endless bummer


XMASX
December 28, 2008, 11:01 am
Filed under: Life, Music | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

So it is now the holidays, the big day is over and I hope you all had a rad time. Now it is the season to change everything about yourself, go to lots of rad shows and get more involved.

Here are some reviews that I have been saving up.

Sports Day – Style That Lasts
The EP kicks off with Get Your Own Back, complete with Rolling Stone-esque riffing and sweary sweary lyrics. Its a slow start but it gets you in the Sports Day zone. The four tracks that follow are fast, poppy, dirty, original and are designed to get you bounding around at their shows. Easily my favourite track on this CD is Egg And Spoon, which is fast and not dissimilar to a cache of powerviolence groups which just goes to prove that this bunch of kids influences come from all over the shop. The vocals are brash, the guitar cuts likes a sloppy knife, the drummer is clear and thumpy. Everything sits right in the mix making this a flipping excellent demo and the artwork is pretty spiffy too. I reviewed these cats live not so long ago and tipped them for pretty grand things and this demo cements that, it captures the feel of Sports Day live without being sloppy or poorly produced.
Buy it here.

Fuck Right Off – S/T
From the second that the opening sample clicks off, the fast, muddy drumming starts and doesn’t let up until track 12. Occasionally the cymbals have a tendency to sound swimmy, particularly on the opener Fuck Right Off but the snare is clear and sometimes that is all you need. The songs are fast and thrashy, switching from Infest to Scholastic Deth to Spazz to Capitalist Casualities then back again at the drop of a pick. The twelve tracks are over pretty sharpish, with the whole cd just clocking in at 7:47, but each song has its hook and its purpose, I get the impression the lyrics are charged with politics but the vocals lie a bit too low in the mix to make anything out. It is hard to be original in powerviolence or thrashcore, but FxRxOx have enough of their own steam to set themselves apart from other similar bands,  While sometimes it meanders into the territory of the established order of groups mentioned above, they fit solely into their fastcore niche. Its a pretty rad cd, which is a must own for Spazz fans, powerviolence and fastcore fans.
Available for download here.

The Freezing Fog – The Freezing Fog
This is a proper album, it sounds crisp, clear and well produced. Which it should, because it was produced by Kurt Ballou somewhere  in America. Before you even get down to this music, that is a pretty impressive boast if you are into that sort of thing. Which I am. The album kicks straight into the action with jams being pumped from the first nanosecond, those jams being poppy, hard rock, anthemic types akin to later days Metallica. In fact, I would describe The Freezing Fog to someone who hadn’t ever heard them as having the mainstream sound of Metallica or Nickelback but rocking, like, 50 times harder, although I reckon this is down to having similar influences rather than aping styles. The mix is excellent and sounds close to perfect bar from occasionally the drums dip a touch. The riffs are air tight and the pinch harmonics sound like they could slice through a brick. Although sometimes the vocals can seem a bit generic occasionally, this is actually because you are probably taking for granted how good they are, they fit in with the rocky atmospherics but sometimes can be a bit too clean. The whole album plays like a retro jam off, . Although some of the tracks on the version I heard didn’t connect smoothly from the one to the next, it is pretty difficult to pick stand out tracks as almost every track has the potential to be a breakout single except for that one that sounded very reminiscent of Fever Dog from Almost Famous. Retro rock with a production sheen that shows that The Freezing Fog are tipped for greatness. Also the cover art is absolutely fantastic.
Pre-order it here.

It doesn’t look like the actual Cold Ones album was on that tape, and if it was it didn’t bloody work. Either way, I was gutted. Roll on the release boys!

Rip It Up are a band from Newcastle who I recently found on myspace who are all about the skating and the brewskis. It is awesome Bad Brains/Bones Brigade/other bands that begin with B type thrash crossover that is really lacking in the UK at the moment. Word on the street is there is a new demo on its way out shortly, so keep ‘em peeled. And look how awesome that tee design is. Yes, it is really that awesome. Geez.

The SLit Bollox To Xmas show is tonight, so try and get down. Hammers will be sicking it up along with Dogflesh and all the other bands on the poster that is about on this blog somewhere. It is going to be mint so you should just come, yeah?

2 Comments


A HANDFUL OF MAGGOTS
December 21, 2008, 5:19 am
Filed under: Life, Liverpool, Music, Punk Rock | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

(I think they were meal worms actually)
cold-ones
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.

3 Comments


PLAY IT FAST
December 11, 2008, 12:55 pm
Filed under: Life, Manchester, Music | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Been a few days, I am more prolific than normal. I’m pretty sure that will wear off soon. Just don’t expect too much, eh?

Last night I hit a rad gig at the Retro Bar, I’d never been there before. The upstairs was horrible, a ratty little pub with dirty seats and wet beer. The downstairs wasn’t much better, cramped and whiffy. The acoustics were all a bit wrong too, none of that was going to put me off sticking around to watch the four bands put on by The Real Collective which cost but £5.

First band on were Hammers, and the main reason I was there to be honest (along with grabbing that Hammer Attack demo!). They played fast and nasty crusty hardcore fast. The overall sound was a soul rattlingly loud, but the buzz from the band were awesome. From looking at their myspace page, I was lead to believe they sing about Norse mythology amongst other things, you wouldn’t get this from watching the show, but still it was awesome. This is just the kind of fast, d-beat type stuff you can get your teeth into, I look forward to seeing them again soon. I just wish they would just fucking release something I could buy, take heed boys!
Next up was Hail Brethren, containing at least two of the members from Hammers. While I applaud the ability to play two sets in a row, I couldn’t get into Hail Brethren at all. The fast and frenetic style of emo-core just didn’t hit me in that sweet spot (you know the one), maybe if I had heard them a few years back this would be an all together different write up. They played tight and loud, and the vocalist was certainly going for it so it was easy to see why the majority dug it. The poster likened them to Cursive, where as I would say they had more in common with Thursday with those searing riffs, chuggy breakdowns and nicey nicey versus shouty vocal style. The bass was too loud, louder than most of the other instruments which irked me slightly, but overall they played with the sort of enthusiasm and vigour that makes it impossible not to smile, nod your head and wish you had a fringe.
The Down And Outs are great street punk band from Liverpool, if you haven’t heard of them by now you probably don’t deserve to. Their particular brand of pop fuelled, choral singalong numbers never fail to engage the crowd, and this show was no exception. Infinitely better than the Hull show the previous night, according to the band themselves, this was the first time I had seen them in a year or so, they sounded overall more poppy than I remember from previous shows and on cd, but my head was nodding and I was joining in on every woah. There isn’t really a lot I can say about this band that hasn’t been said a thousand times before, they are tight and sloppy where it counts, they work the crowd as good as any other band I’ve seen and they play good wholesome punk rock. What more do you really need.
Having never seen or even heard Death Is Not Glamorous before this evening (yeah yeah, I know. Under a stone, right?), I approached this band with trepidation. I was aware they had done a split with tour mates The Down And Outs, but the write up on the poster filled me with the sort of dread you get when you are going to see a cover act. How much like Lifetime are they going to be? Will this be too poppy and clean for my tastes? Will they sound like the reformed Lifetime that let me down so hard? The answer to all of these questions was a resounding no. DING almost exploded onto the stage with absolute buckets of energy, simply just rocking hardcore jams like there was no tomorrow. They powered through a 40 minute set, stopping for a chat only after some mic issues. The vocalist breathed heavily between tracks, recalling a dirty phone call I once received, he also surfed the crowd without missing a note. I only caught one song name, and I have forgotten that overnight, but I picked up a few 7″ that I can guarantee will get a lot of spin time. They did sound a bit like Lifetime, but in the best possible way. Unfortunately I had to nip out before the encore so probably missed the maddest and best part of the set, but I had a fantastic time all round.

What a fucking good do.

Other decent stuff that happened include:
Got the new Iron Lung album, and it is fucking excellent.
Got that Hammer Attack demo, and it is fucking excellent.
Picked up some Nuclear Assault stuff that was missing from collection, guess what? Yeah, it is fucking excellent.

Some shit that wasn’t awesome:
Got a 2 day ban on the forum I post on for making a thread that wasn’t down with the kids.
Haven’t got rid of my fucking flat in the manchester yet.
Haven’t seen the Hannah all week.
Ate a bad pizza and got the shits.

These are eventful days to be a Jamie.

Also, I really start a fucking band, so if you or anyone you know is in the North West and wants to play some fast thrash punk awesome shit, get the fuck in touch, yeah?

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