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Music News

New DC Hardcore book ‘Hard Art, D.C. 1979’

A brand new book covering Washington DC’s infamous hardcore punk scene will be released this June. “Hard Art, D.C. 1979” has been put together by Lucian Perkins who spent 27 years of his life taking photographs for The Washington Post.

His iconic snaps of Minor Threat, Bad Brains and beyond whilst he was an intern there proceeded a career that earned him not one but two Pulitzer Prize’s for his sterling work shooting various wars and conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan and much more.

You can pre-order this on through Dischord so you know it is legit for a decent price of $23. It will be a far better choice than the rip off project that the Vinyl Factory are selling to hipsters this month. Make sure you do your homework.

Categories
Music News

Henry Rollins and Ian Mackaye radio show

It’s not often these two friends get to sit in a studio together and nerd out on new tunes, musical history and more, so you should get stuck into the latest Henry Rollins KCRW radio show with guest Ian Mackaye.

It’s two hours long filled with fantastic tunes and of course, great banter from two of the OG 80s hardcore hero’s.

Playlist:

01: Booker T. & The MG’S — “Green Onions” (Stax Revue Live At The 5/4 Ballroom)
02: Vile Cherubs — “Man With A Photograph” (The Man Who Has No Eats No Sweats)
03: Q And Not U — “Kiss Distinctly” (No Kill No Beep Beep)
04: Lungfish — “Wailing Like Dragons” (Feral Hymns)
05: Radio Birdman — “New Race” (Radios Appear)
06: Black Eyes – “Drums” (Cough)
07: Follow Fashion Monkeys – “Managerie” (Unreleased Session)
08: Slant 6 — “Double Edged Knife” (Soda Pop*Rip Off)
09: Stooges Brass Band — “Where You From” (It’s About Time)
10: Eddy Current Suppression Ring — “She’s Dancing Away” (So Many Things)
11: The Ramsey Lewis Trio — “Hang On Sloopy” (Hang On Ramsey!)
12: Led Zeppelin — “The Song Remains The Same”
13: Happy Go Licky – “Twist And Shout” (Happy Go Licky Will Play)
14: Medications — “The Perfect Target” (5 Songs)
15: SPRCSS — “Ours Is Expanding Light” (Unreleased)
16: Funkadelic — “Free Your Mind And Your Ass Will Follow”
17: The Nurses — “D.Y.F.” (Single)
18: Nation Of Ulyses — “SS Exploder” (Plays Pretty For Baby)
19: Red C — “Pressure’s On” (Unreleased demo)
20: Rocket From The Crypt — “Pressure’s On” (All Systems Go)

Categories
Features Music

Baby Godzilla interview

Photo by Carla Mundy
Interview by Zac

At the back end of 2012 Baby Godzilla released a video for the storming track Powerboat Disaster that went round the web at mach 10 leaving aural destruction to those who tuned in. Nottingham is their place of residence, a UK city that has serious hardcore history and an area that is renown for its constant frustration amongst youth culture. Their personal time bomb is set to explode in the metal scene year so we decided to get the lowdown from screaming front man Matt ‘Butch’ Reynolds on just how long it will take until they take the back doors off the UK and beyond.

This one’s obvious but how come you chose the name Baby Godzilla?

It was actually something that our ex-guitarist’s Dad thought of, it was a band name that he wanted to use in the 80s and never got to, we thought it was pretty cool and we’re shit at naming stuff ourselves. It certainly matches the ferocity of what we do, untameable and immovable. That’s pretty cheesy right?

Cheese on an 11 for sure. So, Powerboat Disaster made a big impact last year, how many weird stares from the locals came with shooting that video?

We had what seemed like the whole village come out to see what was going on, the hardest part became not controlling the 8 foot high wall of fire but keeping them all behind the camera. We’d set up a take and have to stop right away, turning expecting to see a couple of local kids that had strayed into the shot but instead finding a couple of fully grown adults having a kick-about behind us.

It looks like you are playing in an allotment, that right?

It was filmed in the overgrown grounds of a pub in a very small village in Chesterfield called Poolsbrook. We asked the landlady “can we make a 8 x 20 feet wall of fire around the back of your pub?” she smiled and said “yes” and proceeded to point out things that she would like us to torch. Maybe she had a screw loose, I don’t really know, but I made a snap decision that I like the way the people of Poolsbrook work.

Are you all Nottingham based?

Yes, we all live within 5 minutes of each other, it makes it easy to get together and share ideas.

The hardcore scene in Notts has always been really strong. Have you grown up around releases from legendary acts such as Bob Tilton, Heresy, Concrete Sox, Hard to Swallow, Iron Monkey etc or are you too young to remember such awesome bands in the local area?

All familiar names, I’d be in danger of sacrilege if I were to deny Nottingham’s strong roots in hardcore music, especially with the bands listed and Earache Records HQ being right on our doorstep. But I’d be lying if I said I grew up around those awesome releases, we’re all a bit too young really, I was busy listening to Metallica as a kid.

What’s the local scene there like at the moment and who is pulling the strings?

There’s quite a lot of cool stuff going on here at the moment. There’s a recording studio just on the edge of town called JT Soar and they’ve just opened their live room as an underground gig venue. They put on lots of brilliant bands from all around the world and let you bring in your own beer so there’s a huge sense of community about the place. There’s also a grass roots promotions company called ‘I’m Not From London’. They’re headed by one very tenacious and ridiculously hard working man called Will Robinson; I’m not quite sure how he does it. They helped us a lot in the early days, we owe quite a bit to Will, he’s pretty much rebuilt Nottingham’s scene single handed. To see ‘I’m Not From London’ now going from strength to strength is great. Band-wise we share a practice space with a new band called Def Bridges that I predict you’ll be hearing lots more of towards the end of the year, they’re noisy, shouty and bassy. I’m also quite fond of a band called Grey Hairs, they’ve got a really cool garage rock vibe but they mix it up with raw punk, they’re great live.

So, the’ Oche’ EP is out there, what plans do you have for releases this year and have you started recording process yet?

We’ve been writing solidly all this year so far, the original plan was to release an album towards the end of 2013, but now we’ve decided to put out an EP to bridge the gap and whet people appetites for the big debut album. The EP is going to be very thrashy and trashy judging on what we’ve been putting down of late. We just received a final master back of the first single from it and it nearly ripped open our speakers! Needless to say it carries on from where OCHE left off, it’s going to be fucking loud.
We’ll be putting out the first single with a video in a couple of weeks.

Leaving Notts in flames. Photo by Carla Mundy

Are there any albums out there you have heard recently that soundwise carry the ingredients needed to make your debut the ultimate listen?

‘IDEAS’ by Hawk Eyes is pretty much a perfect album, the way it is put together is just brilliant, the songs kick ass and it sounds absolutely huge. We listen to that a lot on the way to gigs. Other than that you can pretty much guarantee some Refused or Nirvana will get stuck on which always gets me fired up. At this very second I’m listening to …’And Justice For All’, I’ve got the bass turned right up so it sounds right. It’s getting me through a very incessant hangover.

So what about producers? If you had the choice to pick a producer to work with on your album, who would you pick and why?

I’d be very interested to see what working with Steve Albini would be like. Mainly because his whole ethos towards recording a band is very similar to ours, everything should be tracked together live. If we weren’t all together in the same room tracking live I don’t think a recording would really capture what we do. On top of that we all need to look at each when we record otherwise it would sound like a bag of spanners.

I also would really love to work with Eskil Lovstrom and Pelle Henricsson, they made ‘Shape of Punk to Come’, it’s one of my favourite albums of all time. Our buddies James Cleaver Quintet just got back from recording their second album with them, I really excited to see what they’ve come up with!

Your live shows have been lauded. How will you find the middle ground between the energy created live on tape?

Lots of space in our live room! And stuff to climb on in there too would be good. Although I’m not sure we ought to recreate what we do live to the letter on tape, we barely hit a note live. It would probably end up just being Paul Shelley playing the bass with the occasional broken guitar making an awful squeal. Pretty unpleasant!

If there was one story from that came from playing live that is still discussed as a ‘moment’, what is that and where from?

One thing that comes to mind is a gig we played at Hackney Trash Bar. The sound guy was really not into it. We played the first song and I couldn’t find my mic afterwards, so I used Paul’s. After the second song another mic went missing. At that point we realised the sound guy was just taking away all the mics one by one after each song, it was quite rude. Then he turned off the p.a. altogether. Had he just asked us to stop we would have, but he just went about it in a really antagonising way so we just kept going. we had a megaphone out on tour with us so me and Jonny took to shouting in people faces through that and We just relied on the guitar amps making noise from the stage. Generally we have a pretty good relationship with sound engineers though, we always reassure before we play that if anything gets broken it will be something of ours (drums, guitars, bones) not theirs.

Try and explain the blackout one gets from the first note of a live show. It’s one of the most surreal experiences of being in a band but can it be explained well by Baby Godzilla?

That’s a toughie because I really have no idea. From the first note all bets are off really. I literally switch off and don’t come to until we switch the amps to standby at the end of the set. I’ve come back to reality to Paul telling me that I managed to twat some guy with my guitar before, not good. My space awareness has gotten loads better though.

What is one of the most mental things to ever happen at one of your shows?

I have a bit of a habit of climbing things that are way too high. We played some festivals over in Poland and I ended up swinging from the rafters that were 20ft up. It’s okay though, I was wearing a helmet. Some guy in the crowd had passed me an old style Polish Army helmet! Brilliant country!

How does your lyrical content come together?

I tend to write lyrics way ahead of songs actually being put together. I’ll write pages and pages of prose, I have notebooks full of absolute drivel. When we piece together a song I tend to fish through it all and pick out something on a topic that makes sense and edit the words to fit the song. It’s quite a nice way of working, it steers you away from relying on recycled clichés in your lyrics.

Lyrically, is there one particular track that you can discuss that means something so personally that you believe to be an ‘anthem’ in your locker?

However much we’d all love it, I don’t think we’ll ever be considered an anthems band, more a band that our parents say “you’ve got such lovely voices, why have you got to do all of that shouting nonsense? I can’t tell what you’re saying!” There is however a 16/17 minute long opus that we’ve written that’s intended to close the album. The whole thing is a 3-part concept based on an unwritten trilogy from my favourite author B. S. Johnson. He wrote the first book of a Trilogy just before he died called “See the Old Lady Decently”. The whole trilogy was titled so that each book’s title would make grammatical sense as a statement alone but when all together the titles would form a complete sentence. The unwritten books were going to be called “Buried Although” and “Amongst Those Left Are You”. The song itself has a lot of political themes that share an agenda similar to that of Johnson’s

There’s also a lyric in one of the new songs that repeats over and over that I love, “You’re all whores and I’m Jack the Ripper” I absolutely love some of the lyrics for our new material. As a body of work it’s definitely my favourite that I’ve written to date.

It’s definitely the year of longer tracks so far. If there was a phrase from OCHE that has meaning more than any other, what would it be ?

We have a song on OCHE called Dave Lankester, the lyrics to that are from a really nasty angry letter that I intended to send to an ex-girlfriend. I didn’t send the letter and it’s probably a good thing but there’s a lot of emotion in the song. The lyrics are hand written in the inner sleeve to the OCHE mini-album too. I was definitely a little drunk when I composed that letter.

Matt hangs out with the crowd. Photo: Carla Mundy.

When the album drops, will you be inviting the likes of Elton John to appear on it as a guest like Queens of the Stoneage?

Probably not too be honest, although if Queens wanted to guest themselves then that would be fine. We’ll probably get a couple of pals to do little guest vocal bits and pieces, there’s a track on OCHE called Thotty that has our friend from Captain Dangerous Miles, playing violin on and Ali Powers from Hot Japanese Girl guesting on vocals. So we’re definitely not strangers to having guest appearances.

So, when you get huge and become millionaires, what will be your first extravagant musical purchase?

Probably gear that works and a Dodge Charger with blacked out windows so we can ignore our gazillions of fans.

Look out for Baby Godzilla on your travels on tour with the Wildhearts in April and beyond. All can be found on their Facebook Page.

March:
Fri 29th March: Santiagos Leeds

April:
Thu 04 Apr – w/ The Wildhearts, O2 ABC Glasgow
Fri 05 Apr – w/ The Wildhearts, Manchester Academy Manchester
Sat 06 Apr – w/ Rock City Nottingham, UK
Sun 07 Apr – w/ The Wildhearts, Wulfrun Hall Wolverhampton

May
Fri 10 May w/ Eureka Machines The Adelphi / New Adelphi Hull

Categories
Album Of The Week Album Reviews Buzz Chart Music

Pissed Jeans

‘Honeys’
Sub Pop
ALBUM OF THE MONTH

pissedjeans_honeysalbumThere’s a reason why Black Flag are so heralded and respected so long after they existed by younger generations. It’s not just the fact that they had a cool logo, it was also their inspiring drive and energy that, against all odds, saw them power their utterly uncompromising and original noise at a time when long hair, tattoos and punk rock was not a career option. They sounded the way they did because that’s how they felt and how they wanted to express their feelings. Pissed Jeans are no Black Flag tribute band, but there’s something about their ridiculously heavy punk rock noise and venomous approach that makes you feel if Black Flag had existed in this frustrating, jittering modern world, this is what they’d sound like.

Four albums in, Pennsylvanian quartet Pissed Jeans have mellowed NONE. ‘Honeys’ is a raging barrage of noise that goes nose-to-nose with all of the essential BLACKS (Big/Sabbath/Flag) with a stomping Jesus Lizard strut and a boot boy Negative Approach stomp. This is nasty music with a production so viciously heavy It’ll bite your fucking nose off, send warm jets of piss running down your thighs and render pretty much all of what passes for punk rock these days obsolete.

So, for young and old gazing into the past with rose-tinted glasses wishing there was bands as intense and FOR REAL as Black Flag still playing, fuck the nostalgia, there is and they’re called Pissed Jeans. Now hear them roar.

Download the amazing riff heavy ‘Cathouse’ track for free here.

James Sherry

Categories
Live Reviews Music

Parkway Drive Live at The Roundhouse, London

PARKWAY DRIVE
w/ Emmure, The Words Alive, Structures

The Roundhouse, London
17/11/12

Parkway Drive are the headliners at tonight’s show at a packed out London Roundhouse, and judging from the expectant air looming about the venue, it’s going to be a great night.

Up first are the techiest band tonight; Structures. They sound great and manage to get the crowd pumped up early in the night. Definitely one to watch live, as they sound a great deal more powerful on a stage than a CD.

Next on are The Word Alive, who blend melody and heaviness superbly. They manage to cram loads of songs into their relatively short set and the crowd seem to be warming to them by the middle of the performance. Pleasingly, the band seem utterly grateful to be able to play to so many people, and thank the crowd over and over, which is good to see!

Emmure are probably the ultimate marmite band. Yes, lots of people will turn their noses up at them, but they manage to pull off one of the best live performances of the year tonight. They sound monumentally heavy, and the crowd react to all of frontman Frankie’s commands without thought. They too sound better live than on a cd, thanks to massive tone and drums, along with Frankie’s unique vocal delivery. Grand.

Parkway Drive however, will ALWAYS steal the show when it comes to a live performance. Packing 2 projectors and all the lights you’d ever want onto the stage tonight, PWD are on perfect form, sounding monstrous as usual. They are deliver their set like it was their last ever show, with the crowd response matching as they go mental throughout the entire performance. With a lengthy setlist comprising of all their best songs from previous records and some huge new tracks from new release ‘Atlas’, their show is pretty much spot on, and they remain THE live band to beat. Very, very impressive indeed.

Structures
The Word Alive
Emmure
Parkway Drive
Parkway Drive
Parkway Drive

Words & Photos: Jake Owens

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Album Of The Week Album Reviews Buzz Chart Music Reviews

Parkway Drive

PARKWAY DRIVE
‘Atlas’

[Epitaph]

After creating an exceptional album with ‘Deep Blue’ expectations are high for Parkway Drive‘s November 2012 full length release ‘Atlas‘. Having such a large and passionate fan-base, Parkway Drive could put out a duff record and it still be widely adored, but there is no need for concern as the Australian quintet have yet again composed an astounding record.

Despite moving away from the completely conceptual approach of ‘Deep Blue’, Parkway Drive stick to the same format as other releases and open with an instrumental piece that slowly builds expectation when dark lyrics capture attention. Anticipation is intensely hanging in the air as ‘Old Ghosts / New Regrets’ roars into action with a driven speed that demands a mosh-pit to open.

Noting the success of the anthemic ‘Home Is For The Heartless’ from their last album, Parkway Drive have offered a few more dramatic and powerful moments which will surely cause unity at a live show. ‘The River’ and ‘Wild Eyes’ could easily fill a stadium whilst title-track ‘Atlas’ includes some exciting moments that reflect Bleeding Through’s orchestral approach.

If old-school, meaty Parkway Drive riffs are what you are crave there are still several tracks that cater for those hungry needs including ‘Sleigh of Hand’ which hosts licks similar to ‘Idols And Anchors’. And for those after a fast-paced assault on the ears, look no further than one of the closing tracks ‘Snake Oil And Holy Water’ which is sure to rip a new one into any venue.

As a whole ‘Atlas’ encompasses the true essence of what every fan loves about Parkway Drive. It could be seen as a more polished version of ‘Killing With A Smile’ whilst embracing the mature moments of ‘Deep Blue’.

Parkway Drive aren’t doing anything unconventional, they aren’t re-writing metalcore; they are continuing to define it. Each album the band produce develops over time as a milestone in the genre, in a few years time ‘Atlas’ will be reflected upon in the same inspiring light as all of their other works. Ultimately, Parkway Drive continue to set the standard in metalcore, a marker in musical excellence that very few others will reach.

Words: Emma Wallace

Categories
Live Reviews Music

Negative Approach Live at The Underworld

Negative Approach
w/ Blasted
The Underworld, Camden
15th October 2012

Boasting former members of Winnebago Deal and Do Me Bad Things amongst their ranks, Blasted’s high pedigree kicks off tonight’s proceedings in an incendiary manner. Their furious, two minute, hardcore rock n’roll songs are face-rippers delivered with a sweat soaked brilliance that bodes well for the future.

Detroit hardcore legends Negative Approach return to London for the third time since their 2006 Thurston Moore approved reunion, and despite a heckler calling them a ‘covers band’ (only two of the four original members remain) they are greeted with a suitable maelstrom not often seen on an autumnal Monday night.

Vocalist John Brannon’s face is a picture of hate and distain as he bellows through a set of classics that includes ‘Sick Of Talk’, ‘Ready To Fight’ and the pit enraging ‘Tied Down’. This band may be over thirty years old but they still play with a fire and conviction that would put their younger contemporaries to shame. Guitarist Chris Moore stands with his back to the seething crowd for the duration of a set, perspiration pouring from his brow. Like the bands original three year career, their set is short and sweet, climaxing in a rousing gang vocal of Sham 69’s ‘Borstal Breakout’.

Shows like these are largely based upon nostalgia or the term ‘heritage bands’, but for 45 minutes tonight, it was 1982 again in the Underworld. More bands should take a leaf out of NA’s reformation book.

Words: Miles Hackettt
Photo: Greg Wheeler

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Music Music News New Releases

Stream Converge Album In Full

Converge-All-That-You-Leave-Behind-Artwork-CrossfireIn preparation for 2012’s most anticipated metal/hardcore album of the year, Boston’s Converge are streaming their 8th studio album, ‘All We Love We Leave Behind’ in its entirety via Youtube (embedded below).

The album has been spinning on the Crossfire HQ stereo for sometime, and let us tell you now, its intensely heavy. No one quite channels aggression in the same way as Converge. Front man Jacob Bannon comments:

“All of our albums are emotional but I feel this is our most potent album to date… Success to me is creating something that’s moving and fulfilling and I truly feel both of those things when I listen back and experience this album from start to finish.”

All We Love We Leave Behind’ will be released October 8th via Epitaph Records (vinyl on Deathwish). Fans can pre-order the album here. Converge will be performing at the following dates:

NOVEMBER
25th, London @ Koko
26th, Birmingham @ O2 Academy 2
27th, Colchester @ Arts Centre
28th, Glasgow @ Classic Grand
29th, Manchester @ Academy 2
30th, Dublin @ The Button Factory
DECEMBER
1st, Brighton @ Concorde 2

Categories
Album Reviews Buzz Chart Music

Propagandhi

PROPAGANDHI
“Failed States”

Epitaph

Breaking News; I do not have my ear as close to ground as I used to, having failed to register that Canada’s Propagandhi recently released a new album, and it’s on Epitaph. So, having spotted this by chance in a high street music chain, whilst dodging a downpour, I duly stumped up the asking price.

I was a relatively late starter to Propagandhi, with their first 2 albums barely registering on my radar. I had them down as just-another production-line ‘Fat (Wreck)’ band. My conversion came with 3rd album “Today’s Empires, Tomorrow’s Ashes” which hit me like a jet plane. The union of Thrash Metal, Hard Rock and banging Hardcore, played out to a seriously intelligent and impassioned radical-political agenda, won me over. Learned my lesson. Have been onboard ever since.

Like all great confrontational music, you do not stick on a Propagandhi album, and then get on with something else, whilst the ‘tunes’ idly hum in the background. No fucking way. You soak up the finely crafted (rampaging) music, and give your full attention to the lyrical scripture.

Failed States ruminates not just on basket case countries in faraway places, where punks have their heads shaved by religious intolerants, and lesbian footballers are raped by men to teach them a ‘lesson’, but also closer to home, in our own free and pleasant lands, where life is not always so peachy, and it’s important to take a stand. And all this to a riotously furious soundtrack of precision executed music that veers from tender layered moments, to balls-out jackhammer Thrash/Core ultra-heaviness.

For my money, possibly their strongest album to date. Dyna-fuckin’mite.

Words: Pete Craven

Categories
Music News Preview

Bad Brains announce new album with ‘classic’ lineup

badbrains_hr

Legendary hardcore band Bad Brains have announced details of a new album today, which will see the classic lineup of H.R., Darryl Jenifer, Dr. Know and Earl Hudson all back together with smiles on their faces.

We have heard the new album ‘Into the Future’ and can tell you that it has more in common with ‘Quickness’ than ‘Rock For Light’, ‘I Against I’ or their ‘self-titled’ debut and will be released on November 19th via Megaforce Records. Here’s a taste of what’s to come.