Filed under: Life | Tags: Bear Bones, Cop Out, Four Letter Word, Gigs, Hardcore, Hardcore Punk, Leeds, Local Scene, Manchester, Music, Off With Their Heads, Post Hardcore, Punk, Punk Rock, Rock, Shows, Skate Punk
Saturdays round my way are usually pretty dull, all the best gigs tend to pop up mid week so when a band I have been raving about for some time now crop up on a Saturday, you know it is going to be a pretty special night. Santiago is a bar in the centre of Leeds, I hadn’t heard of it before but the room upstairs was excellent for intimate punk rock shows exactly like this one, the drinks were a little bit on the pricey side.
Bear Bones were a late addition to the line up, replacing Fuck With Fire who pulled out for one reason or another. The set was short and sweet, they played melody laced angsty punk which was solid if a little familiar. Because the set was so short, it was over before it had started really but the riffs were catchy and the vocals gruff (except for the girly vocals), I couldn’t really see because there was a bunch of tall dudes down front but it sounded frenetic and fun so I imagine they were probably giving it some welly. I am keen to see these again in a few months.
If you haven’t heard Cop Out, you should probably hand in your scene pass and start listening to Korn or something. Actually don’t do that, just listen to Cop Out and you will be fine. Hailing from Sheffield via New Jersey, and with a PhD in Yemin-ology, these chaps really know how to bring the big noisey melodies. Every song was a banger of anthemic proportions, they really just made you want to sucker punch the air and holler along in that generic gig voice that everyone does. They were just mint and I am looking forward to catching them at the Last Lung all dayer towards the end of this month, you should probably be there.
I was told not to bother with Four Letter Word, but I stuck it out. Yes, that is right, I braved out this band so I could tell you all about it, fearless reader. They weren’t bad at all, to be honest. In between the frontman’s wanker-esque banter they played some pretty excellent punk rock. The sort of stuff that hits you while its on but fades fast shortly after. The songs were basic, a couple of chords and one or two drum fills, add shouting to taste and Bobs your song. This is a band I can happily listen to all day long, but not one who instill with any mad rush to grab as many 7″ as I can and bolt for the nearest turntable.
Off With Their Heads are great, like really really great. They can spin a punk rock anthem like no other band around, every songs is full to bursting with tongue in cheek observations about life, love and anything else that matters spat onto chuggy guitars and 4/4 drums. The buzz from the tightly squeezed in crowd was excellent, fists in the air and coughing out lyrics word for word in that voice I mentioned up there in the Cop Out bit. They were funny and self effacing in the quiet sections, playing loads of requests and the cream of their crop of releases in the not so quiet bits. They played a pretty long and excellent set and I am pretty sure they left safe in the knowledge that they rocked everyone’s shirts off.
The show was followed by a club night which I didn’t stick around for.
Speaking of club nights though, Refuse To Lose is on this coming Saturday at Retro Bar in Manchester. I trust I shall see you all there.
Also coming up are these:
Are you as excited as I am?
There is more good stuff happening, and I will add it as I remember.
Also my band should be having a show soon too, I’ll make sure you all know about it so you can watch me sweat/play bass badly.
Filed under: Life | Tags: Crust, D-Beat, Fast, Fastcore, Hammers, Hardcore, Hardcore Punk, Local Scene, Manchester, Music, Powerviolence, Punk, Punk Rock, ska, Thrash
So I lost my job, and haven’t been to any shows for ages so didn’t really have a lot to write about on here. But I thought fuck it, lets write about some stuff I have heard lately. So here goes:
So the Hammers 7″ came out a few weeks ago, and you have probably already heard it by now but I shall let you know what I thought. Before I talk about the wonder held within, I want to talk about the packaging. Screen printed on rough home recycled paper, it looks excellent and worth £3 alone. But you actually get a record inside too! It has the muddy sound we have come to expect from Hammers, but the majority of it is crystal clear muddiness except for a few forays into dirge which get lost in the noise. The songs are obviously excellent, just the sort of grim, fast, D-beat-esque stuff that is so hot right now. The 7″ kicks off with Mass Producing Death, which is a live favourite of mine so I was appeased, the real highlight is the second side’s kick off track Odin’s Doom, it sounds the best of all the tracks on the record, crunching and blasting in all the right places. Its fifteen minutes of unrelenting, sheer grimness that can’t be matched, six tracks of blasting D-beats, guitar octaves and throat aching screams, it really is just dead good. Basically, you should buy it as soon as possible as they are flying out like hot vegan cakes.
Also out is the Hammers Year One cassette. You can probably order both of these at http://www.myspace.com/hammers625.
Have you heard The Grebs? I found them on Myspace and gave them a listen, I dug what I heard. Then they went and sent me a sampler for their forthcoming album along with three newly recorded tracks. This was absolutely ages ago, and I’m sorry for taking my time with it. The kick off track Infested: A Police State is excellent, Leftover Crack have been letting me down with their limited output since Mediocre Generica and The Grebs pick up where they left off. Is it ska-core? I don’t what you would call it, there are ska parts and there are hardcore parts, they rarely overlap. They call it dubdowncore. Its an interesting mix and The Grebs take it further than their Crack laced counterparts visiting more with the NYHC style. The songs are sample heavy with dialogues about CCTV and global warming etc. There were three new tracks included with my sampler, the recording was crisper and they seem to have picked up some brass along the way. The band have developed between these recordings, the new songs are tighter, better and more original. What We Live For is the stand out track out of what I have heard so far, sometimes you could believe that these guys were hanging around NY in its hardcore prime whilst listening to Desmond Dekker. I reckon when this album finally comes out, its going to be a belter.
You can buy the sampler, or generally have a bit of a listen at http://www.myspace.com/thegrebs.
I got an add request on the social network site today from a band named Face Of Death. They have three tracks on their myspace, which are all excellent. Its fast, noisy and spazz-esque, which is about as good as it gets! And they are a ruddy two piece to boot.
Buy a cassette or listen here, http://www.myspace.com/fodthrash.
In other news, I got my shit together and started making some dirty, fast and shitty music with some cool people. You can hear our dodgy, one mic recordings on the myspace. I haven’t got a new job yet though.
Filed under: Life | Tags: Brat Pack, Burning The Prospect, Crust, D-Beat, Emo, Fast, Fastcore, Gigs, Hammers, Hardcore, Hardcore Punk, Jonathan Ross, Lanc-Faster, Lancaster, Local Scene, Manchester, Mesa Verde, Music, Nowhere Fast, Post Hardcore, Powerviolence, Punk, Punk Rock, Rock, screamo, Shows, Skate Punk, Slow Riot, The 255s, The Ergon Carousel, The Shitty Limits, Thrash, We Happened Next
Rarely have I had a day as good as Saturday 17th January 2009. It was a little bit like the stars had aligned and the northern lights descended onto Lancaster. Probably. I don’t actually know what any of that means, what I am trying to say is that Lanc Faster #1 was not only a success, but unbelievably, ridiculously, and in every other way brilliant.
So big kudos to Thom from Slow Riot for putting all this together and selling me some 12″s from his distro too. And props to the other people involved in making it awesome (the dude who did sound was awesome, and the dude who manned the door and everyone else involved). The venue was so great, it looked like a standard room for bands but it actually secretly contained bags and bags of excellent acoustics.
Here, in true ExB style, is a run down of the bands and what I thought.
The day kicked off with We Happened Next! (or WExHAPPENEDxNEXT depending on where you look). They were great. Obviously. I’ve already raved about them once, so I’m not going to just sit here writing about how great the same three bands are all the time. Well, not any more anyway. Yeah, they were great. They played party thrashcore and it was rad. I missed a bit of it because I jumped on stage to sing Scholastic Deth’s Revenge Of The Nerds with them. There wasn’t an awful lot of people there yet, but the buzz was pretty buzzy already. They are still one my favourite local bands, sometimes in secret I wish that Hammers would play less so xWHNx could play more!
Speaking of best bands in an area, Jonathan Ross are just amazing. I’ve already raved about these too. They ploughed through a massive set list and barely stopped for breath. Faster than a speeding bullet and just as likely to leave you in a crumpled, bloody heap. When the set was over, I was literally in a daze. Maybe it could be attributed to a mild seizure brought on by the incessent strobe lights focussing almost exclusively at both of my eyes, but I like to think it was the sheer awesomeness of what I had just witnessed. They need to get some releases out there pretty sharpish.
Nowhere Fast proved they are consistent as well as awesome. Just as they were last time I saw them, they were fast, angry and dirty. They did lose some points for not playing my favourite track of their demo, White Van Man, but you can’t have everything. Even so, it is just excellent 80’s style pissed off punk violence. And that is all you ever need in my opinion.
NickC and Andy took to the stage again, this time with Hammers. Those boys have stamina. Hammers played the same set as the previous night at the 1 in 12, but the sound was infinitely better than in Bradford. Although the bass was a little bit low. The strobes were still causing me issues but Hammers sounded the best I have heard them, and they looked rad through the haze of the smoke machine.
Brat Pack also sounded better than in Bradford, perhaps spurred on by the crowd’s (including yours truly) party mosh antics. The songs were still bouncy, fun and fast. I can’t wait for them to come over again!
I don’t know an awful lot about The 255’s. Their slow, late 80’s dischord, emo-esque, gruff pop sound took me by surprise, especially on this bill. They played nice, although I wasn’t sold on the vocals, and they won me over with their banter. “We are only here to counteract the fastness of The Ergon Carousel”, they announced.
They were really fucking fast too, The Ergon Carousel. As far as I am aware, this was there second show. Featuring former members of the excellent Narcosis and armed with a barrage of brutal noise they smashed through their set without flinching or waning. Like I said, they were fast. And loud. Really, really loud. Generally, I’m not a fan of grind live, it is the sort of thing where I really have to be in the right frame of mind but they were excellent. They have a six track EP out on Holy Roar which you should almost definitely get.
Things got a bit lairy in the bar downstairs, and due to muchos cider and jaeger, I managed to miss the entire Hygiene set. Bummer. Andy from Hammers said that they were a “bunch of shiny shoed bastards” anyway.
I managed to compose myself and made it back upstairs in time to go party mosh insane to Burning The Prospect, the crowning glory of the current Boston (not Boston) scene. Playing heady D-Beat with plenty of crust and cores thrown in for good measure, their grim sound akin to Tragedy and blah blah blah, you’ve heard all the comparisons and don’t need me to be going on about what they sound like. Just get the 7″, get down to a show and get blown away.
I thought Mesa Verde sounded a bit like Fall Of Efrafa. Everybody else disagreed, after to listening to Mesa Verde since I would agree with their disagreement (confused? Yeah, me too). Either way, they were pretty incredible. Mixing euro screamo, with Rites Of Spring and chucking around some post rock bits really bloody works. The music had a truly epic feel about it, building large sound scapes and smashing them down with the heavy bits.
The whole thing came to a head with The Shitty Limits. I’ve had their 7″ Here Are The Limits for a while now, but hadn’t managed to catch them live yet. They swaggered around the stage area playing speedy but sloppy garage punk like Iggy Pop Jr with an air of smugness that was, frankly, pretty fitting. The vocalist guy did kick me in face while the final human pyramid of the evening was taking shape but I’m not one for punk rock grudges. They were great and I am a massive fan.
The whole thing was over dead on time, which is an excellent achievement. Props go out to whoever brought the vegan pasties and the cake which were both excellent, and also double props to Thom for putting together such a ruddy good line up. Extra props to the dude with the distro where I got the Joe Pesci/Sylvester Staline and the Warboys/TAG splits.
I feel like Exhibit, handing all these mad props out.
If you are out and about in the next few weeks, you’ll see me in or around the pit for these:
Rot In Hell and Iron Clad have pulled out though. The Hammers 7″ should be on sale at this show, so you probably shouldn’t miss it.
And there is the sweatbox show tomorrow, xWHNx, Jonathan Ross, Fuck With Fire and Valhalla Pacifists. I can’t find the bloody poster for it, can I? Which is a shame because it is good.
No news on my band yet. Which is a bit rubbish really.
Filed under: Life | Tags: Bradford, Brat Pack, Crust, D-Beat, Fast, Fastcore, GiftGas Attack, Gigs, Hammers, Hardcore, Hardcore Punk, Local Scene, Manchester, Punk, Punk Rock, Riistetyt, Rock, The Wankys
On Friday night, the Hannah and I hopped into the mini and trundled over to Bradford to watch a few bands and have a generally good time. I had fun, Hannah didn’t dig it so much (it wasn’t Paramore, y’see). Also I am aware that none of these bands (except Hammers) are really local. But it happened in the local area. So it totally counts.
We arrived a bit late, I got a bit lost on the way to the 1 in 12 Club and called my buddy, Morgan, to find out where the hell we needed to go. While I was on the phone I could hear the opening chords to Odin’s Doom coming from Hammers. I knew I had to rush. Luckily, we weren’t too late and only missed a bit of the Hammers set. The sound wasn’t great, the bass was nice and high but the guitars were a bit low. Everything sounded a bit muddy. They played tight as always, and the crowd certainly looked like they were digging it. They played almost the exact same set as last time I saw them (which isn’t a complaint) so there isn’t an awful lot more to say on Hammers. They really are great though, you should definitely get out to see them soon.
The Wankys were next, much to my delight. I wasn’t familiar with their output before this gig, but I am a big fan of the bands they emulate such as The Swankys, Gai and other Japanese noise punk stuff. There was a few technical glitches, and the effect on the guitar meant they could literally play any note they wanted and it would not make a difference to the sound. It was good fun and very loud.
Brat Pack had popped over from the Netherlands to play some 80’s style hardcore punk, and boy did they play it well! They ploughed through about thirteen tracks of Adolescents style tunes and didn’t stop till everyone was into it. If there is to be a criticism laid on Brat Pack it would be that, while being excellent at what they do, they haven’t really forged their own sound. But that isn’t really a massive deal. I liked them enough to buy a CD which has already had a few spins.
I must admit, I was a bit let down by Gift Gas Attack. They played too sloppy for me to enjoy it at all and they made no real use of the dual vocalists. It was just one scream followed by another slightly different pitched scream. GGA played for a little bit longer than I would have liked but kept the studded jacket wearers engrossed for the whole set. I’m partial to a lot of Swedish crusty stuff, but this just didn’t do it for me. I haven’t written them off though, I’ll definitely check them out again.
I only caught was half of the Riistetyt set. I really enjoyed their older stuff but this sounded to me like a completely different band. The sludgy riffs seemed wrong and the vocals didn’t quite cut as they should. Maybe it got better, but we cut out before the end so I guess we’ll never know.
I didn’t stick around to watch Hygiene or The Shitty Limits, I was saving that for Lanc-Faster the following day! But thats another story altogether…
If you are about on Friday, I recommend you go to this and pick up the new album on sexy purple vinyl. The artwork is really awesome and the album sounds exactly like it does in my review a few blogs down. Unfortunately, I won’t be there as it is my anniversary. But go, and have a whale of a time. I believe The Freezing Fog will be playing a massive set spanning their short, but prolific, career.
You’ll have to wait a few days for Lanc-Faster review. I’m still trying to get over how awesome it was. It all needs to sink in.
Filed under: Life | Tags: Above Them, Emo, Gigs, Indie, Lanc-Faster, Local Scene, Manchester, North West, Post Hardcore, Post Rock, Powerpop, Preston, Punk Rock, Sheffield, Shows, The Cost Of Living, The Lock & Keys, Wooderson
Today, I shall be sending some pop punk and emo bands your way after the d-beat vs powerviolence-a-thon that has been the blog so far. So here are some prime cuts of local singy types where you can actually hear the words. I’ve got a cold, so things are all a bit emo over here at the moment.
The Lock & Keys:
Do you remember D-Rail? I do. They were great. Kerrang gave them 4 Ks, but don’t hold that against them, they really were bloody good. The Lock & Keys feature one of the dudes from D-Rail, but really they are a completely different animal. Playing punk that seems to be influenced by all corners of the US scene, you can hear Latterman, you can hear Say Anything, you can hear early Piebald, you can even hear a bit of some of the mellower sections of Planes Mistaken For Stars in there. This all makes for an excellent listening experience, every track on the myspace is an absolute pop punk stomper. The lyrics are clever and the tunes are toe tappingly awesome, and there are even awesome synthy parts. Basically you should check these out before they get picked up by Big Scary Monsters.
The Cost Of Living:
Do you like Lemuria? If you do, the chances are this Manchester combo are as much for you as they are for me. Featuring one of Hammers (yeah, I couldn’t write a whole blog without them coming up) and some other people who I have never met, they manage to make lady vocal punk rock without sounding too much like any of their contemporaries. It really is just good fun punk rock, you know the sort that makes you want to dance. The recordings on the myspace vary in quality but that raw quality fits such a obviously-have-to-see-them-live band. I am darn looking forward to getting to see them at the Last Lung all dayer. Actually, thats not until March and it would be pretty darn depressing if I had to wait that long. I’ll go and see them sooner, and so should you.
Wooderson:
To fully appreciate this band, it needs to be as loud as possible. You have all heard them, I assume. If you haven’t go and listen to them now! The new track sounds like Mclusky bumming Minor Threat. Do things get any better than that? Post rock with punk influences without the boring wanky bits makes this sound like a distressed Q And Not U. Every note is crisp and clear, every word is placed for maximum effect. These are almost guarenteed to blow up so hard, you really should get in now. They are playing in the Pack Horse in Leeds on the 23rd of this month. I’ll be there. Will you? (If the answer is no, you probably need to re-evaluate your life’s direction)
Charlieshero:
Word on the myspace is that this bunch of mellowheads will have an album out some time this year, I will be in the queue to get that checked out. The songs are epic and chilled with focus on generating the sort of euphoria that listening to some real good Pink Floyd can induce, they are also lengthy but never boring. This is definitely for fans of GSY!BE and early Mogwai. I don’t know an awful lot about the post-rock scene around these parts, but based on these and Day For Airstrikes I shall be delving in deeper still.
Above Them:
Here is a story of local boys come good. These are set to be even more massive than they are these days. Its anthemic emoindierock in the vein of early TBS and other more credible bands. I dig it.
Don’t forget about this next Saturday:
Jesus Christ, this is going to be far too awesome.
Also I finally got my shit together and managed to get a band sorted. We shall be jamming soon and no doubt mashing up your head at some sort of gig type show. Hopefully, anyway. Rad stuff.
Ron Asheton of The Stooges left us last week after having one of them heart attacks.
This is dead bad news, like.
Filed under: Upcoming Events | Tags: Cold Ones, Crust, D-Beat, Fast, Fastcore, Gigs, Hardcore, Hardcore Punk, Harrogate, Lanc-Faster, Lancaster, Local Scene, Manchester, Music, Nowhere Fast, Punk, Punk Rock, Retro Bar, Shows, Thrash
See that line up? That is basically every band I have raved about in this here blog so far.
Aaand Brat Pack are playing, who are rad.
Its £9 though.
I heartily endorse this show and hope I see every one of you in the pit.
Other upcoming rad shows that are ExB approved:
I will update this with awesome January gigs, yeah?
Filed under: Life, Liverpool, Music, Punk Rock | Tags: Barfly, Bow & Arrow, Cold Ones, Crust, Fast, Fastcore, Gigs, Hammer Attack, Hardcore, Hardcore Punk, Liverpool, Local Scene, Manchester, Music, Nowhere Fast, Punk, Punk Rock, Shows, Sports Day, Thrash
(I think they were meal worms actually)
I heard about this gig pretty late on Friday but managed to rally a lift over to Liverpool which was excellent. If you know me at all then you probably know that I love Hammer Attack, so to see them play their last ever gig was a must for me. I had never been to the Barfly in Liverpool before. It was a pretty decent venue, perfect for close DIY shows. At one point, some dude tipped maggots or meal worms into my cupped hands and as we left all I could feel was the crunching on insects as we walked out. The show was put on by Meshuggy who seem to be a multi purpose promoter.
The gig kicked off with Nowhere Fast, who were featured members of Hammer Attack, most notably the drummer from HA on vocals. It was fast and violent punk rock with elements of crust and powerviolence played well and with a straight face. I’m going to scout out any demos or recordings that I can find of these; I thoroughly enjoyed it and cannot wait to see them again.
Next band up was Sports Day, sitting in the apex between the triforce of Henry Fiat’s Open Sore, Dean Dirg and The Shitty Limits with power pop riffage under hardcore inflected vocals, all the while the vocalist jerked and spazzed around like he was in a Talking Heads video. It was all great fun, and they got a small pit going. They were definitely one of the best new punk bands I have seen in a long time and can’t wait till they undoubtedly reach similar status to that of Cold Ones.
Hammer Attack are fucking awesome, my love of HA started a year or so back when I saw them play in some dingy little venue down south and I have been hooked ever since. This was their last ever show which is terrible news for me and my ears; luckily they were giving away demo CDs to mark the occasion. They played fast and sloppy powerviolent noisecore to such a perfect degree you would think they invented the genre, just the right amount of punky breakdowns and hardcore beatdowns make it sound so fresh and new. This is a band that will definitely be missed.
Things went a bit odd next; the show took a turn I wasn’t expecting when the next band took to the stage. Bow & Arrow are a misnomer, they were a shock and that is something I cannot overstate. On a bill of fast punk bands, they stood out a mile. Its not that they didn’t play fast, because they definitely did. Either way, it was fucking excellent. I have had a difficult time explaining what this band were like to people who have asked, the best way I have found is “imagine if Kyuss spent their youth listening to Black Flag, SSD and Infest instead of Sabbath and their ilk”. I have had a nosy on their Myspace page and they don’t seem to have recorded anything yet, but they need to get a demo out there for sure.
Local celebrities Cold Ones took to the stage next, it was their Vomit release show although the album wasn’t ready just yet. If you haven’t heard Cold Ones yet, you probably live under a stone, their repertoire of barnstorming anthemic fast punk rock bangers is the stuff of legend. It is easy to see why these are one of the most popular bands on the current scene, they are funny, tight and always engaging. There were some decent mosh rucks, the sound was crisp and clear and the band played excellent.
If there was anything wrong with this show, it was that there was no distro or merch stand. I wanted CDs aplenty and maybe even a tee or two.
Also, I may or may not have a cassette including the new Cold Ones album so you might be seeing a review of that pretty darn soon.
