AP Magazine

MARCH 2012

A P

# 284

M A G A Z I N E

FALLING IN

Ronnie Radke: REVERSE

Th e Real All-Am eri can Rej ect

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" Some People learn their lessons the easy way, some people have to the hard way. "

PLUS:

SAY Anything hit the lights frank turner

MEGA-HUGE FOLD-OUT POSTERS INSIDE! RONNIE RADKE & VINTAGE FALL OUT BOY

# 284

Falling in Reverse

IN THE RAG March 2012

Features

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Frank Turner The British troubadour is cooler than you, us and everyone we know. But he’s too busy to worry about such things

12 16

HIt the Lights

Hit The Lights The coolest band from Lima, Ohio, escaped major-label idiocy to make the record they wanted to make.

Say Anything

step four. enjoy.

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FAlling In Reverse

Sections

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Max Bemis has found peace and inspiration in raging chaos and anarchy. What have you done lately?

Ronnie Radke’s post-Escape The Fate vehicle is having its fair share of acceleration, lineup casualties and head-on collisions. Either way, he’s having the ride-and time-of his life.

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I see Stars

4

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MY First Band Story by: Ryan Russell

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GUest List

Story by: Tony Bonacci

22 24

Incoming

Story by: Jon Weiner

OP-ED Speak Out Story by: Double J

=MAIN FEATURE

Say Frank Anything Turner

Ap recommends

THE MENZINGERS, PORTER ROBINSON, I HATE OUR FREEDOM, and more.

Story by: Brian Shultz

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AP Recommends

The Menzingers These fannel-clad, Philadelphia-via-Scranton drinkers churn out restrained, romantic slabs of thoughtful and subtly intricate punk rock melody and gravel to carry everyone home from the bar, soaking in self-reflection Bad Religion and NOFX. The two legendary acts are the peanut butter and jelly of punk-rock lore, and, apparently, both helped provide mind-blowing moments for The Menzingers’ frontman, Tom May. First was an April 2010 gig with NOFX. “We got there, and one floor of the backstage area was our backstage room,” May recalls with lingering fascination in his voice, speaking from his Philadelphia home. “It was all plush and upholstered nicely, and they gave us unlimited beer and delicious food. We were literally just standing around talking to NOFX. We were like, “Wow this is pretty fuckin’ great.

This is amazing.”

But they haven’t seen anything yet. Later that year, the band-May, guitarist Greg Barnett, bassist Eric Keen, and drummer Joe Godino- received and email form Bad Religion guitarist and Epitaph Records founder Brett Gurewitz. “He said he dug the last record [2010’s Chamberlain Waits] and wanted to meet us. They flew us out to Los Angeles and we sat around at a barbeque at Epitaph’s headquarters and talked about Bad Religion and smoked cigars. It was awesome. We were just mesmerized the entire time. He was such a chill person.”

Perhaps the hope for the band- from both the fans and, more likely, the label themselves- is that one-day The Menzingers can be mentioned in the same breath as that pair. For now, they’re just beginning to experience some of the biggest moments in their lives, like relocating from their original hometown of Scranton to Philadelphia.

Although May praises the merits of his hometown 9”I really would not have chosen to grow up in any other place than Scranton”), he notes the move was necessary for his band to grow. “If you don’t have a car in Scranton, you cant really so anything.” May says. “There are only so many places you can play and only so many people that will come out to shows. We [were] just looking for a better life for our age.” The band continued touring nationally while rebuilding their local following through bar and house shows- and haven’t looked back since.

By the time you read this, the band will have made even bigger moves: They supported Rise Against on a massive tour (The Menzingers’ biggest to date) and are prepping for the release of their Epitaph debut, On The Impossible Past. May articulates his thoughts on these two arguably significant points in his band’s timeline as he enjoys a bottled Yuengling at home. Naturally, he’s anxious and excited.

“It’s definitely the most people we’ve ever played in front of,” May says regarding the Rise Against tour, “so it’s one of those situations where you cant be like, “Aw dude, I just broke a strong in front of 12,000 people at Nassau Coliseum. I look like an asshole.” Then there’s the inevitable pressure of joining one of the world’s biggest independent labels. “While we were writing [On The Impossible Past].”

May elaborated, “you start to think, ‘Well I guess these songs [will] reach more people, and there’s more resources being invested into it.’ You have to take it more seriously and you realize, ’Nah, fuck it. I wont take it. Seriously at all.’ Then you just try to come to a delicate balance and write the songs that you want to write.

There’s definitely more pressure, but with more pressure comes a much bigger reward.”

On The Impossible Past is certainly rewarding. It’s a tender album compared to their consistently brasher, boisterous, melodic-punk older material. Morose melodies and arpeggiated guitars create headier, quietly desperate spaces amid the throaty vocals and lyrical camaraderie, from the soft, foggy optimists of “Gates” to the title track’s dreary DUI scene.

“There are more songs concerning romantic interests.” May says about the album’s lyrical inspirations, though he’s hesitant to delve into specifics. “I guess that’s just the point we’re at in our lives. And [the] music that we wanted to write.

This feels the best to play.” May and the rest of his band would be wise to stick to that feeling considering just how far it’s brought them.

STORY: BRIAN SHULTZ

DIY // Alternative Press

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AP; REVIEWS

My First Band Nick Steinborn of The Wonder Years explores his inner angst in Inane How We Started

Most Entertaining Memory

In eighth grade, I moved from the house I grew up in Lansdale to Hatfield, where I became friends with Mike Coonan because he lived down the street. He convinced me to go to my first show, where I met Matt Hittinger. Within a week, we were jamming Staind’s “Mudshovel” in my basement on a snow day through small practice amps. A week after that, we were playing in a friend’s basement with too many strobe lights. At that point in time we were called Fake ID. It felt like forever, but the entire existence of Fake ID really only lasted six months or so. We recorded great songs such as “Ager” and “Torn” onto cassette tapes with a karaoke machine in Matt’s basement. After we had our MP3.com account running and amassed maybe 100 plays, we started getting IMs form members of another band called Fake ID from Massachusetts demanding we change our name. Being 13 or 14, we were terrified and did just that. After flipping to a random page in the dictionary, we chose the name Inane. That’s also when we started to write songs with titles more interesting than simply describing negative feelings.

Our high school had a lot of bands, and a number of them knew enough student council members to convince the school to host a show of sorts during out junior year. It took place in the courtyard and had two shoddy stages set up. My band played last, and our set was slightly out of hand. (At least as out of hand as you can imagine 16-and 17-year-olds getting in a school courtyard.) Our set ended with an assistant principal standing and screaming in the middle of the pit and another staff member pulling the plug on our gear.

First Show We played a battle of the bands at a nearby middle school. I harassed the kid putting on the show on AIM for a couple weeks before he begrudgingly agreed to let us play. We didn’t win, and I don’t think anyone cared, but it was certainly fun.

STORY: RYAN RUSSELL

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Alternative Press // DIY

Why We Broke Up I guess we never officially broke up. Matt Hittinger and I went on to be in another band together and that took precedence. When he was asked to leave that band, we weren’t on the best terms and Inane stopped playing regularly.

Hear Us Now Matt Hittinger went on to sing for a bunch of other bands, but they’ve all broke up.

Mike Coonan played bass in the Prize Fight, Statue and currently plays for Cetus.

I haven’t talked to Matt Carlin in years, and I’m not sure what he’s up to. George Koenig went on to do lights for the Minor Times, and is currently engaged but not playing music. I play guitar/keyboard for The Wonder Years, which takes up most of my time. I also have a solo project of instrumental stuff called Schedule Of No Plan and have mixed and/or mastered a number of releases this year including Daylight, Full Of Hell, and the Ivy League.

Guest List This month moving mountains frontman Greg Dunn.

When asked to pick my most influential album. I was initially daunted. It’s like when someone asks you to explain what kind of music you play, or what inspired you to be creative. It’s nearly impossible to put a stamp on something like that.

For the sake of this column, I’ll pick just one I can consciously identify with. An artist I grew up loving, and have always stuck with throughout the years, is David Bazan-in particular, his band Pedro The Lion. Their 1998 release It’s Hard To Find a Friend (later reissued in 2001 on Jade Tree) was not only influential to me as a musician, but as a human.

What I admire so much about Bazan’s work is his creative subtlety and sincere honesty. His lyrics are expressive and his songwriting is complex, while being entirely minimalistic-something I’ve really grown to understand better and appreciate more as my tastes in music shifts over the years. Whenever I pick up a guitar to write a song, I always find myself relating to the structures of his songwriting. When I first came across is music, I was fully immersed in the hardcore community of bands making waves in the early 2000s. Bands such as Thursday, Refused, Poison The Well and Cursive were all doing their part in shaping my taste in music and, more importantly, helping define my confusing and chemically disoriented adolescent life.

The aggressiveness, passion and integrity of those artists shared the same philosophy with Pedro The Lion, except only expressed entirely different.

It was a whole new experience for me, and something that I’ve kept with me through all the years.

The album’s 10th track, “Secret Of The Easy Yoke,” is still one of my most admired and favorite songs ever written-although interestingly enough, even though the lyrics are religious in nature, I find myself inspired by it on levels unassociated with any religious affiliation or connotation. Bazan’s lyrics still hold true in relation to topics unrelated to God or faith. It’s Hard To Find A Friend is also an album that contains little in the way of studio tricks or layered overdubs.

As an engineer myself, I always get lost focusing on how to make something sound great, rather then being great. I think that holds true today for a lot of artists who focus more on how their record sounds than the context of what’s being recorded. Nowadays, nearly everyone knows how to Auto-Tune vocals, quantize and sound-replace an entire drum kit, print DI guitar tracks through a rack of pods or whatever. Because I often take part in all of those things, I admire musicians who can do exactly the opposite. There’s a warmth and sincerity to how It’s Hard To Find A Friend sounds that’s completely irreplaceable. It’s a product of where it was made, how it was made and how it was preformed, to the most honest extent.

STORY: TONY BONACCI

DIY // Alternative Press

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DESTROY, REBUILD, REPEAT

Two years in a holding pattern would crumble most bands,

But the boys in HIT THE LIGHTS avoided both major label casualty status AND being lame.

“

We definitely still remember where we came from. But this is an honest record.

“

HIT THE LIGHTS

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Alternative Press // Altpress.com

T

he holiday season is usually reserved for wholesome family gatherings, good cheer, and blissful, post-turkey naps-unless before Thanksgiving, and the Lima, Ohio, delegation are smack in the middle of controversy at Jammin’ Java, a coffeehouse/club just outside of Washington, D.C. A brouhaha during an opening act’s set over the venue’s policy on crowd-surfing and stagediving has turned physical, resulting in fisticuffs between members of the band and security-and an unidentified member of HTL’s touring party dumping a beer on the club’s sound board, bringing the show to a standstill for a lengthy delay.

Even though they’re unable to utilize the venue’s PA system, the band still deliver an undaunted, blistering hour-long set, with frontman Nick Thompson’s vocals amplified through a guitar amp. “It guess the venue wasn’t cool with kids having fun and getting rowdy.” Even though it might seem like little more than a bout of bad luck, this incident virtually sums up Hit The Light’ career to date. Whenever the band seemed to hit a roadblock, they’re able to not just overcome it, but also rebound stronger than ever. After dealing with the loss of their lead vocalist and, more recently, toiling for more than a year in major-label purgatory, the band are ready to prove that what doesn’t kill you only makes you rock harder.

The last time we heard form Hit The Lights, the band-Thompson, guitarists Kevin Mahoney and Omar Zehery, bassist Dave Bermosk and drummer Nate Van Dame-were talking up their then-in-progress third album, which was tapped for inclusion in AP’s Most Anticipated Albums of 2010 issue (AP 258). Having fulfilled their Triple Crown Records contract with 2008’s Skip School Start Fights (the first material to feature Thompson on vocals after frontman Colin Ross resigned his position the year prior), the abdn set their sights on finding a new home.

After the dust cleared on a lengthy bidding war in March 2010, they settled on Universal Republic, a major label home to acts such as 3 Doors Down, Anberlin, Owl City and Lil Wayne. But before the band could hit the studio to begin work on the disc, they first had to wade through a sea of major-label red tape.

“All the people at the label were cool, bu they wanted to put us in with songwriters,” Thompson reminisces. “We were definitely leery about that, but we wanted to makre sure we could write with people we respected. We wrote with [Jack’s Mannequin’s] Andrew McMahon and [Yellowcard’s] Ryan Key-really awesome musicians.

Even though the group were collaborating with label-approved outside writers, the lack of feedback regarding the new songs left them frustrated and searching for a way to set the gears in motion to record.

“We’d ask for guidance, but they never want to tell you what to do,” the singer explains. “They always sat [adopts facetious tone], “We want you to be yourselves…But here are a bunch of alternative bands on Top 40 radio that you could sound like.” We did what a lot of band on major labels do, and that’s write songs in an attempt to please the label-which was awful.”

While the band were clawing for their major-label lives, Universal Republic experienced significant restructuring, resulting in a new president whose first task was to examine the commercial viability of all the label’s developing artists. By a stroke of luck, Hit The Lights asked for-and were granted-a release from their contract in May 2011. The band eventually resurfaced with Razor & Tie Records in September, and even though the band finally had a confident set backers

(“They told us they loved our band and wanted to help us put out exactly the record we wanted to,” Thompson says.) There was still one more goal in their sights: a desire to shed the “neon pop-punk” tag they acquired around the time of Skip School Start Fights. “I guess we’re similar to bands like All Time Low, bands with that pop element,” Thompson muses. “When we came up, we got compared to New Found Glory and Saves The Day, and that was rad because they were bands we loved. But we went on a lot of tours during the Skip School period where we just felt out of place. The whole thing is so fickle. It didn’t feel right and raw enough for us anymore. To see the kind of fans that scene was generating...We wanted something more honest. It was sickening. We all loved pop music, but we also loved Pantera.” He starts laughing. “The whole thing was so superficial; it was all tight jeans and Nikes. It needed to change.”

The result of this rebranding is Invicta, arguably the band’s strongest offering to date. Recorded in two separate sessions with Machine (Four Year Strong, Armor For Sleep) and Mike Sapone (Brand New, Straylight Run), the disc finally captures the edge the band have always displayed with their live show. Expertly toggling between spunky, rafterreaching choruses (“Gravity,” “Get To You”) and minimalistic, ethereal moments (“Should’ve Known,” “Faster Now”), Invicta offers the band a chance to change gears and give their music a sense of dynamics, something previous efforts lacked. It’s the kind of album that sets Hit The Lights up for a life after pop-punk, although Thompson is quick to point out that the band aren’t trying to alienate fans of Hit The Lights’ older material.

“We definitely still remember where we came from,” he stresses. “If people love the old records, that’s great. But this is an honest record, and it’s one that we had to make. It’s more organic and natural sounding. I think it sounds like how we do live. It’s all about what makes us happy.

If we were on the road playing songs we hate or weren’t 100 percent behind, we’d be miserable.”

The band will certainly get a chance to bring their new tunes around the world for the foreseeable future. A heavy-touring act from their inception, the group will be spending much of 2012 on the road, first as an opener for Destroy Rebuild Until God Shows. Thompson says Hit The Lights’ live show will also benefit from the layoff.

“We are so re-energized.” The singer enthuses. “We were finally able to put all the politics aside and just be our band.” When asked if there was ever a time when the group thought about hanging it up, Thompson doesn’t pull any punches. “There were absolutely times where we almost broke up. You just get fed up and wonder what the fucking point is. I’m really glad the Universal thing didn’t work out, actually. Who knows what kind of record we would have made?

“It was a really tumultuous time for all of us, and there was so much bullshit to push through.” Thompson concludes. “But we’re finally free, and it feels like we’ve got a new shot at this.”

Story: Evan Lucy

Purchase HTL’s new album INVICTA in stores or on iTunes today!

Altpress.com // Alternative Press

7

Frank Turner

It doesn’t matter if he’s standing alone with an acoustic guitar, In raising the temperature of a venue with his live band or entertaining te rv ie w :J people in a crammed hotel room: Frank Turner is just happy to be here. The as on Pe tti 30-year-old British singer/songwriter has been making significant in-roads here gr ew

in the States, thanks to his unflagging enthusiasm and a keen sense of empathy in his work. Last year was pretty good for Turner: His latest album for Epitaph, England Keep My Bones, has been his biggest-selling release to date, bolstered by support slots with veteran acts (Social Distortion, Flogging Molly) and a successful headlining stint. In this era of immediate gratification, entitlement issues and opportunists who are nothing more than cogs in an inefficient machine, Turner’s DIY work ethic, character and unbridled passion are positively joyous and life affirming.

Jason Pettigrew caught up with the singer at his mother’s home in Hampshire, England, where he was getting ready for his current stateside treks with Dropkick Murphy’s and Social Distortion. While his nomadic lifestyle currently prohibits him from laying down roots, Turner’s attitude toward the music and the fans-as well as the ethics that got him this far-will hopefully inspire others to create great work on their own terms.

FRANKTURNER 8

Alternative Press // Altpress.com

SLEEp

British punk troubadour Frank Turner has amassed a huge fanbase the old-fashioned way: one person at a time. Now poised to conquer us yanks, the nomadic singer continues doing things the only way he knows how.

IS FOR

MEEK

THE

Altpress.com // Alternative Press

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The first time I interviewed you was for the U.S. release of Campfire Punkrock, and you were at your mother’s place watching a documentary on television with her. You also apologized to her in liner notes to England Keep My Bones about the content of your atheist anthem, “Glory Hallelujah.”

FT: [Laughs] I’m still not sure she’s entirely stoked about it!

How important is family to you?

FT: Family is very important to me. My mum and me sisters are incredibly close and dear to me. It’s funny: Since I’m an itinerant person-and may sometimes even claim to the contrary-everyone needs some kind of anchors in life. Hanging out with my family is very important.

Given your schedule and your fierce hands-on stance, you seem constantly in motion. A lot of artists look at the road and touring as some kind of psychic pirate ship.

But after they do it for a few years, they feel some great remorse because they weren’t around their families when they needed to be.

FT: One does miss a lot of family events and that kind of thing, which is a major kind of drawback to the way I choose to live. I don’t actually have my own place; I’m always couch-surfing or staying in people’s spare rooms, so [if I go home], I’ll always have some place to stay! [Laughs.] I apologize for that; it’ll look extremely cynical. The truth is that I was brought up in a very close-knit family, and it looms large in my view of the world.

Your attitude about what you do is summed up in “I Still Believe” from the new album. That song feels like a continued affirmation of the sentiment in “Back In The Day,” from your 2007 debut, Sleep Is For The Week.

You’ve been able to maintain that joy and excitement over the possibilities of what music can do for yourself, as well as for other listeners.

FT: The specific inspiration for “I Still Believe” was back in 2010. I did some shows in China, and one of the things about them was that they were kind of illegal. They weren’t officially sanctioned [by the government], but it wasn’t like there were cops trying to bust down the doors. It’s only been about five or 10 years that kids have been able to listen to rock ‘n’ roll in China, let alone punk rock or anything like that.

I went out and I was playing with these local Chinese punk bands, and they just had this fire in their bellies. It’s not like in Western culture, where we’re just inundated with rock ‘n’ roll like car ads on TV. It was like [this Chinese punk band] just figured out, “If we play this chord, then this chord, then this one really fast and then hit the drums hard, it’s rock.” I was so moved by it, that it made me feel bad about feeling jaded about rock ‘n’ roll.

Not because I live in a culture where it’s very prevalent, but because I am in the “music industry” and I don’t get to hear a lot of new music. Seeing that group in China go crazy for it made me take my own stock in life and think, “You know, this whole rock ‘n’ roll thing is pretty cool.”

So you live out of a suitcase?

FT: Yes. I have one of those storage unit-type places. It’s very nice, but there are big signs all over the place saying I’m not allowed to sleep there.

[Laughs.] I haven’t had my own place for about seven years now. It’s weird: The more that I do this, I’ve become less attached to any kind of idea of a more-anchored life. The more I [tour], the thought of going and renting [an apartment] doesn’t particularly appeal to m at all. When any band goes on tour for the first time, it’s like going on an adventure holiday: It’s you and your buddies, you’re out on the road, everyone’s getting hammered and it’s all very exciting. It’s like a massive bachelor party. That initial feeling has since worn off [for me], but I do quite enjoy touring. It’s like what I do.

That’s why it’s much more remarkable for me to stay in one place anytime.

But where do you keep your records?

FT: That’s pretty much the main contingent of my storage unit: a massive pile of vinyl and CDs. That’s another one of my regrets: not being able to get my records out and hold them close every now and again. [Laughs.]

Maybe one day.

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Alternative Press // Altpress.com

Turner with his guitar in an alley in Lodon, Enlgand. 2012

You built your career in America the old-fashioned was: Play, don’t worry. And you did it in front of bands such as Flogging Molly and Social Distortion, whose fans are legendary for being brutal to opening acts. What was your attitude about it: optimistic, arrogant or somewhere in the middle?

FT: Without trying to sound like I’m up my own ass, I think my band put on a great show and we’re good at winning over a cynical crowd of people who don’t know or care who we are. The Social D tour in particular, we made lots of fans. It was really fantastic, and I can’t wait to tour with them again. I don’t know-I consider myself a professional entertainer before anything else. If I don’t get in front of a crowd-hostile or not-and make some kind of dent, then I’m not doing my job.

Tell my about the most hostile crowd you’ve encountered in America.

You came up through the British hardcore scene as a member of Million Dead. Did you learn any life/musical lessons from that culture that you are applying to what you are doing now? Or was it a “Here we go again, another fucking rulebook” experience?

“

I think any artist who’s put out four albums is possessed by the idea of writer’s block or running out of things to say.

And I don’t feel like that at all.

“

FT: It was in Sayreville, New Jersey, and I was opening for The Offspring.

In defense of the people of Sayreville, New Jersey, for some reason the promoter had advertised the show featuring Sum 41 as the opening act.

They were expecting a pop-punk band, and here was some guy singing somewhat English-themed folk songs. They didn’t take too well to that at all. [Laughs.] When they started chanting “U.S.A.! U.S.A.!” I just started cracking jokes at their expense, calling them jocks and telling them they couldn’t tell their ass from their elbow. By the end of the set, [the situation] was pretty antagonistic and the promoter advised me to leave by the back door. [Laughs.] But I look at it this was: You ever ready Calvin and Hobbes?

You know those moments when Calvin’s dad describes stuff as “character building?” Well, that was my character-building experience. [Laughs.]

FT: The rulebook aspect you mentioned is completely pointless and tedious.

But I still absolutely think the ideals by which I attempt to live my life and run my music career came form hardcore and DIY [culture]. DIY, by the way, doesn’t mean you have to put out shit-quality records with bad record sleeves. What DIY means to me in the punk-rock context is, if you see things you want for yourself, don’t wait for the world to hand it to you. I also like the iconoclasm of hardcore., the idea that there’s no such thing as rock stars or other rarified figures being put up on a pedestal. I liked how that thing was permitted, and if anybody in the hardcore attempted it, they were laughed at.

But as your career has gained momentum have you been accused of that? If you rent a 2012-model transit can to tour, are you a “sell out” basking in luxury? Or did you just want a dependable vehicle to make sure you made it to gigs safely and on time?

FT: Here’s a good example: We’re playing Wembley Arena, and it’s a big show. But at the same time, I’ve been working really hard with all these different ways trying to make it not one of those corporate arena shows.

The tickets are as cheap as we could possibly make them; we got loads of support acts, including Billy Bragg; we’re trying to sell the official T-shirts for less than $15; and we’re putting out a record of the event to support International Record Store Day-all this kind of stuff. Obviously, I care, because I’m making all this effort creating a good event for people and [showing] that I’m not detached from my origins. So if anyone still says to me, [imitates snotty punk] “But you’re still playing Wembley Arena,” I’m like, “You know what man? Fuck you.”

Cover for Turner’s album Sleep Is For The Week

You’re still punk as fuck. Besides that hardcore project [see sidebar], this round of American touring and the big Wembley event, what else does 2012 hold for you?

FT: A lot more touring and hopefully a new Frank Turner record. I’ve got a lot of songs coming together, and I’m really happy with how strong the material sounds. There are not quite enough days in 2012 to do everything I want to do. I’ll make it work somehow. I still feel really hungry; I’m still creatively frenetic with ideas. Which is good: I think any artist who’s put out four albums is possessed by the idea of writer’s block or running out of things to say. And I don’t feel like that at all. In fact, I think I’ve rambled too much in this interview!

Aren’t you glad I didn’t ask you about leaving Gallows?

FT: [Laughs.] Yes, that’s very kind of you. It would be a stretch to call him a friend, but Frank Carter is somebody that I’ve hung out with and he’s a really, really good guy. We both find it entertaining how we’ve gotten confused by some less-diligent music journalists. [Laughs.]

Gig at Hole In The Wall Santa Monica, CA

Altpress.com // Alternative Press

11

Know what you

WANT,

Max Bemis is on a roll.

Hes gloriously in love (but not soft) away from the major label system (but not crestfallen) and ready to write a new chapter in the mythology of Say Anything.

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Alternative Press // Altpress.com

Know how to

Get it

Even though Max Bemis just finished an 11-hour drive from Tampa, Florida to Louisiana-“[It was] a little gnarly, a little brutal,” he says-Say Anything mastermind is in good spirits when AP reaches him in late 2011. Part of this positive headspace has to do with the coffee he snagged to perk himself up, although most of it has to do with the fact that Say Anything’s fifth studio album (and first for Equal Vision), Anarchy, My Dear, is finally complete.

Produced by Tim O’Heir, who last worked with Bemis on 2004’s…Is A Real Boy, Anarchy, My Dear is far more raw and immediate than 2009’s eponymously-titled major-label release. The album opens with a pair of brisk highlights, the acoustic-punk rabble-rouser “Burn A Miracle” and wired-on-adrenaline pop burst “Say Anything.” Yet Anarchy’s gentler moment (the tranquil “Peace Out,” with it’s majestic, medieval-sounding hammer dulcimer, the grateful indiepop highlight “So Good”) and Bemis’ signature genre-smashing (the keyboard-buzzed new-wave rave “Sheep” and the kicky piano-pop of “Overbiter,” which features vocals from Bemis’ wife, Eisley’s Sherri DuPree-Bemis) are executed with gleeful precision.

Lyrically, Anarachy is a concept album about “coming out from the pack, rebelling and choosing to make your life your own and not have your mind be controlled by society,” Bemis says. Accordingly, the album’s vibrant imagery describes rising above things such as addiction, superficiality, loneliness and even his own turbulent past. But Anarchy also celebrates the joy of chaos- whether it’s in the form of heart-jarring romantic love or life’s unexpected curveballs.

Whether you’re a SA diehard or an English major keen to dissect and devour the proceedings, Bemis has delivered one of the best records of his career.

Interview: Annie Zaleski

MAX BEMIS Altpress.com // Alternative Press

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When I read Anarchy, My Dear’s lyrics, what really stuck me is the language used in them. It’s provocative, vivid and startling-and the lyrics overall seem like an evolution for you. How did you prepare to write this time?

SAY ANYTHING

MB: What we achieved with the last record lyrically was, I think, [me] stepping out of my own personal box and really making lyrics that are going to connect with people on a gut level. I felt like there was a lot of vague stuff before. I went from one extreme to the other: [2004’s]… Is a Real Boy had some stuff that’s straight-up abstract; [2007’s] In Defense Of The Genre was somewhere in between. And the last record [2009’s Say Anything], I kind of went the other way and I was like, “I want to be able to talk to anybody and have the music speak to them.” It was very plain. I don’t think the lyrics were dumb in any way, but there was less metaphor.

It was straight up.

Given that we wanted to keep growing and also not make the same record twice, [I thought] it would be interesting to revisit the more flowery and abstract language [of past albums], but doing it from a more direct place.

I hope the lyrics are going to hit people in a gut level in the same way the last record did, but maybe be a little more intelligent and be a little more loose and open for interpretation.

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People who have followed you career will be able to know what you’re talking about or referencing. But yet it’s not so specific that you can be like, “He’s talking about this past thing.”

MB: Yes, very much so. A lot of that also has to do with working with Tim O’Heir. He loves to make timeless records, so I’d like to think at least [Anarchy] will stand the test of time for the people who really enjoy it. It’s not going to be one of those records that only relates to one person of a certain age or certain political persuasion. I try not to exclude anybodythis record, I like to think, was a distillation of the fact that I wasn’t anybody to be able to related to the lyrics.

But at the same time, I did feel compelled to put a lot of my beliefs out there without censoring them. That’s a little bit different than the last record, being human, and it was just about living day-to-day life to some extent, and [telling] stories. This one is a little broader, I’d like to think a little more ambitious when it comes to the scope of what I’m examining.

Things are kind of on a larger scale, hopefully.

The song “Say Anything” really stood out to me. It’s a love song. But it’s approaching love in a very different way than most pop or rock songs approach it.

The two Say Anything albums mentioned in the interview

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MB: That’s definitely one of my favorite tracks. As much as I sometimes think of us as a band that is so cerebral, because there’s so much over-thetop language and there’s a lot of mathy music, it’s fun when I get to write songs like that where it just pours out of me because it’s so honest. It came from a true place.

You know, every band writes these songs that are these larger-than-life commitments, and everyone in life makes these promises to people they love. It’s very rare where you actually find yourself in a relationship or with somebody in your life who’s so important that you really think you would actually follow through. The story behind that song is, I have these neurotic recurring thoughts about, “What would I do under torture, or when presented with a moral conundrum in relation to my wife?” I always think of the most over-the-top scenarios, like, “What would I do if we were separated and it was a zombie apocalypse and I couldn’t see her for 10 years?” [Laughs.] I wanted to present that feeling, because that really isn’t the case with everyone, when you can look into your heart and say.

“I really would do anything, even the most horrible, dark things [to keep a relationship going]”-like taking away a grandmother’s civil rights, which is one of the things I mentioned in that song. If it came down to the wire and I had to save my wife’s life-or preserve what I have with her-it’s a sad thing, but I really would. It’s also a dark thought, because that’s pretty intense. At the same time, it’s the truth.

Do you think you could have made this record on a major label?

No, I really don’t. There are several levels on which I don’t think it could happen. Maybe if we had had such a phenomenal success with our first few records and we were as big as Foo Fights or Coldplay, [a situation] where label pressure is minimized because you’re just gonna sell millions of records no matter what. But when you’re a band of our size-which is reasonably successful, but not huge-there’s definitely always that pressure you have to get to that place.

I don’t think a single song on the record was written when we were on RCA. I wrote it all when we were off and that pressure to become the next Green Day or to become the next Foo Fighters [was gone]. It was just like, “Be what you are. Whatever’s gonna happen is gonna happen. Write songs from your heart.” It actually produced a couple songs EVR thinks might actually fit in somewhere on the radio, even if it’s just a college radio, which is funny. Either way, I don’t think these exact songs would’ve come out [of me], given the pressure that’s on you.

I mentioned RCA in that light, but I have to emphasize they were really kind to us. It wasn’t a horrible experience. The guy who signed us there is one of the most amazing Say Anything fans ever. He actually [co-]manages the band now. That just shows how much it was a good experience-we actually hired our A&R [person] to be our manager. Now me and him are having fun running free through the streets.

I interviewed Andrew McMahon last year, and a lot of the latest Jack’s Mannequin record, People And Things, involve the different side of marriage-what happens after you get married, what you have to do to keep it going and the fights that are involved. There are a lot of musicians yours age facing these ideas. It’s interesting how you’re approaching these topics. Conventional wisdom is, you get married, you get old and boring.

Max Bemis of Say Anything 2012

MB: The whole “you get married, you lose your edge” thing is such a fallacy. It only affects the people; let it affect the,. I don’t think it can be pinned on marriage; I think it can be pinned on complacency and finding a place where you no longer feel the need to challenge yourself using your art. These are people who have fallen victim to that. But I really don’t think of [Say Anything] as one of those bands. Even if I wasn’t married, I wouldn’t be writing about what it’s like to be a 19-year-old manic stoner.

I’m literally pushing 30: I’m sure a lot of material [I’d be writing] would be different [even] if I wasn’t married.

Despite the heavy lyrics, there is a sense of lightness in the record.

MB: It felt more effortless, in a good way. On our last record, everything was labored over. [But on Anarchy], we’d record a guitar part, and it would be so crazy and over-the-top-and whereas normally I’d take it, analyze it and say, “Oh, this is too much,” or “We need more of this,” it’d be like, “This, in its primal sense, is cool how it is.” I’ve seen fans respond to how we perform live, and to the songs I did on my own when I was a lot younger. And a lot of those songs, it would just be so off-the-cuff, I wouldn’t sing each word or each line individually to make it exactly perfect. It would just have that spirit of Say Anything.

If you listen to a Rolling Stones record, it’s never so overly cerebral or deliberate that you’re not caught up in the rock ‘n’ roll, you know? Tim O’Heir, those are the bands he’s obsessed with: The Clash and The Rolling Stones and Iggy Pop-people who didn’t overanalyze it. We slowly figured out that we’re one of those bands, at least on a general sense, that needs to have that kick, that spark to it, or it’s not Say Anything. Why would anyone listen to it? You could go listen to Metallica of you want to hear really deliberate math-rock or something.

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RONNIE RADKE 16

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IN

FIVE GEARS

REVERSE STORY: RYAN J DOWNY

By his own mission, singer Ronnie Radke almost threw it all away when his tenure in Escape the Fate was marred by drugs, alcohol and a stint in prison. Now, he’s proud to be at the center of FALLING IN REVERSE, whose mischief-driven heavy music replaces darkness with infectious humor and a spirit that’s hungry for new adventures.

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Like Axl Rose,Nikki Sixx

and other rockers who’ve struggled with drugs, Ronnie Radke didn’t have an idyllic childhood. Running his fork over some chicken in a spacious booth at a BJ’s Restaurant and Brewhouse later in the day, Radke says he never really knew his mother; he describes his father, Russell, as creating an environment filled with Black Sabbath riffs and booze before getting sober. He says Russell co-founded the Las Vegas motorcycle club, Soldiers For Jesus, who describe themselves online as “a biker community who loves God.” “My dad became a born again Christian when he got sober,” Radke explain. “he tried to shove that down my throat, and I rebelled.”

Radke’s childhood friends played in different bands before they ended up in Escape The Fate together. The metalcore-meetshard-rock outfit’s first break was in 2005, when they won a local radio contest and had the chance to open for My Chemical Romance. A deal with Epitaph Records soon followed, as did a relationship with Michael “Elvis” Baskette, who produced their debut EP, There’s No Sympathy For The Dead, Radke says his ex-bandmates have never accounted, nor paid to him, his share of royalties from the roughly 200,000copies sold of his only album with ETF, Dying Is Your Latest Fashion, nor the accompanying 700,000 plus digital single sales. (In an email forwarded by Escape The Fate’s manager to AP, current ETF vocalist Craig Mabbitt responded, “200,000-plus copies? Maybe get the actual sale numbers before making those claims.”)

The singer’s drug problems and brushes with the cops made touring difficult for the band. Cancellations, postponements and related drama became a regular facet of their career. The fallout from a Nevada desert brawl where an 18-year-old man named Michael Cook was shot and killed by an associate of Radke’s stretched far beyond his eventual firing from Escape the Fate. He says his original charges were for concealment and possession of a deadly weapon because he was carrying brass knuckles when it all went down.

“You know what’s insane?” the most insane thing about it is that they made me say ‘guilty.’ The judge coerced me into saying ‘guilty.’ I’ll never forget it. I had to fly back from Warped Tour for court. They said I’d get a probation deal. They dropped it down to battery (with substantial bodily) harm. ‘How do you plea?’ I looked at my lawyer.

“My lawyer goes, ‘Your honor, he had nothing to do with it, he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.’ The judge goes, “Well you’re just as guilty as your co-defendants, aren’t you?’ I’m like, “Well, yeah, guilty.’ When I go back and think about it, I was high back then. And it I was really nervous. What would have happened if I said ‘not guilty’ it that battery charge? I never

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hit anybody. They gave me battery. It went from possession of a deadly weapon to battery, but I never hit anybody.

“Someone had to pay for it though, they can’t just ...Someone got killed,” he says solemnly. “The shooter was actually protecting me. He went out there to fight, and he shouldn’t have done thatthat’s the bottom line. Everybody involved is guilty. But they pulled a gun on me and they shot at me. My friend got selfdefense. Someone died and they needed some type of closure.

Sentenced to five years probation, required to pay nearly $100,000 in restitution and attend court ordered rehab, Radke became a wanted man after failing to check in with his probation officer. “I was on the national news. They were making me out to be this murderer on the run, which was totally not true. I was still in Vegas! I wasn’t in another country.”

He had just left his house to score drugs when he was picked up. “The lady that was getting the drugs for me set me up,” he explains. “I started seeing all of these cars with black-tinted windows and California plates. One Jeep Cherokee would pass me, then another. I was thinking, “I’m probably just being paranoid,” until I saw the black helicopter flying overhead. All of a sudden, these cars all stop and all of these people jump out.

‘Get on the fucking ground!’ “Is your name Radke?’ They were U.S. Marshalls, like in The Fugitive with Harrison Ford.”

In August 2008, he was sentenced to 18 to 48 months in prison.

He cut all his hair short with a Bic razor before going inside, only to be pleasantly surprised that “there’s cameras and cops with shotguns armed with salt rocks everywhere” so “you don’t get raped in prison.” Nevertheless, the loss of control over his daily decisions and the atmosphere of violence left its mark on him.

“I did see a couple of people get stabbed,” he says, “You’re still a ‘part’ of it because if you’ve seen something, you have to pretend like you didn’t. Because you don’t want to be labeled a snitch if someone gets told on. You’ve seen something and somehow they find out because there’s a whole bunch of people who’ve seen it, and you’re in that category of ‘maybe he told, or maybe this guy told,’ which is scary. You have to keep your mouth closed and your back to the wall.” He explains how inmates will make shanks out of rolled up toilet paper, which hardens when dipped in sugar water. Or “they’ll take two pieces of the cardboard from the back of a notebook and glue then together with a blade from a razor on the edge.”

The first stabbing he witnessed was during a mini-riot that erupted over the prison telephones. “There are three phones: a white phone, a Mexican phone and a black phone. It’s prison politics: One group tells whichever group isn’t part of it, ‘Hey, we’re about to do this,’ which means you have to lay down in the of it if

Ronnie Radke post Esacape The Fate, ready to start with Falling In Reverse

if you’re not part of it. This one was between blacks and Mexicans, so all of [the whites] are laying down and all of this chaos is happening-just chaos-over the phone around us.”

He’s less forthcoming about the second incident. “I don’t want to [go into detail]. I just saw it. I’ve heard stories. I know a little bit, but I don’t want to...I just saw someone get stabbed in the neck.

He didn’t die. He survived. This guy walked up to him, put his arm around him and just stabbed him. Then he just walked into the middle of the prison yard [and passed the knife to another guy, who passed it to another guy and so on until it disappeared] and then the cops yelled, ‘Everybody down!’ It’s so organized, the shank; You see it and then this formation of people taking it, taking it, taking it and then they throw it in the dirt and bury it.”

Radke spent his own time with the prison phones reaching out to guys like Seaman, who he wanted to join a new band around the new songs he was composing, sans instruments, in his cell.

He kept in touch with Epitaph Records owner Brett Gurewitz as well. “I see in him someone who really got a new deal in life.

He didn’t have it easy growing up,” says Gurewitz in a separate interview. “He’s been plagued by difficulties the whole time and despite all that, he’s just an immensely talented singer/songwriter.

“When he was in Escape The Fate, he was his own worst enemy,” he continues. “I’m always rooting for the underdog. I believed in him the first time and the whole thing kind of spun out of control through a series of bad decisions on Ronnie’s part; the

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whole thing snowballed. He called me from time to time when he was in prison, and I’d always let him know that, ‘When you get out, if you want to write music, I’m here for you. I believe in your ability.’”

Meanwhile, Escape The Fate recorded and toured with former Blessthefall frontman Craig Mabbitt as Radke’s replacement. “It’s weird to watch it dissipate. Max [Green, bassist] is no longer in that band anymore. He’s done. He Twitter-blasted it. And I’ve talked to him,” Radke says. “He’s not a part of that band anymore.

There are no original members. The only original member is Robert [Oritz, drummer] and he wasn’t even from the original lineup. It’s weird to watch them...

“I made that name up,” he continues. “I got that band to a certain point. I’ve watched a couple of YouTube videos. I see them say, ‘What’s up! We’re Escape The Fate from Las Vegas, Nevada!’

And I’m like, ‘No, you’re not!’ Can you imagine how I feel? I’m looking at this and I’m like, ‘This is insane. This is not what it’s supposed to be.’ That’s my true words. I’ve always wanted to say that. I’m not taking shit. I’m not trying to downplay or make fun of anybody anymore. It’s just how I truly feel. Genuinely, it’s weird to see that.”

Drama between the two camps played out onstage, on YouTube, in the press, all over the Falling In Reverse record and over social media. Radke took to Twitter to describe Oritz as “ fucking prick.” As he finishes his chicken, he goes on record for the first time saying that Mabbit once suggested they play in Escape The Fate together.

“You want the real truth? He asked me to be in Escape The Fate when I got out. He said he’s go to keyboards! I actually recorded this conversation. Because I knew he was calling. He said, “We talked with the record label and we would like to see if you’d be interested. I don’t know if the band would be interested, but if you would like to kind of do something together where I go to keyboards...’ I just said, ‘You know what, man? I don’t know.’ I just said, ‘I don’t know.’ Which meant, ‘Fuck no!’ First of all, I’m not singing your songs. I’m not going to share a stage with you.”

In an email forwarded by Escape The Fate’s manager to AP,

The Fanbase for Falling In Reverse VS Escape The Fate

35 / 65 / O

O

O

Escape the Fate

20

O

VS

Falling in Reverse

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Mabbit responded. “Here’s the gist of it all: I signed over all my musical rights to Blessthefall so I could legally recorded with Escape The Fate under Epitaph. I also songs re-recorded without my permission by the band the Word Alive, both of which I started. What did I do? I continued to press on. Why? ‘Cause shit happens and that’s what you do to accomplish your goals-you get back on the horse. The fact that this bickering is still being printed and talked about this mind-blowing. Get over it, dude.

If you’re not....’trying to talk shit,’ then why are all your words clearly spilling out of your ass?” Regarding Radke’s claim that Mabbit was willing to relinquish the frontman position to ply keyboards, he adds, “You guys really publish this stuff? The guy obviously has talent; I’d just like to see him out it into his band, not into the bickering of a metaphorical ex-girlfriend that split over four years ago. Can we get back to the real reason we are all here? To make music.”

“Escape The Fate will make an official statement about what is has going on when we feel the time is right,” says Robert Oritz in the same email. “I hope all the best for Falling In Reverse. It’s awesome that Ronnie is doing his own thing now so everything can finally be put to rest.”

Radke says he’s on friendly terms with Green, but under no circumstances will they be playing music together. “There’s too much of a history with drug use together and I don’t want to enable him to do more and I don’t want him to somehow enable me at all. I’ll stay away from him.” And Green isn’t the only person he’s removed from his life, post-prison.

“Before I went to prison, the only people I hung out with were nothing but losers. Maybe it was a subconscious thing to make myself feel better because I was feeling bad. I just hung out with nothing but drug addicts. That’s all I did. I was just at the lowest of the lows...I went to prison for a reason,” he notes philosophically.

“I would have never written this album, ever. Some people learn their lessons the easy way; some people have to the hard way.”

Radke was released the day after his birthday and ended the vegetarian stint he began in prison with a cheeseburger from Jack In The Box. Less than a month later, he was in the studio with producer Baskette making The Drug In Me Is You. Vincent recorded both guitar and bass (Gurewitz likens the “Radke and Vincent” onstage dynamic to “Axl and Slash” or “Mick and Keith”) after the singer fired his old friend, bassist Nason Schoeffler, from an early lineup. “My friend Bryan [Ross] played drums. He was an emergency drummer. He’s a good friend of mine. Derek’s been every week from prison.” The rest of the guys came in officially after the album was finished.

Much has already been made of the incredibly autobiographical nature of Radke’s lyrics, and with good reason: It’s all out there on the table. “The lyrics on my first record [with Escape The Fate] sustained me for such a long time. There are some really deep lyrics in there. I listen to some songs on there and I cry almost every time. It’s personal; the songs are about my mother leaving me when I was a baby, my brother doing a lot of drugs. Real stuff.

I learned that from Eminem, believe it or not. He puts absolutely everything, every part of his life on his sleeve, and it inspired me to be truthful to myself.

“

“

Some people learn their lessons the easy way, some people have to the hard way

Percentages oF Music [Genres] Artists With Prison Records

hard core

15 /O O

10 /O O

Metal

65 / O

Pop

O

Rap

10 /O O

Which section will you be sitting in for the first Falling In Reverse Show?

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222-226

119-121

122-124

110-115

STAGE FALLing In Reverse March 29th

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“I just felt like I needed to be truthful. I’m kind of a hippie at heart,” he says, professing n interest in astrology. “I’m a Sagittarius.

[We] bleed honesty, talk with out hands and wear our hearts on our sleeves. If I record something, I’m going to hear it for the rest of my life. So I might as well put down everything that I ever believed to be true about myself.”

Armed with musical chops, heavy breakdowns, glossy pop choruses and Radke’s self-effacing wit and bravado, Falling In Reverse are well aware that they are combining elements that have come before. But they are hoping to forge those influences into something that will inject several things that are currently missing from rock ‘n’ roll. “I’m not a pioneer. Maybe I reinvented the wheel, going back to when I was four years old and what I was seeing and hearing, trying to do something new and modernized,” Radke says. “I don’t want to be in boot-cut blue jeans and skateboard shoes looking like I just got out of the shower with a Cannibal Corpse shirt on. I like dressing up. It makes me feel confident. I’ve seen a couple of bands that are doing it really well.

Honestly, like Black Veil Brides, when you see them for the first time, you look and you go, ‘Whoa!”

“Poison looked like the Crue and GNR are a mix of different things,” he points out. “I just want to be different than what’s popular in this day and age. I’m not trying to say it was all me, truthfully, but no one at that timeframe in our scene or genre of breakdowns and pop music had this Motley Crue vibe. Now I see bands doing that. And it really makes me feel good.”

Radke calls Gurewitz a mentor and an “angel,” crediting him with saving his life at least three times-signing his first band, hooking him up with a great celebrity lawyer and giving him a second chance with his new band. For his part, the Bad Religion guitarist thinks of himself more as Ronnie’s “Blue Fairy Godmother.”

(That’s a Kurt Vonnegut reference. Look it up.) “There are a lot of hardcore bands with breakdowns out there, but Ronnie is the kind of frontman I remember as a teenager,” Gurewitz says.

“Their music is as heavy as anything I’ve heard, and it’s catchy.

It’s got a sense of fun. It’s got a sense of exuberance. It’s not just brutal; it’s not just dark. I’m not saying he doesn’t have that side; he’s lived in prison for two years, for God’s sake. But the fact that he’s had the struggles he’s had and he’s able to come back with a sense of humor about himself-to me, he’s this generation’s Eminem or David Lee Roth. He’s a star. He graduated from the school of hard knocks and his music and performance can make you feel excited about life.”

Much has changed for Falling In Reverse since the band’s inception behind prison walls, over well-guarded telephones and deep within Ronnie Radke’s constantly racing mind. “It’s actually a band,” he stressed with pride. He has about 25 songs ready for the next album, too. “I wanted to record two records, but Brett wouldn’t let me,” he says, laughing. “He said, ‘Let’s save that for the next time.’ So the next record will be songs I’ve already had.

I have lyrics for days. It will have everyone’s input, but mainly songs I already have.”

Radke knows how rare it is to get a second chance. “It’s meant to be, first of all,” he says, a look of seriousness on his face. “It’s got to be.” Both he and his bandmates are insistent that Falling

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In Reverse are more than a solo project. Despite the fact their Myspace page still reads “Falling In Reverse (Ronnie Radke’s new band)” as the story was being completed.

“Ah, man, it still says that?” Radke asks, frowning. “I don’t want that anymore; just call the band ‘Ronnie Radke’ if you’re going to do that. I’m ready for it to be just ‘Falling In Reverse.’”

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Sections

Incoming New Found Glory First off I loved the December 2011 issue with New Found Glory [AP 281]. I appreciate the guys’ honesty and openness about the inspiration for Radio surgery, the state of the band and their lives. However, the part that struck me the was Steve Klein’s closing comment about how the record most likely received rave reviews because people are excited about pop-punk again. I most certainly agree: I was in junior high during the early 2000s pop-punk explosion, and while I spent several years of the next decade obsessing over “the scene,” I also explored different bands and other genres.

This past year, I have truly gotten back to my pop-punk roots, and I can chalk that up to the dozens of excellent records from old-school bands like NFG and Blink 182 to the new class of Man Overboard and the Wonder Years. But beyond the music, I think the new excitement surrounding the scene can also be credited to the fact that the kids like myself who first discovered this music in junior high are now in that equally as awkward and trying time their early 20s. I took solace in pop-punk as a 23 year-old in the same way I did when I was 15. I grew into that time of my life that was so often referenced in my favorite songs, but I didn’t really comprehend the real significance of it until I experienced it. I began to feel excitement about pop-punk again because I sought the comfort that the original songs once gave me and at the same time, new music from both new bands and old standbys explored those same themes in new, but familiar ways. I’m willing to bet I’m not the only one.

Jessica Hetterich (Nashville,TN)

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Alternative Press // Opinion

Seeing New Found Glory on the cover only months after the Wonder Years was fantastic! The well-written article reminded me why I have loved their music for the past ten years. Thank you, AP, for reuniting me with the pop-punk roots and for encouraging me as a journalist.

Sarah Blanchard (Lafayette, LA) I believe New Found Glory has it wrong with “maturing” as a band with their music. I’ve been a fan for more then ten years now, and when you put on any of their CDs, you can automatically tell it’s a NFG album. To say they’re doing the same music for “the fans” is not a good way to look at it. In my opinion, bands should grow and evolve, as they, and their fans, get older. You can’t just keep putting out the same disc with different packaging. Sure, “pop-punk’s not dead,” pop-punk, like any other genre needs to change to stay fresh overtime. To say it’s “immature” to “mature” musically is crap. They need to stretch themselves and show everyone they are still relevant in present time. They are icons in the scene, and have worked their asses off to get where they are today.

Josh Luten (Albuquerque,NM)

Parade Floats Just as every fan should be, I’m proud when my band does it right. I really appreciated the article about mayday parade in AP 281, especially after the-notso-great reception of their last album, Anywhere But Here. There are a lot of us who stuck it out because we knew mayday had it in them to make an album just as great as the nearly flawless A Lesson In Romantics, and their new album is just that. Thanks for shedding a little light on hat happened behind the scenes with a big label and hopefully inspiring people to give them another listen. They definitely deserve it.

Elizabeth Pode (Camarillo,CA)

Bad Luck Streak In Dancing School I recently attended a “pop-punk” show in the Midwest and am very disappointed by a new dance/mosh move by some members of the crowd. A half dozen people took turns in the middle of the mosh pit leaning forward, kicking pout their feet as if doing a little jug and then balling their fist and swinging them in an arch. The fists, of course, made contact with people on all sides; I wouldn’t be so bummed but for the fact that a lot this contact was with other peoples’ faces. To put this in perspective: I’m 28 and my first moshing experience was at a Slipknot show when I was 14. I’m not six feet tall, 200 pounds and have a troubledenough past that I don’t mind fighting-but that’s not why I go to shows. I love the energy you feel when you are moshing, the electricity that passes form one person to the next as they bounce off each other to the music of their favorite songs. I do not like getting popped in the mouth; it’s a buzzkill that makes me want to retaliate. It lessens my experience.

When I was 14 and got knocked over in mosh pits (and it happened a lot), there were always more hands trying to help me back to my feet then I could grab old of, and my ear-to-ear smile said more than words ever could as to why I was there. Is this a sign of times changing and me getting older? Is this something from more metropolitan areas being imported to my sleepy Midwestern town?

I’m not ready to retire to the back of the crowd that’s head-bobbing, but…

Eric Gutschmidt (Lidsbon, IA)

Innie, Not Outtie I want to thank you for giving We Are The In Crowd the light of day in AP 281. I’ve been following them for a little more than a year now, and I’ve been to enough of their shows and heard their stories enough times to see that they’re the sort of blue-collar band that never gives up. Every member is down-to-earth and modest, and you can tell that they don’t do what they d for any reason other than the love for the art. Unabashed pop-punk has never sounded so good.

Andrew Friedgen (Fort Myers, FL)

Real talk In response to Nathaniel Carlson’s letter (“Victor Or Victum? Imcoming AP 281) about the AP Poll in 279 [“If You Discover A Musician Is Anti-Gay Rights, Does It Make You Like Their Music Less?”], I would like to ask from what dictionary did he pull this definition of “bigot?” Since when is the term “bigoted” limited only to “a person who holds prejudice against a racial or religious group” and no one else? Bigotry is intolerance, animosity and/or hostility towards those of a different sex, race, ethnicity, religion, spirituality and, yes even sexual orientation!

I won’t go as far as to call him a bigot since he claims to “love [homosexuals] as your neighbors,” but…

Derek Zasky (New York, NY) STORY: JON WEINER

Opinion // Alternative Press

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Wiretapping

OP-Ed Speak Out Close your eyes frontman Shane Raymond eats, sleeps, breathes and lives hardcore-and he hopes you do,too. But before you get yourself inked up and in the pit, make sure you’re doing it for the right reasons.

I remember the first time I listened to a band who were considered “hardcore.” I was riding to Houston with Sonny Vegas, our bss player. He put in an album by Agnostic front. I don’t remember which one, but what I do remember is falling in love with the awkward voice from a man who lived in the Lower East Side of New York City. I knew nothing about hardcaore up to this point. I will be honest: I thought most punk music was ridiculous. But something about that moment with Roger Miret Blasting in my ears spoke to me.

From that point on, I went on a pilgrimage. I started listening to Agnostic Front and Sick Of It All -a lot. I listened to youth crew hardcore; I listened to “tough guy” hardcore; I listened to “new school” hardcore. But I fell in love with the old school. I know what you’re thinking: “This is just going to be some rant about how we need to go back to the :good old days” of hardcore when it meant something.

In some ways, you are right. But just bear with me, and hopefully this will make sense. I have always taken a stance that hardcore is something that is inherently angry. From its inception, you had a group of kids that were pissed off. They were pissed at Ronald Reagan. They were pissed at their parents. They were pissed that the punk scene had lost its edge and gone more glitzy.

You can see it in the videos of Black Flag live. You can hear it in Ray Cappo’s voice when you listen to Youth Of Today’s Break Down The Walls. They wanted something raw and real. They took all that aggression and frustration and started expressing it musically and lyrically. The product of that was the beautiful underground movement that swept across the United States, and eventually the world. But it was still angry. Hardcore has always been about family, as well. Ian MacKaye once said, “I think what we took away from first hearing about the punk stuff in England and then the early American punk stuff was a sense of selfdefinition and also sort of playing music for music’s sake and being part of a family for family’s sake.

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Alternative Press // Opinion

It was from day one, something more than just music. And it makes sense, considering most of the “hardcore kids” ended up being ostracized from their homes. For some, hardcore was the only family they had.

Now here we are some 25 plus years later, and I have to ask what in the world happened? Don’t get me wrong. Hardcore is still angry. But it is anger that is no longer moving towards progression. What we see in hardcore today are kids who think the norm is to be physically violent to other kids to prove they are tough.

Ignorance sweeps through music scenes like a plaque and destroys them. Family has given way to a select few who have your back in case someone’s fist is flying at your face. It is no Longer “music” for musics sake but about whether or not you are wearing the right hat and jacket to fit in. It is no longer a scene of open minds but one of hatred, egotism and foolish pride. This is generally where someone would try to start talking about how we need to “just go back to ’85 and do it like they did it. But I won’t. To be honest, we can’t. The world is different. Our environment isn’t conducive to how the underground hardcore scene existed then.

But that doesn’t mean that we should embrace the ideals of hardcore and apply them to our world today. Think of it as a tree. A tree starts small, and over time it grows and continues to get larger and larger. But if you cut out its roots, where it started from, a tree will wither and die. We are fortunate to live in a time when hardcore is not a small thing, but a large and very diverse movement. And no matter how big hardcore gets we cannot forget our past. Let’s stop using anger to destroy, but rather to rebuild what we have lost, and hopefully save the family that we have before it’s too late.

STORY: DOUBLE J

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