance for their fans. We certainly had a good time.

So with such extensive touring this year, what can we expect for 2006?

Well, Devin is going to be doing a month with the Devin Townsend Band– their new album is amazing I might add – but after that he’s said that he’s down with Strapping for the duration. Summer should be a big period for us, and we’ll also be doing a new album. I think we’re in the studio around April, so it should be out a couple of months later. Either way 2006 is a big year for us, so watch yourselves!

Strapping Young Lad’s ‘Alien‘ is out now through Century Media.
Go to www.strappingyounglad.com for ear bleeding chaos.

Categories
DVD Reviews

Satori Movement – Mapping Time in Space

So, the video starts and bears the unholy words ‘tour video’, but don’t fret, dry your eyes and sit down. Though the animation and ‘starsign’ style editing is a little cheesy, it’s kinda charming and adds a good, albeit a bit of a simple theme. There are no narratives, there’s no melodramatic nonsense about how hard it is to sleep on tour or even much park footage.

This, along with the city based footage makes it a welcome change to the monotony of most tour videos used to tide over the companies fans for the timebeing. With a team that boasts Steve Olson, Matt Pailes, Lucian Moon, the powerhouse that is Brent Atchley and new addition Kenny Reed, the level of skating is high and diverse as ever, I’m sure you don’t need or want spoilers. Good clean fun, in unseen territory.

One complaint I have is that it drags on a wee bit, but as I was watching this at 2:30am in a freezing cold warehouse that might have something to do with it..Well worth the cash, and for footage of Steve Olson who wouldn’t pay that?

Visit www.satorimovement.com for more team info.

Ginonix

Categories
Live Reviews

Fall Out Boy

Astoria
30/01/2006

It’s often said you can tell a lot about a band by their audience. In Fall Out Boy’s case it’s made up on identikit scene kids with 80’s hair and skinny fit girly jeans. And that’s just the guys. Alongside the mullets, the ‘new Busted’ – Son of Dork are signing autographs at the bar, various MTV presenters are milking the attention, and James Sherry is looking shifty on the balcony. Downstairs it’s an undoubtedly young crowd which is confirmed by the anxious looking parents loitering outside the Astoria.

Fall Out Boy have been bubbling under for the last few years, steadily gaining a solid fan base with their Warped Tour antics and their pop punk, saccharine sweet teenage tunes. With their first single from their third album Sugar We’re Going Down enjoying solid airplay and running non stop on MTV -they’re riding the crest of a new surge of fans. The screams are deafening as their backdrop is revealed on stage, and by the time they bound onto stage the crowd are at fever pitch. Fall Out Boy are like wind up toys who’ve been over wound, they zoom around the stage, jumping, leaping, swinging their axes round and round until your perversely hoping that one o! f them mistimes it and smacks themselves in the chin – but they never come close -they’ve honed it to a fine art.

Diminutive front man Patrick Stump, cap pulled firmly down over his eyes, belts out lyrics that could be about love and girls and heartbreak, but are drowned out by the crowd. Sugar We’re Going Down is met with a wall of sound, Dance Dance has the crowd doing just that. Nobody Puts Baby In The Corner is a high point, with lines ‘I’ll be your best kept secret and your biggest mistake’ spat out. With bassist Peter Wentz and guitarist Joseph Trohman leaping off the drum riser, balancing on amps and do theses weird ballet spins every seconds – it’s like the emo circus has just bounded into town. Add in a bare chested dancing roadie to the mix – and it’s a proper little skit they’ve got going on.

Pop punk has been done, and it’s been done well. Bands like New Found Glory, Bowling for Soup and Blink 182 have taken it as far as it can go, and you might say Fall Out Boy seem to be just following in their footsteps. They have the crowd eating out of their hand with their on stage antics and melody drenched tunes, but you can’t help but wonder if their leaping bounding high kicks really add to the show. Can they be taken seriously with the overstated poses and Darkness-esque spins? And with well written songs and intelligent lyrics – do they really need the stage show?

Fall Out Boy have one huge thing going for them. Their fans completely idolise them. The singalongs are astounding – every word candy covered lyric is sung back word perfect. But fans can be fickle, and how long before the myspace generation fall for the next pop punk heroes who come striding into town? Here’s hoping the bubble doesn’t burst for Fall Out Boy just yet.

For further info check out

www.falloutboyrock.co.uk

Dee Massey

Categories
Live Reviews

Gym Class Heroes

Astoria
30/01/2006

The packed out Astoria were all here for Fall Out Boy, that much was clear. But support act and friends of FOB, Gym Class Heroes stormed out onto the stage and despite a few fans on the balcony infront of me giving it the 50 Cent handsignals for no apparent reason, they had the crowd bouncing around to their fun and friendly tracks.

Opening with Pillmatic and then going into their single, Papercut, frontman Travis bounded around the stage with his hood up and leaned forward into the crowd as his band mates bobbed around behind him. He won over the fans that weren’t familiar with the band and carried the hype on throughout Taxi Driver, the track which puts emo band’s names into the narrative which caught a lot of people’s attention. Makeout Clubwas equally popular but it was Cupid’s Chokehold which garnered the most noise because of Patrick Stump’s appearance on vocals.

Travis’ Mick Jagger-esque strutting was certainly a sight not to be forgotten, especially by those right at the front by the stage, and whilst the set ended on a slower song, the crescendo built up at the very finish tidied what was an entertaining set from a band who are sure to get a fair amount of fans in this country.

For more info, go to: www.gymclassheroes.com

Abjekt

Categories
Preview

Crossfire Launches Podcasts…

You can now listen to Crossfire Radio and watch Tricks of the Week as soon as they become available. This means you’ll never miss a beat and stay up to date with all the best skate tricks from the UK and beyond… You can do this with our newly launched podcasts. What’s that I hear you say???

“WHAT THE F%&K ARE PODCASTS???”

A podcast is simply a file that sits on the site that your computer checks regularly to see when we’ve updated our content, when it finds new content, it will either let you know about it or automatically download it for you so you can watch it whenever you want, and you can even listen to it on your ipod.

“Sounds Good to me… How do I hook this up then?”

Well firstly you need software. We here at Crossfire recommend Apple’s iTunes. You need to download and install this if you don’t already have it. (There are other ways of podcasting… but iTunes is easiest).

Subscribe to PodcastOnce you have installed iTunes, the fun begins…

firstly you need to open the program and then from the menu at the top, select Advanced and then third option down, Subscribe to podcast…

Subscribe to PodcastNow a window should popup where you can enter a url for the podcast… Here you will need to copy and paste one of these two addresses:

Radio: http://www.caughtinthecrossfire.com/feeds/radio.xml
Trick of the Week: http://www.caughtinthecrossfire.com/feeds/totw.xml

Do this for both addresses and you should end up with this:

finished

If you have any problems, come visit us in the forums.

Categories
Buzz Chart

The Strokes

When I first heard about the new strokes album I was immediately excited about what I thought would be another offering of some classic Strokes stuff and I have not been left disappointed. The album shows The Strokes sound has modernised but still has the original kick from the previous 2 albums.

The album begins with ‘You Only Live Once‘ a relaxing song which seems to be a simple intro track. It then breaks into their amazing new single ‘Juicebox‘. Pretty much the rest of the album shows off The Strokes newly matured sound with exception to a few tracks of classic strokes tunes.

This album shows this NYC 5-piece at their best and I would recommend “First Impressions of Earth” to anyone who liked ANY or their previous material and if you have never heard of them before, you have a lot of essential catching up to do.

Chris Arundel