Month: April 2021

Skism – 2021

Got a CD in the post box the other day. It’s been on deck in the CD player for a week or so now. Finally enough of a lull in the day job to throw a few words at it. A paucity of words leaves them hanging though, right?

Here’s some quick thoughts about Skism and their new release “2021”. A blast of old school (which I realize is a term I use a lot) street punk from NYC. 

Loud, gritty, in-your-face Punk / Hardcore / Oi

The lyric run a course from the murderous lament of “Eyes”, into the markedly anti-Nazi “U.S. Nazis Fuck Off and Die”, to the questioning retorts of “Agent Orange” and “Trioxin”. 

Things delve into the personal with “Knocked Down With A 40”, a song, as it turns out, about being knocked down with a 40. The final track, something we all can relate to, “Outside the Club” brings how the feeling of being shut out in the cold. 

You know what street punk sounds like? The drums pound. The guitar chugs. The bass rumbles. The vocals are somewhere between a sing and a shout. You know what you like. So check out Skism on all the streaming platforms. (but especially Bandcamp)

Tracks:
1. Pain and Pain 02:12
2. Eyes 02:24
3. U.S. Nazies Fuck Off and Die 01:32
4. Agent Orange 01:46
5. Trioxin 01:52
6. Knocked Down With A 40 01:26
7. Nomad 02:08
8. In Control (Eyes Reprise) 02:00
9. Outside the Club 01:29

Bio:
Skism is an anti-social, angst ridden, hyperactive punks who pound out driving music with screaming vocals, fast guitars and pounding drums, with old school punk, hardcore and oi influences, featuring players who played in The Krays, American Eagle, WRENCH and Mad Mulligans. 

Cheers!
Jerry Actually

Quicksand Share New Single – Inversion

QUICKSAND
SHARE NEW SINGLE
“INVERSION”
WATCH | LISTEN

QUICKSAND BY ANNETTE RODRIGUEZ

New York City post-hardcore band Quicksand have made their long-awaited return with the new single “Inversion.” The track follows the band’s successful album from 2017, ‘Interiors.’ Thoughtful, driving, and powerful, like the long-lived band itself, the song has an emotional resonance that is only amplified by the events of the past stressed-out, locked-down year.

“The music to ‘Inversion’ was very squatter punk at first,” says frontman Walter Schreifels. “To get something going vocally I started singing in an English Niel Nausea kind of vibe (Nausea are a peace/squatter punk band from the Lower East Side of Manhattan). The lyrics reflect the push and pull of being very connected through technology while at the same time being the most emotionally isolated group of humans to ever walk the planet and fun stuff like that.” 

Today, the band have launched a colorful video with artwork by Japanese artist Tetsunori Tawaraya animated by Los Angeles-based artist Rob Fidel. Check it out here.

CHECK OUT “INVERSION”
WATCH | LISTEN

Formed in 1990, Quicksand made their full-length debut with Slip—a 1993 release praised by The A.V. Club as “a nearly flawless record that combines the irony and heaviness of Helmet with Fugazi’s penchant to dismantle sound in the most energetic ways.” Arriving in 1995, their sophomore album Manic Compression appeared at #1 on the Top Five Best Post-Hardcore Records list from LA Weekly (who noted that “if there were any justice in the world, Quicksand would have been the biggest underground band of the ’90s”).

Throughout the early ’90s, Quicksand toured with bands like Helmet, Fugazi, Rage Against the Machine, and Anthrax. After disbanding in late 1995, they reunited for a one-night performance in June 2012. They’ve since appeared at festivals like FYF Fest and Pukkelpop, and in 2013 embarked on their first North American tour in 15 years. In 2017, the band released their long-awaited third-studio album Interiors which saw Consequence of Sound praise the band for their sound “that nobody else has been able to replicate in all the time they’ve been gone.”

Quicksand is frontman/guitarist Walter Schreifels, bassist Sergio Vega, and drummer Alan Cage.

ARTWORK

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON QUICKSAND, VISIT:
WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM | TWITTER