Them Damned Young Livers – Psalms of Ill-Repute

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[rating:3.5/5]
© 2010 Them Damned Young Livers

Kansas City’s finest cow punks are back with a new one boys. Time to circle the pickup trucks, tap the kegs and have one hell of a throw down. I assure that it is exactly what Jesus would do. Psalms of Ill-repute picks up off where 2008’s Let The Sin Begin Leaves off, more or less hung over praying to the lord while drinking booze hoping to avoid that next DUI.

Where the current release takes a departure from previous material is in the raw DIY 60’s garage sound. This new, more rough hewn, sound is readily picked up on the first track. The swirling Hammond sounds on “White Bride Escort Service Inc.” primes the listener for a different TDYL experience. This is further augmented by the 70s rebel outlaw rocking of track 8 “Armed and Crazy”. But don’t fear, the same rowdy, drunken, preaching and rocking is still very much present in Psalms of Ill-repute.

The new disc delivers on 13 solid tracks of pasture-inspired booze-fueled rock and roll, the nefarious evil of which can only be tempered by desperate prayers and even more liquor. As a testament to the power of either the former or the latter, the songs of “Ill-repute”, while definitely more raw, are also better crafted. The combination of tighter composition and gritter production lends to on fine drinkin’ CD.

-Jerry Actually

For fans of: Hank III, Georgia Satellites, Reverend Horton Heat, Beer

Track Listing:
1. White Bride Escort Service Inc
2. Love Fight
3. Devil Out The Back
4. All Hell
5. Baby I’m Gone
6. Drinkin (Again)
7. Please Help Me Jesus (I Don’t Wanna Get Pulled Over Tonight)
8. Armed And Crazy
9. Please Stay
10. Georgia On A Fast Train
11. Bus Broke Down
12. Theme From Them Damned Young Livers (Another Song)
13. That Hip Hop You Speak Of

Knuckle Supper

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Alphar Publishing
© 2010, Drew Stepek

[rating:3/5]

Los Angeles, present day. Gangs run rampant. Sex, money and drugs are the only economics. Gruesome serial murders, rape and robbery defile every street corner. The festering odor of blood shit and puke foul the air. So, you might as, “what’s makes this any different than reality?”

This time the whole fucking mess is controlled by brutal junkie vampires!

Erase any pictures you have of Lestat and his white ruffled Victorian charm or Edward with his dreamy tween-heartthrob looks. The vampires of Knuckle Supper are hardcore junkies that rape rob and kill for blood and drugs.

Drew Stepek’s gory depiction of modern vampire life delivers the reader into a world of factional gangs vying for control of the streets and the life-forestalling drugs. There is no glamor and no hope for immortality, only the next fix. The grim tale in Knuckle Supper centers around what can be best thought of as a two-bit gang of punks, goths and misfits, The Knucklers. In particular their leader RJ, a violent and grimy punk and his protégé Dez, a quick-tempered goth.

At the outset, RJ and Dez brutally murder and consume a pimp and kidnap his underage prostitute, Bait (short for jailbait). The original idea is to have the hooker lead johns back to their house to make the quest for blood and heroin, the Knuckler drug of choice much more clean and efficient. (Incidentally, their drug of choice is heroin, injected into the victim and then consumed during the imminent death. The consumption often takes to form of ripping off the victims arm and draining the drug laced blood from the end of a severed finger, the knuckle supper, if you will.)

Unsure of his reasons why, even after numerous provocations, RJ can’t or won’t bring himself to kill one of his latest victim, the young hooker. It is almost as if there he has a small spark of humanity. The developing relationship between RJ and Bait begins to unravel his other friendships and alienates Dez to an alarming degree.

Things go from bad to worse when The Knucklers end up with a bag or ill-gotten heroin and decide to sell it from underneath its rightful owner. The world as they know it starts to unravel. Rival vampires begin to battle for control of Los Angeles. The Knucklers are in danger of their very un-lives at the hands of the controlling gang, The Battlesnakes. The downward spiral culminates in a series of not necessarily expected twists.

At any rate, I enjoyed the book. I will state that it isn’t for the faint of heart, there are some serious depictions of violence and sexual abuse throughout the novel that may best be avoided by the sensitive. However, if you’re willing to get past that, there is a pretty good read lodged within. Think to yourself, West Side Story with vampires on heroin and without the music, or maybe its more like The Warriors.

On more of a critical note, I think that the characters were a bit shallow. Or perhaps it was that only the central characters of RJ and Bait were painted with much depth. All the rest seem almost as extras. Outside of that my other major gripe is with editing.

I caught a few text/typo variety errors, no big deal. What bothered me was that every so often a sentence would make a startling drop in continuity as though I had skipped a sentence. On more than one occasion I had to read and re-read the preceding material to be sure that I hadn’t missed something. This was even more awkward when it happened on a page turn.
Without creating too much of a spoiler, Knuckle Supper is a dark portrayal of addiction and life outside of mainstream society. It is potentially and allegory of man’s own inhumanity and the dearth of justice for the denizens of the edges.

-Jerry Actually

Be in to win £50,000 with Rollercoaster Extreme

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Play Barclaycard’s Rollercoaster Extreme game. You could win an iPad, a trip to Las Vegas or £50,000*.

Barclaycard’s Rollercoaster Extreme is now even more exciting. As well as new multiplayer and ghost racing game functionality, we’re now available for download on the iPad! Even better, you can now also be in to win yourself an iPad, a trip to Las Vegas and even £50,000*!

Simply download Barclaycard’s Rollercoaster Extreme game for free, submit your top score to the Barclaycard Rollercoaster Facebook Leaderboard and you could be a big winner! Every month Barclaycard will be giving away an iPad to the player with the highest score for that month. They’ll also be sending the four all-time top scorers on a trip to Las Vegas for the Rollercoaster Extreme game playoffs. Once in Vegas they’ll play each other for the chance to win £50,000 at NYNY Hotel – which has its very own rollercoaster.

To re-cap the new and previous game features:

NEW. Multiplayer functionality, challenge the person next to you on all eight tracks
NEW. Ghost racing mode, try to beat the times of our top racers all over the world
Race around a 3D New York City
Unlock new areas in the game
Interact with the game environment on every ride
Tilt the screen to dodge obstacles or grab speed boosting energisers
Collect special Rollercoaster Extreme rider badges at every level

This new game is inspired by the Barclaycard Rollercoaster TV ad. If you missed it, you can check it out at www.youtube.com/barclaycardcreate. You’ll also find a demo of game there, so you can see just how fun it is!

Social Distortion Tour

SOCIAL DISTORTION ANNOUNCE JAN/FEB WEST COAST
HARD TIMES TOUR DATES

October 25, 2010 – Los Angeles, CA – Iconic Southern California rock ‘n’ roll band Social Distortion have announced a January/February west coast tour in support of their highly anticipated forthcoming album, Hard Times and Nursery Rhymes, which is scheduled for release on January 18. Touring in support will be Lucero and Chuck Ragan, with The Aggrolites playing select dates. Tickets will go on sale on Friday, October 29 and can be purchased through http://www.socialdistortion.com/tours/.

Social Distortion’s west coast run marks the first time since 2004/2005 the band has done a full tour of the region. The band is currently trekking across the country on a headlining US tour, ripping through classics and previewing songs from their long awaited new studio album, Hard Times and Nursery Rhymes, for diehard fans.

Their first album in over six years, Hard Times and Nursery Rhymes, builds on singer Mike Ness’ twin footings, one in the haunted American landscapes of Hank Williams and the other in the raw swagger of Exile-era Rolling Stones. While these twin pillars have always been behind Social Distortion’s anthemic songs, on Hard Times and Nursery Rhymes they come roaring to the fore, in one of the hardest rocking, most soulful, albums of Ness’ career. Hard Times and Nursery Rhymes’ first single, “Machine Gun Blues,” will be available for download exclusively through iTunes beginning November 16.
Fans and critics are taking notice as Social Distortion unveils new songs at shows across the country and west coast supporters are chomping at the bit to get in on the action. Don’t miss one of rock ‘n’ roll’s great live bands in a city near you!

###

Social Distortion Tour Dates:
1/20 – Las Vegas, NV – House of Blues (w/Lucero and Chuck Ragan (of Hot Water Music))
1/24 – Bakersfield, CA – Kern Fairgrounds Ex Hall #2 (w/Lucero and Chuck Ragan (of Hot Water Music))
1/25 – Ventura, CA – Ventura Theatre (w/Lucero and Chuck Ragan (of Hot Water Music))
1/27 – Los Angeles, CA – Hollywood Palladium (w/The Aggrolites and Chuck Ragan (of Hot Water Music))
1/31 – Modesto, CA – Centre Plaza (w/Lucero and Chuck Ragan (of Hot Water Music))
2/1 – Davis, CA – Davis Freeborn Hall (w/Lucero and Chuck Ragan (of Hot Water Music))
2/3 – San Francisco, CA – The Warfield (w/The Aggrolites and Chuck Ragan (of Hot Water Music))
2/8 – Portland, OR – Crystal Ballroom (w/The Aggrolites and Chuck Ragan (of Hot Water Music))
2/12 – Seattle, WA – Showbox SoDo (w/The Aggrolites and Chuck Ragan (of Hot Water Music))
2/15 – Reno, NV – Grand Sierra Theatre (w/Lucero and Chuck Ragan (of Hot Water Music))
2/16 – Fresno, CA – EOC Gym Events Center (w/Lucero and Chuck Ragan (of Hot Water Music))
2/19 – San Diego, CA – House of Blues (w/Lucero and Chuck Ragan (of Hot Water Music))
2/20 – San Diego, CA – House of Blues (w/The Aggrolites and Chuck Ragan (of Hot Water Music))

For More Information:
www.socialdistortion.com
www.myspace.com/socialdistortion
www.epitaph.com

The Enders

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[rating:2.5/5]
© 2010 The Enders

Here’s a five track demo by Lafayette Indiana’s The Enders; a blend of Punk and Metal and a smattering of Rock. The disc’s tracks are performed admirably by the power-trio. The band is comprised of Ben Hagood on guitar and vox, Sam Kock on bass and backing vox and Kyle Martin pulling percussion duties.

The songs, in general, are fast paced. However, the center tracks of the demo: Track 2 Martyr, Track 3 Split Decision and especially Track 4 What If I are considerably shorter and more raw sounding than the intro and outro tracks. I have it on reasonable authority that the shorter punkier sound is the more current direction of the band. I certainly approve of that. While I’m not gonna bag on the more metallic tracks, they are seriously over my three minute attention span mark.

Musically speaking the vocals remind me of a strange mix of Nuclear Assault and Sacred Reich, which is odd, but works with compact, punchy riffs and the minimalist drums. Guitar solos in some of the tracks are a bit much, but that is the anti-epic metal in me talking again. If you’re down with solos, so be it. That’s your problem.

The bottom line here is that The Enders have busted out a solid demo, but I knocked of a few points for the excesses of the first and last track in both duration and unnecessary filler. With that, the middle three tracks are like the delicious center of the tootsie-pop. So support your local Midwest punk-metal-thrash-rock bands and go see The Enders, buy this demo so they can make more music like tracks 3, 4 and 5.

A couple notes: if you have cross-fade turned on, you might want to turn it off. The tracks end and start rather abruptly. Oh, and make sure you listen all the way to the end of the final track to get the wicked sweet thrash breakdown.

–Jerry Actually

Track Listing:

1 Role Model
2 Martyr
3 Split Decision
4 What If I
5 Inkblot

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you just be sending me one of them fangled electronic mails
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Hooray if’n ya contact me.

Upstarter Reviews
Jerry Actually
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Dr. Martens 50

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To celebrate our 50th Anniversary, we asked 10 artists to record their version of a cult classic track which represents the spirit of the people who’ve worn DM’s over the past 50 years. We also asked 10 directors to make videos for each of the tracks. The latest release is MC5’s Michael Davis + D.O.A who are covering Cold War Kids’ Something Is Not Right With Me

About the Artist: MC5′s Michael Davis + D.O.A.

Bound together by an admiration for each other’s work, punk rock trailblazers Joey Keithley of D.O.A. and Michael Davis of MC5 have, over the past three decades, become the closest of comrades. And for the first time they’ve joined forces to celebrate Dr. Marten’s 50th Anniversary. 

Michael Davis of MC5

Boasting the titles of singer, songwriter, guitarist, bassist and music producer, Detroit-born Michael Davis made his name with the seminal and incendiary proto-punk rock act, MC5. Pioneers of the hardcore music revolution of the late 1960s, MC5’s political ties and anti-establishment lyrics saw them firmly installed as innovators of punk and flag-bearers for an alternative generation. After just three albums, MC5 disbanded in the mid-1970s; shortly after, Davis found himself in Lexington Penitentiary – or ‘Narcotics Farm’ as it was commonly known as – chalking up time for his heroin addiction. On release, Davis immediately climbed back into the music arena with Ron Asheton, from the iconic band The Stooges, good friend and member of the punk band Destroy All Monsters. Davis amassed seven successful years with Destroy All Monsters before leaving to join forces with the rock act The Lords Of Altamont. Continuing his musical odyssey Davis then left to sign up for the MC5 spin-off, DKT. 

In recent years, education has been a recurring theme in Davis’ life. In 2006 he set-up the non-profit organization, The Music Is Revolution Foundation, to support music education in public schools. Davis has also earmarked 2010 to finish the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree he dropped out from to join MC5. 

D.O.A.

Cited as a major influence on the careers of global giants such as The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Green Day and Offspring to name but a few, D.O.A burst onto the scene back in the late 1970s and almost immediately made the term ‘hardcore’ their own – a point underlined through the title of their second album, Hardcore ’81. Building their career on an uncompromising anarchist political stance, their slogan, “TALK – ACTION = 0”, was a way of life and not just a catchy motto. Through the years they’ve stood by those very words, playing benefits for causes like anti-racism, anti-globalization and OXFAM. Founding member Joey ‘Shithead’ Keithley seems reluctant to categorise their sound – and understandably, given that the Canadian born ‘Godfather of Punk’ and only ever-present member of D.O.A. has incorporated genres such as punk, rock, reggae and ska into his musical philosophy. 

In the late 1990s, Keithley resurrected Sudden Death Records, the label from which D.O.A. originally released their first 7”. As well as D.O.A. records, the label has also released tracks from all areas of the music spectrum.

TsuShiMaMiRe – North American Tour 2010

Japan’s TsuShiMaMiRe will kick off their North American Tour with self-proclaimed “Japanese Action Comic Punks” Peelander-Z (www.myspace.com/peelanderz) on October 27th at Streetlight Records in San Jose, CA.

Blending elements of punk, Avant Garde, free jazz, ska, surf, and that funky “je ne sais quoi” possessed by many Japanese girl bands, TsuShiMaMiRe consists of Yayoi (bass), Mari (guitar and vocals), and Mizue (drums).

The band was formed in 1999 when the girls were still in college.

Known to many fans through their collaboration with Cartoon Network’s popular television series, Powerpuff Girls on their mini album, Six Mix Girls, TsuShimamire have embarked on six US tours with over 150 live shows performed in the states to date, including an appearance at SXSW.

Whereas Japanese punk bands often prefer to include sing-along, 50s style ele­ments in their songs, TsuShiMaMiRe appears to be informed more by punk, noise, and jazz, and the guitar and bass often engage in wild riff interplay, lending the music a welcome spaciousness that invites repeat listens. Lyrical content is, as we have come to expect from Japanese girl bands, way out there, ranging from songs about how fish paste feels when it is cooked (“Camaboco”) to an imaginary conversation between a newborn baby and its mother (“Pregnant Fantasy”).

TSMMR’s second full-length album, Sex on the Beach, was just released in the states through Good Charamel Records, the indie label run by Robby Takac of Goo Goo Dolls.

Prepare to experience another chapter in the crazy, frenetic world of TsuShiMaMiRe as the band gears up for their upcoming U.S. tour (see dates below.)

TSMMR also contribute two tracks to Good Charamel’s I Love J-Rock compilation where they appear alongside Shonen Knife,  LAZYgunsBRISKY, Molice and DJ Sashimi. I Love J-Rock is available now.

For more information, and to stream portions of TsuShiMaMiRe’s Sex on the Beach, please visit: http://www.goodcharamel.com/?select=artists&data=tsuShiMaMiRe.

Continue reading TsuShiMaMiRe – North American Tour 2010

Smoke or Fire – Release 2010

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Smoke Or Fire are set to release their third full length on Fat titled The Speakeasy on November 9th, recorded by Matt Allison at Atlas Studio. A member change welcomes Ryan Parrish (Darkest Hour) who lends his talent on drums; while this recording marks the first time Gwomper (AVAIL) was part of the writing process since he took over stewardship of bass when long time member Ken Gurley left the band. The Speakeasyis a complete album in the truest sense, lacking nothing, while offering varied, yet equally enthralling melodies and music on each of the 13 tracks. Constructed around the cornerstone of the guitar driven, heavy punk rock sound they are known for, this album evolves much further. Innovative melodies are ushered along by clever guitar work as gruff vocals give way at times to a more polished pitch. Catch Smoke or Fireon a wee east coast run and be sure not to miss them at our CMJ showcase on October 23rd! Take a peek at what Joe McMahon had to say about recording The Speakeasy below:

We were so happy to be able to record the new record with Matt Allison in Chicago. Matt is not only a great friend of ours, but really becomes the 5th member of the group when you’re in the studio with him. We were working with a pretty slim time period on this record, and everyone really showed up. Ryan Parrish killed it on drums, and made such great contributions during the writing process. It was also a lot of fun to watch Gwomper record his Bass on the record. He gets so into it, I think he moves around more while he’s recording than he does on stage. The only hitch we ran into was me losing my voice half way through recording vocals. When that happens all you can do is wait until it comes back, and you have no idea how long that’s going to be. It took 6 days before I could start singing again. When the record was finished, Jeremy and I both agreed it was the first time we had left the studio with everything coming out exactly the way we wanted. The songs, the artwork…everything. We couldn’t be happier with this record.