Berlin skate punker’s Hit The Dirt have released a lyric video for their song “<3 Social Chlamedia”. The track appeared on their Six Pack EP that was released earlier this year via High End Denim Records.
The band had this to say about the song: “<3 Social Chlamedia is a song about how our phones, social media and the modern digital world in general has taken over our lives. From the moment we wake up until the moment we go to sleep, we are mostly addicted to this crazy digital world inside of our phones.”
I’m listening to Rage & Ignorance, the debut full-length by Montreal punk rockers Conditions Apply. 14 tracks of angry, snotty, riff heavy rock and roll. The band blends a lot of sub-genres into the mix: punk, hardcore, bits of metal. It’s worth your time to check this out.
It’s all you can really ask for in a punk rock record, short catchy songs, great guitar chug, driving rhythm, and vocal snarl that remains articulate. I am a fan, as always, of the trio format. I think it delivers the stripped down, concise nature that drives punk rock, at least the punk that I’m into.
I’ll keep this brief, but seriously check this band out, because Rage & Ignorance is a kick ass album.
Cheers! Jerry Actually
Tracks: 1. Bulletproof Boots 02:09 2. Watching It All Crumble 01:26 3. Consolation Prize 02:41 4. Who’s The Victim 01:34 5. Carrot Meets Sticks 01:49 6. Sketchy Oi! 01:11 7. The Mad Dog 02:04 8. Time To Get Loose 02:36 9. Destroy My Quiet 01:29 10. Of Things 02:00 11. Small Print 01:33 12. Sentimental Fiction 01:52 13. 2 Words 1 Finger 02:00 14. Angry All The Time 01:49
Bio: Conditions Apply began in 2019. Playing a few shows before the world shut down, the three-piece have been making up for lost time by recording a debut full-length album, shooting a video and making a name for themselves as one of Montreal’s most exciting live punk bands.
Melding hardcore-punk with aspects of oi! and street-punk, adding melody and blistering guitar leads, Conditions Apply have taken different genres and created a sound all their own.
The members started playing and touring in the early 90’s in punk bands Lumpin Proletariat and All The Answers. They’ve continued making music throughout the 2000’s in such bands as Ballast, …And The Saga Continues, Mental Fix and Hard Charger.
After putting out their video single, Bulletproof Boots, Conditions Apply are set to release their debut album Rage & Ignorance on November 22, 2022.
SLUDGEWORTH, CHICAGO PUNK PIONEERS, TO RELEASE ’95 COMPILATION, LOSERS OF THE YEAR, ON VINYL FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME
For the uninitiated,Sludgeworth are Chicago punk pioneers from the 1980’s that released a posthumous collection/discography album on Lookout Records back in the day — and it sold tens of thousands of copies, which was impressive for a defunct band. With members of Screeching Weasel, they had obvious leanings towards melodic punk, but they also had a quintessential Midwest sound mixed in with some post-punk. Think Naked Raygun and Fugazi.
And now, for the first time ever, Red Scare Industries is releasing Sludgeworth’s first and only LP, Losers of the Year, on vinyl and streaming services. The CD/digital version is getting two previously unreleased tracks: “To Be The Same” and “Here For A While.”
The reissue also comes with live photos from back in the day and liner notes featuring contributions from Naked Raygun’s Jeff Pezzati, Rise Against’s Joe Principe, Mikey Erg, Dillinger Four’s Patrick Costello, and more. It comes out on Friday, December 9 (pre-order).
“This has been in the works for well over 5 years. I know Dan (Sludgeworth singer) from The Methadones records we did. He gave me the green light, but it took ages to track down the audio for this. When I finally had the good sense to contact Chrisser (Appelgren, President/Owner of Lookout Records) he immediately wrote back that he had one last shoe box of tapes, but it was unlikely. Minutes later I got an email that was basically, ‘Ope, I’ll be damned, it’s in here!’ He overnighted me the DAT tape and that was the first promising sign! He’s one of the real heroes of this salvage project. Something else I found out: not easy to transfer a DAT tape these days! I know all sortsa fancy studios, but no one can keep a machine in working order because they’re impossible to maintain. And since THE VERY LAST copy of the master audio were in my hands, I wasn’t about to put it in the mail. Next stroke of luck was that I learned Arik from Creep Records still had a working machine and he hooked me up. He’s hero #2 in this tale! When we were transferring files he was like, ‘Damn, this is good!’ Yet another promising sign! Obviously the art was lost to the winds and there’s literally no band pic or promo shot, so Eric from Wall of Youth had his work cut out for him, but he pulled it off. The final package came out great: we got a buncha live shots and some blurbs from Sludgeworth’s contemporaries. Folks like Jeff from Naked Raygun, Joe from Rise Against, Mikey Erg, Patrick from Dillinger Four, etc. It took some time to cobble together, but I think people will be stoked to finally have a vinyl copy of this.”– Toby, Red Scare
1. Waste It Away 2. Someday 3. Anytime 4. Only One 5. Another Day 6. I Analyze 7. Never Say Never 8. Follow 9. Over And Over 10. She’s Not Disposable 11. Cry Baby 12. Nearest One To Stand Behind 13. Angry Man 14. Two Feet On The Ground 15. You And I 16. To Be The Same* 17. Here For A While* *CD Only Bonus Tracks
I’m always a little more interested in music when it’s happening in seasonally cold and unfashionable places, so I was pretty excited to receive the link for “This is Fine” and see that CF98 hail from Poland. Proto-punk legend Ian Hunter often spoke of the magic of these parts of the world after touring with Mott the Hoople in the 70s. He noticed that their weekday shows in central parts of Western continents were always packed out with people having a blast, whereas fans often appeared too cool to outwardly enjoy themselves during their more high profile gigs in London, New York, and LA. This was the inspiration for the song “Cleveland Rocks”, which was later covered by Presidents of the United States of America, and became the well known theme song for The Drew Carey Show. Ian referred to Ohio affectionately as “The Poland of America”, making the point that both places were relatively flat and knew how to party. I think what he was getting at was that rock and roll is better when it’s unpretentious and fun, which is something people from these locales are particularly adept at.
A little Discogs research shows that this is the band’s sixth full length, and that they’ve already been at it nearly 20 years. In every photo of them I’ve come across they appear to be making each other laugh, and genuinely look like old friends. They haven’t run out of ideas for great songs, however, and man are they tight! They have that flawless poppy technical precision that avoids sounding metallic, much like Chad Price era ALL. Albeit with an excellent female vocalist, CF98 sound like a cross between Rad Owl and Vanilla Pod, but comparisons could also be drawn to No Use For a Name in regards to how catchy these songs are. They wouldn’t be out of place stateside on Fat’s roster, or in the UK on Brassneck or Boss Tuneage, both in style and quality of the product.
The lead off track “Double Sunrise” is one of those songs that not only rips, but also self-references the band, touring, and how much they appreciate what they get to do together. I love songs that do this, much in the same way I enjoy reading autobiographies or watching documentaries about bands I’m interested in. Although on a smaller scale in a song, it gives the listener some buy-in with the characters involved, and ultimately makes you care more about what you’re hearing. Thematically it brings to mind “An Indie Rock Daydream” by Sicko, “Victory Lap” by Riverboat Gamblers, and probably like 50% of all the songs by Bouncing Souls. It’s a great song, and one that’s hard not to put on repeat.
Thankfully, the album doesn’t let up from there and gives us another 13 rippers over the course of the next half an hour. There really isn’t a skippable track on here, but some other favorites include “Catastrophist”, “Love Is Never Wrong”, and the album closer, “One Day At A Time”. I’d love to get my hands on a physical copy of this one, so here’s to hoping there’s some US distribution.
–Zack Akenson
Track Listing: 01 – Intro 02 – Double Sunrise 03 – She Doesn’t Like 04 – Catastrophist 05 – Plot Twist 06 – Clever 07 – Better Than Cocaine 08 – Love Is Never Wrong 09 – Sad But True 10 – I’m So Tired 11 – Fuck You 12 – Infinity Stones 13 – Get Old Nicely 14 – One Day At A Time
Celebration Summer hail from Washington DC and the name, one assumes, is a tip of the hat to Husker Du’s seminal “Celebrated Summer” and the Revolution Summer movement from their hometown. Both of which appear to have heavily influenced and helped shape their musical journey.
I was stoked to hear news of their forthcoming debut long player “Patience in Presence” and when the opportunity to review this one presented itself, I jumped at it. Even in this digital age it can still take what seems like an eternity for music to traverse the huge distance between the U.S. and Scotland, so being late to this particular party means their brilliant debut e.p. “Against the Gun” still features heavily in my current listening.
“Patience in Presence” is a rock-solid collection of eleven tracks that paint a picture of the challenges of living life through these troubled, divided and uncertain times post Trump and post pandemic. The album includes the two choicest cuts from the aforementioned debut e.p. and in this case that’s a good thing as those songs really warrant more attention. The fact that this album is being put out on A-F Records in the U.S should give the band a well-deserved opportunity to reach a much wider audience for this one, and boy do they deserve it. No disrespect to Shield who put out previous releases and are putting out the Album in Europe.
Musically, there are obvious similarities with Leatherface, Hot Water Music and Tiltwheel amongst others. The pounding rhythms, melodic bass lines, tight drumming, hooks a plenty and with subtle progression often eschewed in favour of a more angular style which is topped off with poignant lyrics that are times angst ridden, self-doubting, sensitive, full of raw emotion and politically charged and delivered with a fantastic gruff rasping vocal.
The album kicks off with the title track, the instruments announce themselves one by one and we hear the lyrics of someone feeling trapped and struggling to cope with the burden of a weight on their shoulders unsure when to act, when to stay or when to go. Next up is the more up-tempo “Disconnected” which reminds us of the new normal we lived through when the lifestyles we all took for granted were, at least temporarily, taken from us by a world-wide pandemic and how much we miss and rely on those contacts with family and friends.
Without letting up we reach my personal favourite, “Bitter End”. This song is about the challenges of trying to make a relationship work rather than giving up and the one that hooked me on first play with its infectious riffs, melodies and sing-a-long chorus, this is Celebration Summer at their absolute best.
The highlights on this album are many and another notable track is the more melancholy “The Listener” which wouldn’t be out of place with the latter-day Leatherface of The Last and The Stormy Petrel.
This is quite a long album with only one song coming in at under three minutes and the longest, “Against the Gun” clocking in at just over six minutes. It is six minutes well spent though as we hear how the singer perceives he is viewed by those in society and how that affects his own self esteem but how he won’t blink and back down from it. Is it paranoia or is it real and driven by the divisions in the world we live?
The Album closes out with an absolutely stellar cover of the Tiltwheel song “Hold my hand to make them go away”. I’m not usually a huge fan of cover versions however Celebration Summer have nailed a couple of notable covers now.
As huge Leatherface fan this style of music is always going to appeal to me so this album was always going to get a solid rating from me and this is a solid 8/10 and probably my favourite album of the year so far and I hope to see them over touring the UK on the back of this release.
1. Patience In Presence 4:05 2. Disconnected 3:20 3. Bitter End 3:17 4. Silly Me 3:33 5. The Listener 4:02 6. Fraud 2:34 7. Resin 3:00 8. Take My Love 3:17 9. Against The Gun 6:22 10. A Good Year to Forget 3:46 11. Hold My Hand to Make Them Go Away 4:25
Patience In Presence is due for release in the U.S. on A-F records later on this month with limited edition vinyl release in some lovely colours to follow mid-October. For those in Europe the vinyl on Shield Recordings has been delayed and is on pre-order for dispatch in December.
Checkout Future Considerations, the third release from Trashed Ambulance. It’s out now on Thousand Island Records. So welcome to 12 punk rock tracks with no shortage of melody and pop songwriting sensibilities.
Hailing from Red Deer, AB, Canada Future Considerations is the first album with the current lineup. According to the bandcamp blurb, it’s ” Inspired by the likes of Pulley, Face to Face, and the Flatliners, Trashed worked with Casey Lewis from Belvedere to bring the world 33 minutes of angry yet hopeful punk anthems!”
This is a solid, well recorded punk rock album. The tracks are mid to uptempo and hover mostly below the three minute mark, as they should. Hit up their bandcamp page and check ’em out. It’s good stuff.
Cheers! Jerry Actually
Tracks:
56 02:04
Menace 02:53
Ecnalubma 01:26
Stalk in the Park (featuring Robbie Morön and Émilie Plamondon) 03:04
Bottleneck (featuring Alex Goldfarb) 02:26
Blip on the Radar 03:33
Gumshoes 02:00
Filtered 03:11
Melting Pot 02:27
Hopeless 02:40
Tyrants 01:54
Next Door to Nothing (featuring Chris Kreuger) 05:34
Street Punk Veterans THE CASUALTIES Unleash Hell On Their THRASH BASH 2022 TOUR!
Los Angeles, CA – The Casualties have long been known for being one of the most raucous and rowdy punk rock bands around today. Their live performances always teeter on the edge of chaos but the band – which consists of vocalist David Rodriguez, Jake Kolatis on guitar, Marc Eggers on drums and Rick Lopez on bass – is somehow able to keep things under just enough control to deliver their anti-fascist, anti-authoritarian, pro-real punk rock message loud and clear!
Fresh off their All Out Tour II, The Casualties are returning to the road for a series of select dates on the east coast. Be sure to catch the band’s special opener for the Canadian leg, power trio Deadwolff!
“fast, snotty old-school melodic hardcore… even if these are middle-aged guys with decades in the game, they still bring that fired-up teenage rage” – Stereogum
“a melodic hardcore ripper that sounds like the exact middle ground between Lifetime and Minor Threat” – Brooklyn Vegan
Today, Beach Rats drop their debut album Rat Beat via Epitaph Records. An impressive lineup of punk rock lifers, the band is comprised of vocalist Ari Katz (Lifetime,) guitarist Pete Steinkopf (Bouncing Souls,) bassist Bryan Keinlen (Bouncing Souls,) guitarist Brian Baker (Bad Religion, Minor Threat) & Danny Windas on drums. Not wanting to take themselves too seriously, the band formed merely over a love of the genre. These are veterans of hardcore punk having fun and trying replicate the feeling and sound of what it was like to make punk music in the 80’s.
“You’re gonna get authentic punk and hardcore from BEACH RATS because we are all from the 80’s,” Bryan Kienlen comments. “It’s literally taking it back to some of our biggest influences like Negative Approach and Poison Idea, and of course, Minor Threat.”
Beach Rats came to be as each member found themselves settled in the beach community of Asbury Park, New Jersey. The crew started up when Pete, Bryan and Ari performed punk covers together for the first time at the funeral for Vision front man, Dave Franklin. After releasing an EP in 2018 and performing a slew of high-energy shows, the global pandemic gave the band a reason to get back to recording. The majority of the songs on Rat Beat were conceptualized and rehearsed in the basement of Brian Baker’s home and then tracked by Eric Bennett at Lakehouse Studios in only one day.
Baker recalls, “We’d go down in the basement, put on masks, open the windows and we could play – within CDC guidelines! We couldn’t go to dinner at each other’s houses but we could practice.”
From the kick-off of “Bikes Out” and “Dress for Sick Sesh” to the roughshod melodicism of “Clorox Boys” or “Heavy Conversation” Rat Beat is an in-the moment snapshot of the five members’ distinct styles with no self-editing or second guessing. “The song ‘Summer’s End’ sums up a lot of what was going on for us when we were recording,” admits Ari Katz. “It was the end of the season which coincided with a lot of things that were ending in my life. It was fun to weave in that kind of imagery. Closing the beach, the town, switching over from the summer people to the faces you see in the winter and how that mirrors what was going on personally. In that sort of in-the-moment-ness of BEACH RATS, there’s an undeniable honesty.”
Handheld are a friendly looking punk band from Kitchener, Ontario. When I saw their picture I thought to myself, “They seem fine”. After seeing the music video for “Leaving Candyland,” off their forthcoming album, that feeling only intensified. Before we get into the music, the band, and the history of Kitchener formerly being called Berlin before anti-German sentiment during World War I resulted in changing the name to a former British field marshal (we might not actually get to that part), let’s talk about this amazing music video in greater detail.
Both the song and the video pay homage to the peerless John Candy, who is a Canadian treasure of the highest order. If you don’t love John Candy, then you’re a bad person who hates punk, and must only be here for those stupid Google ads about that company who makes tech fiber cargo shorts with knife holsters. This video brings back to life many of John Candy’s best roles, with the band dressing up as Barf from Spaceballs, Uncle Buck, Del from Planes, Train, and Automobiles, and more. Famous scenes from these seminal films are reenacted, but with guitars. It’s well done, and a lot of fun to watch. The song itself is catchy early Fat style punk that should appeal to anyone who snowboarded with blue hair in the 90s. In particular I hear the first two Strung Out albums, but with some Blink 182 in there as well. It’s got the young goofiness of the latter, but also there are multiple kick drums firing off at rapid speed the whole time, bits of metallic noodling, and tons of dudes going, “Aaahhhh, laaahhh”. I think if you like either of those bands, you’ll like this record too. It’s got a lot of good things going for it. John Candy for one, it’s a comeback album (their first in 14 years, which I love), and they’re from non-Toronto Ontario, which has churned out some of the best punk rock the world has ever known.
These guys seem like they’re having a good time and actually like each other, which is something that always translates well into the music. Look at Oasis for example, they’re terrible. I bet catching Handheld live in their hometown, especially after a long hiatus, is not a bad way to spend a night out in Kitchener.
