Hysteria - Ceremony UK tour 2012

Hooked up with Ceremony for their UK tour last month, it was great to see them play every night, and even greater to see how well audience after audience received the new Zoo material. The show at XOYO in London was savage, the equipment gave out three quarters of the way through. Manchester was too good, it was a blast to show the guys round my home city. The final show of the tour, in Leeds, was ridiculous. The venue looked like a bar / restaurant or something and descended into complete chaos. Kudos to the dude who broke his shoulder from going at it so hard.

Thanks to Jake, Anthony, Andy, Ross, Ben, the Eagulls boys, Robbie, Stuart and Natalie from Matador, as well as the Rohnert Park crew who came over. Here are some photos..

Lewis

Sgt Pepper's & Zoo

Caught in the headlights

Vs Wagamama

Rough Trade

Moho / Manchester

Afflecks

Sinclair's Oyster Bar

We visited Morrissey's old house

Adam & Nathan

- Josh

Violent Future - Demo

This bunch of fun time punk fellows play out of Toronto, and harbour members of Urban Blight, the now defunct Bad Choice and the fledgling S.H.I.T. - whose demo also dropped this year.

The Toronto scene is known to me as being an axis of confident, beat heavy, often old time, 80's indebted Hardcore. Merely dip a toe in and you'll be dragged off by a slipstream of great Torontan bands. Kremlin are a Germs polluted ode to a less attitude ridden H100s. School Jerks play what they want and Urban Blight stomp harder than any.

The Violent Future demo tape is ruthlessly authoritative, peddling an unruly Negative Approach flavoured broth of banging Hardcore Punk. The six songs on offer here are spat out incredibly confidently, with real attention paid to writing rolling, at times perky Hardcore songs. Negative FX's 'Feel Like A Man' is an obvious stepping stone. A big nod to 86 Mentality and scattered Wasted Time influence ties in with a real love for the sensible side of DYS.

Favourite demo I've heard since the break of 2012.

Violent Future - Demo

- Josh

Salvation - House of The Beating Hell

Had this on heavy rotation for almost two weeks now, in which time it's crept up my mental ranking list of Youth Attack releases to perch somewhere between the Raw Nerve full length and the holiest of holies - Cult Ritual's '1st' LP.

'House of The Beating Hell' is Salvation's fourth (correct me if I'm wrong) effort on Youth Attack, and for me it serves as a hallmark of how well black metal sensations can mortise with the traditions of hardcore punk. Remarkable in it's own right for hedging the turning tide of a label devoutly rooted in the thick grunts of Hardcore and the scrappily blasted endeavours of ex-Orchid members.

I'm not a fan of the blackened shrieking-in-a-cave vocal din, I notoriously dislike most Black Metal influenced records - It took me a great deal of time to absorb the Sexdrome full length and I havn't even touched on the great wealth of 'real black metal' out there - but Matthew Adis' impassioned racket on '.. Beating Hell' coagulates so well with the clot of orbiting guitar lines and the utterly pin-point drumming that I can't help but concede to having my mind changed.

I had a big debate with fellow writer Thom over the black metal vs hardcore punk anatomy of this release. Thom is fully embroiled in all things black metal, black punk and corrosively noisey, so when he listens to '.. Beating Hell' he sees all the drum fills, riff parts and structural tweaks where Salvation havn't ticked the Black Metal box. It's different for a wildly obsessive Hardcore fan like myself, because I instantly pick up on the vocals, the cold ringing guitars and the challenging drum patterns that make most 80's punk drumming look like child's play. For me the Black Metal influence is savagely apparent, but you'll have to make your own mind's up about that.

Track two, 'Intake' is my pick of the crop. Urgent, unhinged, maniacal, laced with dread with no unecessary disharmonious driftwood in sight. The unerring drum parts of 'Tethered Man' steal the show as Adis collapses into a seething eddy of screeching, reappearing for the last orders of 'Twice The Vision' - a debilitating round off to a record that plays on pace and accuracy without forgoing raw, unrefined punk side of their blade.

I think the core reason why I'm spinning this record so much is the fact that Salvation have worked with diligence to produce a front of originality. A lot of the guitaring looks towards Darkthrone for prompts, and the structure maintains a grasp of relatively traditional punk lore, yet the whole thing sounds so young, so emergent - as if the next year or two will see an explosion of dark punk music makers waxing rhapsodic about this Philadelphia band's offerings. This is up there with the best releases I've heard so far this year.

Salvation - House of The Beating Hell

- Josh

Slices - Still Cruising

Posing alongside cars for album covers sounds way more 'lackluster R&B moron' than 'caustic Pittsburgh punk band', but once you sink into the noise-fog of a Slices record, you quickly recognise the cover art as one great big ironicstatement.jpg - there merely to sort the wheat from the chaff and to pinch back the title of 'most ridiculous album art' from those pesky Australians in Total Control.

The new LP 'Still Cruising' follows on from last year's debilitatingly good 'Cruising', a gnarled, gristly pop at writing Wolf Eyes on a Jesus Lizard trip hardcore. Out on Iron Lung records, 'Still Cruising' reboots the Medusa / Nightmare Man template of 'Cruising', and hip thrusts into selections of the more soberly written Butthole Surfers back catalogue. The band spoke about mimicking some of the guitar sounds from In Utero, which begs the question of how much Albini influence managed to permeate into the ethos behind this new LP.

The track 'Greensleeves' lords it over most of side A's efforts with it's rumbling groove of Pissed Jeans fan friendly noise punk. 'Why Do You Make Yourself Sad?' plays like '1000 Hurts' era Shellac dancing down hard on the grave of sacred Deep Wound of Massachusetts.

Rock n' Roll is Still Cruising's game. Taking more influence from eminent sources rather than the fucking Wanky's or something. 'All My Life' is a borderline foot-off-the-gas-pedal 90's druggy post-hardcore type excursion, just with grizzlier vocals than Walter Schriefels could ever shake a stick at. Do you have the stones to slow-dance to this half-waltzer?

Despite the more obvious lineage, this record evades neat classification. By refining the lugubrious nature of 'Cruising' into this fat-trimmed, needle-pointed punk thumper, Slices have pushed themselves further out to sea. They now have more in common with fellow Pennsylvanians Kim Phuc than ever before, as the Throbbing Gristle elements of 2004's Do U Like Mud are all but a fond memory.

Still Cruising is a marked progression, and a natural one at that. Who would begrudge these fellows the chance to write in earnest? The two Mikes, Greg and John have put together a more than confident batch of songs here, talking up the appeal of accessibility and the benefits of leaning on conventionality from time to time.

Listen to the entire record here

- Josh

Forced Entry & Naked Fist

 What we've got here is a fine example of self-described "shit-punk"; harsh, raw, low in fidelity, and strong with intensity.
 Released on Turgid Animal - the United Kingdom's crowning achievement in all things punk and noise - this record does not fail at living up to the quality conjured up, and expected of, by associating itself with such a sterling label.
 The band themselves hail from Derbyshire, Chesterfield - and with that said, there is absolutely no more information available (so you'll have to forgive the appalling image quality).
 Specialising in self-depreciating lyrics, such as the pleading beg "Why don't you stay with me for just one night?" of 'No Choices Baby', and the lamenting "Speaking for myself, I don't know anyone else. I don't know myself" from 'Speaking For Myself'; this record excels in highlighting both depression, and sexual repression.
 Clocking in at around five minutes, and being one of the finer examples of British Hardcore, this cassette really should not be overlooked.

Download, Buy

- Thom.

An interview with BRAIN SLUG

Brain Slug are a band of hardworking New Yorkers, insistent on doing things their way. Their sound lends a cue from big time NYHC pillars Youth of Today and Cro-Mags while an uglier, twisted side to Brain Slug is left to breed chaotically in much the same way as the uncouth soundscapes of the Youth Attack parade. They just released their new 7" Distort New York, so we checked in with the guys for an interview.

Can you give us a brief overview of how the band got together?

Jack Wiley Mitchell: A few of us had been in another band before this. A few months after that band's break up Fuckface and I started working on this new one. In the meantime E.M was text-begging me to start some new hardcore shit with him too so we all wrote the demo together. Once we were finished it and were ready to play out we saw Tony Toupee at a show and he wasn't playing with anyone at the time so we asked him to join.


Did you set out with any specific ideas for this project or did the sound congeal together naturally?

JWM: Me and Fuckface wanted to do a stripped down hardcore band. Just hard New York Hardcore type shit. Keeping it simple.

Even More Gore: I personally started off wanting to do something insanely different than what Brain Slug became, but they roped me in with promises of '88 Style New York Hardcore Glory.


Would you say that being from New York is something that you're all proud of, and want to reflect in the music?

Fuckface: Being from New York definitely has an influence, maybe not so much proud, but we know what's up.

EMG: I've never felt any pride in being from Long Island or the NYC area, but I would say that being from New York is something we all collectively want to have branded on our music. That said, I think it's more of a "take it or leave it," attitude as opposed to silly "NYC is better than you," kind of stuff. In reference to the song Distort New York - I was born and raised in suburban Long Island, I lived in NYC proper for a few years, hated it, and moved back. I wrote the song because I can't stand spending too much time surrounded by concrete and steel, smelling old garbage, piss and exhaust fumes.

JWM: I have the exact opposite problem. After living in the NYC for over ten years I would go nuts living in the suburbs now. Maybe it doesn't work for Gorey, but it's the best city in the world to be at. I love New York, and am damn proud of any relation to it.


Which, if any, New York bands would you say have the most influence on the Brain Slug sound?

Fuckface: Youth Of Today, Breakdown, Antidote, Raw Deal.

JWM: Sick Of It All, Warzone, Straight Ahead.

EMG: I'd say The Cro-Mags and Youth of Today. Specifically the heavy, street-style Discharge-i-ness of the 'Mags and the wind-up fast shit with mosh part style of YOT. Vocally, I straight-up wanted to do something similar to Daryl Kahan of Citizen's Arrest with both screechy stuff and more bellowing material - more erratic and varied than my previous work.


Whats this tour been like? Who have you been playing with?

EMG: Tour was pretty solid. Only one night was a completely out of control shitbomb, and that was so bad that we've been formulating plans on how best to take revenge on those responsible. Philly was fucking awesome; shout out to Cliff and all the maniacs we met that night; especially the drunk girls who got arrested. We played with a lot of cool bands, but I was really psyched on Wet Witch and Altered Boys. Yo Geoff Greene, sorry I didn't say Hi in NJ.. I still owe you a copy of that 86 Mentality/Dead Stop video from your basement, but the Hellhole 7" you gave me was warped, so fuck you.


You just put out your 'Distort New York' EP, what can you tell us about the writing and recording process for that?

JWM: My Rites was one of the first songs we wrote when we got together as a group but we never had an ending for it until Tony came up with something. So that was the first thing finished for the EP, the rest was just the usual process of passing around riffs before and after practice and fleshing them out together. We record ourselves live in a basement out in Long Island and for five songs it takes about a day and a half to finish. Then we passed it off to Don Fury to master to bring out the crunch a bit more. Also lots of pizza, hummus, bagels and shit to give us energy.

EMG: I wrote 99% of the lyrics for that record in one day after scrapping everything I had written in the preceding weeks/months. My Rites was inspired by the work of Tom G Warrior and a late night conversation with Jack about the very real possible end of the world in our lifetime.


Do you have plans to tour further, perhaps overseas?

EMG: I'd like us to get big enough that we could go tour Japan. I'll rage all night long, buy a GISM shirt, and then blow my brains out on the way home.

Fuckface: Talked about Europe, would be dope.


Pick up Distort New York over at Hardware Records

- Josh

Vinegar Strokes

Last week I saw this Leeds based band play on a lineup that included Mexico's ultra forceful Inservibles, the relatively new outfit 'No' (featuring the vocalist from The Shitty Limits on drums) and the somewhat semi-local hardcore band Moat. Vinegar Strokes were my favourite band on the bill, which says a lot considering how young they are as a four piece, and how crushing each of the other bands on the bill sounded within in their own right.

The Vinegar Strokes attack plays as a powerful coagulent of raw black punk anchored by solid noisey riff-making. The vocals are howled, the drumming is on point and almost waltzy at times. The whole thing breeches the ear drums as a lethargic Pissed Jeans slowdancing with Bone Awl. Listen to the track 'TV News' - the final track from their demo - and you should be able pick up on the sharp vocals and skin splitting drum parts being blended with pinches of that familiar ironic jauntiness that Pissed Jeans have thoroughly made their trademark

'Benefit Cuts', rolls in with a playful modern pigfuck type riff, something The Men would have been proud to write. Thirty seconds in and a tirade of raspy vocals flood in to take over the proceedings. There is a definite veneer of SQRM similarity, not a total looting of the Rodeo grave by any means, just a shared taste for mid-tempo, intensely dark hardcore - the type that would strike fear into the heart of any Trapped Under Ice fan.

Track one 'Jason' welcomes in a Grinning Death's Head style mix of aggression, and keeps to the proven template of raw, lo-fi, distressed black metal meets punk. Sharing the same city with Sump has probably resulted in a great deal of influence being worn off on these guys. The similarities are definitely noticeable, although Vinegar Strokes seem to approach the situation from a hardcore background, whereas Sump are much more ingratiated within the realms of black metal.

The whole thing sounds great live. The thrashing of the low end makes the swirling mass of blackened punk feel like it has something weighty to rely on, rather than being totally lost in feedback. I think you'd have to pen these guys as a raw punk band, with noisey inflections. They're predominantly more Youth Attack than Posh Isolation, if you had to stylize them. I'm heavily recommending this band

Demo 2011

- Josh

Brain Slug - Demo

Brain Slug are NYC's latest unwashed hardcore incarnation. Said to take point from Youth of Today and Agnostic Front amongst others.. but I fail to see too much of that overly rehashed mediocrity so rampant in today's Victim In Pain clingers-on. I think they sound like an unfeasibly dirtier, gruffer version of Omegas, what with their similar liking for pendulous melody amongst cluttered instrumental hammerings. That comparison might be a little too optimistic though, because the 11 minutes of material that makes up the Brain Slug demo sounds way, way more jacked up as it fights to be heard through it's own ironically purposeful distortion.

The occasional old tyme NYC stomp part doesn't really drag this demo down at all, when usually it would ruin everything for me. Vocals sound like they've been forced out though a mouth bound by duct tape and recorded through a soup strainer. Brain Slug could be placed somewhere equidistant between the clarity of intellect that Blank Stare have and the unparalleled hatred of all things living that Vile Gash bring to the party.

Whichever way this band come to be perceived it'll be interesting to see how they carve themselves out a place within the milieu of New York City and Brooklyn, a scene which champions it's weird freaks of nature Crazy Spirit, Hank Wood & The Hammerheads & The Men over solid stepping, straight ahead hardcore swingers. Either way, New York rules in 2011. Get this demo, I also found a download for the lyrics at The Chapter - Hardcore Fanzine.

Download
Lyrics

- Josh

Sucked Dry

Black & white brickwall hardcore or ‘Mysterious Guy’ - or whatever you want to call it - tough, weighty and sharp enough to flay flesh. Vocals sound like Tony from SQRM but with more bellyache. The nucleus of sound behind him also kicks out a similar miasmatic flavour to Massachusetts' most recent Siege worship incarnation. It only proves to be a good thing cause this record rules so hard.

Track three 'Sympathizer' stalks in the same way that some of the lesser disturbing Drunkdriver songs did, and channels threads of neurosis through the needlepoints of drum thumping and vocal wails. The sporadic slow march stomps are chicken wired together by some of the most untamed flashes of hardcore intensity this side of the decade, clamped at either end by Born Against guitar influence. Hardcore records that intentionally blast their way through 8 songs in 80 seconds don’t usually manage to rain down bursts of dread in the way that Sucked Dry do.

This came out last year but I missed it at the time, too busy fawning over Milk Music or something…

Listen on bandcamp
Download

- Josh

Grazes - Myths

Grazes on Myspace
Purchase 'Myths' from Holy Roar Records
Co-released with Ebb & Flow Records
2011

No time to fuck about. Hailing from Sheffield, UK, relative young bloods of the Hardcore scene Grazes have hammer-smashed together a fourteen minute opus of uncurtailed aggression and mixed state mania. 'Myths' is their first release on Holy Roar Records - a label notorious for it's heterogeneous smorgasbord of past releases - and quite frankly this seven track blitzkrieg somewhat channels the label's partiality for varied textures and tones. 'Myths' consolidates a foundation of no nonsense Hardcore Punk savageness with various genre signatures found elsewhere along the incestuous tree line of Punk Rock. Arguably, they've pulled off this grand collision to a successful degree.

Track one for instance, 'Intro/Black Death' takes it's time in cooking a nauseous, almost sludgy bassline, eventually rolling into gyrations of 'Conspiring The Go Go'-esque Ampere, and the dynamic switches faster than you can say 'Yorkshire' as 'Drown In The River Styx' announces itself with a ten second drum pattern straight out of the Los Crudos handbook.

The Screamo elements are mercurial, yet they're so blatantly there. You can hear pinches of say, Comadre underpinning 'My Last Day' as it barrel-rolls through bad attitude vocals and noodling guitar cuts. But, at the same time the solid scaffold of this entire release remains devoutly Hardcore in the traditional sense.

The clever misdirection, or rather, deliberate blending of sounds peaks on both 'Rex Anglorum' and 'Observer's Paradox' whereupon the riff-broker - who has so patiently sliced a path of clear cut punk chops up until now - vents a torrent of wavy, possibly Iommi influenced guitar lines. Achievements that Baroness' John Baizley might like to give these four northern scamps a little slap for.

There is a lot to be heard on 'Myths,' a lot of ambition vying for attention, but the entire view manages to keep it's sense of panorama. The result is balanced, quite considered but still merciless as fuck. I think the kind of record that Grazes have put out this year owes an indirect debt of thanks to acts such as Touché Amoré, who have, within the last two years, managed to embolden the fan base for Hardcore thats tactile and clearly accessible without overly sacrificing the sheer fucking chaos that brought us all here in the first place. In short, Hell has come home to Sheffield in 2011.

- Josh

CREEM - Demo

The irrepressible tastemakers of noise and all things punk over at www.icoulddietomorrow.blogspot.com have been championing this band as of late, and quite frankly you better believe the hype. CREEM are a force of Hardcore nature more than willing to spit in your eye and punch you in the windpipe. Their arsenal of rhythmic drumming, shattering bass lines, commanding guitar work and overly capricious vocal dynamics pool together a rigmarole of disjointed points in punk rock chronology. The rolling chorus of 'Sick Of You' hamfists together a deranged Keith Morris with the kind of attrition war momentum of Negative Approach's 'Dead Stop'.

Wasted Time wastes no time. Sorry. This track kicks and screams hard enough to rattle Danny Spira's brain all the way from the East Coast. The line 'You've got your problems, I've got mine' mimics the stomp and clout of the third and penultimate track with it's chewed up textures of gnawing hardcore punk. CREEM are not afraid to lash groove and the odd twinge of melody into place alongside their brand of crippling hardcore. Perhaps it's important to point out that this band contain members of the some of the most prolific New York hardcore bands right now; including figureheads from Nomos and Natural Law.

Quite frankly this band sounds like the best fruit of the best bands from around the New York scene getting together with no real strict blueprint for mayhem. The result is organic, yet complexly visceral. Aware of itself, yet wantonly uncoupled. I can only imagine the live shows to be a cyclone of bodily fluids, broken basement dry wall and piss.

Download

- Josh

Omegas - Sonic Order

Absolutely besotted with this record right now. I loved ‘Psycho Dives..,’ but this is just a complete step up in terms of song writing efficiency. First track ‘Street Meat’ reminds me of a whole cornucopia of punk influences. Take your rudimentary Minor Threat attitude and mutate it by way of contemporaries such as Men’s Interest - only a less fuzzed out Men’s Interest - and blur the seams even further with a layer of Negative FX edginess and clout. There is also a fat vein of Negative FX boisterousness flowing right down the spine of this band.

Not one of the four tracks on Sonic Order get to see what the other side of the two minute mark looks like, and hopefully this should go someway to indicate how urgent this EP sounds. Swagger and punch relay into groove and shock as 'Ravage of Ape' burns through it's forty-eight second window. The guitar presence is pronounced but not overly hefty, certainly more garagey than anything you'd expect from a band who share their name with half of a Cro Mags album title.

Download Sonic Order (link from icoulddietomorrow)

- Josh

Interview with Chris Eck of Shaved Women

 Shaved Women are a band of oiks from middle America currently kicking up a fuss with their stinging strain of hardcore. Their sound anchors itself to a whole host of footholds. The Black Flag vein of influence props up the overiding guitar cuts, which nod every now and then to the stylistic indulgence of noise rock, whilst the dry cured rasps and grumbles of their frontman Ben pool together Jack Kelly's sense of urgency with Judd from Sex Vid's overbearing lack of subtlty. The following is an interview we did with their guitarist Chris Eck.

Can you tell us a little bit about how Shaved Women came about?

Shaved Women started in the late summer of 09. It started with John (bass), Ben (vocals), our previous drummer Erik, and myself (guitar). The four of us were all looking to do something different. I think our original idea was something along the lines of mixing Swans and Black Flag, at least those are the bands I remember Erik and I mentioning when we were putting things together. Erik and I also used to switch off playing guitar and drums, which was a good idea at first until it was apparent that we were not really drummers. Last summer, our friend Tom replaced Erik on drums, which is the lineup we have now.

With your name being a reference to Crass, would it be fair to say that they influenced you a great deal?

Actually, our band name isn’t a reference to Crass. At least, not on purpose. The name was something we agreed on very early on and I thought of it as a reference to Nazi occupied France; when French women were suspected of helping the Nazis, they would have their heads shaved and would be taken through the town for people to yell insults and throw things at them. We really didn’t think about the Crass reference until other people mentioned it to us, since none of us, besides Ben, listen to Crass. As far as my musical inspirations, I would say late-era Black Flag, Drunks With Guns, and The Jesus Lizard are the big three. We all have pretty varied tastes too, which definitely keeps things fresh and interesting.

What was it like to record your self titled release?

We recorded with Jason Hutto here in St. Louis, who Ben had recorded with in another band and knew Jason would be great for Shaved Women to record with. None of us are really into the whole blown out, feedback coated recordings that seem to be popular now, so there was definitely a conscious effort to avoid that at all cost. Jason definitely got the best out of us and got our sound to come across perfectly on the record.


Personally I am always interested to know what other people listen to, so could you give us an insight into some of your favourite bands?

Some all time favorites of mine would be Black Flag, The Jesus Lizard, Siege, No Comment. Current favorites include Double Negative, Wiccans, Low Threat Profile, Pollution.

What does the future hold for Shaved Women, any plans to tour or get back in the studio?

Our immediate plans are to record again in late spring, we’ll probably have another six songs or so to record. No tours this summer but we do plan on playing out of town on weekends as much as possible. We have a live tape which will be coming out in the near future on Sacred Tapes.

Check Shaved Women out on last.fm here

- Josh