Tag: punk

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Buzz Chart

Solids

solids
Solids
‘Off White’
Fat Possum

Your teenage years are often regarded as particularly challenging ones. With the pressures of interacting with the opposite sex, learning to drive a car, trying to be a social butterfly with tons of friends, and awkwardly stumbling your way into what everyone else felt the need to call ‘the rest of your life’, it was a whirlwind of emotion for even the best of us.

But who would’ve thought these trials and tribulations of youth could be portrayed so well in a music video by a scuzz punk two piece from Montreal? Hit play below and watch the lobster boy strike out on his own and beat the bullies. The good guys always get the girl in the end, right?

‘Off White’ is taken from Solids debut album Blame Confusion, out now on Fat Possum.

Categories
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.

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Music Music News New Releases

Sonic Boom Six unveil new video

Manchester’s Sonic Boom Six have released the video for their latest single ‘Keep On Believing’, which is due to be released February 11. The track is taken from the bands self-titled album, which expresses political views and around the way our world is ran.

Vocalist Laila K said, “Personally this is my favourite song off the album as it reminds me of when I got into music and bands and how passionate and positive music can make you feel.”

The storyline of the video has something to do with the World Darts Championship 2013, not your average punk rock music video, eh?

The female fronted punk band are currently touring with The Blackout, check out where they’re going below:

22 January – Liquid Room, Edinburgh

23 January – HMV Institute Birmingham, Birmingham

25 January – Electric Ballroom, London

26 January – HMV Ritz, Manchester

Sonic Boom Six’s headline tour dates are below:

8 February – Swindon, The Furnace

9 February – Guildford, The Boileroom

10 February – Brighton, Audio

11 February– Sheerness, The Ivy

12 February– Southend, Chinnery’s

13 February- Milton Keynes, The Craufurd Arms

15 February – Rugby, Vault

16 February– Sheffield, Corporation

17 February – Preston, 53 Degrees

19 February – Carlisle, The Brickyard

20 February – Aberdeen, Tunnels

22 February – Belfast, Stiff Kitten

23 February – ROI, Dublin, Fibber Magees

25 February – York, The Duchess

26 February – Scunthorpe, The Baths Hall

27 February – Stoke-on-Trent, The Sugarmill

 

Keep on Believing by Sonic Boom Six

Categories
Buzz Chart Reviews Single Reviews

The Wytches

The Wytches – Digsaw

tthewytches_brightonBrighton has a strange but pleasant scene. Be it, music, skateboarding, art or general culture, you can pretty much discover something interesting on the coastline down there without having to dig too hard. We discovered The Wytches at a show in London last week, a new band that have just released this new video and are making themselves heard in the run up to the 2013.

If you take the psych garage-rock vibes of the 13th Floor Elevators and MC5, then pound them into your ear canal with a dose of Bleach era Nirvana, you will be somewhere close in finding their sound. Of course though, every band has it’s own unique formula and The Wytches deliver noise filled, catchy tunes that are worthy of your time.

Keep an eye out for them.

Categories
Features

Vans Warped Tour UK 2012


10,000 music fans, 28 bands from 6 countries performing across 4 stages with 4,065 cans of Monster Energy Drink consumed, sums up the triumphant success that was 2012’s sold out Vans Warped Tour UK.

After soaking up the brilliant atmosphere for the early part of the event at London’s iconic Alexandra Palace, team Crossfire situated themselves in the main room to bring you back the info on performances from the Monster stages.

First off, we caught Breathe Carolina [3/5]. Now obviously this sort of electro/screamo vibe is not normally the kind of thing you would hear us raving about, but fair play to the duo, they really know how to work a crowd. The music maybe takes itself a little too seriously considering it is essentially just pop, but nonetheless, Breathe Carolina are widely adored by hyper-active fans.

Breathe Carolina

Following Breathe Carolina comes a completely different monster, UK born and bred metalcore titans, Architects [5/5]. Their thunderous blast beats and sub drops destroy the ear drums of a riff hungry crowd who respond with the biggest pits of the event so far. ‘Follow The Water’ and ‘These Colours Don’t Run’ are particular highlights of Architects’ set which ends with a union of voices screaming ‘You Fucking Pigs’ and the whole band surfing across the crowd.

Architects
On Stage With Architects
On Stage With Architects

3oh!3 [4/5] introduce themselves as a pop band, realistically that’s what they are, not typically a traditional Warped Tour artist. However, when you perform with such stage presence it doesn’t matter what genre you are tied to. ‘Don’t Trust Me’, ‘Starstrukk’ and ‘Punkbitch’ are all guilty pleasures to a crowd usually fed on punk and metal, but there really is no shame in enjoying these pop tarts when the bass is cranked up to such a dirty level.

Bringing the music back to the classic sound of Warped Tour, New Found Glory [3/5] bounce through an energetic set featuring all their hits with ‘My Friends Over You’ and a cover of Sixpence None The Richer’s ‘Kiss Me’ highlighting a charismatic performance. Showing professional brilliance, the band fought through technical difficulties to produce some of the most fun filled pits of the day. Even without being the biggest pop-punk fan, the infectious and uplifting sense of nostalgia was enough to get anyone involved.

After having been away from consciousness for a while, The Used [4/5] return to the UK with a commanding presence. ‘All That I’ve Got’ and ‘The Taste Of Ink’ are captivating and allow fans to reminisce the days when The Used were undoubtedly the king of emo. But it’s ‘Pretty Handsome Awkward’ that stands out of a polished set due to the punishing pit it creates.

Although known for being a bit hit and miss when it comes to live performances, Bring Me The Horizon [5/5] stole the show this time around at Warped. If the sound of screaming was deafening when the band walked on to the stage, words cannot describe the intensity when front man Oli Sykes appeared. It seems this generation’s metal poster boy left his demons behind for Bring Me’s set, as his presence was nothing short of iconic. Technically brilliant, impeccably tight, energetic across the stage and featuring surprisingly impressive clean vocals from Jona Weinhofen, this performance cements Bring Me The Horizon as the ones to beat in metal with new material from forthcoming album ‘Sempiternal’ sounding equally as brilliant as previous work.

Oli Sykes - Bring Me The Horizon
Oli Sykes
Bring Me The Horizon

Oddly enough, Lostprophets [3/5] appear a little out of place as headliners. Although their extensive and impressive history earns them this slot, they aren’t quite the buzz band they used to be. But ‘Shinobi vs Dragon Ninja’ brings utter destruction whilst ‘Rooftops’ holds the crowd firmly in the palm of Ian Watkin’s hand. When a set list is filled with classics such as ‘Can’t Catch Tomorrow’ and ‘Last Train Home’ you wonder why we ever doubted their dominance.

Ian Watkins - Lostprophets
Lostprophets
Vans Warped Tour UK Crowd

Words: Emma Wallace
Photos: Emma Wallace

Categories
Music Music News

New Bad Religion Track & Album Details

Punk band Bad Religion have announced they will release their new album ‘True North’ this coming January 21st via Epitaph Records. The album sees Bad Religion going back to their roots with its first single boldly titled “F*ck You” co-songwriter and guitarist Brett Gurewitz comments:

“We went back to our original mission statement of short concise bursts of melody and thought. The intent was to record stripped down punk songs without sacrificing any conceptual density. If any band should have a song with that title it should be us. It just sounds like a perfect Bad Religion song.”

Fans are invited to pre-order the album here

Categories
Music Music News

New Crowns Video and Album News

Exciting folk/punk prospect Crowns have unveiled a new video for forthcoming single ‘Parting In The Porch’ which is out 29th October 2012. Vocalist / guitarist Bill Jefferson comments on the track:

“It’s a nostalgic letter to my younger self, remembering parties on the beach, chasing the girls. Really it’s about the realisation that you never actually lose that dangerous innocence.”

The single is taken from debut album ‘Stitches In The Flag’ set for release 5th November 2012. The 11 track record was recorded with Tim Goalen (Mark Ronson, Crowns EP) and Richard Woodcraft (The Vaccines, Arctic Monkeys). It’s set to highlight an already promising year for the Cornish band who racked up live performances at Reading & Leeds Festival, Bestival and a support slot with Blink 182 over the summer.

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Album Reviews Buzz Chart Music Reviews

Sex Pistols

SEX PISTOLS
“Never Mind The Bollocks (Deluxe Edition)
[UNIVERSAL]

To mark 35 years since its original release, a bumper “Bollocks” box-set has been released this month, along with, for the less fanatical, or more cash strapped punter, this ‘deluxe’ double-disc package. Disc One is “Bollocks” in all its glory. A dozen songs that have stood the test of time and all these years later still pack a mighty punch made up of raucous anthems. I hardly ever spin the original album, but I don’t need to, these songs are etched in to my consciousness. Not only is the music still absolutely rocking, and loaded with Jonesy’s beefy riffs, but Johnny’s vocals remain truly volatile, as he goads, threatens, and snarls at an unsuspecting populace. The rhyming of “Birmingham” and “Abortion” in “Bodies” is lyrical genius.

Let’s not forget too, the album was recorded whilst the band were in a state of flux, with original bassist Glen Matlock jettisoned in favour of the uber charismatic, but musically inept, Sid Vicious. So inept, that Steve Jones recorded most of the bass parts as well on these songs, showing he wasn’t exactly the “Lazy Sod” he professed to be.

Tagged on to Disc One are the B-Sides of their 7″s, all great songs in their own right, but there’s no “I Wanna Be Me”. Not sure why. The pisstaking “New York”, with Johnny sniping about those “poor little faggots” in the NY Dolls, who Malcolm McLaren had managed a few years earlier, is surely evidence the internal battle lines were already being drawn. And listening to “EMI”, the irony wasn’t lost on me that their current label (Universal) is in the process of acquiring said label that hastily cut their losses with the ‘Pistols back in the day. What comes around eh…

Disc Two is live recordings from ’77. A bootleg of the Sweden set will have long been housed in completest collections, and to close are 3 rough tracks from Penzance, Cornwall… “Problems/No Fun/Anarchy”… total primal energy… bosh!

So, that’s what you get on this double-deluxe-disc package. I know pretty much everyone who would want a copy of “Bollocks” already has at least one version, but its historic importance cannot be overstated. The music really does still sound that fuckin’ great. It’s an unlimited supply… and you know the reason why!

Words: Pete Craven

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.