Saturday 31 March 2012

Killing Joke - MMXII


This is the best KJ album in years, imo it beats Aboslute Dissent ...and that's hard to beat. You need to buy this and support the band....£7.99, cheap as chips!

The first single off the album with a stunning video. Play it in full screen mode!!



A you tube album sampler.....


A new tour announced later in the year with The Cult and The Mission.

Thursday 15 March 2012

Killing Joke - Jana (1994)


CD single from 1994 and long since deleted. It contains a great live version of Love Like Blood.

Link removed as, although this cd is deleted, the song Jana is still available via MP3 download on Amazon. Sorry if you missed it.


Q - The True Story of Punk (2002)


High quality scan of this mag from 2002 in PDF form.

Mediafire

Paw

Monday 12 March 2012

Tank - Crazy Horses (1982)


Sadly I'm old enough to remember the Osmonds doing this song on Top of the Pops. Gladly I'm also old enough to have seen Tank doing this song live; I prefer the Tank version.

Mediafire

Sunday 11 March 2012

The Wards - Ripped off in Boston (1984)


Their cassette/album from '84. It's more rough than either of their 7'' but is a straight continuation and equally as good. Someone reminded me this has been sitting on an external drive for ages.. :)

Enjoy.

Mediafire

Genius (#2)

There are some really talented people out there......


Hardcore or die from Radio Soulwax on Vimeo.

Saturday 10 March 2012

The Lewd - Live at the Mabuhay Gardens (1980)


Formed in 1978 and moving to San Franciso, The Lewd built a reputation as a good live band and are probably best known for their first 7'' which is highly lauded. I think their finest moment is the 1982 album American Wino, which I still own and is one of my favourite HC albums.

This album (Lewd conduct in a public place) was released in a limited quantity to create a collectors item, which is did, by Vampir records. It has three demo tracks made with Subterranean.

Mediafire

Thursday 8 March 2012

K-Line - In the Red ep (2002)


The name Ed Wenn might not be familiar to some people, but I bet the name Ed Shred is; they're one in the same person. Ed is best known for the roles he's played in The Stupids, Bad Dress Sense and Billy No Mates as well as a slew of others. If you know the Stupids you'll know their love of American hardcore a love that Ed certainly has and this band displays that so well.

Formed at the tail end of the 90's the band went through a few changes in personnel before settling on: -

Zac Slack - Vocals
Ed Wenn - Guitar
Paul Duncan - Bass
James Sherry - Drums

They released one album, that is 100% THE best album of 2003, and two ep's before calling it a day in 2004. When the album was released they were often likened to a Dag Nasty/Fugazi mix with a pinch of the Ruts thrown in for good measure. K-Line display all the hallmarks of a great melodic hardcore band, it's a shame they didn't last longer.

The album is still available on amazon for £7 to download, it comes highly recommended from me...for what that's worth.

Mediafire

Punks not Dead

 

Kenny, I see your bands T-shirt in here.

Tuesday 6 March 2012

OFF! - New Album out in May


Taken from their website........

New album out May 8!

Pitchfork has announced the release of our new album. Check it out HERE

Sunday 4 March 2012

The Stranglers - Giants (2012)


I did something this morning I haven't done for years; I bought an album on the day of it's release. I bought the deluxe edition from iTunes for a tenner and I received 24 tracks for that price; 10 new and 14 live.....if anyone says that's not value for money they need help.

I'm trying to restrain myself from yelling how good it is, as I want to give it time to settle in my mind. Howver, it has all the elements of a classic Stranglers album; Dave on fire with the great old style keyboards, Jet as tight as ever, JJ's bass rumbling throughout and Baz is so good you forget about Hugh. I feel bad for saying that last bit as he's a great musician in his own right, but he'll forever have to meet that comparison. He does this, head on, and knocks it for six.

The last few years of The Stranglers has been a real return to the halcyon days of old. No more mediocre albums with the odd bright flash, Norfolk Coast, Suite XVI and now Giants burn as bright as any of the first 5.

The tour started a day or two ago and I only have a few weeks before I get to see them in my town. If, like me a few years ago, you haven't seen them live for some time, do yourself a HUGE favour and buy a ticket. 

I saw them in 1981 and then had a 25 year break from seeing them live. The band fire on all cylinders these days and live they put on a mean show. Baz has more of a rapport with the crowd than previous singers and, thankfully, they've lost the fluff they added towards the end of Hugh's time. Now you get what you expect from The Stranglers; a trip down 38 years of great music that bristles with excitement  and electricity. Don't miss them....seriously.

Saturday 3 March 2012

SNFU


A very long overdue post.

The story of SNFU is well documented, but anyway..... The band formed out of the ashes of "Live Sex Show", the first band to feature the Belke brothers and Ken Chinn, who by now had assumed the name Mr Chi Pig.

They burst into my world as a relative unknown having only heard a few compilation tracks. I was offered a copy of their first album, which I bought having not heard it; £4.00 seemed little to lose if it was shit. Happily, I'd stumbled across a classic. The album had a soon to be banned sleeve and came out in different covers for a while. I had the first three. I still have them.

                                        The banned cover

I followed them throughout their history and they never failed to deliver something. They consisted of a revolving door of drummers and bassists, but contained three friends who'd met through a shared love of skate boarding as kids Mr Chi Pig vocals with Marc and Brent Belke on guitars. They lasted through a breakup and reformation from 1981 - 1998 when Brent left the band. Marc left in 2005 and the band once again split up.

Mr Chi Pig seemed to go off the rails in the late 80's with drink and drugs playing an ever increasing role in his life with a severe impact. As it turns out he fractured his skull head-banging when he connected with a fans head; the resulting chemical imbalance mixed with personal traumas and drugs dragged him about as low as you can go. He sold everything he owned and ended up living on the streets of Vancouver as a destitute homeless person.

Since that time he's managed to beat many of his demons and is back on track with a new version of the band and a possible new album.

 
SNFU stood out from the crowd for a number of reasons to me, they had a singer with a distinctive sound, the tunes were intricate and the lyrics didn't follow the normal fashion. You also can't stop yourself from singing along which is a massive plus in my book.

They went on to release 7 studio albums and a handfull of 7''. All the albums have something to offer with none of them being duds, even Better than a Stick in the Eye has peaks, but only just. Their best work is undoubtedly the first two and the last album, In the Meantime and in Between Time which has the behemoth that is "Head Smashed in Buffalo Jump" on it.

A song so good it just has to be heard. Music

Sideburns in the shape of a prairie province,
Bookcased his face, baby
He looked alot like Elvis,
Long before his name became disgraced,
Back when he was young,
Taking care of business in a flash,

I met him at the Head Smashed in Buffalo Jump, Yeah.
I met him at the Head Smashed in Buffalo Jump, Yeah

He sang deep and low,
Well, he sang in baritone,
And he sang about the buffalo,
He sang about home sweet home,
He sang about cool hot rods
and shiny UFO’s.
He did not sing about,
What he did not know. No, no.

If you don't know this band I highly reccommend all their releases, but especially "And No One Else Wanted to Play" "If You Swear You'll Catch No Fish" and "In the Meantime and In Between Time"; they're all classics. As most of their releases are still in print and are VERY cheap to buy off itunes/amazon etc I won't post them, but I can post the following as they're out of print.

Released in 1987 via the band this was an updated version of She's not on the Menu (dunce mix) with two demo tracks from 1982 on the b-side. Limited to 500 copies on a silk screened cover.


Music

Released in 1993 and long since out of print this 7'' features a re-recorded song from Last of the Big Suspenders and an alternative take of a song from Green and Leafy.


Music

A film was made on Mr Chi Pig a few years ago documenting his, and the bands, history. It's a really good watch, if quite tragic in places, but shows his spirit and determination to beat the shit that dragged him down. You can watch it here - once open click the top link"watch full vidbux" and then click "verify human" and remove the ad.