Month: July 2012

BAD RELIGION BEGIN RECORDING NEW ALBUM

The visionary Los Angeles band Bad Religion has entered the studio to begin recording a brand new album. The yet unnamed work is being recorded at Joe Barresi’s JHOC studio and co-produced by band members Brett Gurewitz, Greg Graffin and Barresi.

The group reconvenes amidst a period of heightened activity. Singer-songwriter Greg Graffin is preparing for his second year of teaching evolution at Cornell University and is writing a new book “Population Wars” for St. Martins Press. Guitarist-songwriter Brett Gurewitz continues to shepherd his labels Epitaph and Anti- and recently received a prestigious Independent Spirit Award. Drummer Brooks Wackerman has been touring with Tenacious D and released a record by his band Kidneys. Throughout it all, the iconic band has performed throughout the world and appeared at the historic Reason Rally in Washington DC.

Formed in the suburbs of Los Angeles as disaffected teenagers, Bad Religion has generated numerous memorable hits and become synonymous with intelligent and provocative hook filled punk rock. This will be their 16th full length album.

For more information:
www.epitaph.com
www.badreligion.com

PROBLEMS – Make it Through the Night

© 2012 P.R.O.B.L.E.M.S.

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[rating:8/10]

Life is shitty. We all have problems. Life would be less shitty if we all had the new CD by Portland punk rock and rollers, P.R.O.B.L.E.M.S. ! (well, I suspect life would be piled with cash for the band if everyone in the world bought a copy of this, but I digress) Out in time for the summer west coast tour and the up and coming European tour, P.R.O.B.L.E.M.S has a shiny new compact disc available for your listening pleasure. (as a side note, I have no idea if P.R.O.B.L.E.M.S. stands for anything or if they fellas are just totally down with the full stop.)

Make it Through the Night is the latest release from P.R.O.B.L.E.M.S. The disc kicks down 18 tracks of sonic bombast that reminds me a combination of Zeke and Nerve Agents. For those of you that know (and enjoy) those other bands, I suspect that this is right up your alley. Technically, Make It Through The Night is 9 official tracks and 9 “Bonus” tracks of previously released material. Technically you could put it in a box and call it box set, so you do what you want with that information.

The important thing is that P.R.O.B.L.E.M.S. is badass and they have a pedigree to back that shit up. Some might dare to say they are a bit of a “Super Group”. Featuring former members of bands such as: Resist, Poison Idea, Detestation, The Weaklings, Masskontrol and Defiance might bring a certain amount of credibility to the aforementioned, but unlike other “Super Groups”, like the Damn Yankees, P.R.O.B.L.E.M.S. is not all about the douchebaggery. (as far as I can tell). There is another band I know of that has members of some of these same bands. Oh sure, they’re good, but not nearly as cool.

Some of the stand out tracks include the opener, “D.U.M.B” and track 6, Bad News. For the cover fans among you, there is also a great cover of The Cortinas “Fascist Dictator”.

The bottom line is that Portland, OR is still kicking out some hard rocking tunes and P.R.O.B.L.E.M.S is right there at its gritty rain-soaked core.

If you’re interested in picking up a copy of this disc, I suppose you could contact the band here: http://problemspdx.com/contact of course there is a link to their MySpace page, so I wouldn’t blame you if you thought they broke up half a decade ago.

–Jerry Actually

Teenage Bottlerocket-Freak Out!

I say it’s not your music, it’s my attitude.  That is the only way that I can explain my reluctance toward listening to Teenage Bottlerocket.  I think it goes all the way back to SXSW 2011 when Ben Weasel had a physical altercation with two female fans.  A lot has been said of that of course, and why would that have anything to do with it? Especially considering they were very outspoken about the incident and were very quick to drop out of Weaselfest.   Well I was a fan of Screeching Weasel and couldn’t wait for the new album to come out (which I promptly sold), and I think I subconciously swore off any Ramone’s inspired pop-punk.

Fast forward to 2012 when Teenage Bottlerocket posted a stream of their first single from Freak Out, “I’m Done With Love.”  It caught my interest, and I even went back and listened to some of their older songs and I was hooked.  I am actually listening to it for a third time time today, and the thought of a fourth time just crept into my mind as I am currently listening to the final track “Go With The Flow” and the lyric “…I do as I feel like doing…(forgive me if I got that wrong)”  just inspired me to give it another go.

The other day I wrote a review of a new split from a couple Canadian hardcore bands, and while I did my best, hardcore is not my favourite punk genre, pop-punk is.  It is a combination of a lot of things, but mostly I love a good hook that I can sing along too.  Not to mention pop-punk is my style of choice while driving, I sing along, I do interpretive dances at times, and I drive equivalently fast as the music.

This last fact may get me into trouble as I drive across country this weekend and I head into Ontario where the Provincial Police and the 90 KM/H (approx 55 MPH) speed limit reign supreme.  Either way, it doesn’t matter much, songs like ” Who Killed Sensei”, “Freak Out”, “Mutilate Me”, and “Summertime” should fuel my driving and if I listen to it a compulsively as I have today, ensure that my fuel mileage isn’t as good as would be preferred.

Born Wrong/Kleins 96-Split 10″

I have a couple confessions to make, Hardcore is not my genre.  Even in times when I need to listen to something with hardcore’s intensity, the style is not my choice.  So when I was asked to review the new Born Wrong/Kleins 96 Split 10″ from Rebel Time Records I was a bit apprehensive because I hate not giving something a good review because I think the punk rock community has a lot of negativity in it, a lot of division where there should be unity.  So to help me prepare for writing the review I actually Wikipedia’d Hardcore.  I wanted to get a bit of history.  What I found was that the term Hardcore possibly originated from DOA’s 1981 album of the same name.  I guess I just found that a bit fitting considering BornWrong (Hamilton, On) and Kleins 96 (Regina,SK) are torchbearers for their countrymen’s scene.

My last confession for the night is that in a collection of 300+ punk albums,  this split is only the 3rd hardcore album in it (Triple Crossed, and Sick of it All’s Based on a True Story are the other two) so I don’t have a huge frame of reference from which to draw from.  When I Wikipedia’d Hardcore it also talked about the more technical aspects of the style, and while I read some of it, I didn’t take a whole lot away from that portion of the article, but what I can tell you is this, I enjoyed the 8 song album (4 by each group).  It contains all of the intensity and aggressiveness that I think I always assumed hardcore was supposed to have, while also having all the emphasis on rhythm, screamed vocals, and drop tempos into musical breakdowns (thanks Wikipedia) that Hardcore fan have become accustomed to hearing.

Highlights from the album include Kleins 96 “Eucharist” and Born Wrong’s “Burn a Debt” but for fans of this genre I don’t think there is a track that you could go wrong with.  Now when I need something to provide me with a little extra intensity, this is probably the album from my collection that I am going to turn to.

New Morning Glory Song!

Morning Glory’s debut Fat full length, Poets Were My Heroes, will be released on August 28th! A cathartic audio voyage from beginning to end. The album contains so many crescendos and opposing moments of reflection that when it came time to decide on which song best represented the album, we debated, hard…everyone had a favorite; but we settled on “Patiently” which does a nice job of representing the album as a whole. The verse is powered by strings (which is definitely different) and then the chorus brings a rollicking anthemic melody. It’s almost like a microcosm of the entire album. So, download it here, order your copy and get stoked to see them live! Preorders will receive a digital download link via email a week before release date. Read what Ezra from Morning Glory had to say about the song below:

 

Patiently… This is a kick ass song with a beautiful string section and it was one of the last songs we tracked for the new record; in part because it took a bit to save up for the string quartet. The words, especially the second verse, were written about an ex-gf who liked to destroy things, especially us. I hope she reads them one day. I really like this song, it’s got a beautiful staggered vocal section, a la “row, row, row your boat”, at around the 3 minute mark, which thoroughly frustrated Caleb, our violinist during the recording. This must be a great song cuz Fat picked it as the free download. It has a great melody and a lyrical tone which begs hope for everyone who feels like they do everything right even when no one is looking. We’ll definitely be playing it on our upcoming tour. In short, the whole record fucking sways and rocks and this is a good example of that cross section.

-Ezra Arrow Kire