JB Conspiracy: Underworld headline show
Posted by jamie on Mar 31, 2010
This one sort of sneaked up on all of us: The JB Conspiracy will headline Camden’s Underworld on Saturday. Support comes from Over and Out and Advantage.
Doors are at 19:00.
Bomb Ibiza: RIP
Posted by jamie on Mar 31, 2010
Today is a sad day. Our heroes, the legendary promoters, gig and club night organisers Bomb Ibiza have announced that, once existing commitments have been fulfilled, Em is going to retire BI.
“By “Bomb Ibiza” I specifically mean the clubnights and one-off gigs that we run, and my involvement in running events in Manchester.
This is obviously a decision I have wrestled with for a while, but ultimately I need to re-position my life away from the enormous time commitment that being a promoter entails.”
Bananatown would like to congratulate and thank Bomb Ibiza for being a constant inspiration, for giving untold support to great live music in the UK and for setting the standard for all of us out there. We’d also like to say a huge “RESPECT” to Em and co for putting their lives and their bodies on the line to do it.
The Manchester Ska Bar will continue.
The full statement is here. Grab a tissue before opening it.
TNS008 / AWAS, Stand Out Riot & Sense Of Urgency
Posted by jamie on Mar 31, 2010
Sense of Urgency / Stand Out Riot / AWarAgainstSound
TNS008: TNS Records
31st March, 2010
Jamie
As tours started to come thick and fast, this review’s taken a while to get itself published. We apologise to the label and all the bands.
After TNS008 landed on our doorstep, Bananatown had a quick chat on facebook to some of the guys at TNS Records about exactly how they’d like the record reviewed: “too many people”, we learned, “review skacore as ska”. That’s a valid point, though there’s not really a total consensus yet as to exactly what skacore is. Let’s face it: incorporating new elements in to a term that’s as broad as ska already was is always going to leave a lot of room diversity, and, inevitably, dissent.
The difficulty for me, then, is to neatly sum up a genre, and, trust me, I hate using genres anyway, that could stretch from the Mighty Mighty Bosstones to the Flaming Tsunamis and, in doing so, remain cool in the eyes of one of the UK’s more discerning grass-roots labels, and one with a remarkable strength of passion for their music. No pressure, then.
Well, when the going gets tough, the tough turn to Urban Dictionary. Just for back-up, you know. And to deflect the blame.
One brilliantly named user refers to “Ska mixed with hardcore. Fast speed ska and bone crunching acoustic lyrics [whatever bonecrunching acoustic lyrics are] and name checks Folly, the Flaming Tsunamis and Big D. The next tells us “Almost all Skacore bands come from Britain and include bands such as Capdown, Lightyear.. and Sonic Boom Six.
What we’ll settle on, then, is basically a mash of a raw, angst-fuelled hardcore vocal and guitar riffs with room for a more old-school ”whoah-oh” backing vocals, horns, and the odd upstroke. There’s more to it than a marriage of ska and hardcore that gives it its name, but I’m sure you get the idea.
Sense of Urgency open the record, and get four tracks to the others’ three. Three of those, though, clock in at less than five minutes’ length in total. Predictably, the pace they’ve set is blistering, and their sound is good, really good. So good that you can’t fail to be struck by it within the first few seconds. It’s basically a headlong sprint through a wall of high-speed sound. Imagine having the music fired at you out of a carwash when you’ve got your roof down and you’re most of the way there. From the first snotty, impassioned growl to the closing thud of all instruments in unison, opening track Glory Days is basically skacore’s answer to the hit-and-run, but faster, and it sets the tone perfectly for the rest of their tracks. Lowbrow is closer to two minutes than one, but comes out of the traps just as fast. The Night We Exploded sees as song explored in all of its detail for the first time, and it’s clear there’s plenty in there once it gets the chance to be properly scrutinised. Just like the other tracks, it’s packed with hooks yet bigger and meaner than would really be feasible at first peek. Everything’s been executed perfectly, and the songs here are an absolute joy. Quite what they must be like in concert is something I fear I can only imagine, but, having been pinned back and battered with glorious riffs and melodies, yes, melodies, and having had the breath knocked out of me by the sheer speed of what’s just hit me (and a cold, I admit), it’s something I’m desperate to experience. By the end of Silent Seeth you’ll be gasping for air. And that doesn’t happen too often, eh?
Quite sensibly, perhaps, Stand out Riot kick off This Is Not a Movement with a gentle strum across one guitar. Don’t be fooled, though, vocals build over an ominous drum beat before the song kicks in proper. Drawing strength and power from three vocalists and three horn players, when this does kick in it’s really something to behold. The record’s first upstroke, while totally skankable, is something of a reprieve, a quick breather before the song runs off again, becoming a guitar solo, and then a breakdown that steadily gathers power in a crescendo of vocal and brass before clicking instantly back in to first gear and running away with you again. Tessa Hunt’s violin, though not especially prominent, is a particular treat. I’ll leave you to watch out for it. Black Widow is a bit of a departure, in that it’s almost spoken throughout, and slows at parts to a rhythmic, fist-pumping chant. Throughout, though, it keeps hold of that brooding, sinister undertone, it still showcases all the instruments and finds time to break itself down in to its component parts: one horn riff is almost eerie for a second, in a way that’s almost dub, before a high-pitched violin that’s nearly Gogol Bordello before the whole song returns in all its glory and suddenly disappears to be replaced equally quickly by Law and Hors d’Oeuvres.
The band’s final track is stunning: a bassline that’s almost jazz in spots, and vocal that swings from hardcore to nearly rap and back, and horns. Couldn’t ask for much more, could you? It’s delivered at times in that same frenetic sprint, and at times slows to a more introspective, foreboding, rhythm-heavy stomp, before vanishing altogether. All together, their three songs are incredible: these guys are a seriously talented band. The songs are good but the way they’ve been put together here is really exceptional. Again breathless, though in a different way and somewhat lost for words (again, that’s a rarity), I’ve had to press pause here for sec.
Returning to AWarAgainstSound, I’ve stumbled on three tracks that bring another different take on the word skacore. To Fraud a Cause opens with a gentle, slowly building bassline that’s joined by drums and guitar and declines numerous opportunities to take off in to a riot of riffs, screams, etc. It’s almost a novelty, in this context, for a band not to include a horn-section. These guys are a classic drums-bass-and-two-guitars four-piece, and they all sing. This opening track is five minutes in length, and teases at various points, breaking in to upstrokes, riffs, and chanted vocals without ever soaring in to the epic rock that it often hints at. That’s no bad thing: there are loads to enjoy about this little song. By the time it fades out around duelling guitars and bass and a heartfelt vocal, To Fraud a Cause has done plenty to please.
For Nothing and No one takes over, and continues at a similar vein: you’re expecting a crescendo, but, at every drop out, AWAS return with choppy, peppy, ska guitars and a raw nasal vocal that’s almost spat. In these places they’re the most punk of all the bands on the record, in the musical sense, and there’s more than a nod or two towards the greats of that scene. There’s also a hint of Joey Terrifying, or Ghymp, for example, but, though evocative in places, their songwriting is pretty idiosyncratic, as well as thoroughly dance-and-skank-able. The superbly named Pull Your Twos Out Your Pocket Then Say “Do You Mean These?” finishes the disc, and is notably the biggest, rawest and most powerful of AWAS’s three tracks. Again, Ed half sings and half sneers it, and then, all at once, as it gently fades to quiet for a moment, it thumps back in with a boom, a heart-felt cry over a crescendo of guitar and the drums effectively attacked, it’s more than half-way through their last song, and they’ve allowed themselves to rock out. It’s still brilliantly executed, comes as something of a surprise, albeit a surprise that they’ve hinted at all along, and then they’re gone. The CD spins to a stop in front of me. Phew: this has been tiring stuff; it’s a great little record and one that promises a peak in to the future of our scene – especially in the North. Respect must go to the folk at TNS for the love and effort they’ve put in to gathering such a fine selection of bands and putting all of this together. It’s been well worth it, guys.
Kids Can’t Fly, Four Letter Cure
Posted by jamie on Mar 26, 2010
Kids Can’t Fly, Four Letter Cure
Bridgehouse II, London
23rd March 2010
Jamie
Coming as it did so soon after the Skints headlined the Borderline, this show was something of a surprise and a proper treat. Right after work, a quick stroll on the Thames and then out eastwards on the Jubilee Line lands you in Canning Town. In fairness, the Jubilee Line is an experience in itself if you’re used to a packed, grimy and smelly tube and, like me, didn’t know there was another kind. Travelling under the river on this bad boy is like a quick stint in The Life Aquatic, or an octopus’s garden, or one getting one of those seaside mini-trains through a purpose-built underground chrome lair. Yeah, it was pretty much like that. It’s surely the king of tubes. Then, though, came a slightly more difficult adventure through a confusing and unfamiliar place in the dark. Chips decided to perform a brief, yet fretful disappearing act, and, all in all, we were delighted to bump in to Sham of Four Letter Cure. Until we found out they were lost too.
Eventually we arrived just before the guys were due to play. The Bridgehouse 2 is a tidy little upstairs venue near an industrial estate. They have good cider on tap and they stamp your hand through one of those little hatch things in the wall, so it’s pretty good fun all around.
Four Letter Cure open up with Alex the Pothead and Kids on the Street. You really should see these guys if you haven’t already: they play an edgy, rough-and-ready show, a throwback to everything that was good about the first wave of punk rock, a chaotic, largely unplanned set that, at first glance, is charmingly shambolic, in a good way, but is basically just them having fun and doing what they want with the set.
The guys can play, and their three vocalists can all sing, but I just can’t shake the feeling that they don’t want you to know that, that they want you to think that they’re making it up as they go along, or that they just don’t give. Hassan’s guitar strap and Raz’s lead both cause problems, though, and you have to suspect that that’s real. Underneath all that, though, they’re genuinely good fun, and they’ve got songs and they can play them. After Darling, Ive Got News For You, and so much chat, they race through Op Ivy’s Unity and then, after a chat and a decision between themselves that they discuss on stage, Rancid’s Ruby Soho. After that, Hassan announces that “we always just play Rancid because we can’t be bothered to wrote songs”. And then they do Roots Radicals. “We werent supposed to, but we did it anyway”, I’m told later.
This is such good singalong fun, and the guys deliver it well. Another quick debate follows before they wrap up a short but really enjoyable set with My Back Your Knife and scurry off.
Panning For Gold are local and have brought a massive entourage, so Kids Can’t Fly play next. Double treat. Robin looks fetching, by the way, in his pink Cancer Research t-shirt. As usual, they open with The Vicious Circle and, as usual, bodies star to bend and move around a bit. It’s pretty quiet on the floor, though, and various entreaties to us all to come forward don’t have the full effect on a nervous crowd on a Tuesday night. That’s not to knock the delightful mix of melodies and the tremendous amount of energy that Kids Can’t Fly, as always, deliver in their live show. Just before they cover Less Than Jake’s ASAOK, Robin points out “this is a song we usually play to start a circle pit in the middle of the room, but I think that might be a bit optimistic tonight”. Not so. The guys pick on Raz out of Four Letter Cure, largely because he’s got a Mohawk, and before the song is in full swing bodies scatter both in, and a few out, of the room and the circle’s in motion. I sort of half flew and half rolled through the middle of it all before actually joining in, and it’s all good fun. The spirit among everyone here tonight is superb and you can tell that everyone on that floor is desperate to go all out and enjoy it, if a little self-conscious of the straight-faced rows sitting behind them. No matter, it’s started. KCF stomp through oldies Fire in the Hole and 15th Time and Writing Letters and the gorgeous Tune In from last year’s Strength in Numbers, which they’ve released again with a whole set of new fan photos all over the front. It’s worth a peek, serious. Vocally, musically, and as a presence on stage, they’re excellent, one of the best bands you can see. The tiny stage is packed with the six of them, constantly moving, and Mark and Drew always scooching past to take turns on the last mic. As usual, they finish with the wonderfully epic She Called Shotgun, everything, all the vocals, all the horns, bass, drums, in full swing, riffs rolling out in waves, before it’s over. Just like that.
Panning For Gold were good, though in truth a lot of us were out of it by then. I sort of stared at my feet for a bit and then had to get cold air. Their sound’s good, though, really smooth, with one guy who sings and another with loads of rhymes.
It’s much easier to find the way home than it was getting to the show, and the Jubilee Line still feels like a treat. I guess that’s down to the Olympics or something. Anyway, it’s good for sleeping on.
Cake :)
Posted by jamie on Mar 26, 2010
Last Hours have posted a stunning* recipe for a chocolate and vanilla marble cake. See it here.
*I say “stunning”. They’re usually really good, but I’ve given up cake and chocolate for lent. 
Mouthwash / King Blues on tour
Posted by jamie on Mar 26, 2010
It’s official: Mouthwash have just been confirmed as main support on the King Blues’ new tour. The guys will be join on some of the later dates by new Rebel Alliance label-mates Dirty Revolution.
Sat 10 Apr 2010
Brighton Komedia - Mouthwash
Sun 11 Apr 2010
Norwich The Waterfront - Mouthwash
Mon 12 Apr 2010
Manchester Academy - Mouthwash
Tue 13 Apr 2010
Newcastle Academy 2 - Mouthwash
Thurs 15 Apr 2010
Glasgow Garage - Mouthwash
Sun 25 Apr 2010
Birmingham Academy 2 - Mouthwash
Mon 26 Apr 2010
Exeter Phoenix - Mouthwash
Tue 27 Apr 2010
London Shepherd’s Bush Empire - Mouthwash
Sat 01 May 2010
Nottingham Rock City – Mouthwash and Dirty Rev
Tue 04 May 2010
Colchester Arts Centre - Mouthwash and Dirty Rev
Wed 05 May 2010
Portsmouth Wedgewood Rooms - Mouthwash and Dirty Rev
The Skints, Dirty Rev, Mouthwash, Anti-Vigilante
Posted by jamie on Mar 25, 2010
The Skints, Dirty Revolution,
Mouthwash, Anti-VigilanteLondon
20th March 2010
Jamie
It’s rude to look a gift-horse in the mouth, apparently. For anyone as confused as I was the first time I heard that, it basically means that if something arrives in your life as an unexpected gift, you should grab it rather than waste the opportunity by checking whether or not it’s right until, just too soon, your lucky surprise disappears. It’s to do with a horse’s teeth being a good clue to its age, if you’re still struggling. Like the rings in a tree. Whatever.
So, anyway, when Josh out of the Skints, mentions, not once but twice, that there are plenty of punk rock shows going on in London tonight, I decided I’d give in and let him decide my opening paragraph again. As a front-man, the guy is wonderfully quotable, and I ended up doing the same thing the last time I reviewed the Skints. The thing is, there’s something that really, really needs to be said on that subject. To put it simply, everyone I know has been talking about this show for ages. In fact, I saw people who I know had come from Milton Keynes, miles away up North, and Southampton, right on the south coast, to be in this room. That basically means that in the whole of the south of England, for this many people and more, this was the room to be in.
Touching as it might be for the Skints, or for any of the bands that played tonight, that they’ve drawn a crowd despite there being other decent shows on, tonight, between them, they’ve made the Borderline the hottest ticket in town.
Without that ticket in my pocket, it was a stressful rush through a rainy Saturday afternoon tourist jam on Tottenham Court Road, and, the doors being firmly shut when we arrived (5.30), we ended up doing that twice. No dramas, it’s well worth it once you’re inside.
Anti-Vigilante open the show with a wonderfully vital set of peppy, snotty, spiky ska-core that immediately gets the early arrivals pogoing and happily shouting back. For the record, this is another Rebel Alliance show that’s close to full from pretty early on. The rush for tickets and the panic among the likes of me who couldn’t get them early enough to feel safe probably saw to that. Anti-Vigilante, of course, are as good as it gets as an opening band. They start with Skoliver and race through a typically abrasive set, stopping only briefly to shout out to the other bands. These guys are more fun every time I see them, and are clearly delighted to be here tonight. Grinning from ear to ear, they spin the room, while there’s still the space, in to a skankpit that’s all elbows and feet, and scarcely even stand still themselves: four lads from Milton Keynes become a flurry of riffs and kicks and the night’s off to a great start. Anti-Vigilante marry their trademark enthusiasm to a great set of songs. By the time they’re gone, I just bobbed upstairs for one minute, and immediately, coming back from the chill upstairs, walked in to a wall of sweaty air between stairs and dancefloor. Underneath that heavy, sweaty cloud there were smiles slapped across every single face that bore testament to what had just happened. It’s raining outside, but the Borderline still make you wait out there in lines for ages. Surely a sulk or two, out of the whole room, could be forgiven? Not a bit of it.
The identity of tonight’s second band has been kept a secret. Chips has been asked a few times for any rumours. Josh from Anti-Vigilante did mention “a sort of London-themed surprise” at one point, but then quickly hushes up the shouted guesses. Having spotted every member of Mouthwash in the crowd before they sneak on, under cover of darkness, though, it’s not a total surprise that they’re up next.
I’m ill, by the way, so watched this one tucked away at the back. Pretty soon all you could see was a see of fists and pointing hands in rhythm to chants of “solid as a rock” over and over. It pretty much just took off from there, That Girl, is glorious and Josh (the Skints) appears to guest on Fool’s Gold after. It’s a heady stomp through a stunning set of songs: the basslines and riffs are so big you can feel them through the floor, and the room fairly shakes with the amount of sound Mouthwash are producing. Pinned back by the sound, we’re pretty much stuck where we’re standing but the floor below us is going off and all around on the upper levels little pockets of pit and of dancing just open up and move around all the time. As the guys play on, the usual songs are gobbled up with glee. No Fear, as usual, becomes something of a love-in, and We Evolve is close to the opposite. Mouthwash deliver their set with so much energy and that really transfers over to the room. It just makes you so happy. They’ve given an incredible set, so it almost seems a shame to mention the fact that the sound guy cut them off in the intro to Hazy Days. It would’ve been the last song, and they were allowed to start it. Scarcely had it begun, though, before the sound was cut underneath them. We don’t usually do this sort of thing, but really, I’d complain to the Borderline. Click here to do it. I’ve never, ever seen that happen. If proof were needed of just how good Mouthwash actually were, though, after the initial confusion and disappointment, it didn’t really put a downer on the night. No-one likes a jobsworth, but I guess the vibe in there was just so good it could survive.
Dirty Revolution are the latest addition to the Rebel Alliance roster, and their first release on the label is due out on 10th May, and pre-orders are available. In an ever-tightening crowd, I caught a quick word from Punktastic’s Alex Hambleton. He’s got his hands on an advance copy and apparently Before the Fire is incredible. Stepping confidently out, all four of them head to toe in black, Dirty Revolution look a totally different beast to the band I watched open a Do the Dog show at the Rhythm Factory in 2008. Even then, though, as the newest act on that label, they looked like a really exciting prospect and a fantastic live band.
A more traditional, rootsy take on the punk/ska/reggae thing, Dirty Rev are a “classic” four-piece, drums, bass, and two guitars and vocals, and, where needed, a melodica. From that first EP It’s Gonna Get Dirty, they’re still playing I Love Reggae, which opens the set, and 50p: “this is a song about my arse”, surely the introduction of the night, if not the year. In it, for the record, Reb does sing about her booty. I’m sure you know that by now. Their songs have always been jammed with melody, and the jaunty, choppy guitar work is a treat: upstrokes shouldn’t be underestimated, and here they get to demonstrate exactly why they’re so skankable. Sometimes You’re Too Rude off the new record gets an airing too, and, by the time they wrap up with Before the Fire we’re a swaying, rocking, giddy mess. On the floor everybody’s moving too, and it’s not long gone nine. Gently sparkling with other people’s sweat and hungrily sucking in cold air in search of oxygen, the Borderline relaxes after a good, hard work out for its legs and readies itself to go one more time..
The Skints, predictably, are pretty much out of this world. Taking the stage underneath tourist town in the clammy, yet oppressively warm basement, packed with an adoring crowd, they set about finishing the night off in style. Emerging from behind a red velvet curtain always helps, I imagine.
And then there’s the songs. It’s been a hard weekend, and I’m so exhausted now I couldn’t put a setlist in order. The tough thing sometimes about writing afterwards is that at good shows a guy like me doesn’t want to be taking notes. Sick or not, I don’t think I’d have had a biro out tonight. There was no room apart from anything else.
Bright Girl turns up early, but it’s only been moments, if even that, that the Skints are on stage before the room is bobbing and weaving around, swaying joyously side to side and back and forth, shoulder to shoulder and wrapped in the heat and the rich, warm tunes. I’m shattered, and the show so rarely stopped that it’s a bit of a blur. At the point, though, where Josh teases “who can’t wait for summer?” and Jamie K starts to sing, the whole room bounces as one, and noone quite gets the “bom-bayyyy” bit right. No matter. Murderer, Roanna’s Song (and Sweat) and Change the Channel are in there and there’s one point where, right at the back of the room, when Marcia sings “I won’t hesitate..” for the first time, that I’d clapped my hand over my open mouth and was standing there totally agog and in awe. Yes, it was that good, chin on the floor good, and, for some, feet in the air good: we start to see crowd surfers diving full length from the stage. Most all of them seem to make it all the way back it’s so rammed down there, and then, somewhere after Murderer, right at the end, the stage is full of half the people from the pit. Two security types try to get on to get them down, but to begin with they can’t even get on there to get the people off. Contemplations of a Modern Rudeboy ends the show, but the Skints are begged back on to stage, having only got halfway off, in fairness, and perform Sociopath before the lights come on.
Once they are on, and it’s clear that nothing else is happening, we go our separate ways pretty quickly. In our almost trance-like state, there’s not much to grab your attention, really, or at least not much that could compete: I was totally knocked back by what I’d seen tonight, and that’s with being well aware of how good these bands actually are.
A couple of quick, spaced out, shuffling hugs, then, and, with the stairs to the exit right by the floor, it’s time to go. The room’s running out of air, after all, or, at least, there’s a lot of goldfish mouths about in the rapidly thinning crowd.
Me Vs Hero: on youtube.
Posted by jamie on Mar 14, 2010
Blackpool pop-punkers Me Vs Hero have a new youtube channel. It’s here.
Streetlight Manifesto: 99 Songs of Revolution
Posted by chips on Mar 14, 2010
Streetlight Manifesto have a new record, 99 Songs of Revolution: it’s 11 covers of songs by some of the artists that have influenced Streetlight over the years.
You can get a free mp3 from the record, go here. It’s Hell, by the way, by the Squirrell Nut Zippers. The full record is released on 16th March.
Zebrahead: UK dates (again)
Posted by chips on Mar 14, 2010
Zebrahead get on their plane for the UK tomorrow (Monday). Just an excuse to put the dates up again. The tour continues in Europe, and full dates are up on their myspace.
Apologies for having the dates written in American. Me’s a monkey who likes to ctrl-C.
March 16, 2010 - Southampton - Talking Heads
March 17, 2010 - London, UK - Islington Academy
March 18, 2010 - Yeovil, UK- Orange Box
March 19, 2010 - Peterborough, UK - Club Revolution
March 20, 2010 - Poole, UK - Chords (Shudder Charity Festival)
March 21, 2010 - Swindon, UK - Furnace
March 22, 2010 - Pontypridd, UK - Muni Arts Centre
March 23, 2010 - Birmingham, UK - Academy 2
March 24, 2010 - Norwich, UK - Waterfront
March 25, 2010 - Northampton, UK - Roadmender
March 26, 2010 - Manchester, UK - Academy 3 *SOLD OUT*
March 27, 2010 - Newcastle, UK - Academy 2 *SOLD OUT*
March 28, 2010 - Nottingham, UK - *VENUE UPGRADE* to Rescue Rooms
March 29, 2010 - Glasgow, UK - *VENUE UPGRADE* to Garage
March 30, 2010 - Leeds, UK - Cockpit
