The Dirty Nil, Ontario’s rock ‘n’ roll torchbearers, are emerging with their fourth album, Free Rein to Passions, and it’s a return to a more reckless approach for the JUNO Award-winning trio. In order to incinerate their apparatus, they had to destroy it completely. After experimenting with some smoother, more radio-friendly sounds on 2021’s Fuck Art, The Nil promptly returned to the studio and got back to the basics of what their band is about at its core—thrashy riffs, bashed out drums, and levels-to-the-max volume.
Set for release on May 26th, 2023 via Dine Alone Records, click here to pre-order Free Rein to Passions now.
“Fuck Art had a lot of singing on it. There were not a lot of parts where you could just jam out on riffs,” says frontman Luke Bentham. “Free Rein to Passions is a bit of a nastier record where we didn’t sweat the small insignificant details. If it sounded cool, we went with it.” The band pays homage to some of their loudest, gnarliest influences on Free Rein to Passions, with subtle nods to everything from Power Trip to the Jesus Lizard.
On the album’s catchy first single, “Nicer Guy,” The Nil reminds listeners that they also still wield the power to stitch a perfect, infectious pop hook into their rock fabric. “I’d been sitting on some of the guitar parts for a long time, husbanding them for a suitably righteous song,” Bentham explains. “In the depths of lockdown, I dusted them off and came up with the words. It was a happy day in an otherwise lonely time. Special shoutout to Kyle‘s extremely tight playing and Sam‘s stampeding elephant bass. Sincerity can feel uncomfortable, but this one feels right.”
Watch the accompanying “Nicer Guy” music video now.
New Jersey crust-ska punks Public Serpents (featuring former Choking Victim member Skwert Gunn) released their new song and video “When Pigs Lie” today. The video was shot and edited by Benjamin Clapp. Watch it below.
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.”
“[Gold Chain Punk] finds freedom in nihilism and something almost like joy in the idea that if people will try to punish you anyway, you may as well do whatever the fuck you want “- Consequence #11 of 50 Best Songs Of The Year So Far
“On their groundbreaking new album, the Philadelphia hardcore group mixes actionable rhetoric, absurdist humor, and breathtaking vulnerability like no band before them” – Pitchfork ‘Best New Music’
“It’s the album I’ve gone to over and over again to fill my soul back up when I’m depleted” – NPR
“One of the most thrillingly thrashy, brilliantly based, and convincingly punk hardcore albums in years” – SPIN
“Hardcore can sometimes be a formulaic thing, and it can also be an oppressively white thing, but Soul Glo push back hard against the idea that it has to be either”- Stereogum
“It’s the most breath-snatchingly thrilling and brain-nourishingly on-point hardcore album not just of 2022, but also in recent memory” – Revolver
Soul Glo has had a whirlwind year so far with no plans of coming up for air. Hot on the heels of their freshly released album ‘Diaspora Problems’, today they share the music video for opening track “Gold Chain Punk (whogonbeatmyass?).” The scathing circle-pit ready song “finds freedom in nihilism,” via Consequence 50 Best Songs Of The Year roundup. “Something like joy in the idea that if people will try to punish you, you may as well do whatever the fuck you want.”
The experimental group is known for their inventive fusion of genres and while the evolution of their sound is inimitable, small-minded music fans desperately want to put them in a box. The music video satirizes the frustrations of being lumped together with other bands and artists due to the color of their skin when individually, they hold it down on their own. Vocalist Pierce Jordan, one of AV Club’s ‘20 Best Frontpeople In Modern Rock,’ explains,
“If you’re a Black person who is into any kind of hard rock, you’ve probably had a white person try to talk to you about Bad Brains. We are constantly compared to them. Apparently, I even look like HR. Can I fuckin live?”
Conceptualized over the course of 2016 to 2021, Diaspora Problems was recorded in an unfinished warehouse and the band’s practice space during the hottest parts of summer 2021. The self-produced albumexplores an artist and individuals’ self-doubt and self-hate, past traumas that can only be worked out in adulthood, financial instability and how it affects an artist, the effects of institutional and state violence, and the power of community that delivered Soul Glo through each struggle the band has endured from their inception and beyond.
‘Diaspora Problems’ has been noted in almost every major music publication, from a coveted 8.5 from Pitchfork to the mid-year “Best Of” lists in Stereogum, Consequence, Pitchfork, Revolver, and NPR. Celebratedamongst established peers of all genres, Soul Glo has cemented themselves as an anomaly in the hardcore genre. The timeliness and significance that the album holds in the world of music has the makings of AOTY written all over it.
Soul Glo is going on tour for the rest of the summer with Show Me The Body, kicking off in NYC and ending in Louisville, KY while playing some one-off shows along the way. On August 26th they’re opening for Turnstile and My Chemical Romance, and then heading off to sets at Furnace Fest and Desert Daze. You can find tickets here: https://bnds.us/jkpc2o
Soul Glo Tour Dates
Sun-Jul 10 Queens, NY Knockdown Center (The Ruins) *
Tue-Jul 12 Columbus, OH Rumba Café *^
Wed-Jul 13 Kansas City, MO recordBar *^
Thu-Jul 14 Colorado Springs, CO The Black Sheep *^
Sat-Jul 16 Los Angeles, CA CORPUS Presents: LA IN BROAD DAYLIGHT
Sun-Jul 17 Tijuana, BC Black Box
Mon-Jul 18 San Fernando, CA The Midnight Hour Records
Tue-Jul 19 Los Angeles, CA Zebulon
Wed-Jul 20 Phoenix, AZ Valley Bar *^
Fri-Jul 22 Dallas, TX CheapSteaks *^
Sat-Jul 23 Austin, TX Sunny’s Backyard *^
Sun-Jul 24 Houston, TX The End *^
Mon-Jul 25 Oklahoma City, OK 89th Street
Tue-Jul 26 Albuquerque, NM Launchpad *^
Wed-Jul 27 Tucson, AZ Club Congress *^
Thu-Jul 28 Bakersfield, CA Temblor Brew *^
Fri-Jul 29 Oakland, CA Starline Social Club *^
Sat-Jul 30 Santa Cruz, CA Santa Cruz Vets Hall
Mon-Aug 1 Reno, NV Holland Project *^
Wed-Aug 3 Seattle, WA Madame Lou’s *^
Thu-Aug 4 Vancouver, BC Fortune Sound Club *^
Fri-Aug 5 Tacoma, WA Real Arts Tacoma *^
Sat-Aug 6 Happy Valley, OR Pickathon 2022
Mon-Aug 8 Salt Lake City, UT Beehive *^
Tue-Aug 9 Denver, CO Larimer Lounge *^
Thu-Aug 11 Louisville, KY Portal *^
Fri-Aug 12 Morgantown, WV 123 Pleasant Street *^
Fri-Aug 26 Raleigh, NC PNC Arena %
Sun-Sep 25 Birmingham, AL Furnace Fest
Sep 30 – Oct 2 Perris, CA Desert Daze
w/ Show Me The Body *
w/wifigawd ^
w/ MCR + Turnstile %
About Soul Glo
Soul Glo is Pierce Jordan (vocals), GG Guerra (bass, vocals, programming), and TJ Stevenson (drums). Fusing hip-hop, hardcore, and punk, the Philly outfit are fearless in their approach and even more ruthless in their delivery. Injecting their colorful narratives into predominantly white spaces, Soul Glo has the scope and ability to transcend outer appearances in hardcore music. We’re at the precipice of a sonic revolution as a higher variance of people find room for themselves and the expression of their lived experience within the genre.
Check out the new video from The Slackers for “Hanging On.” Their new album “Don’t Let The Sunlight Fool Ya” will be out on April 15th, from which they have already released singles “Windowland” and “I Almost Lost You”. They previously released their self-titled album in 2016.
So Cal punks Moonraker who jokingly call themselves “The Michael Jordan of Baseball of Punk Rock” have released a new single + video for “Crickets” a song off their upcoming album ‘The Forest,’ out May 13 on Tiny Dragon Music / Bearded Punk Records / Bypolar Records / No Time Records.
Philly based hardcore band Soul Glo have released their latest single, “Driponomics,” ahead of their fourth studio album Diaspora Problems due out on March 25th.
This scathing commentary on capitalism and economic disparity is contrasted with the prevalence of hypebeast culture, listing popular designers and brands in between screeching distortion and a heavy bassline. The track also features a verse from fellow Philly native, rapper Mother Maryrose.
Soul Glo explains that “Driponomics is for everyone doing what they have to do to get by and to get fly. Oftentimes lower-income and working class people are criticized for how they survive out here, especially in times of crisis. People are getting more desperate but simultaneously more creative with their income options, and this song is a salute to that. Love to Mother Maryrose whose verse on this song is one of the best moments on our album.”
Presented in a hardcore whirlwind of justified rage, Soul Glo’s sharp lyrics are always thought provoking and politically charged, with lines like: “Ain’t nothin’ as ugly as a balance in the red / I want bands on every politician’s head”
Fusing hip-hop, hardcore, and punk, the Philly outfit are fearless in their approach and even more ruthless in their delivery. Injecting their colorful narrative into predominantly white spaces, Soul Glo has the scope and ability to transcend outer appearances in hardcore music. With the release of Diaspora Problems, the band is not aiming for it to be the only album like it that exists, but instead one of many entries in a new dawn for rock music.
Soul Glo is Pierce Jordan (vocals), GG Guerra (bass, vocals, programming), and TJ Stevenson (drums).
New York City, NY — February 3, 2022 —New York City reggae legends THE SLACKERS are debuting the song and video for “Don’t Let The Sunlight Fool Ya” on Brooklyn Vegan which is also the title track from their brand new upcoming album. This record, their first in 7 years and 15th full-length in their career, is now available on Pirates Press Records’ webstore.
Frontman Vic Ruggiero describes the writing process and meaning behind the song: “Yeah, it’s the springtime…it looks really nice thru the window. The sun feels good… You go outside and all of a sudden you realize it’s winter still… It’s like you thought you put sugar in your coffee, but it was salt.”
(Clip from the video for “Don’t Let The Sunlight Fool Ya”)
Rolling Stone recently hailed The Slackers as “THE legendary New York City ska band” and this is by no means hyperbole. Having formed in 1991, The Slackers released their debut album in 1996, Better Late Than Never, and then signing with Epitaph Records and releasing their breakthrough full-length, Redlight, in 1997. From there, the band traveled the world and began to develop a prolific audience through their fun and energetic shows.
14 full-lengths later, countless EPs, singles, and touring all around the world playing to thousands and thousands of fans from Tokyo, Japan to their hometown of New York City, The Slackers return with Don’t Let The Sunlight Fool Ya. Marc Wasserman, author of “Skaboom! An American Ska & Reggae Oral History,” says The Slackers’ “…songs are about real darkness, depression, anger, sadness and loneliness, and some of the political songs as well are pretty vibrant.”
“In the middle of 2020, every time we started doing a livestream, we would stay after and start recording new music. By the middle of 2021, we had an album recorded. A lot of these tunes like “Don’t Let The Sunlight Fool Ya” were written right after we had just gotten out of lockdown,” says saxophonist Dave Hillyard.
The New York Times dubbed the Slackers part of ‘the sound of New York,’ and The Slackers just keep at it, only improving with age and experience – writing better and better songs, and continuing to build and strengthen that global Slackers family. Washington Post has described the impact The Slackers have left on the ska scene: “The Slackers have become the elder statesmen in American ska music, setting the stage for a new generation of musicians and a thriving scene….they remain at the top of their game.”
After releasing several singles with Pirates Press Records (“Windowland/I Almost Lost You,” “Nobody’s Listening/Sleep Outside,” and “Love I Bring), The Slackers are once again hitting the road all year long to support a new set of tunes and once again have fans around the world put on their dancing shoes for another evening with these renowned musicians. This album is a testament to the age and experience this band has accrued over their 30+ year career. These special tunes will undoubtedly travel far and wide, just like the band will, performing these songs in a club near you!
(The cover art for Don’t Let The Sunlight Fool Ya)
Catch The Slackers on tour: 03/30/2022 – Harrisburg, PA – Stage On Herr 4/07/2022 – Rehoboth Beach, DE – Arenas 4/08/2022 – Virginia Beach, VA – Bunker Brewpub 4/10/2022 – Atlanta, GA – Masquerade 5/7/2022 – Jersey City, NJ – White Eagle Hall 5/12/2022 Ottawa, ON – Brass Monkey 5/13/2022 Montreal, QC – Cafe Campus 5/14/2022 Quebec City, QC – L’Antibar 5/17/2022 Salt Lake City, UT – Commonwealth Room 5/18/2022 Denver, Co – Oriental Theater 5/20/2022 – Dallas, TX – Three Links 5/21/2022 – Houston, TX – Scout Bar 5/22/2022 – San Antonio, TX – Rockbox 5/24/2022 – Albuquerque, NM – Launchpad 5/27/2022 – Flagstaff, Az – Yucca Room 5/28/2022 – Phoenix, Az – Crescent Ballroom 9/26/2022 – Birmingham, UK – Hare and Hounds 9/27/2022 – Manchester, UK – Retro 9/28/2022 – Huddersfield, UK – Parish 9/30/2022 – London, UK – Underworld 10/1/2022 – Leeds, UK – Brudenell Social Club 10/2/2022 – Newcastle, UK – Think Tank 10/3/2022 – Bristol, UK – Exchange 10/4/2022 – Antwerp, Belgium – Kavka 10/6/2022 – Haarlem, Netherlands – Patroonaat 10/7/2022 – Den Haag, Netherlands – Paard 10/8/2022 – Sittard, Netherlands – Ernestos 10/11/2022 – Zurich, Switzerland – Komplex 10/12/2022 – Munich, Germany – Feierwerk 10/13/2022 – Vienna, Austria – Arena 10/15/2022 – Sluderno, Italy – Loki 10/16/2022 – Nuremberg, Germany – Desi 10/17/2022 – Hannover, Germany – Lux 10/18/2022 – Berlin, Germany – S036 10/19/2022 – Hamburg, Germany – Molotov 10/21/2022 – Koln, Germany – Gebaude 9 10/22/2022 – Arlon, Belgium – L’entrepot
The Slackers are: Vic Ruggiero – vocals, organ Agent Jay – guitar Dave Hillyard – saxophone Glen Pine – trombone, vocals Marcus Geard – bass Ara Babajian – drums
