New Noise Magazine Issue # 59

BAND:

TURNSTILE ALBUM: GLOW ON DATE: AUGUST 27,2021

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AROUND THE SUN

NEW ALBUM OUT SEPTEMBER 17, 2021

GaInEsViLlE, Fl

OcT, 29Th, 30Th, 31St 2021

350+ BANDS, COMEDIANS & PRO WRESTLERS ONE - A FLIGHT AND A CRASH NIGHT TWO - ALL FAN REQUESTS HOT WATER MUSIC NIGHT FRANK TURNER THE LAWRENCE ARMS MURDER BY DEATH BARONESS SAMIAM THE WONDER YEARS GOOD RIDDANCE EVE 6 TORCHE STRIKE ANYWHERE

MODERN LIFE IS WAR COMEBACK KID TIM BARRY PLANES MISTAKEN FOR STARS A WILHELM SCREAM THE APPLESEED CAST MUSTARD PLUG COBRA SKULLS PROPER RED CITY RADIO BROADWAY CALLS INTO IT. OVER IT. PLAYING

THE RECORD PLAY SHEER MAG CHRIS GETHARD MOCK ORANGE PLAYING

25 YEAR SEMPER LIBERI BIGWIG ANNIVERSARY SCOTT REYNOLDS BLACKLIST ROYALS PLAYING PLAYING CRIME IN STEREO TROUBLED STATESIDE TWO MINUTES TO LATE NIGHT THE COPYRIGHTS SPANISH LOVE SONGS I AM THE AVALANCHE PEARS SKATUNE NETWORK WE ARE THE UNION NO TRIGGER

JON SNODGRASS ANNABEL PRINCE DADDY & THE HYENA

JOHN-ALLISON "A.W." WEISS DOC HOPPER PEELANDER-Z SOUL GLO PET SYMMETRY DIKEMBE TIMESHARES BANQUETS SIGNALS MIDWEST TYPESETTER MIKEY ERG KILL LINCOLN MOVING TARGETS SLINGSHOT DAKOTA DAVID DONDERO DEAD BARS WOLF-FACE THE BAD SIGNS SUCH GOLD RADON POOL KIDS TIGHTWIRE DOLLAR SIGNS MAKEWAR KEPI GHOULIE & BFACE TAKING MEDS GILLIAN CARTER THE ERADICATOR TILTWHEEL DEVON KAY AND THE SOLUTIONS

ASSHOLEPARADE FRAMEWORKS ORIGAMI ANGEL DAYS N DAZE THE CASKET LOTTERY DIRECT HIT! ZETA RATBOYS WORLDS SCARIEST POLICE CHASES AFTER THE FALL JAIL SOCKS SHEHEHE BLUNT RAZORS PLASMA CANVAS BRIDGE CITY SINNERS CRAZY AND THE BRAINS OMNIGONE CATBITE ANSWERING MACHINE SWISS ARMY NIGHTMARATHONS WEAKENED FRIENDS GET MARRIED ATTIC SALT DOG PARTY KALI MASI TERESA ROSE POHGOH TELETHON PIKE CO. BOSS' DAUGHTER VIRGINITY TEEN AGERS THE DOLLYROTS SPELLS DEBT NEGLECTOR TEENAGE HALLOWEEN BIG SAD WESTERN SETTINGS AWAKEBUTSTILLINBED THE SCUTCHES ARTICLES 430 STEPS GILT HIT LIKE A GIRL WAILIN STORMS LOST LOVE BACCHAE EXPERT TIMING THE RANDY SAVAGES SCHOOL DRUGS GREY MATTER S.M.N. CANADIAN RIFLE BIG LOSER FAYE COLD WRECKS DANNY ATTACK MUSH STUNNER LATE BLOOMER SAVE ENDS

...AND MANY MANY MORE!

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ISSUE 59

THE FRONT 6 10 13 14 16 18 20 24 26 30 32 34 36 38 46 50 52 54

THE NEW WHAT NEXT ALIEN BOY THE BAMBIES BUMMER MEANBIRDS FEAR OF A QUEER PLANET BOOK NOOK 10 YEARDS OF UNFD VAGRANT EAST BAY PUNK LEGENDS OF DEATH FROM THE DARK DEPTHS EVOLVING BLACKGAZE SUMMER OF HARDCORE SUMMER PARTY ANTHEMS THRICE QUICKSAND JOEY CAPE

FEATURES 56 60

TURNSTILE THE BRONX

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THE BACK 64 66 68 70 72 74 76 78 80 82 84 86 88

SEPULTURA MOOR MOTHER LAURA STEVENSON RIVERS OF NIHL MIDFWIFE SUM 41 HAWTHORNE HEIGHTS BIG D AND THE KIDS TABLE CAT BITE SINCERE ENGINEER JINJER THE SHORTLIST ANALOG CAVE

TURNSTILE COVER PHOTO BY JIMMY FONTAINE THE BRONX COVER PHOTO BY MIKE MILLER TOC SHOT OF SOUL GLO BY MICHAEL THORN

BY NICHOLAS SENIOR

PHOTO Alex Solca

ATTACK OF THE RISING

Location: Los Angeles, California Album: Game Changer, out now via Head First Entertainment RIYL: Harmony. Lofty Goals. Metal.

Everything about Attack Of The Rising (AOTR) is larger-than-life.

Their sound is a mix of NWOBHM, power metal, and melodic thrash—with some of the biggest vocals this side of Ronnie James Dio. Then, there’s the sentiments on the record, which emphasize AOTR’s focus on challenging the listener to rethink their place in the world. It’s all amplified by a rather lofty goal the band have always shared, to bring about positive change in everything they do. It’s a huge credit to the band that this is not only presented with a wonderful clarity of vision, but it never feels like preaching. Game Changer feels like a conversation with the listener in which the goal is to leave a better person than when it started. Drummer Chris Lepre explains: “‘One tribe’ has been with us since we were young lads, whether it was our upbringing or just seeing the world around us and wanting a livable environment and having empathy for humanity. Having bandmates who align with that is a great thing to help elevate our music to a different level. The creative spark was we always wanted to do a project like this, old-school metal with exceptional vocals.”

“One of the points of context for everything we do is this,” adds guitarist Tony Lepre, “To be an outlet for music and entertainment to inspire, instigate, cultivate, and bring forth change.

Whether it be to the mind: to promote independent thought, processing, and critical thinking, or to the spirit: for healing, restoration and love. It’s all about purpose.” 💣

PHOTO Sean Dunn

BLUNT BANGS

Hometown: Athens, Georgia Album: Proper Smoker, out September 17 via Ernest Jenning Record Co. RIYL: Power Pop. Escapism. Hobbies.

Blunt Bangs’ power-pop passion project gleefully reeks of cumulative creative joy from its collective members. Featuring members of Black Kids, Deep State, Woods, and more, there’s a sense that each member has had a long-standing adoration of this exact style and has seemingly forever wanted to do something just like this. This outpouring of artistic love has been my favorite form of escapism in 2021, as Blunt Bangs write the sort of music I can only imagine hearing at a large, outdoor venue (some day, hopefully) with a drink in hand and friends nearby. It turns out that was just the plan for the band, as guitarist and vocalist Christian “Smokey” DeRoeck recalls: “I met [drummer] Cash [Carter] and [guitarist and vocalist] Reggie [Youngblood] shortly after moving to Athens from Brooklyn in 2012. They moved here from Jacksonville around the same time, so we were all relative noobs to a scene that can seem a bit insular to outsiders. I remember the first time Reggie and I hung out, we bonded over our mutual adoration of Teenage Fanclub. We totally geeked out, and it was the first time since moving I’d met someone who I connected with over music like that. As we drove home, I excitedly told the girl I was dating at the time, ‘I’m gonna start a band with that dude someday.’ She just stared at me and scoffed, ‘Uh, I doubt it. You know he was in Black Kids, right?’” 💣

PHOTO Kenneth Sporsheim

BOKASSA

Hometown: Trondheim, Norway Album: Molotov Rocktail, out September 3 via Napalm Records RIYL: Chimeras. Crazed Conductors. Wit. It’s fitting that Bokassa feature what I label “train riffs” (choochoo-choo), as so much of Molotov Rocktail feels like being on a runaway train with a maniacal conductor who somehow manages to keep things barely in check. The band’s patented “stonerpunk” style has never sounded bigger nor sharper— shades of Cancer Bats, Fu Manchu, The Dwarves, and Rise Against hint at why Bokassa rule, though they don’t tell the whole story. You see, a great dish (or cocktail, hmm?) does need quality ingredients, but a chef who knows how to actually make those components work well is essential.

Vocalist and guitarist Jørn Kaarstad and company have honed their particular brand of stonerpunk, but it’s the fact that these songs grow bigger and bolder with each successive song that should impress fans and new listeners alike. Kaarstad’s clever wit and unabashed sense of right and wrong meld masterfully on the record—I’ve never laughed and reflected during the same song quite as much as I did here. That’s very intentional, as he notes: “There seems to be this idea that you always have to be dead serious to sing about what are considered serious topics, probably by the same people who get pissed off when pop artists or whatever wear metal shirts. I feel that a bit of a tongue-incheek approach works much better for me lyrically. You can still tackle such topics, even though you make up the word ‘Didjeridon’t’ in a song!” 💣

DIRTBAG REPUBLIC

Hometown: Vancouver, Canada Album: Tear Down Your Idols, out soon via Shock Records RIYL: Rock. Roll. Kickin’ Ass. Big, loud rock music has an executive parking space in my heart, and bands like Dirtbag Republic carry on in that spirit and embrace a whole host of classic rock styles (punk, hard rock, and Meatloaf) to great effect. This expert honing-in on a massive sound is led by a long-time friendship and keen understanding of what they want to do, as well as a willingness to learn from up-and-coming greats, as vocalist Sandy Hazard shares:

PHOTO Matt Leaf

6 NEW NOISE

“[Guitarist] Mick Wood and I have been friends for years and played in two different bands together before Dirtbag Republic. We are familiar and confident in what we’re doing, so to speak. We are veterans of the scene, but make no mistake; we’ve come to kick some asses and take names. We all keep up with new bands that are happening out there like Wyldlife, Ravagers, Dangereens, RMBLR, Berlin Blackouts, Dirty Nil for example, and that keeps us youthful. It definitely inspires our songwriting. When we started the band in 2015, I found there was a lot of riff rock out there that was easily forgettable. No choruses that stick in your head for days afterwards. We wanted to change that and make rock ’n’ roll songs that you can recall months afterwards. Songs that stick in your head so much you don’t need to read the titles on the album jacket.” 💣

PHOTO Adè Randle

FADE ‘EM ALL

PHOTO Juliet Farmer

GULLY BOYS

Hometown: Houston, Texas Album: Houston Riots, out this fall via Atlantic Records RIYL: Culture. Being Unique. Balance.

Hometown: Minneapolis, Minnesota Album: Favorite Sun, out September 10 via Get Better Records RIYL: Intuition. Friends. The ’90s.

No one else sounds remotely close to this eclectic Houston group, and it’s impossible not to be immediately transfixed by this arresting marriage of hip hop, punk, soul, rock, and hardcore.

What ties it all together is this impressive understanding of balance—both musically and thematically. Houston Riots feels like the party we’ve all wanted to have since COVID started, and Fade ‘Em All are happy to oblige and educate at the same time. The band share their ethos:

As a ’90s kid, one thing I often find a lot of the more recent grunge revivalists forget is that grunge can have amazing melodies and haunting soundscapes. Few groups capture this as well as new Get Better signees Gully Boys do. Citing No Doubt and Hole as influences, I hear a good bit of Silverchair and new wave too—but the biggest part of Favorite Sun is just how smoothly and effectively the trio pull everything off. Each of these five songs hit that grunge sweet spot and feel like immediate favorites. There’s an effortlessness to everything that makes me jealous of Gully Boys’ shared talent and ability to work together to create a joyous wall of sound.

“Houston’s culture helped shape our identity, but Fade ‘Em All’s driving force is dissatisfaction with the lack of originality and creativity in music right now. It’s been in one place: the same thing over and over again. We’re sonically creative. The spark comes from the energy and flow we feel when playing together, pulling from different genres, experiences, and relationships. Drummer Nadi McGill share what they think the band’s secret ingredient is: Timing and fate are what really got us here. But honestly, things like this don’t just happen. This ball has been in play for a while now. Fade ‘Em All is the opposite of everything that sucks.”

“This is a difficult question to answer just because this act is so intuitive. There’s a lot of just feeling things out in our practice space and moving forward based on how some“We’re trying to capture the now, immortalize it. Some people wake up obsessed with cultural thing makes us feel. We don’t often talk explicitly about what we want to sound like, or trends, Instagram impressions, or thousand-dollar jeans Alyx just dropped. Some wake up what we even do sound like (it makes the genre question very difficult to answer when invigorated by the fight against climate change, harmful capitalism, racism, or whatever new it comes up). Instead, we build off the parts we’re writing until we create something we awful thing is going on in our world. Some wake up and think about it all. It’s a lot to process, and all feel good about. We’re almost always on the same page about that—nothing feels every day it’s just increasing. With this record, we hoped to allow you to take a step back and better than playing something together for the first time and getting hyped together witness a piece of it all without it being crippling.” 💣 about how much fun it was.” 💣 PHOTO Jørn Veberg

PHOTO John Durbin / Elizabeth L. Cline

ILLT

INFORMATION_AGE

Hometown: Oslo, Norway Album: Urhat, out September 17 via Indie Records RIYL: Outlets. Responsibility. Extremity.

Hometown: Brooklyn, New York Album: Self-titled, out now via Laramidia Records RIYL: Italo Disco. Dancing. Discovery.

Everyone needs an outlet, some place where they can funnel all the negativity and frustration in a healthy manner. Few have something quite as star-studded and excellent as ILLT, the creative conduit for guitarist/bassist/mastermind Roy Westad. Urhat indeed does feel like a glorious passion project—featuring members of Soilwork, Megadeth, and Nile, few can be elevated to such a supergroup status when the mastermind is not as well known. One listen to ILLT, and you’ll clearly see why the talent eagerly jumped on board.

One of the neat aspects of the trajectory of modern music is the notion that what’s old is Italo disco is a bit of a niche style for many, though it’s arguably the reason we had ’80s popular electronic music. It’s a style that just begs for a dark, neon-lit dancefloor, and two immensely talented, NYC artists aimed to do just that with Information_Age. Featuring members of Pallbearer, Pinkish Black, and Hosianna Mantra, there’s a lot going on throughout this self-titled debut. Multi-instrumentalist and producer Joseph Rowland shares how the band came to be:

Westad reflects on the act’s creation and mission: “ILLT is first and foremost an outlet for my negative feelings towards humanity and the state we’re in, and I carry around a lot of hatred regarding certain aspects of our existence. I tend to walk around with my guard down and take in way too much of the harrowing shit that’s going on out there. On a personal level, I am able to fully function as a father, fiancé, and friend, but I have always carried this darkness around with me. It surfaces sometimes but having ILLT as a channel where I can actually bring up and harness these dark thoughts has really made life a lot easier to handle. Urhat is addressing both my views on the present state of humanity, but it also asks how we got here: Were we destined to fail all the time? Is it a natural de-evolution we’re seeing now? Maybe it’s all action/reaction, and it will get better before it gets worse again. I don’t know, but it doesn’t look good. That said, I do feel hope on a personal level, but not on behalf of humanity as a whole.” 💣

“My primary aim was to make an Italo disco release (and project as a whole) that skewed to the darker and more psychedelic end of the spectrum, while still retaining the catchy and outlandish elements that are so prevalent in the genre. Something kitschy, but not just pure pastiche, and hopefully at home equally on the dance floor as well as a good pair of headphones. This record was very ‘maximal’ and beyond [vocalist] Daron [Beck]’s unique and memorable vocal presence, I spent a truly absurd amount of time trying to create a complimentary atmosphere with a ton of little details that I found interesting on their own, as well as a cohesive part of the whole. I really did want the whole thing to be hard to pinpoint as completely vintage or modern, and at times I felt overwhelmed trying to tackle the production and mixing end of things, but I just stuck with it until it felt ready and I also wanted to wait to release it until people could dance again!”💣

NEW NOISE 7

PHOTO Courtney Kiara

LURK

Hometown: Chicago, Illinois Album: Around the Sun, out September 17 via Pure Noise Records RIYL: Creativity. Stealth. Punk.

“To be hidden so as to wait in ambush for someone or something.” While I don’t think LURK are necessarily fans of stealth video games, Around the Sun really snuck up on me. The Chicago band’s sound features a hell of an arsenal with which to overtake the listener. New wave, melodic punk, blues rock, psych rock, and hardcore are the names of various finishing moves they can unleash without a moment’s notice, though like a perfectly-executed combo, picking apart the individual components is not an easy task. Instead, like an expert player, LURK present everything with a fluidity of motion and precision that is staggering and delightful to watch (in this case, hear, but whatever). Vocalist Kevin Kiley was unaware of this video game metaphor but does concur with the multi-faceted notion of the band’s sound:

NRWHL

Hometown: Prescott, Arizona Album: Colin Robinson, out now via Self-Release RIYL: Passion. Pain. Being Present.

NRWHL feels like a lighthouse in a storm, a beacon of light in the midst of darkness. Their brand of fiery metallic hardcore carries the spirit of the ’00s metalcore classics. However, there’s so much to discover in Colin Robinson—so much more than just the gloriously nostalgic feelings that I had as a teenager first discovering groups like Norma Jean, Blindside, and Dead Poetic. Yes, I was an angsty Christian teenager, but NRHWL carry the spirit of a band unafraid to share their message of hope, and wise well beyond their years in the songwriting department.

Much like the kind of journey it takes to be excited about a damn lighthouse in 2021, Colin Robinson feels like a band wrestling with identity, hope, and meaning in a world devoid of easy answers. It doesn’t hurt that their sound is ripe with glorious curveballs. Theirs is a metalcore that sounds more like early La Dispute than anything else, and their lyrical mastery can match those Michigan icons. The band explain their goals thusly:

“I think with this being our first full-length LP, we just wanted to stretch our sound a bit. With more runtime, we were able to incorporate a lot of different moods and vibes. We all have a lot of varying influences, so we had more room to capture those. I feel the album almost has an arch “As much as we like to dick around and play jokes on each other, we do tend to lean towards the professional side when it comes to the songs. We all have a visual passion as well, and and changes song by song without sounding scattered, which was important to us. There’s a lot we seem to focus on the dynamics when writing. [The record] is about what we go through of pressure that goes along with a debut LP, but I think this album perfectly captures everything we’re about. Overall, we just try to write good songs, whether it’s a catchier one, a groovy one, every day as Christians and our struggles with Christianity, as well as the struggle of intervening in an unbelieving world. It’s the frustration and the feeling of always wanting to give or an aggressive one. Whatever it is, we lean into it.” 💣 up, but knowing that if we give up, we’ve lost hope and having to re-focus to carry on.” 💣 PHOTO Mario Sulka

PHOTO Michael Sutterfield

PRINCE OF LILIES

YUNI WA

Way too many of us know what it’s like to feel hopeless, which is why having a life raft that is something to look forward to is so important. Whether it’s a personal, creative, or social outlet, any little thing can feel larger than life when we really needed it. For grunge punk group Prince Of Lilies, that lifeline was a call to one of the most notable musical icons in the grunge scene. Thank God the band had the guts and fortitude to even make that call, as the resulting album—Vent—is an incredible collection of grunge-punk pop with a unique vision and viewpoint that helps elevate this record to a potential future classic. With nods to Nirvana, Hüsker Dü, older Kings Of Leon (yes, they were good once upon a time; I stand by this!), and Silverchair, there’s so much to discover here. New label Grunge Pop Records have a winner on their hands already.

I love when an instrumental artist can convey such a strong sense of voice and personality without lyrics. Yuni Wa has been steadily building a (very prolific) career focused on his own brand of Afrofuturistic electronic music, and his clarity of vision has never been sharper and more delightful than on his latest. Context 4 was not in his original planned Context series, so it’s only natural that this record ends up being his shining jewel. Drenched in soulful arrangements, undulating storytelling, and the sense that no song is going to end where it starts, everything about Yuni Wa’s stunning achievement sings. The fact that these songs are downright catchy and fun is only the cherry on top. So, what was his inspiration for this record?

Hometown: Greece Album: Vent, out September 24 via Grunge Pop Records RIYL: Lifelines. Seeds. Amps.

Hometown: Little Rock, Arkansas Album: Context 4, out now via Self-Release RIYL: Afrofuturism. Sci-fi. History.

“I wanted to make a body of work and instrumentals that was ear catching, I wanted to blur the lines of how albums can be made also. I wanted to tell a story, even though I’m moving from genre to genre each song, I wanted people to hear and feel the evolution. I wanted to “Anger, frustration, and a feeling of true desperation all played part in creating this band, and, unfortu- create depth through blending all these different sounds and creating a constantly changing nately, too many drugs. Really depressed and at my last attempt to play loud rock ’n’ roll the way I like it, I soundscape, where you can hear the high energy points in the album and the points where it called Steve Albini and asked him if we could record some tracks at some point with him at the helm. He gets really chill. I wanted to make something that was balanced sonically but still interesting.” said he had a few days open later on, and like that, the energy started to flow creatively. So thrilled to get to record with him, the music just started flowing out at every band rehearsal. He gave us the spark and That diversity plays out with the narrative aspects as well, as he notes: “There are a lot of vastly difinspiration to create something out of nothing. That seed of hope he gave us got watered and nourished ferent concepts that went into this album and the songs, but with the record overall, I want people to just keep their eyes open to the things that are changing and the things that have never changed.” 💣 until we had a garden of 27 songs ready to enter his studio.” 💣 So how did this clear creative wellspring get tapped? Let the band share their story:

8 NEW NOISE

PHOTO Ronny Zeisberg

NYTT LAND

PHOTO Matt Tracy

ROMAN LIONS

Hometown: Kalachinsk, Russia Album: Ritual, out now via Napalm RIYL: Nature. Rituals. History.

Hometown: San Jose, California Album: “Negative” single, out now via self-release RIYL: Video Games. Mixed Media. Stories.

One of the few (if any) positives of the past 18 months has been an increased focus on the natural world around us. When all activity was shut down, nature persevered—in fact, it thrived. Those of us who live in or near beautiful parks or preserves were able to spend more time connecting with the area near us: the lush greens, the rolling hills, the flows of bodies of water. It offered a welcome respite from virtual meetings, Netflix binges, and video game sessions. The natural world is restorative and can help you reflect on your place in the world and in history. Nytt Land capture all that and much more on Ritual—in ways that are much more striking, elegant, and haunting than my words will ever be. Their version of Siberian folk can be cold and oppressive like their homeland, but it is more often vast and wondrous, gorgeous, and stirring. Considering I understand a full zero words on the record, it’s impressive how much Nytt Land’s rituals spoke to my soul. Their instinctual songwriting approach reflects that aim, as they collectively note:

Many of us have turned to the pixelated escapism of video games over the past year-plus.

While I can appreciate the interest in games like Call of Duty, Animal Crossing, or Minecraft, I’ve always been drawn to engaging stories. The first game I played when COVID hit was Days Gone, a virus-infested, biker-zombie game with an interesting story, and I later was riveted by the harrowing tale of humility (and zombie viscera) The Last of Us 2. Being swept up in and actively participating in someone else’s story can be an amazing escape and a fun way to ruin your sleep schedule. By the looks of Roman Lions’ latest excellent single “Negative,” the band’s and my interest are perfectly aligned—the mixed-media, pixelated tale is a wonderful accompaniment to some of the best post-hardcore this side of Thrice and Pianos Become The Teeth. More music was recorded with famed produced Jack Shirley, so here’s hoping future chapters are released in the near future.

“Nature plays one of the most important roles in our life. We were born, grew up, and live in a Siberian provincial village. From the earliest childhood, our whole life is closely connected with the nature of our native land. And of course, the Siberian nature, this is one of the most important inspirations in our music, as well as our family. Very often, we just come to the forest or on the riverbank and just listen to exactly how nature sounds. The rhythm of the waves, the rustle of leaves and steppe grass, the singing of birds, and the rolling of thunder—is this not the perfect music?” 💣

Guitarist Robert Kinsella shares the video’s unique aspirations: “I had wanted to create a mixed-media animation for a while and had a rough idea of how I would do it. Our drummer Matt [Tracy] encouraged me to pursue this with ‘Negative,’ and so I really just started drawing whatever felt right. When the band gave the sign-off on early test footage, I felt comfortable to experiment and really dug into the work. While I did not initially set out to create a ‘story’ for the song, over time I realized I was subconsciously making scenes influenced by Justin [Tracy]’s lyrics. This led to more ambitious sequences and leaning into a narrative with that little pixel dude.” 💣

The Flattery of Imitation

ALIEN BOY INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST/GUITARIST/SONGWRITER SONIA WEBER BY CAMERON CARR

“It’s always been this joke that I rip off

all my favorite bands,” says Alien Boy’s Sonia Weber. “Instead of just shutting up about it, I immediately tell everybody.”

With COVID squashing Alien Boy’s original plans to record in April 2020, Weber had time to reckon with the songs.

What initially acted as a creative and emotional drain eventually allowed for improving upon and refreshing the music. The time away from shows had an unexpected benefit of letting her escape vocal anxiety and find new appreciation for her songs.

those influences. The band set themselves to a consistent agenda of emotinged lite-shoegazing. Weber, previously a drummer and bassist in poppunk bands, took early songwriting “When we went to go record them bedirection from acts like Tigers Jaw and fore, I was kind of like, ‘Does this suck? “That’s what it is,” Weber says. “Just Joyce Manor and then incorporated a I think that I hate these songs,’” Weber feeling super intense about the world guitar style inspired by The Smiths and says. “Then I had enough time apart continuing to move around you, and The Cure. Like all those bands, Alien from them, where I was like, ‘No, I think growing up, and having people that Boy’s songs lean heavily into emotional that these are some of the best songs were in your life not be in your life I’ve ever written.’ We just went into it anymore.” 💣 expression and vulnerability.

More than most, the Portland emo-gaze project wear their influences on their sleeve. The band’s name comes from a track of the same name by Portland icons The Wipers. Another track on that same album became the inspiration for the title of Alien Boy’s sophomore release, Don’t Know What I Am, out August 20 on “[I] always want it to be over-the-top,” Get Better Records.

Weber says. “Unless it seems extremely dramatic, I’m not interested.”

Elsewhere in Alien Boy’s discography, Weber makes references to Dear A well-received EP and full-length Nora (“Dear Nora”), SLC Punk (“Only record turned Alien Boy into DIY Posers Fall in Love”), and, more darlings. Don’t Know What I Am implicitly, Friday Night Lights (“TV Will marks a subtle maturation of their Always Make Me Cry”). sound. The grungy tinge of their earlier releases picks up a slight gothic “It’s something that’d be able to fly un- bounce now. “How Do I Think When der the radar if I could just shut up, but I Yr Asleep” pumps through a gloomy won’t shut up about it,” Weber says. fuzz. “Something Better” revels in a new-wave, instrumental intro. “MemAlien Boy’s music, however, would be ory’s Vault” pushes toward woozy hard to pigeonhole back to any one of shoegaze.

MEATBODIES INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST/GUITARIST CHAD UBOVICH

BY T YLER SOVELOVE

M

ainstays of the Los Angeles plays the band at their most gnarly psych-rock scene Meatbod- and lo-fi, adding extra layers of fuzz ies are releasing their third and turning the volume up to 11. record on September 3 via In The Red Records. Across seven tracks, 333 dis- “Me and [drummer] Dylan [Fujioka],

PHOTO Sheridan Lee

10 NEW NOISE

way more confidently.”

After writing extensively about a breakup on 2018’s Sleeping Lessons, Don’t Know What I Am finds Weber considering who she has become outside of that relationship, as friends have moved away, and the effects of generally settling into adulthood have sunk in. Lyrically, it’s an album that spends more time searching than answering.

PHOTO Sam Gehrke

we were actually demoing for another album that’s going to be coming out soon,” explains singer and guitarist Chad Ubovich. “One of those sessions we did at my house. We had a drum kit set up in my room with my tape machine and a lot of the songs that are on 333 are those songs. They were kind of put off to the side, and I didn’t listen back until the pandemic was going on.

I found them and was like, oh shit, this is pretty cool; let’s make this something.”

from the band The Move, and the first album, a lot of the inspiration for that was coming from a band called Mighty Baby. You know, just shit like that.”

For Ubovich, it’s a different world than when Meatbodies first started.

Music has a different meaning in the ways we consume and produce it. A pandemic stifles our live performances. Vinyl pressing plants have delays of more than a year.

While the new record is progressive “I think nowadays, with the way the in its sound design, it is still distinctly world is set up with the internet, murooted in the sounds of late ’60s sic is just a completely different thing and early ’70s psychedelic rock. from when I was, like, 24, and I was The opener “Reach For The Sunn” touring around with Ty [Segall] and devolves into chaotic madness Mikal [Cronin],” Ubovich notes. “Back akin to something like The Beatles’ then, it was edgy to be like, we’re not “Tomorrow Never Knows.” “Let Go putting our shit online; we have vinyls, (333)” is an acoustic frenzy that is and we live in an economy where we equal parts dreamy and a totally can’t get jobs, so we’re just going to nightmarish acid trip. go on the road with Black Flag as our godfathers.”

“It’s funny; sometimes I’ll listen back to the bands that I was listening to before “If you’re a shit little kid, you know, it’s I wrote something, and I’ll just immedi- like, you get a van; you go out there ately hear everything that I ripped off,” and press your own shit, and that Ubovich laughs. “Like the other day, I was kind of our ten commandments,” put on Hawkwind’s album PXR5, and he says. “Now, it’s a whole different the first song, whatever the first song thing; it’s like, ‘Buy our blah blah and is on there, has the same drum roll as get this bundle.’ Now you barely have the beginning of ‘Alice.’ Actually, on to be touring. You can get most of ‘Alice,’ a lot of inspiration was coming your press and all that online.” 💣

Heavy Metal Healing

ALIEN WEAPONRY

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST/GUITARIST LEWIS DE JONG

BY SEAN MCLENNAN

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ew Zealand “Te Reo” metal trio Alien Weaponry have built a reputation around fusing their Māori ancestry with a straightforward, groove-oriented style of heavy metal.

Through powerful vocal melodies, striking music videos, and traditional Māori instruments, Alien Weaponry have been able to share their Māori perspective, history, and language (Te Reo Māori) with the metal community worldwide.

says. “We’ve just gone with it from there, and it seems to work well.”

De Jong reveals that one of the more obvious ways heavy metal compliments the Māori culture is the “correlation between haka (Māori dance) and metal,” both being “hard-hitting and aggressive.” On top of that, de Jong feels that “traditional Māori instruments are quite unique, and they really bring something special to the band’s overall sound.”

Their debut full-length, Tū (Napalm ReFor their new album, Tangaroa, releasing cords, 2018), shared the dark stories of PHOTO September 17 via Napalm Records, Alien battle and conflict associated with the Piotr Kwasnik Weaponry continue to emphasize differband’s Māori lineage. This undoubtedly lent itself to the album’s heavy and prim- ent aspects of their culture. range of themes, but I feel like it’s helped looked at as a living form of energy and itive-sounding presence. Their approach us work through our own baggage and something to be respected. It’s sad to see to metal, on top of their young age (16 at “On this latest album, we’ve incorporated hopefully people will relate.” the direction humanity has taken and to some more traditional, Māori singing the time), offered metal fans something see the damage that has been done as a not only exciting and refreshing, but in- styles such as Mōteatea, as well as [the Through their music, it is important to result of it.” instruments] Kõauau and Pūtātara,” de sightful as well.

Alien Weaponry to keep the language Jong explains. and history of the Māori people alive.

In addition, Tangaroa draws from the past Being one of the most publicly known Tangaroa continues that mission. In three years of personal struggles and As the word ‘Tangaroa’ translates to the heavy metal bands representing the certain respects, de Jong feels like “New growth.

Māori god of the sea, the album, as well Māori culture, vocalist and guitarist Lewis Zealand has forgotten a lot of their history as the self-titled single, tie environmende Jong notices that there “has been a due to people not talking about it and talism in with historical Māori stories and “We are drawing from some more ancient positive reaction overall” within the Māori educating each other. history with some of our Māori tracks, as cultural heritage. community and beyond. well as personal struggles with friends who developed psychosis or were sexual- “It’s important to keep talking about it, or “It was definitely a much bigger reaction “Nature is a big part of Māori culture else it will be forgotten,” he says.💣 ly abused,” de Jong explains. “It’s a wide and ideology,” de Jong says. “Nature is than any of us were expecting,” de Jong

EMPLOYED TO SERVE INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST JUSTINE JONES BY CALEB R. NEWTON

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ike standing on a ragged hillside and roaring up into a raging thunderstorm in hope of relief, Conquering—the demolishing new fulllength album from U.K. metal torchbearers Employed To Serve—is powerful.

The record, out this September through Spinefarm Records, is simultaneously

staggeringly heavy and refreshingly forceful, with shock wave guitars, explosive drums, and more combining to deliver a jolting push forward.

“I think the main meaning behind the album title, Conquering, is pushing your ego aside, and being like—it’s OK to be down PHOTO Andy Ford

12 NEW NOISE

in the dumps,” vocalist Justine Jones ex- “We definitely wanted to be thought of plains. “It’s OK to fail and stuff like that. more as a straight-up metal band now,” Jones shares. “Because I feel like we But you’ve just got to pick yourself up fully explored the weird crossover, sort of again, and try again, and keep striving forward, and not take yourself too seri- hardcore/metal sound that we did on our last three albums. So really, we just want ously. Because, I feel like, especially in to concentrate on going that avenue, and a world of social media and things like just trying to play as many fun metal festithat, it’s so easy to put on a front and be like, ‘Oh, I’m only doing excellent things.’ vals as possible.”

It’s like with lockdown—everyone was A theme of empowerment helps define posting about all the great stuff they Conquering, as the ferocious record were doing. You don’t have to be that sounds geared towards providing boosts way. As long as you feel like you as a of physical and emotional energy. The person are growing, and you are better musical force is impactful enough that than you were yesterday, then you’re already achieving a lot. I think it’s im- experiencing a personal breakthrough seems built right into the experience. portant to not lose sight of that.”

Jones also explores these ideas with her Structurally, Conquering feels inclined to- lyrics, which she delivers via passionately intense vocals. wards straightforwardness, leading up to blasting breakdowns at the end of tracks including “World Ender” and album “We wanted it to be more of a PMA kind of album,” Jones says. “It has got the closer “Stand Alone.” The textures that darker themes, like mental health and Employed To Serve utilize here are on par struggling with it. But it’s got an overtone with what Jones identifies as “straight-up of—you can do anything if you put your metal,” and the band’s broad, booming mind to it, just put those blinders on, and sound proves expansive. It’s easy to concentrate on being the best version of imagine a communally energizing live experience, as the band employ an es- yourself as possible. Because, I just felt like, especially with everything going on pecially crushing and uniquely poignant in the world, no one needs to be told how iteration of familiarly hard-hitting heavy bad everything is. You just need your little metal. The music feels anthemic—it’s cheerleader in your headphones, going fiery, yet the triumphantly commanding like: ‘You can do this!’” 💣 rhythms soar.

Canadian Punk Invasion!

THE BAMBIES INTERVIEW WITH GUITARIST/SONGWRITER/LEAD VOCALIST SAMI, DRUMMER FRANKI, AND BASSIST/HARMONY VOCALIST FELI BY J POET

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n their debut album, Summer Soon, out August 20 on Spaghetty Town Records, The Bambies deliver a bracing jolt of pure punk energy that harks back to the sounds of the Ramones, Canadian band Teenage Head, and The Sex Pistols. With one exception, the 12 tunes on the record are twoand-a-half-minute blasts, with catchy melodies that imprint themselves on your mind after a single listen. Most are invitations to party and dance, which is their stated goal.

makes us drive up the energy. You can’t really get that in rehearsal, or in a recording studio.”

The Montréal-based trio prefer to keep their last names secret, but they do acknowledge having an international background. Feli is from Costa Rica, Sami is French, and Franki is Canadian. They honed the tunes on Summer Soon by playing them live, as often as their day jobs permitted.

“The music got faster, and Feli added more “We play our shows like it’s our last day groovy bass lines,” Sami says.

“Diego is family,” Sami says. “He’s my After returning home, the quarantine on earth and never stop between songs,” girlfriend’s cousin. He works in the went into effect, but they didn’t let that says drummer Franki.

“We try to keep it at 220bpm,” Franki offers. music industry, and I pictured how slow them down. cool it could be to work with him. It “I love recording, but playing live brings “It might sound like a contradiction,” Feli was a no-brainer to fly to Mexico City “We all have day jobs, so we survived the adrenaline, danger, and the unknown, says. “But the music has gotten poppier to make the album. It was great to lockdown by mixing our album long diswhich is a combo I love,” adds guitarist and less formulaic.” leave Montréal and have a rock ’n’ tance with Diego,” Sami concludes. “He and lead singer Sami. roll adventure, far away from home. was in Mexico, and we were in Montréal.

When they were ready to record, the We recorded the core guitar, bass, It was a pain in the ass, but it helped “When a crowd dances to our music, it’s trio traveled to Mexico City and cut and drums live, then added the vo- everyone during the lockdown. Right the most positive review you could ever their debut with producer Diego Mier, cals and small keyboard bits to the now, releasing a second LP, a couple of get,” Feli says. “It tickles the nerves and leader of the psychedelic band Build arrangements, but we played every- singles, and going on tour would make makes you move. We feed off that vibe. It a Vista. thing ourselves.” us more than happy.” 💣

CHAIN WHIP INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST JOSH NICKEL BY SEAN MCLENNAN

“Punk is better than it has ever been. musical projects in the past, the memThe bands are incredible. The labels bers that make up Chain Whip are “not are amazing. Worldwide, DIY networks completely one-dimensional,” says are still being set up and maintained Nickel. by the people that believe in it and want to make things happen.”

“I’ll always be a punk, but we’ve played other music,” he explains. “Patrick and I That’s where Josh Nickel, vocalist of were both playing in power-pop bands Vancouver, BC hardcore/punk band before this, and Brett played in a few Chain Whip, stands in regard to the punk projects locally, while Joel was ever-elusive state of punk music. Refer- in Nervous Talk. None of those bands ring to his specific music surroundings were close in style to what we’re doing of Vancouver, Nickel loves the DIY here, but this is all a style we’ve been scene there. into forever. I remember the focus PHOTO at the beginning was to be fast but Matt Wickens “It’s run by weirdos, and they barely think maintain the songwriting of bands like we are cool enough to participate,” he Adolescents or Germs.” that we focused on exactly what we close to end up getting taken for a ride, says, an aspect of the community which it sucks. I was just pissed and writing he perceives as “perfect.”

Now, the band have recorded their wanted to accomplish.” about working in an overdose epimost inflamed and in-your-face Nickel mentions that Two Step To Hell is demic and finding people dead that Chain Whip formed in late 2017 with material yet, with Two Step To Hell. The best represented by the first verse in I cared about. I don’t think it was an the intention to write songs inspired by recording was released earlier this KBD compilations, California beach summer, with vinyl pressings in Canada the self-titled track: “Living in collapse, intentionally angry or nihilistic record, punk, and other local, grimy punk acts. and the U.S. available through Neon what a place to be. Trigger-finger living just circumstance.”

Taste Records and in the U.K. and Eu- on live TV. We’re all living in our own vacuum, our echo chamber’s gonna be “I was admittedly a little worried about “Chain Whip formed out of a Halloween rope through Drunken Sailor Records. our tomb.” cover band with a slightly different linewriting a record after 14 Lashes, beup,” Nickel says. “We were covering old Leading up to Chain Whip’s Two Step cause people liked it a lot and I didn’t California punk rock under the name To Hell, “We just got tighter as a band “I wrote that after the Christchurch want to bum anyone out with someHaunted (danger) House and wanted and were able to push the speed notch terror attack and my mom getting thing that wasn’t of similar quality,” he to keep on playing that style of stuff but up a bit without losing the songwriting,” Q-Anoned,” Nickel states. “I was angry; says. “I’m proud of this record and I was sad. You can feel really helpless write our own songs.” would have been if people hated it. It’s Nickel says. being surrounded by terrible news all just nice to know we didn’t bum anyone the time. When people that you are out with a crappy follow-up.” 💣 Having been involved in a few different “Two Step To Hell was a bit different in

NEW NOISE 13

BUMMER INTERVIEW WITH GUITARIST/VOCALIST MATT PERRIN AND BASSIST MIKE GUSTAFSON BY CALEB R. NEWTON

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ead Horse—the new, full-length al- components into something startling and inescapable. bum from Kansas City’s noisy rock crew Bummer, out this September Perrin ties the looming unease to Bummer’s from Thrill Jockey Records—lands with a jarring thud. Its furious, yet freewheeling, hometown. like the sound of a live performance on an open, muddy field amid a raging “The sound kind of comes from where you live,” he says. “Go look at the Missouri River. thunderstorm. The record’s volatile energy proves nearly unceasing across its runtime, It’s a muddy piece of shit. It smells bad.

Like 500,000 people live in Kansas City, not adeptly setting the scene for the band’s including the metro, but it’s like—you drive sonic explorations of lived-in chaos.

45 minutes outside of the city, you’re going to see cows, horses, weeds, and just nothing.”

“Honestly, if anything, this record just sounds like it’s from Kansas City,” vocalist and guiWhile the record features ample, grimy tarist Matt Perrin observes. atmosphere, the electrifying, central path never falls out of sight. It’s invigorating to Sonically, Bummer strike a unique path with take in. With relatively pummeling instruDead Horse. mentals, the music feels strong, helping set the fullness of the listening experience in “We play music we want to hear, that we think has not been done,” bassist Mike Gus- place. It’s unsettling, yet intensely ensnaring. tafson adds. “We want to make something to where it’s like—oh cool, it’s hard for peo- “Mike and I, and Sam [Hutchinson, drummer], we’ve all known each other for going on 10ple to pinpoint what the fuck that is.” plus years now,” Perrin shares. “We treat each Overall, the record is formidable, with Gus- other like family. It’s just crazy because we all kind of grew up in this area. We all know what tafson characterizing the music as a “wall it’s like; we’ve all been here kind of watching of sound.” At times, a thread of classically minded, riff-heavy rock moves to the fore- our lives evolve. Mike and I started playing music, like, 10 years ago in my mom’s basefront of the mix, but Dead Horse twists these

ZEALOT R.I.P. INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST BLAKE HARRISON

BY THOMAS PIZZOLA

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ealot R.I.P. is a Washington D.C.-based punk/metal supergroup, which features guitarist Mike Schleibaum (Darkest Hour), drummer Jason Hamacher (Frodus, CombatWoundedVeteran), vocalist Blake Harrison (Pig Destroyer), and bassist Peter Tsouras (Fairweather). The band was originally started by Schleibaum and Hamacher as a project to merge their love

of punk and metal. But, with Schleibaum’s constant touring with Darkest Hour and Hamacher’s documentary work in Syria, it sat on the back burner for a while.

That is, until Harrison entered the picture.

“Well, about five years ago, I moved from Baltimore to D.C. and was looking to do a

ment, you know? And then this came about— “There are bands you go to see that are really cool because they’re well-recorded, and we didn’t know what noise rock was. We and they’re the big, special projects. Those didn’t listen to Unsane. We didn’t even know what Unsane was until we were a band for, are the bands you can see outside, and have a beer, and have a good time. We’re like, two years. But, we grew up listening to probably not one of those bands. We’re a the shit that was cool when we grew up, like Norma Jean, The Chariot, Duck Duck Goose, band that shows up with an eight-by-10, a full stack, and a big drum set, and we’re Young Widows, and shit like that. We liked The like—sorry. And it just translates. We’ve Jesus Lizard, and Nirvana’s Bleach.” known each other for so long, it’s a real, With driving guitars, hard-hitting drums, natural progression for us. Nobody’s trying to outdo anything. We evolve musically; we and enveloping bass, Bummer ultimately all listen to different shit all at the same time, pack plenty of sonic mania across Dead and we all have a core root of the same Horse as it barrels along. stuff that we like. We’re just a rock ’n’ roll “We’re a band you go see live,” Perrin says. band, just rockin’ out.”💣

PHOTO Skylar Cowdry

new band,” Harrison says. “I love being in Pig Destroyer, but kinda was looking to scream for a band again, and for something a little more ‘punk.’ Jason and Mike talked me into coming over; they loved my scream and some of my lyrics, and Zealot in its current iteration was born. Since the band had been around, but never played, the name Zealot had been taken, so we added the R.I.P., then added Peter, and here we are.”

Their debut LP, The Extinction Of You, drops September 10 (following a self-titled, threesong EP) on Three One G. It’s a fast, brutal exercise in punkish metal that splits the difference between Entombed, Born Against, and the Dead Kennedys. It sounds a bit different from the other bands its members are currently in or were in.

But not too different.

“Well, I mean, I do think there are some things here and there from our ‘main’ bands, but there is no real direct correlation,” Harrison says. “If it was a conscious decision, it was made before I was involved. I mean, who would want to do another band that sounds like one they already do?

Not me. In general, I just think we kinda sound like a post-hardcore band, or a more modern punk band. Schleibaum has referred to us as ‘death punk,’ and I think that fits.”

PHOTO ThreeOneG

14 NEW NOISE

When it came time to write the music for the new album, the band used very organic methods to come up with the songs. They did a lot of jamming, although these jam sessions were not necessarily done with every member in the room at the same time.

“Mike and Jason jam a lot,” Harrison says.

“We basically take ‘jam sessions’ and kinda separate some ideas out and build on the songs from there. Then, we all get together and whittle down or add what we think the song needs. So, it is a collaborative effort, but it all starts out as jamming, although not always all together.”

Lyrics were handled by Harrison. He took a twisted-yet-interesting approach to his lyric writing on the album.

“I’m always open to the idea of the rest of the band helping out, but so far, that hasn’t happened,” Harrison says. “The lyrics mostly deal with alienation, death, despair, corruption, things like that. I kind of intentionally have been trying to make the lyrics more ‘violent’ lyrically without coming across as a meathead.”

Fans expecting to see the band on the road following the release of the new album might have to wait, unfortunately. The band members plan to keep the Zealot R.I.P. flame burning while working around their main projects, but these all look to be busy in the upcoming months.

“We have some new songs that we’ve been working on and have been in discussion about doing a split and some West Coast dates,” Harrison says. “We currently have a record and beer release show scheduled at D.C. Brau on September 22, which should be a wild time. But, aside from that, no plans are super solid. Jason owns, like, three businesses; Pig Destroyer and Darkest Hour have some stuff lined up, and Peter is releasing a full-length with his band, Fairweather. But you never know, just hopefully playing some killer shows and working on new material.” 💣

JUSTUS PROFFIT INTERVIEW BY J. POET

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t the age of 13, Justus Proffit was already playing in a group with his brother and sister. He went on to join and tour with several L.A. punk bands and founded Topspace, an underground venue that was also his home. He had his own band for a while, and when they broke up, he decided to use the studio time they’d booked to make his first solo album, LA’s Got Me Down.

“Mostly, I just record songs on the spot and then let them go, then and there, instead of trying to make them sound perfect,” Proffit says. “I get my ideas from life experiences.

Every song is different. I pride myself in making different genres of music all the time. I like playing punk, death metal, goth, indie. Whatever I’m feeling at the time.”

His second solo album, Speedstar, releasing on August 20 through Bar/None, is another solid collection. The 10 tunes that make up the album were recorded at three different sessions during a time when Proffit was transitioning to a life of sobriety.

year to write, record, and assemble. Some were cut at his home studio, others at a masked session in the state of Washington with engineer Nick Wilbur. Three more were cut with producer Sean Sakamoto.

PHOTO Camille Mariet

“I recorded [with Sean] before the pandemic and just lagged on releasing them. I actually recorded almost a full record with Sean and just got burnt on the songs. It was my own issue, so [Speedstar] is more of a compilation. That was different than sitting down and recording 10-plus songs in a session. They’re mostly just singles recorded in different places. I compiled them into a record later.”

Proffit’s chiming guitar hook makes the track “Upside Down Entertainer” sound like a rock radio staple from the ’70s. “There Goes the Sun” is a slow, funky meditation on mortality, its melancholy air intensified by Proffit’s wordless moans on the chorus. The mid-tempo rock of “Big Mistake” features Proffit’s falsetto vocals, and a tempo that suggests both do-wop and country music.

With things in California finally opening up again, Proffit says he’s ready to start performing.

“I drank and used drugs since I was 13,” he says. “Being sober has affected my songwriting and performing majorly. I really “I couldn’t play shows for a year, so it comdon’t take myself too seriously these days. I pletely affected my music career. I lived at feel a lot less cloudy, just happy to be alive. Topspace and threw shows there. I like to All the music I write is reflective of my pres- rock a lot harder live. I like to play louder ent time, so maybe [Speedstar] is a little bit and make it sound like a big, live band. I just more mature?” played live last week. It was really fun. As long as I’m having fun playing music, that’s all that matters.” 💣 The songs on the album took more than a

SLOTHRUST INTERVIEW WITH GUITARIST/SONGWRITER/VOCALIST LEAH WELLBAUM

BY J. POET

S

lothrust guitarist and songwriter Leah Wellbaum began playing with her bandmates—drummer Will Gorin and bass player Kyle Bann—when they were going to Sarah Lawrence College. They were all interested in music’s harsher, more aggressive sounds. The band provided them with an opportunity to pursue that goal.

They still play with passion, but on their fifth album, Parallel Timeline, due out on Dangerbird Records on September 10, they take a more measured approach.

portant part of the process, trying songs with different arrangements and production choices, and ultimately settling on whatever serves the song best. Parallel Timeline was recorded during lockdown, so, of course, we followed the COVID precautions recommended by the CDC, and recorded at our record label’s studio, which offered us a lot of flexibility timing wise. I really appreciated the freedom that extra time offered.”

signature. There are more subtle touches, “In some ways this collection of songs feels but the energy remains high throughout. like it contains premonitions,” Wellbaum continues. “I find that has happened to me The most striking difference is the spiritual frequently, and I won’t realize the connectapproach Wellbaum brought to her lyrics. edness of it all until years later. I believe everybody has the capacity to access all “I’ve lived my whole life with a sense of of their senses in highly intuitive ways and searching,” she says. “I haven’t always can use them to make art that serves their known what it is that I’m searching for, or even that I’m looking for something at all. greatest good. It’s important to remember that there is always more than the human I’m awake to that reality now and I try to eye can see.” 💣 embrace it for what it is, an epic quest that will ebb and flow for my entire life.”

PHOTO Charlotte Chanler

The band put the album together with the help of producer Billy Bush, known for his work with Garbage, Foster the People, and other pop and indie rock heavies.

“In the past, we made a record by trying to capture the tightest, most compelling version of our live playing,” Wellbaum says. “We still tried to do that, but left room to explore textures and sonic choices we hadn’t made in the past. We added some analog and digital techniques. We are definitely a band that usually tries out our new material in front of crowds, but that was not an option on this record, for obvious reasons.”

“We love Billy,” Wellbaum says. “He’s a nice presence and a great person to be in the studio with. He has an amazing ear. He’s also creative and open-minded. He is a producer that encourages artists to be themselves and make their own authentic creative choices.”

“We spent a lot more time on demos than we have in the past,” she continues. “It’s an im-

Parallel Timeline continues to expand upon the heavy sounds that are the Slothrust

NEW NOISE

15

MEANBIRDS INTERVIEW WITH FRONTPERSON MAGENTA CAULFIELD

BY EMMA LAURENT

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PHOTO Arne Marenda

writing songs on bass,” Caulfield says. erman newcomers Meanbirds dropped their debut album, Confessions Of An Unrest Drama Queen, The bass-forward sound is especially apparent in the EP’s title track, “Champagne last summer and saved a little bit extra for their follow up EP, Champagne for the Poor, for the Poor.” due on August 6. The EP consists of four Meanbirds have a direct and clear agentracks the band chose to hold onto and not release on Confessions once it be- da. Their ideal listener is the young punk in all of our hearts, “looking for a revolucame clear the pandemic was not ending tion” (Against Me! - Teenage Anarchist). anytime soon. These specific tracks were actually written by frontperson and founding member Magenta Caulfield “Homophobic, racist, and ignorant people won’t have much fun with our band,” before Meanbirds formed.

Caulfield laughs.

Due to the band’s street and oi! punk While “Champagne for the Poor” is a sound, it was surprising to learn that clear protest song, the track “Tal Vez” cuts The Killers were a main inspiration for Caulfield in writing these songs. Accord- a little deeper for Caulfield. The song tells the story of a friend who lost a battle with ing to Caulfied, “Joy Ride” by The Killers cancer, leaving behind her young daughinspired a whole new way of approaching ter and spouse. songwriting.

“I had played bass in other bands before, “It makes me extremely sad every time I sing the lyrics,” Caulfield says. 💣 but that was the first time I really started PHOTO Awa Mally

VIAL

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST/KEYTARIST TAYLOR KRAEMER (SHE/THEY), GUITARIST/VOCALIST KT BRANSCOM (THEY/THEM), BASSIST/VOCALIST KATE KANFIELD (THEY/THEM), AND DRUMMER/VOCALIST KATIE FISCHER (SHE/THEM) BY EMMA LAURENT

V

IAL is the new generation of riot grrrl. They are taking the movement to the next level, “with [their] modern interpretations of the riot grrrl movement, including the newer ‘riot ghoul’ term, that centers marginalized voices and focus[es] more on non-white and non-cis folks than the original movement.”

Their new album, LOUDMOUTH, recently saw release on the venerable, queer label Get Better Records. VIAL sprung from an after-school music programs in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Still needing a drummer at the time, the band found the final piece of the puzzle, Katie Fischer, on Tinder. The four-piece are now using punk for pure and righteous intentions of not just saying fuck you to the omnipresent and proverbial “man,” but to also scream: “I’m here to stay! Make room or don’t. I’m taking my space.”

LOUDMOUTH had been in the works since 2019. While writing it, VIAL were listening to a lot of Dazey and the Scouts, The OBGMs, and Mannequin Pussy to inspire their sound. The record is funny, fragrant, and pissed. Dizzy and naked lyrics cannonball

16 NEW NOISE

over convulsing guitar licks and slides.

Other songs are scrumptiously tender, in line with poppy, cool, and colorful melodies.

VIAL are not only punk. VIAL are femme punk. Instead of being dismissed as “the girl band,” VIAL are owning the label “femme” in order to set an example of how they will be successful and their music long-lasting in a male-dominated scene.

When asked about the distinction and the role of the modifier, Branscom states: “As much as I would like to be considered just a punk band, we do carry a certain responsibility being femmes in the scene, and so I’m fine being in the femme-punk category. We get treated like we’re less because we’re feminine, and we want to prove to the people that treat us like that that they’re wrong for doing that.”

The tongue-in-cheek lyrics of “Planet Drool” sum up LOUDMOUTH perfectly: “Please won’t you help me carry my amp? / It’s too heavy for my lady hands / What do all these little knobs mean / I’m too stupid for the music scene”💣

'DO YOUR ART' OUT 10/22

NEW SINGLE

SLEEP AT NIGHT

OUT NOW!

www.sideonedummy.com

INTERVIEW WITH MULTI-INSTRUMENTALIST LEILA ABDUL-RAUF

BY ADDISON HERRON-WHEELER

“… THERE’S BEEN A PALPABLE SHIFT IN THE CONVERSATIONS PEOPLE ARE HAVING… ABOUT QUEERNESS, AND RACE, AND CLASS… BECAUSE THAT’S ALL EQUALLY IMPORTANT.”

PHOTO Dawn Howard

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prolific creator who needs no introduction (but is getting one anyway), Lelia Abdul Rauf released Phantasiai over the summer, her fourth solo venture, out via Cyclic Law. Known on the Oakland death and doom metal circuit for her work with Vastum, Hammers of Misfortune, and Cardinal Wyrm, as well as the experimental music scene for projects such as Ionophore and Fyrhtu, Abdul-Rauf puts just as much attention and care into her solo work as she does into extreme metal.

something without having so many notes.

It’s more about how you play the notes.”

The record is based around themes of the self and the disintegration of the psyche, and then an attempt to put it back together. Written in two suites, it starts with disintegration to the point of annihilation, then comes back together in the second act with restructuring of the very ideas that were taken apart.

With haunting artwork by Matt Jaffe depicting grasping helpless at nothing, the work deals with some powerful psychological outfits.

Phantasiai was completely composed, recorded, and produced by Abdul-Rauf, and the process of working “I think the difference this time around on this prolific new record, as well was, I was trying to imagine the album as creating more during a period of in its entirety,” Abdul-Rauf says. “I was isolation, were monumental to her trying to start with a whole concept process as a songwriter. and work from there.”

“I was trying to strip down to the bare In terms of how she stays motivated to elements and not over-compose,” she make atmospheric music and play in explains. “I try to keep it as spacious and metal bands, she says the craft itself uncluttered as possible. I think even with drives and inspires her. metal, I’m trying to not have too many ideas crammed into one song so that “Having different projects in different they don’t have space to breathe. I say genres helps me maintain inspiration, this a lot, but I feel that space is really un- whereas if I were in 10 metal bands, I derrated in music. It’s a way to express think I would lose that inspiration real-

18 NEW NOISE

ly quickly, and it would be a lot more pressure to do that now.” difficult to get it back,” Abdul-Rauf says. “But with different genres, you As a woman in her mid-40s, she has can express yourself in so many dif- seen things shift for the better before ferent ways. You have so many more her eyes. Often, the temptation is to not options at hand. As soon as your ears lean into marginalization and tokenism, to the point that sometimes, the tire of loud guitar, you can cleanse the palate, so to speak, and move to other issues don’t come front-and-center. sonic territories that are gonna feel fresh because you were busy doing “I think with Vastum, it’s something we’ve never wanted to do, marginalize ourthis entirely different thing before.” selves as a queer- and female-fronted She also feels that in the musical world, band, and we’ve been very good at that, the conversation is finally being shift- but we’ve been so good at it that most ed to focus on the importance of inter- people don’t know that I do so much of the vocals, and it’s kind of a shock when sectionality in the musical landscape. they finally see us live,” she says.

“In the past five years, there’s been a palpable shift in the conversations Still, despite the constant conundrum people are having,” Abdul-Rauf of inclusion vs. self-marginalization, says. “Even in the mainstream, about Abdul-Rauf is lucky enough to play queerness, and race, and class, and music with like-minded folks, and she everything, because that’s all equal- wouldn’t have it any other way. ly important. I think the metal world has always had the issue of trying to “I’ve played in bands with people that force itself into the white, hetero guy don’t share my values, and it was really, norm, and if you are a woman, or really hard,” she says. “It’s been night non-cis man, or person of color, or a and day from now to what it was like queer person creating music and in 20 years ago, but I think things are the metal world, you had to try and opening up to even more discussion.” fit that mold, and I think there’s less 💣💣💣

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NEW NOISE 19

Summer Reading

POLITICS AS SOUND

INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR SHAYNA MASKELL

BY JASON SCHREURS

P

olitics as Sound author Shayna Maskell lives just a few blocks away from the infamous Dischord House, home of the influential punk/hardcore label for 40 years. It took Maskell, a professor at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, eight years to write the 280-page book, which is subtitled The Washington, D.C. Hardcore Scene, 1978-1983.

Politics in Sound started out as Maskell’s PhD dissertation and soon became an all-consuming passion. She did more than 30 interviews for the book, including with Ian MacKaye of Minor Threat/Teen Idles (of course), and Daryl Jenifer from Bad Brains.

The unity and motivation within the D.C. scene, particularly the Dischord record label and Positive Force benefit shows, isn’t understated in Politics in Sound. The book honors the D.C. scene as a model for progressive, doit-yourself, youth culture.

In the book, Maskell uses six of the most notable D.C. bands from that era— Minor Threat, Bad Brains, S.O.A., Government Issue, Teen Idles, and Faith— to explore the punk subculture in the area at a time when white supremacy, “I decided on writing a book about misogyny, classism, and militarism D.C. hardcore because it’s so imruled the nation’s capital (not much portant in the lineage of punk and has changed in four decades, it seems). hardcore, but also so important to this area,” Maskell says.

“D.C. hardcore, the music and the scene that developed around it, is a The book is a fascinating dissection reaction to those things,” Maskell says. of the fast, loud, and pissed-off hard“D.C. hardcore is about resistance core of D.C.’s early era, and how the and rebellion. It’s about agency and political system around it affected power for young people who didn’t the sound and lyrics. feel they had it.”

“We think of music as spatial rather Maskell was too young for the original than tied to certain place, due to scene but was huge into Fugazi-era global technology, but ‘back in the day,’ music was so tied to place, Dischord bands. the music, the institutions, and the “What drew me to this music, as a re- people,” says Maskell. “Hardcore bellious teenager growing up around existed in many other places, but it the D.C. area, was a nice ‘fuck you’ was formed here in large part as a to these institutions that we grew up reaction to what D.C. was, as a symwith,” she says. bol and a reality.” 💣💣💣

HEAD ON A PIKE

BY BEN SAILER

F

ew figures in doom and stoner metal—and indeed in heavy music writ large—possess a style as recognizable and inimitable as

20 NEW NOISE

statesmen. While the sickness of his six-string skills is undeniable, he’s been less recognized for his ability to pair industrial-strength sludge with a lyrical vision to match.

His new book, Head on a Pike: The Illustrated Lyrics of Matt Pike aims to change that. Featuring illustrated interpretations of his lyrical poetry curated from the past two decades of his career, it promises to lend a visual element that can match the ferocity of his words and music. He’s assembled an impressive roster of A-list art and design talent to bring the book to life too, with a roster PHOTO G Florez that includes Arik Roper, David V. D’Andrea, Santos, Brian Mercer, Matt Pike. The guitarist and front- Skinner, Jondix, Stash, Tim Lehi, Jorman has been harnessing the power dan Barlow, and Derrick Snodgrass. of the riff with High On Fire, Sleep, and Asbestosdeath since 1989, Head on a Pike will be available earning the distinction of being in both hardcover and e-book one of the genre’s foremost elder editions on November 9. For more

information about the book and how to order signed limited-edition bundles, visit RareBirdLit.com. 💣

layers and recognize the ideological fallacies that black metal often seeks to perpetuate.

BLACK METAL UNDER THE BLACK FLAG

As Curtis-Brignell explained in a 2020 interview for this piece:

BY KIM KELLY

Featured here is an excerpt from Black Metal Rainbows, a full-color anthology of radical, queer, and leftist writing and artwork about how black metal can pivot from the sometimes-problematic genre is stared as to a new, open, and inclusive genre.

B

lack metal has always been a study in contradictions. The genre—itself a bastardized offshoot that whips together basic elements of thrash metal, the new wave of British heavy metal, classical music and punk, and filters them all through a veil of distortion and a theatrically evil atmosphere—has been knocking around since the late 1980s by virtue of early pioneers like Hellhammer, Sodom, Venom, Tormentor, and Mercyful Fate. Despite its scrappy, punk-inflected roots (especially in the case of Venom, a schlocky, gritty NWOBHM band who coined the term), black metal quickly became a symbol of something darker.

These early European adapters were surrounded by their peers in the 1980s punk scene, who stayed busy grinding out short, sharp musical shocks and making their anti-establishment, overwhelmingly leftist political sympathies known. But Venom’s tarnished version of British steel was unconcerned with capitalism or the Queen; rather, their lyrics and image were pegged to black leather and black magic.

Satan, laughing, had spread his wings, and those primordial stabbings at evil and darkness spawned a genre with a theatrical commitment to nihilism—and a mean streak.

Everything changed in 1982, particularly in the countries that gave rise to black metal’s early stirrings, now canonically known as its “first wave.” Anarcho-punks Crass released Christ— The Album in 1982, the same year Venom’s Black Metal LP came out. While the Falklands War raged and British punks railed against the cruel austerity policies of hated Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, their counterparts across the pond protested US president Ronald Reagan’s brutal arch capitalist agenda. In Germany, where Sodom’s “witching metal” was birthed in 1982, protestors flooded the streets to advocate for nuclear disarmament, while in Sweden, the left-leaning Social Democratic Party swept the 1982 election (while, in 1983, Bathory’s Quorthon began work on his demo).

Nothing, even the most willfully antisocial, cerebral art, is created in a political void—and whether or not they realized it at the time, early black metal was barely removed from punk in its execution, if not its message.

Despite the historical context, when black metal’s fitful, bloodstained march toward global popularity first truly hit its stride in the 1990s, those involved in the genre’s second wave rejected any notion that their creation was based in anything but pure hatred.

Norway and Sweden dominated black metal

“Black metal is a paradox,” the publishers of the book state. “A noisy, underground metal genre brimming with violence and virulence, it has captured the world’s imagination for its harsh yet flamboyant style and infamous history involving arson, blasphemy, and murder. Today, black metal is nothing less than a cultural battleground between those who claim it for nationalist and racist ends and those who say: Nazi black metal fvck off!” 💣 discourse throughout the 1990s, while South American bands forged their own concurrent path in relative obscurity. Norwegian bands, in particular like Burzum, Mayhem, Darkthrone, Emperor, and Thorns, became the face of the genre and reveled in their social and musical transgressions as they raked in attention from horrified journalists and befuddled music critics alike.

Even then, as the genre was finding its first set of sea legs, there was something rotten in the state of black metal. Racism, antisemitism, and misogyny were rampant within the second wave, and escalating violence became its hallmark, with several of its biggest names engaging in racist attacks, homophobic hate crimes, arson, and murder. Jan Axel Blomberg, better known as Mayhem drummer Hellhammer, made the black metal scene’s deeply rooted white supremacy problem clear when he told one of the authors of the influential book Lords of Chaos: The Bloody Rise of the Satanic Metal Underground (which was cowritten by the openly fascist musician Michael Moynihan), “Black metal is for white people.”

Those events and the influential recordings that were released around them would set the stage for the decades to come, scrawling a blueprint for black metal bands to couch or openly peddle far-right views under the guise of extremity for extremity’s sake, shock value, and, later, “free speech.”

The philosophy of black metal cannot be nailed down into one specific school or line of thought; as with any complex art form, the genre contains multitudes. Given how much black metal has evolved since the early 1990s, it can be difficult to generalize anything about it at this point, but one of the major tenets of black metal has always been a total rejection of oppressive societal structures like organized religion and the idea of “polite” mainstream society. It is about power, extreme emotion, and individualism as much as it is about evil or esoteric philosophies. Darkness as a concept, an aesthetic, and an experience is an integral component, along, of course, with hatred in its myriad forms.

Andy Curtis-Brignell, better known as the force behind British experimental black metal/ noise project Caïna, has been involved in the black metal scene for decades and has been an anarchist for nearly as long. In his estimation, the combination makes perfect sense once one is able to peel back a few spiky

Black metal is a philosophically dualistic creature, in that, on the one hand, there’s a perception—at least certainly an internal perception—of itself as uncompromising, thematically, sonically, and politically conservative and rigid, and so on. But if you actually look at the genre, there’s a tremendous plurality of opinion, approach, and attitude that I think is broadly anarchistic in nature. It’s iconoclastic, says “Fuck you!” to the top-down hierarchies of both music theory and the Byzantine hellscape of the music industry in general and has stuck more rigidly to its founding inherently proletarian DIY community principles than any other subset of heavy music.

The contradictory character that Curtis-Brignell describes is indeed made plain as one digs a bit deeper into black metal ideology, if that label remains appropriate. The “anti-human, anti-life” rhetoric common to its second wave and prevalent throughout the genre’s history is countered by equal exhortations to support a chosen community of like-minded people by rooting out “posers” (and, later, “hipsters” and “social justice warriors”). Its pagan roots and connection to heathenry opens up a dangerous avenue for white supremacist poison to filter in, but it also opens up space for ideas around mutual aid and collective living. The genre’s well-known connection to Satanism offers another line of contradiction, one that connects ideas about free love and self-determination to more problematic and harmful viewpoints. There are as many ways to be a Satanist as there are to be a black metal band, and, at this point, many artists have eschewed the association altogether, particularly those who have chosen to pursue a more political bent.

Black metal’s political and ideological ambiguity remained elastic during the first wave’s punk-influenced early stirrings, but then hardened as the second wave crested. This is what still allows it to be interpreted so broadly and to be claimed by so many conflicting perspectives. It is why anarchist black metal coexists (albeit extremely uncomfortably) with neo-Nazi black metal and why both camps are able to lay some legitimate claim to the genre. The far right has been more successful in claiming black metal as its own for a variety of reasons, but those on the left have never ceded that ground without a fight. That tension between the two camps has reached a boiling point in recent years, and one must ask: If black metal is truly about freedom, then how could it be anything but anarchist?

Before we can get into the justification for black metal being sorted firmly into the anarchist tradition, we must first break down why exactly fascists have had such a strong track record in claiming it for their own. Black metal’s fiercely guarded relationship with hate itself is a core tenet, though the community has struggled to reach consensus over exactly what—or who—that hatred is being beamed toward. For some, it is conformity and the grating demands of mainstream polite society; for others, it is authority and oppression; while for others still, it unfortunately boils down to hating those who do not look or sound or believe exactly the same as they do, and manifests as racism, misogyny, antisemitism, Islamophobia, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, nationalism, fascism, and white supremacy.

In a 2019 interview for Metal Hammer, Dawn Ray’d vocalist and violinist Simon Barr said:

Fascists have always sought to infiltrate radical youth movements and cultural scenes, they tried it with Oi and punk, they have tried it in some sections of electronic music, but they always get disrupted and kicked out. The same will happen in black metal. The far right are a vocal minority in this scene, so a big part of the struggle is being vocal and visible in opposition to those ideas, so as to lessen their influence, whilst actively working to disrupt their shows and networks. Let’s be clear: fascism is the most violent and horrific ideology we have seen so far, and we cannot compromise or hesitate in our attempts to stop it.

So how can something so fraught, with so much baggage, be anything but what the fascists have deemed it? How can it be worth saving?

The answer is simple. Black metal and anarchism are both based upon the same inherent principle: the concept of freedom. As Lucy Parsons, a black and indigenous woman who was born into slavery and became a legendary labor organizer and one of anarchism’s most revered orators, once said, “[Anarchism] has but one infallible, unchangeable motto, ‘Freedom’: Freedom to discover any truth, freedom to develop, to live naturally and fully.”

That sentiment has echoed throughout history, and inspired multiple generations of more recent converts to the cause. Among them are Dawn Ray’d, a trio of working-class Brits who started a band to reflect their politics and inadvertently became one of modern metal’s most controversial lightning rods. Their sworn commitment to both anarchism and militant anti-fascism—and refusal to apologize for either stance—won them fans as well as enemies across the metal spectrum after they released their watershed 2017 debut LP The Unlawful Assembly. The album remains a tour de force of masterful, potent black metal, with a melodic tinge and Barr’s violin adding texture and pathos to the proceedings, and ensuing releases only raised their profile. As one of the most vocal anti-fascist bands in metal, let alone black metal, they endured torrents of abuse, death threats, and mockery but have held firm. To them, this is more than music; it is a battle for a better world.

“Anarchism is the freedom to live your life any way you choose, as long as in doing so you don’t affect anyone else’s ability to do the same,” Barr explains, echoing Parsons a century earlier. “Anarchism means taking responsibility for your actions, it is having direct control over your life, and it is anti-oppressive by its very nature.”

As an ideology, anarchism is nearly as fluid as black metal, but while black metal’s linchpin is hatred, that of anarchism is, arguably, love.

That sounds painfully utopian (and insurrectionary anarchists would surely recoil at such a kumbaya description), but it is true. To fight for collective liberation, for a world defined by voluntary association, solidarity, self-determination, and autonomy, a life without the hierarchy of oppressive power structures, built on consensus and restorative justice, and in which every creature and the natural world itself is valued, requires a deep well of affinity for one’s fellow living beings. Whether one is drawn to one of the many different schools of thought loosely grouped under anarchism’s black umbrella—mutualism, Black anarchism, anarcha-feminism, green anarchism, queer anarchism—or, in the style of renowned anarchist thinker Voltairine de Cleyre, an “anarchist without adjectives,” the core beliefs remain intact.

Satanic anarchism is another option, and while it is certainly a less traditional path, it is one that may at first appear to be a natural fit for black metal’s leftist contingent… 💣

NEW NOISE

21

Summer Reading

LOOSE GRAVEL

BY GINNY FANTHOME

ever seen a renovation. It also looked like the clientele and some of the desserts hadn’t changed since it first opened, either.

Still, it was a hell of an improvement over a Denny’s.

A heavy-set waiter shuffled to their table and delivered their beverage orders before scooping up the pile of maroon, leather-bound menus.

“Y’know, that’s pretty cool,” Markus said. Ripping open four sugar packets simultaneously, he dumped them into his coffee. Wincing at this, Lion picked up his super-sized glass of grapefruit juice and chugged half of it.

Steve examined his spoon, which seemed to have escaped the dishwasher. “What is?”

“That they’re open to hiring people with Down Syndrome.”

“Who’s got Down Syndrome?” Sam asked. She twisted around in her seat to see who he was talking about.

“Our waiter.”

Written by Ginny Fanthome, a fixture in the Canadian punk scene, Loose Gravel is a fiction book about Spooge, a punk band who get to know each other on their grimy, tour journey, cramped into a tight van and bonding whether they want to or not. Fanthome has lived this life herself, having been a drummer for bands including The Spazmz, The Diabollocks, and The Carbonas, an all-girl Ramones cover band. Now, she is sharing her behind-the-scenes, DIY, punk experience with anyone who is interested in reading the tale.

A

“No, he doesn’t!” she exclaimed. “What are you talking about?”

“Sure he does – lookit the guy!”

“Dorfmann, if I thought you were joking, I’d laugh,” Lion said, shaking his head. “But you’re dead, fucking serious!” As he stood up to go to the bathroom, he smacked Markus upside the head and muttered, “Shit-for-brains!”

“Watch it! You’re dealing with an injured man here.”

Markus did look kind of roughed up. His bottom lip was slashed and puffy, and his left eye, now a pinkish-purple hue, had swollen solidly shut from the fight the previous night.

s soon as he spotted its stylized, silver sides glinting in the late morning sun, Markus insisted that they stop there for breakfast. Nobody seemed to mind. It was pretty crazy and looked like the kind of place that would provide substantial servings at a reasonable price.

Steve took a huge gulp of his black coffee.

“Sorry Dorfmann, no one feels sorry for you. And we know you’re just gonna milk this to get pity out of women.”

Ollie’s was a streamlined diner that resembled an old Art Deco tramcar from the outside. On the inside, the tattered decor showed it hadn’t

“I am highly offended that you think so little of me,” Markus said, and wiped a non-existent tear from his eye. “Mind you, it has proven to be

SNAP

BY MATT HUTCHISON

New Noise’s own Matthew Hutchison has penned Snap, a very real look into the life of a woman who has been pushed too far by addiction, the broken mental health and recovery system, and the curveballs life constantly throws our way. His descriptions of blue-collar life set against the gorgeous background of Southern California are nothing less than stunning and truly do capture how it feels to be surrounded by beauty but at the end of your rope.

C

rescent Heights. A coastal neighborhood in Ventura two blocks from the Pacific waters, housing the city’s upper-middle class. It is dusk; the sun’s descent over the ocean reflects images seen on postcards or a tourist’s social media

22 NEW NOISE

feed. It takes years to come to this level in life and seconds to have it ripped from you, which is what’s happening here with Larissa’s family. Cuffed in a patrol car and watching helplessly as her soon-tobe ex-husband speaks to the two police officers

an effective panty-removal method in the past...”

Sam smiled as she poured a dribble of milk into her tea and gave the steamy liquid a languid stir. “Hey Steve – you know Tessie, right?”

“Lion’s ex?”

“Yeah, the pseudo-Goth chick who used to play bass for that weird, New Wave industrial band.

What were they called – Babyhead Clingwrap or something?”

“Yeah, I remember those guys. They were seriously messed. Ever get a chance to see them?”

Sam shook her head ‘no’ as she took a careful sip of her tea. Her cup smelled faintly of bleach.

Steve continued. “They used to dress up in these crazy, matching black jumpsuits with red belts and stripes, like something outta Gary Numan’s Telekon Tour.”

“Telethon Tour?” Markus said. “Nah, yer thinking of Jerry’s Kids.”

“Te-le-KO... never mind, you idiot,” Steve said.

“Don’t you listen to anything besides punk and metal?”

the sounds of “Conga” by Miami Sound Machine began to fill the diner.

“Aw Christ, who put that shit on?” Lion groused.

As he slid back into the booth, he noticed Markus’ food. “Jesus – what the fuck is that?”

“Don’t ask,” Steve said. Carefully he cut into his western omelette and examined it before putting it into his mouth.

Markus returned to the table with a big grin on his face, and without a blink of an eye, immediately tucked into his meal. His bandmates glanced at one another in disgust.

As they were eating, “Conga” ended in one booth and immediately began playing in another. After the song finished there, it started up again from another booth. Without a word, everyone glared at Markus, knowing who the culprit was.

“Get this guy,” Markus suddenly announced. He gestured to Lion as he pointed his fork at Steve.

“He’s been spouting off that punk and metal are the same thing.”

“That’s not what I said.”

“Sure – you know I’m a closet AC/DC freak,” Markus said proudly.

“Y’know what your problem is, man?” Lion replied. “You’re a fucking music snob.”

“That’s hard rock. Same difference.”

“Bullshit!” Steve yelped. “I listen to WAY more stuff than you two ever will! You start panicking if you accidentally wander out of the Hardcore section at a music store. At least Sam’s a bit more open-minded.”

“Blasphemy!”

“Oh, come on,” Steve said in annoyance. “They were one of the bands that started the whole heavy rock/metal thing. I’m talking about listening to something OUTSIDE of the normal realm of your tiny, boxed-in musical experience.”

The waiter arrived with their orders, setting each plate in front of the wrong person. Markus shot Steve and Sam a look that said, “Aha, see – I told you,” before he slid out of the booth and disappeared.

Markus snorted. “What – like those amplified farting noises she forced us to listen to when we did that gig up north?”

“That was the Tibetan Buddhist Monks, you classless moron,” Steve spat.

Sam just rolled her eyes. “It’s not like I even got a chance to play more than one song, what with all the bitching you guys were doing.”

Sam glanced at Markus’ order and puffed out her cheeks like she was going to barf. “Omigod, it looks like dog food that the dog already ate.

What IS that?”

“That was simply obscene,” Markus joked, waving his hand in front of his face like a Southern belle. “It offended my delicate constitution.”

“Corned beef hash,” Steve grimaced, shoving the plate a bit further away from him. Suddenly

Lion laughed and smacked Markus. “Shaddap, Chuckle-head!” 💣

outside their home. Being busted for a Class-A misdemeanor is one thing: having your husband call the police on you about it is another. Larissa’s five-year methamphetamine habit culminates into public humiliation on this day.

more stress. She needed relief or more time in the day; both would help, and crank delivered. Her energy and performance improved; her mood swings grew more unstable as her use escalated.

Her husband, James, offered to get her help; she lied about quitting cold turkey. He then offered to help her again after catching her using smack in the bathroom; she refused his offer. Finally, the third time resulted in James staging an intervention and an ultimatum on her: get clean, or we are finished. Their marriage was already rocky after the move south to Ventura upon Larissa securing a national sales manager job with Oxnard based Golden State Steel Supply.

It was a move Larissa wanted to make; raising a family in the Bay Area on James’s journeyman welder’s salary and her own as a steel account executive isn’t feasible; she wants a permanent home for Thomas to buy and build equity for the family. James was initially reluctant but agreed to the move. Within two months, she secured a job with Golden State Steel Supply and worked her way up to a management position within two years of employment. Now being the primary breadwinner along with a mother brought on

This moment is Larissa’s lowest; she feels dumb and ashamed. James emerges from the condominium; his right cheek is yellow and turning purple from the belt-buckle punch she decked him with earlier. The cut above his eye from her whipping a belt across his face is covered in tissue.

Two neighbors peek outside their doors to the commotion going on; another face from upstairs looks down upon the sad scene of a soon-split- up family. Low point achieved.

James approaches one of the police officers and doesn’t turn to look at his wife, helplessly cuffed, in a patrol car. Thomas is inside the house in his room as all this happens; no 5-year-old should see their mother in this state. James nods towards one of the officers and heads back into the house. The police and his partner officer turn and walk back to the car. “Miss, I’m sorry this is happening,” the driver-side cop states to Larissa as the driver starts the engine. Larissa does not hear this; her eyes are glued to her house. She begins to cry as the view of her home and former life fade in the distance. 💣

Inside the Industry why UNFD has expanded at such a rapid rate over the last ten years.

the arts and UNFD showcases the ambition of Australian creativity.”

“When the label began, the only bands that were doing quite well within the heavy Australian scene were The Amity Affliction and Parkway Drive,” Logemann says. “In 2011, there was a massive amount of talent and so many bands we wanted to work with, and we wanted to bring it all together and add a professional nature to the heavy scene in Australia.”

“UNFD fosters an environment where people are excited by the work we are doing,” she continues. “We have staff in three continents and can take a global approach on how we release music, and the general work ethic is very passionate.”

“I have been working here for three years now, and the pasINTERVIEW WITH LUKE LOGEMANN AND sion that goes into this label is FRANCESCA CALDARA BY ROB KENT unquestionable,” Caldara says.

NFD is celebrating a strong, on its own two feet, and “I think the fact that the label decade of existence this continued to elevate itself year comes from Australia, which is year. Ten years since Luke after year. an overlooked country, showLogemann started the innocasing a community of people vative platform to expose the “The kind of person I am, and who genuinely care about excellence in Australian heavy the people who are part of the music. Ten years of showcasing label, reflects that when UNFD the best the country has to offer started, it was always a longand even expanding its opera- term plan,” Logemann says. tion over three continents. UNFD “For as long as I can remember, stepped in when nobody else running a record label was my would, and it truly has been an goal in life. I’m so proud of this amazing decade for Logemann past decade, but UNFD is here and his team. UNFD has stood to remain in the distant future also. This label is a community, and it’s a place where fans and artists come together.”

That summarizes perfectly the ethics of UNFD, a label that provides a platform for art that needs to be showcased. It’s no surprise that UNFD has had an amazing decade with an operation and vision that’s unique.

Here’s to another decade and many more. 💣💣💣

“For as long as I can remember, running a record label was my goal in life. I’m so proud of this past decade, but UNFD is here to remain in the distant future also. This label is a community, and it’s a place where fans and artists come together.”

U

UNFD began with a lifelong vision and commitment, its rate of growth down to the content and the labor behind the scenes. With such a passionate and dedicated team behind exposing captivating heavy music from down under, it is obvious

24 NEW NOISE

Caldara makes it clear that UNFD evolving into a worldwide day and night operation, combined with its work ethic, is a key “UNFD had a main initial goal of factor as to why it has risen above getting Australian bands over- the rest in the last 10 years. With seas and performing outside world domination on the cards, the country,” he continues. “The who knows where UNFD will stand rest of the world is so far away in the next decade? from Australia, and I feel bands in this country just thought they “Signing to a label should never couldn’t leave Australia, and be a band’s end goal, it should they were stuck. UNFD came in just be the beginning,” Caldato connect the dots and prove ra says. “A label should be a that Australian artists were band’s teammates and never absolutely worth getting on their coach. What UNFD does overseas tours.” is an amplification of what the band can do. A band may have Francesca Caldara, the label’s their own vision, but UNFD will North American manager adds provide bands with the resourcfurther comments. es to execute them.”

IN HEARTS WAKE PHOTO Sally Patti

THE FALL AND RISE OF

IO DI NE R E C O R D S

THE FIVE MOST IMPACTFUL RELEASES FROM IODINE RECORDINGS

INTERVIEW WITH FOUNDER CASEY IODINE BY BEN SAILER

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ew punk and hardcore labels have had a trajectory quite like Iodine Recordings.

Back in the early 2000s, the Boston-based independent imprint was on the verge of becoming a major force in the punk and hardcore scene. It established itself with the compilation Ghost in the Gears (featuring then obscure bands like Converge and Cave In) in 2000, before finding unexpected success with Brand New’s Your Favorite Weapon in 2002. That led to a massive signing spree, moving into an office, and striving to become the next Jade Tree or Equal Vision.

That goal looked achievable. Maybe even inevitable. Then, things took an unexpected turn.

Two weeks after the release of the experimental metalcore band There Were Wires’s second album, Somnambulists, Iodine Recordings folded, unable to recoup costs fast enough to support an aggressive release calendar. The record faded into obscurity, while the rest of the roster scattered.

It was a bitter conclusion to a promising start, and it would haunt label founder Casey Iodine (who prefers

to use his label’s namesake in lieu of his last name) for nearly two decades.

“I never really liked the way things ended,” Iodine says. “I feel like I let a lot of bands down. Let a lot of people in the industry down. It’s something that’s gnawed at me for the last 18 years, and not a week went by that I didn’t think about wishing I had the opportunity to make it right.”

It would have been easy for There Were Wires to have spent that time nurturing resentment. For context, they turned down an offer from Deathwish, Inc. in order to sign with Iodine. Yet if there are any hard feelings, they certainly aren’t apparent.

ies sold out in a matter of hours. That led to more bands—both old friends looking to re-release their back catalog and active artists alikeasking to work with Iodine Recordings as well. It’s a comeback story so improbable that even Iodine himself seems surprised.

“Here I am thinking, ‘Wait a second, you do realize I haven’t been in the industry for 18 years and I once bankrupted a label, right?’” Iodine says, laughing. “So, why do you want to work with me?”

Chalk it up to the power of trust and second chances. Looking back, maybe what listeners and artists remember most about the label isn’t the way it ended, but what it tried to achieve, and what it could have been with just a little more time and money. A lot has changed since 2003, but for the label, the commitment to curating a quality roster that deserves attention has stayed the same.

When the band began discussing re-releasing the record and asked Iodine about obtaining their masters, it could have been as simple as sorting out legalities and handing over the recordings. Instead, the conversation led to the decision to reboot Iodine Recordings and make the re- “I’m trying to go back to that original mastered record its first release back. mindset of, it’s about getting music to people who want to hear it,” Iodine Things worked out much better the says. “I’m lucky enough that I don’t second time around. When Iodine have to live off of it at this point. If it Recordings released the remastered does awesome, then I’m happy. And Somnambulists in early 2021, vinyl cop- if it falls flat, I can always let it go.” 💣

1). Brand New – Your Favorite Weapon

“It’s just a funny record for me because I did it as a favor to help these guys out, and nobody expected that band to blow up to the level that they did.”

2) Smoke Or Fire – Worker’s Union

“It got the attention of Fat Wreck Chords, who they continued the rest of their career with, and toured the world numerous times.”

3) Gregor Samsa – 27:36

“My jaw was on the floor. I never heard a band as beautiful as they were ... I went up to them and said, ‘I want to sign your band.

I’ll give you anything you want. Just tell me how I can make it happen.’ That’s how badly I wanted to work with Gregor Samsa.”

4) There Were Wires – Somnambulists

“We put more money into that record than any other record we had produced because we wanted it to be as perfect as we could make it. And when it came back, when we reissued it, it got so much more of a response than I ever would have dreamed.”

5) Garrison – The Model

“You never know what’s going to break a band. Sometimes, it’s just this unspeakable thing, but the band and the label and the producers and everyone put so much love into that record. It really is something special.”

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Inside the Industry

INTERVIEW WITH MATT PRYOR FROM THE GET UP KIDS BY JOHN B. MOORE

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or The Get Up Kids co-founder Matt Pryor, Vagrant Records were more or less a last-ditch effort by the band to get their music out to the public in the mid-1990s. The band was desperate for a label when all of their major label talks fell through.

“Well, like several people, I thought the label was somehow associated, if not directly owned,

by Trevor Keith of Face To Face,” Pryor says.

Turns out Keith didn’t own the label, but Rich Egan and Joe Cohen did. And not only did they give The Get Up Kids the lifeline they needed, but the band’s sophomore effort, Something To Write Home About, helped put the four-year old label on the map.

“Rich made us the most artist friendly offer we’d ever heard of before or since,” Pryor says. “And, like I said before, we were desperate.”

To celebrate Vagrant Records from Sense Fail,” Pryor says. “We 25th anniversary, Pryor is cur- have a lot of friends in common, so rently hosting a podcast about I knew it would be fine, but I really the label, Vagrant Records: 25 didn’t know anything about the years on the Street. You can listen band. So, for them I did do a decent amount of research. Everyto the podcast via Spotify. one else, I kinda just kept their wiki “The focus is just to tell the story of page open while we were talking, the label,” he says. “It’s an oral as a reference point. Mainly to get history, as told by the people who the names and release order of were involved and the people who their records correct.” were and are fans of the label.”

Asked about why Vagrant was, Recent episodes have included and remains, so important to kids interviews with Mark Hoppus growing up in the ’90s and ’00s, (Blink-182), Max Bemis (Say Any- Pryor is a little stumped at first. thing), and Chad Gilbert (New “That’s a hard one to answer because Found Glory).

I really don’t know,” he says. “If I was To be fair to Pryor, most musi- to guess, I think they were very good cians don’t know the entire histo- at listening to what was a growing ry of their record label, let alone scene at the time. They loved the all of their bands, so there was a music but didn’t force anything; little homework involved in the they were very creative, and good at selling records. Probably the best hosting gig. thing they did was to let the artists “The first person that I interviewed make art and stay the hell out of the that I wasn’t really already way. Maybe that’s why there’s such friends with was Buddy [Nielsen] staying power.” 💣

Throughout its 25-year history, Vagrant have helped launch a slew of remarkable indie bands. And while they were primarily known for an emo/pop punk-heavy roster at the beginning, they eventually branched out to indie rock, soul, and electronic, putting out records by acts as diverse as The Lemonheads, Black Joe Lewis, The 1975, Paul Westerberg, and PJ Harvey. Here are a few of the label’s biggest names.

DASHBOARD CONFESSIONAL

The Chris Carrabba-fronted band came to define emo in the early aughts, thanks to painfully earnest lyrics and their knack for writing a pretty sweet, soaring chorus. They came to the label in 2001, with their sophomore effort, The Places You Have Come To Fear The Most and put out six more albums on the label.

THE GET UP KIDS

Pryor’s band turned to Vagrant to put out their classic Something To Write Home About, a record that brought The Get Up Kids to the masses and bolstered the label’s reputation for spotting emerging talent. Vagrant put out two more albums from the band, as well as music from Get Up Kids adjacent groups like The New Amsterdams, Reggie and the Full Effect, and The Terrible Twos.

HOLD STEADY

Vagrant released this Brooklyn-by-way-of-Minneapolis rock band’s third, and wildly impressive record, Boys and Girls in America, in 2006. The fact that the album was neither emo nor pop punk helped to broaden the label’s fanbase. Vagrant went on to release two more records by the band, 2008’s Stay Positive and 2010’s Heaven Is Whenever.

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Inside the Industry

PHOTO Christopher Sikich

PRODUCER KYLE PULLEY

INTERVIEW BY CAMERON CARR

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In other instances, Pulley might take more creative freedom if that fits the artist’s goals. Shamir, an artist whom he says has an impressively broad but precise range of references, described an imagined drum sound and let Pulley figure out how to achieve it. Pulley conjured up a loop from old samples he’d made and then enlisted a studio assistant to mimic the beat on a real drum kit.

The drum sound on Shamir’s “On My Own,” from his self-titled 2020 album, comes from the blend of those two sources.

yle Pulley has worked on albums a career as a producer helped to con- “I feel like I’m a little less pretentious both in the band and behind the vince Pulley it was a realistic pathway. about what works,” he says. “If someboard, but the July release of one’s like, ‘I made this thing, but I Adult Mom’s Driver, which Pulley “I knew that being a producer was a made it in GarageBand, so I guess produced, engineered, and contrib- thing that somebody could do, and it we’ll have to redo it,’ there’s been tons uted bass to, felt like a landmark for always sounded like that was cool, but of times where I’m like, ‘I don’t know, him. That record fulfilled a dream of it just sounded like this far off, lofty, sounds pretty cool to me; who cares?

That process of creative developadding his name to a release by Epi- theoretical thing,” he says. “[Later,] I Let’s use it.’ If it works, it works. I have ment often brings Pulley the most taph Records, one of his favorite labels realized I was sort of just skipping out no problem integrating people’s work- joy in the studio. He calls demoing through his youth. his favorite part of recording as he on other stuff I was doing and always flow at home into the studio.” prefers to get involved with the songs ending up in the studio to work on my To be sure, Pulley’s work has seen his crappy bands.”

Working with Adult Mom’s Stevie Knipe, early on, while the possibilities still name appear on plenty of other refeel limitless. During those beginning Pulley realized they had a thoroughly leases. His studio credits include Hop steps, he and the artist can experiPulley cut his teeth, like many others, developed and concrete vision of the Along, Shamir, Diet Cig, and Kississippi. recording in basements, bedrooms, vocal delivery they wanted for their ment with shifting tempos, changing He plays bass for Thin Lips, and he keys, and rearranging sections. schools, and rehearsal spaces around songs. He encouraged Knipe to edit co-founded Philadelphia’s Headroom Philadelphia. It wasn’t until 2008 that their own vocals to better capture Studios with Joe Reinhart (Hop Along, he and Reinhart started Headroom their intended expression.

“I love making the record, but being Joyce Manor, Modern Baseball). able to be involved in the creative out of a warehouse space, which process of just shaping a song is my relocated to a larger space in 2014. “They just put a lot of thought into Reinhart, a classmate of Pulley’s at Drex- That may have helped to link him to the emotion that they’re putting into favorite part,” Pulley says. “Getting to el University, was part of the inspiration have a vision and then helping a band the DIY and punk ethos of many of the each line,” he says. “If you have an for Pulley to commit to studio work as artists he’s worked with, but it’s also idea, why make me the conduit if you realize that vision is maybe my second his main focus. Seeing Reinhart pursue favorite part.” 💣💣💣 influenced his approach to producing. can just do it?”

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EAST BAY PUNK PHOTO Murray Bowles

formerly in the band, always had lots of different bands and always collaborated with lots of people. So, I think that was a common thing for the scene we came from.”

Despite lineup changes and an ever-changing musical landscape over the years, Pinhead Gunpowder’s sound always remained deeply rooted in classic East Bay punk— a sound that’s difficult to define. But like other musical movements—like CBGB’s in New York, or Seattle, Gainesville, or Nashville— you know it when you hear it.

PINHEAD GUNPOWDER

“The first thing that came to mind is that you can kind of look to the drummers, and there’s something there,” White says, helping to narrow in on the sound. “Whether it’s Aaron Cometbus, whether it’s Dave Mello, or Tre Cool, there’s kind of this frenetic drumming style to me, that to find when I hear it, I’m like—that’s an East Bay band. You know?

And I’ve heard countless other drummers do it, even in other places, that try to maybe mimic their style, but to me it’s a very East Bay-rooted thing. Why is that? I don’t know. To me, that style starts there. 💣

INTERVIEW WITH GUITARIST/VOCALIST JASON WHITE BY DEREK NIELSEN

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ince their formation in 1991, Pinhead Gunpowder have accumulated almost a dozen releases across almost as many labels, in the form of scattered EPs, LPs, comps and singles. But now, for the first time ever, the East Bay punk band is re-releasing their entire remastered catalog via 1-2-3-4 Go! Records. Every three months, starting back in April, a new batch of reissues will drop, including a remastered LP, a senen-inch, and a bunch of associated merchandise. 2021 is officially the year of the Pinhead.

“We’re basically just reissuing vinyl of all the releases the band has and putting them on 1-2-3-4 Go!” guitarist and vocalist Jason White explains. “When they were first printed or released, they were all spread across different labels. Most of them— if not all— have gone out of print, or the labels have gone under, or they’re just not widely available anymore. And so, for a while, we have been wanting to do something where we re-release it, and it all has a home again.”

A quick recap for the uninitiated: Following the demise of Crimpshrine, drummer Aaron

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Cometbus started Pinhead Gunpowder in 1991, while still living in Arcata, California.

Upon moving back to Berkeley, he enlisted the help of bassist Bill Schneider, and guitarist and vocalist Sarah Kirsch of the Skinflutes. After recruiting a starry-eyed Billie Joe Armstrong on second guitar and vocal duties, Pinhead Gunpowder played their first show opening for Rancid in Oakland. Kirsch would leave the band in 1993 and was replaced by White, who also later would become Green Day’s touring guitarist before officially joining them in 2012.

you had some other friends you wanted to play with and try things with,” White says. “And so that’s what you did—or you did simultaneously. I mean, Billy wasn’t in a whole lot of other bands besides Green Day, I think, until Pinhead Gunpowder. But that was sort of a thing that you did, when you had time to do it.”

Similar to how the primordial pools from which we all evolved were ripe with the perfect elements for life’s creation, healthy music scenes foster the creation of bands.

And just like organisms within an ecosystem, they soon evolve, mutate, swap DNA, consume each other, or just die. But sometimes, this evolution leads to healthy symbiosis.

The nebulous and fluid nature of band members at this time is reflective of just about any music scene. But during the ’80s and early ’90s, East Bay bands in particular For instance, Cometbus’s former band were notorious for being incestuous when it Crimpshine included Jeff Ott, who also came to the musicians involved. The band recorded and toured with Billie Joe Arm- played in Fifteen, along with both Jesse Michaels and Tim Armstrong, who would strong long after Green Day’s breakthrough into mainstream success. For many fans, later go to form Operation Ivy, would later go to form Rancid, and so on.

Green Day was a gateway into discovering not only Pinhead Gunpowder, but also the “I think it was in the spirit of the punk scene, greater East Bay punk scene. you just spread yourself out,” White says.

“In the punk scene, you did a band and “There was a time when I was in three bands at the same time. And Sarah Kirsch, who was then maybe that burned out, and then

Rancid’s 1995 release ...And Out Come the Wolves was an apotheosis of East Bay punk. The scene’s entire timeline can be divided into two eras—before and after that album. In terms of genre-defining albums, they literally don’t make them like this anymore.

Dookie may have had more commercial success, launching Green Day to household name status.

But ...AOCTW felt like the secret afterparty that you where all the cool kids were hanging out that you desperately needed to be part of. Dookie might have been the gateway, but Wolves was the trapdoor. The moment that “Maxwell Murder” blows you away and “11th Hour” picks up the pieces, you knew there was no going back.

In the spirit of all the other East Bay reissues, Lavasocks and Sell the Heart records teamed up to release ...And Out Come the Lawsuits earlier this summer. The album is a tribute compilation featuring nineteen Bay Area bands covering each of the iconographic songs. In a perfect world, the comp would have been released coinciding with the album’s 25th anniversary. But hey, this ain’t no Mecca, man. This place is fucked. 💣

SPITBOY

PHOTO Chris Boarts Larson

INTERVIEW WITH DRUMMER MICHELLE GONZALEZ AND BASSIST PAULA HIBBS-RINES BY DEREK NIELSEN

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t’s difficult to encapsulate how vital Spit- In 2016, Gonzales published Spitboy Rule: for Spitboy, the Gilman Street project will “We have a friend who grew up with us at that Tales of a Xicana in a Female Punk Band mere boy were during the early days of East always be sacred ground. time,” bassist Paula Hibbs-Rines says. “And he months before the Trump administration Bay punk. The mixed-race, all-female has a daughter who is helping to run most of hardcore band were a caustic coun- began to loom its shadow over everything “The Gilman punk scene was a very safe Gilman. She’s a big lead in this whole project the band had fought for. It was around this terpoint to the largely male-dominated space, and I have no shame about any now. So, the next generation, it’s really good to time the conversation about the band’s underground scene but also distanced of the stereotypes about it or anything,” see. It’s still alive!’” legacy began in earnest. themselves from the riot-grrrl movement Gonzales says. “I really felt that as a young that was taking off at the time. With unwoman in my 20s, it was a place that I could “That was something I learned in the early flinching lyrics tackling gender norms, “I was writing Spitboy Rule: Tales of a Xicana go to and feel relatively safe. We didn’t like days of Spitboy,” she continues. “I remember reproductive rights, racism, capitalism, in a Female Punk Band, and it became playing house parties on tour because somebody I respected came up to me and very clear to me that I had to preserve the the government, and any other bullshit there was always the really drunk guy that said, ‘Stop playing the victim. Stop writing lyrSpitboy legacy,” she says. “If we didn’t do that serves the patriarchy, Spitboy didn’t would show up, or the little pod of drunk ics about being a victim. You are powerful. All bring baggage. They brought ammunition. it ourselves, we were going to fade away, dudes that would show up. It was at one of of you. And your songs are powerful.’ So that or we were going to be subsumed by the those parties that we were told to spread really hit home and gives you a different way “We all—as women—we all had our own, par- umbrella that is riot-grrrl—which always our legs or play. It’s one of my favorite chap- to look at it. You can go, ‘Oh, I’m so oppressed!’ happened to us.” ticular feminist concerns, and so we would ters, because it really illustrates the reason Or you can do something about it.” write songs based on those particular feminist why we prefer to play all-ages shows, and When attempting to articulate something as concerns,” drummer Michelle Gonzalez says. why we prefer to play shows without alcohol.” “The first thing that came to mind is that nebulous as who you are, it is always helpful to you can kind of look to the drummers, and start with what you are not. Gonzales elaborates “Unsanctioned shows are rad and hella Like many of their peers, Spitboy’s music could there’s something there,” White says, helpthat Spitboy was not a riot-grrrl band by design. only be found scattered among random punk. But for women, they’re fucking way ing to narrow in on the sound. “Whether compilations, singles, and EPs. But now, all 26 of more dangerous! Way more dangerous. it’s Aaron Cometbus, whether it’s Dave their recorded songs can be found remastered “For me, as a person of color, it just felt a little There’s a lot more potential for stupidity Mello, or Tre Cool, there’s kind of this and reissued under the album Body of Work, bit back-of-the-bus,” she says. “I get that it’s and violence to happen, or just for us to frenetic drumming style to me, that to released on June 25 via Don Giovanni Records. not the same power dynamic; it totally isn’t. be humiliated—which we were!” find when I hear it, I’m like—that’s an But it just made me feel bad. As Audre Lorde The idea for a reissue had been tossed around East Bay band. You know? And I’ve heard would say, ‘The master’s tools will never dis- With 100 percent of proceeds going to the for years but took a while to gain traction. countless other drummers do it, even in mantle the master’s house.’”

National Women’s Law center, the band other places, that try to maybe mimic “We work by consensus, and five midhopes Body of Work will inspire new gener- their style, but to me it’s a very East The band would tour relentlessly during the dle-aged women with lots of ideas working ations to keep fighting for what could be a Bay-rooted thing. Why is that? I don’t few years they were an active band. But by consensus—it can be slow going!” better world on the other side. know. To me, that style starts there. 💣

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LEGENDS OF DEATH

BLESSED ARE THE SICK, ESPECIALLY FOR THOSE WHO WORSHIP AT THE BLASPHEMOUS ALTAR OF DEATH. DESPITE THE YEARS BATTERING THEM ABOUT, THESE DEATH METAL LEGENDS ARE STILL AT IT, STILL PAVING THE WAY FOR AN ALL-NEW GENERATION OF MUSICIANS INTERESTED IN CLASSIC DEATH STYLINGS AND HOW TO MAKE THINGS AS GNARLY AS POSSIBLE. ALL HAIL THE LEGENDS OF DEATH!

The Purity of Perversion, 1999

Aborted’s debut showcased a band that played fast, pummeled hard, and was open to a unique variance within a rigid genre. Songs thrashed as hard as they floated evenly, in two places at once.

The group showed brutal technicality could be tasteful, too.

Engineering the Dead, 2001

The group continued to build on the tech-grind format they brought forth with their debut. Their second hits hard, with breakdowns that are surging and deft. de Caluwé’s vocals continue to break space, and the group move up and down the extreme spectrum with fully realized range.

Goremageddon: The Saw and the Carnage Done, 2003

The band continued to expand ways to present extremity, with deep cuts based around communication and reaction. The sound is more clear and intense, the group’s third record was their most tactile yet, and still to this day sounds fresh and true.

The Archaic Abattoir, 2005

True to form, Aborted continued to tinker with extreme death metal and grind on their fourth release, creating an original take that would often place movements typically at odds with one another, and make them sing like a doctor’s sheath.

Slaughter & Apparatus: A Methodical Overture, 2007

As if Aborted could possibly get any darker, on their fifth record, the darkness festers into an overall design, something that works wonders with the extreme technicality. De Caluwé’s vocals continued to grow mighty, with songs like “The Chondrin Enigma” showcasing a master at work.

A

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST SVEN DE CALUWÉ

BY CHRISTOPHER J. HARRINGTON

borted’s 11th full-length, ManiaCult, due out September 10 via Century Media, continues to build upon the dynamism that has defined the death/grind outfit for over two decades.

The record is a study in varied extremism, a propulsive affair kept multidimensional by vocalist and founder Sven de Caluwé’s unique singing techniques.

grandness. The record bursts and swirls to create something of a center void, a place one thinks they can hang on to throughout the storm, but the problem is: the ferocity is blinding, and the band succeed—as always—at transcendence through diffusion.

The group’s previous record, Terrorvision, came out in 2018, and the band used it as a starting point for the new one.

and imagery that Aborted wields has always been front and center, it’s a style that is maxed out continually. With ManiaCult, the balance is more refined; there’s breath within the structure, and the group capitalizes on this, offering a labyrinth of which to travel, where the brutal moments become almost symbolic with regards to the greater picture.

“With Terrorvision we were very happy with “If you’re writing extreme and brutal music, you can’t really start singing songs about the record,” de Caluwé notes. “But it got a little one dimensional at some point, ‘Free Britney,’” de Caluwé laughs. “You kind of have to have something that works not that that was a bad thing, but we felt in there. Now the challenge has always like it would be beneficial if we did a new been, and what we’ve always tried to record that was a lot more dynamic, mix do throughout the years, is that we write stuff in that complements elements of the about horribly disgusting things, but we band’s live aspect. also write about the why and how, and a “Well, I always just tried to sound like myself lot of the times, it’s really about things we since the beginning,” he explains. “When “So that’s why we tried to have more of the see in real life, and we’re just dressing it groove parts in there; there are a lot more we started out, it was back in the ’90s, and up within our universe.” darker elements in there that we expanded a lot of death metal had vocals that were on from Terrorvision, and there’s a lot of just one type of vocal. Sometimes, bands ManiaCult can be completely escapist, stuff in there that we haven’t done in a long would just do those, and that’s it’ there but there are enough clues in there to time that we kind of brought back in to the would be nothing else, and Deicide and grasp hold of some truly vital ideas. bands like Carcass would do it differently. band: there’s this kind of grind-ness from Necrotic Manifesto or older, some of the I really wanted to be able to do different Carcass vibes are back, and then there’s all “There’s always some message for the things within the genre and not limit it to people who want to discover it,” de Caluthe newer stuff we’re doing in there too. So, I just like, ‘Let’s make shit sound as low and wé says. hope people see it as a varied record.” brutal as possible.’”

Aborted have always stood out from their peers because of their singer’s technical approach, layering different frequencies that create new space and vibrancy. And even though it may come off as a precise and measured effect, Caluwe’s approach is really just seamless.

ManiaCult borrows from Aborted’s extended catalog, equal parts inner-grind, old-school freak out, and extended

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For an extreme metal record that keeps the extremity as the focus, it’s as varied as they come. The brutality of the sound

“And there’s always also the songs about shit,” he says, laughing. “So, there’s a little bit for everybody.” 💣

Strychnine.213, 2008

Strychnine.213 expressed a new quality of underground intensity. Almost a cry, or a scream to the world, the band’s sixth record brought grind back to the forefront, expressing a desire to create an all-encompassing emotion. It achieved a full effect.

Global Flatline, 2012

Aborted continued with the “grandness” effect they sought on Strychnine.213, forging a sound that was as fast as it was suffocating. De Caluwé took yet another step forward, perfecting his multi-styling vocal approach, continuing to take the band to new and different heights.

The Necrotic Manifesto, 2014

Perhaps the group’s crowing effort up to that point, The Necrotic Manifesto pulled from the band’s past and forged forward with a sound that was faster, leaner, and more fully realized than any before.

Listening to it is to remind one of perseverance and absolution. This album is the full trip!

Retrogore, 2016

Retrogore continues to grind away at all life’s essential features, until a dark, little portal to hell sits benign in the living room. The band brought some new groove on this one, with songs that flowed in a fresh way, releasing a new and ever-changing direction.

Terrorvision, 2018

The band attempted (and succeeded) at driving home a new universe, a separate entity that one could enter without reservation. Terrorvision offered extremity that was balanced and striving for new directions. A place the band would start from (and continue) on their next and latest record, Maniacult.

PHOTO Hannah Verbeuren

Reek of Putrefaction, 1988

INTERVIEW WITH GUITARIST BILL STEER BY CHRISTOPHER J. HARRINGTON

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arcass started out in the late ’80s, and that’s a damn long time ago in band years. After 1996’s Swan Song, they split until 2007 and then released the dynamic Surgical Steel in 2013.

It wasn’t like some reunion tour; no sir, Carcass aren’t made of that ilk: they make art for the pure sake of making art. Perhaps their most varied record to date, Torn Arteries, due out September 17 via Nuclear Blast, pulls inspiration from each era and transcends it with a new mind. It’s an album that takes chances at every angle, as much extremity as loose construction.

Carcass move at Carcass speed, always have; there is no time to stop and enjoy the view.

ing of, ‘Do what feels right, and you won’t please everybody, but at least you can stand behind what you’ve done,’ and the people who’ve always followed the band from record to record will come along with you because they get that; it’s not the kind of band that every album is made from the same template.”

obviously goes through the mince with this band, a lot of changes and rearrangements take place because Dan and Jeff have a lot of ideas, but initially my thing was: I wanted each track to have something, some kind of feel, groove, an element that hadn’t been there before in a Carcass record. I just felt we couldn’t justify making a new album if didn’t bring something new to the table.”

Ten tracks make up Torn Arteries, a record that pushes one way, only to circumnavigate towards another. It’s got all the flash that Torn Arteries’ release was delayed Heartwork had, and all the grime over a year due to COVID, and in and grind Symphonies of Sickness between, the band put out the EP showcased, and yet is still com- Despicable, a little taste of things pletely new, a sound that is of its to come. The band’s seventh stuage. Its compositions are both dio album sees things only getting straight and bent, taking turns tastier, and it’s not just irony that only a freethinking entity would the record’s cover features a take. The spirit of creation is there, heart made of vegetables. Steer is shining like a light in a chamber, a just now hearing the record for the feeling that is pure energy. first time, for the second time.

“Well, I guess that’s a little like standing on the top of a tall building and looking over the edge,” guitarist and co-founder “I realize now how non-analytical “I still really like the album,” he Bill Steer laughs. “It’s almost like our approach is,” Steer notes. “I laughs. “Throughout the past year something you don’t want to do; it guess there’s something that’s or however many months it’s been, might undermine your confidence. implicit, there’s something that’s I deliberately avoided listening to It’s bewildering to me. Obviously, understood between the three of it, so that when we came back to it, extreme metal is such a differ- us when we’re working on tunes, it’d be fresh. And when we started ent world than the one we were and it’s more of a feel thing then doing these interviews, I was like, ‘I involved in during the original something that’s discussed at guess I better start listening to it incarnation of the band. length. What I would say with this again,’ and it’s just really fun.” 💣 record, for me personally, the raw “Jeff and myself always had this feel- material I was bringing in, which

Carcass’ debut sure sounds different from their latest offering, but listen close, and you’ll hear the foundation being built: the intensity and the ability to laugh and rip simultaneously. Considered the first “goregrind” record, this is pure grind, that’s for sure.

Symphonies of Sickness, 1989

You can tell right from the opening notes that Carcass had figured out some new movements to bring forth with their second full-length. Things are more intense because they’re fuller, thicker, and more cerebral: a theme they’d continue all throughout their career.

Necroticism Descanting the Insalubrious, 1991

The sound is becoming more refined here, more polished but in a completely organic way. This is the first “new” Carcass record, a death metal aura on the periphery with a center still full with grind. A classic!

Heartwork, 1993

A legendary recording, and the culmination of where the Carcass sound was heading, at once intense and emotionally laden, and also melodic, opening spaces and methods continuously. This is the classic polished(ish) grind with psych effects that Carcass would become synonymous with.

Swansong, 1996 The last record to feature original drummer Ken Owen, Swansong was a propulsive and unique effort.

The humor the band had always thrived on is in full effect, a recording that mixes biting wit with catchy riffs and vibes, a great blast and the last recording for 17 long years.

Symphonies of Sickness, 2013 Carcass returned to the record bins with an album that crushed hard and inspired a whole new legion of fans. Featuring drummer Dan Wilding, whom guitarist Bill Steer referred to as their “secret weapon,” the album is dynamism and taste refined. With it, the extreme world was gifted a new and powerful Carcass for the foreseeable future.

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FROM THE DARK DEPTHS

THERE ARE SOME EMOTIONS THAT FALL BEYOND THE DEPTHS OF DESPAIR, THAT TRANSCEND ALL HUMAN SOUNDSCAPES WITH THEIR DEEP, DARK HOWLS OF LONGING AND PAIN. FOR THAT LEVEL OF DEPRESSION AND HUMAN SUFFERING, YOU NEED A NEW WAY TO COMMUNICATE, A FORM OF ART THAT CHANNELS A SOUND BEYOND WHAT HUMANS CAN COMMUNICATE OR HEAR. THAT SOUND IS COMMUNICATED BY THESE ARTISTS. THEIR PAIN IS ALL OF OUR PAIN, AND THEY BREATHE IT FORTH INTO THE WORLD FOR ALL OF US. NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART, BUT DEFINITELY FOR THE ETERNALLY GRIEVING.

Succumb INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST CHERI MUSRASRIK AND GUITARIST DEREK WEBSTER

BY CALEB R. NEWTON PHOTO Christian Shepherd

band’s 2017 full-length effort. “With a song like ‘Lilim’ opening the album, we aimed to overwhelm the listener right from the jump, instead of building things up with a dramatic intro.”

abject greed that threatens life on Earth, yearly fires in California, and other drastic natural disasters that seem to get worse, I started to think a lot about the Unabomber and ecoterrorism,” she explains. “I wanted to talk about the ancient worship of the elements and their importance. Each track is an allegorical expansion on one element: earth, air, fire, or water. I wrote about Lilith, the Orphic poems, ocean and nature deities, Dionysus, Arthurian literature, fly agaric as soma, and the cosmic egg.”

Another key theme makes an appearance, Musrasrik notes:

Those involved with the creation of XXI—including, besides Webster, vocalist Cheri Mus- “I also became fascinated by the thought of murdering missionaries— ‘8 Trigrams’ rasrik, drummer Harry Cantwell, and bassist refers to the Boxer Rebellion—as a person Kirk Spaseff—are invested in the process. born on a small Pacific Island that had its largely magico-religious, mythological, “Writing lyrics for the album felt like a slog at and land-worshipping beliefs replaced by first,” Musrasrik shares. “The pandemic was boring, moralizing ones.” a less-than-inspirational time for me and writing anything at all felt difficult. After turnMusically speaking, the wrenching guitars, ing things over in my head, I reached a point searing basslines, and blasting drums— where the album allowed me to process my thoughts on the state of the planet and more.” alongside menacing vocals from Musrasrto hang onto a sense of reality. The inward he San Francisco-area death ik—suggest existential anguish. XXI depicts metal quartet Succumb have cap- drive pushing the record along proves powboth the all-consuming devastation of Her lyrics explore themes tied to mythology erful, but the riffs remain destructive. tured an entrancing fever dream suffering and reaching beyond that point and similarly spiritually inclined ideas. on their new album XXI, a September into the twisting, somehow perceptibly release from The Flenser. Moving through “Our intention was to make an album that close cosmos. It’s also convulsively heavy, felt more hysterical, more frantic, while “While watching the recent psychic warfare the churning, grueling record could be by our government and media, laws pass- and sports a broad, somewhat staggering still retaining a clear focus,” guitarist Derek compared to dragging oneself, bruised and ing that send us back into the dark ages, mix, like a sonic rockslide.💣 Webster explains, comparing XXI to the bloody, through a graveyard while struggling

T

Vouna

PHOTO Dreaming God

INTERVIEW WITH PROJECT MASTERMIND YIANNA BEKRIS

BY CHRISTOPHER J. HARRINGTON

A

Haunting compositions laid within a deep and tunneling labyrinth make the record more of a story told by firelight than a poem told in passing. The long sequencing of songs like “Vanish” and “Grey Sky” create a moisture in one’s chest that hangs heavy, drawing the listener down to the bottom: the seed of life, the darkness of existence, the very choices that promote destruction and distance. It “I actually tried to leave the metal scene is an album filled with memory and pain, for a while when I was younger,” she says. but also staunch determination.

“Because, you know, I was a teenager, and I was going to metal shows, and I was Bekris developed a love for metal as a constantly getting sexually harassed. And I youngster in Seattle. didn’t really like punk that much, but I was trying to be in the punk scene, and it wasn’t “The album doesn’t necessarily have a concept,” “When I was a growing up, there was a show really working, and I was like, ‘I just like called Metal Shop, which is still on, I think. I was metal.’ I would say that a lot of my friends Bekris explains. “But all the songs are about just cruising through the radio stations and I are punks, and they like punk, and they play death in some way. I had a death in the family found it, and was like, ‘Whoa, what is this?!” right before I started writing the songs, and I in punk bands and stuff, but it’s not my thing. I was just around a lot of people who were grievjust love metal, and thankfully, it’s gotten a lot And when she was old enough to start going better since when I first started listening to it.” ing, and I know that death is a very common to shows, it was death metal that stole her theme in metal, especially doom metal, but I was just like, ‘I feel like I have to write about this,’ heart. But that was a long time ago, and My Dying Bride was Bekris’ gateway into things were different back then. and I think that also gave me an outlet.” doom, a band whose outer circumference s a field ecologist and student in climatology, Yianna Bekris knows a thing or two about human impact on Planet Earth. She’s seen the darkness mankind’s actions have caused close up. While measuring old-growth forest in Central Oregon a few years back, a vision came to her: Vouna, a solo doom/ black metal outfit, whose songs infuse that sense of a dying planet, a slow but hardening reality. The band’s second full-length, Atropos, released July 16 via Profound Lore, takes this sense to a new level: a record that envisions death, not from anything absolute, but something totally universal.

34 NEW NOISE

can be felt within Vouna’s interior.

“I had a friend who loved them,” Bekris says.

“She had Turn Loose the Swans, and we would just hang out and listen to that album.”

Atropos is more spiritual than finite, a continuous pulse reverberating along the patters and designs that are natural like the forest, but also metaphysical. You can feel yourself drifting, pulling away from the pain, from the reality, but you know the whole thing is based on reality, so it’s a place of compromise, but not weak compromise, strong compromise based on belief and truth, and vision. 💣

Infernum In Terra The new album by the doom metal band led by founding Type O Negative and Life of Agony member Sal Abruscato!

O U T S E P T E M B E R 2 4 th!

Exclusive Bundles & Merch available at L B R - S H O P. C O M a n d N A PA L M R E C O R D S . C O M

EVOLVING BLACKGAZE

THOUGH IT’S SOMETIMES BRUSHED OFF AS A PHASE OR A TREND, BLACKGAZE IS HERE, IT’S CVLT, AND IT WILL NEVER DIE. WHILE THE GENRE MAY HAVE STARTED AS A SELF-IMPORTANT EXERCISE, IT HAS EVOLVED INTO A MODERN, MELODIC, AND HIGHLY RELEVANT STYLE OF MUSIC THAT CARRIES ON WHERE MELODIC DEATH METAL AND BLACK METAL NEVER REALLY LEFT OFF- BUT INSTEAD EVOLVED. AND, MOST IMPORTANTLY, IT’S TRVE TO THE MUSIC AND THE LYRICAL THEMES, NOT TO ANY PROBLEMATIC ETHOS.

PHOTOGRAPHY Alan Snodgrass

36 NEW NOISE

last writing sessions,” Weaver says.

“There’s some really great stuff and great songs that just didn’t fit on the record. So, whether that’s an EP, or another LP sooner rather than later, we’re working in the studio, and we’ll definitely get back to it after we hit the road for a while and do the live performance, live ritual thing. We definitely feel the call to get back to our studio and create the next piece.”

When it comes to their values, their love of nature, and their desire to breathe positivity into the sometimes-toxic black metal scene, Weaver’s response is from the pagan perspective and looks at the unity of earth and all things.

INTERVIEW WITH DRUMMER, BASSIST, AND SYNTH PLAYER AARON WEAVER

BY ADDISON HERRON-WHEELER

L

ike most introverts and introverted bands, Wolves in the Throne Room relished the extra time during COVID to create and record their latest record, Primordial Arcana, out August 20 via Relapse Records.

“I kind of hesitate to talk about COVID because it’s been a rough time for a lot of people, but we’ve been relishing the opportunity to have more time out home, to kind of slow down the pace of life,” says drummer, bassist, and synth player Aaron Weaver.

“We’ve gotten to spend more time with our families, spend more time in the forest, and focus on making music videos and the rollout for the album.

We’ve managed to find a lot of time to do things that are productive and nourishing because we got done with our last tour right before COVID began. On the plane ride home, I got really fucking sick and drenched in sweat, so I may have had COVID right at the beginning. But it was at least good timing because we had finished the album cycle and were getting ready to go deep into the studio and turn our focus inwards.”

explains. “From the very first, concep- thing I really resonate with and want to tual sketches for the record all the way bring forth in our music.” through to the bitter end mastering the final, persnickety details. So, I think And that spirit will return, as the that Primordial Arcana really crackles band are already embarking on with a lot of energy and excitement a European tour and planning U.S. and vitality, and I think I owe that in tour dates as soon as that wraps many respects to Kody’s influence up. They are traversing Europe and energetic input. This feels like the October through November with beginning of a new era. Thrice Woven Stygian Bow and Blood Incantation. was kind of the end of a cycle musi- And in anticipation of future shows cally for us. It’s as if we’ve tapped into and future outpourings of musical a new spring of energy deep under- emotion, they’re also getting ready ground. This is also the first record for the next album. we’ve produced ourselves entirely in our own studio in Olympia. It was “We’re always thinking ahead, and we a big challenge and a journey to just have a lot of material from the accomplish it, but I think we definitely succeeded, and I’m incredibly proud of how the record sounds.”

“There is a certain code of ethics that is in my heart and comes from the deepest place within myself, and I think there’s a resonance and a wisdom that rises up from the Earth and from the spirits,” he says. “One of those values is justice, and I call out for justice. May it flow forth into the world. We don’t like to get into the particular politics of the day; those things come and go. But it’s our place to channel the spirit of justice, for the Earth and all beings. We’re pagan, and that is the root of our spiritual lives, to go into the forest and cultivate relationships with certain rivers, certain trees, certain mountains.

I’ve found that over my life, those relationships have grown deeper and more revealed. So, connect to the spirit of the Earth, the spirit of living things, and listen carefully.

Listen to your dreams. Listen with your heart and with your roots, not necessarily with your thinking mind.

We strive to live our life in a way that is in resonance with that, and with what the Earth needs right now to continue to thrive.” 💣

Speaking of how this theme of unity showed up in the shared lyrical process, the song “Spirit of Lightning” comes to mind for Weaver, and specifically, the experience of playing a show like Fire in the Mountains the summer before last. For those who weren’t there, the event happens in rural Wyoming and is a celebration of all things metal, nature, and communal praise for the heathen gods, all things Wolves in the Throne Room love. Blessedly, the event returns in 2022.

Through this inward focus, the band were able to connect more with contributions from all members and really craft something that was equal parts input.

“It was just this great celebration of people gathered together in brotherhood “This was the first record where Kody and sisterhood and just a fucking celKeyworth [guitar, vocals] has been ebration,” he explains. “To me, that is with us every step of the way,” Weaver the spirit of heavy metal, and that’s the

NEW NOISE 37

EVOLVING BLACKGAZE

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST GEORGE CLARKE BY DEREK NIELSEN

W

PHOTO Robin Laananen

metal growling, which only appears in a few seconds during the album’s climactic final moments on “Mombasa.” If this was your first Deafheaven experience, you’d find little evidence that they are a metal band.

Kerry was reacting to his negativity in the year by sort of accessing a more nostalgic place in his mind,” Clarke says. “He was using the music for Infinite Granite as a way to escape. And so those pretty passages and the beautiful guitar work stemmed from him wanting something better— something that he remembers, a more blissful state than what we were dealing with.”

audio player, where we used all these tiny dots that animated along a baseline with the bass notes, and then would bounce off this thing at the more treble notes,” he continues.

“We had that going for the songs, and then we “It’s so poppy, truthfully,” Clarke confesses. “I guess it is our least metal record! But one that took the soundbar, and we animated it, so I think still very much sounds like us. After we it shifted in these circles and then we would take long exposure screencaps of it. So, wrote the first couple of songs— ‘Lament for The album art for Deafheaven’s fifth studio The band’s sonic shift might surprise some, Wasps’ and ‘Villain’— we were just noticing literally, the cover is the first minute and a record, Infinite Granite, out August 20 via but Clarke wants to emphasize Infinite Granthat’s where everyone’s headspace was. We half of ‘Shellstar.’ For each track we made a Sargent House, depicts an ethereal cloud ite is simply a reflection of the band’s current had a discussion and we’re like, maybe this is of blue particles imposed on black back- different orb, and they’re all just the physical state of mind. something we should pursue. It clearly seems version of what the sonics are. The record is ground, and was designed by Clark and like everyone is kind of in this headspace.” not a concept record, but we wanted to play Nick Steinhardt.

“I think that if we were to have made another on that idea— what you’re holding and what Sunbather or New Bermuda, people would This headspace played a pivotal role in the you’re looking at literally is the record.”

“We started this process really early, with just see through our lack of enthusiasm,” Clarke sonic direction of Infinite Granite. me sending him ideas and lyrics,” Clarke says. concludes. “I would way rather put all of my The particle orb plays on the idea that “And strangely enough, we both sort of saw this heart into something that’s different than whatever you’re looking at can be viewed “There’s a lot of tension in the record, and orb. There’s this space that I want to be in. And half of it into something I know people will I think all of that was really a reaction to that’s all I can really think about for this record. at the cosmic or subatomic scale. When easily digest.” 💣 what was happening with the world,” Clarke viewing images on either side of that scale It just sounds like a place I want to be, a kind of explains. “Someone said they were surprised and seeing how similar they look, it serves as nebulous, mysterious place.” that I said that, because it’s not an angry a poignantly existential reminder that our record. That’s not the intention. Even though It might seem obvious to point out the connec- lives are simply a flashes of light with two we had a lot of anger last year for various infinities on either side. tion between cover art and the music. since things, the more overwhelming feeling was usually that’s implied, but in the case of Infinite “If I had to make just a general assessment, a sense of sadness, listlessness, wondering Granite, there is a very literal connection. it looks like either space or it’s embryonic,” what was going to happen and wanting better. It’s filtered in a more nuanced way, but says Clarke, his recently shaved head also “We were discussing the idea of how, with it’s definitely all there. We couldn’t escape it.” concept records, often the cover art is re- evoking themes of rebirth. “I kept seeing an embryo. I love both interpretations, but to flective of the lyrics, or whatever the singer is Guitarist Kerry McCoy’s textured and talking about, that’s what’s going to be con- me the embryo is super fitting, cause it’s like shimmering lead guitar also reflected his the beginning of something.” veyed on the cover art. And we wanted to do headspace at the time. that, but with the music,” Clarke explains.

Perhaps the most noticeable sonic departure on Infinite Granite is the lack of Clarke’s black “For the prettier and softer moments, I think “So, we created a graphic sound play like an hen I stare at the cover, it’s like this safe immersion. It just feels like some place I want to be. I’m totally overwhelmed by this blue source of light, this strange orb,” reflects Deafheaven vocalist George Clarke.

38 NEW NOISE

THE BEND BEFORE THE BREAK

SUMMER OF HARDCORE

AFTER A YEAR AND A HALF OF BEING ON THE SHELF, THE NEXT GENERATION OF HARDCORE IS MORE THAN READY TO EXPLODE. 2020 WAS SUPPOSED TO BE THE YEAR FOR HARDCORE. BANDS LIKE SUNAMI— WHO PLAYED ONE SINGLE, CHAOTIC SHOW BEFORE THE WORLD STOPPED— WERE DRIVING A SCENE WITH DIY ETHOS AND A GROWING FANBASE. SO WHEN THE CAP CAME OFF THE YEAR- PLUS OF LOCKDOWN, IT WAS ONLY NATURAL THAT A HOARD OF YOUNG HARDCORE BANDS BURST THROUGH TO FILL THAT MUCH NEEDED OUTLET.

their self-titled demo. Shortly after, the band released their first EP, Reality After Reality…, building on their already sturdy foundation.

PHOTOGRAPHY Gabe Beccera

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST KAT MOSS BY JAMES MUDRAK “Challenging societal standards is integral within subculture, and I think being in a hardcore band is about using the platform to speak about whatever is on your mind.

Anyone can pick up a mic and let out their emotions about whatever is affecting them.”

A quote from Kat Moss, frontwoman of Santa Cruz hardcore band Scowl, on challenging patriarchy and the societal standards placed upon

40 NEW NOISE

women. This is precisely what Scowl are doing.

Scowl started with Malachi Greene on guitar, Cole Gilbert on drums, and Moss on vocals. The story goes that Moss told bandmate Greene how she “wanted to front a hardcore band with punk influences,” and the rest is history.

Twenty-nineteen was a big year for Scowl, as they wrote and recorded

Scowl then took the opportunity, during the pandemic, to record a full-length album, which they will be releasing via Flatspot Records later this year.

identity crises, as most young people do,” Moss says. “In ‘Choke,’ I challenge those who feel the need to fake their interests and feelings to climb a social ladder. I do this because I understand how scary it may be to feel insecure—but pushing yourself beyond those fears is an extremely powerful experience.”

“[The new album] feels heavier hitting than anything we’ve previously released,” Moss says. “I speak a lot on personal growth and painful realization throughout the record.”

Moss has also faced tribulations being a woman in the scene, saying that she has “definitely received some of the standard, sexist comments.”

Fans will also get to hear a song “[I try] not to indulge in the negatives,” with a saxophone part, a notewor- she says. “Because I truly cannot see thy twist on the genre. how there’s a correlation to the music I play and what’s in-between my legs.”

Moss notes that hardcore punk bands like Negative Approach, And in any case, the positives outBlack Flag, and Ceremony formed weighed the negatives. the framework for developing her ferocious vocal range. She also says “My realization that I could do this that Santa Cruz and its lively com- too was the first time I saw a hardmunity also played a pivotal role in core band with a girl on vocals or her creativity. playing an instrument.” Moss says. “[I hope that] with my position, I “Santa Cruz is a zoo,” says Moss. can help give other femme-bodied “Being engulfed with high rent individuals that same experience.” prices, tourism, and so many different walks of life have moti- Moss embodies the inspiration for vated me to follow my own path women of all ages that they, too can and be true to my passions. San- occupy and dominate the same ta Cruz allowed me to be around space as men. like-minded individuals, artists, and musicians.”

“I just want anyone reading this to know grateful I am for them taking Notable tracks on the new album the time to listen to us, come to such as “False Virtue,” “Petty Selfish hardcore shows, read articles, supCretin,” “Choke,” or “Retail Hell,” port the bands,” Moss concludes. shed light on Moss’ psyche and her “Thank you!” day-to-day life. Themes of insecurity, identity, class, and challenging Be sure to check out Scowl this sumthe status quo are all explored in mer on their Southwest Round-Up Scowl’s discography. tour with Zulu and Sweet Soul, starting in August. Also, be on the lookout “Growing up, I struggled to find my for their debut album that will be footing socially, and experienced dropping courtesy of Flatspot Rean onslaught of insecurities and cords later this year. 💣💣💣

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST MEXI BY DEREK NIELSEN “I feel like there’s a lot of bands that present themselves a certain way— and I don’t believe them,” Section H8 frontman Mexi states. “I feel like it’s not genuine, like it’s more of a costume or an image. They’re trying to curate this idea and present themselves a certain way. And I was like, ‘Yo, let’s just be us.’”

Like their peers Pennywise and Suicidal Tendencies, Section H8 might look intimidating from afar, but in reality, the Los Angeles hardcore act are a candid reflection of the environment they grew up in.

their lineup, Section H8 dropped their first EP, Phase One, in 2019, which quickly propelled them to the head of L.A. hardcore royalty.

The members of Section H8 have a deep list of known affiliations (Downpresser, Minus, Product Of Waste, Human Garbage, Nomads, Furious Styles, D0PE CELLAR, to name a few) One listen to their official debut LP, Welcome to the Nightmare—which came out July 30 via Flatspot records—should be sufficient evidence that this is no one’s first rodeo. But with this many lifelong players in the game, it was vital that Section H8 set their sights with clear intentions.

“I grew up listening to bands like Madball and Cold as Life, and that sort of shit,” Mexi continues. “Where it was just very honest and straightforward “We’re not really trying to say anything,” songs about what they see on a daily Mexi says. “It’s just us telling stories basis when they’re walking through of stuff. Stuff that’s happened to me life. I wanted to talk about that stuff.” personally, or stuff I’ve been involved in. Some of it might just be how I’m This isn’t some new approach to me—the record’s a year old. So, it The band formed when Mexi and gui- feeling about the world at the time. songwriting—aside from some was right when things started getting tarist Ryan O’Connor started writing It’s really just kind of a glimpse into gut-pummeling breakdowns and funny, and I was like: What if things music they decided was too heavy our fucking minds. Because, you know, Kerry King-esque guitar squeals, get really funny? What are we going for their other band. After solidifying we live in a certain way.”

Section H8 are just writing folk music. to do? How would we react? And you For many who lived in Los Angeles in know, I would say it’s about survival, if the year 2020, this is Americana. This faced with that situation. And I always PHOTOGRAPHY Rachael Shorr is what Woody Guthrie would sound feel like things always got to get worse like if you snatched him out of the Dust before they get better. So, what if evBowl and you dropped into present erything got as bad as possible? What day Echo Park. The guitars got louder; would the reaction be?” the skulls got more tattoos. But the stories are the same.

“I always felt like in some sort of dystopian Mad Max world type, I feel To call the LP heavy is an under- like I would prosper in that world,” statement. Welcome to the Nightmare he continues. “So, I mean, the song sounds like a declaration of war. is definitely a ‘what if,’ because obviously things have not turned into “To me, the nightmare is us,” Mexi says. that yet. But who knows, right? Maybe “That’s who we are. We’re a very ag- tomorrow?” gressive band, very in your face. We want you to listen to us and hear what The single also features a cameo we have to say. That’s one thing you’ll from Tim Armstrong, because it’s not get from us—honesty.” a punk record if your friends aren’t on it.

For anyone living in Los Angeles in 2020, it didn’t take much imagination “I was giving him a ride home one day, to see how nightmarish things could and I was like, “Hey, you wanna be on get. The lyrics on “Streetsweeper,” for the record?” And he was like, ‘Yep!’ It’s example, outline these anxieties of very surreal because even though he witnessing a city on the brink of col- and I are friends, I’m also a fan of his lapse. How would you survive? music, so that was a big deal for me.

I’ve been listening to Rancid since “Honestly, that was like a ‘what if?’ I was 7 years old. Operation Ivy was story, you know what I mean?” Mexi the first record I ever bought, so that explains. “What if everything goes was huge for me; that was fucking wrong? And it kind of dawned on cool.” 💣💣💣

NEW NOISE 41

SUMMER OF HARDCORE

PHOTOGRAPHY Michael Thorn

U

nder Attack are a new hardcore punk supergroup out of Richmond, Virginia which features drummer Dave Witte (Municipal Waste, Burnt By The Sun), guitarist Mark Telfian (Limp Wrist, Devoid Of Faith), bassist Jason Hodges (Suppression), and vocalist Alex Copeland. The band honor their genre forefathers by playing a fast, brutal and to the point version of hardcore, which references such 80’s greats as Negative Approach and Straight Ahead.

INTERVIEW WITH GUITARIST MARK TELFIAN BY THOMAS PIZZOLA

ever could have gotten. We all bring the recent break from touring brought labels such as Iron Lung and Vinyl Conflict, before they recorded Preservation’s Crash. something different to the table. We’re on by COVID. This was all part of their plan. all fans of extreme and brutal music, but we each come from our own diverse mu- “Mark had a really great idea over the sical backgrounds that come together pandemic to help keep us focused,” “We wanted to work on and release a bunch of 7”s and split 7”s to provide the like Voltron.”

Witte says. “We managed to line up quite a few split records, and Mark’s plan was opportunity for the band to really honeEach member of the band is in other to work on one record at a time. Write, in our sound and recording process,” bands which have made their mark learn, rehearse, and record each batch Telfian says. “That way, when we’re ready to release a full-length, we know exactly on underground music, though Witte is of songs one after another. We met once the most “aboveground” of these un- a week and were able to really crank out what we want to present to the world, derground luminaries, in that he plays a lot of stuff this way. Since shows weren’t and how we want to present it.” drums for Municipal Waste, one of the on the radar at all, there was no need to On their most recent 7” EP, Preservation’s most popular neo-thrash bands going. rehearse songs. It was, write, write, write. Under Attack are really stoked to release Crash, which drops August 27 on Three In addition, he has his own vegan restau- Al is the writer of words by the way, and their new EP on Three One G. One G, they take no prisoners, making a rant, Hang Space, which also keeps him he was also very helpful with suggestions point with their no-bs delivery, and lyrics busy. and ideas for music too. The band op- “[Three One G founder] Justin Pearson that cut right down to the bone. has been a good friend of ours for deerates really well together when writing.” cades, and we were really happy to have The big question is: Where does he find “As a collective, we have always been the time for all these projects?

Once they had the music on point, they the chance to do a record on his label,” fans of extreme music, especially brutal had to make sure the lyrics were on point, Telfian says. “He has run a top-notch hardcore punk,” Telfian says. “If you look “I’ve been guilty of having many frying also. That’s where Copeland comes in. label for a long time, and he’s been on at the past bands we have played in, I pans on the stove at all times,” Witte says. He doesn’t mess around with his lyrics— both sides of the fence, so he knows how feel we’re right in line with the expecta- “I like far too much music to have only one they get right down to the nitty-gritty of to treat people with the utmost respect tions of what you would think you would and love. He has really gone above and band, and I always need another outlet. human existence. hear coming from the four of us. One of I consider myself lucky to play with so beyond for us. We’re really happy to say our goals was to show that, even though many talented people, as they can pull “The lyrical content revolves heavily that we’re in the process of working on we’re older now, we can still play music things out of me in different ways, and around hopelessness and disgust,” Co- a 12” that will be coming out on Three that’s as relentlessly brutal as ever.”

I’m always learning something new. peland says. “It deals with depression, One G.” When I met Mark at a friend’s birthday thoughts of suicide, world’s end, human You would think that getting all this talent party (Rich Green of Action Patrol, who is filth, leeches, relationships gone wrong, Under Attack came together as four under one roof would be difficult, but a stellar human), I asked him if he want- the rampant hypocrisy in Christianity, friends, who just happen to be seasoned the band started out organically, with a ed to jam. It took us a while to get the ball working for a thankless death wage, underground musicians with a variety chance meeting at a party. rolling initially, but after we picked that greed. These are feelings that many of vaunted projects on their resumes, to play fast, ripping, and brutal hardcore. scab, we were bleeding songs non-stop.” have dealt with and are relatable. It’s “Dave and I bumped into each other at important to write what the band will In that regard, they have succeeded. our friend Rich’s party,” Telfian says. “We Witte isn’t exaggerating. Writing songs back, collectively. The words should Now, with the world opening up and talked about our love for extreme and comes very naturally for this group. be real and from the heart. Write what bands starting to tour again, they would brutal music, and he suggested we get like to get in on that action, even with comes naturally. I’d be way more into together and jam sometime. It took us “At the start, Mark was sending skeletons reading sincere words that aren’t man- their commitments to their projects outa while to finally connect and jam, but of songs with riffs all mapped out,” Witte ufactured. I think the appeal of a mes- side of the band. when we did, we felt a great musical says. “We’d get together, add our parts, sage will always be there. The pioneers connection. Our longtime friend Alex and poof— a song. It was easy and very wrote words that were eye-opening, to “It’s always a challenge working around Copeland had heard Dave and I were quick. We have really great chemistry. As me at least. They sat in your gut and, for other member’s projects and bands,” starting a band together from our friend we went on, we started writing together many, many people, helped shape who Telfian says. “Hence, most of the shows KC, and he had asked if he could do the on the spot at practice, and that’s we have played so far have been in Richwe became.” vocals. The logical choice for bass was mond, just out of simplicity. We do want to proved to be very good for us.

Jason Hodges, who had been a mutual branch out and play more places in the Working this way has been very productive friend of us all for decades as well. In In addition, they had a plan to keep states, and we would also really like to do for the band. They have released a bunch addition, he’s the best bass player we themselves busy and productive during of 7”’s, splits and EPs on a variety of boss a European, U.K. and Japan tour.” 💣

42 NEW NOISE

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST LISA MUNGO

BY MARIKA ZORZI

a beautiful thing to observe. This collective experience has left its imprint on us all.”

T

his record means something different for each of us, but for my part, I wanted to take a more intimate approach when writing than I did with prior releases,” says Filth Is Eternal vocalist, Lisa Mungo. “Each song, a nightmare, or an episodic memory. In its entirety, a profound global traumatic state.”

That strong sense of community has always been a big part of Filth Is Eternal. They have spent the last few years playing punk venues, DIY spaces, hosting their own sort of hardcore communal exorcisms.

Love Is A Lie, Filth Is Eternal is the second album by the Seattle band formerly known as Fucked And Bound. The band changed their name to Filth Is Eternal in early 2021, a metamorphosis that has led the group to this new record.

“Everything has changed,” Mungo continues. “The world, our own lives, the lives of everyone around us. I nearly lost both of my parents this past year to COVID. Others in the band suffered great loss leading up to the world shutting down. You could say we’ve had a lot of time to reflect and reset. Time means something different now than it did before. This has certainly affected us as people and as creatives, and perhaps changed the way we approach everything.

As for how we shape in the minds of others, well, we’ve always enjoyed letting them decide.”

PHOTO Emily Salisbury

Love Is A Lie, Filth Is Eternal is a continuation along the path first laid by the band on their first album, Suffrage.

forth on whether we should just start a new project or change our moniker. We knew we wanted to create some pull-through with Suffrage, given that themes of depression, existentialism, subjugation, nihilism and more continued with this release, and our current body of work. In the end, we decided to keep the momentum going and just change the name.”

“Filth Is Eternal was built on the foundation of our earlier project with added members,” Mungo explains. “We went back and

The strange and painful time spent apart during the pandemic influenced the band to take action in the present, releasing

“Most of my experience in underground music has been my involvement with underground all ages venues,” Mungo explains.

“What I love about underground music and its community is that it’s always trying to improve itself by doing more. I spent a decade as a collective member of a space here in Seattle and I woke up many mornings to our friends putting together kits for the unhoused or organizing workshops.

DIY as a culture of community-minded musicians can do a lot to build friendships around bands, fans, and friends, but it can also interact with the community in a real and direct way. Several of our collective members came from local youth organizations.

We hosted friends during protests this album in the new year being last year. We’ve been lucky to be a just one example. part of a community like this for as long as we have.”

“This world has always been equal parts beautiful and terri- Love Is A Lie, Filth Is Eternal transfying,” Mungo says. “On the other lates the concerns and desires hand, there’s a lot of love and of the underground music scene selflessness, too. Entire commu- through the music and words of a nities stepping up to help people band that is not afraid to scream and spaces survive. Outreach about what’s wrong in the world. programs making their way to those most in need. Some of my “I feel grateful,” Mungo continues. closest friends are caretakers, “It’s that simple. Grateful to have you know, watching them bring an opportunity to reach out and by supplies in between shifts and converse with others that, without educating as many people in this platform, may not be possireal time as they could was just ble.” 💣💣💣

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43

SUMMER OF HARDCORE

sidering such expectations would be a detriment to his work.

“I think that I’ve primed the audience to accept that they’ll never received the same thing,” Shelton says. “The big thing for me is that I always stay writing. So when I finish a record, usually I start a new one. And because of that, I’m never waiting for the public to ingest it. The thing that would mess me up is anticipating what the audience will think.”

The thing that drives Shelton is not how an audience receives his music, but his own, internal drive. His ceaseless zeal for creation. It is the gun he has pointed in his own back.

For our benefit, Shelton illustrates this relationship with his steely muse.

“There’s a song on the second record called ‘All Roads Lead to the Gun,’” he says. “And it’s almost describing an abusive relationship. To me, that was how I feel about in my incessant need to always be creating. This is inevitable. There’s no other way.” 💣 PHOTOGRAPHY Octavio Orduno

INTERVIEW WITH PROJECT MASTERMIND IAN SHELTON

BY M. REED

Y

ou’ve probably heard the steamroller Regional Justice Center. phrase “Those who live by Militarie Gun was formed with some the gun, die by the gun.” of the last people Shelton met and It’s generally taken to mean that talked to before the COVID lockthose who live a life of violence are downs went into effect last year. The destined to meet a violent end. It’s project allows him an outlet to exa cautionary and parabolic phrase press himself in versatile ways, some directed at would be villains and of which do not give with his more vigilantes alike. But what does it hardcore/punk-oriented bands, mean to live by the gun when its bar- letting him embrace influences as rel is not aimed outwards, but rather varied as The Byrds and The Strokes. at your own temple? What motivates such a lifestyle? Most people would “I would say there’s not a strict lens break under such deadly pressure, that I look through to determine the but there is at least one man who way a song can be written,” Shelton seems to thrive while in its sights. So, reflects, when asked about his prowe asked him—what is it like? cess for writing for Militarie Gun. “I think I have very specific structures “I don’t want to get to metaphorical that I go back to that are just my because I’ll probably sound cheesy,” intuitive way of songwriting. But the Ian Shelton of Militarie Gun admits general thing is that I’m willing to with a laugh. “But to me, that gun … take from anywhere and then run it it is this thing that refers to my drive through my filter.” to make music. And I can’t avoid it.”

When asked if he ever worries that Militarie Gun started as a quaran- his audience will demand that he tine project of Shelton’s to keep him- pick a musical lane and stick with it, self preoccupied when he was no Shelton is unconcerned and clarilonger able to work on projects for fies that it is not the expectations of his other group, the powerviolence others that drives him. In fact, con-

44 NEW NOISE

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST RYAN SAVITSKI BY ROB KENT PHOTOGRAPHY Michael Thorn

Although the bar was set high, on a bigger platform than ever before, the band believed in themselves so much and embraced the true spirit of hardcore, trusting strongly in every honest element of what they have created.

“This Place You Know” is inspired by hometowns and suburban roots, highlighted even more during the lockdown of the last year in which the album was written and recorded.

Savitski further comments on how the band strived for originality on this album.

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surrounding me; a year in isolation ensured that we fed off each other,” Thompson says. “We progressed as musicians on this record and embraced each other’s company more than ever when creating this piece of work, it really represents us and everything we are as humans and musicians. Everything we do hits me; when I was recording my guitar for this album, my emotions were so strong. I cried; it hit me that hard when tracking some riffs.

This record is everything we are; it represents us in every possible way.”

Savitski further explains how even “Everyone had so many inspirations though this record is so honest, the for the music and project outside of process was an unguarded one. hardcore, and we all let each other shine, and nothing was held back on “This was a vulnerable album to this record; every idea was pushed make,” he says. “I sing a lot more forward,” he says. “This album is cleans throughout this album, it was so experimental, and we used this almost intimidating to record some past year to its maximum potential parts, but ultimately, that helped to push One Step Closer into new drive everyone and really figure out what this band could be and get out dimensions” of our comfort zone.”

Guitarist Ross Thompson explains his own personal and inspirational ar- Allowing a natural progression in tistic journey in crafting this record. this manner does involve taking risks—but that is also why One Step “I took inspiration from what was Closer is at the top of their game. 💣

ive 21-year-olds have an album coming out, and with it comes huge pressure to achieve and truly push their genre in a modern age. One Step Closer will release This Place You Know on September 24 via Run For Cover.

With this new release, the band have proven they are a force of freedom for the future, highlighting that being everything you fantasize about being is not only possible, but so very critical.

Vocalist Ryan Savitski begins by explaining what signing for a new label, and having hardcore scenes all over the world anticipating this album, is like for him to process.

“Signing to Run For Cover for this record has the pressure on for the release, I’m hoping that people respond and receive this record well, and we live up to the reputation we have now and the excitement behind the band,” Savitski says. “Every member is so pleased and satisfied with how the record turned out, and we couldn’t be prouder of what we achieved on this album.”

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45

SUMMER PARTY ANTHEMS

IT’S FINALLY TIME TO CRAWL OUT FROM THE BUNKER YOU BUILT IN YOUR LIVING ROOM WHERE YOU’VE BEEN HOLD UP LISTENING TO ALICE COOPER, BINGING TIGER KING, AND EATING CEREAL FOR THE PAST 18 MONTHS, GET BACK OUT THERE, AND PARTY. AND WE HAVE JUST THE SOUNDTRACK TO HELP YOU DO IT, WHETHER YOUR JAM IS UPBEAT, POPPY PUNK OR THRASHING PARTY ANTHEMS.

PHOTO Elena de Soto

INTERVIEW

BY ADDISON HERRON-WHEELER

I

n a typical interview, I’d start out by either explaining how prolific a band is or telling some interesting story of fact from their recent touring or recording sessions. But an interview with Andrew W.K. is not a typical interview.

God Is Partying, is out via Napalm Records, and it’s a continuation of his sacred party manifesto.

“There haven’t ever really been any lyrics on any of the Andrew W.K. releases; they’re only just words,” he explains.

His music may provide a wholesome soundtrack to partying, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t want folks to get addicted to it.

line of work. It’s hard to predict what the hell is going on. For example, right from the start, when the first Andrew W.K. album came out, it began getting hate mail, crank letters, and phone calls to the record label and MTV, and so on. It never stopped. I just accept it as part of this line of work. I don’t take it personally. It’s not a personal thing we make—for me, it’s entertainment. So, we cannot take anything personally.”

“I wanted to offer a straightforward way to look at partying—simply one perspective—and see what you think,” he concludes.

“What if partying was really just to say you’ve done your best and tried every option as you’ve honed-in on your preferences in life?

Partying is not necessarily a tyrannical sort of inner, imaginary execution. Rather, it’s a combination of trusting your primary intuition but not being entirely beholden to your instinct, for you’re aware that something even better than what your brain thought your spirit had planned could be hidden somewhere inside the mind’s process of executing your imagination’s original life idea.

You generally want to remain fluid and open to new options, but also very disciplined and tireless in your willingness to push through to complete the processes required in order to execute your previously promised commitments to yourself.”

Always mysterious, he does his interviews via Still, while he claims he doesn’t mind the caemail only, but unlike musicians who take this sual dismissal or downright disdain that may route to fire off short, simple answers, I believe “For me, I want to get addicted to it. That’s how music is. How life is. To let it hypnotize me. come from being in the public eye, he loves Andrew uses interviews as chances to write the religious feeling of a live concert, like all But part of that hypnotization is that it makes unique, freeform musings on life, like original the rest of us. Luckily, he was able to get back art pieces. Either that or he’s messing with us, me think I’m not addicted to it, and then it makes me think that I want to be addicted to it. on the road in a small, U.S. tour this early fall. both of which would be equally on-brand.

I mean, that’s exactly what is happening to me.

That’s how it’s supposed to work. And I urgently “Live concert experiences are sacred and “As always with Andrew W.K., it’s supposed transcendent to me. Everything’s mathematwant to provide that for the audience, in a to be about pure fun and total love—just so ical. Everything’s sexual. Everything’s musical. much love, just driving it in, over and over, very intense and super straightforward way. It Everything’s biological. And it’s not. Because should be an overwhelming and undeniable and over and over, so you sublimate all all that is happening is the total impact of “We were like kind of told that we shouldn’t do experience. That’s not easy to pull off, let false pain—for almost everything—and then the sensation—all that’s lead up to it and alone conceive of. It’s a work in process, and this sometimes, because we don’t look like some—and all of it is happening at the same all that’s loaded on top of it with whatever I’ve been operating at a high, high, high rate the other people, because we aren’t those time. Super transcendent positivity, and additional context or non-context you can of failure since my term began.” white men that have already been doing it then to celebrate it completely out of phase present to the audience to bathe in. All that for years, but we want to be the new people, until you’re just obliterated and feel so good can come crashing home and be amplified And that high rate of failure is exactly what and we want to keep transcending the music about everything. And then you just don’t by that live concert encounter. Because it’s spurred him into the public eye in the first place. and making it better, and breaking new ever feel that upset anymore. You take that in person. I love it deeply. And I’m deeply “I’ve never really had any plans for Andrew barriers,” Juarez expresses. “That’s the thing feeling with you.” grateful to the person who actually spends W.K., or at least any detailed plans that ever that really means a lot to us. I feel like we’re their life on it. I will always try to hold up my panned out like we planned. I suppose, for creating those stepping stones for other And that was just the beginning of his answer end of the agreement. We’re in it together. people to also go up with us.” 💣 about what his lyrics mean. His latest record, me, that’s the price I pay for being in this

46 NEW NOISE

AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE!

OI! OI! OI!

Can’t get enough of that ‘warm Aussie twang’?

Check out these bands!

TROPICAL FUCK STORM

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST AMY TAYLOR AND BASSIST GUS ROMER BY JASON SCHREURS

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Growing up in New South Wales in a “subut the extended time between albums (you hen Amyl and the Sniffers lead per hippy/farmer” small town, Taylor was know why) is evident in the new songs. singer Amy Taylor pops into floored to discover all-ages punk shows, our Zoom room, I’m expecting and it wasn’t long before she entered the the spastic, hyper person I’ve seen in the “A bunch of them are classic and true to mosh pit fray. what we’ve done in the past, but we’re also Australian, rocked-out punk band’s videos and live-show footage. Instead, I get off- exploring some new sounds and ideas,” says stage Amy, who today is, in her words, “chill.” Romer. “We’ve got some heavier, louder, “I really liked the consensual violence of it, and faster tracks than we’ve ever done be- and I had so much energy, and I could get fore. There’s a complexity in how we’re play- rid of it. I liked that I could smash it out,” The band’s new album, Comfort to Me, is she says. “‘Freaks to the Front’ is a tribute ing, and definitely in Amy’s lyrics. They’re a anything but chill. The grimy, steamroller to that energy.” lot more political.” punk the band have become known for since their formation in 2016 has been Besides the lyrical punches in the gut, the Amy is quick to point out Comfort to Me fine-tuned on their second album. If new album also sees Taylor digging deep still has some of her patented, uber-literal 2019’s self-titled album is akin to The after having some much-needed time to lyrics—the band’s first album had a song Stooges’ debut, Comfort to Me is Amyl and herself. This included a newfound interest called “Shake Ya,” and, like most AC/DC the Sniffers’ Fun House. in philosophy, shown in the song “Capital,” songs, there’s no double meaning there. which provides the album’s name in its “I’m really proud of the boys in the band This time out, there’s “Laughing,” about basi- opening lyric. because they’ve evolved, and they’re all pretty much self-taught,” says Taylor. cally laughing in people’s faces.

“It’s very entry-level philosophical thought, “We’re all pretty young, and we spent so and I discovered it in a general way,” much time touring before last year, so we “It’s, ‘Fuck everyone; I’m gonna be what I’m gonna be, and I don’t care what you think,’” Taylor says. “The song is about disdain all grew together.” for the government and society. It’s a Taylor says. “That’s a pretty big theme on the weird cult and a scam. But the song’s also album, actually.”

Bassist Gus Romer is about to leave the same about feeling really strange as a human, Zoom room, giving Taylor and I time to talk and what does that even mean to exist as One of the pure punkiest songs on the about some of the lyrical themes on the human, and what the hell is life?” album is “Freaks to the Front.” When played record, but not before he chimes in on the live, it will be the perfect backdrop to Tayband’s progression since their first album. lor’s spastic onstage Calisthenics. She’s be- She chuckles, showing off one of her chipped teeth.

He says he’s still cool with being grouped to- come known for her wild abandon during live shows, including badass-weirdo dance gether with straightforward rock and punk moves, hurling herself into the audience, “Last year was a big existential year.” 💣 bands—an obvious comparison is country mates, and biggest Aussie band ever, AC/D— and thrashing around in the mosh pit.

Calling bullshit on corporate media, badfaith leaders, and charismatics of all stripes, Melbourne avant-garde punks Tropical Fuck Storm are no strangers to paradox. The group’s latest album, Deep States, out August 20 on Joyful Noise, mixes jazzy pop with distorted grooves, taking aim at everything Q drops and the January 6 Capitol Riot, to riffing on Pizzagate, MAGA antagonism, and waterboarded Martians.

NERDLINGER

Never taking themselves too seriously, or seriously at all, Sydney-siders Nerdlinger have been blending their flashy take on melodic punk with a kinetic live show for over a decade.

The band’s raucous new single ‘Dear Therapist,’ out August 6 through Pee Records, keeps that intensity front and center with soaring sing-along harmonies and quickfire tempo changes.

MENTAL CAVITY

Taking inspiration from the likes of Morbid Angel, Tragedy, Crowbar, and Autopsy, Canberra/Melbourne-based bruisers are always on the attack with a molten fusion of death metal riffage and d-beat fury. Showing off their battle jacket bonafides with covers of Cro-Mags and Disrupt, the band’s third LP, Mass Rebel Infest, was mixed by Taylor Young at The Pit Recording Studio (Nails, Xibalba, God’s Hate) and mastered by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege (Obituary, Integrity, Kruelty).

SEMANTICS

With songs that soundtrack coping mechanisms, nasty vices, and midnight reflections, Brisbane four-piece Semantics are well suited to crafting addictive melodies and soothing alt-rock hooks. It’s hardly surprising then that the latest cut from the recent SideOneDummy Records signees, “Sleep at Night,” is a spirited punk rock anthem in the vein of PUP and The Menzingers, anchored at all times by vocalist/ guitarist Callum Robinson’s warm Aussie twang.

CLOWNS

Gutter punks Clowns never got the chance to tour off their 2019 Fat Wreck Chords debut, Nature / Nurture, before the pandemic set the world on fire. Recorded at Red Door studio with producer Wood Annison (The Living End) and co-written with Matt Squire (One Direction, Panic! At The Disco), the second-half of the Melbourne quintet’s forthcoming double A-side single “Does It Matter?,” out November 11, “Sarah” takes their quarantine blues and channels into a rowdy and forlorn expression of love, with all its dizzying highs and soul-destroying lows.

PHOTO Alan Snodgrass

-Owen Morawitz

NEW NOISE 47

SUMMER PARTY ANTHEMS

PHOTO Jimmy Fontaine

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INTERVIEW WITH DRUMMER ADA JUAREZ BY ANNETTE SCHAEFER

ven in the best of times in the ward in the media, because people were “We couldn’t see our growth through our fully there, you’re not really okay, and pre-pandemic world, breaking looking for black art, and black musicians, own eyes,” Juarez describes. “We had that’s okay,” Juarez expresses. “It’s out as the next big pop punk and bands that look like us.” to see it through numbers just going up, the cycle of life, and that’s kind of the band to watch was doing the imposand there’s only so much you can pro- irony of Model Citizen.” sible. But having your art heard in the Despite the circumstances that led to cess by looking at numbers going up. midst of chaos, in a world and music their name being pushed to the fore- The more that people started talking With the hype train following closely industry that seemed to have gone still? front of music blogs, Juarez says that to us, coming to us, and DMing us and behind them, and with Model Citizen Someone should make sure there’s no her and her bandmates, vocalist Edith stuff like that, the more we started to re- coming up on the horizon, Meet Me snow in hell. It was exactly during the Johnson and guitarist Tea Campbell, alize like, ‘wow, this is really happening.’” @ The Altar are bringing exciting new worst of times that the energetic and still had to push forward on the opporthings to the alternative scene, includuplifting pop punk tunes of Meet Me tunity they were given.

Among the plethora of milestones that ing some much-needed representation. @ The Altar were heard loud and clear. the band keep hurtling past is the As a pop punk band made up entirely “We knew that it was bound to happen release of their upcoming EP, Model of WOC, the trio are showing the world Having the world take notice of what eventually that we were going to reach Citizen. The first taste listeners got of that punk is, and must be, for everyone. you’re creating is exciting and validating, our point of people actually seeing us what’s to come was with the first sinbut getting noticed as the world crumbles and hearing us,” Juarez says. “So, we gle, “Feel A Thing.” Moving away from “We were like kind of told that we shouldn’t around you can be a complicated pill to kind of ran with it in the best way pos- the more positive and uplifting tone do this sometimes, because we don’t look swallow. Drummer Ada Juarez explains sible, and at the same time, we’re still of the band’s previously released like the other people, because we aren’t that Meet Me @ The Altar swallowed that pushing up people who are around us.” “Garden,” “Feel A Thing” discusses those white men that have already been pill as gracefully as possible. navigating your way through a dark doing it for years, but we want to be the That opportunity looked like a signif- and numb place, and shows a more new people, and we want to keep tran“It was very bittersweet,” Juarez says. “It al- icant influx of new listeners, getting vulnerable side of the band. Juarez scending the music and making it better, most felt like we weren’t allowed to be hap- signed to Fueled By Ramen, and tour says this darker tone can be found and breaking new barriers,” Juarez py for what was going on with us, because slots with bands like All Time Low and through much of Model Citizen. expresses. “That’s the thing that really at the same time with what was going on The Used. While all these changes were means a lot to us. I feel like we’re creating with the George Floyd murder. That was happening, the music world was still “It’s very much a story of finding those stepping stones for other people to one of the things that really pushed us for- mostly living in a digital space. yourself and realizing that you’re not also go up with us.” 💣

48 NEW NOISE

INTERVIEW WITH GUITARIST AND VOCALIST DUSTIN KENSRUE BY NICHOLAS SENIOR

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hat do you do when rection to actually go in for a record. too,” he continues. “I don’t want to So, I’ve got to hold that in an open you’ve done just about Because you could go anywhere, get sucked into that idea of every- hand as well.” everything under the really. And yeah, sometimes we kind thing has to have this overarching sun—concept albums, sonic chang- of find an anchor hold on a direc- story. I think with music, with an album, His point is maybe tied into the es, hiatus, and reunion—but still tion to go. We have been looking for you’re telling a bunch of little stories. interrelatedness aspects that the want to create? When you’re leg- another Alchemy Index kind of idea And if you’re thinking in terms of a col- record delves into. Also, being in endary Californian rock act Thrice, for a while just because that was a lection of short stories from a novelist a long-running band is a lot like a you challenge yourself to just have blast to do. But we haven’t found any or something, they don’t all have to long-term relationship—you have fun with friends. There’s a loose other themes that work quite as well, really tie together. They all stand on to be in love with the versions of yourself over time, but you have to their own as these short stories.” interconnectedness that ties togeth- and so, we haven’t got there yet.” be comfortable with organic growth er their warm, effervescent 11th record, Horizons/East, and shadows It seems like Kensrue and company Kensure is being bashful without that happens (hopefully) with huof past records can be found within put extra pressure on themselves realizing it, but sometimes the thing is mans over time. these 10 songs. It’s arguably the to have some uniting factor, but just the great music, not anything else.

“Yeah, that’s a great analogy,” he band’s best collection of songs in sometimes, the journey is as fun as Thankfully, Horizons/East delivers. concurs. “I think there is a cost to a very long time, and one very well the destination.

“I guess that’s what I’m getting at, relation-ality, but there is I think a worth taking the time and effort to let soak in its musical rays.

“There was a weird pressure,” Ken- but trying to be self-aware about it greater wealth to be found by staying srue says. “It’s nice to have a thing is saying, ‘I don’t want [a theme or in that and by paying those costs.

So, when you’ve done it all and won- when you’re talking to people story] to be running the show.’ I don’t For the band, it is so much harder to der what’s left to do, where do you about your music because it gives want to be chasing that first in order make group decisions when there’s go from here? you some direction of what to talk to be able to make art, because four people all intimately involved. about. And there’s someone I was it’s not the way that I think it has So, you learn over time, both in a re“It’s so hard,” guitarist and vocalist just talking to, but in writing it, you to work, and it generally doesn’t. lationship or band or whatever, ‘What Dustin Kensrue answers. “Because feel that pressure of, like, ‘Oh man, Especially because being that we are the battles worth fighting?’ You write so democratically, if I start out slowly learn that almost all of them, we like so many things, and we, I what’s the thing?’” with a certain thing, it’s going to get six months later, you literally won’t rethink, can pull off a lot of different things, and it’s hard to choose a di- “And I want to push back on that, changed a whole bunch by the end. member what you were even thinking.”

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PHOTO Mitra Mehvar

“So it’s a slow process of learning gets you kind of through either one that,” Kensrue adds. “This is our 11th of those situations. And I think as an record. What do you possibly say 11 artist, you’re learning, too.” things in?’ There’s no category for that, so it’s got to be something else. “Palms, as I was writing the record, But yeah, I don’t know. I really like I had massive kind of upheaval the record. I love making music with in the way that I saw and thought these dudes, and I’m glad we get to about the work,” he continues. “With this record, that’s not the case as do it.” much. So, some of the record, it’s So, I think that gets to the whole looking back at the times before point—shouldn’t that be enough? those changes happened and lookThe reason that people are going ing kind of forward to what those to gravitate towards this record is changes can bring, and what they because the relationship they’ve mean, rather than the process being built as a fan for so long will be in the middle of them.” rewarded, and the reason that you like that whole progression is This isn’t in the middle of the earthbecause you’re in a trusting rela- quake; it’s almost like the aftermath as you’re reevaluating. Kensrue agrees: tionship. Kensrue concurs: “And trust that there’s something “I think both ‘Scavengers’ and there, but also that whatever is ‘Robot Soft Exorcism’ are pushing there might end up not being your that same idea of separating the favorite. Or it might totally change person from the position, the place the way you think about music as they hold, the system they are in or a whole, and it becomes your very running. And that’s a hard one to favorite. But yeah, that trust is what learn when you’re frustrated. You

have to be able to empathize with open and hopeful for other people what brought someone to where to change. We also have to remain they’re at and what keeps them open to change ourselves, otherwise there, and if you can’t understand we’re no different.” what that is, I’d say one, you are probably guilty of demonizing Well, it’s the pot calling the kettle them, really. You no longer look black. We have to practice what we at them as a person that has real preach, which is arguably the hardfears, and loves, and motivations, est thing in human existence. and as two-dimensional as the kind of royalty that they hold up, “There’s a Chesterton quote where the system that they embody can he says, ‘It’s not arrogant to believe look. There’s still a person there. that you’re right; it’s arrogant to be I don’t think that anyone’s ever unable to imagine how you could truly lost. There’s people that I be wrong,’” Kensrue concludes. “We could not imagine how they could all operate from convictions, and change, but I have to believe that there’s no way around that. And the greatest things in the world come it’s possible.” from strong convictions, but you’ve Part of that is tied to pride and fear, got to be open to change and to outside information, because the right? worst things in the world also come “Yeah. Part of that’s pride, and part from strong convictions.” of it is fear because if you were wrong before, you could be wrong “I think there’ll be someday when I’m again. And that feels unstable and able to look back and say, ‘All right. uncertain, and people really don’t Well, I did my best,” he concludes. like uncertainty. We have to be “That’ll feel good.” 💣

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PHOTOGRAPHY Elena de Soto

PHOTO Martin Thompson

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST/GUITARIST WALTER SCHREIFELS BY JAMES ALVAREZ

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hen Quicksand began working on their new album— the phenomenal Distant Populations, out this August on Epitaph— they had no idea they’d be crafting one of the most prescient records of our time.

“The songs were already complete before lockdown happened,” Quicksand vocalist, guitarist and genuine punk icon, Walter Schreifels explains.

Distand Populations’ killer, vintage Quicksand sound and thematic exploration of alienation in modern society were already in the tank when a certain global pandemic took

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the world by storm and placed a COVID-sized spotlight on the ideas behind the record.

Schreifels had been involved with a litany of projects, while bassist Sergio Vega had been playing with Deftones for nearQuicksand was formed in ly a decade. All this growth 1990 by a bunch of NYC and new influences made their hardcore musicians look- subsequent reunion album a ing to stretch their legs. The sprawling, ambitious affair. band’s heavy-yet-infectious post-hardcore sound rocked “We had stretched out with Intethe hell out of the ’90s, until riors,” Schreifels says. “We had their untimely demise in ’95. a lot of ground to cover with After a short-lived reunion that. We all had to express oura few years later, the band selves and come together at officially jumped back into the same time. With this record, the ring in 2012 and released we felt like we had already their much-anticipated third done that, so let’s get more to album, Interiors, in 2017. In the core of things.” the 22 years between studio albums, a lot had gone down Right out the gate, Distant for the members of Quicksand. Populations’ opening track,

“Inversion,” feels like classic Quicksand, punching a sonic hole through time and space, straight from the Clinton years into today. Pieced together from numerous sound check jam sessions the band recorded for posterity, Schreifels reveals that, “when it came time to make another record, we just compiled all those little jam ideas and kind of dialed in which ones we were most excited to work on. We went through them pretty methodically.”

That precision is evident on tracks like “Missile Command” and the crushing “Colossus.”

The riffs, the grooves, the hooks, like a rhino wielding a scalpel,

Quicksand have mastered the art of heaviness and finesse.

“Sergio [Vega] or I might come in with something that we’ve written for the band,” Schreifels says. “We’re the kind of band where everyone will play their own part to whatever it is. That sometimes can take more time, but I think that’s what makes the band have a sort of unique sound, because it’s only us that can do it like this.”

The album’s title comes from the aforementioned opening track, “Inversion,” which was inspired by lyrics Schreifels misheard while listening to New York anarcho punks, Nausea.

Their song “Fallout (Of Our Being)” features the phrase “destitute populations,” which Schreifels heard as “distant populations” and wound up becoming the overarching theme of the band’s new album.

“I don’t have any solutions and

I don’t have a political agenda I’m trying to get across, but I feel like Nausea and Crass spoke eloquently and powerfully about the human condition,” Schreifels explains.

“We’re in a fucking weird-ass place with COVID and how crazy our politics is, and people are fucking stressed out and paranoid. You might want to ignore it, like sometimes it’s healthy to compartmentalize, but that’s what ‘distant populations’ meant to me. It’s not all so heavy, there’s fun and humor in it, especially with the artwork and within some of the lyrics, but that’s just some of the real shit we were trying to approach a little bit.”

The artwork he’s referring to is Distant Populations’ crazy colorful, monster mash cover, created by Tetsunori Tawaraya. Featuring ferocious monsters preparing to battle across a bacterial chasm, this tripped out art-

work perfectly encapsulates the hostilities and anxieties that have plagued mankind before and have been exasperated by the 2020 pandemic.

that mean they’re Nazis? No! It’s because you’re in a safe space to indulge the part of you that wants authoritarian order. Our shit doesn’t get that deep, it’s like monsters, it’s not political. I think it’s just a funner “We wanted to create some sort place to have these kind of of universe, kind of like how heavy themes play themselves Star Wars works, where there’s out, where people can apply this mythical world where our their own imaginations to them, imaginations can live, yet it re- or just not even give a fuck, but flects our own society,” Schreif- that’s kind of what holds the els says. “We created this uni- whole thing together for us.” verse with Distant Populations and these songs were going to “Our [Quicksand’s] world, even be soundtracks for it. like hardcore, were talking about social consciousness, Just as Star Wars doubles as trying to save the planet, anboth a soap opera about ti-racism, vegetarianism, these space wizards and a caution- are themes I find myself returnary tale against fascism, where ing to in music, as well as interthe heroes wear white robes, personal relationships, loves, and the villains don black fear,” he continues. “These are space Nazi uniforms. the kinds of themes that propel heavy music in a meaningful “They’re the space Nazis but yet way, but at the same time, have some people fucking love those it placed in this science fiction guys,” Schreifels says, laughing. world where it doesn’t have to “People love Darth Vader. Does weigh down super hard.” 💣💣

“I DON’T HAVE ANY SOLUTIONS AND I DON’T HAVE A POLITICAL AGENDA I’M TRYING TO GET ACROSS, BUT I FEEL LIKE NAUSEA AND CRASS SPOKE ELOQUENTLY AND POWERFULLY ABOUT THE HUMAN CONDITION.”

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PHOTO Athena Lonsdale

“ONE DAY, I KIND OF WOKE UP AND WENT, ‘WAIT A SECOND. YOU WRITE SONGS. YOU SHOULD BE WRITING SONGS.’”

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INTERVIEW BY JOSHUA MARANHAS

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hen you’re the singer of a punk rock band, maybe the perception is: you show up; you yell your angst at the planet into a microphone; you get off stage, and you party. Some of that might be true, but someone like Joey Cape isn’t content to stop there.

cause I didn’t have anywhere to be or go.”

It was around Lagwagon Day in May of 2020 that Cape remembered that he’s a musician, and he needed to do more music. He pulled his recording equipment out of storage; he began writing, and he began recording.

the record because I had to. I couldn’t get together with people, and there’s something cool about that, that I’ll always feel good about.”

Cape was able to demo some of the work live, albeit in front of a different type of crowd than you’d find on a normal day at FEST, Ratio Beerworks, or a local venue. He shared it with the smallest of intimate crowds in California.

“One day, I kind of woke up and went, Cape—from Lagwagon, Bad Astronaut, ‘Wait a second. You write songs. You Scorpios, One Week Records, and his should be writing songs,’” he says. “I felt solo work—always seems to be going really uninspired, though. Because it was non-stop. A workaholic. When he’s not no stimulation when you’re just alone “There were a few times where we’d writing new music, he’s around the world and hanging out. I have this little room sit, have dinner, and then maybe my performing music. Initially, 2020 stopped here, and I have my dog with me, which is stepdad would be in there, and we’d sit all of that for him. great. But I did almost everything I could there, and we’d be having some drinks think of to cure the boredom. And then together. And they’d say, play some of “It was tough, man, for a while,” Cape says. I finally ended up able to write and just what you’re working on, I’m like this mad “It was a lot of Zoom meetings and Twitch. started writing, and that was only prob- scientist in that room. And I come in and And that was fun. But then after a while, it ably by about May 2020. And then I just play something for them, and everybody did that all day, every day. I took some would cry, and that was nice. I didn’t really feels kind of lonely and weird.” drives and went to storage spots, got my want to share anything with my colleagues, Cape’s latest Fat Wreck Chords release, old studio gear out of storage, and made or friends that I work with, or the label, until I was done with the record. I want to wait A Good Year to Forget, is out on August 13. a little studio.” until this whole thing is done, so I can just go, The album puts the last year—coronavirus, quarantine, loneliness, friendship, family, He thought of the album’s title and be- ‘This is what I did in that year.’” gan to bring his thoughts and feelings to and music—on permanent file.

In 2020, Joey Cape had a year like many the flesh with words. on this great, blue-and-green planet. His It was a year when, like everyone else, Cape’s luck seemed to be running thin. “The older I get, I look at it more like I’m reaction was like so many—go home to As COVID swept into daily life, Cape writing a book,” Cape says. “And I try to his roots; take shelter; hug the ones you did what any grown-up punk facing the really get organized for the lyrics, say, love. However, he never stopped to eat challenge of joblessness would do—he because it’s too easy, when you just write a bowl of cereal on the couch and watch moved back in with his parents to take all the time, to repeat yourself or forget late-night T.V.—he went back to doing shelter and build a bubble around those parts of the equation. And that was what he does, making music. cathartic, for sure. It’s always nice if you he loved. have a way to get things out, even if it’s And let’s be honest; there was likely some “I’m in a town called Santa Barbara,” just for you. It’s like therapy or something.” late night T.V., and a few beers, too.

Cape says. “Central coast, California, with my parents. I moved back here Not everything was work, work, work. “I’ve kept busy,” Cape says. “I mean, I beginning of the pandemic. I knew I was Cape got COVID, along with his family, don’t have another job, so I’m going to going to be out of work for a long time. and at its worst, he was down hard for at just start projects that’ll keep me working, keep my chops up, and keep me proAnd it seemed a little crazy, but it turned least 10 days. gressing. I don’t see any reason to stop. out to be a really good move, just being close to family and all that.”

“We all got COVID,” he says. “And then I know I’m not going to live forever, and everything just got really bad for a while. I want to get as much accomplished as Although living in quarantine wasn’t all But other than that, it was pretty much possible.” like a nice, forced holiday.” walks on the beach and sunsets.

It may be that 2020 is a good year to for“I mean, at first it was very strange,” Cape Eventually, Cape got it all out and down get, but A Good Year to Forget, the album, shares. “I was like, ‘All right. Well, I can on a hard drive, on its way to being held in helps put many universal feelings and learn how to do some new things.’ And wax on vinyl. The album is a solid recollec- thoughts into context for a bigger audience. It was a lonely year, but music held I tried all sorts of things. I tried reading tion of events. It’s in many ways relatable. it together for a lot of people, including a old books that I hadn’t read, and tried crafts, learning how to make things. And “What’s kind of cool about any record is, workaholic Cape, who did his best to stay I started taking lessons online. I even took there’s a historic timestamp to it,” Cape busy while also staying sane. some vocal lessons, see if I could work says. “It’s like, whatever was going on on being a better singer. I did all kinds of in your life, that’s what it was. You don’t “I think there’ll be someday when I’m able to stupid stuff that really wasn’t getting me have to stop writing music. And this one look back and say, ‘All right. Well, I did my much of anywhere, but it was fine be- for me, especially, I played everything on best,” he concludes. “That’ll feel good.” 💣

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The most thing we can is the - Albert Einstein INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST BRENDAN YATES BY DEREK NIELSEN

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PHOTO Jimmy Fontaine

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kay, starting this article off with an Einstein quote is admittedly a little corny, definitely high school English classroom energy. On a hypothetical scale of cringe, that would register a three out of 10. Hardcore is not a genre known for nuance. But if there is one word that would encapsulate Turnstile’s presence within the present musical landscape, that word is “mystery.”

PHOTOGRAPHY Elena de Soto

Turnstile’s latest album opens up on a flourish of ascending analog synth arpeggios reminiscent of something you’d hear in an ’80s PSA commercial, shortly before bursting into an upbeat, major-key jammer entitled “Mystery.” The guitars are dialed up to stadium-rock levels. The drums are unrelenting. Frontman Brendan Yate’s familiar voice enters center stage with a greater melodic precision than ever before. As the song enters its climax, Yates yells, “It’s been so long. All the mystery gone!” right before lead guitarist Brady Ebert shreds a metal guitar solo on a Gibson Explorer while wearing a bucket hat.

“I feel like that’s such an important part of being human, being open for mystery,” Yates ponders. “I think It’s almost human nature to make sure that you’re assigning meaning to things, especially growing up. You’re like, ‘I need to categorize this genre; I need to categorize this person; I’m this political party’ or whatever. There’s all these things that I think people find comfort in assessing into categories, but it doesn’t leave any room open for anyone else’s reality, or anyone else’s experience that might not fall within your explanation for the world.”

Turnstile’s 2018 LP, Time and Space (another nod to Einstein), took the hardcore genre and transformed it into a vivid cosmic landscape. But the band’s newest album, entitled Glow On, is noticeably more earthbound.

Songs might abruptly transform like a mixtape as far as being able Like their previous albums, the into completely different songs to kind of constantly be shifting. band manipulates the hardcore within the same track. Verses and At the same time, every song can formula by utilizing and weapon- choruses flow in and out of each stand alone.” izing other genre tropes, the same other, switch places, or might not way a DJ splices a set together. exist at all.

Musical genres, like so many other Glow On is punctuated with Latin human constructs, are simply boxes percussion instruments, hip-hop “I feel like one thing we’re not good that act as frameworks for a shared beats, sprawling piano sequences, at is writing really long songs,” Yates reality. The greatest artists simply ‘90s style techno breakdowns, and elaborates. “Maybe it’s just part of existed, while the human hive-mind shred-fest guitar solos. The third our attention span or something— built the genres around them after track, “No Way,” has drummer once you get it out, you gotta move the fact.

Daniel Fang playing a traditional onto something new. I definitely had reggaeton beat over a hardcore the intention of wanting the songs “I always have a hard time with guitar power chord progression. and more feelings to flow, almost genres,” says Yates. “Everyone’s

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perspective is so different on how they’re categorizing all these things.

Even things that I love, I always hesitate putting them in some sort of category because there’s so many things that I love that don’t necessarily fall perfectly under someone’s umbrella definition of something. I like to push that idea further. I think it’s always worth exploring different dimensions of music, the same way that humans have different dimensions and feelings.”

While on stage, Yates himself is

“I FEEL LIKE THAT’S SUCH AN IMPORTANT PART OF BEING HUMAN, BEING OPEN FOR MYSTERY” “THERE IS A LOT OF EXCITEMENT FOR ME TO BE LEAVING THOSE THINGS OPEN FOR INTERPRETATION OF HOW SOMEONE ELSE MIGHT BE ABLE TO PERCEIVE IT” if you lack that, maybe it’s not as important to you as it should be, you know?”

a force of chaotic-neutral. Most because I felt right, even if this is hardcore singers look like they’re the last Turnstile record.” training for the MMA, but there’s a detachment within Yates’s physical “With everything we put out, there’s demeanor—as if part of him is always a level of uncertainty, fear, occupying some other plane of ex- and anxiety. But I think it’s just part istence. In keeping with the band’s of doing something creative. I think anachronistic aesthetic, Yates physically embodies another historical quote, this time from Mark Twain:

ness to how we like to put songs together that kind of leaves that door open for interpretation.”

In spite of everything, what’s most important to Turnstile is honoring their roots. Afterall, it’s easy to get lost in the mystery if you don’t remember where you came from.

The song “T.L.C. (Turnstile Love Connection)” kicks off with a classic, d-beat verses before dropping into an East Coast-hardcore-style breakdown, during which Yates breaks the fourth wall, flat-out stat- “We come from playing hardcore ing: “I want to thank you for letting punk shows, you know?” Yates me be myself.” confirms. “I think that’s the essence, that’s the scene that we come Who is he thanking here? You, the lis- from—growing up playing shows tener? All his peers in the hardcore and going to hardcore punk shows punk scene? Some bigger, more in Baltimore. It’s where we come mysterious life entity? Yates prefers from. Some people that know us it to be open-ended. may understand we come from hardcore and punk. But then for “I think every song is always kind someone else, the closest reference of about specific personal expe- is like Metallica or Slayer, or I don’t riences,” he says. “But then again, know, Blackpink or something like there is a lot of excitement for me that [laughs]. I don’t know how peoto be leaving those things open for ple connect the dots. Everyone has interpretation of how someone else their own way, so I’m definitely not might be able to perceive it. There’s closed off to anyone’s perspective.” always some sort of open-ended- 💣

“Dance like nobody’s watching; love like you’ve never been hurt. Sing like nobody’s listening; live like it’s heaven on earth.”

If we’re being honest, this quote belongs on a 2005 high school freshman’s Myspace page. Solid eight out of 10 on the cringe scale.

Did Mark Twain even actually say this? Does it matter? Nothing is original. Time isn’t real. The cringe only serves to remind us of when we feel exposed and truly are seen for what we are. That is the feeling of true vulnerability.

“Every record that we put out, it’s always a very vulnerable thing, you know?” Yates confesses. “I remember before we put out our first LP, Nonstop Feeling, I remember being like, ‘Man, no one is going to connect with this at all!

But I’m glad that we made this because this felt really good to make,

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PHOTO Pat Gilrane PHOTO Pat Gilrane

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST MATT CAUGHTHRAN AND GUITARIST JOBY J FORD BY JORDAN WOLFE

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he Bronx are set to release their new full-length album this month, and in keeping with tradition, Bronx VI will be the first full- length album from the Los Angeles-based band since the release of V in 2017.

Since their inception, The Bronx have been a band operating at their own pace, always pinning an honest heart to their sleeve. As the music industry continues to evolve and change focus in response to societal shifts, the continued authenticity across subsequent Bronx albums serves

as a lesson in how to stay genuine Barresi is somebody the band had The first two singles released are the while remaining relevant as an artist. wanted to work with for many years. perfect introduction to the range of With a 20-year anniversary for the musical styles on the album. “White band peeking just over the horizon, “We’d been talking about doing a Shadow” has a toe-tapping pace and major U.S. and European tours record [with Barresi] since 2005,” crowned by an onslaught of vocal agbooked for 2022, The Bronx con- explains Ford. “It finally aligned, gression, while “Superbloom” blasts tinue to prove that following your schedule-wise, and we were able to into what Caughthran exclaims as: heart is way more fun than chasing knock it out with him. And it was a “CLASSIC FU#&ING BRONX!” expectations. great experience for us.”

Themes of dark warnings and tragic To get the right sound on their “He’s such a badass producer,” adds realties with brutal storytelling defilong-awaited sixth full-length, the Caughthran. “And he was just the per- nitely get close to scraping the emoband recorded with renowned pro- fect guy for this record. We just needed tional bottom. The song “Breaking ducer Joe Barresi (Melvins, Tool, Bad someone to make them sound fucking News”— which Caughtrhan says will Religion) at his House of Compres- badass and to take it to the next level. be a favorite to reveal because of sion studio in Pasadena, California. That was definitely Joe.” the collaboration with Rancid’s Tim

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Armstrong— is full of references to a dystopian daydream coupled with a nightmarish police state.

that went in different directions and places,” Ford explains. “The thing I like a lot about it is that everybody contributed songs. It’s not just Joby J Ford guitars with Matt singing over it.

I loved listening to what other people wrote, and I think those differences and nuances really come through.”

Simultaneously, however, The Bronx have the ability to sneak inside jokes into choruses, as can be heard on tracks like “Jack of All Trades” and “High Five.” The song “Curb Feelers” presents an attitude of jaded misfor- “We’ve known each other for a long tune, as the phrase “rebel becomes time,” adds Caughthran. “We’re routine” is sporadically repeated. such good friends and we’re so tight Lyrically, there is just as much a smor- creatively, but we’re still learning stuff gasbord of emotion to choose from about each other, especially when it on this album as there is musically. comes to the process of creating an album. Brad [Magers, bass] and But despite hitting familiar notes, Ken [Horne, guitar] are just coming there is clearly a new tone of con- out as songwriters, and we’re learnfidence on Bronx VI. Caughthran ing to write songs as a group around and Ford both confirm that while ideas they bring to the table. We’re the album is not a major departure all growing together, and it never in terms of sound, the band took a stops— and that’s something we different approach this time around strive for, promote, and push within when it came to writing. each other, because we don’t want this to get stale.”

“From day one, we really decided that we wanted to make a record It is exactly that type of growth and

PHOTOGRAPHY Pat Gilrane

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“I JUST HOPE PEOPLE STAY SAFE AND STAY DILIGENT IN LOOKING OUT FOR ONE ANOTHER SO WE CAN GET BACK TO ALL HANGING OUT AGAIN.”

reinvigoration that shines through- “You have to take the good with out the new album. After 19 years as the bad and hope for the best,” a band, Caughthran compares it to Caughthran insists. “All we can being married. is learn and try to be better, you know? I’m not gonna tell anyone “You have to spice it up a little, you what to do, I just hope people stay know? We never try to make one safe and stay diligent in looking out specific type of record or have a for one another so we can get back certain sound. The last thing we to all hanging out again.” want to do is put ourselves in a corner to have a perfect theme or The Bronx will tour Europe in the over-production. We like a lot of early part of 2022 with Every Time flavor in our records, so we just see I Die, as well as being part of the where the creative juices take us.”

From Boston to Berkeley 2 tour alongside Dropkick Murphys and So, what about the future, at a Rancid. time when many people are either concerned with potential future Bronx VI will be available from health warnings or ready to get Cooking Vinyl for purchase on back to a new normal sooner digital and physical release on rather than later?

August 27 2021. 💣

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PHOTOGRAPHY Marcos Hermes

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INTERVIEW WITH GUITARIST ANDREAS KISSER BY ROB KENT

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or a band that has been constantly active for 35 years, coming an abrupt stop just after releasing a well-received record is everything they thought would never happen. Sepultura was left lost, just like the rest of us, and with many questions about what the pandemic would bring. However, the band took the elements they were left with and eventually, through pure chance and no pre-planning, developed an incredible fifteen-track record that signifies a piece of history for them.

SepulQuarta is a treasure, a relic, and a piece of gold that was constructed at a time when being creative was seriously lacking normality.

he says. “We were doing events every Wednesday, which was our way of staying healthy as a band and talking to each other, to stay connected as bandmates and brothers, and for the fans to gain a new aspect of the band. Tours stopped, backstage life stopped, and our regular life disappeared. The Wednesday events allowed us to talk to our fans and perform our music for them while remembering old stories, and it truly kept us alive.”

These efforts highlight the fact that Sepultura knew the importance of maintaining a strong bond between themselves and their dedicated fan base, at a time where the music industry had all its life taken away.

to sports, and it was a truly great experience,” he shares. “By the end of 2020, we had accumulated amazing material from our guests. This release is not a livestream album or anything like that, it’s extremely unique and a whole different result of music from this lockdown.”

SepulQuarta is the spontaneous result of a pursuit to push friendship at a time in history when it was so important.

Kisser dives into how the band moved forward with actually tracking the record. After the improvised internet sessions ended, the band listened back and recorded their parts for the album from home, outside a studio, with whatever resources they had.

and the material is fantastic. This album is something that was created by itself and was genuinely not planned at all. The pandemic was an awful time, but this album is beautiful, and this band truly made the best out of the situation” The entire project highlights the fact that when one door closes, Sepultura has the ability to open ten more. The band took a form of streamed entertainment and realized something special had happened, and the result is SepulQuarta, an amazing achievement from an already iconic band.

Kisser concludes with these final words on how the amalgamation of the project between band members, fans, and featured musicians is the heartbeat of the album, and the true success of SepulQuarta.

SepulQuarta is a record that comprises of the band crafting and performing with guests featured on Kisser further explains how experievery track. The record was the result mental musical sessions on Wednes- “Everyone was recording at their of a weekly online unity, hosted by days with their long-term and talented houses, the best they could,” Kisser “The pandemic proved that this band the band and their friends for fans. friends resulted in further connectivity says. “We had vocals recorded in can work with the elements we have Guitar player Andreas Kisser reflects with third-party musicians. bathrooms and kitchens, and drums and make the best of it, a positive on the new record and its humble recorded with an iPhone in a garden. attitude will always result in success,” beginnings.

“We then decided to invite our friends We took these raw approaches and Kisser says. “The performances on this to the Wednesday sessions to jam with made the record happen, and it was album are very special, and so unique, “This album was not intentional at all, us and have conversations about a amazing. We chose fifteen songs to be because we built it together, with the we never planned to do an album,” variety of topics, from depression mixed and mastered for this release, fans right there with us.” 💣

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65

PHOTOGRAPHY Bob Sweeney

INTERVIEW WITH CAMAE AYEWA BY DOUGLAS MENAGH

B

lack Encyclopedia of the Air is a departure from the heavy and loud releases from Moor Mother, moniker for poet and songwriter Camae Ayewa. It is not dissonant like Analog Fluids of Sonic Black Holes. It is not punk like True Opera, an album Moor Mother made with Mental Jewelry and released as Moor Jewelry. Black Encyclopedia of the Air is a tranquil hip hop album.

“This is not noisy at all,” says Ayewa. “It’s really interesting to do this kind of shift into something that I would consider soft.

This would be the closest, in my opinion, that I’ve ever been to making somewhat of a hip hop

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record. It does have these kind of, I wouldn’t say punk, but I would say, these dark moments, where truth and sound collide in this melancholy way.”

Rather than create one album at a time, Ayewa prefers to make many records simultaneously. Ayewa was making a different record when she began Black Encyclopedia of the Air. “I had been working on an album that’s not this album for a while,” says Ayewa. “I like to work on multiple things at a time so I can spread my feelings out and not just be so focused on one album. I just finished my third full-length poetry

book. If I write a poetry book, I can produce so much music from it. I don’t separate music from poetry because sound is music, whether it’s coming out your mouth or coming out of a sampler.”

Ayewa sees making music as an extension of writing poetry.

fine-tuning your sensitivity to what’s going on in the world or universe. That’s why I call it like a medicine bag for me.”

“Poetry is like a tool kit,” says Ayewa. “Poetry is very hard be- The music of Moor Mother cause it’s not just about words, has a way of uncovering and but it’s about feeling. It’s about illuminating deep truths and

meaning in the world. With a discography of diverse and eclectic albums, the message of Moor Mother reaches people in a variety of different sounds and textures.

you set up your classroom, you make it a learning environment so kids can continually have the opportunity to pick up things if they’re not listening to your lecture. Or, maybe falling off on their homework, “The most important thing is the they can look up and see some message, so it’s about expand- motivating quotes. They can ing my world to get the message look up and see a picture of out to those who need it,” says someone that can inspire them Ayewa. “It’s not about reaching to work harder. the world, it’s about who needs to hear it, and for me to make “This kind of thing. I love to cresure that I have that awareness ate this kind of world. That’s of the different ways people why the poetry and the lyrics can understand a message. are so important, because it’s trying to tap into all these “I was an educator for over a frequencies, sound frequendecade before I became a cies with word that can pull professional musician. When people in.” 💣💣💣

NEW NOISE 67

PHOTO Bon Jane

A PREGNANT PAUSE

INTERVIEW BY JAMES ALVAREZ

L

aura Stevenson’s new self-titled album, out August 6 on Don Giovanni Records, is the latest milestone for the New York indie/ folk hero in an exhausting wave of life-altering, monumental moments.

“It’s been really strange to talk about everything, because I wrote this record before my last record even came out,” Stevenson reveals. “I finished [2019’s] The Big Freeze and a couple of months later, I started writing this record, and I kind of put The Big Freeze on pause for a while, because I was dealing with all the shit I was dealing with on this record.”

Stevenson is referring to the harrowing near-death trauma of a loved one that turned her personal life upside down, and prompted her to pour her emotional and creative energy into creating a whole new album from scratch.

“I recorded The Big Freeze, wrote this record, put the The Big Freeze out a year later, was touring on that, then I got pregnant at the end of touring, and then I made this record a couple of months later, before I got too pregnant to do anything,” she says. “Then

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the pandemic happened and I was incarnate song. “I hope that they’re not ‘Continental Divide,’ I changed one like, ‘well, I’m not gonna put this out like, ‘oh the rest of the record is actually of the lyrics at the end on the second for a while,’ but now it feels like kind of pretty mellow,’” she laughs. chorus. Instead of repeating the first a good time because I might be able chorus, I made it: ‘What can I do to do some shows. So yeah, it’s been a Songs like “Don’t Think About Me” and right to keep you safe all of your life,’ real journey with these songs.”

“Continental Divide” boast immacu- because I was wanting to protect this late guitar tones and ear worm cal- little girl inside of me growing, and I Write fifth album. Tragedy strikes. iber hooks, while tracks like “Wretch” was singing about this thing where Pause album five and write album and “Mary” slow things down to a somebody was in an unsafe situation, six. Give birth. Once-a-century global somber and hauntingly introspective and I was feeling so many different pandemic strikes. Laura Stevenson’s pace. While lacking the sonic might of things. So, I swapped the lyric out of life has changed several times over in the opener, the rest of Laura Steven- there and made it about her a little the few short years between albums. son’s self-titled album still packs one bit. Then shit hit the fan right before It’s fitting that the opening track and hell of an emotional punch. she came out, so I was like I really got first single off her new record, “State,” to keep you safe, not even hypothetiwould be the heaviest, and perhaps Recording these songs and getting cally safe, it’s like I have to make sure most explosive track of her career. back into the traumatic headspace you don’t get this disease.” they originated from was a little weird “That song, it starts the record and I re- for then-pregnant Stevenson.

If the stars align, Stevenson plans to leased it as the first single because it’s a play a string of shows celebrating the most intense song on the album,” “Being stressed, there’s like research her new record this fall. Performing Stevenson shares. about it being bad for the baby and safely is essential for a new pandemic stuff, so I was trying to be even-keeled mother like Stevenson.

Channeling the mountain of grief and try not to get anxious about and rage that was the impetus for Ste- things during the pregnancy, which is “It’s gonna make us obviously more nervenson’s new album in the first place, really hard to do when you’re nervous vous parents, but ultimately better par“State” is a beautifully pummeling about bringing a person into the ents,” she says. “Our priorities shifted to track that culminates in a cascade world,” she says. “The last 10 days of just keep her safe and, well, it’s always of drums, wailing guitars, and Steven- my pregnancy were very stressful been to make sure she has the best life son’s immensely earnest voice. because that’s when the pandemic ever, but now we feel so guilty because started. Writing these songs brought we’re like, ‘welcome to the world kid’ “It always made me feel empowered,” up a lot for me. Recording them [laughs]. So now we have to make this Stevenson says proudly of her catharsis brought up a lot for me. Especially kid’s life fucking rock.” 💣

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PHOTO Mike Truehart

F

INTERVIEW WITH GUITARIST BRODY UTTLEY

BY NICHOLAS SENIOR

or Reading, Pennsylvania’s record that has some of our most down,” Uttley continues. “I was fairly Every Rivers Of Nihil album has finest prog metal band, obviously heavy shit on it that we’ve convinced that we were never going been based around seasons, and Rivers Of Nihil, their incred- ever had, you know what I mean?” to be able to go out there and do while we are all hoping this eternal ible new record, The Work, due out this again. I realized we might as well COVID season will end, The Work September 24 via Metal Blade, is To that end, pressing play on The spend as much energy as we possibly puts an end to the band’s four-seathe culmination of a decade of, Work feels like stepping into Rivers can putting together this project, to son album run. Has Uttley pondered uh, work that has clearly paid off. Of Nihil’s own Sound World— a show people what the band sounds the end of this chapter and what it’s Never have the band sounded so land where anything can and will like during this absolutely insane time meant to him? free both from genre rules and happen, and you’re gleefully pulled of uncertainty. We were like, ‘Well, the norms associated with being a along for the crazed conductor who knows if we’re even ever going to “I haven’t really thought about that heavy act. It’s somehow both the ride. It’s a fitting soundtrack to the get to play this shit live? We might as too much just because we’re still weirdest, warmest, heaviest, and weirdest time in the band’s life, as well just release the most bizarre shit kind of getting stuff ready for this most heartfelt Rivers Of Nihil have Uttley explains: we’ve ever had, put ourselves on an one. But I guess I’m happy that it’s ever sounded— and you fuckin’ island all by ourselves, and just lay it over, because I just turned 30 in May. And really, those four records, betcha that sweet sax is along for “On every record, I always sort of like all down.’” that’s my whole 20s in four albums. the ride. What a ride it is. us to go for capturing a moment in the history of the band, where “There’s a lot of stuff on this record I could look at those albums and Guitarist Brody Uttley shares that we were all at, at the time of the that’s deeply personal, both con- really just pinpoint exactly what the band wanted to go into the prog recording. And we’ve done that. ceptually but also just sonically,” he I was thinking and exactly what I deep end on The Work without sac- We’ve done three records. I think expands. “I mean, I went out and was probably going through at any rificing their trademark heaviness. we’ve gotten close. Especially on did hundreds of field recordings, given point during those records.

[Where Owls Know My Name], I think especially where we live, to kind Finishing ‘Terrestria IV’ was a re“We turned up the heavy factor in we got pretty close. But I would say of just put the listener in Reading, ally powerful moment for me, just a big way but also the prog factor,” that there’s no other record that Pennsylvania, where we’re from. personally as a writer. The end of Uttley says. “I feel like [when bands] we’ve done where you’re literally The train that pops up all over the that song essentially begins the way start dipping their toe in the prog stepping into where we were like album, I mean, that’s the train that that our first album began. It closes pool, a lot of them end up losing you said, that ‘sound world.’ It’s like runs by my house all the time. I out with the winter wind screaming that burning, angry mood that you’re literally stepping into a place mean, I hear that noise pretty much shifting over to these springtime they’ve historically had as a band when you put that first song on. It 24/7. When I first moved in to where birds, kind of insinuating that we’re and sacrificing that for more of really captured what the band was I’m at right now, it was kind of an just on this endless cycle, and that the prog-y kind of stuff. We wanted going through at the time.” annoying thing. But now, it’s this sort it all comes back around. It felt trito turn the prog way up, but at the of comforting reminder of being at umphant to finish it. I’m happy that same time, releasing probably the “At certain points in the middle of lock- home.” it’s done.” 💣

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NEW NOISE 71

PHOTOGRAPHY Alana Wool

INTERVIEW WITH MULTI-INSTRUMENTALIST MADELINE JOHNSTON

BY MARIKA ZORZI

“

W

hat is my inner truth? Where is my inner peace? What do I actually want?”

ligations or distractions. I left my service industry job last spring—the record became my job and hustle in 2020.”

Multi-instrumentalist Madeline Johnston “The process felt natural and unforced,” asked herself these questions when she she continues. “I loved having the timewas writing Midwife’s new record, Lumi- lessness, fluidity, and pressure-free nol, out via The Flenser on July 16. ‘end-of-the-world’ work environment.

The record was written throughout all “The album is a kind of diary from last the spaces I spent time in last year. year,” Johnston says. “But also, beyond Beginning in Colorado, I wrote and that, like realizing the things I felt so recorded the track ‘Colorado,’ then I intensely last year have actually been moved back to New Mexico and spent there all along. I was thinking about a few months in my childhood home in higher power, control, civil unrest, Santa Fe. I wrote ‘God is A Cop’ there in agency, and confinement. The album is my old room. I moved to Albuquerque, ultimately about inner truth. Inner truth where I finished writing and recording you can’t really see with all the bullshit the rest of the songs. I then moved in the way. Inner truth that is leftover again to Las Cruces-San Miguel, where when there’s nothing else. I was seeking I mixed the record and finished everythat and trying to tap into the realm of thing up.” profound truth.”

The result is Midwife’s most personal When 2020 began, Johnston had several record to date. tours planned, but the pandemic shifted her focus back to recording, and back “I have always worked alone and am to her internal landscape. Midwife’s accustomed to it, but at times it was tough third full-length record was written and to be solo, just feeling like you’re on an produced during quarantine. island, making something without a context of the world, and listening to things so “This was the first time I really had the many times you can’t hear them anymore,” ability to give a project my full attention Johnston says. “Having said that, those are and dedication,” Johnston says. “In also some of the cool reasons for working quarantine, I didn’t have any other ob- in isolation. It’s freeing in a lot of ways.”

72 NEW NOISE

“The world is what feeds my songwrit- Midwife have always been interested ing,” she continues. “Not having that in profound truth, mixing personal outlet changed the process for me, elements with those from the outside and I had to reach into more internal world. In Luminol, this is not only evident places and spend more time there. through the music, but also visually Sometimes it’s painful. Sometimes it’s represented on the cover of the record. cathartic. I don’t want to be cliche.

I don’t think I made a quarantine “It’s an old photo of my mom, but I think record or an isolation record, but it it looks a lot like me,” Johnston admits. does include some of those themes. “The figure is redacted, because it That’s what was going on.” could be anyone. I wanted to bridge the personal and universal elements Luminol also deals with the subjects of the album art. I interpret the image of incarceration, clarity, self harm, as humanity as a whole being on the confinement, and truth-seeking, situ- edge of something in 2020. At the ations and feelings that many people precipice. Being surrounded by water have been facing, before and during and contained by the shore. It’s a the pandemic. picture of me there, but like I said, it could be anyone.”

“The form and concept of Luminol are absolutely made for each other,” “In the same way, Midwife is my therJohnston explains. “Luminol is a chem- apy,” she continues. “I always hope ical that dredges up forensic evidence, that the music transcends and helps like blood, at a crime scene, and the people that are in tough situations or chemical reaction turns the evidence a are feeling alone. I want listeners to bioluminescent blue. I think it definitely know that they’re not alone. No matspeaks to what’s going on—examining ter how small the effect it can have what has become of our lives and on somebody, I like to think my music turning our trials and tribulations into is out there helping people. It’s the sources of light.” reason I do what I do.” 💣

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INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST/GUITARIST DERYCK WHIBLEY

BY FRANKIE TOROK

B

ack in May, Sum 41 released a re-imag- still the same. It’s just to get on stage and put on the best show possible, and hopefully pick ined version of “Catching Fire” (featuring up new fans every year.” nothing.nowhere), the closing track from their 2019 album, Order in Decline.

With reflection comes hindsight, as Whibley Frontman Deryck Whibley has always been knows all-too-well when looking back over open about the track’s meaning—it was the Sum 41 discography. his way of starting the conversation with his wife, Ari, about her suicide attempt in 2013.

Timing the single’s release with Mental Health “There’s lots of stuff that I wish I could redo,” he says. “I think our record Does This Look InfectAwareness Month was no coincidence, but it’s ed? never turned out the way we wanted it to. important these conversations don’t stop with Our producer was very unsure of himself, and the turn of your calendar page. we recorded the record, he didn’t think it was right. He wanted us to redo it, so we rushed it “I’d written [“Catching Fire”] about six or seven in two weeks. And I don’t think it sounded as years after her attempted suicide, which I good. I think the first version was better, the largely tried to forget about, or at least the demos were better. The final version I hate. pain part to forget about,” Whibley says. “Up Sometimes that’s how it goes.” until that point, I’d largely tried to bury the pain of that night, but I couldn’t stop thinking There’s plenty of tracks that Whibley is proud about that it had happened, and what if it of though. could happen again …”

Whibley says that while he doesn’t conscious- “[‘Fat Lip’], that one stands out for sure,” he says. “Another song I really love is ‘Still Waitly write for catharsis, this track in particular ing,’ [from] Does This Look Infected? There’s helped release the repressed emotions for even some of the slower ones, like ‘Pieces.’ I both him and his wife. like ‘Catching Fire’ as well. And I also like “Once I wrote [“Catching Fire”], all that went ‘Never There,’ [from] the last record. I can think of probably a song or two from every record away,” he says. “We were actually able to that are equally my favorites, and they have have an open dialogue about depression some sort of meaning to me.” and how she felt.”

While Whibley has a lot to look back on over Twenty-twenty-one is very much a year of his 20-plus-year career, he’s also looking reflection for Whibley, for many reasons. One of those is that Sum 41’s iconic album, All Killer, forward, especially now live shows are back.

Oh, and he’s now a father.

No Filler turns 20 this year. Whibley says the band’s aspirations haven’t changed all that “The amazing thing is, and I guess the one much in those two decades, though. silver lining for me being home this entire time and not being able to work, is that I’ve “Being a live band is all we’ve ever cared about; that’s all we do,” he says. “So, for us, been able to spend all this time being a new the goal’s still the same: play bigger places, dad, being a family,” he says. “And I think the and just see how far we can push this thing. family is going to be hitting the road properly Thankfully, 20 years later, [the shows are] big- soon. We’re trying to figure out if Slam Dunk is gonna be baby’s first show.”💣 ger than [they were] back then. But the goal is

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PHOTO Courtney Kiara

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST/GUITARIST JT WOODRUFF BY NICHOLAS SENIOR

A

s someone who went to college ter a torrential rainstorm. Vocalist and and fell in love in rural Ohio (no, guitarist JT Woodruff laughs about the her name was not Niki...) in the mid state of the band and waiting to release aughts, the beautiful emo sentimen- this gem. tality that Dayton, Ohio’s Hawthorne Heights have honed and mastered will “The crazy part to me is that this album always hold a special place in my heart. was written before the pandemic,” he Sure, those first two records perfected says. “Then, six months into the pandemwhat we called “emo/screamo” in the ic, I was enjoying what being on a break LiveJournal/Myspace days, but those for a band is like, because we never who tuned out the band over the years have had that break. We’ve been going missed out on some of the most under- for 17 years straight. It was the first time appreciated gems in the scene’s histo- that I really didn’t have to worry about ry— I’ll take to my grave that Skeletons is what tour is coming up, it was more one of the best pure heavy punk records like, ‘I’m worried if tour will ever happen ever, but thankfully the gracefully aging again.’ It gave me more appreciation for legends had not peaked yet. what we did and what accomplished.”

because we didn’t have any. Maybe that’s one of the reasons that I care about every single thing that I have. It’s wild to wake up one day and you’re still here doing that thing, even though sometimes that thing is negative. It’s a long, strange trip, the Grateful Dead said it right, you know what I mean?”

Part of this nearly two-decade-long rollercoaster ride is figuring out what parts of it bring you the most joy. For Hawthorne Heights, it’s not the ups, the downs, or the steady. It’s everything together:

could take as pandemic and post-apocalyptic, and you’re reaching in the dark depths of what society might have come to, but all of that stuff is really just about us, and about our band, and our career, “I’ll tell you one of the great conversaand the dark roads that we’ve had to tions we had was, let’s stop trying to take sometimes. This is by far the most write the perfect song, let’s start trying to write the best Hawthorne Heights’ personal I’ve ever been when it comes song we can. Because that is our job. to recording my thoughts. When I write songs lyrically, there’s always going to Our job is not to create some sort of like pop masterpiece, because we’re a be some [distance]. If I’m going through screamo band, or emo band, or whatsomething, I tend push it way further in the song than it is, because it gave me ever you want to call us. So, I think that the idea of a story of what happened, we were separating things too much. but this [record] is a lot of putting the And once started talking about that, the cards on the table and not playing it best thing that we were doing when the so close to the chest, you know what nervous energy was happening on our I mean? It’s the result of being totally first album was having Casey interject screams and throw in great heavy riffs.” wiped out.”

That’s because their upcoming mag- He’s not wrong about this feeling like num opus, The Rain Just Follows Me, out a pandemic record. The lead single is September 10 via Pure Noise, feels like a called “Constant Dread” for God’s sake, Part of this introspection comes natural to “That’s how you got our sound that was warm cozy weighted blanket of metallic like a little bit of this and a little bit of but it’s that raw emotion that is why so Woodruff, someone who was thrust from emotion holding you tightly. Few bands many have a great connection to the that,” Woodruff continues. “Whereas, relative obscurity to one of the leaders have gone through Hell and back quite when you learned more about songwritband after all these years. He’s also of the emo scene with one famous song like Hawthorne Heights— label disasters, downplaying how perfectly this captures about a girl from Ohio. ing, you think about it too much, and it’s the death of a scene icon in guitarist everything the band have excelled at over like, ‘No, man we don’t need the scream and vocalist Casey Calvert, and living the years and elevates it to new heights. “I’ve always felt fortunate to be a musi- in this one, because this is like a killer in Dayton (I kid, Dayton’s great). They The best hooks, riffs, breakdowns, and cian,” he notes. “I grew up very humbly. pop punk song.’ What we did was take never stopped touring and pumping out lyrics are all on glorious display. Woodruff A little, tiny town. I grew up in a trailer, a the Hawthorne Heights out of it. You’re music, but with a much-needed rest pe- explains where he was during this record: child of divorce, and there was plenty trying to creatively craft a great song riod and their best batch of songs ever, but you’re not realizing what makes it of love. We didn’t care about material Hawthorne Heights are like sunshine af- “There’s a lot of themes on there that you things or money or anything like that great— your tendencies.” 💣

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Listen to the new single“Noise Noise Noise” available now everywhere!

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77

PHOTO Blake Hansen

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST DAVE MCWANE BY FRANKIE TOROK “Ever seen the Pirates of the Carib- when I was young, I used to say, bean movie where Jack Sparrow ‘no place I’d rather be than in gets off his boat and it sinks right a recording studio’. But after a away?” vocalist Dave McWane while, they’re dark places, so I of Big D and the Kids Table asks. liked being just here in my house, “We got home [after our tour with it was organic and relaxed.”

Reel Big Fish and Keep Flying] on Sunday, and Monday was the What does McWane hope fans lockdown.” get from Do Your Art? Well, that’s simple.

So, Big D regrouped and recorded their new album, Do Your Art, “I just hope they enjoy it,” he says. wherever they could— which “I want it to be like, you just lit the involved McWane’s house and “a fuse, people get excited when little bit in Vermont.” they hear it. It’s a really fun record, so I really hope people “The lockdown kind of helped the enjoy it as much as we do.” record,” McWane adds. “Other than all the unfortunate things of And while there’s a political course, but it made us do more. We streak to the record, with themes started doing Zoom hangouts. So, of class and capitalism, McWane we were hanging out more, even didn’t want to tarnish the positive though it wasn’t face to face.” vibes with repeated mentions of the former POTUS. McWane found the unusual recording environment for Do Your “I didn’t want to touch anything to Art inspiring: do with Trump, because it’s like trapping yourself in a bad mem“This sounds so weird because ory,” McWane says.

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McWane explains that he hopes the to the genre being looked down album encourages people to view on. All he hopes is that this revival art as the light at the end of the tun- doesn’t spawn a bunch of manufactured bands who go straight to nel during life’s terrifying moments. the top, leaving the hard-working “With all these political leaders bands behind. being corrupt, and all these active shooters, I wanted to start the ar- “I can’t tell you how many great tistic conversation of giving poor musicians I know who think that people and poor kids something they’re not great because they to relate to,” he says. “If they’re couldn’t do what these other huddled in a bathroom stall and people do by snapping their finthey can hear the end coming, in- gers,” he says. stead of being scared, maybe we could have some lyrics to go to in McWane is humble in his career those last moments that could help. and proud of what his band has They can go to a place and have a accomplished. little bit more strength rather than biting their teeth to shatter before “I just want people to get [the someone pops the door open. album], and play it and enjoy it,” he says. “I’ve already done the Crazy, right? It’s where we’re at.” part that’s my favorite, and that’s Coming out of the pandemic, writing, talking about music with there’s an abundance of new my friends, recording, working music out there, as well as the on artwork and lyrics. And then relatively recent resurgence of hopefully in the next couple of ska. But Big D formed in the late weeks, I’ll have a copy in my ’90s, right at the end of the genre’s hands, and I can look at it, and third wave, so McWane is used I’ll say: ‘good job.’” 💣

New album out digitally September 17 LP/CD Out October 8 Thrice.net - Epitaph.com

PHOTOGRAPHY Vince Sadonis

INTERVIEW WITH GUITARIST TIM HILDEBRAND AND VOCALIST BRIT LUNA BY JOHN SILVA

A

nyone who’s been listening to ska knows that it’s always been here, and these bands have been doing this stuff for a while,” says Tim Hildebrand, guitarist of the Philadelphia ska band Catbite.

Ska never really went away, but it is undeniably having a moment right now, and Hildebrand gives a lot of credit to younger folks for the genre’s recent resurgence.

“The new younger generation kind of missed the whole memo of ska being ‘bad,’ or ‘corny,’ or just … it being something to be embarrassed about,” he continues. “So, you have these fresh ears of the whole Gen-Z generation.”

Hildebrand also sings the praises of Jer from Skatune Network and the way they’ve used their platform to spotlight ska bands from all over the world, both new and old.

One difference between this ska resurgence and previous iterations of the genre is that in the internet age, bands and artists can listen to and pull influence from all eras of ska. Catbite, in particular, exemplify this. Their new record, Nice One, is a sonically diverse album that puts on full display the band members’ eclectic tastes.

“I think what’s maybe been helpful for the ‘Catbite sound,’ is that we have all of those things at our disposal to pick and choose from,” says lead singer Brit Luna. “We do love all the different styles of ska. We’re not just set to mimic one type of sound of ska. We’re very much into it all. And so, when “All four of us in the band are fans of we’re writing music, especially for literally anything ska, but then also this record, it was very easy for us way beyond that,” Hildebrand says. to pick and choose the different “[Brit] studied jazz and soul, and I sounds that we really resonated love punk rock, ’70s punk rock, and power pop, and then we’ve also rewith for specific songs.”

ally loved 1960s Jamaican ska and rock steady, stuff like that.”

Ska started as working class music, with a message about bringing people together. In that sense, this new resurgence of ska is a return to form.

“The community aspect of it has been really influential and different from previous waves of ska,” Luna explains. “It seems like lots of ska bands, even bands that aren’t on Bad Time Records, ska bands in general, are super hype on lifting each other up.”

Artists in this new ska revival are building on the roots of bands they looked up to, such as The Slackers and The Suicide Machines, both of whom Hildebrand and Luna credit for supporting the ska scene as a whole. That’s likely a big reason why so many young people have sincerely and unabashedly fallen in love with this music: Catbite, alongside Jer and Skatune Network, Kill Lincoln, We are the Union, and many more of their peers, are creating a new era of ska that above all else, puts community first. 💣

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SINCERE ENGINEER PHOTO Hovland

INTERVIEW WITH PROJECT MASTERMIND DEANNA BELOS BY EMMA LAURENT

D

eanna Belos and her act, trying to make it from one day to Sincere Engineer, are re- another, Belos has been writing leasing a new album, Bless Bless My Psyche since 2017.

My Psyche on September 10, via Hopeless Records. The album was “My headspace during the time recorded last summer during the of writing most of these songs pandemic, with producer Matt was honestly kind of foggy,” Belos Jordan. says. “The record explores a lot of exhaustion and being overworked, Matt Jordan worked with Belos on but at the same time, feeling drawn Sincere Engineer’s debut album and bored with it all.” and came back to shape the latest.

During the writing and recording These opposing and oppressive process, Belos would bring Jordan feelings are familiar to anyone acoustic demos, including melo- with brainwaves, making Bless My dies and song structures. Jordan Psyche a mirror to reflect all our then helped finalize the arrange- own personal vulnerabilities, shortments. The band then followed, comings, and wants. An immediate “adding their own ideas and talent” standout on the album is the track to each song.

“Recluse in the Making.”

the record,” Belos says. “It is prob- example. It’s stop/go structure ably the softest, darkest, and most and vocal mixes are full of horny personal song I’ve written thus far.” honesty and sweet anxiety. Belos’ vocals are emo, gritty, and meSincere Engineer are stoked to lodic, over cool bass lines and be performing live again. When pop-punk chord structures. The asked, Belos was hard pressed to song is literally “dying to tell you” pick just a few of the venues she to dance out those competing missed over the last year, but is and complex feelings. looking forward to getting back to the homey punk scene in her Due to the pandemic, the band hometown of Chicago, at The had to record separately and Metro, Beat Kitchen, and Sub- were never able to fully celebrate terranean. “Trust Me” has some once recording wrapped. Sincere challenging vocals that Belos is Engineer will be having their diligently practicing to prepare album release party in Chicago, at The Cobra Lounge during Riot for the upcoming wave of shows.

Fest. Everyone should turn up to Bless My Psyche is a more dynamic rage, whirl, and sing along with to album than Sincere Engineer’s salute the major accomplishment freshman release, Rhombithian. that is Bless My Psyche. See you With little time as a working artist “[It] is probably my favorite song on “Hurricane of Misery,” is a perfect there. 💣

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baby—you cannot stop loving it. You cannot hate it. For us, it’s definitely something very new, and we’ve never done this before, because the sound—it’s mostly the bass. The bass is very aggressive, and it gave the whole album a pretty heavy sound, which we have never had before.”

Shmayluk says that she focuses on her lyrics and vocals rather than crafting the sound.

“The reason why I don’t participate in choosing the sound and correcting something is because I totally trust the guys,” she explains. “And they know what to do, and my job is to deliver sense, much sense into lyrics and nice, sweet melodies.”

The singer shares that she utilized her personal experiences as inspiration for the lyrics on Wallflowers.

“First of all, the main area is my inner world, my head,” she says, discussing the album’s themes. “So, when we dive in there, we have a lot of things. Like, we look around, and we see, for example, my introverted self. And the song ‘Wallflower’ is dedicated to this topic: introverts.”

On a similar note, Shmayluk says that the track “Sleep of the Righteous” draws from her struggles with sleep paralysis—which she calls “such a crazy thing” in her life—and is something that she’s grappled with since she was a teenager.

As for her vocal performances, Shmayluk explains that she largely relied on improvisation to put the arrangements together.

PHOTO Alina Chernohor

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST TATIANA SHMAYLUK BY CALEB R. NEWTON

O

n their new album Wallflowers, out this August from Napalm Records, the Ukrainian metal group Jinjer sound devastating.

Although musical force has long been part of the Jinjer repertoire, Wallflowers proves startlingly heavy, like a soundtrack for venturing into an oppressively overcast environ-

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ment with little knowledge of what lies ahead, but an undeniable ambition to find out.

that it suggests scenes of carving chunks out of the earth—or belting out the lyrics and fist-pumping along with the crowd at a metal festival.

“Everything that I did on the album, except for maybe two songs that I was pretty sure how to sing, that was only improvisation,” the singer says. “I was improvising and making this thing right in front of the microphone, together with the band. But I didn’t have anything in particular, like one, common sound and stuff.

That works the best for me. At least it’s pretty sincere and raw.”

Although Shmayluk shares that she tends to experience serious stress around making music, she notes that exploring the grimmer themes on Wallflowers can be “therapeutic” in the right circumstances.

At the center of Wallflowers, there’s “It’s a very dark place to be, when fiery passion communicated by the “It’s definitely a new chapter for us,” you listen to this album, you know?” alternatingly roaring and lighter vo- Shmayluk shares. “Me and [bassist] she says. “But, it can be therapeutic cals from vocalist Tatiana Shmayluk, Eugene [Abdukhanov] always say for someone. For me, for example, I alongside the bracing instrumenta- that the day we stop evolving, it’s love to listen to very sad songs if I’m tion. The groove gets intense enough the day that Jinjer is dead. It’s your really sad. It kind of helps.”💣

WHAT’S OLD IS NEW EDITION ... BY HUTCH REISSUES:

PERSONALITY CRISIS

CREATURES FOR AWHILE PORTERHOUSE RECORDS

With the age of vinyl represses on micro-labels exponentially growing and fans craving actual albums, not ‘best ofs, there are still opportunities for cranky old punks to find new bands, even if they do not want anything born after 1985. Delving into Canada’s lost treasures has yielded this gem from Winnipeg’s Personality Crisis. Their sole release, Creatures for Awhile, boasts crunching punk with taut musicianship. Fronted by Mitch Funk’s deep, spooky vocals, the music is tough and low-toned. Fast, tight guitars provided by the twin-Gibson attack of Richard Duguay and Jimmy Green, roar over pounding drums and pronounced bass lines of Duane Eddy and Jon Card (later of D.O.A., SNFU, Subhumans CA).

Fans of required bands like D.O.A. (especially), Kraut, T.S.O.L., Effigies, Zero Boys, and Offenders will shoot this directly into their veins. Originally released on Risky Records (San Francisco) in 1983, it is now pressed on black vinyl for optimal sound. Initially a pressing of 250, Porterhouse will plan something special for the albums 40th anniversary in 2023. In a cool move, Creatures for Awhile will be kept in full-time print for fans to discover in the future. 💣

SUPERCHUNK

HERE’S TO SHUTTING UP MERGE

To celebrate the 20th Anniversary of Superchunk’s 2001 LP, Here’s to Shutting Up, this now out of print LP saw the band step into their twelfth year after capturing the world from their Chapel Hill home. They eschewed the tantalizing ,major label carrot, sticking with Matador and Merge. As their eighth studio release, on HTSU, “The once-tightly wound hyper heroes have foregone the distortion in lieu of smoothed-out balladry and reflective repose” (Ryan Scheiber, Pitchfork,), which included steel lap guitars and other country flair. Delicate harmonies soothed ears with softer flush harmonies and songwriting. The indie stalwarts influenced the sound of Rilo Kiley and Postal Service as they ushered in a new decade. After this record, the band continued with covers, singles, and a live series (The Clambake Series), but would not release a full-length until 2010’s Majesty Shredding.

Limited-edition orange-swirl vinyl will available; including a CD, Bestial Warning, which boasts 13 unreleased demos. Vocalist and guitarist Mac McCaughan will be on a solo tour September 23 to October 3, while the full band will do an August 28 show at General Mayhem in Ohio. 💣

DESPISE YOU

WEST SIDE HORIZONS TANKCRIMES

Spat out in 1999, West Side Horizons was a cataclysmic event in powerviolence triggered by L.A.’s notorious bastards Despise You. Dually fronted by Chris Elder and Lulu Hernandez (aka Leticia Perez) screaming misanthropic and cynical visions of our crumbling society, Despise You’s lyrics captured the anger and nihilism of a generation. Their tumultuous soundscape revolved around Phil Vera’s (now of Trappist) riffs and drummer Rob Alaniz’s spastic drums. Initially—as this slab of wax covers 62 tracks and seven releases (EPs and splits)—this was the band’s line-up. But it would be remiss to not mention that there were other rotating musicians contributing to the chaos and pseudonyms used. It’s tough to keep track. But considering the band never released a full length (save a split LP with Agoraphobic Nosebleed in 2011 on Relapse), their impact is impressive. Despise You’s brand of crusty grindcore/anarcho-punk was ugly and vicious. Originally on Esper’s Pessimer label, now Tankcrimes reunites this filth with fans on blue-purple smash with splatter and crystal-clear with splatter, in a gatefold jacket with download card. 💣

COVERS:

ANGEL OLSEN AISLES EP SOMETHINGSCOSMIC

Having released four EPs and five studio albums since 2010, 34-year-old Angel Olsen has proven her tenacity and originality. She has cultivated much praise and many accolades for her songwriting. She has also done myriad collaborations with noted musical giants and established her individual presence. Olsen infuses indie-pop with twangy guitars and hypnotic, fuzz-melding country, and darkwave, shoegaze, and retro-folk. Her voice can sway from Joan Baez to Roy Orbison.

Now, Olsen has decided to celebrate ’80s pop adoration with her signature—twisting and basking in a synth-drenched atmosphere. “Gloria” (Laura Branigan) is the first single and a standout on Aisles, layered with violins and choral vocals. Next, an upbeat and delicate version of Billy Idol’s “Eyes Without a Face.” It is straight out of a John Hughes’ script, when the climax presents the weird girl as beautiful. Amusing and touching is Olsen’s slow moody churning of Men Without Hats’ “Safety Dance.” Seductive yet quirky, she rides a pulsating synth rhythm and elevates the frivolity of the original. “If You Leave” (OMD) and “Forever Young” (Alphaville) sound as if they usher the listener through Blade Runner’s neon isolation.

Olsen’s stated goal was to reinterpret these poppier songs through the lens of 2020’s quarantine.

Audiences are immersed in a trippy miasma, and Olsen says she tried to be “fun and a little more spontaneous.” All five tracks benefit from grandiose production, in true ’80s fashion. 💣

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ACTION ROCK JUKEBOX 45 SERIES

SCREAMING CROW RECORDS

Screaming Crow Records will end up releasing eight whole 45’s with current rock ’n’ roll miscreants covering classic rock cuts. Pittsburgh’s The Cheats will handle “Rock ‘n’ Roll Love Letter” by Bay City Rollers and a new original, “Cussin, Crying n Carrying On,” on 100 Pink or black vinyl. Cologne, Germany’s Stacy Crowne, grapple with Golden Earring’s turbo-fueled classic “Radar Love” and their original, “Dead of Night,” on 100 mint-green or black vinyl. From The Netherlands, The Dirty Denims get the daunting task of KISS’ “Rock n Roll All Night” with a sultry presentation via vocalist Mirjam Sieben, mixing Ramones, Donnas, and AC/DC power chord attack. They back it with their track “Better Believe It” on 100 white or black vinyl. Germany’s Black Sheriff expertly handle J Geils’ “Centerfold” as well as their original, “Johnny’s Fight” on 100 red or black vinyl.💣

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BY CHRISTOPHER J. HARRINGTON BECAUSE CASSETTES RULE HARD AND NEVER REALLY AGE, THE ANALOG CAVE IS HERE TO BRING YOU SOME OF THE BEST IN UNDERGROUND TAPES A ND COLLECTED VISION. A CASSETTE IS LIKE YOUR BEST FRIEND, YOUR MOST TRUSTED TRAVEL PARTNER, AND A SPECIMEN OF IMAGINATIVE FANTASY AND OTHERWORLDLY DIMENSION. POP ONE IN AND TRANSFORM. RIDE THE HIGHWAY ETERNAL.

ATT CORP

THE UPTIGHTS

RUPERT LALLY

ARELSEUM

THE MORE YOU FEEL, THE LESS YOU LIVE STRANGE THERAPY

IT IS FOR THEM THAT THE LIGHTS TWINKLE KEEPSECRETRECORDS

MANIAC’S ALMANAC SPUN OUT OF CONTROL

III SLEEPING GIANT GLOSSOLALIA

ATT Corp (A True Terror Corporation) is a duo that builds up a world, not only to tear it down, but also to simulate and transcend it, as if it were a reflection. And this reflection is in the hue of cement, and of the contents of waste bins in the night, across streets littered with truths, grotesque truths, truths used against themselves. The sound is everyday objects inverted and background motions, like ghosts stretching towards their former situations. So there is despair here, and ATT Corp uses a plethora of methods, both abstract and succinct, to lure the listener, or reader (more appropriately), into a space that demands a sort of patience.

In fact it’s almost like Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1979 film Stalker, in that it succeeds even when it’s lined up against itself. And just like in that film, there are moments of clarity within the void. Like when “Erta Ale” breaks into a more straightforward techno beat. It’s welcomed, because it’s a reflective universe we can relate to.

There is more recognition throughout, and there is much more annihilation.

So, be prepared. 💣

From Oslo, Norway, The Uptights create lo-fi bleakness that destines towards indie bliss. Their sound is soft and hard, with landscape expansion as a serious effort. The band’s last release was 10 years ago, and in between, the group kept a similar mindset: within all this technology and futurism, why go anywhere near it? The new record contains 10 tracks that seemingly play over a second soundtrack, one that is like a memory frozen in space. The upfront/prominent/first soundtrack has edgy scraps that cackle and hiss, boomeranging and echoing within containers that are purposefully not altered. Songs like “Days” have circular drone that is only whispered, while “Vault II” drifts across the Norwegian Sea, broken strings, busted rooftops, salt water, and isolation. There are bangers too, like “Rings Hollow” and “Arthaus Rock,” songs that remind one of My Bloody Valentine and Sonic Youth, but only slightly, because The Uptights are for sure original, and we’re glad they’re back. 💣

There’s some music that is destined for cassette tapes and boom boxes— the tones, the atmosphere that surrounds the layers and altered states, it’s predetermined. Rupert Lally’s love letter to slasher films of the ’70s and ’80s, Maniac Almanac, is surprisingly lush, as if created purely for the soft hum of a cheap old, shitty cassette player. This is a tape that will last you years and decades of playing. It is analog symbiosis.

It is subtle, the compositions moist and restrained, but direct, swirling in the rain of the unknown, around the horror that swims through the grainy staircase. There are 12 tracks, one for each month of the year, and each pure in its completion and direction. “February— Love You To Death” is minimal techno at its artiest; “June— A Midsummer Night’s Scream,” the companion piece to a futuristic Texas Chainsaw Massacre turned spiritual club jaunt. If you like listening to cassette tapes, this is the purest of pure. Walkable, light, you can pick it up and down, round different corners of the table. This is music is that is physical and real. 💣

Arelseum is New York City extreme vets Ryan Lipynsky (Unearthly Trance, Serpentine Path) and Colin Marston (Behold… The Arctopus, Krallice, Dysrhythmia) digging into the void with feeling and texture through electronics and field recordings. It’s the sound of an unknown position.

Which is pretty spot on given the past year and half we’ve all lived through.

While dynamism is the typical calling card of Marston (albeit in an completely original way), and punishing psychedelic vibes are common in Lipynsky’s efforts, Arelseum finds common ground in a place of neither. It’s a strange sound offering ideas via notions, and is certainly not strange for strangeness’ sake. No, it’s strange because it just is. It’s not quite anything altogether, and that’s what makes it interesting and free. Fractions define the mood, suggestions are given, combinations work into form after repetition and simulation.

It’s frightening, and peaceful too, because you can listen to it, and that is peace in and of itself. 💣

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Available 10/8/21

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