Chronos opened up the show but I unfortunately only saw one of their tracks – seemed cool though, experimental doomy hardcore. Hopefully get to check them out again before I leave Kent. Holy Roar’s resident screamo dudez Crocus played next and were again, enjoyable! They sound like all dat screamo stuff you might love, like p.99 or someone. What I assume were their new tracks (as I hadn’t heard em before) sounded cool, having a heavier edge – but the melodies are what sell the band. Worth a look.
Heirophant from Italy were the other band on the tour package, and I enjoyed what they did in their 25 or so minutes on stage. D-beat/crust/sludgy hardcore in the vein of The Secret, Tombs, Cursed (in parts) etc. Went from really fast starts, into slow doomy endings, and I dug it. Maybe a bit repetitive after a while, but hey, if the formula works, why not.

Deafheaven soundchecked songs by The Cure and MBV (good work Phill for spotting this), which is pretty damn appropriate, as they seem to have picked up the mantel of depression where these two bands left off. Musically, this band are astonishing. I appreciate that most people are not going to go out of their way to listen to an ambient black metal band – the genre alone brings to mind images of Varg burning down a church in full black metal regalia or something – but I feel that this band have much more to offer than some of their contemporaries. Mashing together pieces of classic screamo, post-rock (if you like Explosions in the Sky for example, you’ll find elements of Roads to Judah that you’ll enjoy) and, as mentioned, Black Metal (blastbeats were in the fore for a large part of the show); with an undeniable skill, it’s easy to see why the people over at Deathwish signed the band off the back of 4 live shows and a demo cd. Live, they are a truely engaging prospect – no flailing limbs, no stagediving, just sheer unadulterated intensity. Indeed, frontman George Clarke is equal parts Ian Curtis and 1940′s Army Officer, and spends the 40 minutes or so the band are on stage handing out death glares to the 20 or so people in attendance (nice dude though, they stayed at my house and I didn’t get killed). The band dreamily worked their way through the first 3 tracks from last years deathwish released Roads to Judah, and 35 minutes of music seemed to blur in to one movement – a mark of how engaging the experience really was.

I’m gonna leave the hyperbole there, but I feel that this is the sort of show I will look back on fondly for years to come. If you live within an hour of margate and decided against this show – ya dun goofed.

Tomorrow I’m seeing The Men so please anticipate an equally garbled post on friday.

LM.

photo credit - http://www.facebook.com/thegoatcaptures

www.lityerses.bigcartel.com

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£1.50ppd to the UK, £3 rest of the world.

- interviews w. COKE BUST and NEVER AGAIN

- opinions by myself and others

- super dooper poster by my friend Kim (www.kimcowie.co.uk)

- record recommendations

thanks y’all!

www.lityerses.bigcartel.com

www.lityerses.bigcartel.com

www.lityerses.bigcartel.com

£1.50 ppd to UK, little bit more rest of the world.

interviews with COKE BUST and NEVER AGAIN, articles, record recommendations, and a cool poster in the middle.
What are you waiting for?????

in the final stages of printing a brand new zine called SOB STORY. Largely focussed on different perspectives on straight edge, features a few opinion articles from myself, some contributors, record recommendations, a poster, and a coupla interviews with Never Again and Coke Bust. Will be in my bigcartel soon for £1ppd in the UK, cheap postage abroad, or free in person. Also would love to do some zine swaps for this!

Thanks.

LM.

Stand Up and Be Counted

Punk, hardcore, and music in general has long been a medium through which people have endeavoured to implement social change. Be this directly, through benefit shows, bands playing at political/ethical movement rallies, or simply through showing solidarity for a message through the lyrical content of a song, it has been an integral part of punk rock for nearly 45 years. So why, in 2012, are large swathes of the UK and US hardcore scenes more concerned with mosh parts than messages, and what can we do as a community to change this?

It’s interesting just to briefly touch on the history of music as a means of social change – well, it is to me at least. Music in general can probably be traced back hundreds of years as a means of commentary on where a society of people find themselves, but I guess the most obvious means of using music as change came with early Blues music – its commentaries on the state of the countries (largely the US) that these predominantly Black musicians found themselves in at the time are amazing to look back on – largely due to the parallels that can be drawn between their Depression era America, and our Recession era Britain. Rock and Roll was a lot about being in it for the kicks to begin with – but emerged in the 60’s in to a bludgeoning peace movement. Whilst I may not agree with the means or message in its entirety, it’s plain to see for anyone who takes a look at the music of the time that there was a strong undertone throughout pushing the message of the artists. The 70’s of course saw the birth of Punk – the shock value of the early punk bands was obviously not explicitly political, but it acted as a strong cultural commentary on the rife conservatism at the time in the UK. Bands like The Clash played Rock Against Racism shows, Crass were mean about everyone, and Stiff Little Fingers were an insight in to the mind of a teenager caught up in the Irish troubles. And finally we come to Hardcore being birthed in 1981/1982 across Washington and California between bands like Minor Threat, Black Flag, and the Bad Brains. Again, we see a strong emphasis on changing what has come before – the DC scene in particular, driven by the amazing Dischord records roster, was host to regular benefit shows, and a fixed entry price/all ages policy that preached fairness and equality for all within the scene. Fugazi followed on from this – the same mindset of advocating the importance of music being accessible to all, along with music as a tool with which to bring people together to benefit the lives of others.

I could go on and on and on about the history of music and social change, but I’ll cut myself off there – particularly as in my mind Fugazi were one of the bands who had it absolutely spot on in regards to their attitudes to music. Anyway, what I’m getting around to saying in a very, very roundabout way is – where has this spirit for social change disappeared to in recent times? I want to first of all point out that I don’t care what you wanna do with music – for a long time music to me was just fun, something to discuss, somewhere to hang out with my friends etc etc. I realise that punk and hardcore are that for a lot of people – and if you wanna go to a show and have fun, and only watch one band, and stand outside with your friends cos you don’t see them other than at shows, then that is completely your prerogative. The point that I am trying to raise however, is that with such a rich heritage of raising important social issues and challenging the status quo, perhaps we are denying ourselves a whole other end of the spectrum. When I take a step back and look at the bands who are currently active within the predominant UK and US Hardcore scenes, musically there are some great acts – even lyrically there are some bands who are writing stuff that actually intrigues me to step back and read. However, for the most part, I can’t think of bands within what I would call the mainstream of hardcore, who are pushing for new ideas and new thought patterns. Of course, there are bands and organisations out there doing cool things within punk and hardcore – those Big Takeover shows for example (not sure if they’re still happening), and I recently saw advertised a show which was focussing on Women’s rights and showcasing all the great UK bands with female members. Cool steps, but is it enough with such a large and vocal audience? Again I want to point out that I’m not some sort of No Fun Club psycho – I enjoy just down the line angry music as much as the next guy, but I would get even more out of it if these shows were opened up to more people. Mixed bills would be a great place to start for example – why not bring in more of these bands with female members who have something different to offer. Benefit shows are also a really cool way in which we can help others – and it doesn’t necessarily have to just be for charities – the venues that help put on shows, illnesses that might have effected members of bands/scenes, local projects that are in need of help – all are perfectly viable causes to benefit from what is essentially a fun night out for us. Again, I have seen some examples of this sort of thing in recent years, but nothing consistent. One final thing that I think would be really inspiring to see at such Benefit Shows would be to bring in those people who the money would be going to – to hear them speak in between bands, or to have a stall with more information at the back, would really be a step to bring people in (literally and metaphorically) from the outside and perhaps educate us all with regards to some local and world causes we don’t necessarily know a lot about.

In today’s world we face an unparalleled list of events that can seem pretty shocking and overwhelming – starvation in Somalia, travesties in Palestine, a global economic crisis; the list really is endless. With such a range of concerns, it blows my mind that people aren’t interested in learning more about them, and doing what we can to help. I will say it one more time – I do not care if you just want to mosh to Cold World – what I do care about are missed opportunities, and it seems to me that by not fully grasping these issues and doing what we can via punk and hardcore music in 2012, we are missing a key opportunity for being remembered not only for some amazing music, but also as pioneers of a new movement in favour of positive global change.

WORDS – LM

Some light relief – Fugazi playing ‘Turnover’ at a Benefit Show in Washington

It’s punk jim, but not as we know it.

ffo: The Shitty Limits, The Love Triangle, Cocksparrer, Replacements
Listen/download: Never Again, Girls, Honey Joy

If you have a suggestion for any records I should listen to, then drop me a comment at the bottom of this post, or at www.lityerses.tumblr.com/ask
I will listen to music from pretty much any genre – I may even listen to a La Dispute album in the name of objectivity.

First up, I listened to the debut record from protopunkerzzz the MC5.

The MC5 are a band I’ve always enjoyed the occasional song from, particularly of course the title track of this record, but had never taken the time out to listen to one of their records properly. After one spin through this, I regret my decision to come to this band so late on. Released in 1968, this live LP (not unusual for a band at the time to release a debut live record apparently) seems to have influenced pretty much every great genre of music I listen to today (kick out the jams itself is probably one of the most covered tracks evur, notably covered by American Nightmare during their BBC Session), which makes it a particularly cool listen. Of COURSE, Kick Out The Jams is the stand out track (motherfuckers), but this band are much more than this. Throughout the 40 minutes of (sic) Jams, the band touch on punk, blues, rock and roll, jazz and even some drone/stoner style licks towards the end of album closer ‘Starship’. When listening to this, it’s hard to believe a band was playing this style of music in 1968, at the same time as their contemporaries were all high/producing Hippy dross for the most part. True pioneers then, and one of the greatest live albums I’ve ever listened to without a doubt – it’s hard to capture the live music experience and put it on a record, but this really achieves it, you WISH you were there.

Even if you don’t care about the influence of this band/record/all that I’ve gone on about so far, you can probably appreciate them for what they were – an insanely ahead of their time group who played faster and tighter than any of their compatriots. This record comes fully recommended.

Supertouch w. Harbour, Loose Nut, Tremors, Joshua’s Song @ Le Pub

First show I went to this year, waaaaayyy back in January after I sat some frankly horrible exams. Had a great time watching Joshuas Song in particular, Loose Nut were amazing, and Harbour covered Bad Brains. Mark Ryan was drunker than all hell and le pub lost it’s collective mind when Supertouch played Searching For The Light, great stuff.

CCHC #60 @ Le Pub

So many good bands played this all dayer/the last CCHC show that I can’t be bothered to talk about them all. Was only the second time I saw Wardogs, everyone loved it. Abolition were insanely heavy, so they stick out in my mind, and of course DEAL WITH IT covering Cro Mags and Life of Agony.

Fucked Up w. Iceage @ Clwb Ifor Bach

The afternoon before CCHC60, by some stroke of other worldly intervention, Fucked Up and Iceage played a matinee show in Clwb. Iceage were everything I wanted them to be – surly, and Fucked Up playing a floor show was just what you can imagine. Fun fun fun auf dem autobahn.

Title Fight @ The Fighting Cocks

First time I had been to a show at the Fighting Cocks or anywhere else in Kingston, and it was a good way to start. Shed had been out for about a month, meaning they played loads of da hits incl. a raucous 27. Being one foot away from the instruments is the best way to watch this band.

Bon Iver @ Hammersmith Apollo

An absolutely ethereal almost surreally brilliant experience. Didn’t pay attention to what songs were being played, just the continuous movement between different musical structures. Can even forgive the bizarre saxophone solo when it was revealed to be the intro to an absolutely mammoth version of Blood Bank. I have never heard a crowd louder than on the Wolves. If you missed this tour, you fucked up.

Against Me! @ Southampton Joiners

Travelled ridiculously far to see my favourite band play the set I’ve wanted to see them play since I was 15. Lost my voice singing along to all my favourites from reinventing axl rose and as the eternal cowboy, and their new drummer makes all the new stuff about 1000000 times cooler. Met Tom Gabel, can die happy.

CTW Fest @ Margate Westcoast Bar

Again, a hardcore all dayer feat. some of the same bands from CCHC60, but this time it was last shows all round for Wardogs and Deal With It who were both wildly good. Really impressed by On Thin Ice despite never having really listened to them in the past (Cro Mags covers tend to impress me), and Tremors/Harbour/Sectarian Violence/Wayfarer were all a lot of fun to watch.

Hevy Festival @ Port Lympne

So many 5 panels, so many bad tattoos, SO MUCH KEEPERS OF THE FAITH MERCH. This was for the most part a really sleepless and weird weekend, but I went with cool people and a few bands stood out for me enough to make this list. Firstly, TOUCHE AMORE, whose second record I hadn’t cared about until this show, where they were amazingly tight and I was really impressed. Secondly, CEREMONY who were probably the band of the weekend, despite the whack ass security. Finally, THE BRONX who are one of my all time favourite live bands, they have never disappointed me, and probably never will. Heart Attack American.

Descendents pt. II @ Brixton Academy

Descendents part I in April was a write off from the get go, let’s not talk about that one okay. Part II was everything I wanted to start with, it was fun, fast, and they played all the great songs I wanted them to. Maybe not as great a live presence as they once were, but it was a really cool experience nonetheless.

Best Coast @ Thekla, Bristol

It was just before summer, so watching Best Coast play their insanely summery jams on a boat was a pretty great night out. Made this list because they played all their songs in double time and finished with a huge noise rock ending that confused a lot of people but totally made my evening. Hopefully album II is weird.

Sharks @ The Actress and Bishop

Last show before my long time favourites Sharks left for America for 6 months. Was a really awesome evening, and potentially the best of the many many times I’ve seen them play – made particularly great just by everyone in the room singing along to It All Relates. NEED THE ALBUM

The Men @ Madame JoJo’s, Soho

Weird venue, weird supports, weird crowd, AMAZING HEADLINE SET. The Men released potentially my favourite record of the year, so to see them and have them blast out my ear drums this past week was a good closer to the year. Bataille and ( ) are two of the songs of the year. See this band when they return in february with Open Your Heart (new LP), or regret it forever.

Gonna stop there, despite having probably missed about 10 or so shows that I had a total blast at. Already looking forward to finally seeing Deafheaven in 2012, along with hopefully the return of The Men. Roll on another year of mind altering live music. One luv.

EDIT: HOW DID I FORGET THE JOYCE MANOR SELF TITLED LP

So much love for this band, insanely singalongable, every song on this album makes my heart pang (is that a word?) for summer days with my friends and sunsets and beaches and girlfriends and snapple and that sort of contentedness you don’t want to go away but some day you know it has to. THAT’S WHAT THIS RECORD IS ABOUT TO ME OKAY.

okay the list can continue now that I’ve frantically edited.

TITLE FIGHT – SHED

Really great debut full length from Philadelphia’s finest/only purveyors of emotional-melodic-pop-hardcore-I-don’t-even-know-I’m-done-with-genres-forever. I was pleased when this came out that they had written more slow songs with seemingly more intelligent hooks behind them. Having said that, Shed and 27 are probably my favourite songs on the album.

PUNCH – NOTHING LASTS

Initially forgot to include this, thanks Miles! Anyway, most recent (and potentially my favourite) output by San Fran’s vegan straightedge bruizerzzz Punch, this is everything great about the band condensed in to about 10 minutes of music. Also contains my favourite mosh part of the year in ‘Time Apart’. Great release, hope there’s another full length.

DEAFHEAVEN – ROADS TO JUDAH

This took me a LONG time to get in to, but it was totally worth it. Cool ambient black metal noise, 4 tracks across 38 minutes of music, but only really makes sense when you listen to the whole thing right through. Given enough listens, you really start to hear how great this band are. Can’t wait to see them over here in february.

BON IVER – BON IVER

Goes without saying, the sophomore record from Justin Vernon, this time with a 9 piece band creating the most intensely chill sounds of the decade, let alone the year. Even the Phil Collins worship of Beth/Rest seems to make sense in the greater context of the record. Awesome.

WARDOGS – OUTCAST BEHAVIOUR

The first and last proper release from welsh lockin out enthusiasts Wardogs (RIP), this ep summed up everything that was great and fun about the band. If you missed out, go download the tracks and the demo and resent yourself for not seeing them this year.

WAR HUNGRY – WAR HUNGRY

Oh ma gawdddd, if Pantera were still a band this is the record they would have produced today. An endless barrage of riffs that I cannot get over, heavy as all hell.

ICEAGE – NEW BRIGADE

Much hyped, but with complete justification. Similarly to Deafheaven, this took me absolutely ages to get in to, pretty sure I wrote it off on first listen. But when I heard they were coming over with Fucked Up I gave it another chance, and I’m very glad I did. The Joy Division worship of Total Drench is one of the best things you’ll hear this year.

THE MEN – LEAVE HOME

If this list was actually in an order, I’m pretty sure this LP would be right up the top. New York post-punk with some hard/fast bits, some big Spacemen 3 slow bits, and some weirdly singable parts. Impossible to properly describe, you should just go out of your way to listen to this band, and if you dig it, they’re playing two dates in London in about a week’s time. C ya at the front.

ALL PIGS MUST DIE – GOD IS WAR

I ignored this band for ages because I didn’t like their name (I do this way too often), but eventually bucked up my ideas when I heard one song that sounded a lot like Nails. Comparable to the aforementioned Nails, but with more big stoned riffs, this is a great record to walk around headbanging to.

NEW LOWS – HARVEST OF THE CARCASS

This came out nearly a whole year ago, right at the start of january (I think) so just creeps on to the list. Way underrated band, would again be pretty close to the top of this list if it were numbered. More riffs than my brain can handle for the most part, and a heavy as fuck production value. It’s a travesty that this band hasn’t been over this year.

FUCKED UP – DAVID COMES TO LIFE

I went absolutely crazy for this 80 minute long punk orchestra way back in May/June/whenever it came out, and as a result haven’t given it a lot of attention in the latter part of the year. The overload at the time was totally worth it though – some people will try and tell you this is too long, I totally disagree. The songs remain strong towards the end of the album, and I love the concept. Weird/good.

HARBOUR – GWALIA DESERTA

The single most underrated band in the UK at the moment, genius harDCore from south wales, this ep came out on CTW right at the beginning of the year again, and I think has passed under a lot of people’s radars. Lyrically genuinely interesting, and a great live prospect, MORE PEOPLE NEED TO LISTEN TO HARBOUR.

LEMURIA – PEBBLE

Another january release (I think), this is actually my favourite record this band has done to date (ooooh controversial). Enjoy that there are more boy/girl vocals than before, and much more musically interesting than their former output (to me anyway). Majorly bummed that the birmingham date of their tour got cancelled due to riots. Fuckin kids these days.

OMEGAS – BLASTS OF LUNACY

The world’s finest/only purveyors of slam skank, this band play hard and fast NYHC influenced punk. 12 fast songs in 23 minutes, definitely one of most fun releases of the year. I need a copy on vinyl still, dear santa etc…….

PJ HARVEY – LET ENGLAND SHAKE

Mercury prize winning queen of my heart as of this year. The Last Living Rose makes me feel warm and funny inside because it’s just so beautifully arranged. There aren’t many concept albums about England (for good reason), but this is a great one.

TREMORS – ISLAND SONGS

Pissed off as all hell and twice as fast as the demo, this is the angriest Antidote style hardcore you will hear all year. 7″ is out on Six Feet Under in the US and distro’d over here, find yourself a copy. As an aside, this band played one of the best sets at CTW Fest.

final new addition -

THE BOSTON STRANGLER – PRIMITIVE

no reason to care, no reason to live, parimativvvvv. THE STRANGLAH’S GONNA MAKE YOU PAY.

Honourable mentions/demos

Trapped Under Ice – Big Kiss Goodnight
Vinegar Strokes – Demo
Nibiru – Earthbreeder Demo
Thaw – 2 Song Demo
Abolition – S/T
Brontide – Sans Souci
American Sun – Demo
Rational Animals – Bock Rock Parade
Backtrack – Darker Half
The Boston Strangler – 3 Song Sampler
Thawed Out – Demo
Crossbreaker – Lows
Creem – Good Riddance
Deal With It – My Body Is A Cage 7″
End Of A Year Self Defense Family – I’m Going Through Some Shit
Foundation – When The Smoke Clears
Poison Planet – Boycott Everything
Spraynard – Funtitled
Total Abuse – Prison Sweat
Brain Slug – Demo
Wiccans – Skullduggery
Mastodon – The Hunter
Touche Amore – Parting The Sea Between Brightness And Me

award winning writing – luke mcg

In the meantime here is the first article I’ve written for the piece, it’s about how it’s really weird to me that people in the wider world, and more specifically hardcore, call me/others out on their choice not to drink.

Thanks.

Some Day We’ll Look Back and Laugh

As a university student in my third year of study, I am constantly faced with situations in which I meet new people at parties/when they’re engaging in the loathsome practice of “pre-drinking” (or now sometimes even “pre-pre-drinking”, where does this prefix adding end?????), and inevitably the fact that I don’t drink comes up within about 5 minutes of first meeting someone. Now, I am not one to shove my views in someone’s face – quite the opposite, if it wasn’t for people asking me, I would never tell people why I don’t drink, but it strikes me as straight up bizarre that people find it strange that someone can quite happily not put a substance, that has been clinically proven to be dangerous, in their body.

These conversations usually begin nicely/inanely enough – what do you study, where do you come from, where do you live this year etc. etc., but as soon as the questions take a turn toward “what are you drinking tonight?” or “where are you going out later?”, and I answer with “cherry coke” (top of the soft drink hierarchy for real) and “to bed unless there’s a show on”, I am met with looks similar to those I imagine a leper circa 50 BC would have received. It’s as if when you reveal to people that you’ve never passed out in a ditch, they believe that you are some sort of socially retarded Luddite with a completely backward world view. Really, I’d like to argue the opposite – the fact that a worryingly large percentage of people I know willingly pay money to ingest tar strikes me as somewhat contradictory.

I’m trying to write this in the most objective way possible and not rant on about how little sense it makes to treat someone differently because they choose not to drink, but it’s something I’ve experienced so many times that it’s difficult to remain level headed about. This is not just an issue in what I would dub the “normal world” – if some meathead at university thinks it’s hilarious and “gay” that I don’t drink then whatever, good luck in your business management endeavours, but it is pretty weird that people within the hardcore/punk community are willing to fight and put each other down over what is a positive life choice. We’ve all listened to Minor Threat at some point, are all aware of the straight edge movement, but further than that, what difference does someone not drinking have on you? Arguably, you being fucked up on amphetamines or something is more likely to impact upon my enjoyment of an evening – having someone vomiting on my shoes ain’t what I leave the house for buddy I promise you.

Anyway, what I’m trying to say in a very long winded and round about manner, is that live and let live really is the attitude I wish more people in hardcore (and the greater world, although I’m not expecting that from chino_wanker and his cohort any time soon) would adopt. It seems to me that within a movement that champions acceptance, straight edgerz (along with vegans, feminists, homosexuals and pretty much every other minority) are still called out on an almost daily basis. Perhaps the internet has a lot to do with this, the mob mentality that tumblr/the b9 seem to inspire in people is pretty worrying (I would point you in the direction of the most recent BWP merchgate incident for just one example of how a community of people can turn on one individual – not even the perpetrator – and call him a ‘faggot’ and swear that they were all gonna kill him), and this attitude is rife throughout many people who claim to be part of a community that is all about BROTHERHOOD and UNITY. If this is the case, then just let me not drink dorks, it doesn’t bother me that you’re so high you’re seeing three worlds right now.

At this point I’d like to emphasise that I’ve never been actively discriminated against because I don’t drink/smoke whatever – the majority of people I’ve met through hardcore have been awesome and I’ve made some great friends because of it – but for every person who wants to politely know more about my decision not to drink, there’s someone who says I’m crazy or weird for not ever trying alcohol – and that’s something that needs to stop. So, if you wanna talk about straight edge then that’s cool, but if you wanna infer that I am making a mistake or wasting my youth, I’m gonna have something to say about it.