Axewound, heralded as ‘the supergroup to slay all supergroups’ have announced details of a debut full length and UK tour.
The band, lead by Liam Cormier of Cancer Bats, Matt Tuck of Bullet For My Valentine on guitar/backing vocals, Mike Kingswood of Glamour of the Kill on guitar, Joe Copcutt formerly of Rise to Remain playing bass and Jason Bowld of Pitchshifter on drums, were unveiled on May 1st 2012 via BBC Radio 1 Rock Show when their debut single ‘Post Apocalyptic Party’ was aired.
After a string of successful festival appearances this summer, AxeWound have announced their debut album Vultures will be released on October 1st via Search And Destroy/RCA (Search And Destroy being the new label from Sony Music and Raw Power Management that also has Bring Me The Horizon, Don Broco & While She Sleeps under their trusted wings). Matt Tuck has also revealed that Avenged Sevenfold guitarist Synyster Gates will guest on one song on the upcoming album, adding more superstar names to the mix.
In support of the album release, Axewound will perform the following dates:
OCTOBER 2012
1st – Nottingham, Rescue Rooms
2nd – Glasgow, King Tuts
3rd – Manchester, Academy 3
4th – Wolverhampton, Slade Rooms
6th – London, Underworld
7th – Bristol, Thekla
Converse Represent got off to a flying start yesterday with singer Plan B opening up proceedings. The event which runs nightly between 30th July and 10th August at London’s iconic 100 Club gives a nod to past legends by including nights headlined by UK Subs, Toots & the Maytals and Paul Weller. The best of the new breed are also showcased with Pulled Apart By Horses, The Safety Fire, Santigold, Best Coast, Japandroids and The Bots also featuring.
The highlight of the event has to be Blur’s ridiculously intimate gig on August 2nd. For a chance to be at this incredible show, fans will need to visit www.converse.co.uk/blur between 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM on Wednesday 1st August.
For those unable to get their hands on sought after tickets, Converse are kindly streaming the shows online here, you also stream the shows by scrolling to the bottom of the page.. The full line up for Converse Represent is as follows:
July 30 – Plan B, L Marshall, Jacob Banks, Yuna
July 31 – UK Subs, Discharge, Anti-Nowhere League, Goldblade, Ed Tudor Pole, Dumbjaw
August 1 – Paul Weller, Spiritualized, Japandroids, 2:54, Towns
August 2 – Blur, The Bots, Savages, Swiss Lips
August 6 – SBTRKT, Rudimental, John Talabot, Man Without Country
August 7 – Santigold, Django Django, Best Coast, Citizens!, Friends
August 8 – Toots & the Maytals, Natty, The Heatwave, Janice Graham Band
August 9 – Overkill, Pulled Apart By Horses, The Safety Fire, Wet Nuns
August 10 – Nas, Kano, Speech Debelle, Spoek Mathambo, Children Of The Night
On September 11, 2012, ShopRadioCast (an online store specializing in new and limited run vinyl records) will release the first official vinyl reissue of Quicksand’s major label debut, Slip, since its original pressing in 1993.
Fronted by Walter Schreifels (also the driving force behind Gorilla Biscuits, Youth of Today and Rival Schools) and known as major players of the 90’s NYC hardcore scene where they found their roots, Quicksand’s Slip is spoken of as classic, an influential release for current hardcore bands.
The re-mastered record is to be pressed on limited edition 180 Gram vinyl and housed in a gatefold jacket which includes a Euro inner sleeve. The vinyl colours and track listings are as follows:
Vinyl Colors
First Pressing
180 Gram Red/ Black Swirl (LTD 500) – Shop Radio Cast Exclusive
180 Gram Green/ Yellow Swirl (LTD 500) – Shop Radio Cast Exclusive
180 Gram Black (LTD 500) – Dine Alone Records Exclusive
Track Listing
Fazer
Head to Wall
Dine Alone
Slip
Freezing Process
Lie and Wait
Unfulfilled
Can Opener
Omission
Baphomet
Too Official
Transparent
How Soon Is Now? (The Smiths cover)
The pre-order launches on Tuesday, July 31 at 2pm EST here.
With a chorus catchy enough to entice a bit of a sing-a-long but with a tempo slow enough to make sure you don’t have to put a lot of effort in, ‘Toucan Surf’ (released Digitally 27.08.12 via Rattlepop) is the soundtrack to a lazy afternoon in the sun. In fact, soundtrack is quite a key word here, because Jaws produce the sort of sound that doesn’t instantly demand your attention but is inviting enough to give you an overall uplifting feeling. ‘Toucan Surf’ is background music that will slowly manifest in your mind and eventually come through and repeat permanently in your conscious.
Dazed vocals, resounding jangling guitars and lo-fi synths give off impressions that the track was born in Florida, California or another suitably sunny location, a sizable achievement when it actually originates from the less than appetizing Birmingham, UK.
‘Surf-pop’ is a trending genre at the moment, but Jaws aren’t just any old band, they are the leaders of the pack, these guys are the ultimate chill-out indie band and ‘Toucan Surf’ is sure to propel the band to where they ought to be.
Not many underground bands have such a buzzing hype around them as UK newcomers Proxies do, and what’s more, it’s well deserved. Proxies are one of those bands who have turned their passion into something tangible through hard work and dedication, actually getting off their arses and doing something rather than waiting for the industry to fall into the palms of their hands.
Producing records in their bedrooms, recording vocals under bunk beds, relentlessly networking and gaining the right contacts has put the band in a promising position at the start of their career. We catch up with keyboard player/programmer/vocalist/general-busy-body Jordan Fish to find out more…
Hey Jordan! First off can you explain how the formation of Proxies come about?
Kind of by accident in that we never planned to be a band. I had begun exploring electronic music with a couple of friends, who way more talented than I, mostly for fun but also to see them in action and learn from them. I knew Joe from college and it turned out he was doing something sonically similar around the time and suggested working on a song together. So we did. Then we worked on some more. Alex lives down the road from my parents and I asked him if he could play the songs so we could try and reproduce them in a live environment, we tried them a couple of times in Joe’s university house and had fun with it. We didn’t ever expect to play live, so when a couple of our friends that liked our music asked us to support them at a few shows, we were a little on the spot. I asked my friend Josh to play bass live for us, he played in a band I’d actually stumbled across via YouTube a while back. He added some vocals in rehearsal and as officially joined a couple of months later. A little while after that I think we realised we were a band.
Proxies Live
Proxies mix many different styles and genres together, what artists have influenced Proxies?
So many. Each of us have such a wide variety of influences that when you include all of our influences together it begins to sound ridiculous. I think we’d all agree on artists like Brand New, Manchester Orchestra, Muse and Daft Punk being amongst the most influential. I know Joe listens to a lot of pop punk, particularly that New Jersey pop punk kind of sound and we share a lot of favourite bands. I listen to a lot of electronic music lately, but mostly am a rock music fan at core which might explain our sound a little. As a rule I could say everything Rob Swire and Gareth McGrillen work on is golden, the first Panic! At The Disco record is a masterpiece and Katy Perry‘s singles are only ever the best pop songs… I don’t know if that’s relevant.
Considering Proxies are a relatively new band you have toured with some high profile artists and worked with big names such as Sean Smith & Gareth McGrillen. What has led to your involvement with these credible acts so soon in your career?
We had to pay them one million pounds in hookers and drugs and cash and sexual favours. We got the cash by selling our insides to The Church Of Scientology. Not really. Our band has been really fortunate that super talented people have taken us under their wing and helped us out. Gareth has been a friend for a while and liked what we were doing. Gareth introduced me to Sean a while before our band started and the feature came naturally – we all knew each other and Gareth and I were kind of on the same brainwave with the song and both had Sean in mind to do the additional vocal on it and kind of mentioned it to each other at the same time. Gareth is the nicest dude on the planet and we wouldn’t be where we are now without his help.
You have created an impressive online following and are well known for networking with fans via social media. But the internet often comes under fire with regards to illegal downloading. Do you think the internet is the future or the demise of the music industry?
The music industry is changing a lot, so in that respect the internet probably does bring about the demise of the old model. That said, our band would not exist at all without the internet. That’s really simple. It has been how people discover our music, how we’ve distributed music, how we keep people that care about our band informed on what we are doing. Beyond word-of-mouth and the little touring we have done, it has been the only form of communication we have had. Online merch orders have come in from Chile to Argentina to all corners of the US and Australia. Those people will only know about our band because of the internet. YouTube makes an almost level-playing-field for the discovery of music and great undiscovered content goes viral every day thanks to sites like Reddit. So it is the demise of an old model but it is also the future of the industry. The faster bands (and labels) can adapt to the internet generation instead of trying to control and dictate it, the quicker that will be realised I think.
‘Lost Tapes Volume 1’ epitomizes a DIY attitude to music by self producing the EP and hand-making the physical copies. What are your thoughts on the EP now that it’s complete and out there for people to hear?
I’m really glad we did it. The response has been overwhelming. To hear people singing along at shows to songs we wrote and recorded in our bedrooms is really strange and makes us even more proud of it.
'Lost Tapes Volume 1'
It seems Proxies never stop working! Do you have plans to release new material anytime soon?
Yes! We started working straight away on a sequel to the free EP, which we are recording in our bedrooms and producing ourselves once again. It will be released in the next few weeks. We have also been working for a while with back with Gareth and another producer Andy Gray on an official release. So that’s on the way too.
Selling out physical copies of your EP in seconds and being announced for Reading & Leeds are impressive achievements, how does it make you feel?
I am convinced it is a big elaborate prank that one of my friends has planned and everybody is in on the joke. It definitely has just crept up on us and been a huge surprise. We’re all a little bit shocked but determined to try and make the best of it.
So finally, after an impressive start, where do you see Proxies in 5 years time?
Haha, wow. Hopefully we will have put an album out properly. I’d like to be able to perform a headline tour too. But I don’t even know what we’ll be doing in 5 months time, 5 years is such a huge scale. Maybe Joe will be working on a solo experimental acapella folk punk album and Alex will be trying his hand at movies. Maybe people will say they liked us better when we recorded EPs in our bedrooms and struggled to survive, before we sold out and recorded in one of those “mainstream recording studios”. Or maybe nobody will care. Regardless, I like to think we’ll still be making music.
Make sure you check out Proxies at their up coming UK dates and of course at this years Reading & Leeds festival.
Unfortunately, another piece of sad news to bring you… Independent record label Walnut Tree Records announced yesterday that they will be putting out their final release this summer and then closing doors.
No clear reason for the closure was given in the company’s statement, though with the music industry and general economy coming under increasing pressure, it’s not a shock that another label has suffered. The full statement reads:
“After five years, working on 27 full and 14 distributed releases that featured 68 bands in total, Walnut Tree Records will be calling it a day. I’m working on one final release that will see the label out at the end of the summer, bringing together all of the bands that I’ve been proud to represent since 2007. Thanks for your support.
Tom, Walnut Tree Records – Losing Sleep. 2007-2012.”
Walnut Tree Records have worked with some great names in the industry such as Burn The Fleet, Don Broco, Four Year Strong, Francesqa, Samoans, The Maple State, The Wonder Years, Tiger Please and many more. Here at Crossfire HQ we are sad to see the label go, it’s yet another bold reminder that its important to support independent music.
See Walnut Tree Records out with a bang and pick up one of their releases here.
Southern California’s Of Mice & Men are constantly growing in popularity. The band -who are currently on the Vans Warped Tour- have quenched fans’ thirst for new material with a 2 disc deluxe re-issue of their critically acclaimed album ‘The Flood’ featuring 4 new tracks.
The bonus tracks start with a tantalizing instrumental piece ‘The Calm’. The reverberating clean guitars are a beautiful yet eerie experience to behold, clearly implying the saying ‘The calm before the storm’…
As ‘The Storm’ picks up tempo, Austin Carlile’s strained and emotional screams kick start a typical ballsy Of Mice & Men riff. On the original release of ‘The Flood’, ‘Ben Threw’ and ‘Ohioisonfire’ showed Of Mice & Men’s capability to produce intense riffs and rhythms whilst maintaining an underlying bounce, but they are nothing in comparison to the punishing assault of third bonus track, ‘The Flood’ and final new number, ‘The Depths’. It seems that after the departure of Shayley Bourget, clean vocals have been left to one side with the band focusing on a new level of heaviness.
Presented with flowing continuity, the bonus tracks are an impeccable addition to ‘The Flood’. The production of the tracks is highly commendable in its own right, the magnitude of the atmospherics are on the same level as Bring Me The Horizon’s ‘There Is a Hell, Believe Me I’ve Seen It. There Is a Heaven, Let’s Keep it a Secret’. With its new additions, the re-issue can be appreciated by fans from across the metal spectrum with influential elements of artists such as The Devil Wears Prada, We Came As Romans, Pierce The Veil & even Slipknot shining through.
If first time around, ‘The Flood’ begged to differ that metalcore was a dying art, the re-issue demolishes any ideas that the genre is dated and builds a platform from which Of Mice & Men can dominate the current scene. The flood is coming again.
If you read our preview of Hevy you’ll notice that we highly recommend Seahaven as a ‘Must Watch Band’. The Californian quartet combine post-punk, indie sensibilities and a touch of hardcore to perfection (think Brand New/Crime In Stereo) and have an impressive reputation when it comes to live shows.
Hevy is the bands’ debut performance over on our shores but Seahaven have just confirmed they will extending their stay in the UK by joining Balance and Composure, Pianos Become The Teeth and Departures on tour. The dates are as follows:
August
4th Kent, Hevy Music Festival
5th Bristol, The Fleece
6th Leeds, Cockpit 2
7th Glasgow, Stereo
8th Manchester, Moho Live
9th Sheffield, Corporation
10th London, The Borderline
Brutality Will Prevail, Broken Teeth, Demoraliser, Napoleon, Brotherhood Of The Lake, Grade, Acoda, Page 44 and Never Means Maybe are the last of the bands to be added to this years Hevy which takes place between August 03 and 06 at Port Lympne Wild Animal Park in Kent.
Although all are worth watching, out of the latest additions, the bands we most recommend catching are Brotherhood of the Lake and Demoraliser. Brotherhood of the Lake for their heart-wrenching emotive hardcore that commentates on dark subjects such as depression with great honesty. And Seige of Amida Records signed Demoraliser for their bone-crushingly heavy metalcore.
So the final line-up is insanely strong with the bill including Deez Nuts, Deaf Havana, Sharks, Bury Tomorrow, Feed The Rhino, Madball and Devil Sold His Soul plus all the other bands we mentioned above and on our must watch list. Here at Crossfire HQ we’re pumped and if the weather stays this beautiful (fingers crossed!!) Hevy is sure as hell going to be a weekend to remember. Tickets are still available, what are you waiting for? Pick one up now!
The Olympics appears to be a non-stop controversy creator at the moment, whether it be for the authority’s placing missiles on residents’ homes, obscene traffic chaos or going massively over the original £2.3billion budget. But the thing that’s really got our blood boiling is the tale of a young woman who was asked to remove her t-shirt that brandished the logo of 80’s rock band Weapon “as it might offend people.”… Wow. How Ridiculous!
An eye witness reports:
“A young girl and friends go to see the Olympic torch go through their borough. After a couple of hours a steward comes over and asks one of them to a tent. All four girls go to where several police officers are waiting. The girl is asked, ‘What does the writing on your t-shirt mean?’ She says it’s a rock band’s name. She is told she will have to remove or cover it up, as it might upset other people since it advertises weapons. This is happening as the army is standing around with guns…”
When the Olympics are supposedly a celebration of all culture, not just sport, this story sounds even more ludicrous.
On July 26th Dizzee Rascal, Mark Ronson, Katy B, You Me At Six, Rizzle Kicks, Wretch 32, Morning Parade, Little Comets and many more are set to perform at Hyde Park for an Olympic celebration show. God forbid they or any of their fans should appear wearing anything that could be seen as mildly offensive, the authorities would have a field day overdosing on political correctness!
If the only thing the organizers have to worry about is a t-shirt logo it should mean the Olympics will run smoothly without even the tiniest of glitches… We won’t hold our breath!
On September 11, 2012, 
